elanya

So, Yesterday, what all did I do... I got up, showered, did some work on the dissertation (okay, not a lot of work but... mreh.)

I'd like to say I helped tidy the house, but it had mostly already been done. I'd slept in pretty late because EiS went pretty long. Anyway, Ian opened his presents, which was fun. He got much Coraline loot which I covet. I'd gotten him a copy of I'm Your Man, since his old one was scratched to hell and everyone deserves good quality LC ^-^

Around 4:30, I had to go to the library to drop off a book that was due. We discovered that a bakery had delivered a cake! Wooh! It was a little cake that Ian's mom had ordered for the party. Might I also add that Mary was half way through baking an after eight cake? Mmmm... minty and chocolaty... Right, so, library. On the way there, I ran into Dave, one of the guys in my course, who had been doing excavation in Italy (*emvy*). He said he had an awsome time, and that he found a huge gold, silver, bronze and pearl disc thing that was really cool. We chatted for a few min, but I had to run off before the library closed at '5'. I got there just in time to return things, luckily. The thought of overdue fines on interlibrary loan books scares me ;)

Aftewr that, I went over to the Star and Garter to socialize and drum up more interest in Ian's party. A lot of the people I talked to were either already coming or had made other plans, but I think I snagged a few more people.

I left around 6, since Ian had been planning on BBQing dinner. We had chicken marinated in rosemary and mead (yum!) with some quasi-tzaziki sauce with dill and mint and greek yogurt that Ian also made, plus peppers and stuff, in pitas. There was also beef, but it turned out to be a really crappy cut, and very tough, so we wound up feeding some to the cat and chucking the rest, unforunately. The cat being Jack, a tabby that hangs around, and comes in to visit/beg a lot. I think Jack is a girl but I stil call her Jack ;)

Before food, Mary finished icing the cake. Mmmm... sooo tasty. Also, she'd only made a three instead of a four layer cake, so there was even more icing left over... It got left out as a party snack and proved very popular ^-^ We also covered the thing with after-eight pieces.

After diner, we bummed around, hung out, and waited for people to come. We started watching The Curse of the Talisman, a dissapointing movie. It was not good, but also not bad enough to be cheesy. :/ People started showing up towards the end of that, and after the credits were on, a trailer for Quills came on. OSme people thought it looked fascinating in a 'why haven't I seen this movie!' kind of way. So we put that on. More people continued to show up, about half of whom I knew, and half of whom were random goths from the Sheffield Goth mailing list that M&I are on. Nice people, all of them, anyway. I mingled a bit, chatted, watched Quills, and then random tapes of Muppets got put on in the background while people chatted. I also instigated cake, arond 12, I think. There was a lot of loud singing of Happy Birthday and For He is a Jolly Good Fellow (it's an English thing. It was like watching England being concentrated into our kitchen. It was also very loud :). Hee. The cake Mary made was deeeelicious. And amazinlgly, it was the first cake she'd ever baked. Amazingly because I'm just surprised she'd never made a cake before. Anyway, it was really really good. Thanks again to Bronwen for the recipie. I'll post it here later once I yoink it back from Mary.

The goths sort of trickled out around two, which left a bunch of people that I knew behind, including Tim, Ken, Matt, Simon, and also a random goth guy whose name I never caught. They stayed for a while longer, and slowly trickled out themselves. The last to leave was Simon, although we did detain him for quite a while chatting about gaming stuff while Mary did some dishes.

With just the three of us left, we wandered back up to the attic room, and sat around cahtting and listening to music. We played a little 'show off our music' game, where one person plays a song, and the next person has until the end of the tune to find a song that is one degree of separation away from it, one way or another. It was, however, about 4:30 when we started this, so it didn't last very long ^-^ I think we all crashed around 5 or 5:30, and I woke up around 2. It is now 3:12 and I'm hearing signs of stirring from their room. I need food. And hmm, there are still two kinds of cake left downstairs.... ^-^

Here is the promised cake recipie, which I yoinked in it's re-typed form from Mary, although the recipie originally comes from 3headedmonkey's dad. Oh, it is *sooo* good. Drool. I probably shouldn't have a piece for breakfast, though. I'll have lunch, and have it for dessert ^-^

After Eight Cake
Cake:
1 c. unsifted unsweetened cocoa
2 c. boiling water
2 3/4 c. sifted flour (sift before measuring)
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt (optional)
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. butter (softened)
2 1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350?F (160?C, gasmark 4). In a medium bowl, combine cocoa with boiling water, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Cool completely. Sift flour with baking soda, salt and baking powder. Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until light (about 5 minutes). At low speed, beat in flour mixture in fourths, alternately with cocoa mixture in thirds, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Do not over beat. Grease and flour four 9"x1 1/2" cake pans. Pour evenly into pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed with finger tip or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Filling:
6 T. butter (softened)
3 1/4 c. unsifted confectioners sugar
6 T. creme de menthe

In a small bowl, beat butter, sugar and creme de menthe with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. On cake stand, put cake layers together, dividing the creme de menthe, filling equally between layers

Frosting:
6 oz. semisweet chocolate pieces
1/2 c. light cream
1 c. butter
2 1/2 c. unsifted confectioners sugar
1 box After Eight Mints

In a medium sauce pan, combine chocolate pieces, cream and butter. Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from heat. With a wire whisk, blend in confectioners sugar. Turn into bowl placed over ice. Beat until frosting holds shape. With a metal spatula, frost sides of cake. Use rest of frosting to cover top, swirling decoratively. Cut mints in half diagonally and use to decorate the top edges.

Refrigerate cake until serving time. Makes 16 servings.