Chocolate...and BEETROOT?! It can't be done.....

Think that?? Then where have you been? Chocolate and Beetroot are the new "it" thing when it comes to desserts. Goodbye Carrot Cake and Hello Beetroot cake. I've heard Beetroot cake is the new LBD, THE new black, the..new Gaga?! It is equally as crazy peppered with originality and a little something amazing that you just can't put your finger on... My discovery of the blessed Beetroot cake comes with a story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. My Honeymoon has sadly taken its toll on my waistline with me racking up an impressive 7lbs in just over two weeks; America I salute you and every deep fat fryer in your blessed country, you know how to do some good food. Good food it is but healthy food it isn't. Im back home and paying the price for my indulgences now but one problem still sticks: I am a complete fat girl that loves food and refuses to neglect even a chocolate brownie. My solution to said problem? Do it the skinny girl way. My skinny girl way lends favour from one of my most used cookbooks, Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache. The recipes are sitting just on the right side of sinful with a great dollop of healthy reassurance. The best things about their recipes are that they are so customisable, so with a few tiny tweaks I have created my dream Brownie.

• 400g of peeled raw beetroot cut into small cubes
• 130g whole hazelnuts 
• 3 large free range eggs
• 220g light muscovado sugar
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 150g of dark chocolate, the best quality you can afford but at least 70% cocoa solids please!
• 2tbsp white rice flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 4 tbsp fresh espresso coffee
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Warm your oven up to 160°C. 
2. I use a 30cmX20cmX5cm brownie tin which is non stick but still rub it with a tiny bit of flavourless oil, like groundnut to prevent any sticking at all. 
3. Pop your cubed beetroot into a microwavable bowl and heat for 10 minutes with a tiny splash of water 
4. While the beetroot is cooking, blitz up 100g of the hazelnuts to the finest powder you can. You really need a food processor for this to create the finest crumbs possible, it wants to look like dust. 
5. Whisk up the eggs, sugar and salt for a good 5 minutes with an electric whisk. It can be done by hand but will take a little while longer and a lot more arm strength. You want the mixture to have tripled in volume and to look light and bubble filled
6. Smash up your chocolate with careless abandon, i tend to leave it in the packet and attack it with a rolling pin- very satisfying feeling...
7. By now the beetroot should be cooked. Sieve it to remove any excess water and fling in your dark chocolate shards. Cover the bowl with some clingfilm and if the room is cool, a tea towel also. Leave it to stand for a few minutes and the beetroots residual heat should melt the chocolate. After a few minutes remove the cling film and with a hand held blender, puree the chocolate and beetroot together to form a deep sludgy mass.
8. Mix the now powdered hazelnuts, rice flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso and vanilla extract into your fluffy egg mixture
9. Add the chocolate/beetroot pulp now and mix until combined but don't spend too much time on it. The secret to a perfectly squidgy brownie is to not mess with the batter to much. A little austerity never did a brownie any harm. 
10. Pour your mixture into the tin and sprinkle on the remaining 30g of hazelnuts. I like to have bashed the hazelnuts slightly with rolling pin so they are splintered and bruised. A rolling pin and a bit more attacking usually works a treat. 
11. Cook in the middle of the oven for between 30-35 minutes. Begin checking at 30 by sticking a cocktail stick into the middle to the tray. Brownies are ment to be ever so slightly damp so a little chocolate colour on the cocktail stick is fine, if its still a little too loose, leave in the oven for the last 5 minutes. 
12. Remove from the oven and cool the brownies in the tin for 20 minutes before cutting into individual portions and releasing them into the wild. They won't last long i promise!

I am a bad bad person!!!

But i am back!! 

I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged!! I have a whole bountiful sack full of excuses as to why i haven't blogged in, what feels like a age but the main two are the now HUSBAND!!! yes thats right, the wedding finally arrived; broke my laptop and what with a wedding to pay for and shoes to buy a new laptop just sadly wasn't my number one buy... and the second of course was the wedding... It was terrific!!! 

Just a few little snaps there of the wedding, which was ridiculously tacky and therefor profoundly excellent in my book!! 

I leave you with my Brownie promise that i will be back soon all kawaii/foody/cutey blogged up, I have so much to tell you, and so many new recipes to share with you all!!

xoxoxox

swoon.....

I really actually big love Narwhals, especially rainbow ones!! 

xoxox

photo challenge...

