Celebration Chocolate Cake With Fudge Frosting (Eggless)

Chocolate has a special place in my heart. The very thought of it sets my mouth water and so when it comes to baking a special cake, a 'Chocolate Cake' comes to mind at the very first instant. I have made it quite many times and it has always been a hit. I love this recipe because it is eggless (it has to be) and infact vegan(with no butter or dairy product, I mean just the cake not the frosting). I am not vegan, so I didn't go all the way to make a vegan frosting.

This cake recipe was passed on by a friend and I had jotted it down in a paper.I don't where I kept it but I know its somewhere safe ;-). So, I googled for one and found this. It is a very easy recipe with no fancy ingredients, even beginners can try it. I made it for our 3rd marriage anniversary and needless to say, it was a hit!

Here is the recipe:

(Click here for the printable version)
Ingredients:

11/2 cup AP Flour.
1 cup sugar.
3 tbsp cocoa powder.
1 tsp baking soda.
1/2 tsp salt.
5 tbsp oil ( I use sunflower oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract.
1 tbsp white vinegar.
1 cup water.

Process:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 C and grease two 8 inch round sandwich tins.

2. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients and shift so that it is well mixed and uniform. Make a hole in the centre.

3. Add the oil, vanilla extract and water and whisk it to combine it all. Add the vinegar and very quickly blend it lightly. Immediately pour the batter equally in the greased tins and bake in the preheated oven for 22-25 minutes.

4. To test if its done insert a skewer in the middle and if it comes out clean, cake is perfectly baked.

5. Take it out and run a knife through the sides of the cake and let it rest for 15 minutes to half an hour before taking it out of the tin.

6. Cool it completly before proceeding for the icing.

For the fudge frosting:

100 g milk chocolate (or dark chocolate or a combination of both)

1 cup icing sugar.
4 tbsp butter soft
5 tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla essence

Also required:

Sugar syrup made with a teaspoon of sugar and water

Process:

1.  Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Pour all the ingredients into a heat proof bowl and place it over a pan containing boiling water. Stir the ingredients as it melts. The bowl should not touch the water. Alternately, you can microwave the chopped chocolates till it melts.

2. Take it off gas once nicely melted and beat well. Once the cake is cooled completely, place one half upside down and brush it nicely with the sugar syrup. It will keep the cake moist.

3. Pour the freshly prepared icing and cover it quickly. Place the second half and pour rest of the icing working it quickly before it is cooled and starts settling.  With a warm palette knife smoothen it as quickly as possible.

For the decoration I used:

Grated chocolate, cocoa powder, chocolate hearts and chocolate lace border. That's a lot of chocolate I know but for a chocoholic like me its GREAT! :-) (huge grin)!!

For chocolate hearts, I made outlines of little hearts on a parchment/greaseproof paper and turned it upside down. In a handmade cone made from parchment paper or plastic, I filled melted chocolate and closed the other end. I cut a small peice of the pointed end off the cone and filled the heart oultines with melted chocolate and left them to set. Once set, I lifted them and kept them in refrigerator till needed for decoration.

I got the idea of lace border from here. Deeba's PAB is an inspiration for me and I am always awestruck by her pictures. This time the lace border was not that perfect, but I am sure it will be with practice.

Notes:

1. After adding the vinegar, do not beat the batter much or else it will not rise. You have to be real quick at this stage.

2. It can be baked in 1 large 8 inch line and then slit it in the middle. But, I prefer to bake it separately.

3. Greasing the cake tin properly before baking and letting the cake cool down before taking it out it is very important.

4. The cake tastes great with or without frosting. It can also be served warm (30 secs in microwave) with a scoop of vanilla icecream and chocolate sauce!

Here is a piece for you. ;-)!

Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!

Wordless Wednesday - Flowers

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel is a unbelievably fascinating story of Piscine Motilor Patel nicknamed as Pi and his arduous 227 days journey on a life boat in the dangerous pacific waters.

