Lost my wisdom

I went under general anaesthetic to extract all four wisdom teeth this past Tuesday. First time under general anaesthetic. Turns out, anaesthetic and I are very good together. I woke up wonderfully albeit a little dazed and sore. The surgeon said it was a routine procedure, but he did note that I had a fairly nasty infected pocket. I didn't feel anything before surgery, so I didn't really think much of it. I'm paying for it now. Fever, chills, pain. Not fun. 

The thing that scared me the most was the numb tongue and lower lip. That is scary! You can't drink from a cup properly, so you have to sip through a straw. I poked the straw up my nose before I could distinguish where my mouth was. I can only eat with a teaspoon; table spoons are too big. My first meal was natural yoghurt. Since my lower lip was completely numb, I didn't know that I had spilt some yoghurt down my chin and onto the icepack I had wrapped around my jaw. Kass just sat there watching me and laughed after she pointed my immaculate appearance. Thanks, Kass. Have to be extra careful about eating hot soup...

Thankfully, this whole procedure is a one off. I look forward to eating solid food again *yay*!!

Velvety Goodness

Ok, I've been asked by a few people for my Red Velvet Cake recipe. I'm caving in and supplying it :D

You will need:

125g softened butter
330g sugar
3 eggs
300g SR flour
290ml buttermilk
3tsp cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
1tsp apple cider vinegar
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbs red food colouring

1) Grease (or line with cupcake paper cups) a muffin/cupcake tray OR cake tin (20cm diameter). Preheat oven to 170deg. C.
2) Cream the softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. It should look light and fluffy. While still beating, add one egg at a time. Beat well. Add the cocoa and red food colouring.
3) Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add half the buttermilk and half the flour mix to the red batter; mix. Add the rest of the buttermilk and flour.
4) Throw in a pinch of salt; fold in the vanilla and combine the apple cider vinegar into the cake batter. Now you can pour in even, but generous, amounts of batter into the cupcake tin or cake tin.
5) Place it in the oven for 30 mins. Cool.

Cream cheese Icing
(just as important as the cake recipe)

500g softened, philli cream cheese
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
50g softened butter
1tsp vanilla

1) Making sure you don't over-mix, combine all "wet" ingredients in a bowl, then add the icing sugar. The mixture will be deliciously thick: trust me, if it's too runny it will RUIN YOUR LIFE!
2) Spoon into a piping bag and squeeze over the cooled cupcakes/cake!

EAT!!

My heart pumps RICH CHOCOLATE MOUSSE!!

The most amazing, mouth-watering and terribly delicious thing in the world:

The Richest Chocolate Mousse Ever

Without a shadow of a doubt, this recipe will either cure you from your obsession with chocolate for the next few months, OR it'll KILL YOU before you've finished licking the spoon!

You will require:

350g dark chocolate, chopped into bits-made-easy-to-melt
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp instant coffee dissolved in 10ml warm water
1tbs cocoa powder
300ml thickened cream

Additionally, you should have 6 ramekins (or 4 larger ones for the daring).

The method is simple enough:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl either in the microwave OR (and this is the better way) rest the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water ensuring the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir the chocolate until melted. Set aside to cool.

In a separate bowl, combine egg yolks, sugar, cocoa and coffee. Beat until the mixture is well combined ~ 5minutes. Add this mixture to the melted chocolate. This should look dark and smooth! Beat cream in a bowl and gradually spoon it into the chocolate, stirring gently as you go.

In a clean bowl (sorry about all the bowls; your kitchen must be a mess by now), beat the egg whites until they form peaks. With a plastic spatula or spoon, gently fold in the beaten egg whites in the chocolate mixture. This will make the mousse light and airy. Just be careful not to mix and fold too much because this will release all the air (no one wants a mousse that feels like a lead weight in their gastrointestinal system).

Spoon mousse into ramekins/glasses/dessert bowls and place on a tray. Put tray in the fridge and leave the mousse for an hour. You can check on it if you like, but I find that the wait is made longer every time you open the fridge and stare at them... I also add a little dissolved coffee to 100ml of cream, whip it and whip it good, then dollop it on top - because my arteries can take it!!!

Enjoy!

Don't worry, my heart doesn't really pump rich chocolate mousse ... or lumpy custard for that matter. I'm sorry if this may have shattered some dreams...

Beginning of the End

So... 2012...

End of the World in December? Unlikely...

But I did start the New Year off with a chipped calcaneus (heel)... Not too bad. Could have been worse... could have severely broken it. Anyway, I found these;

Layered rainbow jelly... YAY!!
Either way, I'm going to make them... sometime...

Cats are like a box of chocolates...

Well... the two kittens we've had since they were 5 weeks old are now 6 months old, so they were booked in today for "the snip". We've been under the impression we had a brother and sister pair, and knew that the female, Lily, would be more costly than our male, Marshall.

They've been to the vet twice prior to this scheduled operation for their vaccinations and general check-ups. But no one has bothered correcting or even noticed one discrepancy...

Turns out Marshall was always a female. . .