My favourite chocolate cake recipe

ok, ok, I know; no one but me cares for recipes like this one. It is nothing more but a sophisticated 'devil's food cake'. But it's just the christmas feeling I get whenever this recipe pops up on my laptop screen, that makes it so addictive. Besides, I always blame the endorphin that comes with this chocolate beauty. But we all know chocolate makes us feel good. It's just that this one does it in one hell of a way!

For the recipe, go to:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

Cinnamon Rolls

Yep, it's monday afternoon and i got bored, so baking was the only option in sight. Since Bridget Jones seems to be on television daily and i can hear the winter calling for me, the urge to try this recipe became inevitable. Just the smell of these cinnamon rolls -which are originally from Norway, but the americans picked them up- makes trying this worth it. Best scent i've ever smelled, and surprisingly enough, it's a Nigella Lawson recipe.

-serves 20 cinnamon rolls-
DOUGH
600 gr (plain) flour
100 gr sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
21 gr yeast
100 gr unsalted butter
4 dl/400 ml milk

STUFFING
150 gr soft butter
150 gr sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, whipped
+rolling pin and baking tin

Preheat oven at 230 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients first; flour, sugar,salt and yeast. Then mix the other ingredients in another bowl; milk, eggs and the melted (in microwave) butter. This leaves you with two options; you can either mix these two bowls of ingredients with your hands, or you can put them in your food processor. Either way; mix untill a ball of dough forms. Don't worry if the mixture doesn't has the exact ball shape; it just needs to stick together and be really elastic and smooth. Then grease a clean bowl with some sunflower oil (just a little!) and put the 'ball' of dough in the bowl, and cover up with some plastic foil and let is rise/rest for 25 minutes.

Take 1/3 of the dough, and roll out the dough on your work sheet as big as your baking tin (and your hands, your rolling pin, your dough and your work sheet NEED to be smeared with flour! or you won't be able to get the dough of your hands/work sheet. Then furnish your baking tin (bottom and sides) with baking foil, and cover your bottom with the rolled out square of dough. Then take the rest of the dough, and roll it out into a square of 25 x 50 cm. Mix the softened butter, the sugar and the cinnamon and grease the entire dough square with this mixture. Then roll the dough, from the long side, so you get a 50 cm long roll. Then cut the roll into twenty slices/'coins' (each 2 cm thick). Then put every slice flat in the baking tin (it doesn't matter if the rolls touch eachother, they'll rise anyway!). Whip the egg and grease the rolls with the whipped egg. Let is rise for 15 minutes.

Now but the rolls into the oven for 20-25 minutes. If they're golden brown, rising and deliciously-smelling, they're ready!! Cut the rolls between the 'curls' and eat them warm on a rainy afternoon.

Sex and the City's Flirtini recipe

This is a recipe which i found while watching an episode of SATC. The fact that this cocktail originates from a show that great, is enough to make me wanna try. You too?
Also, I made these cocktails at my seventeenth birthday, and believe it or not, after 3 glasses of this, you really will flirt with any one....

1/5 vodka
2/5 champagne
2/5 pineapple juice

Very simple; just mix these ammounts of ingredients, either in each glass or in one big bowl (which is really easy when throwing a party). But make sure those three ingredients are well chilled before making the cocktail; put them in your fridge for at least two hours. You can even chill the glasses in your fridge.

Recipe: chocolate raspberry pavlova

Since I've  promised to put my favourite recipes out there, here's one of my favourite desserts. Really, i believe Nigella Lawson could make anything taste good, so the fact that this is one of the best cakes ever, is no surprise. But be cautious though; eggwhites are really tricky. Make sure you do NOT overbeat the eggwhites (that will remove the air in the eggs and the cake will fail rising), but beat the eggs well enough so it is stiff and you can turn the bowl upside down, without everything dropping on the floor! Good luck, and really, this pavlova is incredible!

INGREDIENTS

• 
• 

FOR THE CHOCOLATE MERINGUE BASE:

• 6 egg whites
• 300g caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, sieved
• 1 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar
• 50g dark chocolate, finely chopped

FOR THE TOPPING:

• 500ml double cream
• 500g raspberries
• 2-3 tablespoons coarsely grated dark chocolate

METHOD

Serves: 8-10.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form, and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar, and the chopped chocolate. Then gently fold everything until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. Mound on to a baking sheet in a fat circle approximately 23cm in diameter, smoothing the sides and top. Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 150°C/gas mark 2 and cook for about one to one and a quarter hours. When it's ready it should look crisp around the edges and on the sides and be dry on top, but when you prod the centre you should feel the promise of squidginess beneath your fingers. Turn off the oven and open the door slightly, and let the chocolate meringue disc cool completely.
3. When you're ready to serve, invert on to a big, flat-bottomed plate. Whisk the cream till thick but still soft and pile it on top of the meringue, then scatter over the raspberries. Coarsely grate the chocolate so that you get curls rather than rubble, as you don't want the raspberries' luscious colour and form to be obscured, and sprinkle haphazardly over the top, letting some fall, as it will, on the plate's rim.