Sophisticated Chocolate Cake

Now this cake has class, don't you think?  :) I had promised my aunt to bring a cake to a dinner party she was planning, but my day turned out to be more hectic than I had expected, so I turned to something nice and easy - a simple, old fashioned chocolate cake.

The dough was a basic, one tier chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream on top, but to spruce things up a little, I put a bit of mint into the cream, which really came through nicely. And last but not least, some quick and simple decorating can make a regular chocolate cake look a bit more glam - I melted some dark chocolate, spread it out on parchment paper, then drizzled a bit of melted white chocolate over it and let it set in the freezer. When it was completely set (I could use the time to get ready :) I just broke the chocolate into irregular pieces and stuck it on top of the chocolate mint buttercream.

The finished cake, half a minute before we ate it! I was really pleased with the results, since I put so little time into it.

Have you been baking anything recently? I've been experimenting with buckwheat... I'll let you know if I come up with something good!

xox,

Miss Diorista

How to Press Tofu

I've been experimenting with tofu for a few years, and I've come to quite like it. I'm not a vegetarian, but I still really enjoy vegetarian dishes, and tofu is no exception. I especially love to fry it (both in chunks and chopped up in stir-fry), as well as use it in smoothies (silk tofu, that is). However, in order to be able to fry it, you have to know how to press it first.

When serving fried tofu to some friends for dinner a few days ago, they asked me how I had cooked it. I noticed that when it came to pressing the tofu before frying, nobody knew how to do it. While quickly explaining it at the dinner table, I thought that I should probably do a short tutorial on this here, too - no one should be kept away from enjoying tofu because they don't know how to prep it for cooking, it's so simple to do!

1) Buy a block of tofu. If you are going to press and fry it, choose firm tofu. Lay a cloth on a dish, and the block of tofu on top of the cloth (you can wash the cloth afterwards, don't worry).

2) Wrap the cloth over and around the tofu, so it is completely covered.

3) Lay a plastic bag over the tofu and the cloth (this is for protection, see the next step).

4) Lay heavy books on top of the plastic bag - I usually use those two cooking books you see above.

Now leave this standing like this for about an hour. The heavy books will press the excess water out of the tofu, resulting in a sturdier block of tofu. If necessary, change the cloth after about half an hour, since the pressing won't be as effective if the cloth is already soaking wet.

After this, your tofu is ready to be used and cooked as you like! If you've never tried tofu before, I encourage you to try some, it's a great addition to a healthy diet.

Love,

Miss Diorista

Make your polish live longer!

Sadly for us polish addicts, polish goes bad with time. However, there are a few things you can do to help it live longer. Some keep it in the fridge... I personally have too big a stash for that, if I were to fit all my nail polish into my fridge, I'd have to give up eating food and start eating chilled nail polish!

What I do instead, is that every now and then, I clean the edges of my polish jars. This is a bit time consuming so I only do it every two or three months or so, but it really does help. Why? You know when you paint your nails, how a bit of nail polish always goes on those edges of the jars? Well, that dries and then it adds up really fast when you do your nails again. And over time, this allows air into the jar of nail polish, which makes it dry and go bad faster. Cleaning up the edges of the jar stops this process.

On the picture above is all you need:

• A jar of polish to clean up (above is OPI's Who The Shrek Are You?)
• Nail polish remover
• Cotton swabs

Open the jar of polish and put the brush aside for a second.



Now dip the cotton swab into the polish remover and remove the polish from the edges as shown above. You're done, easy peasy! Don't forget to close the jar though, haha!

Love

Miss Diorista

Are you scared of your eyelash curler?

I'm that girl who started curling her eyelashes years after everyone else... and then after some time, something happened (I should add that about five beloved eyelashes ended their too-short-lives when that "something" happened ;), I got scared and stopped curling my lashes. I tried a few "curling" mascaras as an alternative, but the results were just not good enough. So I decided to be brave, and now I'm back to my eyelash curler, which has never felt so loved!

I know for a fact that I'm not the only girl who has said no to beautifully curled lashes because of her "fear". So since I got over things and am right now blinking my eyes to show off my lush-lashy lashes (yes, I absolutely had to write that, hah!), I thought I'd share the few tips which helped me when I was healing from the "eyelash curler trauma"! Enjoy!

• Eyelash curlers simply look scary. That's a fact, we all know it, so get over it and don't let it scare you away. Maybe you could look for a pink one? :)
• Find the eyelash curler which suits your eye shape. Not all curlers are the same, your friend's favourite might be your worst bet, so ask around (you can usually get help at stores) and find your perfect match. And remember that the most expensive ones don't necessarily have to be the best!
• Never curl your lashes when you're in a hurry. Always make sure that you have plenty of time, and take all the time you need.
• Curl your lashes when you're alone, and make sure that nothing and nobody can surprise you when you're curling. I've heard some scary stories in which a person unexpectedly walks by and well... you know the story!
• Never curl your lashes with mascara on! It really, really increases the risk of you accidentally ripping off all your lashes.
• Curl with your eye closed (that is, if you're curling on your left eye, keep the left eye closed but the right one open so that you can see what you are doing). It seems to me that everybody curls their lashes with both of their eyes wide open, which I can't understand how is possible. Actually seeing the device in front of my eye freaks me out, which leads to me jerking away, and therefore again, increasing the risk of an accident.
• If curling your left eye, don't blink your right eye while you´re doing it. You could accidentally blink both eyes, which is a recipe for lash-loss!
• If your eyes are irritated, or they feel dry, don't even dream of curling your eyelashes. You could accidentally blink your eyes in the middle of curling your lashes.

That's it for the safety tips I've got for you, but for a more beautiful curl, read on ;)

• First, curl the roots of your lashes. Hold for 3-5 seconds. Then move your curler to the middle of your lashes, hold again for 3-5 seconds, and finally, curl the tips of your lashes. This method will give you very beautifully and completely curled lashes.
• Waterproof mascara usually tends to hold the curl a bit better throughout the day than a regular one, but keep in mind that waterproof formulas are usually harder to remove and can dehydrate your lashes, so don't use it every day!

I really hope this helped some of you! Really, I found out myself that there is nothing to be afraid of if you're just careful enough, and do things slowly, so don't be scared!

xox.

Miss Diorista

P.S. Picture from http://morningbounce.wordpress.com/

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus