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Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Sweet Break up

Happy Valentine's Day! Or Happy February 14th? However you are spending today, I'm happy to bring you another delicious recipe. Personally, I am spending this evening on my own because I am traveling for work. Bad timing for meetings this week mean that I had Chipotle for dinner, by myself in my hotel room. So romantic!

Though this isn't terribly different from how the boyfriend and I have spent many of our thirteen Valentine's Days. Eight of those years were spent as a long distance couple. We didn't even see each other for this holiday until four years ago. Needless to say, Valentine's Day isn't a big holiday for us!

One holiday that I didn't know was a thing? February 13th - National Break-Up Day! 


Apparently the reasoning behind National Break-Up day is this - You've made it through the winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) and have made your parents happy by showing them that you aren't going to die alone. But here's the reality - you hate this person you're dating! In order to keep from wasting money on a Valentine's gift/dinner there is only one option - Break it off!


I haven't taken part in National Break-up day. I just broke up with boyfriends on random days for all the normal reasons - he showed up drunk to a high school football game, or he didn't support my plan to go to grad school, he didn't realize he was gay. You know, the normal reasons.

In honor of National Break-Up Day, Perry's Ice Cream has developed a new flavor - Bad Breakup. Sea salt caramel chocolate ice cream with fudge swirls and caramel-filled chocolate hearts. I'm so glad that it only comes in pint sizes. because I could seriously eat an entire quart of this stuff. If you haven't tried Perry's yet, hop in your car or get on a plane and fly to Western New York to get some.

Since every breakup needs lots of chocolate, I decided to make a chocolate and strawberry cake to enjoy alongside. Chocolate and strawberries has too long belonged to the lovers on February 14th. This chocolate and strawberry cake is for all the single ladies (and gentlemen!) who just want to indulge!



You don't have to be newly single to enjoy a big slab of chocolate cake and heaping serving of Bad Breakup Ice cream. I cleaned this plate while sitting on the couch with the boyfriend!


No matter your current situation, if you are in need of a little cake and ice cream I'm going to recommend this combination! The recipe is for a 6-inch cake, just enough for a little dinner party or a week's worth of cake for a singleton. My recommendation though? Bring it to the office and butter up your coworkers! They'll complain, but be really happy at the end of the day.

One Year Ago: Homemade Moon Pies
Two Years Ago: Homemade Girl Scout Samoas
Three Years Ago: Whole Wheat Pasta with Sausage and Leeks
Four Years Ago: Chipotle CopyCat Recipes
Five Years Ago: Chocolate-Peppermint Marshmallows
Six Years Ago: Homemade Butterfinger Bars

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Candy Cane Cake

 Happy Holidays Everyone! I've been crazy busy with my new job and haven't had a lot of time to blog recently. With the holiday season upon us, I knew that I had to do some baking and bring you a few seasonal recipes.

Luckily, my department at my new job holds a holiday party each year! My department is so multi-national and multi-cultural, our holiday pot luck was a diverse array of curries, perogies and fried chicken. The entire office floor smelled amazing all day long! I decided to bring in a dessert that looked really fancy, but took no time at all to create.


The striped peppermint frosting hides three layers of rich chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. I went with a homemade chocolate cake recipe, but you can definitely save time and use a box mix. Just be prepared to use a lot of butter when you decorate this cake! There is a lot of buttercream on this bad boy. If you have the right tools, you can get this look in less than ten minutes. Just have a piping bag, turntable and bench scraper on hand and you can have a stripey cake too!


Sorry there is no inside view of this cake. I didn't want to cut it before I took it to the office because I wanted it to look pristine for the party. I also wanted to see how long it would take for someone to cut into it! 

Unfortunately I set the baking bar pretty high with my new coworkers. They are going to be expecting some pretty impressive treats in the future...


