Three Things That I Love Right Now!

1. This card. I love collecting interesting cards and each time that I visit somewhere that I really like I seek out a little memento for my purse. Unfortunately, when my purse was stolen (albeit temporarily)  the thief disposed of my cards and also (curiously) took the Polaroid that I had of Tommy, but (shamefully) left the Polaroid of me... My severely unphotogenic face now serves as a sad reminder that my photos are not worthy of criminal activity. 

2. This song. This song is from the soundtrack for A Place Beyond The Pines. At first when I heard it I thought that I had heard it before. Then I realized that when a song is especially pristine I often conflate emotions with the song and so, it turned out that more accurately, I had felt the emotion captured in the song before. It's that beautiful.

3. These Lindt babies. So just shy of a month ago, I went on a chocolate bender. If chocolate was a drug then I'd be the star of a sad reality show about an addict that just can't make good. Immediately after my aforementioned binge I decided that I needed to detox, in other words, I was Russell Brand-ing. We all know he will eventually relapse, but it is cute that he's trying. Anyway, tomorrow marks the end of my abstinence and like the sinner that I am I have stockpiled my poison for appropriate levels of regret and shame. 

Last words:

"I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares."

Saul Bass

Chocolate!

I used to think that the great love of chocolate was a part of the human condition. We laugh, we want to kiss those that we love and we want to eat chocolate. Then people like Tumelo started tutting about the blah-ness of chocolate and all kinds of nonsense...

Then in India I saw how chocolate isn't all that easy to find, it hides, it shrinks in size because people don't buy it... Snickers became like crack to me, I literally ate one (sometimes two) everyday... What?! It was hot, I needed sugar and salty peanuts enrobed in chocolate...

Then Holly dearest returned from Switzerland with a bunch of these classy specimens... I was a goner. This chocolate is amazing, terrible name aside, it's like a party in my mouth. 

Basically I love chocolate, not in that annoying all-women-love-cats-and-chocolate fridge magnet kinda way though. 

Pistachio Brownies!

Previously the food editor for British Vogue, Annie Bell is now a food writer and blogger. 

Her new baking book is on my list of books to paw over at Exclusive while ordering countless almond squares..

And her recipe for pistachio brownies (from her blog) is on my ever-growing to bake list.

The search for the perfect brownies is never ending! Aluta continua! 

Love & Chocolate

When you miss someone you look for them everywhere.


Their favourite things seem to be brightly highlighted in your daily routine, little lacunae to fall into and maybe, hopefully, find them there. 


I miss my aunt Shelley everyday and when I found this in a file that belonged to her I couldn't help but smile. 


Love, real love, manifests itself everywhere you just have to see it. 

Chocolate Cake!

My dear friend Nomalanga Ntuli (name and surname! Best believe!) asked me for a chocolate cake recipe and of course I could only oblige given the fact that I have a trusty recipe that is both magical and easy. I just love that combo magical and easy..


Plus she's a loyal reader and that's just how I roll..


So here it goes, go forth and prepare for marriage proposals (true story), hail Mary's and chocolate overdose!


Wet Chocolate Cake:


350g (2 and a half cups) self-raising flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 and a half cups of sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup of oil (just go with it)
2 teaspoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups of water (that's the wet part)


Icing:


2 tablespoons butter
2 dessertspoons cocoa
1 and a half cups of icing sugar
1 unbeaten egg white


I normally leave out the icing cause I'm lazy and the cake doesn't really need it. 
Sometimes I add Oreos or hazelnuts to the batter.


Method:


Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius 


Sift together the self-raising flour, cocoa, sugar and salt (all the dry ingredients) and mix.


Add the oil, vinegar and vanilla and then mix very well.


Add the eggs and water and mix very well until smooth (it seems very watery at first, but trust!).


Put into a greased ovenproof dish and bake for approximately 40mins (check with a toothpick).


Make the icing by melting the butter with the cocoa.


Stir until blended.


Blend the icing sugar with the unbeaten egg white and then add to the cocoa/butter mixture and stir over a low heat until blended.

Ice the cake when it has cooled. 


Adapted from Linda Levy.

Food Porn!

If you're not hungry now then you cannot be my friend.

I'm baking these today. Cream cheese plus chocolate, my kind of heart attack. 

P.S. Check out the link for other recipes, Smittenkitten is tried and trusted by me, a baker with no scale, no mixer and scant idea of the difference between Fahrenheit and degrees celcius...

Don't Eat Food, Draw It!



I love these.

Especially the homage to the humble chip.

Hot Chocolate!

source: telegraph.co.uk

Ordinary people eat chocolate.

Beautiful people bathe in chocolate and stay in chocolate hotels. Obviously.

Karl Lagerfeld once labeled an "expressionless human cyborg and genius" recently bathed his model muse Baptiste Giabiconi in chocolate and designed a chocolate hotel room all in the name of art.

Of course, Karl does not eat chocolate, or much else for that matter...

He claims to have not consumed sugar in ten years and prefers to "eat with his nose" claiming he prefers the smell of chocolate to the taste.

Oh how I love a good ol' fashioned case of self-delusion. Work it Mister Lagerfeld!

Chocolate!

To say that I've had my eye on Willie's chocolates at Woolies would be a nice way of saying that I've been staring longingly Oliver Twist-style with saucer-eyes at the expensive delights for months now...

I knew that one day they would be reduced and hey-hey that day has come! My lovely boyfriend bought me a stockpile that I've pictured with my unicorn Isaac (poor Isaac has Tommy to blame for his terribly ill-suited name) and my pig Percy.

The wait was well worth it, the Indonesian one is my favourite.