Yes! Finally an easy photo challenge! 
Day 14 – A TV show you’re currently addicted to.
The TV show that I am completely, unequivocally addicted to is:

The Rachel Zoe Project

For those of you who have never watched it. First of all, hello!?! Where have you been?! This show, as Zoe would say is "bananas! I die". Its just such addictive viewing for anyone who is even vaguely interested in fashion. It follows the life of Rachel Zoe, (who I would happily kill if it meant I could get near her wardrobe, 70's vintage boho glamour gone insane,love love love..) her style team and her lovely, completely neglected husband Rodger...I cannot get enough! 

xoxox

Where is the romance???

I'm struggling a bit to try and find the man friend a good Valentines Day present. I had my eye on a really beautiful Vivienne Westwood jumper for him, but when I asked his opinion on it, he said he 


"would probably only get gravy down it and ruin it" 


so not to bother!?!?! I have never known anyone in my life turn down Westwood!! Makes me feel a little sick! I asked him as to whether he had any thoughts on a suitable gift for me  and he said he bought me some new clothes the other day. I reasoned with him that these clothes were necessities as, after loosing 4 stone, my others didn't really fit me too well anymore. He then replied "we'll you can have those wedges you had your eye on".... NO!!! I hate to sound ungrateful but it is Valentines Day! Where has the romance gone? Surprise me and woo me like a proper man. Don't make me buy my own gift! Horrific! So my plea, to any male that may stumble across this post. ROMANCE YOUR LADY! and under no circumstance make her buy her own present! Okay?? Good stuff, now we have that sorted, cup of tea time yes?? 

xoxox

Photo challenge

Im starting this blog with yet another apology! I feel like we have hit a rocky patch in our marriage and I'm not commited enough, esentially I'm Tommy Lee and your Pamela. My lack of commitment at the moment is posting nothing except my photo challenges. I have some good food blogs in the pipeline and some uber cute stuff too but its having the time to do them but I will get there in the next week, just bear with me and you shall be rewarded bountifully my beauties. Todays photo challenge is:
Day 13 – Your favorite musician and why?
and it is sooooooooooo hard to answer. I love so much music, its one of the biggest things in my life and choosing just one musician over another is cripplingly hard. A few of my all time stars are:

• the mama's and the papa's 
• al green
• ike and tina
• the animals
• dusty springfield
• the andrews sisters
• glen miller
• janis joplin
• ella fitzgerald 
• the lovin' spoonful
• aretha franklin

but as an overall artist, because I don't just love her music, I love her clothes, her HAIR, her humour, it would probably be Paloma Faith. She makes me melt and I am complete lady love with her. 

xoxox

Photo challenge....

Sorry about the lack of posting yesterday. Was feeling completely poorly sick and couldn't even muster the enthusiasm to move, let alone blog. So I start with an apology, a bit pants I know. Now I have that out the way I feel like were good again..we buds?? yeah!! oh good! So this is a two day, bumper issue post. Numero Uno being:


Day 11 – What’s in your makeup bag?

Well I don't own a make up bag, I own a make up box. It used to be a make up bag till the man friend complained that there was make up everywhere and he forgot what our surfaces looked like, so I had to upgrade to a box (fair enough really...) I have, like most women I think, an absolute shed-load of make up but only actually regularly use about 4 pieces of it. These are my can't leave the house without items and they are:

• Bright red lipstick
• Black liquid eyeliner
• Black and white Kohl liner
• Eyebrow pencil

If I have these items, Im pretty much good to go. My next photo challenge was:

Day 12 – A photograph of the town you live in.

Well I live in sunny old Kingston Upon Hull. 

Queens Gardens

The Marina

The Humber Bridge

These are some of the glorious attractions in the city of Hull. I looked up Hull on the Internet and it said the top things to do here were:

• Streetlife Museum of Transport: "This is a museum of all forms of transport sited in a purpose built building open in 1989. It contains horse drawn carriages, trains, cycles and all aspects of transport!

Well you can tell your onto a winner already, yes? It's next recommendation was:

• The Deep: "The Deep is a large aquarium which permits you to walk inside the tank within a transparent tunnel to view the marine life close up. It particularly specialises in Sharks."

I took my grandad last week...it had 6 sharks...Hmmm.... Had a nice salad for lunch though... 

• The Humber Bridge "The bridge once held the world record as the longest single span suspension bridge. More than 100,000 vehicles use the bridge each week."

Not bad I suppose really, probably the most exciting thing to happen to Hull since:

• William Wilberforce House "Birthplace of William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade."

Good claim to fame really for little old Hull but were not exactly hitting the heady lights of New York, Paris or London just yet...I hear were getting the roads resurfaced though so Hull 1- Paris 0. 

xoxox