Amaretto mud cake

I made a interesting mud cake for Jamie's 31st Birthday!!! :)
Here is the caramel mud cake recipe that i tweaked:
Caramel Mud cake
From AWW Cook

Prep time: 30 mins (plus cooling time) Cooking time: 2 hrs 10 mins Serves: 12

This cake is so moist and dense that it can be difficult to determine if it is cooked. The baking times given are your best guide, and when cooked, the cake should have a thick, sugary crust. If you like, cut the crust off the cake, although the frosting will soften it.

250g unsalted butter, chopped
200g white eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
2¼ C (495g) firmly packed brown sugar
1½ C (375ml) water
2 C (300g) plain flour
2/3 C (100g) self-raising flour
1 tspn vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten lightly

1. Preheat oven to slow (150°C/130°C fan-forced). Grease deep 22cm round cake pan; line base and side with baking paper, extending paper 5cm above edge of pan.
2. Stir butter, chocolate, sugar, and the water in medium saucepan over low heat until mixture is smooth. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool 15minutes. Whisk in sifted flours, then extract and eggs.
3. Pour mixture into pan. Bake, uncovered, about 2 hours. Stand cake 10 minutes then turn onto wire rack to cool.
4. Make caramel frosting. Place cake, top-side up, on serving plate, spread with frosting.

Caramel frosting
125g butter, chopped
1 C (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 C (80ml) milk
1½ C (240g) icing sugar

or
MY caramel glaze
(doesnt keep for longer than 3 days or in high heat)
2C icing mixture
1/2C brown sugar
dash of amaretto & water to right consistency

Melt butter in small saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and milk; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 3 minutes, cool 10 minutes. Gradually stir in sifted icing sugar until frosting is of a spreadable consistency.


I had just only came back from shoping before i made the cake, so i wasnt about to go out again. i had just about 100g of white chocolate... for some reason i thought some cream would make up for the difference.. the cake was moist, dense.. very dense.. very sweet..
I used 1/3cup of amaretto tasted the mixture.. and tasted some more.. lol needed more amaretto and tested some more.. yummm .. lol do u see a pattern?
the recipe makes alot of cake batter! I baked mine in a large loaf tin that i have.. i wasnt keen on putting it in a round cake tin or 2 slice trays.. i measured out my loaf tin and my round tin and found my loaf tin was larger in capacity and its a good thing it did too! Either because the recipe uses mainly plain flour or because its so rich with sugar.. it does not rise much at all.. nevermind that it cooks for 2hrs! The most expensive part was no doubt the amaretto! In the end i made a $15 mud cake.. lol.. just with the alcohol!

i also added some thickened cream & some extra flour to get the consistency right. (mine was too runny thanks to the cream & amaretto) I also brushed some extra amaretto on top of the cake, to soften the crust and add more flavour..

It was a great cake, terrible served cold from the fridge... but great at room temperature! Very easy to make in very little time. * i used choc thins in a lazy attempt to decorate the cake..

Birthday Girl! 8th sept

I had my birthday on monday. Thats right i turned 26!
I cant remember what i did other than the usual trying to get something cleaned in the house (floors or dishes), possibly tried to play video games, watch tia play outside and the usual hands-on little bub Alyssa stuff.... i do remember that Hubby didnt say happy birthday to me b4 he left work, i called him in his lunch break and he said that he was the first one to wish me happy birthday at midnight last night (while i was asleep and i grunted..) LOL!
i do remember that i started cooking dinner at 11am, meatballs... this was while Alyssa was asleep and i thought id make it easy on hubby or myself when it came cooking time later that night. (This interuppted and less sleep IS making me nutty!! Me, ok with cooking dinner on my bday?!!!! LOL)
At 4pm i realised i wasnt going to get my birthday present wish in time to make my own cake. (its the breville wizz mix professional)

So us 3 girls headed off to the shops to find a ready-made cake.. to my absolute horror (ok not so bad but still..) ALL of their choc mud cakes had "happy fathers day", "no.1 dad" on them!!!!! So i decided to boycott the woolies taste-like-packet-mix-fake-cake and go get a frozen choc bavarian cheesecake! Hubby left work 15mins early than everyones normal knock off time (he usually does 30mins overtime each day) to buy me a present.. so we met up, had coffee and went to find my present... however it was then somehow 5.30pm and the shops were all closing (as in kicking everyone out closing) Hubby said he was surprised i didnt want take-out to which i said yeah chinese woud be great! lol. So we got rainbow beef, chinese sausage, fried wontons, steamed rice & green chicken curry. YUM!!!!

mum sent me a giftcard & some cards she had made (no pics yet)
my brother rang me yesterday (a day late) to wish me happy birthday, thinking that he had the right date, lol.
also yesterday our gas meter got read, sure to be scarier than the last bill, for sure! EEP!! So might have to put my bday prez on hold?? hmm

Tia turns 5

I found the time to also put together a tia vid of her birthday and things related to her birthday. I uploaded and altho it said live it wouldnt load and said the video was no longer available? wth? i looked it up and did what they suggested, editing the video info and stuff... but nope, must have corrupted or something as i did upload it when our speed was a crappy 7kb thanks to exceeding the download limit.
But now its back to the normal fast speed, uploaded and its working! YAY!!!!!!

thursday

this could easily turn into a very big post but here it is in short form!

1) Tia is booked in for a $85 full hearing assessment next week.

2) I went out shopping, i was going to do a big shop, get a home delivery BUT i forgot my re-usable green canvas shopping bags. doh! and also realised there wasnt any urgency for food anyways.

3) I found a nice new pair of black pants! they are quite odd in that the waist band
can roll done/up. no fly or buttons (or belt loops) they could easily be mistaken for maternity pants! (as they cover the belly if unrolled!) Theyre called 'bengal pants'

4) i decided i'd go to the hairdressers!!!! *dont die of shock there!!* (i dont like salons!) i sat down and waited, i knew which person i didnt want to get and of course i ended up getting that hairdresser.

5) i got shampoo, cut and blowdry for $32.. i did not think that was possible! ah the wonders of 'just cuts'!

6) the woman was brutal, it must be coz my scalp should be getting sensitive?, the way she dried my thick long hair ended up giving my hair knots which she would brush out.. OWW!!!!

7) its been years since ive been to a hairdresser. in that time i had a church friend who is a hairdresser, she did my hair for the wedding and when i won a makeover at a church raffle.

8) I visited DH work. He didn't notice my hair cut!!!!!! LOL!

9) We went out with Dh boss & his wife (who also works there as a boss) do you know any employer that is truly that generous?! it was to celebrate DH 30th birthday! We got picked up in their nice mercedes 4WD 6:15pm(i didnt know mercedes made 4WD) with lovely leather inside! Went to a italian resturant called Michelangelo's.

10) we had a garlic focaccia bread (that was round), they had marinated olives, salt n pepper squid and i tried some dukkah and turkish bread. tia had a kids lasagna and salad. Tia and i had pineapple juice and the others had some nice wine.

11)i had chicken parma, james had a steak..

12) they organized a sparkler in a scoop of icecream for the birthday boy.

13) we got dropped off around 10pm! it was a really good night, altho the men could have talked for hours and hours if we had let them! ;)

14) i had the worst night sleep ever!

DH 30th Birthday

it went well yesterday. I got a call early in the morning from DH telling me how his office was decorated with metallic big paper cut-outs of 30's everywhere, a cluster of balloons with the number 30.

Tia and i? well we were off to the beach, but we had to go to go-lo or reject shop to find a cheap bucket n spade for the beach!

Tia was sooo very happy and excited she was going to the beach! So i used a few times to remind her to behave.. or maybe i used it as a threat! hahaha!

We had to get home to order pizza online to arrive for DH lunch. DH asked me later how the pizza person knew it was his birthday and i said i had the name for the order as 'birthday boy' hahaha!

He had cake at his work that the boss's wife had made! (he bought home 2 pieces for Tia and i) I havent tried it yet, but its a orange and poppyseed with a strawberry and chocolate on top of the icing.