One Year Ago: Cherry Cordial Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Candy Cane Mallomars
Three Years Ago: Christmas Fudge
Four Years Ago: Acorn & Sausage Bake
Five Years Ago: Peppermint Mallomars
Six Years Ago: Banana Whoopie Pies


Monday, September 12, 2016

Tailgate Time! - Football Celebration Cake

Today I woke up to chilly temperatures and a definite Fall-like feel to the morning. While the days still feel like summer, the mornings and evenings are beginning to take a turn toward Autumn. In the US, nothing says Fall more clearly than the start of football season. 

This past weekend was the opening of regular season football. Last week I created a few recipes for your tailgating party, today I bring you something to get you ready for the end of the season! It's time to think big for your team and plan your playoff celebration cake!  Being a Buffalo girl I find it a little difficult to even think about calling this a playoff celebration cake, but you can always dream!


I made this cake to celebrate the Buffalo Bills. The layering of colors in this cake is reminiscent of the team logo, with a red stripe slashing across a blue buffalo. If you call yourself a fan of another football team, just swap out the colors for your own team colors! I made a custom blend of red, white and blue sprinkles from three bottles of single colors that I bought at a local cake supply shop. You can pick up your team colors at Michaels Arts & Crafts or online at Amazon.


The cake toppers are also super easy to make! I found a clipart image of a football and traced it onto wax paper. Melting some chocolate chips and transferring them to a zip-top bag with a small piping tip, I was able to draw out the chocolate football and endzone upright.


To keep the local spirit going, you should pair your celebration cake with a local brand of ice cream! Perry's is the local brand of choice in Western New York and I have paired my celebration cake with the "Sundae at the Ralph" flavor. The red and blue sprinkles in the ice cream go right along with my team color theme!

Go ahead and plan for the best, buy your sprinkles and food coloring and get ready to celebrate!  Or just enjoy practicing your layer cake skills and eating the delicious results.

One Year Ago: Pumpkin Mallomars
Two Years Ago: S'mores Cupcakes
Three Years Ago: Cookies Dough Stuffed French Toast
Four Years Ago: Southwest Chicken Burger
Five Years Ago: Baked Pears & Salad
Six Years Ago: White Chicken Chili

Friday, July 8, 2016

Happy 6th Anniversary WITK!

It's that time of year to celebrate here at WITK! It's been six years since I first opened up a blogger account and put my fingers to the keyboard to write. Over the years I've gone through pounds and pounds of sugar, butter and flour. I've tested out recipes from Thailand, Spain, Italy, China, Vietnam and countless other countries. I've deep fried, sauteed, crystallized, baked, but most of all, I've had so much fun.


The best part of blogging over the years is being inspired by the other bloggers out there in the world. I'm constantly amazed at the creativity of the bakers and home cooks living in the blogosphere. Reading through my Bloglovin' feed tempts me to try new things and motivates me to up my game.

However, recently I've been feeling decidedly uncreative. My time has been taken up by work, travel and life and I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like here at WITK. This is the reason why my anniversary cake for 2016 is more than a little inspired by Sweetapolita. This cake is directly pulled from her 2015 cookbook. The colors were so cheerful and vibrant, the sprinkles so happy and bright, I decided not to deviate from the original design.


Thankfully, I have a few life changes planned in the next few months. These upcoming changes will hopefully bring me more time for creativity and baking! I have a massive desire to finish my 2015 and 2016 challenges and bring you all more candy than your teeth can handle. Until that time, please enjoy this beautiful cake. It is not only stunning, it is super delicious. Major kudos go to Rosie from Sweetapolita. She is such a talented baker and businesswoman. I want to buy all of her sprinkles!


Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me!

One Year Ago: Strawberry Cake
Two Years Ago: Neapolitan Cake
Three Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Four Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Five Years Ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Six Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes (with high altitude recipe)


Yum, Sprinkles!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Christmas Cake & Ice Cream

With just a week left until Christmas, it's time to choose your dessert recipes and head to the grocery store. I'm going to recommend making something that looks fancy but isn't that difficult to make at all! A roulade!



A roulade is simply a thin sponge cake, rolled up with a buttercream filling. You can add any flavoring to the buttercream to change it up for the seasons. Instead of making a peppermint or chocolate roulade, I decided to pair my cake with an incredibly flavorful ice cream!


