Home baked black forest cake

There need not be any special occasion to bake and eat a cake.
I just decided to give a try at home by baking a black forest cake. 
Well I have not given any precise measurements here since it's not a chef's recipe. In layman's term lets say, I used half a packet of Betty Crocker's  dark chocolate cake. I baked it at 180C for 35 minutes and let it cool on a rack. I then cut them into 6 circular shapes to make 3 smaller cakes. I found that it would be easier to decorate smaller shaped cakes and would also curb the temptation of eating larger amounts of cake. (not to be so diet conscious but still it would be better to be on the safer side)

I then sprinkled these cakes with some cherry syrup which comes in tinned or bottled cherries from the supermarket. If you do not have the syrup just dilute a little jam with water (you can choose your desired taste maybe strawberry, raspberry or any other flavors).  Keep in mind do not over drizzle your cake with extra syrup to avoid it from soaking too much liquid which will later just fall apart. Refrigerate these cakes for around 10-15 minutes; maybe in a chiller.

In the meantime, I whipped thick cream again I added little sugar to avoid too much sweetness. Add one teaspoon of vanilla essence.

 Next thing I grated some cooking chocolate for garnishing the cakes.

The next step is to chop down some cherries into smaller bits for garanishing.

Here is a picture of the main ingredients ready to assemble the cakes.

And then finally it was time to assemble each mini black forest cake, each with two layers of the cut cakes.  First drop a dollop of cream one one layer, then add in some cherries, now layer it with another cake and do the same layering again.. finally just roll it in the chocolate shavings and refrigerate your cakes for a while before you can eat them. deliciousness!

P.S. --Well I could not wait to eat those pretties so I didn't bother to click better pictures of the all 3 mini black forest cakes together. :)
If you a looking for a proper black forest cake recipe I would recommend the below link from Alia. Its very easy when you do it yourself.
Mini black forest cakes

Envisaging the current era

New world order or shift in human consciousness or should I say global awakening. There is an overload of too much information in the form of articles and videos related to these posts in just few years. Well, we all know that since many years there were few isolated people who would take this belief very seriously. But in recent years with the onset of recession, natural disasters and cold wars within nations it looks like there has been a slow shift in the human consciousness.

More people talk about it openly; you might also find a lot of related programs on the television hosted by various reputed people like the famous physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, Morgan Freeman (Through the wormhole) and the list goes on.

In the Indian mythology belief, this era is termed as the 'Kaliyuga' which transcribes as the 'age of vice' or the so called Dark age which will pass away and later result in a change in the human consciousness. Every culture or a civilization followed some beliefs. Who were these people from a super civilization (so called Atlantis) prior to our present time? Well, that will take us off the topic, so maybe let’s take that road for another time to contemplate. 

The most talked about is the Mayan belief which followed a calendar claiming that there would be some changes to occur in our world very soon.

Needless to say with an increase in the consistency of natural disasters occurring all over the world something seems to be fishy. At the same time various cold wars are propelling all over different continents. It seems like an invisible ‘ghost’ or ‘secret society’ is proliferating the world.

Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce might not be absolutely precise as their predictions were foretold many years ago and people are yet waiting for some of their predictions to come true. Some self-prophesied prophets are always there around trying to foretell looming events. The most contemporary forecast which might seem very vague in relation to Japan’s earthquake this year was 9Nania's Channel on you-tube where the woman predicted an earthquake few days ahead of Japan’s quake although she could not pinpoint the exact location.

After reading Clifford Pickard’s book ‘Surfing Through Hyperspace’, it makes me think will the future be a place fairly, where people will be able to have time-slips and travel through dimensions. Will it be good or bad or for personal gain. Will all people be able to validate this or will it be gifted to certain people.

What would be your take on this? Do you think will this be a big change or some kind of mass destruction or new world order or some kind of invisible shifts between different dimensions and conscious.

Hand embroidered tote-bag

Here is one of my hand embroidered tote bags. It's embroidered with cross stitch and I love the lace trimmings used as straps which are strong and and durable.

In my mind today!

Small Cute Kitten

Watch this video. I just happened to see it on you tube and it already has got 9 million views and it reminds us of how God creates adorable things in this world.

Hand made paper roses and glass bottle & jars vase.

Here it another craft item that I created.  This time I recycled glass honey jars and a small bottle.  To begin with first I took some sequined laces and wrapped it round the glass bottle and placed flowers in it.  It was quite simple and effortless.
 

The next thing I did was I took two empty honey mini-jars.  I just wrapped brown satin fabric around it and secured it with embroidery stitches on it. Then I just put a lace trimming near the top part of the jar.  The red roses placed in one of the jar are hand made from paper.  You just need to cut strips of one inch and keep folding them as your turn in round the centre of the flower.

Paper roses on a dried twig

The other day I happened to see a tutorial of how to make roses out of paper strips. I had made few roses and stuck it to a recycled tissue box.  Since the paper making flower bug bit me, I decided to make more roses.  I made roses out of red colour paper.  After making these roses I needed to place them on a stand or in a vase. Now I did not have any spare vase but I had some empty bottle which was washed and dry from inside.  I stepped out in the garden and the weather was sweltering hot during the summer.  I saw so many dried and dead plants and shrubs; half of the garden was dried up without any greenery left.  I plucked out one of the dried twigs and felt let us make it alive again.

I grabbed a cellophane tape and stuck the paper roses around the dried twig. It looked pleasing to me and I placed the twig in the glass bottle. See the below pictures of the paper roses on a dried twig.

Recycle your empty tissue box into a vintage box

Well the other day I had some free time on my hand and I wanted to do some creative stuff.  But i did not know from where to begin.  I started clearing my desk and while I was cleaning I came across this empty tissue box. Now I have always thrown away empty tissue boxes and this time since i wanted to kill time with creativity I decided to recycle this tissue box.

I looked around and grabbed some A4 size colour paper that was not being used by me since a long time. I grabbed a cellophane tape and staplers. This was what i had with me.

I picked up pink coloured paper and cut them into strips and started making paper roses out of them. I must have made nearly ten roses out of the coloured paper.

The next thing i took was some cream coloured paper and covered the empty tissue box with it.

I glued and stapled the roses on the boxes and i wanted to give it a feel of vintage.  I felt something was missing. Hmm. Finally i took a black paper and cut it out in the shape of a black bird and just perched it atop the roses on the box and voila! I made an empty tissue box into a reusable box.  I kept few things in it and everyone admires it when they see it. Here are two images of the box that I recycled
 

chilii chicken (indo-chinese)

This dish is very yummy I have tried it many times and it comes out very well. You can also add flat noodles.

Foods For Long Life: Agave Sweetened Vegan Granola - Make Your Own Omega 3 Rich Oat Cereal Packed With Heart Healthy Nuts And Seeds

Foods For Long Life: Agave Sweetened Vegan Granola - Make Your Own Omega 3 Rich Oat Cereal Packed With Heart Healthy Nuts And Seeds