When we got home, i played some video games, cleaned the house, put tia in the bath. Then told her to get ready for DH birthday party and helped her into a cute dress. ;)

I put the bought yum-cha in the oven, started on a beef stirfry. I made sure we had some nice sauces for the yum cha, sweet chilli and plum sauce! I love my plum sauce. Unfortunately only the spring rolls did not contain fish or shrimp! Tia loved it, DH loved it. All good! ;)

I decided i'd do something light for DH birthday dessert/cake, i knew he was having cake thru the day, i knew i didnt want to be stressed or in the kitchen all day and i knew i didnt want anything 'heavy'. So i decided on a pav/meringue thing, i did have egg whites in the fridge BUT i dont have a electric beater, so i decided to be lazy and buy some nests all done! After dinner i decided to keep with the birthday cake tradition and so i put this interesting thing together with toothpicks, however they did crack it did hold altogether for as long as it needed to! I decided on caramel top n fill, since hubby isnt into berries that much.. he is a BIG caramel fan tho.
So i was surprised with Nestle top n fill caramel!(hadn't tried it before) i could pipe it! woohoo! And it tasted exactly 100% like the caramel filling from a bakers for caramel tarts or caramel eclairs etc. It was gorgeous! Its so deadly! I could so live on it! lol! only its not very kind calorie/fat wise! He blew out his candles, dished it out and put some double cream on top! yum!
DH got for his birthday: slippers with mario (a Nintendo character) on them(which he then told me he doesnt like slippers), A bottle of Galliano Amaretto & The godfather blackhand edition game for the wii. (he bought himself the game tenchu z for the xbox 360) and thats about it.

i'm back.. well almost

What i ended up bringing back from the city trip/meet maria trip. Im a sucker for pocky (biscuit stick with icing or chocolate on it.. not that unhealthy and best to stick with the stuff from japan and not thailand! so i always go in a asian supermarket when i see one just to get this brand!)

I went back to the chocolate shop (when i was re-tracing our steps to get back to the train) and since the trip was a tad rushed in that store (could spend days in melbourne central i think!) rushed due to lil tia needing a toilet break *argh!* wheres the nearest loo scenario.

i went back and got caramel bar which was crappy as but was pretty decent and changed when put in the fridge from chewy to rock hard.. interesting.. and some 'galliano bombs' (the chocolates with the yellow tops in the photo) for hubby.
The groovy thing thats a 'colour in' biscuit! (now wont that warp little tia's mind.. shes crazy for drawing wonder if i will catch her drawing on her food now..)
"Present for you mum! " (this is the most un-blurry shot of 5 or so pics of just her holding the present.. she moves soo much!)



Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
I didnt end up going into the city for my birthday.. for some reason i was quite panicky/nervous/anxiety which makes me feel sick and feeling sick in public (outside the comfort of my home) makes me panicky and anxious.. and its a vicious cycle and i have to talk myself out of it. (so not going to the city was a bit of a relief from the stranger crowds and being 1hr away from home)

So what did i do on my birthday?
i got to pick my fave clothes for hubby to wear and tia.. (insert maniacal laughter)
i made up some 'sakura' pancakes okayokay its really glace cherry pancakes.. but it jus looks pretty..







We all went to the local mall and had gloria jeans coffee.. yumm yes, caffeine will calm my nerves.. (for some reason it does..) then i picked a few shops to go in and look at.... we had a snack and then did some hubby shopping (somehow??!!) looking for a bluetooth headset for his phone and the computer.. what the??!! anyways killing time until the movie started in the afternoon. Hmm i got another silly sim game to occupy-my-time-and-ignore-housework-dinner-family (oops!) Its called Emperor a $10bux cheapie and can run on our current cheapie video card its the china version to cesear (sp?) the roman building game.. basically u build a city, pay wages, collect taxes, harvest wood, ores, build farms, warehouses, trade with other cities, make armies, have crime, firefighters/engineers and fakey gods (handy to offer crap taking up room in warehouse)

and anyways i also got a manga(comic book) rozen maiden.. altho i found it in toys r us and as far as i know or could find they dont sell any and only yesterday i found the reciept and it said 'world of warcraft' and it certainly isnt that.. i think i just bought someones lost property, but im not sure.. weird..
i also got a nice candle from dusk.. can u guess what scent it might be? knowing me? its easy-peasy.. yes i will just see if u can guess.. its from their travel range (if thats any help, its a limited edition they brought back oh and its a pinky/red.. now seriously ive given away too much) certainly cant buy much from that shop! ouch, sure hurts the pocket!

We went and saw the simpsons.. and i forgot the mm's i got on special from woolworths and ive now reminded myself stupidly that they are still in the house.. all 3 kinds, crispy, peanuts and normal.. *hopefully im up so late today, now 1:19am that the fact i have chocolate in the house will be erased when i wake up in the morning!*

I thought the movie 'the simpsons' was great! it was about time! and gosh they really milked all the stuff they couldnt show/do on tv they did in the movie.. lol.. Tia sat thru the whole movie and loved it (i think amazing grace would bore her to tears and drive me to tears coz tia wont behave) besides i wont miss out on anything by getting amazing grace on dvd the partial reason for seeing the simpsons movie was because it was a movie and on the big screen and not on the boring old tv.. i had very low expectations of the film to begin with (much like transformers) but i really got into it and enjoyed it..

ugh.. id better save this as a draft and get some sleep so i can tackle tomorrow...

-ok back-
decided to take a small break from the blogging/internet world for 2 days, i got really miffed at my bank for taking forever to process a payment and then to bounce it back..
Ive been busy instead trying to get 100% completion in the transformers game and its tough... u have to collect 100 energon cubes in each level (theres 4 levels for decepticons and 4 levels for autobots) and in 1 level i have 100 and for 3-4 other levels i have 99! ARGH! so annoying! which works out well due to DH downloading heavy chunky stuff..

Maria: i dont mind at all what u said about me.... ive been shy for as long as i can remember, i usually end up being good friends with those who can 'talk under water' as im pretty good at the 'listening' bit.. lol..
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Now playing: Rihanna - Shut Up and Drive
via FoxyTunes

;) Fathers day

<~Breakfast art. LOL! Its a butterfly. Now i know what your saying, a butterfly breakfast for a male?! ;) well i had one too, it was a spur of the moment thing. I think i will challenge myself to make some sort of transformer pancake or bacon & eggs brekkie.. i love mucking about with food. This is the first time i attempted to poach a egg using cling wrap. So in reality its not really poached, more like a boiled egg. Ive never had a poached egg before but hubby says they are very soft, id love to try it one morning where im not trying to get the timing of coffees, bacon, toast and eggs correct so we aren't eating some part of it cold.. lol. To put a egg inside cling wrap, i put the cling wrap over the top of a bowl then smoothed it down inside the bowl (so the egg doesn't just spill off) empty the egg onto the cling wrapped bowl then gather all the edges up twist it and tie it up a bit. Then its cooked in a simmering (i suppose) water not boiling like i had! (it did melt a bit of the cling wrap on the bottom i guess my eggs had cooked enough before it melted and thats why it didn't flop completely!) i will have to try the 100% original vinegar poached eggs version next time.

On another note the challenge starts tomorrow! *time to stop stuffing around.. or rather stuffing myself with crap!* (says me who just polished of some licorice bullets!)

I've made a mental note to catch up on a few blogs, i feel so behind right now.. =D

Update on me: I'm 100%. Im not sure what it was, probably influenza the virus (not just a cold) Theres been a scary influenza going around making alot of lil kids very sick.(not that we know any) :( bless their lil <3's *i somehow just lost what else i had written* i know it wasn't gastroenteritis in english thats 24hr tummy bug with projectile vomit and for that i am thankful! So now we are all great! Thanks for all your kind prayers and thoughts!

last nights dinner, was roasted beef and roasted potatoes.. i got to lazy to cook up carrots and in the end i was greatful that there wasn't anymore on my plate (not that it was stacked up on my plate) i guess my stomach got very full quickly from a big hit of protein. (i think my body was still healing up) Im counting down my birthday, nothing special (just want to be more aware of it approaching this year and so i don't forget!). i do like birthdays, i grew up with birthdays being the best day of the year besides Christmas! My mum would always bake a cake, there would be a family party (before high school there were the friends-over-birthday-parties) it was a big thing! i was thinking on doing the tourist thing in the city and only today thought of making my birthday list!

tadaa!!!!!!!! surprise, surprise! must be doing something right!


The Cure - Burn (The Crow Soundtrack)
via FoxyTunes