hello.

as you may notice, those 2 people who read this blog, i’ve been posting a lot of links lately. i’m lazy really and use the snazzy feature on delicious to post the links i’ve bookmarked daily. as you can tell, i bookmark quite regularly. there is always some new thing to read, learn, see and do. hopefully you’ll enjoy some of the links at least.

i’ll actually try to get some meaningful posts in here as well. perhaps some of my experiments with illustrator. i’m a real noob with illustrator, but i am hoping to change that this year. i just got surprised with a lovely new tablet as well, which i need to still play with. i’ve used a small tablet once before, i think, so it should be quite an interesting experience. for anyone wanting good tutorials on just about anything for the web, i highly recommend lynda.com. not all the tutorials are free, but it is worth signing up.

i love cupcakes! as a kid, we called them fairy cakes. i’ve recently found my favourite recipe from martha stewart for these chocolate cupcakes. i can’t recommend the recipe enough. it’s easy and delicious – without fail. the only issue i’ve had with both batches i’ve made is finding the perfect chocolate icing/frosting to go with it.  so, if you have a good suggestion for a really great chocolate icing, please let me know.

this weekend i plan on baking some of this delish looking banana bread from felicia. i find baking quite relaxing to be honest. very therapeutic – especially when i am |this| close to ending a relationship with a client.  agh. sometimes, it’s just not worth it.

i’ve been on the search for a really good chocolate chip cookie and i have finally found it thanks to nigella lawson. these are chocolate chocolate chip cookies and are quite delish! if you are ever in need of a really indulgent cookie, this is it!

125g. dark chocolate (i used milk choc)
150g. flour
30g. cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125g. soft butter
75g. light brown sugar
50g. white sugar
1 egg, cold from the fridge
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 bags of chocolate chips

• preheat oven to 170ºC.
• melt the chocolate. i melted it on the stove over a pan of boiling water. microwave may be quicker.
• cream the butter and sugars.
• add the melted chocolate, the vanilla and the egg.
• combine dry ingredients in a bowl and stir.
• add the ingredients to the mix, and then the chips.

this amount makes 12 large cookies. scoop a good spoonful amount per cookie,and don’t flatten the cookie (they’ll flatten themselves).

they’ll take about 15-18 minutes to cook.

then, enjoy!

(recipe from nigella)