cake

sprinkles cupcake, d.c.

dana dreaming about her cake

sprinkles cupcakes

dana and kelsey - impossible not to love these two

classic black and white cupcake

cupcakes for everyone

europe reunion!

all the lovely cupcakes

pretty friends!

when i went to d.c. a few weeks back to visit kelsey and dana, we went to sprinkles cupcake {we chose this option instead of the equally popular georgetown cupcake} and met up with friends kate and drew.

the cupcakes were fab and j’adore most everything about d.c.

. . . i should be preparing for my first day of classes tomorrow. . . but. . . i wanted to share these before i let it slip away. . .

love!

chocolate cake

ever since i spent an afternoon/ late night at the pinckney’s just catching up, eating fish tacos, and knitting, yes, knitting {!} i was reminded of my 20 by 20 goals i set in february.

thanks to the wonderful ms. beth, i finally got around to goal number 8! more to come on knitting later on. . .

in thinking through my goals, i remembered number 1 – learn to make a ridiculously good and moist chocolate cake. so, in honor of mom’s birthday, i decided to make this, inspired originally by this post.  {the barefoot contessa is a mad genius btw}

so. . . even though my project started off so beautifully, just check out that photo of the yummy chocolate, it went downhill quickly. after letting my cakes chill in the pans, i went to dump them off on the cooling rack. it didn’t go over so well, and my well-greased pans didn’t work so magically. in short, the cakes crumbled and instead of tossing it away, mom and i opted to piece it together and enjoy it just the same. even though it isn’t beautiful, it sure is delicious. the buttercream, chocolate, & coffee icing = unreal.

hopefully if you make this, yours will turn out as beautiful as ina’s!

chocolate