30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 24: Your Favorite Pair of Shoes

Favorite pair of shoes? Just one pair? We'll just have to settle for two then. At least I've got a special weakness for boots, which makes this slightly easier. I just bought my Docs a few months ago, and so far it's one of the smartest purchases I've ever made. They look great and they're going to hold up for a very long time. I wear them with everything I can, though I've let up now that summer is here. My feet can only take so much! My winklepickers on the other hand, aren't real leather, and I wish the buckles were silver, but they were a thrift store find and I couldn't pass them up. They're harder to match to my outfits and silver jewelry, but I just love pointy boots.

I've only got about a week left of school till summer break which is sort of a relief. I actually enjoy school, but this late in the year I'm reaching my limit. I need my sleep.... I'm compensating for the tiredness by dressing up even more apparently. It makes me feel a little better ^^ And I attempted to do something different with my hair by parting it in the middle and covering my undercut.

I love this little hat <3

Well the last of my bullar (Swedish cinnamon buns) just came out of the oven so I'm off to munch on those and finish watching Amadeus. (I love this movie...) I am unashamedly lazy and don't plan on moving from my bed until dinner time at least. Considering I've been roped into Graduation Band tomorrow, and will have to play Pomp and Circumstance over and over again until my lips fall off, I think I deserve it.

Xmas Walk

Christmas in three days! I cannot wait.

There's little old-fashioned town nearby always puts up lights on the first of december. They have an annual christmas walk where everyone goes down to enjoy the lights, listen to music, buy treats, and do a little shopping. All of the stores stay open late so you can browse and there's some sort of performer on every intersection. Unfortunately, the juggler that normally comes has stopped showing up much to my disappointment, (He was awfully cute. And funny too.) but the lights are still as gorgeous as ever.  These pictures are from the park since it was difficult to get pictures of the town while on the crowded streets.

That last picture of the angel? Yeah, well that was a real person. She moved when I got close to her and basically gave me a heart attack. We also stopped by the used bookstore I like to frequent. They have a cat! A bookstore with a cat. What more could I ask for?

We also made Lussekatter. (A Swedish saffron bread) They're my absolute favorite thing to bake around christmas and I alway look forward to it.

If anyone wants here's a quick version oft her recipe we use. You'll need one of those big electric mixers unless you want to make bread the old fashioned way...

Ingredients

17 deciliters flour. (Swedish flour is different, but we've found that bread flour works the best here.)
1 packet saffron
2 packages yeast
2 deciliters sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
14 tablespoons butter
5 deciliters milk

1) Preheat the oven to 435.
2) Using a mortar and pestle grind up the saffron. Combine all of the dry ingredients in the mixer. Only use about 12 deciliters of the flour.
3) Melt the butter in a pot. Add the milk. Using a thermometer, let the temperature rise to 47 C.
4) Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix. Add the egg. Add as much flour as needed until the dough isn't sticky.
5) Let the dough rise covered for about 35 minutes. Roll out pieces of the dough into long ropes. Form s shapes and curl the ends into spirals.
6) Insert raisins into each end. Let the dough rise covered another 30 minutes. Glaze with egg and bake 8-12 minutes until golden.

And that's that! I hope you all are having a great holiday season (Whatever you may celebrate) and I'll be back after Christmas.  To wrap this post up, here's what I wore to the Christmas walk.

 

Halloween Baking

Well at this point everyone is probably getting into the Halloween Spirit! (If not drowning in it...) What better way to celebrate than baking a few spooky goodies? I love baking and I try to do something different every weekend, which means lots of opportunities for Halloween treats. I browsed the interwebz for a while and came up with some ideas! Not all of them are treats, there are a few ideas for appetizers in here too.

Bats! I love bats!

I'm not sure how to go about accomplishing this, but I'm going to find out.

Now this is just adorable.

I showed these to my mom and she grimaced. I think they look lovely! ^^

Classic pumpkin bars may look a little boring, but they're delicious.

I guess I had better get started! ^^

On a final note.

Doctor Who.

Someone please get me another box of tissues because the emotional impact this show has had on me is reaching its breaking point.

I don't think I've ever watched a show that's made me feel so much. (And no, it's not because it's every sci-fi nerd's dream nor because I've fallen in love with the magnificence that is David Tennant.) This show just has a way of grabbing on to your heart strings and yanking. I love everything. The settings, the stories, the characters...even the Daleks! And frankly, they are pretty much unlovable. If you haven't started this show you need to. I suggest starting with the 9th or 10th doctor. You can always go back to the classical era once you've caught up. But it's worth it.

Personally, I'm going to be devastated when I see Tennant's last episode, (I have 5 left...) but I've heard really good things about Matt Smith so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Plus... bowties are cool ^^

The Cake is a Lie

Anyone like my little Portal reference there? :3

I haven't had much time to be on here this weekend between downloading new music, working on a little DIY project and well...this.

This cake is my baby. It was ridiculously complicated (from my inexperienced perspective) and even with the help of my friend and brother it took like 3 hours...but it was worth it! I'm really sick of chocolate right now (Having licked about every spoon I came into contact with) so I won't get to enjoy it until tomorrow.

We try to bake every other weekend or so, just to keep us from wasting our time in front of a screen, but normally it's small stuff like coffee cake or cookies. I'm really proud of us for even attempting this :)

I don't know if anyone wants to take this cake up as a fun challenge but here's the recipe. I would have taken pictures to help, but my brain wasn't fully operational today...


Ingredients

Cake:
Cooking spray
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (sift, then measure), plus more for dusting
2 cups hot strong coffee
1 1/2 cups natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ganache:
1 1/2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 1/3 cups heavy cream

Bark:
4 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
4 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions
Prep the pans: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Fold a large sheet of parchment paper in half; put a 10-inch-round cake pan on top. Trace the cake pan, then cut out the circle to make two rounds of parchment. Spray two 10-inch cake pans with cooking spray; fit a parchment round into each. Spray the pans again, then dust with flour and tap out the excess.

Make the batter: Pour the coffee into a liquid measuring cup or bowl; whisk in the cocoa powder. Put the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer; mix with the paddle attachment on low speed, 1 minute. Add the eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla and 2 cups water; beat on medium speed, 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low; beat in the coffee-cocoa mixture in a slow stream until combined. The batter will be thin.

Bake the cakes: Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool in the pans on a rack, 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely. Place each cake on a 10-inch cardboard cake circle (this helps stabilize the layers as you move them around), wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Make the ganache: Pulverize the bittersweet chocolate in a large food processor. Bring the cream just to a boil. With the motor running, pour the hot cream through the feed tube; process until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and set in a bowl of ice water. Chill, stirring often, until the ganache is cool but not stiff, about 20 minutes.

Make the bark: Microwave the white chocolate in 15-second intervals until two-thirds melted; stir to fully melt. Scrape into a zip-top bag and seal. Put a plastic sheet protector on each of 2 baking sheets. Snip a corner of the bag; pipe thin lines of white chocolate over the sheets.

Refrigerate the baking sheets until the white chocolate is set, about 10 minutes, then repeat the process with the milk chocolate, piping thin lines over the white chocolate. Refrigerate until the milk chocolate is set.

Melt the bittersweet chocolate in the same way, then spread over the white and milk chocolate lines using an offset spatula. Refrigerate until hard, about 30 minutes.

Peel the sheet protectors off the chocolate and break the chocolate sheets into shards of various sizes.

Slice the layers: Put one cake on a cake turntable. Position a long serrated knife against the side of the cake, about halfway down. Slowly rotate the turntable so the knife slices the cake in half horizontally. Don't move the knife much-let the rotation of the turntable do the work. Repeat with the other cake to make 4 layers; transfer each to a cardboard circle. (If you don't have a turntable, carefully slice the cakes in half on a cutting board.)

Frost the cake: Transfer half of the ganache to a bowl and whisk until light brown and fluffy. Place one cake layer (still on a cardboard circle) on the turntable; spoon one-third of the whipped ganache on top. Rotate the turntable to smooth the ganache with a long spatula (or just assemble and frost on a cake plate). Repeat to sandwich all 4 cake layers with whipped ganache. Spread all but about 1/2 cup of the unwhipped ganache over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate the cake: Press the chocolate bark against the sides of the cake, using small dollops of the remaining ganache to help the pieces stick, if necessary.


 And now you have a cake!