A bit of fun for Fathers Day: a Ginger chocolate mud cake recipe

My Dad LOVES ginger. He'd include it in every meal if he were allowed. Recently I have been going through a bit of a domestic Goddess phase and have become a bit obsessed with making mud cakes. I started with a chocolate one, mastered that, so moved onto white chocolate with chocolate ganache (top deck!). I guess being a scientist makes me naturally experimental so I then made a choc mint one for my husbands birthday (I'll put that recipe up as well). It was only logical, then, that I make a ginger chocolate one for Fathers Day. For an extra kick I used Lindt chili chocolate to make the ganache. I got the original recipe from the Buderim Ginger website (here's the original if you'd prefer to follow it) but tweaked it slightly.

Ingredients:

Ginger Chocolate Mud Cake

• 250g unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup castor sugar
• 200g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Cadbury 70%, the original recipe asked for 250g but stupid chocolate manufacturers have reduced their bloc sizes and I forgot to add the extra 50g - still worked though!)
• 20ml whisky
• 185g self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup grated ginger (I used jar ginger from the spice section. If you used fresh ginger it would probably need further blending after grating)
• 1 1/2 cups hot water (I just used hot tap rather than boiled)

Ganache Icing

• 100g chocolate (I used Lindt Chili chocolate)
• 100ml cream (I use thickened cream. I have tried with normal cream but it turns out too runny)

Method

• Preheat oven 150c.
• Melt butter in saucepan. Add chocolate, sugar, whisky , ginger & hot water and stir over low heat until chocolate is just melted and mixture is smooth.
• Sift flour & cocoa together and gradually beat into chocolate mixture using a wooden spoon (I did this whilst the chocolate mixture was still warm - no need to wait for it to cool first).
• Beat eggs and vanilla then add to the chocolate mixture and continue to beat until well combined.
• Pour into buttered and lined 18cmx28cm cake tin or round spring form cake tin and tap to remove any bubbles (I scraped the top with a fork to pop any stubborn bubbles)
• Bake at 150c for between 45-90 mins or until skewer comes out almost clean (I checked at 45 mins but ended up going for 90 mins. The tip of the skewer still had a bit of batter stuck to it - I figured its better under cooked and moist than overcooked and dry). The cake might get some serious cracks - don't worry if it does...just fill them with ganache! 
• Leave to stand in the cake tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
• If you can make the cake the day before, do so as it is much easier to ice. If not, stick it in the fridge for as long as you can to cool it down.

Ganache

• put the cream and chocolate in a saucepan on the lowest heat and stir continuously until the chocolate has melted and they have completely mixed and there are no lumps.
• Turn the heat off and keep stirring the ganache each minute or so until it has cool to room temp.
• Do a test run and place a spoonful on the cake and see if it runs off. If it does, then it is probably still too warm.
• If the ganache is cool enough then ice from the middle. I always spoon it into the middle of the cake and let it slowly slide over the whole cake. If you want thick icing do this in two steps - ice the cake with half the ganache, stick it in the fridge for an hour or so then ice it again.

You are done! I usually keep the cake in the fridge until serving.

I might have forgotten to take a photo of the cake before we
got stuck in!

Mmmm. Can you see how thick the icing is!

Seriously, is this not the moistest looking cake you have ever seen?

So, how was my cake received? Well, everyone except Mum loved it. Unfortunately, Mum hated it. She doesn't actually like ginger so I thought I'd trick her to see if her dislike of ginger was all in her mind. I told her that it was just a chocolate cake but one bite in she knew otherwise!

The cake was super moist - more the consistency of a gooey brownie than a cake - which I loved. It was incredibly rich so start with a thin slice but then go back for seconds! I thought the chili chocolate ganache was a perfect accompaniment to the cake, though plain dark chocolate would also work. Or if you can find some ginger block chocolate, that would be perfect - though it would leave the ganache lumpy rather than smooth...but if it tastes delicious then who cares!

Do you have a great mud cake recipe to share. Or a genius flavour combination for me to try? My next experiment will be a chili chocolate mud cake for Dad and my birthday in a fortnight.

Ps I'll post my world famous choc mint mud cake recipe next weekend so stay tuned!

