No Bake Chocolate Cake with Raspberries

This is one of those cakes to cool you down since there is no baking required and it needs a couple of hours in the fridge to settle. Oh, and there is chocolate in it, which means it is heavenly. 

You'll need (23x23cm pan):

• 32 Oreo cookies
• 100g melted butter

•  200ml heavy cream
• 300g chocolate
• 500g raspberries 
• a handful of chopped pistachios

1) Start with lining your pan with either baking paper or kitchen foil.

2) Crush all the cookies (even the white filling!) with the butter in a blender till fine and wet. Pour it then onto your pan and press on the bottom and also to the sides. 

3) Bring the cream to a boil and pour over your chocolate pieces. I chose three different cocoa content chocolate bars (50%, 75% and 70%). Stir till smooth. Then pour onto your crust.

4) Decorate with pistachios and raspberries. Put into your fridge for at least two hours.

Note: If you use high cocoa content chocolate like I do, it's better to take the cake 1 hour before serving out of the fridge, otherwise it will start cracking as you chop it -I have dull knives- and it will be difficult to eat. You need to "melt" it at room temperature. 

Laurann Dohner: Drantos

So after a couple of years of e-book reader ownership I decided to use it. Nothing compares to real books but I felt bad for not using the device. So when some of the authors I follow on social media announce that their book will only be available in the electronic format why not use it. 

I had to go to hell and back to get this book - I only found it in two online shops and both of them discriminated me - I live in the wrong region. I had to actually call my friend who lives in the approved region if I could include his address in my account so that the shitty site would sell it to me. Sheesh, I'm trying to spend money here and they won't let me! What kind of crooked capitalism is that?! And on the top of it all, it wouldn't agree with my e-book reader and I had to read it in my computer. 'tis the season to be angry, la la la la la la la la...

But to the book. We are here for the content, not for the shitty discriminating pricks who think they can make more money by limiting their sales to only a couple of countries, right? How looogical... 

So, the rumour had it that the new series by Dohner would have vampire/gargoyle mix in them. Well, the first story was mainly about vampire/lycan clan which stresses the lycan part. So classical vampire lovers will be disappointed. Because really there are some vampire traits but you will have a blast if you fancy werewolves.

The rest is typical Dohner - a lot of heat (literally since we talk about "dogs") and some action. I really didn't like how the central couple was making remarks such as: "She always makes me...." WTF? Always as in after ONE day?! If I weren't angry after hours spent figuring out how to buy the book I would have let it be and would have just enjoyed learning about a new universe full of interesting mixed-breeds because the potential is there. But no, all I see is the cheesy remarks.

GENRE: I think we can't call it a romance once they start humping every few pages, can we?

FANGS OUT: new setting, new mixes, new possibilities
FANGS RETRACTING: overuse of the word ALWAYS
TOTAL SCORE:

Chocolate-Covered Nuts

So, if you happen to buy a super awesome cookie jar and it happens to be around Christmas which means that all you do NOT need is to bake more cookies but you want to put something in it, you can try this easy recipe. It's bitter chocolate for crying out loud - no one should oppose to that. Nuts and bitter chocolate should cheer you up in this sugary season.

Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate (don't be afraid, use that 85% monster)
• 100g sliced almonds
• 50g shredded coconut
• 1 table spoon coconut oil

1) Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil.

2) Roast the almonds on a dry frying pan (no oil needed) and when they start to get brown, add the coconut because that one can get burned easily. 

3) Pour the nuts into the melted chocolate (not the other way around because you could burn the chocolate on the still hot frying pan) and stir so that everything is covered in chocolate.

4) Take a spoon and scoop the mixture onto a tray which is lined with aluminium foil or baking paper. Let the heaps cool down and enjoy! 

Flourless Zucchini Cake

This one really got me. It is so soft, yet moist. Everyone thought me crazy when I said I would make a zucchini cake without flour but it disappeared within one afternoon. 

Because it was scorching hot outside and a moist refrigerated cake suddenly appealed to everyone. Yup, it is, indeed, perfect for the hot weather we are having right now. 

