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This is one of my favorite fudge recipes, found in the pages of the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., a few years ago. (If anyone can give me the name of the person who submitted it, I would be more than happy to give them credit.) It's a fast microwave fudge recipe. (I know what you're thinking -- microwave fudge? But it's delicious, and no one has ever been able to tell the difference. And it takes no time!)

Here on the copy desk, we don't need a reason to bring in food -- but we'll take one when it's offered. One of our copy editors turned 30 today, so I made Chocolate & Peanut Butter Ribbon Dessert for his birthday. I stole the recipe from another copy editor on the desk, who made it for her own birthday last month.

It took me about ten minutes to make (overnight to freeze), and I only had to buy Cool Whip and Nutter Butters. Very easy to make, and you get comments like this:

"This rocks. Thanks so much for making it." -- Birthday boy

"Pardon my French, but your cake rules ...!!!" -- Anonymous copy editor

"yum,yum,yum, yum is all i can say." -- Second anonymous copy editor

Also, while you're at the Kraft site, you can sign up to have recipes e-mailed to you and get their free recipe magazine a few times a year. And I have to say, I've never made a bad recipe from this site.

If you read the paper today, you know that men can cook, too. I found that out for myself when I started talking to Leger, one of our photo gurus, about the strawberry and peach pie I made today (pictured below).

Rob, one of our other photo gurus, wandered over and joined in, and before I knew it, I was embroiled in a discussion on how to make the best pie crusts.

This is a delightful recipe that I found on a message board, no source given. If anyone can alert me to where it came from, I would love to give the person credit. I made only one small change -- instead of 1.5 cups of canned pumpkin, I went ahead and used the whole 15 oz. can.

This recipe turns out a very moist cake with a nice pumpkin flavor. The icing might have been a tad too sweet for me, but I've never been a big icing fan. I brought it in for a co-worker's birthday, and everyone else seemed to like it well enough. I had at least three people request the recipe almost immediately. And my co-worker kept the cake protectively at her desk and threatened anyone who tried to take more than one piece.

I'm about to reveal my inner geek with this post, but I am so working on this cake on my next day off.

Katamari Damacy is a funny little video game where you use this giant ball to roll things up, then the ball is thrown into the cosmos to become a star. Strangely addicting, not to mention it just makes me happy. And I'm not the only one.

From an article on mtv.com about the Katamari craze and another person who has baked a Katamari cake:

"Kris Garland, an artist in Seattle, decided to bake a Katamari cake. "I was thinking in terms of structure rather than taste," she said, noting that the spherical shape of a Katamari posed a baking challenge. Garland decided to bake two hemispheres, merge them, ice the spongy sphere and apply cupcake tops for the Katamari's signature bumps. She wound up with a five-pound cake and posted the photos online (at Flickr.com)."

As the King of All Cosmos might say, "We are moved to tears by the size of this thing."

So I made this today:

Looks scrumptious and divine, right? It was. Calorie-laden and diet-breaking? Not even close.

It's a Diet Coke cake. That's right, it's made with Diet Coke. I was skeptical, too, at first, but I decided to try it to satisfy the curiosity of my co-workers and all of you out there.

It's very simple. Buy a chocolate cake mix. Instead of adding eggs, milk, water, whatever it requires, you add a can (12 ounces) of Diet Coke. That's it. Then bake as directed.

To ice it, I mixed one 12-ounce tub of Cool Whip Free with a package of instant fat-free chocolate pudding. Once the cake was cooled, I spread it on thick with a spatula. If it's going to be around for a while, you'll need to refrigerate it. I brought most of it to work, so I didn't have that problem.

My husband and I, who both hate the taste of Diet Coke, couldn't detect it in the finished product.

Messages throughout the night from my skeptical co-workers:

"dude, it's amaaaaaaazing!!!"

"oh my! delicious! im totally making that at home. ... it tastes like real cake. i can't taste diet coke at all."

"man, there's cake left. i'm going in. again."

Chocolate cake mix (not prepared)
Calories per serving: 160
Calories from fat: 25
Fat: 2.5 g

Diet Coke
Calories: 0
Fat: 0

Cool Whip Free
Calories per serving: 15
Fat: 0 g

Jell-O fat-free chocolate pudding mix (not prepared)
Calories: Less than 6 (It's 35 at 4 servings, so at 24 servings, I'm figuring less than 6 calories a person. Let me know if my math is off.)
Fat: 0 g

Total per serving:
Calories: 180-181
Fat: 2.5 g
WW points: 3

Making a regular cake mix (before icing):
Calories: 260
Fat: 2.5

According to some message boards I read, you can also make this with any sort of diet soda. Make a black forest cake with diet Cheerwine. Make a lemon cake with diet Sprite. Or try any of the many diet sodas that are out there, combined with some fat-free Cool Whip and fat-free pudding mix. Let me know if you come up with any great combinations!