I'm happy to be working with one of my favorite hometown brands - Perry's Ice Cream - and bring you their amazing new Winter flavor! A few weeks ago, I received a package containing their traditional Fall flavor, Pumpkin Pie, and this new one, Gingerbread cookie. I was a little leery at first, I'm not a huge gingerbread fan, but one bite had me converted. Even the boyfriend took me up on the offer to try some and he wound up making a good dent in the container.


This ice cream is surprisingly complex. The gingerbread ice cream base is dotted with cookies and filled with ribbons of vanilla icing. I only wish that they sent me just one container, because I will inevitably eat both containers myself.

To make the roulade cake, I enlisted the boyfriend to help me. He generally avoids baking with me, it's not his thing, but this was my lucky day! After prepping all of the ingredients, the cake came together very fast. After cooling, filling and rolling, this cake really topped off our evening. It would make for an impressive and delicious addition to your holiday table!

Disclaimer: I received a box full of Perry's Ice Creams Fall/Winter flavors to try out. I have not received any other compensation for this post and all opinions are my own. I am so happy to partner with small, local companies and share them with the world. I grew up with Perry's and it continues to remind me of home.

One Year AgoWilde Cookies - A list of all the cookies I've made here at WITK!
Two Years AgoCranberry-Orange Soda
Three Years AgoEggnog Mallomars
Four Years AgoThai Chicken Curry
Five Years AgoChorizo & Vegetable Soup

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Happy 5th Birthday WITK!

I can't believe that it's been five years since I started writing here at WITK! I remember reading food blogs during my down time in the lab and thinking that I'd like to share my cooking online too! A lot has changed since those early days in the kitchen...



In 2010, I was living in Colorado and getting ready to move to Connecticut. It was probably the worst time to start a food blog, since my kitchen was about to be packed up and shipped off to the East Coast!


I spent a year cooking from my tiny studio apartment in New Haven, Connecticut, before landing my first real job and moving to New Jersey. Not just moving to New Jersey, but moving in with my boyfriend of eight years.


I spent almost two years at my first job before the company was closed and I found myself unemployed! During my six months of unemployment I started a lifestyle blog, Wilde in the City, interviewed at a half dozen pharma companies and traveled the US with the boyfriend.


These days I'm happily at a new pharmaceutical company, in a completely different position, traveling the world and occasionally getting into the kitchen. With my work and travel schedule, I've been lax with my posting here at WITK, but I couldn't let this date pass me by!


Since it's July, I thought that I would celebrate the fruit of the season - the Strawberry! The cake is flavored with ripe strawberries and layered with strawberry compote and fresh whipped cream. To top it all off, the cake is covered with an amazing cream cheese frosting.

Thank you for coming along on this exciting journey at WITK! I wish you could all come over and have a slice of cake. I guess I'll just have to eat it all myself!

One Year Ago: Neapolitan Cake 
Two Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Three Years Ago: Sponge Candy Cake
Four Years Ago: Pizza Foccacia
Five Years Ago: Chocolate Cupcakes

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Celebrations

I'm wrapping up my fun with ice cream! Today it's all about bringing back childhood memories. We're doing that with sprinkles. Lots and lot of sprinkles!


I've been seeing a version of this cake around the internet and have been dying to make it in my kitchen. I mean, look at all of those sprinkles! It's so pretty! It's also seriously easy to do. No need to worry about smooth icing, piping bags or imperfections. Just cover your cake with frosting and pour on the sprinkles.


I didn't stop with just sprinkles on the outside, the cake is also filled with adorable bursts of color. This is the perfect cake for a birthday, whether the birthday person be eight or eighty! Just be sure to stock up on sprinkles, you'll need a whole bunch of them.


It isn't a birthday celebration unless there is ice cream to go along with your cake. As soon as I saw this Fireball ice cream among the flavors from Perry's escapes, I knew it would be the perfect pairing with my vanilla sprinkle cake. Nothing reminds me more of middle school than fireballs and this ice cream tastes exactly like the classic candy.


