Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

Hello everyone,
Today I am here with a new recipe. Those of you that follow me on Instagram (@curlsncakes) might know that I recently came back from a (more than) week-long holiday in London. It was fantastic and I managed to see plenty of shows, ballets and musicals, one of which were the Broadway hit: Waitress. The musical is based on a movie from 2007 with Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion, with music written by Sara Bareilles. I saw the movie some time ago and loved it, because it was tragic and beautiful, and had so many pies in it.

Waitress is about an unhappy woman, Jenna. She's in a messed up relationship, but works as a waitress in a diner. Jenna's only happy when baking her pies. All along watching the movie and then the musical (which is beautiful with lovely music, by the way) I kept wishing there would be a recipe book for all these incredible pies that Jenna bakes.

Coming out of the play I noticed a book in the little shop stand in the theatre. And lo and behold, it was what I had wished for: Sugar, Butter, Flour - The Waitress Pie Book.
I was so excited and instantly bought it (and some other things).

This first pie that I baked from the book is called the In the Dark Dark pie, and it makes 24 cm pie. I made some modifications to the recipe to suit me and my ingredients more, and I will present that modified recipe. For the original recipe, see the book. Without further ado...

Triple Chocolate Truffle Pie

INGREDIENTS

For the pie shell:

• 1 packet of Oreos (original)
• 75 grams melted butter

For the pie filling:

• 230 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 dl skimmed milk (1.5% fat)
• 2 dl heavy cream (35% fat)
• 2 eggs

For the pie topping:

• 2 dl heavy cream, chilled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 dl powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• Decorations in the form of chocolate curls

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 175°C.
Crush the oreos in a blender and add the butter to it. Press the moistened oreo crumbs into your pie tin. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes and then bake in the middle rack of your oven for 10 minutes.

Bring the milk and heavy cream to just before a boil in a saucepan and pour it over the copped chocolate. Mix until smooth. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mix into the eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes. The centre of the pie should still be rather loose and wobbly when given a shake.

For the topping mix vanilla, sugar and cocoa together in a bowl. In another bowl whip the heavy cream until slightly thickened, then add the dry ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form. Pipe the topping using a piping bag and a tip unto the cooled (to room temperature) pie. Add the chocolate curls on top, and voilà!

I personally preferred this pie chilled, rather than cooled to just room temperature. So if you're anything like me, bake this pie the day before serving and refrigerate until you are going to eat it.

Until next time!

Much love,
Mona

Magical Portrait

Hello all,
Hope you are well. Today I thought I'd tell you about my amazing experience getting my magical portrait shot by the fantastic photographer Xavier Boldú (@xavierboldu). In September my sister and I flew to London, for the sole purpose of the portrait. We did do other things in London as well, we made it into a whole trip, but the main reason for going was the portrait.

Now if you're a Potterhead and don't know about Xavier then you are definitely missing out. Xavier is a freelance photographer based in London, and is currently working on a series of magical Wizarding Portraits. I contacted Xavier after seeing his amazing portraits on instagram, to see if we could work something out, he was the sweetest and I managed to purchase a commission, and with that the excitement started.

In the process of shooting.
Photo: My sister.

Xavier and I planned the portrait together. What is so brilliant about Xavier's portraits is that he finds something about the person in the portraits to include, a characteristic, or a hobby to display. For example for my portrait we decided to go with a potions theme, and portray me as a potions master, because I'm in the laboratory a lot in my work as a cancer researcher. For other portraits he's had bakers and tailors, collectors and merchants.

"The wand chooses the wizard, Harry".
Photo: My sister.

The day of the portrait my sister and I went over to Xavier's flat to take the photo. We were met by Xavier and his assistant photographer Harry (@focusframe_), a whole lot of props, including a beautiful wand made especially for me by Brown and Lobban (@brownandlobban), and the fantastic velvet costume that I would wear for the portrait. Xavier and Harry had earlier on found the gorgeous costume from National Theatre's Costume Hire (@nationaltheatrecostumehire).

 Admiring my wand from Brown and Lobban.
Photo: My sister.

Xavier continued to style every prop in minuscule detail for ultimate perfection. And then the magic of Xavier's work started. I had the best time ever with the boys and my sister. We had loads of fun while getting the portrait up to the standards where Xavier was happy with it, and the results really speak for itself.

The whole experience was one of the best of my life, it was so much fun and magical, and I feel like I made great friends in Xavier and Harry. We had tons of fun, I'm extremely happy with the portrait and will cherish it forever.

Harry, Xavier and me.
Gif: My sister.

The Wizarding Portraits series is still in the making, so I'm leaving all of Xavier's information down here in case anyone, like me, feel the need to contact him for a portrait. I'll say this much: It was some of the most fun I've ever had,  Xavier and Harry are super sweet and the portrait is magical beyond belief. It is also possible to support Xavier's work by becoming his patron on Patreon.

Xavier Boldú Website
Xavier Boldú Patreon

Xavier Boldú Instagram

Xavier Boldú Facebook 

Until next time.
Much love,

Mona

Faves of 2016

Hello all,
I hope you are doing well, and I hope that 2017 has started off in a brilliant way for you!

I have a hormonal disease known as Hashimoto's thyroiditis that leaves me feeling really crap at times, and this last week has unfortunately been like that. I'm thinking about writing a post only about that at some point, but for now, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not doing so well, so new content will have to wait.

But I have been seeing that a lot of bloggers make a little summary post about their favourite outfits of the past year in January, so I'm doing that! Here are my 10 favourite outfit posts (+ 1 baking post, and 2 extra photos) of 2016.

