Admittedly, that post title sounds a little big headed but I think it can be justified. I’m beginning to regret stumbling across The Instructables, an online manual for innovative and fresh ideas on how to do just about anything. After browsing through a few DIY tips involving redundant IKEA furniture, I ventured onwards to its food ideas section…

BIG MISTAKE. I am now doomed to a lifetime of being morbidly obese after reading the recipe for ‘Instant Brownies’. I wish I could have photographed my creation, but it was so incredibly moreish that instead of getting out my camera to take a few snaps, I made a second batch of brownies. And a third. In fact, I kept on repeating this recipe until my pot of Green and Blacks cocoa had been entirely used up. It is so ridiculously addictive that I am actually experiencing my first sugar high, something which feels not so different from getting drunk on M&S Banoffee liqueur at Christmas. I warn you that this recipe is not for the weak willed. I know there is no such thing as a healthy dessert, but this takes the utter biscuit.

Instant Brownie (Serves 1)

-4tbsp plain flour
-4tbsp sugar (any sugar will do, I tried it with both brown and white. Each are equally delish’)
-2tbsp cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
-2tbsp oil (I opted for grapeseed, but as long as it’s not something with an overtly distinct flavour like Olive Oil you should be fine)
-2tbsp water
-Pinch of salt

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until fully combined. It should resemble your average chocolate brownie batter.
2. Microwave for 1 minute.

That, is the entire recipe. It’s so easy to adjust too- just add chocolate chips/cinnamon/nuts/banana as you wish, and if you want a less cakey result, just microwave for a few seconds less.

Anyway, hasn’t January just flown by? After a sleepless night with HTML, I have amended my blog template slightly and shifted a few things around. Sometime last month, I read that it takes the average person an entire 66 days to create a new habit. That’s just over 2 months, 9.4 weeks or 1584 hours. Although a depressingly long amount of time, it does sound fairly realistic in terms of having a good new habit (or breaking a bad one, if you wish). If you’re a fellow blogger then I imagine you’ve seen countless of posts from others discussing their resolutions for 2013, which seem to vary from “Spend more time blogging” to “Losing weight” (…from their already emaciated figure, ffs).

Anyway, as someone who works a 40hr week and possesses an increasingly concerning addiction to patisserie, I’m afraid I can’t commit to either of these usual resolutions; I have no desire to reduce my portions of cake anytime soon, and I’ve became rather content with my intermittent blog posts anyway. So I’ve adopted a different approach; of setting myself a To Do list for every month between now and December.  By being specific, they’re far more realistic and achievable. Also, by putting it on my blog it might actually give me the incentive to cross off the list. I recommend this wholeheartedly if you blog; I’ve already crossed off ‘Make Puff Pastry’ for February: (see the "Liste de Tâches" tab at the top of the page)

Yes, this was my first time in baking puff pastry. Prior to becoming a GBBO addict, I’d always written off puff pastry as being far too difficult to bake from scratch. With the exception of short crust, I’ve always used the shop bought stuff when it comes to baking. But now, thanks to Gordon Ramsay’s deceptively simple-lookingrecipe on the BBC Good Food Website, I am now a tiny bit closer to the lifelong dream of running a Parisian patisserie:

After last night’s sugar fix, I decided to play it safe this afternoon with a savoury Tomato Tarte Tatin. I’m going for coffee tomorrow with my friend Damien who’s from France so I’ve practically done nothing apart from speak French all day as a means of prep’, which feels absolutely amazing but now I have a desire to bake nothing but French patisserie. I would have opted for a tasty pear-based tarte tatin, but I think eating pudding for each meal of the day would be somewhat socially unacceptable.

I don’t have a recipe for this tart I’m afraid; I pretty much just baked a tin’s worth of cherry tomatoes (600/700g worth)with a dash of black peppercorns with olive oil drizzled over it for about 10 minutes, then threw my puff pastry on top for an addition 30 minutes until it had cooked.

Anyway. I feel sick right now as I ended up eating the whole thing, and using the remainder of my puff pastry mix to make miniature tartlets. At this rate, I’m going to be too heavy to even board my plane to Amsterdam. I’m telling myself that it’s too cold to eating salad and light desserts, ha.

With payday yesterday, I ended up making an impulse purchase in the V&A shop. I will undoubtedly be giving it to my younger sister next week, as I believe now that I’m in my twenties, I should have passed the child-like phase of drawing on myself ages ago. Even though its packaging would dictate otherwise, this is essentially the L’Oréal Superliner, albeit a few quid cheaper. It’s meant to last for a whole two days, so I’ve only tested it out on a tiny portion of my arm; a Barcelona Chair, an Ionic Column and I’ve drawn a Juicy Salif on my wrist.