If you are in the region that sells Perry's Ice Cream, you should definitely go and try out this flavor. I was so surprised at how dead on the flavor was in this ice cream. It has a strong cinnamon and spice flavor, with little bits of fireball candy mixed throughout. You definitely don't need to eat an entire bowl of this stuff, a scoop with your cake will totally satisfy.


Feel like a kid again. For your next celebration eat lots of sprinkles and ice cream!


Three Years Ago: PB&J Mallomars

Friday, April 3, 2015

Chocolate Peep Cakes

We're just a few days before Easter and I really wanted to use that Peep mold again! I decided to try out a few more recipes to see just what would work. Also, I wanted everything to be peep shaped after I made those peeps last week!

Today I present... Chocolate Peep Cakes!!!


Aren't they cute!


The chocolate cake recipe that I used was a simple one. In fact I wasn't really impressed with the one I chose, so I won't be sharing the cake recipe today. You could probably even use a store bought cake mix., if you are low on time! What makes these cakes come together even faster is the frosting.


These cakes are very similar to petit fours because I used a poured fondant frosting. It took two layers of frosting to completely cover the chocolate, but it retained all the details of the peep cakes! The addition of some sprinkles and black sugar pearls and we have ourselves some cute little cakes!


They are the perfect treat to finish off your Easter holiday! These cakes were also very fun to make, I think I'll try my hand at real petit fours in the future.

Two Years Ago: Perry's Ice Cream Factory Tour
Three Years Ago: Grilled Chicken and Potatoes
Four Years Ago: Tortellini Soup

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Over the Top Carrot Cake

Every once and a while, you have to make something a little extra special. Any Milk bar recipe qualifies as just that, over the top, but it requires a little preparation. 


Okay, a lot of preparation. This recipe asks you to make a cake, graham cracker crust, frosting, liquid cheesecake and crumb. I would recommend making this recipe over the course of two days. Or one long snow day. That's what I did!


While it took several hours to complete this cake, the end result is worth the effort. The cake is soft and tender. The frosting is rich with graham cracker and butter. My only complaint? The original recipe is a bit too salty, which is a common issue with Milk bar recipes. The recipe below has the salt content tweaked a little, but is otherwise true to the original.


Be sure to share this little cake with friends and family, there is no way you will be able to (or should) eat the entire thing on your own. A small slice will do you, don't let your eyes be bigger than your appetite!



Dig in!

Two Years Ago: That Chicken Lettuce Cups
Three Years Ago: Asparagus Lasagna
Four Years Ago: Apple Marshmallows & Apple-Cinnamon Krispy Treats

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Raspberry & Cheesecake Mousse Entremet

Recently, we had a "Bake Off" at work. In reality, it was just a day where everyone brought in homemade goodies and ate way too much sugar. There were no winners and no losers, just a whole lot of sugar. Well, maybe the diets were the losers of the day. I'm pretty sure that I didn't have lunch that day.


Rather than baking a cake or a batch of cookies, I decided to go big and prepare an entremet. I was dreaming of a light and bright dessert that tasted like spring. The joconde sponge cake came together quickly and holds a citrusy layer of lemon cheesecake mousse and the lightest raspberry mousse ever.


A small serving of this dessert was enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. It only lasts in the fridge for a day, as the cake absorbs the moisture from the mousse. I reccommend making this cake over the course of two days.  Day 1 - prepare the sponge cake, cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for the second day. Day 2 - Cut sponge cake, make cheesecake mousse, make raspberry mousse, fill cake.


I know it looks like a lot of work, but it's totally worth the effort! It's got great wow factor for a dinner with friends, or trying to win a bake off!

One Year Ago: Whole Wheat Pasta with Cabbage & Leeks
Two Years Ago: Chicken Florentine with Pasta
Three Years Ago: Honey roasted Root Vegetables
Four Years Ago: Gorgonzola Risotto

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Junk @ Home 2015 - Twinkies

Coming at you with the fourth Junk @ Home challenge of 2015. I'm a few days late, sorry!  I was out of two weeks ago and I got sick while I was away! Luckily it was just a 7-day cold and I'm nearly back to 100%. Just in time to make some knock-off Twinkies this weekend!