Pi lives in Pondicherry with his parents and brother Ravi. He is an intelligent child and is always eager to learn new things in life. His father is the owner of Pondicherry Zoo and thus Pi also has a sound knowledge of raising animals and zoo keeping. He is very spiritual and despite being born Hindu, he is attracted towards the preaching of Christianity and Islam and follows all the three religions avidly.

When Pi is 14 years old, his father decides to leave India for foreign shores. He sells off the zoo and most of the animals to various American and Indian zoo to set sail for Canada. They leave India with the animals as cargo on the ship. On the way to Canada, the unthinkable happens. Tsimtsum sinks and from there starts the incredible story of survival of Pi.

As the only surviving human from the shipwreck, Pi finds himself in the company of a dying Zebra, a hyena, an Orag-Utan and a 450 lbs Royal Bengal Tiger in a life boat. It is his wit, unerring faith in the Almighty and his desire to live that kept him going and in the end against all odds his determination wins.

The book has oodles of wisdom on various perspective of life which will make you ponder over things which we normally take for granted. It is a book not to be rushed upon. It should be read slowly savouring each and every details of it. I must admit I found the first 50 pages a bit drag and painstakingly slow and boring. Yet, there was something that kept me stuck to reading it, the words from the author's note kept ringing in my ears ~ 'it is a story that will make you believe in God' and there was no looking back. It is written mostly in first person in the voice of Pi with the exception of the a few short chapters from the author and the author's note where he tells how he came across this incredible human being and his incredulous story of survival.

I am really short of words to explain what to expect from the book. Yann Martel is a master story teller who has woven a tale so incredulous and surreal that any logic would deny it and still in your heart, you would want to believe it. I would just say, read it to find it yourself.

There are some excerpts from the book, I would like to share:

"I was alone and orphaned, in the middle of the pacific, hanging on to an oar, an adult tiger in front of me, sharks beneath me, a storm raging about me. Had I considered my prospects in the light of reason, I  would have given up and let go of the oar, hoping I might drown before being eaten. But, I don't recall that I had a single thought during those first minutes of relative safety. I didn't even notice daybreak. I held on to the oar, I just held on, God only know why."

" I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever , treacherous adversary, how well I know."

"So, I drifted. Winds and currents decided where I went. Time became distance for me in the way it is for all mortals- I traveled down the road of life- and I did other things with my fingers than to try to measure latitude."

Life of Pi by Yann Martel won the Man Booker Prize in 2002.

#9 Teaser Tuesday

This week my teaser comes from Room by Emma Donoghue.

"Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skies or fireworks or islands or elevators or yoyos, I have to remember they are real, they're actually happening in Outside all together."

Page: 88

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

Wordless Wednesday - 3 years of togetherness

# 8 Tuesday Teaser

This week my teaser comes from The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger.

"It depresses me. It is a reminder that the moment I belonged to is dead, and not just dead but forgotten."

Page: 207

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

Meet Samantha Sweeting, a high profile lawyer in London with an IQ 158. She works all hours, has no home life, cares only about getting a partnership in the firm she works for. She does not care about her social life or knows any domestic work, not even a basic thing like - boiling an egg or turning on an oven! She thrives on pressure and adrenalin.

Finally, the day comes for which she had slogged for 7 years, the day when her partership is going to be announced. But that happiness is short lived. She discovers that she has made an idiotic mistake that will be costing one of the firm’s clients over 50 million pounds. She goes into meltdown, walks right out of the office, gets on the first train she sees and find herself in the middle of no where. Asking for directions at a big house, she is mistaken for the interviewee housekeeper and offered the job. Her employers have no idea they have hired a Cambridge educated lawyer.

