texas sheet cake

Hello again!!!

So it’s been exactly one year since my last blog post.  During my year-long hiatus, I…
 
1) got glasses
2) worked at a boathouse
3) graduated high school
4) went to college
5) ate a lot of store-bought frosting
 
I’ve left my cozy kitchen back home for a single dorm room out here in the Californian desert.  Needless to say, I’ve been here for six weeks and I have already taken over the dormitory kitchen at the end of my hall, bought four pounds of butter, and the staff at the local Trader Joe’s already knows me by name.
 
 
Truth is, baking is a lot harder in college than it was at home. I can’t just walk down the street to Safeway to buy 10 boxes of Oreos at the drop of a hat, I haven’t eaten off a plate that’s not paper in six weeks, and most tragically, I don’t have my KitchenAid mixer here.
 
 
Regardless, I’ve realized that baking and cooking are such fundamental parts of my life, and I am going to do my best to adapt this blog to college living. I will scope out ingredients that I can find at the dining hall, and provide recipes and inspiration for other college students who want to cook.
 
 
Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me during this long hiatus. Now, this is no longer a blog about a girl baking her way through high-school, it’s a blog about a girl baking her way through college (!?!). I am excited to see what this new chapter in my life brings, and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than with a little bit of sheet cake.
 
With love,

Erica

 

 

Ingredients:

cake:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 heaping tablespoons cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

frosting:
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 pound powdered sugar
1 tsp instant coffee granules

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a 9×9 inch square pan with parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, sugar and salt.

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Stir in cocoa.  Add water and allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and add flour mixture.  Stir.

Add the milk, egg, baking soda, and vanilla and stir quickly into the butter/chocolate mixture.  Pour into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting.  Melt the butter in a pan.  Add the cocoa and coffee granules.  Remove from heat.  Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  Stir well, and then pour over warm cake.

Allow to cool (if you can wait that long), and then cut into squares.

adapted from The Pioneer Woman

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

flaky mooncake

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was last Monday.  It’s sort of like the Chinese version of Thanksgiving — a time for reflection, giving, and family.

I celebrated in my own way by reflecting a little on this blog of mine.

Sometimes, I click the”older posts” arrow on my blog a bunch of times until I get back to freshman year.

Sometimes, I have this urge to delete all of my old blog posts and start fresh, so I can have one of those pristine, consistent blogs like Smitten Kitchen or Martha Stewart.
I want to erase all of the times that 14-year-old me gave embarrassing Instagram “lifestyle” posts, the times my pictures were taken with a Pentax point-and-shoot, the times I listed “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” as an ingredient, the times my font size was all wonky and I tried to sound like the Barefoot Contessa (and failed).  
… but then there’d be nothing.  So I stop, and restrain myself from pressing delete.  
As tantalizing as the idea of a fresh start is, I don’t think I’ll ever do it.   There’s something endearing about those old recipes, and having them lined up all neatly in order chronicles my life all the way from ratatouille to flaky mooncakes. All the way from being awkward during my Freshman Orientation scavenger hunt to sitting here as a Senior in the library, tapping away at my college applications.  It’s my whole high school existence archived in buttercream, brownie batter, and banoffee banana bread.  It includes all of those milestones:  finding my blogging voice, learning how to get a DSLR, going to the emergency room while making layer cake, and getting butter inextricably wedged into the dials of my camera. 
My backdrop has evolved from a leftover piece of poster-board from my 8th grade science fair project to the fancy-pants piece of marble that my dad got me for Christmas.  
Yes, the perfectionist in me will surely look back at this time with this same sort of head-shaking disdain in a few months when I think I’ve got funnier stories, better backdrops, and tastier recipes than I do now.  But isn’t that the whole point of a blog?  We are moving onwards and upwards from here!
Here’s a tasty recipe for flaky mooncakes, traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.  Something that hasn’t changed much since I started blogging is that I’ve still got to get this timing thing down so I can get you all these holiday recipes before the holiday happens.  Planning, someday it will happen.  Anyways, I was going to bring these in to my Chinese class, but ended up eating them all singlehandedly with my mom (sorry).  The flaky crust is surprisingly simple to make — using an oil and water dough technique (much less tedious than rolling puff pastry.  Give it a try!
With love, 
Erica

This recipe makes four moon cakes, so feel free to double.

Ingredients

water dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening or butter
1/2 cup water

oil dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable shortening or butter (melted)

filling:
-red bean paste
-lotus paste
-coconut paste (recipe below)

topping:
one egg (for egg wash)
sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

For the water dough, mix the flour, sugar, and shortening together roughly.  Pour all of the water in at once and knead to form a soft dough. Set aside.

