Catch Up!

Hello! So, many apologies for our absence - Rosaline's been living the crazy life of a Bristol fresher (which you can read about here) and I've been living in the depths of hell that is A Levels. Lets just pretend I don't still have one tomorrow which I should really be revising for instead of blogging...

 Although I've been living in A Level induced misery for the past few months, I have managed to do quite a lot of baking as it turns out baking complicated and interesting things is excellent procrastination. I also made some form of brownie on an almost weekly basis to 'get me through my revision' which definitely improved my days at the library, although not necessarily my 'get fit for summer' plan...

So yes, here is a brief picture summary of the last 7 months in my kitchen:

Birthday Season

Apologies for the lack of posting recently, but it's been birthday season. If you aren't familiar with this phenomenon, let me fill you in. Between September and December, almost every single one of my friends (albeit this isn't a huge figure) gets a year older. Therefore this usually means a large amount of baking. This year however, late in August when my mum realised what was approaching we mutually decided that I would only bake for people I actually liked (in previous years I have got slightly carried away I'll admit) and that whatever I baked had to be preplanned and the amount of time it will take has to be seriously considered (I once spent 12 hours baking... my kitchen/my mums nerves have never fully recovered).

With these rules and regulations in mind, I set to baking. I made chocolate cake with surprise smarties in the middle, various forms of sponge cake and a rather large quantity of Slutty Brownies. However, in all my birthday excitement I didn't take any pictures of these creations... I know I'm a terrible blogger. 

So many many apologies. I will post soon but until then you can still read about the amazing time Rosaline is having at university here (she got 59% in her first essay as well - proud!)

- Ellie x

Armed with cake and wine, she left me...

Saying goodbye to Rosaline was the most ridiculously emotional event that has occurred in my life in a while. Ridiculous because she's only gone to Bristol and I'm going to see her in a few weeks time. Emotional because SHE'S ALL GROWN UP AND MOVING ON WITH HER LIFE AND SHE'S GOING TO MAKE NEW COOLER FRIENDS AND THEN WHO WILL I EAT FROYO AND TALK ABOUT DIFFERENT ICING STYLES WITH?!

Ahem. Sorry. 

Yes, so Rosaline left for Bristol a few weeks ago (apologies for the lateness of this blogging, UCAS ruins lives) and the day before she left happened to be her 19th birthday. Which was a convenient excuse to have a classy get together and weep. In honour of her birthday and her leaving, I made her possibly the best cake I have ever made in my life. Which is not an understatement. Due to our shared love for the infamous chocolate peanut butter combo I scoured the internet for a suitably amazing cake. One recipe kept coming up again and again, however I was reluctant to use it because it contained 'white vinegar'. I know, vinegar in cake... weird. Especially 'white vinegar' which, after much googling, I could only take to mean white wine vinegar... even weirder. But after reading rave review after rave review and about two hours of dithering over the vinegar situation - tears followed by my mum telling me to pull myself together did occur many a time - I decided to take the plunge and bake it.

And thank the lord I did. It was a spectacularly moist, chocolatey, peanut buttery mound of deliciousness and went down extremely well. So well that Rosaline, on taking it Bristol, has made loads of lovely friends and is having a brill time (yes I am taking full responsibility - without my cake she would be nowhere). So if you have a rather large amount of time on your hands (there's a lot of chilling/melting involved) and someone especially important to you to make a cake for, you've hit the jackpot with this one. 

Chocolate Cake and An Apology

ROSALINE CAME HOME. And then I went away. And then I came home. And she is away again. So I still haven't managed to see her which is very upsetting. However in her absence I baked a lot, mainly to try and do something other than wistfully wish I was also travelling. However I didn't blog about it - dreadful I know - so that's what the apology is for.

But I'm back to my blogging ways in full force, having been inspired by Rosaline's multitude of posts. And trust me, this chocolate cake is worth the wait.

My uncle is one of those lucky people in that whatever he cooks will be absolutley delicious. Especially his chocolate flapjacks. So having been given the daunting task of making his birthday cake, I knew I would have to step outside my comfort zone. He loves chocolate, as most people do (except for those crazy ones- I don't associate with those people) and so after many hours of recipe searching I discovered what I felt was a suitably exciting but not too fancy chocolate cake recipe and so I set to work.

The original recipe calls this 'Moist Chocolate Cake' which although is true, moist is not a very  pleasant word so I would probably replace 'Moist' with Intense, or Delicious, or possibly Extraordinary.