Chocolate Cake with Mascarpone Frosting

How could anyone say no to moist devilish delight? I never say no to something which has cocoa or chocolate in it, so this is what I tried and given the fact that this cake dissappeared in no time, I can call it a success. 

There will be two parts to this cake (the batter and the frosting). They can be done simultaneously if you are lucky like me and have the weather on your side (winter -> balcony -> everything cooled in no time). 

Or you can make one part one day and the second part the next day, that is up to you. The frosting takes some time to cool and the baked cake must cool down as well so it doesn't matter which part you make first.

Frosting (I measured everything with the heavy cream cup which holds 200ml):

• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1,5 cup heavy cream
• 1,3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup mascarpone

Batter:

• 2 cup plain flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 table spoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup very soft butter (a little more than room temperature, or completely melted)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs

1) Let's bake the cake first. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2) If you need to, microwave the butter or melt it somehow and put it in a bowl. Some people sift cocoa powder and sugar and flour but I never do that because it all blends together well so I just put everything in one bowl and then use hand mixer to get smooth batter.

3) Pour the batter into a cake pan. Mine is 28cm in diameter. Since I only have one, I pour all the batter in it and bake it for 50-60 minutes. Some people divide the batter into two pans so that they don't have to cut the cake in half later. The baking time in such cases then decreases to about 40 minutes (just use the good old toothpick technique to guide you).

4) While the cake is baking, you can prepare the frosting. Take 0,5 cup of heavy cream and bring it to a boil. Then pour it over the cocoa powder and mix till smooth. When it cools down a little, add the rest of the heavy cream (1 cup) and sugar and again stir till well-blended. Let it cool down real well (about 1 hour on my balcony, probably more in the fridge).

5) The cake should be done, so let it cool down as well. A couple of hours will do.

6) When the frosting is very cold, you can add mascarpone and mix it with your hand mixer for a couple of minutes - till soft peaks form.

7) Cut the cake carefully in half and use a half of the frosting to spread it in the middle of your cake and the other half on the top. 

I added chocolate shavings to the top of the cake, but you can decorate it with whatever you like.  The cake will last a couple of days and it will be still moist in the middle (thanks to the buttermilk) but I can assure you once you give a slice to someone they will be back for more and it won't survive long :-)=

Rick Gualtieri: Bill the Vampire

Now, this is a refreshing story. It's so likely. I mean, in a perfect world of vampires where you are turned only if you meet all the requirements of the clan, an unlikely person becomes one. A geek. A nerd. In a coven full of smoking hot vampires who definitely prefer looks to brains (they aren't zombies, duh!), a little overweight nerdy type of a guy who spends his weekends fighting imaginary dragons on the internet emerges and surprises everyone. Even himself.

This book is hilarious because the hero who isn't really a hero but someone who tends to find himself in the right places during the right time due to his bad decisions will give you hope. Your life won't seem that miserable after you spend a couple of days with Bill.

If you add crazy geeky roommates who don't bat an eyelash on their friend's sudden transformation you get a book which has real potential. 

So brace yourselves Bill is coming. He will let you peek into his mind and you will see how the most powerful beings actually may gain their status just by accident. Life sucks. Literally. 

GENRE: dark comedy

FANGS OUT: you come to feel something for the nerdy boys (hatred or love or nothing, that's up to you)
FANGS RETRACTING: some passages were too long and uneventful while the eventful ones were shortened
TOTAL SCORE: 

Buckwheat with Bryndza and an Egg

This may not look fancy but it's quick, healthy and tastes great. Or at least to some people because there are those who can't stand the specific smell of buckwheat.

You'll need (2 portions):

• 1/2 cup buckwheat
• 2 eggs
• 200g bryndza cheese
• onion, two cloves of garlic
• salt (maybe)
• oil

1) Buckwheat, in case this is the first time you hear of it, behaves like rice - it doubles or triples in size when it's being cooked. And the time it takes to cook it is similar. So make sure you have 1:2 ratio of buckwheat to water. Also, before cooking it rinse it in cold water. For some reason. No, I've read all the good stuff comes out when it's being warmed up, so you don't want it to go down the drain. That's also why it's important not to use too much water when cooking it - you can't pour the excess away - it all must stay in. Don't cook it in salty water - after it's cooked, you add in the bryndza which is salty on its own. For me it is usually enough but if you find it not salty enough after you've added bryndza, go ahead and add some salt.

3) Chop the garlic and a small onion and fry them on a little bit of oil till golden. This will go on the buckwheat mound when you serve it.

4) Make your eggs - I like them sunny side up, but if you want them hard boiled, go ahead.   

5) That's it. I told you it would be fast. 

M. T. Anderson: Thirsty

The graphic card in my laptop died. Just like that. No warning. Nothing. My screen just shut down and I wasn’t able to look at it anymore. And while I was panicking, grief-stricken, and panicking again, I realized I had only recipes which I publish on Wednesdays written ahead and ready to be published without me doing anything about it, but the Sunday stuff wasn’t planned ahead at all.