For the oil dough, mix the flour and melted shortening together to form dough.

Dust the water dough with flour and roll into a 1/2 inch thick circle.  Roll the oil dough into a ball, place in the middle of the water dough, and seal it inside of the water dough.

Roll out the new ball of dough (the oil dough wrapped in the water dough), into an oval shape.  Then, roll it up like a swiss roll.  Turn it lengthwise, and roll out into an oval again.  Roll up swiss roll-style once more, and roll out into a 1/2 inch thick oval once more.

Cut the oval into four even sections, fill each section with filling of choice and seal.  Place seal side down on a baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining pastries.  Brush each pastry with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Coconut paste:
1/2 cup cream of coconut or condensed milk
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla, matcha powder, or cocoa powder for flavoring (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together into a paste.

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

green tea frappucino bars

One of life’s more important questions:

If you were a Disney princess which one would you want to be?

Sometimes I want to be Jasmine, running around the house in my glittery balloon pants (classy PJ pants), showing the sultan who’s boss, and chilling with my awesome cat.

Other days I want to be Belle.  Telling that Gaston guy he’s a jerk, being the nerdy Disney princess, and getting sung to and fed by dancing silverware.

Pocahontas is a compelling choice too.  Down with global warming and the evils of colonialism!  I’d get to talk to animals (and not in the loopy way that Snow White does), wear turquoise everything (my favorite), and paint with all the colors of the wind (that’s a lot of colors).

The only thing I knew for sure was that I wouldn’t want to be Sleeping Beauty (Aurora… but who remembers that girl’s name?).  Hopefully I don’t lose readers over this, but she was by far the lamest Disney Princess.  She just slept for a while and looked pretty… that’s it.

But today, I’m feeling like a total modern day pre-Prince Charming Cinderella.  That’s because my oven’s been in overdrive lately and started spewing smoke so I had to clean it.  Currently I’m sitting here in my 8-year old baby blue dress with my hair in a huge messy bun and soot covering every inch of my body.

Anyways, my hour spent cleaning the oven was totally worth it because I got to make these blondies afterwards!

Remember my super-easy blondie recipe?

I pimped it out with some matcha powder, white chocolate chips, and marshmallows.  BAM.  Starbucks’ Green Tea Frappucino in bar form.  You’re welcome.

With love,
Erica

Ingredients
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon matcha powder
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/3 cup marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Butter an 8×8 square pan.
Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Once melted, add the sugar and beat until smooth.  Beat in egg and then vanilla.  Add salt, stir in flour and matcha powder until the whole thing is a light green color.  Fold in white chocolate chips and marshmallows.
Pour into a prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until set in the middle.
Cool and then slice into squares.

© Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

guest post: gluten free overnight swirly blueberry buns

Ok, quick update before getting into this delicious guest post by the beautiful and talented Thea of Baking Magique. Last time we talked, I was still off in California stargazing. Since then, I finished my research project on supernovae, went to Disneyland (!!) and visited my cousins in Honolulu.  Now I’m finally home, working at the restaurant, facing the ginormous mess in my closet, and oh yeah, baking like a mad woman (I’ve been away from my oven for over a month! Can’t help it). 

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Hello everyone!


I’m Thea and I am the writer of a gluten free baking blog called Baking Magique. I always get excited when I find another teen food blogger in the internet world. I can’t remember how I found Erica’s blog but  I was stuck immediately because of her personal posts and unique recipes. Even though most of Erica’s recipes aren’t gluten free I still get inspiration to use in my own gluten free baking experiments.


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Some notes about the recipe:
1. It’s made with fresh yeast because that’s what I’m used to bake with and I prefer it over dry yeast in gluten free baking.


2. I think it’s much easier to measure my ingredients by weight and in this recipe I’ve included units in both oz and grams. I created the recipe using grams and therefore it will be most accurate if you use grams. For the filling I’ve also used cups for some ingredients.


3. Gluten free baking is very different from ”normal” baking. The dough won’t look like a dough at all before rising, it will rather look like a batter. But whatever you do, don’t add more flour because that will give you rock hard and dry buns! Trust the recipe and trust me. I promise you, these buns will taste divine if you follow the recipe.


