Regular 4-sided polygons flavoured with the seed of Theobroma cacao (aka Brownies)

In which I bake brownies and try to imitate the inimitable Wade...

On Sunday I tasted a brownie and it was good. I asked Wade for the recipe. For those who have never enjoyed a Wade email (he was ManSSAGO secretary) I will try to write this in a similar way to this wonderful worldly wordy wordsmith!

Culinary Necessities (some optional)*

  • 250g dark chocolate

  • 200g butter

  • 150g brown sugar

  • 350g caster sugar

  • 2 tbsp golden syrup

  • 4 eggs

  • 1-2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

  • 200g self raising flour

  • an arbitrary amount of cocoa (1-2 tbsp)

*The chef points out that this recipe scales linearly if you want more or less of it

Mostly Non-arbitrary Techniques to Employ in Some Form of List-like Order

2012-11-06-17-40-11.jpg
  • Apply heat in a manner which causes gentle merging of constituent parts (Melt)

  • Enjoy in an olfactory manner

  • Agitate (whisk) the ovoid ovums (eggs)

  • Mix in the chocolate ecstasy (allow to cool first, you don't want to cook the eggs)

  • Sieve in ground wheat (flour) and the seed of Theobroma cacao (cocoa)

  • Fold it in

  • Apply grease resistant flat tree matter (greaseproof paper) to a containment device (It's a TRAY!)

  • Chuck in the oven at an arbitrary place on the Celsius scale (~200°C)

  • Allow the passage of multiple time units (30-40 mins) until stodgy (knife not entirely clean when stabbed through)

  • Let it return to near room temp

2012-11-06-21-26-46.jpg
  • Enjoy with your sense of gustatory perception

Remember, Remember

On the subject of verbose verbiage we're only a day late for one of the best speeches ever:

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villian by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengence; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Tom Out!

P.S. V for Vendetta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

Project Thor: Armour

Project Thor: Armour

In which I cover the creation of Thor's armour, the hardest part of the build.

This follows a similar, though more complicated, method to Mjolnir (Parts 1 & 2)

More Pepakura

So once again I downloaded a pepakura template.* Then I began cutting out the hundreds of parts (there were 54 A4 pages of parts). I numbered all the edges so I knew which ones went together and laid them out on the floor:

Project Thor: Mjolnir Part 2

In which I finish Mjolnir...except for the painting.

So I was able to get hold of a hot wire cutter but the wire broke and so I have been forced to continue with the pepakura version of Mjolnir.

The Handle

First I began by cutting some brown shoelace to the correct length and gluing it to the wooden handle in a loop.

Loop

Loop

Then I cut strips of leather the correct length so that they would go all the way around the handle. I glued them around but had to hold them for a long time to let them dry, there must be an easier way to do this!

Leather banding

Leather banding

The Hammer Head

For the hammer head I continued using the pepakura method though I had to cut a hole for the handle to pass through.

Continuing pepakura

Continuing pepakura

Hole for the handle

Hole for the handle

Then i glues the top of the handle to the inside of Mjolnir for stability.

Completed hammer

Completed hammer

Painting

Before painting I first rubberised it with Plastidip which takes a few hours to dry. I then painted the hammer with a dark mix of silver and black acrylic paint. Once this had dried I drybrushed* over the top with silver acrylic paint. I also painted the gaps in the handle with the black base coat and silver over the top.

Mjolnir

Mjolnir

*Drybrushing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drybrush

Tom Out!

P.S. There are several more Thor updates to come!

Project Thor: Dr. Donald Blake

In which I reveal my secret costume for SSAGO tonight.

Dr. Donald Blake

Those of you who were watching the film very closely (or have read the comics) will have noticed the following two scenes in Thor.

During the infamous Thor-gets-his-abs out scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOddp-nlNvQ&t=105 he's given a t-shirt belonging to Dr. Jane Foster's (Natalie Portman) ex-boyfriend Dr. Donald Blake. This is Thor's alter ego in the comics.

Donald Blake

Later he also has a falsified driving licence based on it.

Don-Blake-Drivers-License

Me as Donald Blake

With thanks to Dale and the embroidery machine at Fab Lab I was able to get an embroidered t-shirt in the style of srubs lab coats. (The font is Script MT Bold which is available in Word)

DSC_0563a

DSC_0566a

DSC_0567a

Tom Out!