Samantha has no idea how to clean the house, work the oven, wash the clothes or even prepare a meal, let alone the fancy ones her employers want her to come up with. How Samatha deals with her new job, how she fares at it and whether her old life will catch up with her? That is all 'The Undomestic Goddess' is about. There is a romantic plot as well in the story. All these makes for an interesting plot. But, as you read on, the story becomes very predictable. None the less, it is a very entertaining read, apt to pick it up between serious reads.

The novel is meant to be a light hearted read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is the first Kinsella Book I have read and surely I will pick up her famous Shopoholic series sometimes soon in future. Her writing style is lucid, entertaining, witty and full of good humour. One of the best and perhaps the most entertaining chick-lit book I have read in recent times.

If you meaning to pick a fun and easy read, pick it up for sure! ;-)! Enjoy!

To know more about the author visit  http://www.sophiekinsella.co.uk/ .

Wordless Wednesday - Eiffel Tower in backdrop

# 7 Teaser Tuesday

This week my teaser comes from 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel.

'I spent hours trying to decipher the lines in the survival manual on navigation. Plain and simple explanation on living off the sea was given in adundancee, but a basic knowledge of seafaring was assumed by the author of the manual.'
Page: 258

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks is a 'beautiful' novel. Yes, that is the word that comes to my mind to describe the story. As I flipped through the last pages of the novel my eyes glittered with tears, of sorrow and of joy and after reading the book amidst the tears, I had a satisfied smile on my face, the kind one has after reading a good book. The book will take you through a journey of all these different emotions. Sparks has this innate ability to get to the heart of relationships and bring out the complexities therein. This novel touches an aspect of parent- children relationship, girl friend - boy friend relationship, brother-sister relationship and friendship in general. The novel has also been made into a movie. In fact, it was written to be made into a movie. The Last Song is perhaps one of the best of Sparks' books and a must read for all who enjoys his writings.

The story starts with Veronica Miller (Ronnie). She is a rebellious child who has taken the company of wrong kind of friends. It is because she has never been able to come out of her parent's divorce and have bitter feelings about it. Her life has never been the same. After her parents divorced and her father moved to North Carolina, Ronnie distanced herself from her father and gave up music. Music was the thing that she had grown up learning from her father but, now it was another source of stirring up bad memories.

Three years later, on her father's request, Ronnie and her brother, Jonah are sent to North Carolina to spend the summer with their father. Resentful and rebellious, Ronnie rejects her father’s attempts to reach out to her and threatens to return to New York before the summer’s end. It is during this summer that Ronnie meets Will and Blaze and Marcus. After a disgusting episode with Marcus and Blaze, things starts changing in her life for the good. She finds herself falling for Will, opening herself up to the greatest happiness – and pain – that she has ever known. Her strained relationship with her father starts healing slowly and gradually the bond is restored, but not without taking the readers through an upheaval of emotions.

The story might seem predictable but still it will move you to tears. All the characters seems real and are well defined. As Ronnie's life changes, the readers can feel the way she matures from a rebellious teenager to a young woman of substance. I loved the character of Jonah too. He is intelligent, adorable and a witty child and the way he cares for his father and sister is simply moving. Steve, too as a father does his best to spend meaningful time with his children. His unconditional love for his children, patience with Ronnie and his belief in her and finally his love for music is remarkable.

The story gives an important lesson to its readers too. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. Life is too short to hold grudges against others. So, forgive and forget and move forward in life.

To know more about the author, Nicholas Sparks and his works visit http://www.nicholassparks.com/

Linking it to Nicholas Sparks reading challenge hosted by The Book Vixen

Vada Pav ~ The Indian Burger (With home made Pav/Buns)

Vada Pav is a popular road side snack from Maharastra, India. It consists of a batata vada (potato fritter) sandwiched between two slices of a pav/ bun smeared with garlic and green chutney (condiments). I had Vada Pav first time while travelling from Bombay to Pune in a road side dhaba and needless to say I loved it.

My DH had been asking me to make it at home and finally I did. I had made it on the Ind Vs Pak world cup semi final match. Partly because, I wanted to keep myself occupied or else I would be found pacing up and down in front of the TV(I can't handle the excitement and tension of such cricket clashes).

