World's Best Caramel Chocolate Cake

I just made the BEST caramel chocolate cake EVER! Here is the recipe:

1 box German chocolate cake mix
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter or margerine
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate pieces

CAKE:

Prepare cake batter according to directions on box. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 cake pan and bake as directed. NOTE: You have to use a 9 x 13 sheet cake pan. This recipe will not work with a layer cake or bundt cake. When cake is done, remove from oven and use a fork to poke holes all over the top of the cake.

ICING:

Melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in brown sugar, milk, and vanilla in that order. Keep whisking until it boils. After it has boiled for a couple of minutes, add the chopped pecans. Stir well to combine and let cook for another couple of minutes. Add coconut, remove from heat, and let it sit during the next step.

THE NEXT STEP:

Put the chocolate chips in the blender and use the shred or ice crush setting until most of the chocolate is in little pieces about the size of the chopped pecans. There will be some pieces bigger than you want and some chocolate "dust", but that's OK. The "dust" will melt on the cake and make it extra good.

Pour the caramel mixture over the cake and carefully spread it out. If you aren't gentle enough, the pecans will tear the cake. Sprinkle chocolate bits and dust over cake. Wait a few minutes for the chocolate to melt and serve warm.

Some Tips on Internet Ettiquete/Grammar

Today, I thought I'd share some tips I have discovered that make it easier to get along with other people on the World Wide Web.

• When You Capitalize Every Word Like This, It Makes Your Message Harder To Read. See What I Mean?
• WHEN YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS, IT IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED YELLING.
• When you dont use any punctuation at all like this it makes it harder to read what you are saying and it also makes you look kind of dumb
• Plz don't use chat speak like this in forums bc most of the members don't like it when u do and some even have rules against it.
• if you want to look rlly stooped talk lik this dont use any capitil letterz or punkshwashin misspell half of th words use chat speek leeve letterz off of the endz of words and put a z instead of an s at th ends of words also dont proofread anything u type.
  
• If you don't wish to appear dumb, disregard the previous advice.
  
• Emotion is very hard to express through typing, so sometimes your message can come across the wrong way. Smileys can sometimes help get your message across the right way. Don't flood your message with smileys, though, because it gets very annoying.
• There are some words that are not interchangeable, such as "also" and "too"; "their", "there", and "they're"; "you're" and "your", etc.*
• If you join a new forum, make sure you read the rules before you post so you won't accidentally break any of them.

* "Also" and "too": These can sometimes mean the same thing (example: You could say, "I went to the store also," or "I went to the store too,"). However, also and too are not interchangeable all of the time! For example, you could say, "Also, we went to the park," but it would be weird to say "Too, we went to the park,".

"Their", "There", and "They're": "Their" is possessive, as in "Their dog ran away". "There" means a place, as in "Let's go over there". "They're" is a contraction that is short for "they are", as in "They're going to the zoo".

"Your" and "You're": "Your" is possessive, as in "Your dress is pretty". "You're" is a contraction that is short for "you are", as in "You're getting this blanket dirty!"

If you have any more good tips, please leave them in the comments!

Clay Animals

I'm making clay animals to sell to help the people in Haiti. Here are some examples:




Cow ($5)




Pig ($4)




Goat ($4)




Turtle ($3)

100% of profits will go to Haiti. I'll have a PayPal button up in a little while!

The iPod

Maybe you've seen the iPod story and the iPod follow-up story on my mom's blog, and you're wanting to know more about the iPod I got on eBay. No? You think that would be boring? Well, I don't really have anything else to post about, so here I go anyways.

The iPod I was originally going to get from the lady on Craig'slist was pink, and since she said she had just got it for her daughter for Christmas, I'm assuming that it was one of the most recent ones and looked something like the iPod in this stock photo:


The thing is, I don't really like pink, especially hot pink, but since I was going to be getting an iPod Nano for the price of an iPod Shuffle, it wasn't too big of a deal. But when the deal fell through, I started looking around on eBay to see if I could find an iPod Nano for around $50. I ended up getting one for just $56 including tax, with free shipping! WOOHOO! It is a 3rd generation and it's green. Here's a stock photo of what it looks like:



Green also happens to be my favorite color, so I'm happy that I got this one! It should get here between tomorrow and the 13th. I'm really excited about it!

Chocolate Pie

I have made this chocolate pie twice in the last several days. It is reeeeeeeally good! I did do 2 things different, though:

1. I didn't use 4 raw eggs. I just didn't want to be eating raw-egg pie, so we got a carton of Egg Beaters and I used that. 1/4 cup of it equals 1 egg. It is real egg product but it is pasteurized so there's not a slight chance it could be carrying salmonella or anything like with regular eggs.

2. We didn't have any baker's chocolate, so I used the cocoa/oil substitute. 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil equals one square of melted unsweetened baking chocolate.

The pie still turned out great and it set up fine. I put whipped cream on top and it was DELICIOUS! You really have to try it!

Need A Laugh?

I can't believe I haven't posted since September! We've all been really busy. I know I've probably said this before, but I really am going to try to start posting more. I'm going to try to post at least twice a week.

Anyways, if you need a laugh, you've come to the right place!



(Yes, this is MY little sister, and not some random baby off of YouTube! I was the one giving the interview.)





(This IS some random kid off of YouTube.)

Floor Collapses at Weight Watchers Watchers Weigh-In



(This is the same little sister as the first video)



(Yes. This is our dog.)

Sooo... have you laughed yet?

Randomness And A Video

I haven't posted here in forever! We just started school last week and I've been really busy.

List of random items:

1. We have homeschool gym day, piano, and gymnastics all on Monday AND we also have to get all of our school work done!
2. I jammed my left thumb at gymnastics last Monday.
3. It's a good thing it wasn't my right thumb because then I wouldn't be able to hold a pencil. Wait... would that be a bad thing?
4. Have you ever tried functioning with only 1 thumb?
5. A couple of weeks ago my big 55 gallon fish tank started leaking everywhere.
6. I decided to try to sell it instead of re-sealing it. Again.
7. Someone is very interested in it and I'm really hoping they buy it! *Fingers crossed*
8. I'm saving up my money to buy a turtle or tortoise, but I'm not going to be able to get one until after we move.
   
9. I really want a Hermann's Tortoise, but the only kind of tortoise that any pet stores around here carry is a Russian Tortoise, so I might have to get one of those instead. Or I might get a box turtle, because they're not as expensive. But I really want the Hermann's Tortoise.
10. I have decided to do a weekly video interview with my baby sister Emelyn and post it on my blog. She'll be 2 on December 7th.

Here's this week's video: