A birthday cake that is a chocolate bomb and a week to forget


Whenever I mention being grateful for the life I lead and the way I am able to lead it, something bad happens. Not something truly terrible, not something dreadful, life threatning, but something nasty, bad, unlucky, something worrisome enough to take away my sleep and my peace of mind.Whenever I proclaim publicly how happy and grateful I truly am, despite constantly sounding like a whining bitch, I get hit by a bout of small problems, that even though they do not kill you, they grind at you. And that can be extremely tiresome, and depressing. To the point you just want to give up on the whole of things, shut down the world, shut yourself out of the world, curl up and sleep.


I'm always mistified by those people who are constantly harping about how happy they are and how grateful they are and to whom so much good happens, all the time, and the more they state their gratitude and the more they recognize and acknowledge their happiness, the more good things get thrown their way, or so they claim. Because with me, it is always the contray. The more I publicly acknowledge my happiness, the more I publicly state my gratitude towards all the goodness I have in my life - and this is no small amount, believe you me! - the more bad stuff keeps happening, annoying little things, constant problems and worries and preoccupations. As if the fact that I state my happiness is offensive to the universe. As if the mere fact that I admit t being blessed, and grateful, and happy, is offensive to the universe. Or to someone, who then will wish bad things on me.


The fact is, I am a firm believer of other people's energies. The way they can direct negative energies your way. And I have always felt like I always happen to have someone in my life, be it virtually or phisically - remember I have a rotten finger choosing my friends!! - who is offended by my happiness, or my gratitude, or the fact that I am thouroughly content with my lot in life, despite the fact that I do want to progress, and grow, and better myself and my work. I always feel that if I vent out how truly happy I am, if I show the universe and the world at large how truly grateful for my lot in life I really am, someone will get offended by it and start wishing me some clouds to rain over my parade.


Just last month I spoke about how truly blessed I feel I am, how lucky I know I am to be able to live my life, with all I have in it. I mentioned my happiness, my gratitude, which I don't often do, because, well, as I said above, shit tends to happen whenever I do, and lo and behold! the moment I put it out there, to the universe, my acknowledgement of how lucky I am in the life I lead, how much I have been granted, how wonderful my life is... things start going wrong. Wrong to the point where I have been unable to photograph for this blog and update it with the regularity I like to keep up. There was a moment there when I said to myself I was just going to give up on this and let the blog die out. Stop blogging alltogether, then maybe life would go back to normal and to peacefulness. I actually thought about letting myself be defeated by these happenings.


And then I decided I refuse to be coward by this. I decided to turn something that is bad into something that is not so bad. And hope and pray and believe things will eventually go back to normal. So what if I cannot keep up with my two posts a week, for a while now? I'll do one post a week, if I can manage that, and if not, well, I'll post whenever I can. It's not as if I have deadlines or responsabilities attached to this blog that I must keep up with. So, with all the shit that happened last week, I chose to look at it with a different mindset, and regarded the unexpected - and unwanted - spend of money as something that in the long run will prove to have been for the best, and all the minor adjustments we had to do as something that will indeed end up being for the best, and even the fact that I lost my identity card I am seeing it as a benefit of sorts, because now I can go and have a new one made, one of those state of the art modern ID's that I still did not have!


Because in the mids of all hell breaking loose around me, there were these seemingly little things, seemingly unimportant things, that swelled my heart, that made it all better, that rendered me hopeful and put a smile and a thank you on my lips. Like this cake. I celebrated my forty third birthday just last Sunday, and even though it was such a small affair, only in the company of my husband and our son, with only family members calling to wish me a happy birthday, it was peaceful, and restful, and good. We had our fun, and the cake, though it might look wonky and not blogger material, was to die for. I mean, how could it not be to die for, when it was covered in thick, gooey, rich chocolate? If you care to try it out, this was a simple vanilla sponge, with simple chocolate ganache.


For the sponge you'll need:

  • 150 gr flour, sifted
  • 150 gr butter at room temperature
  • 150 gr sugar (100 gr is enough, really, unless you want it sweet)
  • 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
Start by turning on your oven at 180º, and butter and flour a bundt pan - or any other you might prefer! Cream the butter and the sugar until it's fluffy and white, then add the flour with he baking powder, alternating with the eggs. Mix thouroughly and fold the vanilla seeds. Pour this batter into the tin and cook in the oven for about 35 minutes. Once it is thoroughly cooked, let it cool on a rack and then take it out of the tin, onto a plate and allow it to cool some more, until it is at room temperature.


As for the ganache, you need:

  • 200 gr good quality dark chocolate
  • a drizzle of coffee - espresso will be the best
  • 250 ml heavy cream
  • a small knob of butter
On a pan, over low heat, bring the cream and espresso to a simmer. Remove from the heat and drop the chocolate, broken into chunks, inside it. Stir, utnil it has completely melted and add the knob of butter - this will make the ganache look silkier, and shiny. Let it cool and proceed with covering the cake with this ganache. Allow the whole to cool in the fridge until it's serving time.