I have joined the crackle revolution

I am usually not much of a follower. I tend to march to the beat of my own drum. However, there is one major exception to this and that is when it comes to beauty. In the past it used to be products listed in magazines...I HAD to have them all. Now it is blogs. As soon as something is reviewed on a blog, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will instantly lust after it. And so, I would like to announce, I have joined the crackle revolution! I have just bought the entire set of China Glaze Metallic Crackle nail polishes - 6 in total. I bought them in a Blog Sale but have momentarily forgotten which blog I got them from - I will update once I work it out. I got the 6metallic crackle polishes for $US25 plus $US15 P&H. To get my money's worth on the postage I also got an extra OPI polish for $US5 plus China Glaze Cha Cha Cha for $US3 so all up, since the Aussie dollar is so legendary right now, it was about $AU46.

If you have been living under a rock, or perhaps are just not as beauty obsessed as me, and don't know what a crackle polish is then you are in for a real treat. A crackle polish is one that is designed to be applied over another colour where it then separates to form a crackled effect, showing the original colour underneath. My new acquisition has made me so much more excited about my current collection of polishes because the combinations are endless. I have been day dreaming about which ones will look great together!

For today's look I combined China Glaze Cha Cha Cha with the China Glaze Haute Metal crackle polish. I quite like (but don't love) the combination. I thought it would be fresh and watermelony but I think with the green being metallic as well, with gold undertones, the contrast between the two polishes isn't great enough. I applied 3 coats of Cha Cha Cha, one coat of Haute Metal crackle and one coat top coat. I found the thicker I applied the crackle polish, the more dramatic the crackle effect.

What is your favourite crackle combination?

Product review: Burt’s Bees Radiance Toner

As I have previously mentioned, I was invited by Burt's Bees to trial the entire Radiance range of products for their Facebook page trial team. The next in line in my review series is the Radiance Toner.

From the company: A gentle plant-based clarifying toner featuring Royal Jelly, one of nature’s most nourishing substances, packed with 134 nutrients like amino acides and multiple vitamins. This natural toner removes lingering traces of cleanser and any residual dirt, oil and make-up. Toners also improve the absorption of moisturisers. Leaves skin feeling fresh and nourished! 

Ingredients: aqua (water, eau), lavandula intermedia flower/leaf/stem extract, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) water, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) oil, royal jelly, prunus serotina (wild cherry) bark extract, arctium lappa root extract, betula alba bark extract, chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract, citrus medica limonum (lemon) peel extract, cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract, equisetum hiemale extract, euphrasia officinalis extract, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) leaf extract, humulus lupulus (hops) extract, mentha viridis (spearmint) extract, pinus strobus cone extract, pollen extract, rosa canina fruit extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, salvia officinalis (sage) leaf extract, urtica dioica (nettle) extract, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, sodium benzoate, alcohol denat., glycerin, glycolic acid, benzoic acid, phenoxyethanol, limonene, linalool.

My review: I am usually not much of a toner user – I don’t really see the point in them, so I was not expecting much from this toner. I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Actually, I lie....I LOVE this toner!

I used it each morning and evening after the cleanser to remove any remanents. As with the cleanser, this was not at all drying. Whilst my skin was still damp from the toner, I’d apply the serum and I found this helped the serum spread and rub in really well. One night, I was too lazy to cleanse so I just popped some of this onto a cotton pad and wiped it over my face. I wasn’t wearing makeup at the time so didn’t need a thorough cleanse and I found this did a brilliant job as a quick cleanser. It whisked quite a lot of dirt from my face. I even wiped it across my eyes to freshen them up and remove some oiliness from my lids and I found that it did not sting them at all. I have quite sensitive eyes from years of wearing contacts so I was very impressed by this.

The smell of this toner is amazing - a very delicate floral. Since I am not usually much of a toner user, I think if this didn’t smell nice I would have been reluctant to bother using it. However, because this smelt so lovely, I actually looked forward to using it. I found the smell of the cleanser lingered slightly after I used it and this wiped the last traces of that scent away.

It comes in a 175ml bottle with a pop up lid, which is very convenient – it makes it so much easier to pop up the lid whilst you are holding the cotton pad in your other hand.

I can say, without a doubt, that I will definitely use this product again. I loved the way it left my skin feeling refreshed and extra clean, but not tight and dry. At $24.95 it is a fairly reasonable price for a toner and I think that this really compliments the range – it makes a lovely transition for your skin from cleanser to serum.

Stockists In Australia, Burt's Bees is available from David Jones, Myer, Priceline, pharmacies and health food stores. Or you can buy the range from Amazon.

If you would like some more detailed information on royal jelly, you may be interested in my blog article- The use of royal jelly in skincare

All opinions stated in this blog are my own. I have no affiliation with any company discussed in this blog and received no remuneration for my comments. These products were provided for consideration by Burt's Bees for their Facebook Trial Team.

