Or in this case, Starcake. :D
I couldn't resist the lure of the adorable star tin any longer, so I pulled out my almost-perfect cupcake recipe and decided to have another go. This time I put the RIGHT amount of bicarb soda in.

SUCCESS! WIN! ALL GOOD! The recipe turned out perfect. I ended up making it a coconut flavour, by adding in 1/4 cup of desiccated coconut, and 1/2 tsp of coconut essence. I added a touch more water too, just to fill out the dried coconut a little. For the icing I used a little warm Nuttelex [olive oil margarine, it's completely dairy free] plus a heap of icing sugar and a TBS of warm water. Oh and a few drops of strawberry essence and red colouring.

And omylord, talk about sweet. This is one of those things you want to save for special occasions, unless you have a good tolerance for cakes and sweet things. I only cut half off, and even that was waaay too much for me. While I was eating it, I kept harking back to my previous epic fails, expecting to hit something bad tasting, so I kept on going even when I was beyond my sugar threshold and well on my way to DiabeteesLand, but lo - nothing! it was perfect! Moist middle, well risen, slightly crunchy edges. I'm still in a little bit of shock [and on a mighty sugar high] so bear with me.

So first, allow me to present - Starcake:

Gleegan cupcakes

Makes 3

1 1/4 c gluten free flour (I used White Wings)
1/4 tsp bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp van essence
2 drops almond essence [optional]
1 tsp Orgran No Egg in 2 TBS water
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 cup water with 1 tsp lime juice

Method:
Add all ingedients into a big bowl in order I listed them in. It's important that you do this, as the acid* needs to go in last. Stir until combined, little lumps are OK but big ones are uh, not so good. Don't overstir, or leave too long until baking as the bubbles from the acid/alkaline reaction will disappear and your cuppie cakes will be more like, well, cupstones.

Bake 18-25 min, or lightly golden, on moderate oven [180 deg celcius]. Smother in far too much gooey icing, call 000 and devour.

Wait out front for ambulance.

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Cooking Notes:
Make sure you lightly spray your cupcake patty cases with a little vegie oil spray to stop them from doing that annoying "Oh! Look! i'm stuck to my Case" thing that cupcakes love to do. Also, fill the cases to about 3/4... GFree flour won't rise as high as regular stuff.

I saw this while out shopping today and couldn't resist. I put a peg next to it so you can see how wee it is.
Mini strawberry star cakes, ahoy! Eeeeee!

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I'm at work and bored as hell. So here's a quick sketch of a Draenei from Warcraft. Wee!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Well the cupcakes were mostly a success.

The texture was perfect, which for gleegan baking is no mean feat! My only, and somewhat major fail was neglecting to cut the bicarb. I put a whole tsp in without even thinking. Faaaail! It gave them a strange bitter, soapy aftertaste. According to Google, this happens when there isn't enough acid to activate all the bicarb. Doi.

Anyway, I'll redo the recipe and when I'm satisfied, I'll post it. In the meantime, check out these puppies!

Well, I just pulled these out of the oven, and I'm writing this while they cool. I think I may have done ok this time.

I ended up tweaking the recipe to what I thought it should be. I'm still awaiting the taste test, because as any Gleegan will tell you the food can look great- and taste like shit.

So if they pass the taste muster, I'll post the recipe.

synchronicity |ˌsi ng krəˈnisitē|

noun

1 the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection : such synchronicity is quite staggering.

2 another term for synchrony (sense 1).

ORIGIN 1950s: coined (in sense 1) by C. G. Jung.

Whilst looking this up in Wikipedia I was startled and put into fits of laughter by my own synchronicity... in the Examples section I read this passage:

"The French writer Émile Deschamps claims in his memoirs that in 1805, he was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Fontgibu. Ten years later, the writer encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him that the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fontgibu. Many years later, in 1832, Émile Deschamps was at a diner and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Fontgibu was missing to make the setting complete—and in the same instant, the now senile de Fontgibu entered the room."

I was only just thinking of my brother, who has recently moved to China, and how much I miss him. One big thing between us is a joke about Plum Pudding. To make it even weirder, when I was shopping yesterday I saw some Plum Pudding for sale and thought about buying it for him and shipping it over as a joke. 

I can't say it's something I think of often, if ever, if he isn't around!

Also, he introduced me to synchronicity in a way, encouraging my interest in Philosphy.. but even earlier, he introduced me to Sting and the Police who have an album called - you guessed it - Synchronicity! I just looked it up then and saw that the album was released in 1983, which was the year I was born in.
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Ink on WC paper... somewhere in the realms of A3 and Eternity in size

 

Click for Embiggening

I woke up today feeling like shit. It was the same familiar feeling I have every time I get a flare up.

