Vegan Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Sauce

This cake makes a beautiful dessert cake. It is lovely with melted chocolate, as above, or with strawberries and cream. It is also lovely to have for afternoon tea as is, dusted with icing sugar or iced. To make it healthier you can replace all or some of the plain flour with wholemeal flour.

I try to keep the sugar intake for my family on the low side. It is OK to have things like this occasionally though. The important thing is that you eat healthy most of the time.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup cacao
1 teas bicarb soda
1/2 teas salt
1 teas vanilla
1 tab apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup water

Method

1) Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix well.

2) Melt coconut oil. Measure wet ingredients into a smaller bowl. Add the coconut oil. Don't worry if the coconut oil starts to solidify. Mix well.

3) Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well.

4) Place cake mixture into a lined loaf tin, approx. 22 x 14 cm.

5) Bake at 180'C (160' C fan forced) until cooked through. Do not overbake so cake stays moist. I forgot to time it, but I think it took approx. 40 mins.

6) Leave cake in tin for about 5 mins before removing.

7) Place on a cake rack to cool.

To Melt Chocolate

Put about 3cm of water in a saucepan. Sit a bowl on the saucepan, one that's big enough to be supported in the top of the saucepan.  Place chocolate melts or broken up chocolate in the bowl. Turn hot plate onto a low-medium heat. Heat slowly until chocolate melts.

If the choc goes hard instead of melting, you may have heated it too quickly. Another reason could be that a bit of water got into the chocolate. Even one drop of water may cause the chocolate to go hard.

Instagram Lovers :: Gratitude

Are you on Instagram? I'm on Instagram here at juliemaloney2. A couple of days ago, I set myself a challenge on Instagram. I'm taking one or more photos each day, of something that makes me feel happy, and/or grateful. I find that when I concentrate on the good things in my day, it makes me feel happier. I've only been doing this for two days, so far, but already I'm finding I'm constantly on the lookout for things to feel grateful for in my life. If you'd like to join me, I'm hash tagging them under #365daysofgratitude and also #juliemgratitude . Let me know if you join in and I'll follow your's too. I was going to just hash tag mine under #365daysofgratitude , but then I found heaps of photos on there and I wanted to have my own list of photos to look back on. Maybe you could have your name with the word 'gratitude' after it too. If you're not on Instagram, just click on one of my Instagram photos over on the right hand side of my blog. You can view mine all there if you wish to.

Here are the photos I've put on Instagram over the past two days. If you click on my Instagram photos on the right hand side of my blog, you can see what I've written about each photo. 

I hope you're having a lovely weekend. 

Lots of love, Julie xxoo 

'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho

I've just finished reading this book and I thoroughly recommend it.

I'll share a few words with you, about what others have to say, about 'The Alchemist'.

" A remarkable tale about the most magical of all journeys: the quest to fulfill one's destiny. I recommend The Alchemist to anyone who is passionately committed to claiming the life of their dreams-today."
-Anthony Robbins, author of 'Awaken the Giant Within'.

"A most tender and gentle story. It is a rare gem of a book, and will most certainly touch the very core of every heart earnestly seeking its own destiny on the journey of life."
-Gerald G. Jampolsky, MD., coauthor of 'Change Your Mind, Change Your Life' and 'Love Is Letting Go Of Fear'.

"This is the type of book that makes you understand more about yourself and about life. It has philosophy, and is spiced with colors, flavors and subjects, like a fairy tale. A lovely book."
-Yedi'ot Aharonot (Israel)

I personally found this book hard to put down and it's a long time since I've felt that way about a book. I am wanting to re-read it, this time taking notes. There are so many life lessons in this book.

xxoo Julie

Self Care Without The Guilt

Sometimes it can be hard to take some time for your own self care without feeling guilty. There is always something else that we could be doing. We could be spending time with our kids, partner or doing something from our never ending list of jobs.

But the thing is, self care is very, very important. We need to spend some time regularly nurturing ourselves. We then have the energy and love to give to others, such as our family and friends. It also helps to keep YOU healthy and happy. 

To help with this.....self care without the guilt.......I'd like to share with you a little technique that I have used myself. It worked for me.

