All's well...
Lj has apologised, journals are being restored, all is well in our little kingdom :)
I'm still a bit freaked out that something like this could happen, but I have to admit it ended far better than I could have hoped.
It's funny, I used to dream of having free time, and now that I do I'm at a loss. I feel drained, and can't seem to do a single useful thing.
And my back aches like a sonofabitch ._.
So to cheer myself up (and since I had a tub of sour cream dangerously close to expiration in the fridge) I made *drumrolls*
Quadruple Chocolate Cake.
Yes, quadruple. I have no shame.
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
50g cocoa
275g caster sugar
175g butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I used acqua di fiori d'arancio)
80ml sour cream
125ml boiling water
175g chocolate chips
for the syrup:
1 tsp cocoa
125ml water
100g caster sugar
25g dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a loaf tin (21 x 11cm and 7.5cm deep).
Put the flour, bicarb, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into a food processor, and blitzs until it's a smooth, satiny brown batter. Process again while pouring the boiling water slowly into the mixture. Turn off the processor, and stir in the chocolate chips.
(If you're not using a food process, cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs, followed by the dry ingredients, then the sour cream and vanilla, then beat in the water.)
Pour the batter into the loaf tin, and bake for an hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle, and a skewer should come out fairly clean.
Just before the cake comes out of the oven, put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan, and boil for five minutes. What you want is a reduced liquid, a syrup.
When you've taken the cake out of the oven, pierce a few times with a skewer, and pour the syrup as evenly as possible over the cake. Let the cake become completely cold, then slip it out of its tin, removing the paper, and place it on your serving plate. Get your chocolate, and slice thin slivers off the block with a heavy knife, until you've got enough to cover the top of the cake. If required, spoon a little extra syrup so that the chocolate will stick to the surface.
And there you have it. Delicious in thick slices with cream or yoghurt.
Nigella's recipe, as usual.
Also, has any of you seen "Benny and Joon"? I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago, and since it starred Johnny Depp I gave it a chance. It's funny, well acted and Depp is great as this eccentric crazy guy who models himself after Buster Keaton.
A scene in particular got stuck in my head: Benny looking at his dead goldfish, feeling like crap and wondering how is he going to take care of his mentally ill sister if he can't even keep a fish alive.
Nothing much per se, but it keeps reminding me of a...golfish accident that happened when I was little.
I had managed to keep one of those goldfishes that you win at carnivals alive for almost a year -I was about 7 at the time, and it was something like a record- then one day my mother boiled it. Literally. She messed up while changing the water -_-'
It went something like this:
little wee me: Uh, mom? Why's the fish floating like that? Is she dead?
mom: Don't be ridiculous, it was perfectly fine 2 minutes ago!
lwm: *pokes fish* If you say so. And why's the water so hot?
mom: *finally turns around*...fuck. I think I've boiled the fish. Omg, now you're traumatized, aren't you? You'll need therapy! You'll hate me for the rest of your life! I'm a fish-boiling monster!
lwm: I don't hate you. Do you think we can eat her? Are goldfishes edible?
mom: *stares in horror*
And the worst part is, I didn't even make this up. Needless to say we didn't eat Dindina (the fish), she was buried in th garden.
...sometimes I give myself the creeps.
I'm still a bit freaked out that something like this could happen, but I have to admit it ended far better than I could have hoped.
It's funny, I used to dream of having free time, and now that I do I'm at a loss. I feel drained, and can't seem to do a single useful thing.
And my back aches like a sonofabitch ._.
So to cheer myself up (and since I had a tub of sour cream dangerously close to expiration in the fridge) I made *drumrolls*
Quadruple Chocolate Cake.
Yes, quadruple. I have no shame.
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
50g cocoa
275g caster sugar
175g butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I used acqua di fiori d'arancio)
80ml sour cream
125ml boiling water
175g chocolate chips
for the syrup:
1 tsp cocoa
125ml water
100g caster sugar
25g dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a loaf tin (21 x 11cm and 7.5cm deep).
Put the flour, bicarb, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into a food processor, and blitzs until it's a smooth, satiny brown batter. Process again while pouring the boiling water slowly into the mixture. Turn off the processor, and stir in the chocolate chips.
(If you're not using a food process, cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs, followed by the dry ingredients, then the sour cream and vanilla, then beat in the water.)
Pour the batter into the loaf tin, and bake for an hour. When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle, and a skewer should come out fairly clean.
Just before the cake comes out of the oven, put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan, and boil for five minutes. What you want is a reduced liquid, a syrup.
When you've taken the cake out of the oven, pierce a few times with a skewer, and pour the syrup as evenly as possible over the cake. Let the cake become completely cold, then slip it out of its tin, removing the paper, and place it on your serving plate. Get your chocolate, and slice thin slivers off the block with a heavy knife, until you've got enough to cover the top of the cake. If required, spoon a little extra syrup so that the chocolate will stick to the surface.
And there you have it. Delicious in thick slices with cream or yoghurt.
Nigella's recipe, as usual.
Also, has any of you seen "Benny and Joon"? I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago, and since it starred Johnny Depp I gave it a chance. It's funny, well acted and Depp is great as this eccentric crazy guy who models himself after Buster Keaton.
A scene in particular got stuck in my head: Benny looking at his dead goldfish, feeling like crap and wondering how is he going to take care of his mentally ill sister if he can't even keep a fish alive.
Nothing much per se, but it keeps reminding me of a...golfish accident that happened when I was little.
I had managed to keep one of those goldfishes that you win at carnivals alive for almost a year -I was about 7 at the time, and it was something like a record- then one day my mother boiled it. Literally. She messed up while changing the water -_-'
It went something like this:
little wee me: Uh, mom? Why's the fish floating like that? Is she dead?
mom: Don't be ridiculous, it was perfectly fine 2 minutes ago!
lwm: *pokes fish* If you say so. And why's the water so hot?
mom: *finally turns around*...fuck. I think I've boiled the fish. Omg, now you're traumatized, aren't you? You'll need therapy! You'll hate me for the rest of your life! I'm a fish-boiling monster!
lwm: I don't hate you. Do you think we can eat her? Are goldfishes edible?
mom: *stares in horror*
And the worst part is, I didn't even make this up. Needless to say we didn't eat Dindina (the fish), she was buried in th garden.
...sometimes I give myself the creeps.