Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake (vegan)

This is a recipe I tried out a while ago, and this time it turned out a success!! I found the recipe from this site Dora Daily. You can follow the recipe on there or you can wonder in my step by step picture directions! 

 Ingredients: 

• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 Cups Sugar
• ¾ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• ½ Cup Melted Vegan Butter
• 2 Tbs Ground Flax Seed
• 1 Cup Almond Milk
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Black Coffee
• 1 Cup Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Vegan Butter
• ⅛ Cup Agave or maple Syrup
• 
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 190 C.

Mix together almond milk and apple cider vinegar.

Add vanilla essence.

Add coffee.

Add flax seed.

Add melted butter and whisk to combine.

Add flour to sieve.

Add baking soda, baking powder, and salt to sieve.

Add unsweetened cocoa powder to sieve and then proceed to sift all the dry ingredients.

Add sugar.

Whisk until combined.

Divide into 9 inch cake pans (I divided it between 3 cake pans)

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean.

While it's baking, start to make the frosting. Add peanut butter to a bowl.

Add butter.

Add sweetener (I used maple syrup).

Whisk until smooth.

Place in fridge until ready to use.

When cake is cool, frost your cake. Frost each layer and then a final layer on top.

The finished cake!!

It may not look as glorious as the cake in the link, but it was incredibly tasty and so moist! I made it for my sister's birthday back in February and we demolished it. It's when baking ends in results as good as this that I don't feel demotivated when it goes so, so wrong. 

Fem

A Perfect Day

Yesterday really was a perfect day. It was one of those days where everything was wonderful even though it was just simple activities such as eating, drinking, and spending time with friends. The day started, how any good day starts, with food. For me and my friend, that meant a long lunch at Bagels and Beans. 

This is one of my favourite cafes in Tilburg. It's where I go when I want to study by myself and enjoy a coffee, or meet up with friends for a bite to eat. I must admit that sometimes the service can be slow but the food more than makes up for it when that does happen. I had a mushroom burger bagel with truffle mayonnaise and my friend had the breakfast bagel that comes with natural cream cheese and jam. 

Of course it could not be a perfect day without dessert. I went for the brownie and my friend went for the cheesecake. I could not finish it all but we enjoyed later with our fancy dinner (I'm starting to think that food was the sole reason this day was perfect to me). After our lunch we strolled around the city centre for a while which was made even better by the sunny weather. My friend's mum lives in Tilburg so we decided to make a detour to her apartment to say hello/use her toilet. 

Her mum was super lovely, providing us with drinks and snacks when we got there. We consumed them outside on her balcony which had the most beautiful view of Tilburg I have ever seen. 

When we were done chatting, me and my friend made our way back home to have dinner. The sunny weather meant that we fancied something light so she ended up making this amazing salad. It consisted of avocado, spring onion, tomatoes and marinated turkey... it was so good! 

It was another good friend's birthday this month so we headed our way to the 'Ladies Night' she had organised to celebrate. I had been to one before so I was super excited as I knew how much fun it was. Lets just say it's a tupperware party for ladies without the tupperware...

The night ended with some purchases, some drinking games and some funny conversations. I think why yesterday was so perfect for me, is that I couldn't think of anything that would have made it any better!

Fem

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Cocktails and the Theatre

Last night was meant to be a short theatre play and then back to bed. But on the way back home, me and my friend thought we would just pop into this cocktail bar and stay for one drink... I think most people know where this is going.

I will first talk about the theatre before I talk about the cocktail escalation. My friend had bought us two tickets to see a Dutch comedy play the day before, first to improve my Dutch (my oral exam is next week) and second to support her friend. I'm always skeptical about small theatre productions due to some bad experiences where I kind of cringe all the way through, trying to control my laughter. There was a particular performance that started this fear, a Tempest play where Ariel was played by a man in a thong (and nothing else!) who had been spray-painted silver. It might be a sign of immaturity, but I challenge anyone to take a play seriously when you have bare, silver bottom right up in your face... did I mention I was in the front row? Anyway, I had my doubts as I entered the theatre but I was I wrong to do so. The play was brilliant! It was really, really funny and well acted, and I could even follow the Dutch for most of the play. Also the actors did a dance number while dressed up as various fruits!

After the performance we stopped off in Tilburg to grab one drink. We went to Havana, a wonderful cocktail place that apparently was the place to be, although I had never heard of it in my four years of living in Tilburg. I now understand why it is so popular! The cocktails were beautifully presented and super delicious! After the our first cocktails (I had a Blueberry Lavender and my friend had a June Bug) we were already a little merry and I think it was this mood that led us to getting two more and some snacks.

We ordered some Spanish cheese, Twister Fries, a Rum Runner and a Lieutenant.  As it was Tiki Thursday, they came in these really cool glasses, and with the hot weather we have been having recently, it did feel like we were on holiday at that point. After two cocktails we had become more than merry and started inviting anyone we were messaging at that point. Luckily only two out of those many came, and we ended the night talking nonsense (the best kinds of conversations in my opinion) with them. All in all I learnt that I should not be so fearful of small theatre productions, and that I should know by now that only one drink will never lead to an early night in bed. 

Fem