1) Get a large sheet of cardboard. You know, the ones they have at the newsagent or office supplies shop?

2) In the middle of the cardboard, attach a photo of yourself.

3) Around your photo, write down things that make you feel good. Things like we talked about in my recent post  Little Things That Make Me Happy. You can use different coloured textas and pencils if you wish.

4) On the bottom of your poster write something like:

* I need to regularly nurture myself. When I do this, I feel more relaxed and happy. I am then a better person to be around. I then have the energy and love to give to the people I care about. 

So, as you can see, you are NOT being selfish when you take some time out for yourself. It's a win win situation. You're happier and your family will be happier. Everyone benefits.

At the top of my blog I have a category called Nurturing Yourself.  If you click on it, you will see some links for lots of ideas of ways YOU can nurture yourself.

xxoo Julie 

Mothers Day 2013

Brad (15), Me, Josh (12)

Trying to keep Chloe (4 months) under control for a photo.

I love these guys. 

Second Hand Styling

Things of Stone and Wood

I'm feeling a little way out of my depth today, as I write a post on 'styling', but my good friend Kim over at Feather and Nest is beginning a new bit of linky fun today, and it's all about 'Second Hand Styling'. The details all about it and Kim's first post are here. Over the days and weeks, there should be more people joining in too, so you might like to check the links under Kim's post each week. She would also love it if you joined in the fun. Don't worry, you don't need to be an expert stylist, I'm far from it. It's all about showing off your second hand goodies, which Kim and I, both love.

So, with my heart beating rather fast, and a few lots of nerves, here we go. To all of you expert stylers out there, please excuse my attempts, it's my first go.

My second hand things that I've chosen to show you are:

*a tea towel, gifted to me from my Mum and Dad. They bought it on their overseas trip, from the Orkney Isles, which is where some of my ancestors came from.

* bread knife, which belonged to my husband's Nan.

* a timber cutting board, make from recycled fence palings, by my son and next door neighbour.

* plates, some gifted to me from Kim, and some I found at a garage sale. I hope to collect a lot more.

* tablecloth, that I discovered at a gift shop, selling second hand bits and pieces.

* these are all displayed on my Nana's  piano, that sits proudly at my home.

* loaf of bread was made by me this morning. Recipe is here.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my second hand bits and pieces. Don't forget to pop on over to Kim's, to have a look at her second hand bits of goodness and also check out the other links.

Have a lovely, lovely day.

Lots of love,

Julie xxoo

PMT

I woke up this morning feeling pretty crappy. It's PMT. I've read that if your body is in balance, you shouldn't experience PMT symptoms. PMT symptoms are a sign that something in your body is out of wack.  In the past I've had some horrible experiences with PMT. These days it usually isn't too bad. Some months are actually pretty good.

Today, my body is telling me that it needs some TLC. When I woke up this morning, this thought popped into my head.....I wish someone would look after me for a change. But, in reality, it's ME who needs to look after ME. I need to nurture myself.

Our body wants to feel good. If we tune into our body and listen to what it tells us, it will tell us what we need to do to feel better again. It will tell us what to do to bring our body back to balance.

So, this morning I helped everyone get organised, to start the day. Then it was my turn. I took our pup for a nice quiet walk outside. I find that I often get my answers while I'm in nature. As I walked slowly, I slowed my breathing down and I slowed my thoughts down. Slow, gentle breaths. Slow walking. I listened to what my body was telling me. It said....go slow.....be kind and gentle with yourself.....put the hot water bottle on your tummy......rest.......do a little bit of what you need to do today and then rest again.

As human beings, most of us find it pretty easy to be kind and gentle with others, but not always with ourselves. We need to make peace with ourselves. We need to be our own best friend. We need to look after ourself so we can be at our best as often as possible. But we are not machines. Actually machines break down sometimes too and they do make mistakes. We are human beings. We are perfectly imperfect, just how we're meant to be. When we get out of balance, and it will happen, we need to slow ourselves and our minds down and we need to tune in to what our body is asking for. Our body has the answers. It knows what we need. If we follow it's advice, we feel better quicker, and we can be on our merry way again.

In peace and love,
Julie xxoo