A Cake With Personality.

There are few cakes with as much character as chocolate.

Dark, brooding and mysterious in its sinful excess.... its a cake that fascinates and amazes me every single time I bake it.


This cake is a no-fuss, one bowl cake.

Meaning?

Just dump in the ingredients in the correct order, whip them into submission and bake the hell out of it!

Want the recipe?

Here goes!

You'll need :

1/2 Cup of Butter at room temperature
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Granulated sugar 
1/2 Cup Yoghurt
1/2 Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 + 1/2 Cup Flour
3/4 cups Cocoa
1/4 Baking Soda
1/2 Baking Powder

What to do next?

Combine Butter, Sugar, Eggs and Vanilla. 
Whip till creamy.
Add the Cocoa.
Mix till even.

While you're doing this, put the oven on pre-heat at 160 C  :)







Once you're satisfied with this mixture, add in the milk and yoghurt.
Then, very slowly ( so that the flour doesn't fly up into your face!), Sift the Flour and Baking Powder + Baking Soda into it.



Tada! Batter ready!

Pour into a Baking tin and put into the oven at 160 C for 60 minutes.

At around 55 mins, open the oven and check if done. (Insert a skewer - I use spaghetti! - into the centre to see if its done!)

If its done, enjoy!

What Do You See In The Mirror?

Do you see your flaws?

Those tiny bits that need to be lost?

Or do you see yourself as an accomplishment?

A miracle?

So much depends on the state of mind you may be in!

If you're angry and depressed, all you may see might be the 'bad' bits.

If you're happy and carefree, you might just wink at your reflection and smile !

Retail Therapy/Self Help - Depression makes the economy go around!

Cuz Money still can't buy Happiness. But it can buy the shortcut!

How real. How true. And How blunt.

On Offence and Defence.

Have you ever had to bite your tongue?

Of course you have!

But try it for months on end.

Ugh.

We're all surrounded by stupid people we don't like. And unfortunately, have to tolerate.

However blunt you may be, you need to sometimes hold it in. 

How I hate that!

Offence and Defence.

Its like a trade-off between the two.

I wish someone had set such people right in their growing years!

Parents/Teachers/Older people who knew better - where were you?

Stupidity can still be forgiven.

But these are stupid people with no soul!

They should be tethered like cows and kept isolated from the rest of us.

Well, not literally..

Just be given an attitude adjustment probably.

Sigh.

Lets just chuck it.

A Few Ways To Stay Creative.

There are times when "Inspiration" gets replaced by "Frustration" in my life.

Creativity takes a hit and suffers in some dark corner of my soul :P

In such stressful times, I find that it helps to follow a few points :)

(P.S. I love making lists!)

~ Don't Force It - If its not there, it just won't come.

~ Try Free Writing - Stop correcting yourself. Just write. You can edit later.

~ Be Open - To experiences, to stimuli, to everything. That idea you need is just around the corner!

~ Complete it - I have endless sheets of unfinished poems, stories etc. I can't bring myself to throwing them away nor can I complete them. Its a bad cycle to get stuck in you know.

~ Clean something - Yourself, your room, I don't know...Anything! It somehow creates mental space for ideas to burgeon.

~ Sleep & Keep a bedside Diary - Resting and relaxing opens my mind to creative thoughts. Also, most of my best ideas come to me in bed! Dreams and thoughts are so hard to keep track of. A bedside diary or a journal is amazing for this!

~ Make Lists - They don't require that much commitment, or grammar. They're a good start to get the engine running!

~ Read or listen to Music - If you surround yourself with beauty and creativity, you're increasing your chances of being beautiful and creative too! (Transference anyone?)

~ Smile and think about your life - Count your blessings. Positivity helps! (Also what you do won't be just a macabre depiction of your life, out to bore your readers :P)

~ Get Feedback - Encouragement helps! 

~ Don't give up - Its wrong when people say that "Well begun is half done." In fact its easier to start than to complete. Completing takes conviction and commitment. Put it this way - If you can't commit to something (anything - an article, a project you started, whatever!) how well does that bode for everything else in your life?

If all else fails, refer to Point 1. Don't force it. Don't force anything ever :)

Stay Happy.


To Be Capable Of Wonder.


How infinitely important it is to wonder! :)

To not be amazed, is to not live at all!

The world is out there, throwing the good and bad at us. Its all amazing if you think about it.

I tend to dwell and sink into the bad side of things - usually. 

It comes with my pragmatic nature and careful approach. 

But

Wonder and Merriment - go hand in hand - They're extremely necessary to feel.

They're there if you look carefully.

They may be in :

The wonder you see in your partner.





















In feeling the wet grass beneath your feet.

















In a beautiful song.



















Or a warm cup of tea.





















All these stimuli.

Its so important to let them overwhelm you !