Comments

  1. Rita14 October 2015 at 20:06

    Não há nada melhor que um monte de chocolate para levantar a moral, e esse bolo parece delicioso! O que quer que seja que tenha acontecido espero que o ultrapasses, tens o que é mais importante e precioso para ti ao teu lado! Parabéns atrasados e um beijinho, força nisso!

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  2. Aida15 October 2015 at 15:11

    ó minha querida Ruth pudesse eu aliviar-te do the burden of life and I would my dearest! deixa lá que eu nem falo assim tanto da minha vida e olha que nem por isso deixo de trazer o mundo às costas! mas entendo-te perfeitamente e sei como te sentes e o que apetece fazer a maior parte das vezes - um dia faremos melhor. deve ser por não te conhecer pessoalmente mas conhecer-te já tão bem, passo o paradoxo, que gosto tanto de ti. temos mesmo de nos conhecer in loco. boa sorte para com tudo, muita força para o que vier e quando puderes coimbra espera por ti!
    um grande beijinho, renovo os meus votos de muitos parabéns pelo teu aniversário e por este bolo magnífico que deve ter feito o deleite dos teus mais queridos!
    lindas as fotos, como sempre!

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  3. amberhella16 October 2015 at 12:50

    Não csgo comentar :( bem, a ver se é desta!!
    Parabéns mais uma vez dear!!! E que belo bolo!!
    Eu sinto o mm q tu, sp q me mostro otima algo acontece... shit happens....!!!! Mas mm qd n mostro... tb acontece!!!!! Acho mm q o facto d tu seres uma mulher c uma família feliz, q n trabalha, tem uma mente moderna, aberta, é criativa e inteligente, deve fazer confusão a muita gente! Gente q n tem problemas a sério nas suas vidas e vive disto. ://
    Pensamentos positivos SEMPRE, e rodeada de gente c good vibes.

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    Replies
    1. Ruth Miranda17 October 2015 at 17:07

      É, de facto preciso de mais gente com good vibes relativamente a mim na minha vida, que estou demasiado habituada a estar rodeada de gente que me acha um bocadinho uma merda looool!!!

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    2. amberhella26 October 2015 at 20:56

      shitttyyyy pplllll

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  4. Danny18 October 2015 at 20:03

    vou começar por dar-te os parabéns, muito atrasados! esse bolo bom aspeto tem, que maravilha de cobertura.
    eu quando estou numa boa onda nem dou graças, fico sempre de pé atrás para não tentar o karma haha. espero que esses azares sejam coisas pequenas.

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  5. Ginger made in Japan1 November 2015 at 23:40

    Eu dei conta que estavas a postar menos mas ainda não tinha lido porquê. Se tens haters é porque tás a fazer alguma coisa bem não? E isso de não saberes escolher os amigos, opá, não são ricos amigos! Também acredito imenso na energia dos outros à minha volta e como isso me afecta e noto claramente o efeito que tem em mim quando deixo invejosos e frustrados verem as minhas coisas boas - daí manter o meu grupinho pequeno :)
    Fico mesmo contente que não tenhas desistido do blog mas concordo com a ideia de não haver deadlines, afinal não é trabalho. Já há tantas chatices e pressões, para quê criar mais uma num lugar que devia ser de escape? Tenho lido muita gente a queixar-se disso!
    Finalmente, filho da mãe desse bolo, ca bom aspecto :c

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    Replies
    1. Ruth Miranda2 November 2015 at 10:53

      Ahahahaha Inês, não me cheira que tenha haters nesse sentido. E não, não sei escolher os amigos - sabes aquele tipo de mulher que quando se envolve numa relação amorosa é sempre com o mesmo tipo de pessoa, e depois dá sempre mau resultado? Eu sou assim em relações de amizade, envolvo-me sempre com pessoas que por alguma razão me tocam a alma, com as quais EU sinto uma qq ligação profunda, pelas quais dou por mim capaz de fazer tudo e de estar sempre lá para elas, convenço-me de que é uma amizade recíproca e depois ao longo do tempo vou dando por sinais, sentindo certas mágoas pq n tenho em troca aquilo que dou, pq dou p mim magoada p essas pessoas, pq ou me sinto usada ou me sinto invejada ou me sinto "roubada" de certas coisas por essas mesmas pessoas. E é um padrão, um padrão o qual eu tenho mm muita dificuldade em quebrar, e dou p mim a não confiar no meu discernimento relativamente ás amizades, pq de facto não são ricos amigos não, mas eu é que me convenci que sim. Enfim, é complicado explicar mas é uma realidade que com os anos tenho vindo a verificar em mim.

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