My attempt of making buns at home was a success and I can't help dispalying the pictures. So, this is going to be a long post. I had picked up the recipes from several places and came up with this recipe. Lets have a look.

(Click here for printable version)

Ingredients for Pav/Buns: Adapted from US Masala

2 cup extra strong white flour/AP Flour.

1/2 tsp salt.

1 tbsp sugar.

11/2 tsp instant dried yeast.

1 1/2 tbsp melted butter.

3/4 cup +2-3 tbsp warm milk.

1 tbsp milk for brushing the buns

1 tbsp melted butter for brushing.

Process:

1. In a medium bowl add the sugar and hand hot milk. Stir and add the dried yeast. Sprinkle 1 tsp flour over it. Cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes. It will become frothy and ready for use.
2. In a separate large bowl shift the flour and salt and make  a well in the centre. Add the butter to the frothy mixture and add it to the flour little by little. Use your hands to bring the flour together to make a dough. Add the extra milk to form a sticky dough.
3. Apply some butter on your palms and bring the dough on a light floured surface. Knead the dough by stretching it at one end and bringing it back till the dough is smooth and springs back when touched.
4. Keep the dough in a clean greased bowl and apply some butter over it to prevent the top of the dough from drying. Cover it with a wet kitchen towel and keep it in a warm place to rise for about 1-2 hours.
5. After the first rise, gently deflate the dough by punching it and knead ofr another 2-3 minutes. Divide it into 9 balls and keep them in a greased tray. Cover it with a wet kitchen towl and keep it in a warm place for the second rising for an hour. 
6. After an hour when the dough has risen again, brush milk on the top of the buns and bake it in an oven preheated at 180 C for 12-15 minutes. Brush melted butter when it comes out of the oven.

In the pictures above first one is the dough kneaded and ready for the first rise. Second one is the risen dough followed by 9 dough balls ready for the second rising. Last one is the buns out of the oven with butter brushed on top. You can see the texture inside the buns in the picture below.

Ingredients for the vadas : Adapted from Tarla Dalal

Makes 8 vadas

4 medium sized or 8 small potatoes boiled, peeled and mashed

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 green chilli finely chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds.

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp finely chopped onion

4-5 curry leaves.

A pinch of asafeotida

1 tsp turmeric powder.

Handful of chopped coriander leaves.

1 tbsp oil.

For Vada outer coating:

1/2 cup besan flour

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tbsp rice flour

a pinch of baking soda.

a pinch of turmeric powder

1 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Process:

1. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida and curry leaves and sauté for a few seconds.
2. Add the ginger garlic mixture, chopped onions and chopped chillies and sauté again for a few seconds. Add the potatoes, turmeric powder, chopped coriander and salt and mix well.
3.  Remove from the heat and cool. Divide into 8 equal portions. Shape into rounds. 4.
4. Combine all the ingredients for the outer covering in a bowl and make a batter using approximately 1/3 cup of water.
5. Dip each round of the vada filling into the batter and allow it to coat the mixture well .
6. Deep fry in hot oil, till golden brown. Keep them on a kitchen towel so that it absorbs extra oil.

Red Garlic Chutney: Adapted from Sharmis Passions

1/4 cup dessicated coconut

2 dried whole red chillies

2 tsp red chilli power (optional)

4 garlic chopped finely

1 tsp tamarind paste 

Salt to taste

Process:

Dry roast coconut and tamarind till lightly browned. Grind together with all other ingredients. Do not add water.

Green Chutney:

2 cup chopped coriander leaves.
1 cup chopped mint leaves.
2 green chillies.
1 tsp cumin seeds.
2 inch ginger piece, peeled
Salt to taste.
Lemon juice as needed.

Process:

1. Add all the ingredients in a grinder and make a paste. Add water as little as possible.
2. Add lemon juice to taste just before serving.