Life is about those moments that amaze you. Even if its when you're sitting curled up in sheets, and thinking about something/someone you have.

I sometimes spend entirely too much time on brooding.

I want to be amazed.
I can be amazed.

And those wonderful things aren't that hard to find :)

I Hesitate.

I Stop.

I Prevent.

I can't bring myself to throwing notebooks away, because I've scribbled on the margins of them.

Snippets and thoughts and songs.

Its weird, and kinda mad.

To be the scribbler that I am!

But slowly dreaming, with open eyes.

I think up my best ideas and they need to be written down.

Immediately, or else they'll never be found.

Like right now, I'm loving the fact that I can write,

Create something, that feels just right.

Some Link Love :)

Well, I love organizing and printing and labelling and all that!

And printables and I are like made for each other!

I love these kitchen-y prints :)


Tada!


Check out the Kitchen Stuff.



And the Best!

XOXO :)

Write. And Write Well.

We write to express.
To say things unsaid.
To calm our minds.
To repay old debts.

If you write, write well.
Write little, but make sure its swell.

Make it count.
Make it matter.
Don't let it loose,
Like nervous chatter.

But hone it into sound,
A beautiful melody.
That captures colours,
Despite its brevity.

Write to inspire.
In the process, 
Well,
You might perspire.

Write a thing with permanence.
With love.

Smile.
Write.


Playing The Blame-Game.

Things will keep happening.
Life is dynamic.
Its a sum of changes. 
It has no constants.

When things don't go according to plan, we hate it.

People like you and I are predisposed towards behaving in a certain kind of way - Blaming.

We're pros at playing the Blame-Game.

We blame Time.

We blame Money.

We blame People.

We blame Ourselves.

We blame Everything.

I'm one of you. I'm not any different. I blame and curse as well.
However, for some reason today, I thought a bit about this objectively. And I thought -

We blame. But why?

To get away? To shirk responsibility? Maybe.

To come to terms? To gain closure? Maybe.

To be save the guilt? Maybe.

I think its for Self-Preservation.

We're very proud of how we look. How important we are. How valuable self-esteem is to us.
We're hoarders - and we hoard wealth - in any form.

Any blows to our psyche can upset everything around us.

A bad mood can ruin a lot.

We're emotionally frail. Its true.

That's why we blame. Anything. 

Time and Money - Sure you know how and why we blame them.

But we blame ourselves too. Just to feel the pain that's strangely good for us. We go back and nit-pick at things and events gone by. We mentally bash ourselves into submission - because it feels powerful.

We're weird creatures. In our quest for Self-Preservation, we sometimes need to burn ourselves down to build ourselves back up.

I just hope that we always remember to re-create what we just destroyed.

A Few 'Weighty' Issues.


Sometimes things weigh heavily on my mind.
Try as I might, I find it hard to shake off this feeling - of being weighed down.

I think a lot. I think way too much.

Someone close to me once said - "Think. There's no harm in thinking. But think about the good stuff. Don't waste it on the bad stuff!"

I agree.

But thinking about the bad stuff ? Well, its strangely cathartic.

Its painful. Its hurtful. But its necessary.

Coming to terms with your deficiencies & limitations is so much easier when you have someone by your side.

Someone who can be your strength when you're running a little low. =)

Don't get me wrong - I am as independent as they come. And confident. And happy.

But every person has their wobbly bits - so to speak! And you need to learn to love them :)

I know.

I know that I am a little lost.

A little cryptic too.

A bit preoccupied, of course.

And a little bit blue.

I am young right now.

But forever, I wont be.

A winding path, for myself to show.

Where it takes, we'll see.

I know that I'm listless.

A little bit screwed.

With words restless,

I am a song, unwritten too.

To be complete.

Is an end I long for.

To be replete.

With memories to sing of.

I confuse you for much more.

Dear Life,

I fight and sometimes I lose,

Left disappointed and sore.

But not all who wander are lost,

And all who are lost, want to be found.

Leaving things behind is a cost.

In saying this, I might even sound unsound.

Cake In A Mug - The Recipe!























Hello  :)

I'm sure that you must be wanting a recipe in order to bake a cake in a mug! So I'm gonna be a darling and do just that :)

The Recipe :

4 tbsp - Flour
4 tbsp - Powdered Sugar
3 tbsp - Oil
3 tbsp Milk
2 tbsp - Cocoa
1 Egg
A few drops of Vanilla Essence
1/4 tsp of Baking Soda

The Method :

Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a mug. Add the wet ingredients - one by one - and keep whisking till smooth. Put your mug in the centre of the microwave and cook for 4-5 minutes! The cake should be done within that time!

Have fun with it, play around with it! Add chocolate chips or raisins to dress it up! Or just add a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream - straight into the hot mug and dig in!

Lots of Love!
Aradhna

An Indian Girl's World.

Live. Love. Eat.