So, while I’m battling my separation anxiety (the “doctor” said I won’t see my baby for three weeks minimum), I have to write reviews on my work computer which I loathe because it has this newest version of everything installed in it and I just can’t help but hate and hate and hate the way the developers thought these shitty icons would say more than WORDS!!! in the scroll down menus. I can’t find anything in the new Office Word and it’s driving me insane. Just before you ask, I write it in Word because I need the spell check every now and then. I wouldn’t risk adding spelling mistakes on the top of my grammatical mistakes. That would be pushing it.

So, the book I managed to get through quite quickly this week was Thirsty. I had to step back into my childhood because this was intended for much younger readers and judging it by my adult standards would do it no good.

The story was gripping with a few twists in the plot and altogether not so bad. If I were a teenager again I would definitely appreciate the book. It wasn’t as adventure-packed as I would like but I found some humorous situations in there, as well as really gross ones. The story was fast-paced, the font big (LOL, I’m really starting to have a thing for every book which wastes renewable resources like that). I liked the way the author grabbed the vampire myth and used it, as well as the not-so-expected finale.  

GENRE: teenage action

FANGS OUT: fast and gripping

FANGS RETRACTING: could have been more elaborate

TOTAL SCORE:

Leftover Cookies

I wanted to make cookies but I didn't have enough of anything to make decent cookies so I combined all the stuff I found and prayed it would work. And you know what? It did! 

The result were moist cookies which filled my stomach for hours. I had two for breakfast and wasn't hungry till lunch.

You will need (20 big cookies)

• 200g oats
• 100g butter
• 100g coconut oil
• 2 table spoons hazelnut chocolate spread
• 3 table spoons maple syrup
• 2 ripe bananas
• 7 spoons of chopped walnuts
• 5 spoons puffed amaranth
• 5 spoons chopped dark chocolate

1) Melt butter with coconut oil and hazelnut spread.

2) Chop the bananas to tiny pieces.

3) Mix everything together.

4) Line your square pan with baking paper and with the help of spoon try to put the batter on it. This time I didn't do any balls, just spread the batter in the shape I wanted. It didn't move during the baking. 

5) Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes.

6) Let them cool on the pan because they break easily when they are still hot. 

Bread with a whiff of the South

I have a recipe for really good and easy bread but I decided to spice things up a little. So every time I make it, I experiment with extra ingredients. This one is a favourite among our family.

You'll need (small loaf)

• 2 cups flour (I use 1 cup whole grain which I have at the moment of making - rye, barley, etc. they all work fine, with 1 cup of what is called bread flour in the shop T1000 the cover says)
• 1 cup water
• 20g yeast (from the cube)
• 1 tea spoon salt
• and now the extras: 7 sun dried tomatoes (chopped), 2 table spoons herbs de provence, 3 table spoons pumpkin seeds, 3 table spoons flax seeds.

1)  Mix all the ingredients together and let it rest in dark warm ennvironment for a couple of hours. I usually make it in the morning and then bake it in the evening so that we can eat it for breakfast the next day.
2) Preheat your oven to 220°C.
3) If you have a glass bread pan, put the pan on the oven and take it our after a while and then put the dough in. If you have one of those non-stick things, just put the dough in and then in the oven. If you have something else, grease the pan and pour some flour in it first so that the dough won't be able to stick to the pan, then put the dough in and put it in the oven.
4) I usually bake this 30 minutes with a cover on and then remove it and let it get nice light brown color in the following 15 minutes. (If you are making double-sized bread, add 10 minutes to the covered baking and five to the no-cover baking)
5) Let it cool on the cooling rack and enjoy!

Jeaniene Frost: One Foot in the Grave

I started pulling books randomly from my shelves because I have a ton of vampire books and no clue which ones to read. I keep buying them without giving it a second thought - like do I have enough to keep me occupied for a couple of years ahead? Sure. If you count all the other normal books I read you find out I'm in trouble. 

So I randomly pulled out this. Because long time ago I bought the first two books in a series and read only the first one because ain't nobody got time to read the second one. But now I found some time and here is your review for the second book in the Night Huntress series.

There is this repetitive theme of female vampire slayer in these books. No escaping that. The badass heroine, however, has such a soft side that you almost not hate her as you probably do the other ones. I mean, she tends to be melodramatic and pathetic at times but in moderation. 

Of course, even this one falls for the one she hunts so... when it comes to the topics there really is nothing new in the series. For some reason, maybe solely because of the believable characters, these series come out all right. I still try to think of the reason why this one is so different from the barrage of similar stuff and I can't find it. I can't also find out why I prefer this one to the others. No clue. So I'll give it my vampire rating right now before I recall something and make the review worse.

GENRE: action romance

FANGS OUT: the heroine is not obnoxious

FANGS RETRACTING: seen that, been there, got a t-shirt

TOTAL SCORE: