Saturday, March 31, 2012

Chocolate lover's cake

I've always been a fan of chocolate desserts. I love chocolate mousse and especially that perfect, still a bit runny inside chocolate cake. That's why I decided to bake a chocolate cake yesterday. I added some pistachio crunch to add some crunchiness and salt( I know the salt sounds a bit weird, but as many dessert experts say,the salt actually makes the sweetness taste even better!)


 Chocolate cake with pistachio
4 eggs
2 dl sugar
150 g dark chocolate
150 g butter or margarine
1 1/4 dl wheat flour
A handful of salted pistachios

For the topping:
150g dark cholate
(half of the pistachios)

Now, here in Toronto I have only one kind of cake mold, which is way too big and makes the cake a bit too flat. Anyways, I suggest you use a springform pan(diameter about 25cm) Other cake molds are ok too, but it must not bee too wide.

  •   Heat the oven: 200 celsius
  •  Crush the nuts into small pieces.
  • Melt the butter and chocolate on low heat. Remember to stir the mix all the time, as chocolate will "burn" very easily. When the texture is smooth, let it cool down a bit.
  • Beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture turns firm and almost white
  • Add the melted chocolate-butter into the egg-sugar batter. Mix properly until smooth.
  • Add the flour and half of the pistachio crunch. Mix.
  •  Pour the whole batter into the springform pan and put it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. The cake must be a bit "runny" in the middle. You can check this with a toothpick or match.
  • After the oven let the cake stay and cool off for about 15 min.
  • Melt the other 150 g of dark chocolate. When melted, pour it onto the cake and spread smoothly.
  • Put the rest of the pistachio crush on the cake. The cake is best when cool, so after putting the chocolate and pistachio on, you might want to put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Remember to cover it with foil!










Party decorations

When organizing a party, the most important thing is of course to have the right amount of snacks and drinks. To make the party even nicer, you might consider to invest in some decorations. You might even want to have a certain theme. Buying ready-made decorations might be very expensive, so why not make your own? A while back I had my housewarming party. As I love wizard of Oz, I decided to have that as the "theme" of the party. Here's some pictures of the centrepiece:




 These popcorn boxes I made for Valentine's Day, to make the movie-date-night-at-home even more special


There's so many different sites where you can find party decoration ideas and tutorials. One of my favourites is Martha Stewart

- Tina

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Finding the perfect coat

It's spring time and I really have a craving for a new trench coat.Yesterday I was outlet shopping with K. I wasn't really looking for anything else than perfume, but ended up trying on coats. I have to admit, I'm quite a coat "fanatic" and back home in Finland I do have a few coats and jackets. At the moment my wardrobe is missing a longer trench coat. I was trying to look for those neutral color trenches, but they just don't look good on me! I have some beige/sand color clothes, but I've never been one of those girls who look good in beige :D The coat I tried on was Calvin Klein's double button trench coat. The colour really matched with my skintone, but somehow the buttons' colour was not for me. However, the price of the coat was ridiculous, only $80.


Calvin Klein

Even if the colour was perfect, I didn't buy it. There was something missing, or maybe the size was too big, I don't really know. I think if it was the "perfect" coat for me, I would love everything about it. The absolute perfect coat would be a classic Burberry trench coat.

Burberry Gabardine

Burberry
                            
The Burberry trench coats seem to have a perfect feminine body-hugging cut, and they just look gorgeous. The only problem for me is the cost. I could never pay over a 1000 € for a coat, even if I wanted to :) When I was looking for other kinds of trenches online, I found this:



Renee is wearing Tommy Hilfiger, and this is just perfect for me! The color is nice and the cut is really girly, but still classic. Now I just need to find where I can buy it from :) If I for some reason can't find it, I'll just have to continue looking for my "coat match made in heaven."

- Anne

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Nails of the Week

It's spring time! It seems like mint is very popular now, both in clothing and nails. So here's a "tribal" mint nail design :)


 

I also had to buy some strawberries today, they're so cheap at the moment! Strawberries are very healthy for you, with a lot of antioxidants and vitamin C. It's also said that they whiten your teeth naturally :)

- Anne

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Keeping that hair Blonde and healthy

T and I are both blonde, and sometimes even we feel a bit annoyed how much "work" it needs to keep the hair nice. It helps that we're not naturally that dark haired, but still the roots need to be coloured every now and then. I have actually been thinking lately that I will give my hair a rest and not bleach it in a few months. It will be hard, but thank god summer is coming, thus my hair will get light naturally :)

Women who have blonde hair know that sometimes the colour might change into an orangy or yellowy tone. Another problem might be that the hair is very dry. My hair gets quite dry during the winter time and I've noticed that the water in Toronto is weirdly drying! Here's some of my personal favourite products that help my hair stay shiny, conditioned and NOT yellow :
From left: The L'Oreal professional Silver Gloss Protect System Shampoo( what a long name!) has a lot of violet pigment in it, which in my opinion is a good thing. The violet in the shampoo is a complementayt colour to the yellow and it  makes your hair more of a silvery colour. I usually wash my hair with this 1-2 times per week and let it stay in my hair for about 5min. My "normal" shampoo at he moment is John Frieda's full repair.

The L'Oreal Shine Blonde Seraflash conditioner is my ultimate favourite conditioner. It makes my hair silky and also has a tint of violet in it to reduce the brassiness. I usually mix a small amount of this with the Tigi's Bed Head Moisture Maniac Conditioner. The Moisture Maniac is a great conditioner for anyone because you can also use it as a hair "mask" if you have very dry hair! 

-Anne

Recycled Pen holder

Anyone who cooks knows that it creates a lot of waste. Some of that "waste" may be used in arts and crafts! E.g. I decided to give a tin can a new life as a pen holder:

All you need is a clean tin can, glue( hot glue or the kind that stick to metal), and wrapping paper. You can put pencils, pens or even make up brushes in it! Your choice :)

-Tina

Monday, March 19, 2012

Monogram Letters



Today monogram letters are often used when decorating the apartment, and for a good reason. They make the apartment seem more stylish. They can be hung on the wall, put on a book shelve etc. It can be pretty expensive to buy them, so why not make your ow! All you need is a bit of creativity, cardboard, hot glue and fabric.Here's some pictures of the ones I made:
Before

Finished



- Tina



Thursday, March 15, 2012

Nails of the Week

One on my passions these days is DIY nail art. I felt like matching my nails to my new HM pink jeans, So I came up with this design:




- Anne