Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Chocolate Raspberry Forest Cake
This ain’t no Black Forest Cake recipe. Just saying, before you freak out… ‘Cause anytime I tell someone I Black Forest Cake I’m met with horror and disgust. Am I really the only thirty-something in North America who will admit to loving Black Forest Cake? Hands up if you’re with me… *Crickets* Anywho, let’s move…
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Christmas Magic Cookie Bar
“How do you say… De-groovy? How do you say… De-gorgeous? Oh la la, la la la la la la……..” Yes, this magic cookie bar recipe evokes, for me, the psychedelic, over-the-top music video for Dee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart. (Which is also coincidentally the first album I ever purchased back when cassettes were still…
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Candy cane heart cupcake toppers
You know those teeny candy canes that you never seem to know what to do with? I always seem to have hundreds lying around. If you don’t trim your tree with them, or eat a few every day for the month of December, they just end up in the trash. I decided to put them…
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Candy cane cream cheese cherry coffee cake
I’m no Sandra Lee, otherwise known as Food Network’s Semi-Homemade host, who Anthony Bourdain once famously characterized as low-hanging fruit. But I do enjoy taking a shortcut every now and then. And if anyone wants to question me on that: I haven’t slept in 6 years, I’ve got two rambunctious kids, a career, and a…
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Spiced chocolate cupcakes with eggnog buttercream
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who love eggnog and those who don’t. If you don’t love eggnog, you might love this spiced chocolate cupcake with eggnog buttercream anyway. It’s chocolatey without being cloying and has just the right amount of spice to remind you it’s Christmas but you’re not being…
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Dare to dream: My Christmas wish list
Indeed, I’ve kept up this tradition of posting my Christmas wish list every year since I started this blog. But as I’ve grown older, wiser, and busier, I try to drop any unnecessary tasks from my life that seem like a chore. So when writing this blog entry began to feel like a chore in…
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Pistachio baklava cake
Baklava for me was always an indulgence. Something to be eaten at special occasions and in small quantities. Whether it was the Middle Eastern type with pistachios, the Bulgarian variety with walnuts, the Armenian kind – scented with cinnamon, honey-drenched Greek baklava or modern interpretations that involve chocolate – I love baklava. And when the…
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Pomegranate rose-water persimmon pavlova
This recipe may have been doomed from the start with a name like “The Sultan’s Pavlova: Ottomans Come Down Under.” With every ingredient I purchased, with every stir of my spoon, with every step all I could think was that the Armenian genocide unfolded during the Ottoman Empire under some Sultan’s orders and that I…
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Chocolate-covered fresh figs
You either love figs or you don’t. I adore figs. I enjoy straight out of the basket, or their tops slivered and then stuffed with a dollop of ricotta and a drizzle of honey, I’ll eat them dried, or even roasted. I’ll take them any colour. But only when they are perfectly ripe. In any…
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Chocolate salami aka saucisson au chocolat
A salami that is actually made of chocolate and biscuits. Mind. Blown. I felt rather Heston Blumenthal-esque when I made this, presenting all that chocolatey goodness under different pretenses. Very wicked. Very original. Whimsical, too And then, I realized this was a very traditional dessert that’s been made in Europe for decades and decades. And…
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