Meh, it's my life :)

As the days go on, I feel lighter and brighter. In fact, I’ve been busy baking some treats and enjoying the sunshine today – which is a natural mood booster as we all know.

Yesterday I made a small pot of tea (for the first time in a long time) instead of drinking from a workman’s mug and treated myself to cake fresh out of the oven.

It was apple and walnut crumble cake from Delia Smith’s How to Cook: Book One. And it was rather scrummy…

Yesterday, my chocolate pot proved three things:

1. A dessert is only improved if you serve it in a teacup.

2. You don’t need cream for a chocolate pot.

3. Lindt chocolate is heavenly.

Sadly, I had to sacrifice half of my Lindt rabbit left over from Easter (yes, it really does take me ages to eat chocolate), but it was for a Greater Good. This dessert was amazing (even if I do say so myself, and I do) and it took me back to the time when we visited a chocolatier in Rennes…

I remember the creamy, rich hot chocolate in a silver pot that, when poured, issued an aroma so delicious I was put off packet mix hot chocolate for life.

I remember the chocolate gateau with the white chocolate flower on top. I was allowed to eat it because I’d just passed a piano exam.

I remember thinking that we were the most glamourous people in the world, not then knowing about the exquisite Parisian chocolatiers in existence.

I also remember it took us forever to find the place.

Recipe here.

This. This is hot chocolate. I will forever be faithful to real cocoa and refuse to insult my body with packet hot chocolate mixes with their addictive hydrogenated vegetable oils and soy lecithin. 

The-Oh-My-Goodness-I’m-So-Stressed Hot Chocolate Recipe.

• A mug of soy milk
• A cube of Hershey’s 100% cocoa baking chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar (or a teaspoon if, like me, you like bitter hot chocolate)
• a vanilla pod

Heat everything in a saucepan and when the chocolate has melted, whisk like crazy.

What do you eat when something you’ve been waiting for, dreaming about and tweeting about for months finally comes around… but isn’t as good as you thought?

What do you eat when twelve years of formal education end with fifteen exams?

What do you eat when the next time you’re in a lesson, it will be an A-Level class 6000 miles away?

The answer: quiche.

Three reasons why:

1. It’s almost summer and too warm for something comforting like vegetable hot pot.

2. Didn’t have enough apples for apple crumble.

3. Forgot the last reason. Probably along the lines of: “I felt like it.”

Recipe here. 

kari-shma:

24 Hours of Photographs Merged into a Single Panoramic Image

This amazing panoramic photograph (known as a stereographic projection) was recently captured by Greek photographer Chris Kotsiopoloulos during a mammoth 30-hour photo shoot in Sounio, Greece. The image is comprised of hundreds of photographs shot from daytime to nighttime that have been digitally stitched together to represent an entire rotation of the Earth (via: colossal)

Calligraphy store, Tokyo.

The blossom is out - let the hanami parties begin!

Crazy menu in a cafe in Ginza…

Street food at the sakura matsuri, Yasakuni Shrine.

mo--miji asked: Dude, when I saw your url, I got SUPER excited. I'm vegan & hoping to, you know, at least visit Japan, so um...hi. I also think elephants, hot chocolate, & breakfast are pretty rad, lol. Thanks for following! <3

Haha that’s awesome! You should definitely visit Japan - I love it here :)