Chocolate Walnut Cake

I made this cake today. It was quite yum, but for some reason it didn't rise like a normal cake should. I suspect it was a problem with the oven settings.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

- 4 eggs

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 cup self-raising flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 cup crushed walnuts

- 2 tablespoons cocoa

- 125 g butter, melted

For the sauce:

- 1 cup thickened cream

- 150 g dark chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. In a mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar, mix. Add in the cocoa, butter, flour and baking powder, and mix. Add in half of the walnuts, and mix.

3. Rub some butter in a cake baking tin, and empty the cake batter into it.

4. Place cake into the oven for around 40 minutes. Keep an eye on the cake, it could be done at any minute!

5. Once the cake has come out of the oven, it's time to prepare the sauce. Pour the cream and chocolate into a saucepan and stir on medium heat until chocolate has melted and a nice chocolate sauce is formed.

6. Pour sauce over cake.

7. When serving, you may decorate the plate with chocolate sauce, and sprinkle walnuts on top.

8. Enjoy!

Oreo Train Cake

(I'm rather messy)

Here's a really easy recipe, that's extremely delicious. It's the Oreo Train Cake. This cake is the popular "Choc Ripple Cake", which can be decorated in many different ways. I decorated mine with Oreo crumbs, and it ended up looking like a train, so I called it the Oreo Train Cake. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

300 mL thickened cream

1 teaspoon caster sugar

250 g packet Arnott's Choc Ripple biscuits

4 or 5 Oreo cookies

Method:

1. Use an electric mixer to mix the sugar and cocoa in a bowl, until firm peaks form.

2. Spread some cream on a serving platter to make the base of the cake.

3. Spread cream on a biscuit, stand the biscuit upright on the edge of the cream base. Get another biscuit and stand it alongside, sandwiching together with the first biscuit, continuing until you have five biscuits in one row. Continue doing this to form a log.

4. When you have finished using the biscuits, spread the remaining cream over the cake.

5. Get the creamless parts of the Oreos. Crush them with the back of a wooden spoon.

6. Sprinkle the Oreo crumbs all over the cake.

7. Place Oreo cake in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

8. Serve by cutting diagonally.

It's snowing chocolate balls

These chocolate snowballs are delicious as well as very easy to make! Although I still can't manage to make them properly...

Chocolate Snowballs

Ingredients:

- 1 packet of plain milk biscuits

- 395 g can of sweetened condensed milk

- 1 cup dessicated coconut

- 2 tablespoons cocoa

- extra dessicated coconut in a separate bowl

Method:

1. Crush the biscuits in a food processor until they are in fine bits. Pour them into a large bowl.

2. Pour the dessicated coconut into the bowl.

3. Add the 2 tablespoons of cocoa into the bowl. (If it is not enough, more can be added.)

4. Pour the sweetened condensed milk in the bowl.

5. Mix the ingredients. You will find that the mixture will be rather thick, so you will need to use your hands to mush it all together. If it is too dry, add some milk.

6. Roll the mixture into little bite-size balls and place them into the separate bowl containing dessicated coconut. [Here it might be nice to have a friend.] Roll the balls in the coconut.

7. Place the balls onto a serving plate, and share the goodness!

Another young solo sailor

On 21st August 2010, 14 year old Dutch sailor, Laura Dekker, set off on her journey to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

The trip is expected to last a year or more. Her trip follows Australian Jessica Watson's successful sailing trip around the world, who completed her quest on May 15th 2010.

While Jessica Watson's trip remained at sea for the entire 210 days, Laura Dekker says she may stop at several ports on her way, and may even drop by home to catch up on her studies, before continuing on her journey.

The Guiness World Records and the World's Sailing Speed Record Council have decided not to recognize world's youngest sailors any longer, to avoid encouraging young ones to attempt such dangerous challenges.

I wish the very brave Laura Dekker the best of luck!

Hello

Hello. I'm Irregular Kiki, and this is my new blog.

Here are some of my hobbies and interests:

• books and reading
• cooking/baking
• eating/drinking
• animals
• cake
• dessert
• creating things