It can be stored for weeks  in freezer without adding the lemon juice. I store it in my ice cube tray and use cubes of chutney whenever required. Generally, I microwave two cubes of chutney on medium high for 30 seconds and its ready to use.

Assembling the Vada Pav:

1. Cut the bun into two halves. Butter them and toast them on a pan.

2. Smear  the chutneys on each side. Place the warm vada on one half and cover it with the other. Ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Linking it to Yeast Spotting

Love Eat Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert

I had picked up this book with great hopes and in the end I was sorely disappointed with it. Well, I did not even get to the end of the book. I had missed seeing the movie and was really looking forward to reading this book. Now, I am only glad I did not buy this book.

It is the story of the author herself. At 32 years old, she is well settled in her life with a home, a husband, and a successful career as a writer. However, she was unhappy in her marriage and ends up going through a bitter divorce and a short lived affair there after. To make a new beginning and refresh herself to start again she decides to travel around the world spending 4 months in Italy where she eats a lot and gains 2 stones of weight, 3 months in India where she prays and rest of the time in Indonesia where she find the balance of life.

In her Eat Pray Love, Gilbert takes us through her journey across Italy, India and Indonesia in her per suit of happiness, peace and balance of live. But seriously, after reading the book, I could not even understand what she found and what actually she was looking for. I read the first part of her journey -Italy, religiously hoping it would make sense to me in the end. But it didn't. While reading, the Indian part, I was already getting impatient with the book and roughly made through it. By the time, I got to Indonesia, I just flipped the pages and realised far too late, I can't read it any more.

Elizabeth sometimes struck me as a disillusioned woman, egotist women and her memoir did little to inspire or motivate me in any way. In plain words, I would just say I wouldn't recommend this book.

To know more about the author and her works visit http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/.

Cardamom Kulfi Recipe | How to Make Cardamom Kulfi from Scratch

Cardamom Kulfi #recipe

Cardamom Kulfi is the traditional Indian popsicle made with evaporated milk and is flavoured with cardamom. It is a painstaking process since it involves constant stirring of the milk on low flame, but it is so worth it. It is very popular in India. People indulge in kulfi to beat the heat in summer months. 

Kulfis can be made in many flavours. The one I am sharing today is cardamom flavoured. As a child, I always relished the homemade kulfi my mother made during summer months. I bought these kulfi moulds on my last trip to India and so I will be flaunting them in my future posts as I have collected some recipes of kulfi to try this summer. The first recipe of Kulfi is obviously my mother's. I have tried to stick to her process and recreate the taste and gladly I have succeeded! Yippee!

Each of the kulfi moulds I use is 80 ml in volume. I have a set of 6. So, the measurements in the recipe are accordingly. Here is the recipe:-

Cardamom Kulfi Recipe

Ingredients:

800 ml full-fat milk.
3 cardamom pod seeds finely powdered.
1 tbsp ground almonds or almond powder.
3 tbsp sugar.
1 tsp corn flour

Process:

1. Stir the cornflour in a tablespoon of milk and keep aside.

2. In a non-stick pan, heat the remaining milk. Once it comes to boil turn the heat to medium and simmer it till it reduces to about half in volume (450ml or so). It can take about 25-30 minutes.

3. Add the cardamom powder, almond powder and sugar and stir well.

4. After a minute add the cornflour mixture and stir well. Heat for another 5 minutes stirring all the time. If it gets too thick add 2 tbsp of extra milk and stir.

5. Let it cool down to room temperature and then fill it in the kulfi moulds.

6. Freeze for 6 hours or overnight.

7. Take it 5-10 minutes ahead of serving. Dip it in warm water and unmould. Ready to serve.

Notes:

1. Variety of flavours can be added. You can add Saffron and nuts like chopped pistachios, cashews etc.

2. Stirring the milk is very important. If the milk sticks to the bottom and burns it will impart a burned smell to the kulfi which is undesirable.