The worst part is, I woke up yesterday feeling even worse- like a hangover from a cheap bottle of vodka. Blech. I got to work and I was amazed I could even tattoo... my vision was blurry, I couldn't focus, and my hands felt like they were shaking. Amazingly the lines were coming out straight, so there must have been some internal war between my brain and my nerves. It was SO weird.

I attribute this latest bout of nasty to the pizza I indulged in on Friday night. Dad was leaving for work and he said "Pizza for dinner?" Knowing I usually get it every Friday. And like a junkie being offered a line at a party, I couldn't say no. I bought the pizza, I ate the pizza, and then the pizza got its sweet revenge.

Also like a junkie, that was my Zen moment. My turning point. The fact that I could barely go to work from one poor food choice was enough of an eye opener for me to see that if I keep going on like this, I'll wreck my life. And it's stupid to think food could affect me like Heroin effects other people. But it's true, and it's what I have to deal with.

Since my whingefest the other day I've been researching Sjogren's diets online. I came up with a few conclusions, and have put together an odd sort of diet that I'm going to stick to and see how I go. The two most important things I found, across the board, in dealing with Sjogren's or any immune related disorder are;
 

• NO Gluten
  
• NO Casein

Gluten is a protein found in many grains, the main offender being wheat. Casein is a protein found in dairy. Both are incredibly hard to digest, and are notorious for causing neurological issues that are suspected in triggering autoimmune responses in the body. Coeliac disease, for example, is an autoimmune disorder where the lower intestine cannot process gluten and even trace amounts can render the sufferer hospitalised and in agony.

Also it is recommended to cut out meat, acidic and spicy foods, other grains and anything given by mouth [just kidding on that last one, but that's how it feels!].
Ironically this means I have just about come full circle, back to my veganish days. I'll still eat a little fish here and there, and maybe some chicken... but to be honest, I'm not even slightly concerned about not eating meat. In fact I'm almost relieved... I think I was never a meat eater at heart... my OCD just doesn't account for things like blood, tendons and bacteria, haha. 

So being sick, I was incredibly depressed this morning and didn't want to do anything. I hated my body and I was mad at everything. Mostly I was mad that it was an incredibly beautiful day, I was supposed to be going on an 8km walk through the rainforest, and I couldn't even get out of bed. Here I was, sleeping the day away, sleeping my life away. Fortunately the self-pity only lasted as long as it took me to get disgusted at myself, get dressed, get into my car and drive the 15k to the nearest Coles. I then proceeded to wander the aisles for an hour, spend $115 and buy a car boot load of food.
I raided the health food section for gluten free goodies, I bought a shitload of fruit and veg, and I even got some soy cream cheese. Wasn't too keen on that until I ate it with some vegie chips, which made it all kinds of yum. I got some dates, which are a bit like crack to me. *drool* I checked every single label... except one, and it was my major fail. Soy Cheese. it had casein in it. Why the fuck would you put casein in a product that is meant to mimic cheese? DAIRY casein, too! So the people eating the cheese to avoid dairy food are screwed over. The people eating it to avoid animal products are screwed over. The people eating it to avoid casein are screwed over. And tell me, people, who the fuck  chooses to eat soy cheese for the TASTE? *facepalm*

I was happy to eat good food that I knew wasn't going to kill me, and I was ecstatic to discover what an amazing wealth of food there was out there that I could eat. It was more than heartening, it lifted me out of my gloom entirely. :) 

So this is what I made for dinner... lentil patty on cos lettuce, with artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, anchovies, and a "wild lime" dressing.
It was fucking delicious. 
 

I started this as a cute little angel girl drawing but as it progressed I felt something else coming through it.

I was fortunate enough to have a fairly average, if wacky, childhood; but not everyone is. Too many children have their innocence taken by violence, neglect or abuse. This is my interpretation... Those little ones who feel so vulnerable and just want to be able to fly away from it all into a better life.

I think I'll do the finished one in paint or ink, I haven't decided yet.

Ok well I have been in dealings with Tattoo Johnny, one of the largest and most well-known paid flash sites on the Internet. I have just signed contracts with them and will soon be featured on their site! I am submitting 50 original artworks that will be available as flash to download for tattoo designs. It's a fantastic opportunity, and very exciting! I'll be posting a link when my art is finalized and uploaded to the site.

In the meantime, here are two designs I've been working on today; a fairy and a steampunk angel.
Also if you have any suggestions for flash you would like to see me create, please let me know! All suggestions gratefully recieved.

I did this tattoo the other day. While it doesn't look so amazing, it is a bit technical... Small letters are hard to do and of course straight lines are always a challenge, esp. on a chest when you consider the person is always breathing. Yikes!

A little sketch to brighten your day! I'm so into satyrs at the moment... Well, I always was, but even more so :)