Happy Valentine's day

Happy valentine's day. Spend and enjoy it with the people you love. 

xoxo Dora

Reseptiä raakakakulle!

Raw mango-caramel cake

                                                           7-8 hengelle

POHJA

1 1/4 dl manteleita, kuorellisia

3/4 dl taateleita

3/4 dl kookoshiutaleita

1 1/2 rkl neitsytkookosöljyä, vesihauteessa sulatettuna

ripaus suolaa

1 tl agavesisiirappia (tämän voi korvata juoksevalla hunajalla, niinkuin tein itse!)

1tl jauhettua inkivääriä

1-2 tl vanilja-aromia 

Tee ensin pohja. Laita mantelit, taatelit ja kookoshiutaleet monitoimikoneeseen ja sekoita tasaiseksi massaksi. Laita massa kulhoon, lisää loput ainekset ja sekoita hyvin. Pingota leivinpaperi irtopohjavuokaan ja painele massa tasaisesti pohjalle. Laita jääkaappiin jähmettymään.

MANGOTÄYTE

3 3/4 dl cashewpähkinöitä, yön yli vedessä liotettuina (Itse käytin hasselpähkinärouhetta unohduksesta ja kiireestä ja huolimattomuudesta johtuen, ja niidenkin kanssa toimi ihan loistavasti!) 
1 mango, pilkottuna
1 1/4 dl kookoskermaa
3 dl neitsytkookosöljyä, vesihauteessa sulatettuna
3/4 dl lucumajauhetta (löytyy luontaistuotekaupoista, tai jos ei sinne jaksa lähteä, tämä on makeutusaineen tyyppistä, joten sokerikin varmaan käy)
3 passionhedelmää
1 1/2 dl agavesiirappia
2 tl vanilja-aromia

Tee mangotäyte. Kaada cashewpähkinät siivilään ja huuhtele valuvan veden alla. Laita pähkinät, mango, kookoskerma ja puolet kookosöljystä blenderiin ja sekoita hienoksi tasaiseksi massaksi. Lisää loput täytteen ainekset ja anna sekoittua tasaiseksi.

KINUSKITÄYTE

1/2 dl maapähkinävoita
3 rkl hunajaa
2 rkl vanilja-aromia 

Tee kinuskitäyte. Sekoita kaikki täytteen ainekset keskenään ja laita valmis täyte pursotinpussiin tai pursottimeen. 

Kokoa kakku. Levitä noin puolet mangotäytteestä kakkupohjalle. Pursota puolet kinuskitäytteestä mangotäytteen päälle, myös aivan kakun reunalle, jotta se näkyy mangotäytteen välistä. Levitä loput mangotäytteestä vuokaan ja lopuksi koristele kinuskitäytteellä. Anna jähmettyä yön yli jääkaapissa.

ENJOY!

HUOM! Itse omistan vain erittäin leveän kakkuvuoan irrotettavalla pohjalla ja jouduin tekemään pohjan kaksinkertaisena jotta sitä riitti koko vuoan peitoksi. Kakku olisi siis ilmeisesti tarkoitus tehdä pieneen vuokaan jossa on irroitettava pohja.  Oma kakku oli koko yön jääkaapissa mutta jäi silti löysäksi - tosin poikaystävän jääkaapissa siitä tulikin täydellisen koossapysyvä. Auttoi myös kun pistin sen n. tunniksi pakkaseen. Joten ei hätää jos kakusta jää löysä - tunkekaa hetkeksi pakkaseen (tai ulos?) jos mahtuu. 

En yritä muuttaa blogiani leivontablogiksi. Reseptiä vain kysyttiin. Hehe.

xoxo Dora

Raw mango-caramel cake

First a confession. I have never baked anything this difficult before! 

It's a raw cake which simply means it's not baked. It's  for example dairy free, wheat free and egg free. By being a ''raw'' cake, it means that none of the ingredients have been heated to more than 45 degrees celsius. We still have all the goodness left!