The Weekend Beauty Blog Hop

Another weekend rolls around and with it brings the weekly beauty blog hop.  If you missed my original post, here's a quick explanation:

What is a blog hop?
A blog hop is a linky list that is SHARED ON MULTIPLE BLOGS.
When several blogs put the same linky list code on their blog, the
exact same list appears on each blog.

Blog visitors can submit their entries on any blog that contains the list.
The entries will appear on each blog where the list resides.

Blog readers see the same list on each blog, and can "HOP" from blog
to blog seeing the same list of links to follow: BLOG HOP!

So basically, its an awesome way to discover new beauty blogs or have new readers discover yours. So, please join in. The only rule is that your blog must have some beauty content. That's it! Once you have joined, why don't you check out the other blogs in the list - you may discover a new 'beauty' to follow - haha awesome pun! Please Tweet or share a link to your Facebook account as the more blogs we can get to on the list, the better the Weekend Beauty Blog Hop will be! If you would like to do a post about this on your blog, by all means grab the code below. Feel free to lift any content from this post, all I ask is that you link where you got it from. Hop away my friends, hop away! This link will be open from 5.00pm on Friday 2nd September until 11.59 on Sunday 4th September (Australian Eastern Standard time).

An interview with Donna Mee, international beauty expert: Part 1 - the science of makeup

Through the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (ABBW) and Polkadot PR who are promoting the International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS), I was given the opportunity to interview a few of the presenters who are running classes at IMATS. One such presenter was Donna Mee, a professional makeup artist and beauty expert with over 29 years of experience. I was initially unsure as to whether I should interview Donna, as makeup is not my forté and I was worried that I would come across as clueless. However, upon doing some research I found that teaching the art and science of makeup and skin care has been her longtime passion. As soon as I saw the word science I knew that we would have a lot to talk about!

We conducted the interview via an online video call and ended up chatting for about 20 minutes before instant messaging for a further 30 minutes. So, as not to bombard you with an über long post, I have decided to break the interview up into two parts: this is Part 1 - the science of makeup. I will then follow up with Part 2 - makeup tips.

You are often described as an educator of the art and science of makeup and skin care. The science of beauty is a passion of mine, and the crux of my blog. I would love to know how you describe the science of makeup.

 

Donna: I have zero natural ability or skill as an artist. People think that I am being hard on myself but it is true. I am the youngest of three - my siblings are both amazing artists who can take a pencil and paper and in five minutes draw an image from a photo. They have amazing perception of shadow and depth of field and bone structure while I can barely draw a hangman or a Mr Potato Head. Whilst I wasn't good at art, I worked out that if I could understand it scientifically then I could replicate it.


Everything I teach is based on science. For example, corrective makeup is based on the epitome of beauty. Of course, what the American Society says is beautiful is what the world considers as beautiful. So, corrective makeup is creating the illusion of an oval shaped face regardless of what shape they have - you can't make everyone look completely oval but you can make them look less of what they are. You can give them higher sculpted cheek bones, almond up tilt eyes and it really is based on science - the way the mind perceives things.


Donna then went on to explain that in lectures she will present an optical illusion of spinning circles. I think I have found the one that she might use, if not, it would be quite similar. Donna will ask the audience to stare at the image and tell her which way the circles are spinning - left or right. She will often get a mixed response with a portion of the audience thinking that its left, the rest calling out right. The truth is the images are not spinning at all. It is a still image and it is just the way the brain processes the image that gives the appearance that it is moving.



Courtesy of Painted River

Donna: If you can understand how the mind perceives colour and placement and shapes and objects and the line where your eye follows, you can better interpret makeup. So, the way I teach is very scientific. People are often really blown away when attend my course as they think that they will be playing in eyeshadow all day, when it is so not about that at all. My makeup is all based on science and how the mind perceives images and colour theory - playing in colour. Most makeup artists think that they know colour because they know that green cancels red but that's as far as they go with colour theory. Most of those people are then the ones who walk around with a green zit instead of a red zit because they don't know how to apply colour correctly. So, their experience with colour theory is that it doesn't really work. But that is only because they don't fully understand all the rules. It comes back to the eye - once you understand the rules of how the mind perceives images then colour theory works.

I have selected the following two before and after images from Donna's website to illustrate the above points. However, there are many more that you can view. With both of the images below, when I stare at the made up after shot on the right, it really appears as though both women have completely different shaped faces compared with the before shot on the left. The eyes of the women in the first set look completely different - without makeup they point downwards but with makeup they appear up turned. I find both of these sets of images to be excellent examples of the optical illusion that makeup can create and the power to completely change the appearance of a face or eye shape by understanding how the mind perceives images and then by tricking it with the use and placement of colour.

