Spring break is coming up! WOOOHOO

Normally my mom, dad, and I always go somewhere tropical but this year my dad is gonna stay home and work. It stinks that he can’t come with my mom and I to Key West, but I’ll be happy to spend the week with my mom. It’s weird that it will be my last spring break with them before I go to college!

Normally by now, I would have composed about 3 different packing lists for spring break with about 60 different possible outfit combinations and everything planned out to a T on which cosmetic bag I will be bringing and what shoes I will wear with each outfit and what underwear to wear with what clothes…I mean, I guess you could say I’m a bit of a list-maker.

But this year is like woah, totally different. Not a single list has been made yet! Scratch that-I sort of have a mental grocery list going on in my head of the food we’ll need my dad to get because Easter is the day after we get back. Yikes.

So anyways, I guess most normal people might not make a packing list (let alone, multiples) a month ahead of their trip, but I am having slight anxiety from not having a list yet. It’s just there has been SO MUCH to do! Senior year is not as “care-free” as some people may make it out to be. I have projects on projects on projects, and now that soccer season is in full swing, it is a bit of struggle to keep up with everything and then have the blog on top of that.

Needless to say, a vacation to sunny Key West is very much needed And a pedicure wouldn’t do any harm…Soccer feet are not a pretty site with flip flops, friends.

Oh and one more thing, this marble pound cake was a sinch to whip up! It looks so impressive with the swirls, but it really takes hardly any effort, just refer to the pictures if my written instructions in the recipe don’t make sense. This pound cake has the perfect amount of sweetness for a nice breakfast treat, but isn’t too sweet that you would call it a dessert. Perfect for out anti-dessert-during-Lent family!

Marble Pound Cake

(Makes 1 loaf)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup white sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

a little less than 2/3 cups combined with a heaping 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar (or just 2/3 cup buttermilk)

1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (I used dark cocoa powder)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons hot water

1. Preheat oven to 35o˚F. Spray a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flours, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add in eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternating with the milk-white vinegar mixture, add in the dry ingredients in 3 batches, starting with dry ingredients. So add about 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half the milk mixture, then another 1/3 of the flour mixture, remaining milk mixture, then remaining flour mixture.
3. Place 1/3 of the of the batter into a medium bowl. Combine cocoa powder and hot water until thoroughly mixed. Mix chocolate mixture into separated batter, until thoroughly combined.
4. To put together the pound cake, drop 3 dallops of the plain batter into the bottom of the loaf pan, be sure they are in a zig-zag formation and make it look like a checkerboard, by dropping 3 dallops of the chocolate batter into the bottom next to each of the plain batter dallops. Repeat this for 3 layers, dropping alternating batters on top of eachother (so the chocolate batter will now go on top of plain, and plain on top of chocolate). Refer to the picture above in the post!!
5. When you have finished adding the final layer of batter (You should have about 3 layers), use a knife and swirl through the batter in whatever patterns you like to make swirls. Be creative! Be sure you get your knife all the way to the bottom of the loaf pan so that the swirls go throughout the entire cake.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack or about 15 minutes, then invert out of loaf pan and let cool on wire rack completely. Slice and enjoy! Store leftovers in cake dome or sealed container.

Random Fact of the Day: Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older.

Related articles

• Chocolate, Courgette and Banana Bread (kelsifarrington.wordpress.com)
• Sour Cream Pound Cake (ireport.cnn.com)
• Strawberry Vanilla Pound Cake with Almond Crumble (sundiegoeats.wordpress.com)