3. In case of not using a non-stick pan, grease the pan with ghee/clarified butter and continue with the process. Milk will not stick at the bottom.

4. If you do not have kulfi moulds, disposable glasses will work fine too.

Linking it to Lets Celebrate Sweets - Ice Cream by Rasoi. This event is the brainchild of Nivedita. Also sending it to 'Walk through the memory lane' by Gayathri

Enjoy! Thank you for stopping by! Cheers!

#6 Teaser Tuesday

This week my teaser comes from Sophie Kinsella's 'The Undomestic Goddess'.

'I don't think thats's a good idea.' There's a new edge to Arnold's voice which pulls me up.
Page: 79

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists!

A Salute to 'The Men in Blue!'

Words cannot define the joy and excitement the whole of India experienced on the 2nd of April 2011 when the Indian Cricket team led by MS Dhoni won the Cricket World Cup 2011.

Photo from: http://www.espncricinfo.com/

After a nerve wrecking final match with Sri Lanka, India won the cricket world cup for the second time after 28 years.

Well, I did not see the whole match and satisfied myself with the high lights. The intensity of the match get on my nerves and I get all tensed up. I just wonder how all these guys cope with the pressure and keep their mind focussed in the game. I remember hearing MS Dhoni saying this in an interview ~ 'If you feel this as a pressure job, you will feel yourself inside a pressure cooker.'

Well, I am sure it is and can't imagine how it must be to take the pressure of the expectations of a 'cricket crazy' nation. But, like every Indian I prayed and prayed for the win. Well, God would have had a tough time if he had to turn down the prayers of 1.2 billion Indians.

News channels and newspaper have been flooded with the news of the world cup win and there are celebration everywhere.

I feel so proud myself being an Indian and salute to 'The Men in Blue' for making the long cherished dream come true and for the joy and happiness they have brought to the whole of the nation.

Miss Conceived by Emma Hannigan

Miss Conceived by Emma Hannigan is a story of three women ~ Angie, Serena and Ruby, all different from each other in age and personality, on their rocky road to motherhood. The story is set in Ireland. This is the author's second book, first one being Designer Genes. To know more about the author visit here.

Angie Breen, at the age of 40 is successful in her career but is still single. This is not the kind of life she thought she would be living at the age of 40 and she is worried she might end up single and childless. Her life changes when she expectantly discovers she is pregnant after a night sling with some one she barely knows. Serena Doyle is the ultimate epitome of glamour and sophistication. Married to a dynamic businessman, she wants to be a mother to complete her perfect life. But fate has planned something  else for her and she struggles to conceive. It turns her life upside down and in the quest of conceiving she discovers a startling secret about herself. Ruby White, a 16 year old girl is infatuated with her best friend's father - Damo and after a eventful night in  a pub ends up bearing his child. Her parents are worried and conjures up a plan to save her daughter's future. What will happen to Angie, Serena and Ruby? Is Angie's pregnancy a blessing in disguise? Will Serena be able to cope up with the circumstances that has marred her perfect life? What future has in store for Ruby and her baby? That's the story all about. Absolutely Chick lit.

After reading the book, I have mixed feelings for it. It took me almost 3 weeks to finish this book and I could not read more than 3-4 chapters in a go. May be the baby related drama was just too much to take at a go or may be I was also spending a lot of time watching the Cricket World Cup. The writing style is not very appealing and some times, I felt I could not to connect to the story. I liked the character of Angie as she seemed real and was kind of annoyed with Ruby at the beginning. Infatuation with your best friend's dad, thats too much to digest! She seemed to be a careless teenager but through the end of the novel, one could feel the way she matures. The novel is written in third person switching between Angie, Serena, Damo and Ruby. The characters are well developed but there is something amiss which makes the story monotonous if read at length. It was sort of one time read and I would recommend it to someone who likes full blast chick lit stuff.