February 9, 2014

Pumpkin and Serah's Baking Adventures (PaSBA) #1: Chocolate Cake

After a rather long absence and unfulfilled promises to upload pictures of a certain supernova event, Serah has returned to the land of the cyber-oriented and with the gentle persuasion of Pumpkin, a new series (hopefully more long lived than Serah's previous series) is born!

Mission Statement: Every Tuesday we vow to bring you new recipes and baked goods! (Though posts may be published late) We seek to show the world that otakus and computer geeks alike can indeed cook!

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Today we present, The Chocolate Cake!
Sourced from the ever reliable taste.com, this chocolate cake turned out to be actually, pretty average, to be honest not exceptionally wonderful, but a great comfort food for some end of the day R and R.

We also created some lovely simple ganache which came out pretty much perfect.

S&P's Multi-purpose Super Simple Perfect Ganache (S&P MPSSPG)
-400g Chocolate (dark choc for some added richness)
-300g Cream

1)Melt over lightly simmering water.
2)Allow to thicken, pour over cooled cake for a thin layer of icing. OR allow to completely solidify in fridge and pipe or make into truffles.


Serah's Analysis
Taste: 7/10 : Not too rich and perfectly sweetened but somewhat lacking for the true chocolate fanatic.
Texture: 6/10 : The ganache icing helped, but slightly dry.
Difficulty: Easy : I would rate this pretty easy, but I've tasted much better chocolate cakes of the same difficulty.
Overall: Not bad, though not really worth making if you're looking for something more exceptional.


Pumpkin's Analysis
Taste: 7/10: You can definitely taste the chocolate.
Texture: 5/10: It's a little dry.
Difficulty: Super easy: You pretty much throw everything into one bowl and mix.
Overall: I wouldn't use this recipe again, you can find better recipes. Though the icing was superb considering the amount of sugar and cream we threw in it.

Nagi no Asukara - Episode 18 [v.P]

February 8, 2014

Pumpkin's Palette: Yato

While I'm on a roll, this one is for a dear friend Bella who loves Yato from Noragami.

Pumpkin's palette: Yukine

My pretty shouta boy Yukine from Noragami.
It's been a while since I last drew.

February 5, 2014

Flappy Bird [v.P]

I feel cheated. I want 2 hours of my life back. Don't ever download this game. It will ruin your life.

Wooser - Episode 5 [v.P]

Wooser parodied Kill la Kill and Donyatsu this week. I'd love it if it parodied UtaPri.

February 3, 2014

January 25, 2014

[Life] I love my tutoring job

I finally got my teaching evaluations/student feedback from the previous semester in the mail. I absolutely adore my students. I love my job teaching/tutoring maths & stats!! (Note: Phil is the course lecturer's name) lol!

January 24, 2014

[Life] Building my Valvrave and filling up my glass cabinet

I finally finished building my Valvrave! So happy and proud that I built this.
I bought a glass cabinet from IKEA to store all my goods, which dad and I spent 1.5 hours assembling Thursday morning.
The 4th tier stores my Pokemon and Doraemon goods. The plushies were from my uncle.
Third tier stores my "memories".  For example the souvenirs I bought when I went to Hokkaido, and the mini piano was a gift for a friend who I had accompanied her vocal performance during high school.
Second tier stores my anime figurines (including Tiger & Bunny, Ao no Exorcist, Hakuouki and Code Geass).
 First tier stores the bigger and more precious pieces.

January 16, 2014

Pumpkin's Palette: Midorima screen crack

The latest fanart craze in Japan is drawing your favourite anime character getting trapped inside your smartphone and with some of them cracking your phone screen.
The keyword for this style of art is "閉じ込めてみた", that is, "To look trapped". 
If you set these drawings as your phone lock screen or background it can look really realistic.
Examples:
A friend mentioned that "there is not enough midorimas in this world!!!", and so my latest work is to satisfy her cravings, that is to have Midorima crack her phone screen using his 3-pointer.
Have fun cracking your phone screen with Midorima!
Edit: Here is the crack screen in action.