A Bake-off, a Golden Spatchula, and a Lenten Confession

I entered a bake-off today. Res Life held a campus-wide competition among the RA's, and I volunteered as my dorm's representative. I enjoy baking and especially love cooking, but rarely do either (except for casually cooking for myself) while at school. It was a good opportunity to humor my domestic side.

Shortly after volunteering for said bake-off last week, I realized it wasn't the best timing for the event. Spring break '08 begins for me six days from now, and I have plenty of midterm jazz before then. And, ironically enough, I wouldn't be able to even try my own baked goods. Remember, I'm in the midst of a sugar-free Lent. I followed through with the committment anyway since no one else from my building shares my enthusiasm for bake-offs.

I entered these Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies in the "from scratch" category. I saw (note: did not taste) a dessert similar to this at a Relief Society luncheon two weeks ago. I used my Chaplain's brownie recipe and adapted a couple different recipes for the raspberry cheesecake topping. I'll have to post Chaplain Jon's recipe sometime - it's terrific.

In order to double my chances, I made S'more brownies with a brownie mix base and entered in the "from the box" category. They weren't as pretty as the ones on foodtv.com, but I had to cut them in their fresh out of the oven gooey state.

I had a work, as in future work, dinner tonight, so I basically dropped the goods at the bake-off and ran. I asked a friend to bring back the plates and let me know if I won anything. Lo and behold, I returned from my dinner three hours later to discover a golden spatchula.

I won best from the box! That was a surprise. I personally think the raspberry cheesecake brownies look and taste better than the S'more brownies, but who am I to judge the judges.

Now, for my Lenten confession(s):

1. I tried my brownies. I wasn't going to, but at the last minute I decided I had to know the quality of my product before others tasted it. It seemed like a justified asterisk on my record.

2. Then I had dessert at dinner, truly breaking Lent for the first time. We were at a considerably nice restaurant and, with my sugar-free day already ruined, I would've been remiss not to enjoy gelatto on the company tab.

And, while I'm busy confessing...

3. I ate brown sugar on sweet potatoes two weeks ago, accidentally. I also accidentally ate sugar with olive oil and bread instead of salt last weekend at a diner. I 'm marking both of these down as innocent errors.

Now that I've come clean, I'm returning full force to Lent. It's been a good experience; I'm loving it. I'll blog about it in more detail, but first I need to go all 40 (well, 39) days without sugar.