In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...
I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.
In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...
After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.
In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...
I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.
Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.
In which I plan my holiday tasks…
So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.
*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.
Remote interviews are a fact of life for every podcaster, and in today’s era of social distancing, more so than ever. Since you rarely get the chance at an interview do-over, nailing down your remote recording workflow is essential. We’ll show you how to prepare for and record a remote interview, so you get it right the first time — with some additional tips along the way to make sure all your bases are covered.
In which I bake another, more ambitious, MRI scanner cake...
The ISBE annual BBQ was on Friday so I had to once again attempt to bake an MRI scanner cake. I decided to go for a more realistic one than previously.
The basic cake is made using Delia's All-in-one Sponge recipe and then things get a little crazy as I make 4 of them.
In which I make my own take on the Turducken of desserts...
So for those of you that aren't aware a Turducken is a duck-inside-a-chicken-inside-a-turkey. Otherwise known as meatception! Following along this line of crazy ridiculous food Charles Phoenix invented the Cherpumple cake which is three different pies (cherry, pumpkin and apple) baked inside three different cakes (yellow, white, spiced). I decided to make my take on this crazy dessert as my final CAOS cake before stepping down as Social Sec. I didn't have access to pumpkin so I decided to make a Cherbluple - cherry, blueberry and apple pies baked into a chocolate sponge, a plain sponge and a spiced sponge.
In which I make flapjacks because they are tasty and I haven't made them in years...
I haven't made flapjacks in at least 5 years. Which is crazy considering how much I love flapjacks. I've taken a recipe that serves 12 and scaled it up to make at least 60 to satiate the needs of hungry musicians. I've also tinkered with the flavours, enjoy!
In which I make a ridonculously chocolaty cake from a possibly recognisable children's book...
I'm sure many of you will have read/seen Matilda by Roald Dahl. There is a famous scene in which Bruce Bogtrotter having stolen some of the Trunchbull's personal cake is forced to eat an entire chocolate cake.
Luckily Gary Rhodes (you know that TV chef you haven't seen in a while) wrote a recipe book called Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes which tells you how to bake a slightly smaller version of the cake.*
*The cake in the book is "fully eighteen inches in diameter". The original recipe makes a 9" cake so I doubled the ingredients and made it twice as high!
Icing
Mixing choc and butter
Stiff peaks in the egg whites
Mixing the eggs into the chocolate
Tom Out!
P.S. Pudding party pics to follow!
Giant party rings! This week in metric!
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 :)
Cream butter and sugar together.
Add egg and vanilla essence.
Mix thoroughly.
Sieve flour into mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Add flour if dough is too sticky.
Wrap dough in foil and leave in fridge for an hour.
Preheat oven to ~ 180°C
Roll dough out into a large round shape (pizza trays are a good size guide).
Cut a hexagonal hole out of the centre (yes, hexagonal!).
Use any spare dough to make smaller and smaller party rings.
Bake for ~ 30 mins.
Leave to cool
Icing:
Sieve icing sugar into bowl.
Add food colouring.
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!)
Mix thoroughly.
Use the back of a spoon to cover your biscuit.
Make up another colour of icing.
Use knife to place it in lines across the biscuit.
Use you knife to draw out the lines into a party ring pattern.
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
Tom Out!
P.S. Based on: http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project/15/
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
Cream the sugar and marge together in a big bowl
Add in the flour and eggs slowly.
Mix thoroughly.
Bake in a frying pan at 180°C for ~30 minutes (or until cooked through)
Leave to cool.
Dissolve two packets jelly in ½ pint boiling water.
Make up jelly to 1 pint by adding ½ pint cold water.
Leave to cool in a small bowl (pick one the correct size and shape for a good jaffa cake look).
Carefully slide a knife around of the jelly and then upturn on top of your cake base.
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (small ceramic/glass bowl in a saucepan of hot water).
Coat the (top of the) cake in chocolate.
Allow to cool
Apply a pattern in any remaining chocolate to the top.
Allow to cool.
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/
