Goof-proof Chocolate Cake You Can Make with One Hand

This recipe is a personal favorite.  It’s very easy, very moist and versatile.  I can probably eat this all by myself in a matter of days.  I also recently found out you can make this with one hand when I had to make it for a family gathering while holding my 2-month old who doesn’t like to be laid down by herself.  As much as I pride myself in making almost everything we eat at home from scratch, so far nothing beats this recipe in terms of convenience and taste.

What you will need:

1 package chocolate cake mix (preferably the one with pudding in the mix)

1 3-oz. package chocolate Jello pudding mix (caramel or french vanilla flavor also works well)

eggs, vegetable oil & water (as the cake mix requires)

2 tsp. instant coffee (optional)

chocolate chips (optional, I like to use the mini chips)

The coffee gives the cake a rich chocolate flavor and also helps make the cake taste like it’s made from scratch.  If you like dark chocolate, you’ll want to add slightly more than 2 tsp of instant coffee.  If you don’t have instant coffee, you can use regular coffee in place of water.  Just dump everything, except the chocolate chips, into your mixing bowl and mix until combined.  Then throw in the chocolate chips if you’re using them & mix until combined.  Pour into prepared pan/pans & toss in preheated oven & follow bake times on the box of your cake mix.

Actually, pouring them into your cake pans is probably the only time you’ll need 2 hands.  If you’re making them into muffins, you can get away with just 1 hand.

You can use this cake in several different ways.  Here are just some variations:

Plain Chocolate Cupcakes (excellent if you’re adding the chocolate chips)

Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Cake w/ Chocolate Frosting

Plain Chocolate Cake served warm w/ Berries & Whipped Cream

Better than Sex Cake  - this is actually the most requested cake at family gatherings.  They just know it as “Margarita’s Chocolate Cake w/ whipped cream”.  How do you tell a conservative southern Baptist family that they’re eating cake that’s Better than Sex? 

When Someone Steals from You

Let it go.  If it’s not a matter of life and death, or if the welfare of your loved ones don’t depend on it,  just let it go.

You may experience this at some point in your life.  Maybe a friend takes something away from you, you get robbed, an employee steals from you, you have dishonest customers trying to get freebies, somebody copies your ideas, etc.  It doesn’t take long before you start looking & acting like a disgruntled 2-yr old trying to get his toy back.

I don’t believe in fighting for the “principle” either.  It’s a waste of time.   If the other party is willing to stoop so low to take something from you in such a manner, they probably need it that bad.

Something that is truly yours can never be stolen.  You’re not any less of a person because some material thing was taken from you without your permission.  At the end of the day, if you’re still alive and well and have the people that you love most, that’s all that really matters.

Balancing Your Life

Striking a balance between family, work & personal time has by far been one of the biggest problems most businessmoms have. Most self-employed moms usually have a hard time separating work and home life, especially if they work at home. You tend to have that guilt that you’re not paying enough attention to your child if you’re working, or you’re not working hard enough if you’re playing with your kids. I know this situation all too well since at one point, I was having to juggle between my responsibilities in owning & operating a restaurant that was open 14 hrs a day, 7 days a week, a fast-growing online business, and 2 kids under 2. A lot of people would always ask me “How do you do it?” or “How can you manage all that?” Easy. I can’t. I was a total wreck and felt like a zombie most days.  Between employees calling in sick because they had a little too much fun the night before, constantly trying to increase production for Swaddlebees, and keeping the house clean enough so we actually walk on floors without “stuff” sticking on our feet, it was a little too much between just me, my husband and our kids.  Dinners at home usually consist of reheated leftovers from several nights ago.   Sometimes it’s even cold cereal (which my kids actually like). Even though we had a babysitter that worked 4 hrs a day, 4 days a week, that wasn’t enough and I ended up doing the other half of my work from 9 pm-2 am.

Needless to say, I wasn’t the happiest person at all.  I was doing a lot of tasks I hated to do, kept getting into situations I would not rather be in, and couldn’t enjoy my family and our life.  Something had to change.  I was putting everybody else ahead of me that I had no energy at the end of the day left for myself.

Most stay at home moms open up home businesses so they can stay home with their kids while hopefully earning themselves some money.  And a lot of times, if they do it right and the business grows, they end up spending less and less time with their kids and more on the business–which totally defeats the purpose of why they started the business at home anyway.  We all need to always focus on what is really important and what really makes us happy.  It’s hard to be a good mom to your kids if you’re stressed and overworked.  If your line of work makes it too hard to keep your life balanced, you may want to consider doing something else that will make it easier on everyone, cut back on your work…or really do some heavy-duty prioritizing.

I believe one of the keys to living a balanced life is to always be striving to find ways to focus your time and energy on the things that matter.  In most cases, YOU are what matters most.  Force yourself to eliminate unnecessary time-wasters.  80% of what most people spend their time on are not important.   It’s amazing to realize that you can really do something that would normally take you an hour and do it in 15-20 minutes if your life depended on it.  If you only had 2 hours to work (because that’s how long your baby will nap), do the most important things first.  Quit reading the news, tabloids or going to online discussion boards.  Quit complaining about your customers, or how much work you have to do.  You don’t have to answer each and every email either.  Automate as much of your tasks as possible.  And set yourself a working deadline and stick to it.  If you have unfinished tasks, don’t worry about it.  Do it tomorrow.  Let the laundry rot for another day.  Get on with your life.  Go play with the kids, eat some chocolate and snuggle with your spouse.

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