The best chocolate cake

Back when we lived in the US, I never ever made cake from scratch, unless it was cheesecake. Honestly I never found a recipe that tasted as good as a Betty Crocker box. Since you can usually buy a cake mix for around a dollar I never saw the point of doing anything else. 

Now that we've been living in Germany I've had to experiment with cake. But since it's not a family favorite (my family prefers pie or cheesecake for special occasions) I haven't made it a lot. 

That being said there are times when cake is preferred to our favorites. Taking cupcakes to school or having a birthday party with friends are two times we've run into the need to have cake. To say it's been a struggle would be an understatement. I have tried countless recipes in order to find a good one. But I must admit, sometimes you can find a cake mix here and eventhough they cost 6 euros (which is over 8 dollars!!!) I totally pick up a couple for such occasions. 

We'll not any more. I have found the best cake recipe. It all began with a series of unfortunate events. I met some friends downtown for lunch and afterwards we picked out cupcakes for the family. Since I was bringing home an extra 4-year-old and it was raining, the cupcakes got lost somewhere along the way. James realized they were gone (up to this point I had forgotten about them too). He was so sad that the cupcakes he had so lovingly picked out for his dad and sis were now somewhere lost in Munich. 

It was time to go pick up Hailee so I did a quick search on Pinterest for Oreo cupcakes. Once we got home he helped me make them. 

So cute in his new apron. 

Now the first time we made these they turned out ok. Not amazing. The chocolate flavor wasn't amazing but they were so incredibly moist and the texture was absolutely perfect I thought they deserved a second chance. I had been out of the good cocoa powder when I made them so I decided to give them a second chance with the really nice powder. And that made all the difference. 

Cookies and cream cupcakes

Serves 24

Prep time 10 minutes

Cook time 20 minutes

Total time 30 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped Oreos

1/8 teaspoon salt

Cake

1/2 cup butter (melted)

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cups cocoa powder

3 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

3/4 cups butter (softened)

4oz cream cheese (softened)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4-6 heaped tablespoons milk

1/3 cup crushed Oreos

Directions

Cake

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350

In a large mixing bowl combine all cake ingredients except the Oreos. Mix well. Stir in the Oreos by hand. Fill lined cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Step 2

In a mixing bowl beat the butter, cream cheese, vanilla and salt until creamy and smooth. Add the powdered sugar and 4 TBS of milk. Beat well. If too thick add more milk, one TBS at a time. Stir in Oreos. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Store covered at room temp for up to two days or refrigerate up to 5 days.

Read more at http://backforsecondsblog.com/2013/06/chocolate-oreo-cupcakes-with-cookies-and-cream-frosting/#wcdR3CXSCGhQXza4.99

These can be made without the chopped Oreos in the cake batter. I only made cupcakes so far, but next time I am going to try it as a cake to see how that works. I also didn't add the Oreos to the frosting but sprinkled them on top. I thought it looked prettier that way. 

The most important thing about the recipe is the cocoa powder. My favorite is Valrhona cocoa powder. And I did check to see if I can buy it in the US and I did find it on amazon. 

Hallstatt: shopping, exploring, and eating

I am joking a bit when I say this vacation was just for the kids. In reality Todd and I enjoyed ourselves as well. It was a relaxing break with a bunch of kid friendly things thrown in for good measure. Personally I probably would have wandered more and swam less. But on the other hand the kids were pretty good little wanderers and enjoyed exploring the beauty all around us, do I can't complain too much. 

In the end we were able to shop, explore, and eat our way through Hallstatt.

This was a particularly sunny spot. The lighting was beautiful, although the sun was right in our faces. James came up with his own 'sun glasses' to help with the sun problem. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the pictures. It cracked us all up. 

I'm a little obsessed about this tree. This is the first one we noticed. We were looking at the little shop when something dropped and knocked off something. At first I thought it was one if my kids touching something, but it was a pear! Then I noticed that the green on the house wasn't ivy but an actual tree. We saw a lot more on our exploration of Hallstatt and now I don't think my life will be complete until I have one just like it. I'm sure these trees took years and years to grow. I have no idea what the tree roots will do to the foundation of a house, but now that I've seen them I have to have a tree growing on the front of my house. 

Behind Todd's shoulder you can see another beautiful tree growing on the front if the house. 

This is what happens when James has to smile for too many pictures Inna short amount of time. He starts thinking his mom has lost her mind. 

I was a little worried that we were coming too late to ride in a boat. In Germany once school is back in they put away the boats. Thankfully Hallstatt didn't seem to have that rule and we were able to get views from the water. I am so glad we did. 