I think this post will appear in December so it will be a little bit odd but as always, I'm writing this during the courgette season, not in December. And Europe is being swept by yet another heat wave, so... 

You'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 tea spoon salt
• 2 cups finely grated zucchini
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 table spoons melted butter

• 200g cream cheese
• 2 tea spoons vanilla extract
• some sugar 
• some fruit to decorate it with

1) Combine the eggs and sugar. Whisk them in a bowl above simmering water till luke-warm. Then remove from the boiling water and keep beating till it doubles in volume and creates soft peaks. 

2) Mix all the other batter ingredients and then, slowly, fold in the eggs.

3) Bake for about 40 minutes at 180°C. Use the good ol' toothpick as a guide. 

4) Blend the cheese, sugar and vanilla well. Spread it on the cooled cake and decorate with some fruit. I had black cherries so that's what I decorated it with, but you can use any type of fruit you like.

Dark Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake

In case you are not a fan of white chocolate - because let's face it, it isn't chocolate if there's no cocoa powder in it - and you didn't really fancy my last week's cheesecake, I have a solution. Just swap the chocolates. 

See, I still had a lot of blueberries at hand 'cause it was the right season and felt like I needed something more bitter and sour. So I didn't add any sugar and poured in 70% cocoa chocolate. The result? Phenomenal... 

Ingredients:

• 130g cocoa biscuits
• 5 table spoons melted coconut oil

• 250g cream cheese
• 200g mascarpone
• 200g dark chocolate
• 2 table spoons coconut oil
• as many blueberries as you can handle

1) Make crumbs from the biscuits, wet them with the coconut oil, press them to the bottom of your cake pan and bake it for 10 minutes at 180°C. Let cool down.

2) Melt the chocolate with the oil above boiling water and set aside to cool down a bit. 

3) Blend the cheeses together with the chocolate. If you find it not sweet enough, you can add sugar, but trust me, you can do without it. Add the blueberries last and spread onto the baked crust.

4) Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Let's face it, cheesecakes are the best. And what is also the best? Blueberries, of course! And it's full season (I'm writing this in the summer) - my Canadian Blueberry Bush is finally getting the blue color on its berries and it would be easy to go in the garden and pick those humongous berries and be done with it but the taste and color of the real forest blueberries is much stronger. So I decided to go in the forest and pick some. I vaguely remember picking them as a child and then my parents always bought them.
As I was crawling through the thick tick-infested forest floor to pick those tiny little fuckers I suddenly recalled why. It's not worth it. You spend two hours bending your back in awkward positions (exactly those your fitness videos instructors warn you about) and all you get is a half a frickin' cup. At least my dogs had a blast chasing hares and fooling around.
So, of course, I bought the berries from people who know how to pick them and even though the berries are super expensive, I don't mind. A person who can pick kilos of that blue stuff can price it as high as possible and I will buy it nevertheless out of respect.

Ingredients: 

• 200g butter biscuits
• 80g melted butter

• 250g curd cheese
• 200g fresh cream cheese
• 200g white chocolate
• 2 table spoons coconut oil
• some sugar if that chocolate isn't enough for you 
• 250g blueberries 

1) Crush the biscuits, pour the butter onto them, mix it well, press it on the bottom of your cake pan and bake for about 10 minutes at 200°C.
2) Melt the chocolate with coconut oil over boiling water and set aside once it is all melted.
3) Mix the cheeses with chocolate and if you find it lacking in sweetness, add sugar. Mix in the blueberries last. You can be as gentle as you want, they will leak the blue stuff anyway, so the whole mixture will get bluish tint. Pour the mixture over the cooled crust and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Peter Haining: A Dictionary of Vampires

Since I gave you a holy grail of vampire encyclopedias last week, I can't help but show you another example. This, as you could've read, is a dictionary. Which basically works using the same principle as the previous encyclopedia - the alphabetical order. 

Sure, if you take a look at how this one look, you can see it pales in comparison. I mean, it's only got 288 pages as opposed to Melton's humble 850. But it doesn't neccesarily mean this book is not worth opening. Not all the keywords are the same which makes this book as important of a source as the Melton's monster of a book.