Lots of people have tried their own recipes for this classic snack cake. Two years ago, when Hostess was going out of business, everyone freaked out and developed their own recipe. Not being a Hostess snack cake fan, and knowing that someone would likely buy the patents and start making them again, I never jumped on the bandwagon.


This recipe was requested when I sent out the call for 2015 challenge foods. Rather than trying to replicate the flavor and texture of a classic Twinkie, I decided to create a homemade version with real world flavors. Of course I bought myself a box of snack cakes and did some taste testing. To tell the truth, I have no idea what the flavor is supposed to be. Mystery food. Franken-food.


This recipe is like an inside-out cupcake. Soft yellow cake, filled with fluffy vanilla frosting. It tastes natural, not mysterious, and delicious. This recipe won't save you any calories, but it's completely free of any preservatives. This snack cake won't last through an nuclear winter, better eat them right after they're done!


Save your money, make your own cake molds! Unless you want to make these cakes again and again. I didn't want one more piece of baking equipment to store in our little kitchen.

One Year Ago: Portuguese Sweet Bread
Two Years Ago: Olive Garden Salad Dressing & Chicken alla Carbonara
Three Years Ago: Peach Macarons
Four Years Ago: Chocolate Buttercream Truffles


Thursday, August 14, 2014

CTB 2014 - Marshmallow Madness!

I hate to admit this, but I haven't sat by a campfire in 4 years. The last time I sat with friends and toasted marshmallows was the summer of 2010. Weeks away from picking up once again and moving from Boulder, Colorado to New Haven, Connecticut, I just spent the day on the reservoir with my fitness family.


With the sun setting over the Rocky mountains, we settled into foldout chairs with fuzzy blankets and bags of marshmallows, graham crackers and Hershey bars. I learned that the best way to enjoy a s'more is to stuff a Milk Dud into the center of a marshmallow before toasting it. Chocolate, caramel and marshmallow. So amazing.


Since moving from Boulder to the East coast, I haven't found myself in the presence of a campfire. You aren't really allowed to start fires in an apartment building. In order to fully enjoy this summer, I wanted to recreate a summertime treat in my kitchen. No fire required.


This s'mores cupcakes was the perfect way to reminisce, without setting fire to my kitchen. Though I'm not going to lie, there totally was a series of small fires when I made these beauties. Did you know that cupcake liners are flammable? When toasting the marshmallow frosting, be careful not to light the actual cupcake on fire!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Happy Fourth Birthday WITK!

I've been MIA a lot recently but I just had to remember to wish WITK a Happy Fourth Birthday! This year has brought a lot of change and writing at WITK (and WITC) really helped me through a tough time. WITK has been with me through lots of changes and I always like to take this time of year to reflect on how much has changed and how far I've come!


Four years ago, I was living in Colorado. I was packing up my Boulder apartment and getting ready to move across the country, again. My boss had accepted a position at Yale and was bringing a few of his students and postdocs with him. Food blogs were new to me and I thought it would be a great way to stay in touch with my friends across the country.


Three years ago, I was in the midst of moving from Connecticut to New Jersey. I was a few days from starting my first real job and busy deciding what to wear. WITK went from three days a week posting to just two and I was trying to figure out how to cook dinner for two instead of one.


Two years ago, WITK was in the midst of its first big food challenge (Why Bother 2012!) I was enjoying my first summer as a real employed person. Easily distracted, I neglected to cook dinner and made lots of sweets. My coworkers happily gobbled up the resulting desserts.


Last year, it was a tough time and I was in the middle of my summer of unemployment. Recently laid off and seeking a new full-time gig, I threw myself into WITK and my new venture - Wilde in the City. With two blogs to distract myself from the lack of interviews, my third blogoversary gave me a great reason to make a seriously involved cake. So delicious.