If you would like to delve further into the amazing mind of Donna Mee then stay tuned for Part 2 of my interview.


If you would like to learn more about about colour theory or makeup application, Donna is hosting a 30 day educational tour of Australia. She will be teaching classes in Sydney, Terrigal, Kingscliff, Gold Coast and Brisbane. Here is the list of Sydney and Terrigal classes. If you would like to know the dates of the other classes, email Donna (Donna@DonnaMeeInc.com). If you, like me, are fascinated with the science of makeup and how the mind perceives colour and images the ideal class to attend is Mastering Contours and Highlights. These classes are appropriate for anyone who would like to improve their makeup skills, not just makeup artists.

 Alternative, Donna will be speaking at IMATS from 2.30-3.30pm on Saturday 24th September or 1.45-2.45pm on Sunday 25th. Tickets to IMATS are $40 for a one day pass or $65 for both days and can be purchased here.

Unless other otherwise stated, all images in the post were taken, with permission, from Donna's website: http://donnameeinc.com/.

Who wants to win on Wednesdays: Pimp your giveaway

I just love giveaways. I love the excitement of entering them, daydreaming about what I'd do with the prize once I won it, then getting the email to say that I have won (though that doesn't happen as often as I would like)!

I also love hosting giveaways. I have hosted two so far and loved seeing people getting into it. There seems to be mixed opinions as to the success of using giveaways to attract new readers ie some people don't want to gain a lot of new followers who are there purely for the comp, never to be seen again. For each giveaway I held, I have gained at least 20 new followers. Of those, I'd say that at least 5 from each giveaway were genuine followers who became regular readers. So, I personally think that giveaways are a great way to attract new readers and to potentially introduce your readers to products that may not previously have heard of. I figure that if I manage to even hook just one new regular follower, then the giveaway has been a success.

But with so many blogs out there it can be hard to keep track of all the giveaways that are on at the moment. Or as a blogger, as I found with my last giveaway, it can also be hard getting word out that you have a giveaway going. So I thought that I'd set up a blog post where you can pimp your giveaway. The only rule is that your giveaway must be open to Australian residents (so open internationally if you are not from Australia).

All you have to do is click the link below to enter your competition link. Put either the product(s) you are giving away or the title of your post as the title (rather than you blog name).

Good luck everyone!

Have you won many giveaways this year? Do you find giveaways a successful tool for gaining more readers?

An interview with Elessa Jade from pursebuzz.com

Thanks to the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (ABBW) and Polkadot PR I was given the opportunity to interview some of the key speakers who will be attending IMATS. My first interview was with Elessa Jade from the blog Pursebuzz.com

Elessa worked in the beauty industry for 10 years before turning her talents to teaching. She started her website, Pursebuzz.com, to provide tips and tutorials on how to apply makeup. Pursebuzz.com now has around 100,000 visitors from around the world. I decided that when I got the opportunity to interview Elessa, as well as asking a few makeup related questions, that I'd also hit her for some blogging tips.

I am relatively new to blogging and so am trying to extract as much info as I can from seasoned Bloggers. What is the best piece of blogging advice that you have been given?

I would say post a lot and often. Interact with your readers and do a lot of giveaways if you can. Do cross promotion with other bloggers from fashion to hair.. doesn't matter just get your name out there. Also, do it cause you love it not for the free products. Readers can tell if it’s from the heart or for the money.


Do you ever get writers (Blogger’s) block and if so, how do you overcome it and get the creative juices flowing again?

Yes, I just take photos and enjoy that part. Then when I am ready to write I'll do it. I focus on my fave parts and just have fun.


This may be an impossible question, but if you were stranded on a desert island, which 5 beauty products would you most wish that you had with you?

Hahaha... Sunblock, Stila Convertible Color(works all over) and Big Hat, face wash and moisturizer. I gotta look good in case I am going back home. :D


What is the biggest makeup crime that you witness women repeatedly committing?

Tugging on the eyes and licking/blowing on their brushes.


If someone only had 2 minutes to get ready, what makeup essentials would you suggest? 

Lipstick and Mascara.

 

If you would love to hear more from Elessa Jade, she will be speaking at IMATS Sydney from 10.00-11.00am on Saturday 24th September or 11.15-12.15 on Sunday 25th September.

Tickets to IMATS are $40 for a one day pass or $65 for both days and can be purchased from here.