4. This is not really about the recipe but you may have noticed in the pictures above that I used aluminum foil instead of parchment paper… DON’T DO THAT! I was out of parchment paper and had to do it but it’s not fun to tear off the foil from the buns when they come out of the oven…


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Gluten Free Overnight Swirly Blueberry Buns
12 pieces


50 g (1,8 oz) butter
350 g (12,3 oz) milk
12 g (0,4 oz) yeast


1 tsp freshly ground cardamom
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt


100 g (3,5 oz) buckwheat flour
60 g(2,1 oz) rice flour
60 g (2,1 oz) potato starch


15 g (0,5 oz) psyllium husk


100 g (3,5 oz)  soft butter
1/4 cup raw cane sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


1/2 cup of fresh blueberries
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tbsp potato starch


    Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the milk. Heat to 100°F/38°C
    In a large bowl crumble in the fresh yeast. Pour the liquid over and whisk until the yeast is completely dissolved in the water.
    Add the freshly ground cardamom, sugar and sea salt to the bowl and whisk.
    Then stir in the rice flour, buckwheat flour and potato starch.
    Stir in the psyllium husk powder very quickly so that no clumps will form.
    Cover the bowl with cling film and let rest for 1 hour. Then put it in the fridge over night(9-12) hours.
    In the morning: Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a 12*14 inch / 30*35 cm rectangle. Turn it a lot as you roll it out and add more flour when needed. You do not want it to stick to the surface.

    Mix the soft butter, raw cane sugar, vanilla powder and vanilla extract in a small bowl with a fork. Spread it out on the dough. In a small bowl gently mix the fresh blueberries, potato starch and powdered sugar. Evenly spread out the blueberries on half of the rectangle. Fold over the other half.
    Cut off a little of the sides and then cut the rectangle into 12 equally big strands.
    Twist the strands by gently rolling them on the work surface and then roll together to a swirly bun.

    Add some blobs of butter on the parchment paper on a baking tray and sprinkle some raw cane sugar on top. Place the buns on the tray and cover with a tea towel. Let rest for 1 1/2 hour in a warm and non drafty place. Preheat your oven to 435°F/225°C.

    Brush the buns with egg wash and sprinkle raw cane sugar on top.
    Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12 minutes, until they’re golden brown.

    Let cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

    Note: These buns are best eaten while still warm from the oven but you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 days and they will still be delicious!


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    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    banana oatmeal nutella pancakes

    Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of “in the larger scheme of things…” thinking.  Here at astronomy camp, we’ve been talking a lot about big things, like black holes, supernovae, and ominous things like “dark matter” and “dark energy.”

    Thinking “in the larger scheme of things” can make me feel small and insignificant.  I am smaller than a dustbunny of a dustbunny of a dustbunny in our solar system, which is one of many in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one of billions of billions of galaxies in a universe that is constantly expanding.  We are living on the periphery of a very average galaxy, orbiting a very average star… puts my seething rage toward the dude who took my java chip frappuccino at Starbucks yesterday into perspective.

    That’s the thing…if I’m so incredibly small, do things really matter? 

    The universe isn’t going to care if I smiled at you on the Metro.  Space aliens will never find out if I replaced the toilet paper roll.  Mars wouldn’t know if I wrote you a handwritten letter or a sloppy Facebook message.  The black hole at the center of our galaxy definitely doesn’t give a damn whether I washed my hair this morning (thank god).

    I guess this is one way of looking at things, “in the larger scheme.” But the other geeky way of looking at our place in the universe is that every action has a reaction.  Every shake and rattle sets off another and another.  In this scenario, the little things do matter.

    Although the former way of thinking about it is tempting (and gives me an excuse not to wash my hair so often), I’m pretty convinced that the latter is better. 

    Think about flipping pancakes. The trick to making good pancakes is to wait until you see little bubbles form around the edges of the pancake. These super tiny bubbles signify that the pancake is “flippable.”

    These bubbles are smaller than my pinky fingernail.  In the “larger scheme of things” they are  practically invisible. However, that little bubble makes the difference between a big, shriveled, goopy mess of pancake batter and a glorious, fluffy stack of pancakes. The difference between a grouchy, hungry morning spent washing batter off my black yoga pants, or leisurely watching pools of butter melt atop fresh flapjacks while sipping a mug of coffee. 
    With love, 
    Erica

    Ingredients
    1 cup flour
    1/2 cup quick oats
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1 banana, mashed
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    1 large egg
    1 cup milk
    2 Tablespoons brown sugar
    1/4 cup Greek yogurt
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1/4 cup Nutella
    Stir together all of the ingredients except for the Nutella in a large bowl until well combined.  Gently swirl in the Nutella.
    Spoon the batter into a hot skillet over medium heat.  Cook each pancake until the batter starts to bubble at the edges, flip and cook until golden brown.  Continue cooking remaining pancakes. 
    Enjoy with butter and maple syrup! (and perhaps some more Nutella!)

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    protein pancakes





    It has been almost two weeks since I’ve been on the Internet — I’m going to tell you what I’ve been up to.


    Not much. But then again, a whole lot.

    I actually was somewhat busy — just two Thursdays ago I took my Chinese final and went to prom (I’ll save that story for another day).  Then, I just sort of dropped offthe face of the Earth.  I worked part-time as a hostess at a cafe, did some reading (just finished Paper Towns by John Green), snapchatted, did some almond butter stress eating, and a whole lot of wandering.

    Yesterday, I wandered down the street aimlessly, first into a CVS to buy a few pointless things like tanning oil and Icebreakers gum.  Then I talked to some of the volunteers collecting signatures outside the metro station for a good while about stringquartets and the weather.  Then, I wandered downtown and had Mediterranean style tacos with my mom at 3pm.  Leisurely summer livin’ at its finest.

    A few nights ago, I got into bed at 10:10 p.m.  Turned off the lights.  My room was nice and warm because I never turn the AC on.  I stayed up until midnight just watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s on my laptop and then drifted off to sleep. 

    It’s like time just slowed down twofold.  My brain cells were burnt and fizzled to a crisp.  The thought of sitting down and writing made my stomach turn.  I ate a lot of Popsicles.

    And then I realized that I had not been blogging and felt totally ungrounded and lonely — so I’m back!  I’m looking forward to going on wild summer adventures and telling you all about them.  I’m going to bake luscious cakes and eat them and tell you all about those too. I don’t regret my disappearance; I think it was healthy to do a bit of wandering.  Now, I’m ready to get caught up in the world again like I’m known to do and attack whatever comes my way and report to you all about it.

    Speaking of attack, this is total “attack food.”  These protein pancakes have two ingredients, protein powder, egg whites, and pure power.  Eat these for breakfast and you will feel like a literal beast for the rest of the day.

    With love,
    Erica





    Ingredients

    1 scoop protein powder
    3 egg whites

    Beat the protein powder and egg whites together well in a bowl. Add a dash of cinnamon/vanilla/stevia to taste.  Heat a bit of coconut oil in a skillet and cook for about 3 minutes on each side over medium heat.

    Feel free to jazz these up with chocolate chips, blueberries, bananas… whatever floats your boat.

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    avocado chocolate chip pound cake

    I’m currently studying for my U.S. History exam, and to be honest, it’s a lot of mindless memorization.  The kind of memorization that makes my brain mushy and eyes dizzy.

    The one thing that keeps the subject mildly interesting are the diary excerpts that sometimes show up in the DBQ section (document-based essay section).  I recently read an excerpt from a diary of a Lowell factory girl talking about how awful the other girls at the factory were, and how terrible the conditions were in the summer — this humanized the dates and numbers behind the Industrial Revolution; suddenly, history got a lot more interesting.  It’s literally reading someone else’s diary, but in a socially acceptable way.

    In this digital age, I’m not penning my thoughts with a quill on parchment, or even scribbling in a fancy-pants moleskine notebook.  But the thought of a diary fascinates me.

    In a way, my diary is the Notes section on my iPhone. It’s a lot less romantic than a diary, but just as raw.

    I used to get super paranoid when my friends would look at pictures on my phone, for fear that they might stumble across my notes page.  I’m less paranoid now because A) my notes are hidden deep in the depths of my app folders where no one can find them and B) even if you read my notes you wouldn’t be able to figure them out.

    To get totally crazy here are the first five notes in my phone, and what (I think) they mean. 

    “When I see your name” ~ when I see someone’s name I feel a certain way.

    “Plan:” (followed by no plan to do anything) ~ classic.

    “Gm cherry get cash not target demographic” ~ this was probably written at a dark moment while studying for some test.  I wish I could tell you what this means, but I have no idea. Sounds interesting

    “Bunky” ~ an old man who wears wife beaters and takes drop-in advanced adult ballet with me.  He wears loafers instead of ballet shoes and, thus can’t point his feet.  He has a faded tattoo that spells “bunky” on one of his arms.

