From skwigg's journal:
I have a happy eating observation. Last time I made a giant chocolate cake with buckets of chocolate buttercream, I ate so much frosting while I was making it that I wasn't hungry for dinner, but I still ate a big dinner, and then ate a huge piece of cake too. Afterward, I was genuinely uncomfortable.
Last night when I was making another monster cake, I remembered this experience. So, I tasted the buttercream to make sure my flavoring was right, but I did not lick every frosting covered surface and spoon all remaining frosting into my face. Instead, once I had the cake frosted, I used a little spatula to scrape the leftovers, the beater, and the bowl, plopping the extra frosting into a ramekin for future nomming. I enjoyed being genuinely hungry for my dinner and only wanted a small slice of cake afterward. No grossing myself out with pointless overconsumption because there was cake in front of me. The cake isn't going anywhere.
I also realized that I rarely make those small-batch or "for two" recipes anymore, except pies. I love my 6" mini pie plates. Cooking tiny amounts (remember that cake the size of my iPhone?) was a safety net when I was first learning to bake. It scared me to have large quantities around. Now, I almost always go for full-size recipes and large quantities because otherwise there's not enough to freeze or share. I like having a fully-stocked freezer. Meaning, cake, cookies, brownies, and ice cream. Because, like I said in the Great Blog Posts thread earlier, a few bites of something amazing totally satisfies. I have exactly what I want and then feel completely done eating. Where if I have a bowl of light ice cream, or some marginal candy, or a sad "healthy" dessert, I'll eat it and then I'll immediately want more. The "off" switch doesn't flip like it does with, say, Peanut Butter Slutty Brownies. A small one of those, and I'm seriously done eating for the night.
I think there was also a weird inverse relationship to the diet foods. I would make the low-cal, low-fat, low-carb, high-protein versions BECAUSE I intended to overconsume them. Let me just say that there's nothing quite as digestively unpleasant as eating an entire sugar-free protein cheesecake. LOL
I'm still making progress and learning things. Anybody else have dessert observations? Especially light, healthy treats versus amazing treats? Or quantities?