The past year started really well for me, and I posted quite a few outfit posts. My favourite of January would have to be this one:

Magical year

I wore a beautiful velvet dress from Book of Deer that I just adore, with an icy grey bow with embroidered bears, and a rose gold zipper. Ugh it's to die for.


In February I had my 25th birthday and my favourite post from that month is the post with my birthday cake:

A Quarter of a Century

However, my favourite outfit post of the month was this one:

Are you still here?

Once again I wore Book of Deer (wouldn't be the last time), this time the perfect winter's dress. And I topped it all off with specs!


In March you'd think that Spring would make an appearance but it didn't (not in northern Sweden anyway), so I continued to photograph my outfits indoors. My favourite was yet another Book of Deer dress:

Flora and Fauna

This dress is stunning and with it's embroidered magpies it is a really unique and quirky dress. I added saddle shoes to complete the look.


April came and I wore berets a lot. This is my favourite outfit from April:

Silly nilly

I wore a Dear Creatures dress, and have since then heard that there is no more Dear Creatures, which makes me sad. But I'm glad I've got this lovely dress to remember them by. The red accents really made this outfit.


May was perhaps the best month yet - I had my 1 year blogiversary, and celebrated by hosting a giveaway together with Book of Deer.

1 year Blogiversary - Giveaway: Win your favourite Book of Deer dress

I wore a stunning summer dress from BoD with the cutest pattern, and headed outdoors to snap the photos (finally some sun and warmth).


My favourite outfit from June is this one:

Vintage Joy

I wore my first ever vintage dress, and I loved it!


July came by and I wore Windram Design:

Summer florals

This dress and the petticoat I wore it with made me feel and look like a cupcake. It was fantastic!


In August the country is at its greenest and everything is beautiful.

Country life

I wore an old Miss Patina dress, with a hat from ModCloth as I went poké-hunting.


September was an exciting month for me!

Zebrawood & Champagne 

I went on my holidays to London, I saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as well as some other awesome plays and musicals. I met with Andini from Adventures of an Anglophile, and Nora from NoraFinds, as well as meeting BoD creator Eilidh. Best month ever!!!

The gorgeous and beautiful Andini and I, on the Millennium Bridge (the Harry Potter bridge). Look at her awesome outfit!! That hat!

The ever-stunning Nora looking ridiculously classy, the ethereal beauty Eilidh dressed in an own design, gorgeous as ever, and I.

In October and November I was very lousy at blogging, and I didn't get one outfit post worth mentioning posted. But in December, at the very end of 2016, I went out with a bang, and an awesome outfit (if I may say so myself).

New Year, Good bye 2016

I discovered the brand Tatyana, and wore this incredible skirt for New Year's Eve.


And that was my year in outfits!
Hope you enjoyed this post, I personally loved looking back at the year in style.

Much love,

Zebrawood & Champagne

Hello all,
Hope you are having a nice day!

I wore this outfit during my week+ in London, which I will blog about very soon. You might remember the pinafore and blouse, as I've worn them together before, but that time it was cold. I was in Sweden and winter was coming on fast, so I photographed the outfit indoors.

This time around, it is my favourite time of the year - Autumn. And since I was in London, which is way further south than where I live in Sweden, it was surprisingly warm. So I switched things up by wearing this outfit without tights and with open(-ish) shoes! I also added a unique wooden watch from Jord, that was sent to me. If you like the look of the watch, continue reading -- because I have an exciting giveaway in collaboration with Jord!

I used to love wearing watches when I was a child. It made me feel like an adult, like I was more important if having to check up on the time. I basically continued wearing wrist watches all the way until uni. In university I had a lot of lab work, and I wouldn't wear my watch because I was afraid I might ruin it during the lab, get it dirty or contaminated. So I stopped wearing watches, and since I still work in a lab setting, I never really picked it up again. That was until this was sent my way.

I had previously seen Jord's wood watches after I read a blog post by Emma of Emma's Looking Glass (here), and I remember thinking it was really neat that they make their watches from wood. So when Jord contacted me for a collaboration, I knew instantly which watch I wanted, since I had already considered buying it for myself. Jord very graciously sent me the watch I wanted, which is a watch in their Frankie series. The wood it is made of is Zebrawood which is native of West Africa, and has a very unique appearance with its contrasting dark and light grains. The face is a Champagne colour, which makes the watch minimalistic but very striking in all its natural glory. I think this is the perfect Jord watch. "Jord" means "Earth" in Swedish, and this lovely watch has an earthy feeling to it.

Blouse: Miss Patina (old)

Pinafore: Miss Patina (here)

Watch: c/o Jord (here)

Shoes: Asos (old)

While I was sent this watch, I will of course be completely honest in how I feel about it.
Wearing it is easy, and while I feel like it's the perfect watch for this season, I don't think I'll have any trouble styling it for any season as it is so neutral. It's comfortable on the wrist and sits well, but it is larger than any watch I've ever had, so it does take a bit getting used to it's size. If you wear big watches a lot I don't think you'll even consider its size because it's not exactly big, it's just bigger than my old watches. Personally I love it. I think it's very unique and sharp. I just love that it elevates an outfit. I've never had a watch that adds to the outfit, they've all been pretty non-descriptive so far, but this one from Jord is far from!

If you want to look more at the watch I have click here.
And if you want to look at all of their women's watches click here.

If you want a Luxury Wood Watch from Jord, then here is your chance!
Jord has very kindly offered to host a giveaway with me, where you can win a $75 e-voucher!

To enter click HERE

The competition will end on the 25th of September of this year.
And anyone who enters will also get a $20 e-gift card!

This is your chance to get your very own wood watch, so make haste, don't waste it!

I will be back with more of my London adventures on the blog soon!

I hope you have a very nice day!
Much love,