Apr 30, 2011

Back with chocolate bars and randomness.

Hello again. I am back after some unforeseen circumstances. My laptop died and went to heaven. Before I got the shovel out and began digging. I patched it up with a few plasters and am now working in "Safe Mode."

The holidays has ended and what have I done since then? Um.. baked, stubbed my toe and grew weed moulded chocolate.

Since "useless Safe Mode" won't allow me to download photos from my camera, you'll just have to currently take my word for it.

I've baked a chocolate chip cake with cinnamon sugar topping for my little sister's picnic. Had plenty of mixture left over so I've made some muffins with it. It tasted pretty good except it became more and more stodgy the longer it existed.

Made plenty of Disaronno biscuits to keep some friends amused.*cough*Wardy*cough* I reckon it's my most popular recipe yet. Upped the antic and added fresh Disaronno to the baked biscuits. It doesn't actually go soggy *Shock!!* Oh, and brought a new bottle of Disaronno..*hic*

On Easter Sunday, was wandering around town centre with my boyfriend and found most of the shops were closed APART from The Works. I mean come on! Even Subway was closed. Anyway, we went in and I found a book on moulding your own chocolate bars and it came with a mould for three bars. Hallelujah!*Cloud parts, sun shines, Choir sings.* Moulding chocolate isn't difficult but it's pretty damn fun, plus it makes pretty neat gifts for people. I've so far made marshmallow and fudge bar, peanut butter and dark chocolate bar, And Disaronno chocolate lollypops. The results are pretty and they taste good. I've used Tescos plain chocolate since I find milk chocolate too sweet. Pictures are to come soon.

Happy Rantings.

Apr 15, 2011

Getting Baked

It's the Easter Holidays, My best mate is in Hong Kong and the other is in London.
So let's get baked! (No cannabis available.)

I'm only making cakes and biscuits. I reckon this is a good time to dig out pictures of my previous bakes. For some reason, I feel better baking in the warmer times of the year. (Then again my house is cold all year round. Cool in the summer, bloody cold in the winter.)




These are a variation on the ever popular Pinwheel biscuits. Along the chocolate swirl, there are actually chocolate. *Shock! Horror!* I used dark chocolate as the biscuits are already pretty sweet. My boyfriend's a fan of these.

Happy Birthday, Mum! Being a chocoholic, It was only natural to make her a chocolate cake. Followed a recipe from one of my many chocolate cook books from Christmas. (A hint, perhaps?) This cake was dense and having truffle icing didn't help its cause.



You can't be Chinese and not make something that's not Chinese, right? No? Ah well. Anyway, these little biscuits are Peanut Cookies or 花生饼. Crumbly to the point of annoyance. But these were praised and enjoyed my my Granny and Grampa. "Just like the ones in Hong Kong." Felt warm and fuzzy when they said that. These are more like a nutty shortbread.


Happy Birthday to my annoying little sister (Who's taller than me.) This chocolate ice cream cake was a bitch to cut through. (Let alone sticking candles in. (Poor, yet good looking, waiter had to get an ice pick to get through the thick layer of chocolate.)) Used up an entire tub of Carte D'Or ice cream.


An attempt to making the seemingly impossible Chinese egg tarts. The guys in the Chinese bakery trade are way more than reluctant to give tell of the secret to egg tarts. So in comes the good old Trial, Error and Bulls**ting! Not bad, eh?


Cupcakes is the answer to EVERYTHING. Just got a new cookbooks dedicated to cupcakes at that time. So.. much.. sugar! SUGAR!!!


"Did someone say Disaronno?!" Quoted by our marzipan loving Wardy. (Click on his name for his blog.) Yes. Unfortunately he never got to taste these. They were eaten before he could break into my house. Woo! (Few weeks later, the bottle of Disaronno was mysteriously depleted.)


Another added to the Disaronno collection. Having the faint smell of almonds and the icing packs the punch of the liquor, these are a massive hit with my drunken Disaronno loving friends.

Om nom nom nom. I'm quite surprised I don't weigh 18 stones right now.

Apr 4, 2011

Taking a break

As you all know, I'm a pretty extremely laid back person. So therefore, I'm on a constant break. Unless it comes to a hobby. I'm goingto take a break from talking about book binding in this post after two consecutive posts on the subject... Maybe I'll just keep true to the title of this blog and rant.

Anyone a fan of Alice in Wonderland?



Yep. I've made the caterpillar human and given it boobs. All the animal characters has been rendered human in my own style. Oh, and I've made Alice a little older to make the whole thing more appropriate.


This is an extract from my sketchbook. The Queen of Hearts seems like the sadistic cheerful character so I'd thought I'd make her more suitable. Off with their heads!!" is a reoccurring phrase in the story. I reckon "Why so serious?" Would be more appropriate.


If you've not noticed, I like drawing. Yay!