Last week, my friend Terra asked me if I'd like to be her "plus one" to an event.  Plus one? I haven't heard those words since I was rocking a midriff and a penchant for stoli razz and club sodas with lime.  I thought I'd best accept the offer lest I never, ever hear those words again. It turns out Terra was invited to an event by Chobani Yogurt along with a handful of other local food bloggers.  They've got fancy offices in Uptown Charlotte with a downright gorgeous industrial kitchen.  Sixteen floors up, Chobani rolled out the red carpet and let a small group of us including my other lovely blogger buddy, Kelly Davis, cook our little hearts out. 

Stations were set up in the posh kitchen, each with a recipe and a TV-show worthy mise en place that had me practicing my on-camera speech. No, there weren't any cameras there. But, if there were...

Terra and I beelined to the spiced gingerbread cake. After all, she's the happy baker and I'm, well, I'm just a fat kid living in a 31-year old's body. I love cake, forever and always. 

That night, we baked. We carried on. We made a mess. And we made a damn good cake! It was perfectly moist and pretty much the winner of the cooking contest I created in my head. I was able to meet some of my favorite digital acquaintances in person, like the Fervent Foodie, food photographer Taylor Mathis, nightlife guru and surprisingly versatile gentleman Jarvis Holliday and the lovely Andrea Simon. All in all, a great evening doing the things I love best- cooking and eating. Not bad for a Wednesday night.