Orange & Lotus Flower Green Tea

In which I try a fruity and flowery green tea.

Brewing

Green Orange Lotus Tea

"We suggest brewing this tea for a maximum of 2 minutes, any longer and you'll lose the delicate taste. Allow one bag per person and use freshly boiled water"

This is a fairly exact brewing time but for good reason. Over-brewing really does ruin this tea.

Colour

A brownish-green like most green teas but it looks a little more orange to me :)

Aroma

Smells like green tea with a strong hint of orange. I'm not sure if I could smell the lotus flower as I don't know what they smell like.

Taste

Obviously this should be drunk without milk. This tea has a light, delicate, complex flavour. You first get a familiar green tea flavour with a hint of orange which builds before tailing off into a floral flavour. I can only assume this is the lotus flower flavour which is delightful :)

Camera Mug

I drank this tea from my new camera lens mug :D

Camera lens mug

Conclusion

Delicate, floral, tasty!

Web-link

http://twinings.co.uk/green-teas/orange-lotus-flower-green

Great British Tea Test 2012

So at the end of the month my plan is to drink all the 'standard teas' i.e. Tetley, PG Tips, Yorkshire, Sainsbury's brand etc. and compare them. I anticipate this may require the help of my house mates. I will then run a double blind study to assess taste etc. and post the results in the style of a scientific paper sometime in December :D

Tom out!

P.S. Camera lens mug:  

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0058CW9UO/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00

Bonus: Tesco Christmas Sandwich

Tesco xmas sandwich

Since it is now November I feel I can now get away with breaking the Christmas embargo. At the bottom of my tea reviews I will be reviewing a Christmas sandwich from one of the major retailers. This week it's time for Tesco.

Price: approx £2.60 (although it is in the £3 meal deal too)

Taste: The turkey is nothing special but it normally isn't in these sandwiches anyway. The cranberry sauce is good. The sausage was a nice addition but the sausage wasn't particularly flavourful. I found there was too much mayonnaise which, coming from someone who loves mayonnaise, made the sandwich a little lackluster despite it's moistness.

Red Velvet Cake

In which I shamelessly bow to the whims of the masses (one person who replied) and make red velvet cake.

Ingredients

  • 650g butter

  • 650g caster sugar

  • 10 eggs

  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence

  • 650g self raising flour

  • 75g cocoa powder

  • 70ml red food colouring

  • 300g icing sugar [icing]†

  • 500g butter [icing]†

  • blue food colouring [icing]†

†I generally just make the icing by eye so these aren't accurate measurements.

How-to

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.

  2. Cream butter and sugar together.*

  3. Beat in a ⅓ of the eggs, a ⅓ of the flour and the vanilla essence.

  4. Beat in the second third of eggs and flour.

  5. Beat in the cocoa and remaining eggs and flour.

  6. Add the food colouring.

  7. Mix thoroughly.

  8. Grease two 9'' round cake tins.

  9. Place half the mixture in each tin.

  10. Bake for 1 hr 15 mins (use your judgement mine took a little longer).

  11. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Icing

  1. Cream the icing sugar and butter together.

  2. Add blue food colouring.

  3. Mix well.

  4. Apply liberally to your cake.

  5. Enjoy :)

*You will need a LARGE bowl!

Tom Out!

P.S. Based on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/three-tier_red_velvet_17795

Pumpkin Pie

This week I bought many pumpkins and made pumpkin pie :DDue to the cheapness of ASDA pumpkins (2 for £2) this week I bought 12 pumpkins (mostly for carving!).

Pumpkins!

Ingredients

  • 1lb prepared pumpkin flesh

  • 3 oz brown sugar

  • 1 large eggs plus one yolk

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

  • ½ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

  • ½ tsp ground allspice

  • ½ tsp ground cloves

  • ½ tsp ground ginger

  • 10 fl oz double cream

  • sweet short crust pastry case*

*Yes I had to cheat this week and get ready-made

How-to

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

  2. To make the filling, steam the pumpkin then place in a coarse sieve and press lightly to extract any excess water.

  3. Whisk the eggs and extra yolk together in a large bowl.

  4. Place the sugar, spices and the cream in a pan.

  5. Bring to simmering point

  6. Give it a whisk to mix everything together.

  7. Pour it over the eggs and whisk it again briefly.

  8. Now add the pumpkin pureé.

  9. Whisk to combine everything thoroughly.

  10. Pour the filling into your pastry case and bake for 35-40 minutes.

  11. Leave to cool

The Finished Article

Sadly this week I made my icing way too runny but here's a picture I took last time I got this right :)

Pie!