Which brings us to the bright point of the day - you can take this one on a trip with you and not bother with its weight. The employees at the airport won't even accuse you of having bricks in your cabin luggage. Ha, you didn't see that coming, did you?!

I will not bother you with talking about how important books like these are when you are starting your research and have no idea which end to grasp first. There are so many keywords and ideas which will help you. Yup, it may be a little oudated but who cares? Vampires have been here for some time and some things never change so you won't even notice which year it was published in.

And having a few dictionaries or encyclopedias like these will never hurt - you can always have fun comparing data - I managed to get frustrated when getting years of some publications for my diploma thesis because the authors sometimes vary in them. Who the heck am I supposed to believe?! I know it's mostly just a year difference but I wanted to get things right... Oh, the decisions...

 

St. Nicolas Day Costume

I found a great deal on fake horns in one shop which was being closed and since my Halloween costume had already been in motion, I thought it would take more than a year to come with an excuse to wear them. Well, that was before I realised there were days in December. Like St. Nicolas Day. The day all the kids are scared because St. Nick, an angel and some devils will come to read them their sins. And if they've been naughty they get coal as a warning or get taken into the devil's bag and dragged to Hell if they've been extra bad. The good kids get candy and fruit. So, naturally I chose the dark side because they have better cookies. The horns became a part of me and were it not for the slant attic walls of my classroom I wouldn't even know about them. That's why I was so confused when I gave one lady in a shop almost a heart attack.

Anyway, this costume was also a test of a new purchase - Makeup Revolution's Salvation Velvet Lacquer in Black Heart. I bought this color because the official website promised dark purple (which is wearable on daily basis) but the name should have warned me, I guess. Unfortunately it turned out to look very black (which is fine with me but not with the rest of normal population) so I can only wear it on special occasions or in super bright light (yup, camera flash gets the purple out, but who would go into such trouble as being in the spotlight for so long). So, how did it go? Well, I couldn't eat because the inner part of my lacquer would just poof! But drinking was OK, no real damage there. Speaking - well, even though I don't ever lick my lips while speaking a little brushed off and winded up on my teeth. But it was specks not the typical lipstick smear so that could be dealt with much easily. But what was worth the trouble of not eating (if I don't eat I get extra bitchy) was the feeling it gave my lips. I couldn't help but to press my lips together all the time because they felt alien but in a good fuzzy way :-) Not really velvet-y but close enough. 

Savory Cheesecake

I went a little bit crazy and decided to make a savory cheesecake. Because sweet cheesecakes are so mainstream, right? :-)= I was inspired by our favorite party food - the guacamole. It was difficult to pick the right cheese for this because I was afraid nothing would survive slicing.
The cheese held it all together well but what I had a problem with, however, was the crust. I applied a similar technique I use with normal cheesecakes but this time I didn't bake it because it seemed a little bit too much. Needless to say I should have baked it. I'm not saying it all crumbled but some parts did and it wasn't as fancy as I wanted it to be.

Ingredients:

• 200g your favorite tortilla chips (I'm a sucker for the cheese ones - I bet that is the most toxic flavor but I can't help it)
• 50g butter 

• 300g gervais 
• 3 ripe avocados
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• about 1 table spoon lemon juice
• salt, pepper

•  the top is up to you - just put on whatever you miss inside (cilantro, tomato, chilli pepper or you can even smear it with your favorite dip - either home made or store bought, who cares?!)

1) Line your cake pan with something (baking paper, aluminum foil etc.) so that it's easier to take it out later. 

2) Crush the chips and combine them with melted butter. Press to the bottom of the pan.

3) Using a blender, combine everything in the cheesecake part till smooth. You can add something else inside, if you wish, just don't make it more runny (so avoid tomatoes at this point) because I fear it would not harden enough.

4) Pour over the chips layer and smooth the surface. Wrap the whole thing in a foil so that it doesn't oxygenate much (the top would be too brown if you didn't cover it) and leave in a fridge for at least five hours. 

5) Prepare whatever you miss in it and decorate the cake with it.