    “Write about how good it feels to get your scalp massaged at Hair Cuttery” ~ self explanatory

    These bits of jibberish are pretty important to me.  I am always paranoid about forgetting things — so when some stroke of so-called brilliance hits me, I have to write it down or else I will forget it immediately.  Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night, and furiously tap out “boys look cute with visors” (true story).  Other times, I’ll write down something a little more constructive like “avocados are the butter of the Earth.”  Some of these snippets end up being stories I tell to you all, some of them end up being baked into pound cake, most of them remain in the gigabytes of my phone collecting cyber-dust.

    Nonetheless, these shards and memories are the good stuff, like the artichoke hearts of life. When I’m rolled over in bed at 2 a.m. furiously typing a note to myself, you best believe it’s important.

    With love,
    Erica

    Ingredients 
    1 avocado
    1 stick of butter, softened
    1 1/4 cup white sugar
    4 eggs
    2 cups all purpose flour
    3/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    1 cup chocolate chips

    Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line and grease a 9 inch loaf pan.
    In a stand mixer, beat the butter, avocado and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth, add vanilla extract and beat once more.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda.  Stir into avocado mixture until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips and spoon into loaf pan.  Bake 65 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool, slice, and enjoy!

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    nutella and biscoff pocky sticks

    I really like my job as a hostess because I get to see so many people in one day. Every shift, I probably see over a thousand people, and talk to all of them.

    Yes, my job is technically just to say “good morning/afternoon,” and simply jot down their name and number so I can call them when a table’s ready.  I am supposed to show them to their tables, tell them about the brunch specials, and move on to the next party.

    However, I approach it a bit differently.  I like to think that I give a little piece of myself away to every person I meet.

    I’m the girl who talked to you about how weird bratwurst is.  You helped me pick up my fallen menus when it got windy, I thanked you.  Your kid kicked me in the shins, and I laughed it off.  A lady spilled her heart out to me as she waited for her table about her recent divorce.

    Over winter break, I visited Providence with my mom.  We were exhausted, and decided to have dinner around five in a big empty restaurant.  I will never forget our waitress.  After we placed our orders, she just started talking to us.  She told us how she wanted to go into nursing or criminal justice, she told us about how she and her ex-boyfriend had joint custody of her dog, she talked about her big Portuguese family and showed us her Instagram.  I think many people would have been really annoyed by this, but I will never forget her.

    Of course, I’m not going to give my customers my whole life story (I’m not trying to get fired…), but I want to leave an impression on them, figure them out a little bit, scratch the surface. I like to think that one day, when that recent divorcee is old and sitting on a park bench watching her grandchildren play on a tire swing, she’ll remember me, the hostess she talked to for half an hour about her new lifestyle choices.

    I don’t know what this has to do with Pocky sticks, I just wanted to talk about it. Enjoy this recipe for jazzed up Pocky sticks!

    With love,
    Erica

    Cookie Sticks

    • 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
    • 1 cup flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 3 tablespoons sugar
    • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1 dash salt
    • 1/4 cup softened butter
    • 1 egg white
    Nutella coating

    • 1 cup candy melts
    • 1/4 cup Nutella

    To make the cookies, beat all of the cookie ingredients except for the egg white together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until a dough forms around the paddle. If the dough is too stiff, add a tablespoon or two of water.

    Transfer dough to a piece of plastic wrap, pat into a disk, and wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
    Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
    Divide the dough into 32 balls (divide into quarters three times).
    Roll each ball into a thin stick, about 5-6 inches long.
    Transfer each stick to the parchment-lined baking sheet and brush with egg white.
    Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the sticks are golden brown. Cool completely.
    To make the coating: Melt the candy melts either in the microwave or a double boiler. Once the candy melts are melted, stir in the Nutella (you can substitute Biscoff for a different flavor!). Pour this mixture into a tall glass.
    Once the cookies are cool, dip each cookie stick into the candy melt/Nutella mixture and decorate with sprinkles. If the candy melt mixture is no longer smooth, add a drop of vegetable oil to the mixture until it is a good dipping consistency.
    Repeat with the remaining cookie sticks. Refrigerate coated cookie sticks until just before serving. 
     
    Enjoy!

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    rainbow cake

    So last week I gave you a little talk about real talk.  Basically, I don’t want to be a confectioners-sugar-dusted-phoney.  That’s why I’ve decided to get crazy with some real-life confessions on here.

    Confessions. That’s a scary word.

    So here it goes, here’s my first confession.

    I like reading Craigslist Personal Ads.

    Disclaimer: I would never ever ever in a million years even think about posting an ad on Craigslist (or answer one), but I like to read them.

