It's always time for chocolate.

I love chocolate.  It's a deep-rooted, passionate, long-lasting, feverish kind of love.  It may not be the healthiest love affair ever, but it is what it is, right?
This is a cake I came up with one night while standing in the kitchen during a particularly potent bout of chocolate-love-itis, when there was nothing in sight that would sufficiently relieve the fever.

I pulled from a few cake recipes and added some twists of my own, then rounded it all out with a dose delicious, homemade chocolate butter cream frosting.

There's a recipe card I'm pretty sure you want to print out.  Yep.  Fellow chocolate-itis sufferers unite!

I admit, I'm a novice when it comes to my own baked creations.  Experiments in the kitchen go awry more than I'd like.  But sometimes I hit on something truly delicious.  This cake is NOT your average chocolate cake.  It is NOT light and fluffy.  It is not soft and squishy and moist.  While this guy surprised my with its density, it wasn't a bad surprise.  And I decided I actually kind of liked it - it was a pleasant variation on the typical treat.

I've concluded that it's a cross between a cake, brownie and chunk of fudge and have dubbed it "Chocolate Fudge Cake".  And really, how can you go wrong with a cake, a brownie and some fudge all rolled into one?

Honestly.  How??

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The floor of my van MIGHT taste really good...

This is yet another one of those "old fashioned bar" recipes that comes in many variations from many sources.  I can't for the life of pin down the source of this particular recipe... one of those seasonal newsletter type holiday cookie recipe books?  A church cookbook?  My mom's old recipes?  Betty Crocker's cookie book?  Not sure.
Despite its unknown origins, these bars are worth a bake.  They're like a pecan pie, but without any corn syrup.  Or hard to make crust.

The recipe calls for quite a lot of butter (hence the name) but honestly, isn't that what dessert it about anyway?  Butter and sugar.  Maybe a few fruits or nuts for flavor.

 Although it's incredibly difficult to keep your hands off, I do recommend making these a day ahead.  It doesn't actually take an entire 12 hours for them to set completely, but it DOES take a long time.  And though they taste amazing and warm and gooey right out of the oven, you'll lose all your filling as it oozes and settles in the bottom of the pan. (or the bottom of your VAN if you're transporting them right away, not that I know from personal experience or anything, that's purely hypothetical.  As in, if you take them out of the oven, put them on a tray and try to drive across town, be prepared for the whole darn top to slide off the pan and onto the van floor when you hastily grab the pan at the stoplight to prevent it from sliding off the console and making a mess - thus burning your hand as well.  Hypothetical.)

They taste phenomenal with a little vanilla ice cream.  Lick your lips good.  What am I saying?  Lick the PLATE good.  

They're so good that I bought pecans in bulk at Costco so I could have them on hand to make this ALL THE TIME.

I'll admit it.  I'm not ashamed.

Ok, I didn't REALLY lick the plate.  That's kind of gross.  But they are good enough to do so if you're so inclined.

Well, now I want to go make some.  Sheesh.  

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*

I love lemon. Almost as much as chocolate.

The other day I was in the mood for something lemony.  This happens fairly often, and the typical remedy is making the best lemon bars in the world.

But it happened to be a Tuesday, which as you know means my parents were coming over to be guinea pigs for new recipes.  Therefore, I needed a new recipe.  I couldn't very well make my mom be a guinea pig for her own lemon bar recipe, no matter how good it is.

I began a search.  After perusing several lists and options, I decided to go with cake.

Why?  Don't ask me.  I just felt like cake.  On a whim I googled "lemon layer cake" and found this recipe on Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.

Oh, my delicious lemony goodness.  Thank you for this recipe.

Now, I've not made a printable recipe card for you, because if you go to that blog, you can use the printer friendly version of HER recipe and quite frankly, I hate it when people steal my stuff, so I'm not going to steal hers.

Just know that it is NOT HARD.  It's really not.

And furthermore, it is the very first ever round cake I have ever made that has actually turned out.  In fact, while I was making it I was silently cursing myself for picking this recipe, since I've tried and tried again to make layer cakes and it just doesn't happen.  They fall apart.  They stick to the pan.  They implode.

But this cake... I can't explain what the difference was (trust me, I wish I knew), it slide so nicely out of the pan and rested with such relaxed ease on my cooling rack that I couldn't help but lap the kitchen in a victory dance.  

One change I made to the recipe was to add more lemon juice - both to the cake and the frosting.  I can't help it, I love lemon.  I nearly doubled it and it was fantastic.  So if you like lemon a whole lot, I encourage taking such action.

And now I leave you to make your own delectable lemon creations.

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!*