LaTeX: Document Details

In which I perfect a macro for listing document details in LaTeX.

The Problem

I've been using $latex LaTeX$ to typeset my MRI Glossary (see previous PhD post). I really wanted an Appendix which listed system info and $latex LaTeX$ version.*

*Wordpress.com supports native $latex LaTeX$ - which is awesome

Solution

After much googling I couldn't figure out how to do this so I asked the kind folks at tex.stackexchange.com and Heiko Oberdiek & Ivan Griffin responded with two macros which I've now combined as follows†: usepackage{hologo} usepackage{ifluatex} usepackage{ifxetex} usepackage{ifvtex}

makeatletter

newcommand{ShowOsVersion}{% immediatewrite18{systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Version" > OSv.tex}% input{OSv}immediatewrite18{rm OSv.tex}% }

newcommand{ShowOsName}{% immediatewrite18{systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name"> OSn.tex}% input{OSn}immediatewrite18{rm OSn.tex}% }

newcommand*{InfoLaTeX}{% hologo{fmtname} textlessfmtversiontextgreater } newcommand*{InfoTeX}{% ifxetex hologo{XeTeX}-% theXeTeXversionXeTeXrevision else ifluatex hologo{LuaTeX}-% begingroup count@=luatexversion dividecount@ by 100 % edefx{thecount@}% count@=-xrelax multiplycount@ by 100 % advancecount@ by luatexversion x.thecount@.luatexrevision endgroup else @ifundefined{pdftexversion}{% ifvtex hologo{VTeX}% @ifundefined{VTeXversion}{% }{% begingroup count@VTeXversion dividecount@ 100 % space vthecount@ multiplycount@ -100 % advancecount@VTeXversion .two@digitscount@ endgroup }% else hologo{TeX}% fi }{% hologo{pdfTeX}-% ifnumpdftexversion thepdftexversion.pdftexrevision else ifnumpdftexversion expandafter@carthepdftexversion@empty@nil.% expandafter@cdrthepdftexversion@empty@nil pdftexrevision else expandafter@carthepdftexversion@empty@nil.% expandafter@cdrthepdftexversion@empty@nil.% pdftexrevision fi fi }% fi fi }

I then call this at the end of my document with:

appendix chapter{Document Details}

Compiled by: InfoTeX hologo{LaTeX} version: InfoLaTeX ShowOsName ShowOsVersion

end{document}

This produces the following output:

Compiled by: pdf $latex TeX$-1.40.13 $latex LaTeX$ version: $latex LaTeX$2e OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

†This requires you to use the -shell-escape option when compiling

Tom Out!

P.S. http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/78334/print-system-information-in-latex-doc

Postdoc Options

Postdoc Fallacy

Postdoc Fallacy

In which I discuss my thoughts on a career in research at the present time. In which I cover the options open to me both from a research point of view and location.

I still currently plan to have an academic research career as opposed to an industrial research career but I'm open to the possibility my AZ placement may change my mind.

A Career in Research?

So far I've enjoyed my PhD and the working environment that is academia. There are always problems with any working environment but I've only encountered minor niggles so far and there is a lot of freedom to carry out your work in a manner that suits you (as long as it gets done :) ).

From the few people I've spoken to about Postdocs so far it is clear that getting at least one publication published by the end of my 4 year programme is a must. While it is possible to continue my research career without a publication under my belt it will make applying for good jobs significantly easier. This is the world of "

Publish or Perish

" after all.

Location, Location, Location

There is a general rule in research - move! The majority* of academics suggest you change institution between PhD and postdoc (the same has been said about undergrad to PhD too) unless you truly are at the best institute in the world for what you are doing. This, of course, gives me something to start ruminating about and also a great opportunity to visit a completely new city for several years.

Obviously the UK† is always an option but this is probably my best opportunity to live abroad for a short while.‡ And there is quite a lot of choice open to me. With my current language skills I could easily look at Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the US. If I learn one of the two languages I most wish I knew then I'd open up opportunities in Germany or Japan as well.