I know it's not that pretty cake, but forgive me. It's the first raw cake I've ever made. It tastes good though! And it's healthy. Does any of you want a recipe?

This cake goes to the best boyfriend in this whole world. Happy birthday!

 I love you.

xoxo Dora

School's over, Holiday's over… now what?

Happy new year 2014! 

Hope you all  are ''not-tired-at-all'' after holidays. Here's one tired person.

Time to chill out? Well… NO! I had a lovely Christmas holiday and amazing NYE. I couldn't be happier! I can't say I actually rested, but oh well, at least I ate a lot and had extremely good time. 

I should now decide where am I gonna go continue my studies and what do I want to do? And when? And where? I feel like I'm just so lost. I need music in my life and my dream would be to work with music… sometimes my dreams are so big they scare me. But if your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough right? 

We still have no snow here in Helsinki. I wish we had. I spent a week in Lapland (north Finland) and there was heaps of snow! So depressing to come back here where there's only darkness. It seems to be so dark! It makes me tired.

But so.. what I was talking about? OH right! About my future plans. What plans? 

 During 2014 I'd love to move into my own apartment (.. to be honest with one person) and start to live my own life. I need a job for that. Because you need money for living. So, I have no job and no time (yet) so that's just a dream for another half year at least. But that's a mission!

And I will try my best to get a study place I'd love. And I will get a job. 

And I will love. My family. Friends. You. My body. Myself. Life. 

2014 is a fresh start for the even better version of me.

Right now, when other people still have their holidays, I am still in my former school's musical. It was my own decision (with permission) to still stay to do it even though I graduated in december. I have no regrets. I love being on stage and I love singing. It's a shame I don't have that much to do, or that many scenes on stage, but still, I try to think with the truth that the presence and effort of everyone is really important and every character tells their own part of the story. 

As we now rehearse and the musical premiere is on 10th, I will be busy for some time, so there won't be a blogpost for a while. While I'm not writing, I'll try to figure out something smart to write about! 

Still wishing for white chr.. I mean January. 

xoxo Dora

ps. there's a small commercial of our musical - it's for people who are in finland. love.

********************************************

Nahkatakkinen tyttö

Ensi-ilta 10.1.2014

Vaskivuoren musikaali Vantaan konserttitalo Martinuksessa.

Liput Lippupisteestä.

**********************************************

Nahkatakkinen tyttö -musikaalin blogin löydät tästä!

Facebook -sivut löytyy täältä! 

Ja lippusi ehdit vielä vallan mainiosti hankkia lippupisteestä!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

                    It's Christmas!

 

Christmas decorations/Christmas gifts/My Christmas candles on my desk/Champagne 

I'm a bit sad we don't have any snow here in Helsinki, but our house is full of Christmas decorations and my family and friends make me feel the magic of Christmas :) 

Our fireplace/Christmas                  flowers/Traditional Christmas flower/Our Christmas penguin 

My Christmas look/Merry Christmas!/Gift from myself to myself/Christmas morning and my new lovely silky dressing gown

I wish Merry Christmas to all of my readers and all of you who has visited my blog :) Enjoy the holidays! 

                 xoxo Dora

I could not be happier to be home

                                            Hello Christmas

It's now a year since I came back from New Zealand. Year ago I got to see my family and friends again. 18th of december 2012 I was finally back in Finland. I would not have to go back and I was with my family again. I was
back home. 

I feel like I need to talk about how my exchange was not the best year of my life, or something else people usually say about their exchange, because usually you only hear about how awesome it was, and people feel ashamed to say that their exchange was maybe not the best one. It's somehow embarrassing if you didn't have the best exchange ever. Well, you did not fail. No matter what they say. Easy for them to blame the foreign exchange student. There is things we could've done differently, but we're not the only ones who need to readjust. I did have good moments and I do have good memories (of course) but I do have bad memories too. I do not blame anyone and I'm not going to yell at anyone because by breaking other people I will not fix myself. I'm not going to blame myself either, even though a many people would think everything was my fault and I should blame myself. I won't. I know I could've done many things
differently, but so could've so many other people. We all make mistakes. I've learned my lesson, and that should be enough.