All of our trips seem to revolve around food in some ways. We think part if the way to enjoy a new place is to learn what they eat in the area. James think every place should have schnitzel. And for the most part he's been able to find it. I guess for him he's trying to figure out who has the best schnitzel. But if course I don't think he's found a schnitzel he doesn't like. 

The rest if us like to be a little more adventurous in eating. On this trip we would eat in Hallstatt for lunch and then have a quiet dinner in our apartment in the evening. We found two amazing places down by the lake that were perfect. 

The second place had an area where the kids could run around while we waited for dinner. It was very nice because although the food was great, they were very slow. 

Hailee kept herself entertained while we were waiting for the bill by making a house with cards. 

James kept us in stitches by telling us stories. He lives in a very exciting place. I love that half of his stories are sound effects and something exciting is always happening. 

There was not one thing I would have changed about this trip. The weather was perfect every single day for the activity we had planned. It could not have been nicer. 

Hallstatt: the salt mine

I think at first I was the only one excited to go to the salt mine. But it didn't take long for it to be one of the favorite things we did on the trip. 

First thing we had to do was get to the top of the mountain. We could have hiked all the way to the top, but we opted for the funicular. It was great and I loved the way James said funicular.  James also entertained us by speaking German. In his preschool class they do one day in German. So he's starting to try and speak more. Of course none of us understood a word he said, but it was cute to hear what he thinks German sounds like. 

At the top there in another 15 minute walk to where the tour starts. It was a lot of up hill and stairs from start to finish and James didn't complain once. The only problem he had was at the beginning of the tour his pants started falling down and I carried him until we stopped and I could tighten them back up. 

In order to go on the tour you have to out on special clothes. We all looked like we were wearing prison jumpsuits as we marched off to the mine. It was nice having clean clothes when we came out as I'm sure we would have been filthy otherwise. 

My kids have always done well in museums and tours so I wasn't surprised by their behavior. But they did manage to surprise me a bit. The tour was in German and English. First the guide would talk in German, then English. Hailee was understanding a lot if what was going on in German. And I think this is the first tour where James payed attention to what was going on the entire time. And it was an 80 minute tour! He lived it. 

View across the lake from the salt mines. The tiny town across the lake was where our hotel was. 

Hallstatt, Austria

Also known as the relaxing vacation just for the children. 

I've been looking at this long weekend break we had coming up for months. I knew it would be a perfect chance to get away to a cozy little spot. The last few months have been a bit stressful and although things have calmed down, everyone in the family needed a little break to recharge. 

Hallstatt has been on our list for years and we just hadn't made it there yet. It's just over two hours from our house. Realistically we could have gone on a Saturday and not spent the night. Since that didn't sound very relaxing I decided to look for a hotel. Everything was booked in Hallstatt so my search took me to another tiny town on the other side of the river. Obertraun, literally a five minute drive to Hallstatt, was the perfect fit. The hotel I found had a pool and playground for the kids. We had our own little apartment with three bedrooms! Since it's the off season, it was a great deal. Traveling in the off season is my favorite thing to do here. It felt like we had the place to ourselves. 

We liked it so much we decided to stay an extra night. 

The kids had such a good time at the pool. We went at least once everyday and sometimes twice. Most if the time we were the only ones there. When Todd had meetings the kids and I would sneak down to the pool. It was the first hotel we've stayed at in Europe that has had a pool and it was fantastic. James tired himself out and would put himself to bed and down for a nap! 

The playground was also really fun. The kids did a fair amount if playing there as well, but the pool was the novelty so it usually won when we were deciding what to do during dads meetings. 

But it was a whole lot easier getting pictures at the playground. :)

The only little hiccup we had was food the first night. Right after we got checked into our little house Todd had a meeting. Just before leaving I check things and saw they had a little restaurant sad a little grocery store. Then we had to quickly grab our swim suits and headed to the pool. On the way to the pool I saw the grocery store closed at 5:00 (before Todd's meeting was done) and since I had left my wallet in the house I figured we would just order take out from the restaurant. Todd's meetings finished around six and after two hours in the pool the kids had worked up quite an appetite. We got back to the room and Todd and I went to the restaurant to order take out. When we got there we discovered that the restaurant was closed on Thursday nights. On to plan b. I had seen a grocery store in the little town so we jumped in the car to run to the grocery store. We knew things closed early, but I was hoping it would be opened a little passed six. It wasn't! Now the only thing that was opeded was gas stations and bars. And there wasn't a gas station to be found in our little town. The first one we came across only had chips, cookies, and gummy bears. Not really what I was hoping to feed my children. Some three or four towns away (about 20 minutes from our hotel) we finally found a gas station with something a little more substantial. We found eggs, deli meat, sliced cheese, and milk. Unfortunately no bread, but we made due with a dinner of cheese and eggs and some deli meat on the side. At least it was better than cookies and chips!