I've also been told that, besides English, the best languages I could be learning at the moment for research are Chinese (Mandarin) and Japanese. This definitely gives Japan some bonus points. Not only is it a very interesting place that I've always wanted to visit but if I'm going to invest the time in learning the language I might as well put it to use in that country.

*That I've spoken to.

†Unless something drastically changes I expect I'll always want to return to the UK. It's not just the tea, I generally enjoy it here.

‡Postdocs are usually a few years.

Changes to the Site

I've added a links/cool stuff section to the blog which you can find here:

MRI Glossary

. It includes my very much under-development MRI glossary :)

Tom Out!

P.S. 

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1270/Careers.html

P.P.S. 

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

Project Thor: Mjolnir Pepakura

I have all the materials to craft Mjolnir now - to the Forge! ... for real this time :)

Pepakura

As I'm still lacking a hot wire cutter I've decided to try the Pepakura method instead. Pepakura is paper modeling. Using the Pepakura Designer software you can take a pre-made paper folding file (such as the Mjolnir one here: http://www.lacasadeel.net/2012/03/fabricando-el-martillo-de-thor-en-papercraft.html) and edit it following this a YouTube video (sadly now removed) in order to make a foam version.

Crafting

So now I have these materials to play with:

Thor Materials 2

Cutting out the template onto the foam was easy and then using wood glue I've started to form the hammer head:

Hammer head

By Thor's Beard!

I've started growing the beard but it is currently unimpressive:

By Thor's beard!

Tom Out!

Keemun Tea

In which I try a variety of black tea I was not previously aware of.

Brewing

"Use freshly drawn cold water. Use water at a “rolling boil” (100°C). Steep for 3 to 5 minutes (or to your taste). This delicate tea is best drunk black or with just a touch of milk … and for freshness every time, keep your tea somewhere cool, dark, dry and airtight!"

As usual I went for a strong brew and tried it both with and without milk.

Colour

Slightly darker than your standard tea but a good tea colour nonetheless.

Aroma

Smells like a normal tea, nothing fancy here. Though I think you can pick up a slightly nutty aroma too.

Taste

I tried this tea with and without milk. Without milk the tea is stronger than assam or ceylon based teas and has a slightly nutty taste. With milk the same description holds but the flavour is lighter and more delicate.

AstraZeneca

This has joined my new set of work teas for the duration of my work placement at AstraZeneca. Luckily there is a kitchen here with plentiful milk allowing me to expand my tea horizons once more :)

Conclusion

A nice change to my line-up of standard teas. Simple but tasty :)

Web-link

http://shop.twinings.co.uk/shop/keemun-tea-bags.html

Upcoming Changes

I have a whole gamut of  teas to try over the next weeks so this will likely become a weekly feature once more! Also I'm gearing up to a large scale tea review - The Great British Tea Test 2012! Details next week!

Tom out!

Giant Party Ring

Giant party rings! This week in metric!

Ingredients

  • 90g butter

  • 200g self raising flour

  • 100g caster sugar*

  • 1 medium egg

  • ½ tsp vanilla essence

  • approx. 150g icing sugar

  • food colourings of your choice

*I used brown sugar because it was all I had and that worked pretty well :)

How-to

  1. Cream butter and sugar together.

  2. Add egg and vanilla essence.

  3. Mix thoroughly.

  4. Sieve flour into mixture.

  5. Mix thoroughly.

  6. Add flour if dough is too sticky.

  7. Wrap dough in foil and leave in fridge for an hour.

  8. Preheat oven to ~ 180°C

  9. Roll dough out into a large round shape (pizza trays are a good size guide).

  10. Cut a hexagonal hole out of the centre (yes, hexagonal!).

  11. Use any spare dough to make smaller and smaller party rings.

  12. Bake for ~ 30 mins.

  13. Leave to cool

Icing:

  1. Sieve icing sugar into bowl.

  2. Add food colouring.

  3. Add a small amount of water (be very careful or you're going to need a whole kilo of icing sugar to make it less runny!)

  4. Mix thoroughly.

  5. Use the back of a spoon to cover your biscuit.

  6. Make up another colour of icing.

  7. Use knife to place it in lines across the biscuit.

  8. Use you knife to draw out the lines into a party ring pattern.

The Finished Article

Sadly this week I made my icing way too runny but here's a picture I took last time I got this right :)

Giant Party Ring

Good Internet, Bad Internet

In which I discuss poor internet connections.

Slow Internet

Today at work I was using a terribly slow internet connection. What interested me was which programs and websites worked on a slow connection and which ones didn't.

These programs/sites worked well:

These didn't:

  • Outlook

  • Outlook web

  • Wunderlist

  • Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Google Mail & Calendar were intermittent.

Why should this be? I'm not sure and would have hazarded a guess that sites and programs which send less data would work better. However, Wunderlist only needs to send short strings of text (calendar events) when Evernote was syncing complete documents. Also with the websites both CAD and Xkcd require images to load. Xkcd managed it easily but I haven't seen today's CAD yet. Maybe the ones which loaded were just better coded/written!?!

Good Wi-Fi

Currently I'm writing this from the comfort of First Class with a complimentary glass of Merlot :-) The free Wi-Fi is excellent and speedy - the upgrade was definitely worth it (£2 to upgrade which gets me the normally £6 Wi-Fi, free wine and dinner). My new Archos G9 101 tablet is working very well and for a quick trip like this it's so much better than a laptop.*

Don’t forget complimentary tea too:-)

So my first post written entirely on a tablet has gone well, also having a 250Gb HDD means I've done so to excellent musical accompaniment (LotR and TMBG among others).

*Although I did need to re-calibrate the screen after a recent update.

Tom Out!

CASE Placements and Research Software

In which I apologise for this week being low on blog posts and update you on my AstraZeneca placement. Also I use software I normally use for research for other purposes.I'm sorry there haven't been any updates this week. There was no cake made as I had no time for choir on Tuesday, no tea as it's an alternate week and the usual Thor update is delayed (pending a hot wire cutter).

CASE Placement

This week I started my work placement at AstraZeneca, the industrial part of my Industrial CASE PhD (see my post on PhD types). Apart from the system shock due to waking up significantly earlier than usual (my commute to UoM is a 15-20 min walk not a 45-60 min drive) the week has been good so far :) I've gone through a load of induction sessions and lots of positive feedback on my study designs and planning for the weeks ahead.

Next week I start work proper with my first study and hopefully the results will be as we predict. Sadly for now I can't give any more details due to confidentiality agreements. Rest assured though if I get a publication out of this placement (which I hope I will) it will be mentioned in this blog :)

Weeping Womble

On Monday night I managed to take a good set of photos of fellow Scout leader and Networker (Womble) walking ominously towards my camera. I used ImageJ a free, java based image tool commonly used by MRI researchers to animate this simple gif:

Weeping Womble (640)

After fixing some timing issues, adding 'blinks' and a final word of warning I ended up with this final masterpiece of internet animation:

Weeping Womble Final (640)

Proof that research software can be quite fun in your spare time!

Tom Out!

P.S. AstraZeneca

P.P.S ImageJ

Project Thor: Mjolnir Attempt 1

I have all the materials to craft Mjolnir now - to the Forge! ... or not

Materials

Mjolnir materials

So I now have all the materials for Mjolnir. Polystyrene for the hammer head, wood for the handle, leather for the handle grip and plastidip for coating the hammer head. I'm short the amount of leather needed for the loop at the bottom but I might use string or something for that.

Crafting

Initially I tried cutting the polystyrene with a craft knife but that didn't work very well. I also tried using a saw and a carving knife. These were also all terrible ideas. I finally settled on heating a bread knife over the gas hob. This cut through the polystyrene like butter but if it was too hot caused more to melt than I wanted. Sadly we end up with this:

Mjonir head 1

While the general shape is there it isn't up to my exacting (read: fairly lax) standards.

Where From Here?

I'm going to see if Fab Lab has a hot wire cutter or obtain one from somewhere else. If that fails I'll have to try the Foam Pepakura method (which I'll detail in a future post when talking about the armour).

Tom Out!

P.S. Polystyrene: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290617011792

P.P.S. Wood: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221116725954

P.P.P.S Leather: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190699033294

P.P.P.P.S Plastidip: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KL5WOI/

After Dinner Tea

Here's another birthday present I've taken ages to review.

Brewing

"Infuse for at least 5 minutes in freshly boiled water."

As with many herbal teas it needs a long brewing time and can't really stew. Just remove the bag when it suits your taste :)

Colour

A mahogany like brown. A bit reminiscent of the box colour.

Aroma

I was a little bunged up when I reviewed this and the aroma is not very strong. You can smell hints of fennel and cardamom though.