I can't say I'd actually regret it. It was an experience. Experience, during which I grew up. I learned a lot about myself and about other people, I learned to stand up on my own and I now know I will be fine alone too.

Not only to say bad things about my exchange, I liked my high school and I did got true friends who didn't turn their back on me. I can't thank you people enough, who stayed by my side and who were my friends at school and else. I was happy to go to school, I learned a lot, my language skills got better and I got to do music and theatre which I loved and which taught me a lot.

When people ask me about my exchange, I rather not talk about it. I might say ''well, it wasn't the best year of my life, but I learned a lot''. I've probably said that learning things million times, but I can not say it enough! I see many things differently now. My point of view has changed on many things. 

Above all, I got courage. I grew strong and independent. I got hurt, but I survived. 

Would I go back? No. Would I go, if someone would show me a video how it's gonna be? No. Would I go if I'd get to try again? No. Will I ever go back? I don't know. For now, I can't. Can I ever? I have no answer to that. 

I've coped well. I finished my school - just got my life back on track, and notwithstanding the big changes in my life I tried just to continue my everyday life.

But I couldn't be happier to be home. That's definitely true. It wasn't my place or my year, but it's long gone now. Not to remember all the bad things, but the good ones. The bad memories won't go away though, so I do keep thinking of them. I just try to focus more on the good memories.

Not too many days till Christmas! And I'm home. 

xoxo Dora

Getting ready for my graduation

 Oh My Gosh!

 It seems to be tomorrow! My graduation. Crazy huh? I graduate from high school. School's out! (High school at least)

I am so happy because I see results -  I've been on a diet for two months because of tomorrow and I've been working out too. It's so rewarding to see results, and hopefully I will look amazing in my dress. 

Fine, I admit, I've been working out my arms a lot… But I wanted them to look good in my dress! And I like my biceps. Though they could always be bigger!

I am so proud of that tummy. Thank you so much 2 months diet and cravings that I resisted (like cereals and croissants at breakfast time). Though for example eating porridge with cottage cheese for breakfast has become a lifestyle for me. You can get addicted to healthy eating too! Not kidding! 

I am fine with my body. I feel better when I work out and I'm always happy to  see the results and to improve my body. I can always change it to be better, but I am pleased with my body right now too. I live in it, so I should be happy with it! It's mine and only mine. I carry it with happiness. 

Those shoulders aren't much (or big) as you can see. But I'm working on it! I am progress. But they'll at least look good when I'm wearing my dress. 

Everything seems to be ready for tomorrow. I have my dress, my cap, shoes and everything else too. Now I should chill out but I can't relax - I'm just running around because I am so nervous! 

I am nervous because I have been honored to give the speech (of a graduated student). But it will go well, I'm sure. I just can't look around because if people cry, I will start to cry too! 

This is my cap! 

We went to take some test photos last week. Here you can see few of them! I wish we had snow, but no can do. I'm sure the photos will be amazing without snow too!

They're taken by my dear friend Aino. I love you. You're simply the best.

Here in Finland graduation from high school is a pretty big thing. We have this huge party and all family and friends will be invited. We get a dress (or else) of our dreams and a white cap that tells everyone you graduated successfully. I compare this to New Zealand, where graduation from high school is no big deal (I've done it).. Everyone is just in their school uniforms and there is no party or anything. There the big thing is if you get into University and when you graduate from University I guess. Not sure though!

I am pleased with my leaving certificate. I got pretty good grades in my opinion. They're good enough for me, and I'm happy with them, so that's enough. 

My dress is still a secret! But I promise you some photos later.

Here you can see my lashes! I got lash extensions and I love them. They're perfect. Not too much, but to make an impression and to turn heads! So happy.

Well what else? I don't know. I'm nervous. And stressed. And you'll get more photos later! 

Wish me luck!

xoxo Dora