Diane's bday cake and homemade cinnamon rolls

Wednesday was our beloved pastor's wife's birthday and so I volunteered to make a homemade chocolate cake for her. I hardly make homemade cakes since box mixes are so easy and so tasty, but I decided to go all out for this woman that is ever so faithful in making us meals and delicious goodies each week! I found a recipe online titled "BEST MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE"- who can see that and not try it? So I made it with Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder and it was soooooo delicious. Everybody absolutely loved it and it was so easy! Why would I keep buying boxed cakes with preservatives and junk like high fructose corn syrup if this is just a tad more effort? I think I am committing to buy much fewer, if any, boxed mixes that contain junk. Trader Joe's or Whole Foods may be an exception if the ingredient list is acceptable :)

Then today, we had our friends the Ls over for brunch. We hadn't seen them in a while so I wanted to make something different. I finally attempted homemade cinnamon rolls (along with buttermilk pancakes). First off, I love our bread machine! It just makes so many things easier and fills our hearts with love (and tummies with carbs). I found a recipe on AllRecipes for a "Cinnabon Clone" which it wasn't quite, but that may have been my fault. I think I left them in the oven for a bit too long while I was cooking other stuff so they were a bit crispier than desired on the inside- but the inside was soft and gooey! I'm sure Cinnabon puts a LOT more butter and sugar in their innards though! I think I thinned out the icing a bit too much also. Otherwise, the flavor was good and our guests enjoyed them as well! By the way, I tried the floss cutting method and it really works great- just use some dental floss and slice up that rolled up log in no time without squishing the whole roll!