Taste

A nice lightly spiced brew. It's quite wintry and warming but not as strong as a Christmas brew would be. Lovely :)

Doctor Who/Spartacus

I've been drinking this tea while watching the new series of Doctor Who :D Also Spartacus: Blood and Sand which is an excellent series reminiscent of Rome.

Conclusion

A calming spicy tea for the evening. Excellent to wind down before bed :)

Web-link

http://www.pukkaherbs.com/tea-room/all-our-teas/after-dinner.html

Tom out!

Wilkinson Family Fruitcake

My Grandma's old fruit cake recipe - simple and tasty!

Ingredients*

  • 16 oz (450 g) self raising flour
  • 8 oz (225 g) caster sugar
  • 8 oz (225 g) margarine
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 24 oz (675 g) mixed fruit
  • 2 tsp (10 ml) Mixed spice
  • 1 tbsp (15 ml) vanilla essence
  • Milk

*This makes a double sized cake suitable for feeding the Choir & Orchestra. Half these quantities for a normal loaf tin :)

How-to

  1. Preheat oven to ~160°C
  2. Sieve the flour and mixed spice together into a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add the remaining dry ingredients.
  4. Mix thoroughly.
  5. Melt marge in a saucepan.
  6. Add to dry ingredients.
  7. Mix thoroughly.
  8. Add vanilla essence and eggs.
  9. Mix thoroughly.
  10. Add milk if necessary to achieve a good consistency.
  11. Place in a large, greased loaf tin.
  12. Bake for ~2 hours.*

*You'll need to use your skill and judgement depending on your own oven. I tend to check after 90 minutes and adjust times accordingly.

Wilkinson Family Fruitcake
Wilkinson Family Fruitcake

Tom Out!

Project Thor: Progress

A brief round up of Project Thor so far...

How's the Weight Loss Going?

Not so good. As of Tuesday my weight was 91 kg. Up 1 from the start but I have gained muscle in that time. I need to do more HIIT as I've mostly been concentrating on the gym aspect. From now there will be more HIIT and I'm changing diet plan to just reduced calorie intake as the other one was really hard to stick to this time round.

How's the Gym Going?

The gym is going pretty well. Here's a table comparing my starting rep weight and current rep weight.*

Lat Pulldown (lbs) Shoulder Press (lbs) Chest Press (lbs) Leg Press (lbs)
Previous 75 42.5 72.5 140
Current 125 67.5 107.5 205
Improvement +50 +25 +37 +65

There's visible improvement too but I'm waiting until the end for proper before and after photos :)

*Clearly not the maximal weight I can do. For example my starting maximal leg press was 210 lbs.

How's the Costume Going?

I have all the material components for Mjolnir now and will probably construct it this weekend :) I've just ordered a load of foam to make the armour with and I'm looking into finding templates for all the pieces.

My hair isn't growing fast enough for the full Thor length but I think with dye it will still look the part, also a few weeks will get me a reasonable beard too :)

Part of me is tempted to go as Avengers Thor before he dons his armour as it's proving difficult to find a good material for the arms.

Thor

Tom Out!

Giant Jaffa Cake

Ingredients

  • 12 oz self raising flour*

  • 12 oz caster sugar

  • 12 oz margarine/unsalted butter

  • 6 medium eggs

  • 2 packs orange jelly

  • 1 pint water

  • 300g chocolate

How-to

  1. Cream the sugar and marge together in a big bowl

  2. Add in the flour and eggs slowly.

  3. Mix thoroughly.

  4. Bake in a frying pan at 180°C for ~30 minutes (or until cooked through)

  5. Leave to cool.

  6. Dissolve two packets jelly in ½ pint boiling water.

  7. Make up jelly to 1 pint by adding ½ pint cold water.

  8. Leave to cool in a small bowl (pick one the correct size and shape for a good jaffa cake look).

  9. Carefully slide a knife around of the jelly and then upturn on top of your cake base.

  10. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (small ceramic/glass bowl in a saucepan of hot water).

  11. Coat the (top of the) cake in chocolate.

  12. Allow to cool

  13. Apply a pattern in any remaining chocolate to the top.

  14. Allow to cool.

  15. Enjoy :D

Enjoyed!

*The original recipe said that baking powder was required then their cake overflowed. It really isn't required.

Tom Out!

P.S. Original recipe: http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project/332/