Dorie's Devils Food Cake

Until I get into my Ready for Dessert challenge, I wanted to share this easy, delicious devil's food cake recipe with you. This is actually the cover recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours (which I highly recommend, by the way). I made this cake for my uncle for his birthday, but this cake would be wonderful for any occasion. Paired with a tall glass of milk, its dark but mild chocolatey flavor would brighten up any day. I actually made this cake with a basic cream cheese frosting instead of Dorie's marshmallow one, but I know either would be good. This is a great recipe that makes a very sturdy, easy to work with cake that won't fall apart on you. The addition of buttermilk is what makes it characteristically devil's food and makes it very, very moist.

So, to tide you over until the real blogging begins, you can find the recipe for the cake here. However, I do recommend buying Dorie's wonderful book.

Changes & A New Challenge

Hello again. Is there anyone out there? I would definitely be surprised if anyone was still aware of my little blog out here. Life got in the way, and my posting ceased. I've been mulling over what I wanted to do with this blog for a long while, and I've missed writing in it terribly.

After much thought, I've kind of settled on making biscuits & honey a blog not just about food, but about my life. Since I stopped writing, we've made some changes in how we approach food at my house. I've always been a proponent of homemade and gourmet, but now we are trying to incorporate as much natural, organic, and local food into our diets as we can. It hasn't been easy, especially on our budget, but I am thoroughly convinced it's more than worth it.

Also, as you may or may not know, I made the decision not to participate in the same local farmer's market that I sold baked goods at last year. I've missed it, but I have to say the break has been nice. I've been cooking and baking mostly for my family, friends, and church, and it's been really nice. And so many times, I've wanted to share those things with you.

I had the opportunity to meet with a local business owner here in town who has her own restaurant and catering business and has been in the food business for over thirty years. While I don't think the timing is right to open my own business right now, she suggested a project I had actually thought about and had been wanting to tackle for a while: to cook my way through a cookbook. And since baking is my thing, I am going to try to bake 1 recipe a week from a cookbook from now until whenever I finish. This is going to be a huge challenge for me, since we lead such a busy life, but I really am going to try hard to do it! The book I've chosen is Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz. He is very well respected in the pastry world, and I believe the book is the right skill level for me - just the right mix of challenging and fun recipes. I am really looking forward to tackling this!

In other news, we got a puppy. Her name is Tallulah Mae (we call her Tallulah, Lulah, or Lulah Mae), and I couldn't imagine my life without her. She is the cutest little red and white basset hound. You'll probably be hearing a lot more about her on here.

I am so excited to return to the world of blogging! I can't wait to share my stories and creations with you.