    Yes, some are creepy, some are weird (ex. “I enjoy theatrical-quality tomfoolery”…what), and some are downright fake.  But some are nice.  My favorites are in the “missed connections” forum.

    This is where people leave messages hoping to find people they’ve crossed paths with.  There is something less sinister about this forum than the others, no creepy requests, no augmented biographies pleading for a date.  Instead, there’s a sort-of-sad sad sincerity in these posts.

    These people couldn’t get a face/aura out of their mind all day, and are now beating themselves up for not saying anything. There is hope and regret intertwined in all of the posts (“I would have talked to you but I was too shy”).  The regret of not seizing the moment, the hope that maybe this little “message in a bottle” (via Craigslist) will miraculously reach that special person.

    The sweet, sad thing about this is that 99 times out of 100, these ads are never reciprocated.  That person who was reading Harry Potter 5 on the train is probably back at home, flipping through the pages and eating Lean Cuisine and will never see the post on Craigslist.  But the admirer posts it anyways.

    Here’s one I liked:
    “I wish I went and sat next to you and said hello, but obviously I didn’t and here I am posting this note you will probably never read. Wherever you were going, I hope you got there safe, and that despite the rain you are having a great day” 

    I like think about all of the faces I see in a day, and all of the stories, fears, and adventures that lie behind all of those faces. I’m not advocating talking to strangers.  But I guess this should inspire us to seize the moment and not miss an opportunity to speak to someone.  Yolo?

    Anyways, now that I’ve shared something weird about myself with you all, I am going to share this weird cake recipe! It’s super easy, super funky, and will knock all of your friend’s socks off when you serve it.  It looks like an unassuming vanilla cake… and then BAM! Rainbow madness on the inside. Check it out.

    With love,
    Erica

    Ingredients 
     
    White cake batter, divided (you can use box mix or homemade)
    Food coloring
    Your favorite buttercream frosting
    Rainbow sprinkles!
    Prepare the cake batter, and then divide into however many colors you would like.  
    Use food dye to color the batter, use a lot so that the colors turn out really nice and saturated and brilliant. 
    Drop the batter into a prepared cake pan(s) and bake as normal. 
    Frost, decorate with sprinkles, and enjoy!

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.

    fried banana bread bites

    At this time of year, bunnies are supposed to popping out of flower beds left and right, and baby chicks are supposed to be hatching from Easter eggs.

    So far I’ve seen none of these things happening… I guess they just don’t happen when you live in the city.

    Nonetheless, bunnies and baby chicks are all symbols of rebirth and new beginnings. I’ve definitely had some of my own new beginnings this Spring.

    For one thing, I can’t sit still.  I feel this intangible energy pulsing through the air, and this fire in my throat that definitely wasn’t there in December. It’s hard to describe, but I feel like life right now is the opening scene of a movie, where there’s just a bunch of dew and morning dust floating around and it’s unclear what the movie is even about.

    I am slowly getting the hang of my hostessing job.  No longer am I the girl who looks like a deer in headlights, awkwardly racking my brain for something to say as I guide people to their tables.  Some one even laughed at one of my corny jokes yesterday when they sat them at a table (I know… what?!).

    I have come to terms with the mess in my room.  I now accept the fact that there will eternally be dresses and shoes and mismatched socks strewn about the floor, and I’m actually more comfortable that way than in a spick and span room.

    I’ve learned how to properly apply self-tanner without looking like I have strange bruises everywhere (hello white shorts).

    These are little changes, but I can say with confidence that I feel at peace.

    Another new thing is that I have come to terms with deep-frying.  It doesn’t freak me out as much as it used to.  However, I still wear Speedo swimming goggles while deep frying so oil doesn’t spurt into my eyes (super dorky, yes. but would oil make me go blind? probably).  Thank goodness I conquered my fear so that I could bring you all these majestic fried banana bread bites.

    With love,
    Erica

    Ingredients
    1 loaf of banana bread
    oil for deep frying
    1 cup sugar
    1 tablespoon cinnamon

    Cut the banana bread into 1 inch cubes.

    Preheat the oil in a heavy metal pot to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

    While the oil is heating up, stir together the sugar and cinnamon.

    Drop small batches of the banana bread cubes into the hot oil, fry for 3 minutes until golden brown.

    Immediately roll the fried cubes in the sugar mixture, and place on a paper towel.

    Repeat until you’ve fried all of the banana bread.

    Enjoy!

    © Cannella Vita. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission/linking back to Cannella Vita. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post.