This year, I find myself at a new job, getting ready to buy a house and juggling everything rather poorly! Over the past four months I have racked up over 70,000 frequent flier miles, traveled to six different countries and finally made it to Hawaii. All this travel has been tough on WITK, I cooked very little over the past four months.

In order to properly celebrate four years online, I made WITK a beautiful cake. I've been meaning to make something from the SprinkleBakes cookbook for a while now. I flipped through the pages until I found this cake - the Neapolitan cake. Three different flavors, baked from a single batter, this cake was a great combination of flavors. My favorites? I preferred the strawberry and vanilla layers. The chocolate layer wasn't flavorful enough for me. If I were to make this again, I'd use some melted chocolate for flavoring the chocolate layer.

Happy Birthday Wilde in the Kitchen! Thanks for being there for me though all the changing times! Also, many many thanks to all of my internet friends out there! Without you on the other end of the internet, it would just be my mom reading these posts! Thanks for coming along for the ride.

One Year Ago: Milky Way Cake
Two Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Three Years Ago: Pomegranate Moon Pies
Four Years Ago!!!: Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate or Peanut Butter Frosting

Neapolitan Cake
Adapted from SprinkleBakes

The bake times for these cakes were way off. The cookbook suggested that all three cakes would take about the same amount of time in the oven. This wasn't the case however and it's mostly because you have to add extra water to the flavored layers. It takes much longer to bake out all this excess water. I've listed both the suggested and actual bake times in this recipe. Keep in mind that your oven could be a bit different and you should check the doneness with a toothpick. Poke it in the center, when you pull it out there should be only crumbs clinging to the toothpick.  Happy baking!

Cake batter
3 sticks (24 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 cups sugar
6 cups cake flour, sifted
2 tablespoons baking powder
12 egg whites, room temperature
2 cups milk (I used skim milk with a dash of heavy cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-ounce package strawberry Jell-O
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Icing
1 pound cream cheese, removed from the fridge 20 minutes ago
1/2 pound (16 tablespoons) butter, softened
1 pound (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease three 9-inch round pans with butter. Line pans with parchment paper (I used wax paper because it was what I had!), butter the paper.

In a large bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form. You can also do this with a hand mixer or in your stand mixer. You'll have to transfer the whipped egg whites to another bowl if you use your stand mixer.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Sifter together flour and baking powder. Add vanilla to milk.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed butter. Mix on low until incorporated. Add 1/2 the milk, mix until blended. Add flour, milk and then flour, mixing until smooth after each addition.  Add egg whites all at once. Gently fold in the egg whites, try not to beat too vigorously and deflate the egg whites.

Divide the batter into three equal batches (I used a food scale to ensure I had three equal amounts). Add 1/4 cup hot water to the strawberry Jell-O. Stir until gelatin is mostly dissolved. Add this to one of the batches of batter and stir until there are no streaks remaining. Pour into one of the prepared pans.

Mix remaining 1/4 cup of hot water with cocoa powder, it will form a slurry. Add cocoa mixture to the second batch of batter. Pour into the second prepared pan. Pour remaining vanilla cake into the third pan. Bake cake layers as follows.

Vanilla - Suggested (30-35 minutes), Actual (33 minutes)
Strawberry - Suggested (30-35 minutes), Actual (45 minutes)
Chocolate - Suggested (25-30 minutes), Actual (40 minutes)

Remove cake layers from the oven and let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and peel off paper from the bottom. Let cool cakes completely before cutting. Level the tops of the cakes and stack while you prepare the frosting.

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the entire pound of sugar is added. If it's too thick - add 1 teaspoon of milk. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time.

Assemble the cake - Chocolate layer on the bottom, spread about 3/4 cup frosting on top of the chocolate layer. Add vanilla layer and top with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with strawberry layer and top with 1 cup frosting. Spread cake with a thin crumb coat (Here's a nice video to learn how to crumb coat!). Pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour to harden.  Remove from the fridge and frost with the rest of the frosting. You can get fancy, but I just went with a smooth outside and a swirly top.

Feed this cake to lots of people, there is a lot of butter in here!
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