jeckyl

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Here's what you'll need:


100g dark chocolate
150g self-raising flour
150g plain flour
60ml blackberry jam
60ml cocoa powder
60ml buttermilk
4 large eggs
2 table spoons coffee powder
200g baking margeriene
200g sugar (I know this sounds like a lot but the dark chocolate and coffee make it really bitter)

Aaand if I left anything out I'll add it later.

Method:

Start by preheating your oven to 180 degrees. (celsius)
Wash your hands thoroughly. (I'm big on hygiene)
In a clean bowl, sift together all your dry ingredients. (flour, sugar, cocoa powder)
In a pan, boil 3 quarters of a cup of water. Add the margeriene, coffee powder, dark chocolate and mix until they've all melted and it's a smooth syrup.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.
in a seperate bowl, cream together the eggs and buttermilk.
Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and stir in the buttermilk/egg mixture.
Once the coffee syrup had cooled add it to the other ingredients.
(Make sure it's not hot of the eggs will curdle and then you'll have to start ALL over again. Seriously.)
The result should be a very runnny and dark looking dough. Like this.




Grease up a cake tin of your choosing. Preferably a large one cause it's a pretty big mixture. I chose this one.


Place on a baking tray in the oven and allow to bake for approximaltely one hour.
DON'T open the oven before it's fully risen otherwise it'll flop and turn hard like an oversized cookie.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before turning over onto a dish.
I was impatient with mine and tried tp flip it while it was hot then it broke
So BE PATIENT!!

Dust with icing sugar and add cherries to make it look pretty.
Ta-da!!

For those of you who don't know, I'm studying to be a Social Worker.
The decision to study this wasn't really that hard for me. Making other people happy, is what makes me happy. I cannot, as a person, justfy being happy and content with my life, while other people around me are suffering. It just feels selfish to me. So it was very natural for me to dedicate my life to improving other people's.
Anyway.. Part of what my course entails is getting involved with the community so yesterday I got to visit some really awesome places of sanctuary. I'm going to tell you a bit about what I saw.

The first place I visited was a homeless shelter for unemployed men.
Let me tell you, the living conditions in this place would make you cringe. People speak of hitting rock bottom? I think I saw it first hand. These men are recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and ex-cons who're really just struggling to get back onto their feet and turn their lives around. That much is admirable.
Some of them have families that they've abandoned and children. I can't imagine what it must be like to not see your own child for years at a time. And the anxiety of whether or not they'll still recognise you. Or accept you.
But i got to spend some time with them and flex my community counselling knowledge and when I left I really felt like I was able to make at least a little bit of a difference. Not as much as i would've liked but I do plan on going back for at least a month and just helping get their spirits up.
What I really like is that they take initiative. They get scrap wood and make dog kennels to sell or chop up fire wood and such. They don't just sit around waiting for other people to come around and fix their lives for them. It makes it easier to WANT to help them. You know how the saying goes: "The good Lord helps those who help themselves."

Next I went to an AIDS orphanage. Not very easy for me. It tugs at my heart strings to see children suffering. But you know what was really amazing? These kids didn't look sick AT ALL. They were running around and playing just like any other healthy child would do. I also met their house mother who's sacrificed her whole life to foster these children. She even lives on site and is with them literally 24/7. What scared me was when I went into the kitchen and she opened the fridge and showed me just boxes upon boxes of medication that these poor children have to take daily. (And when I say "children" I mean some of them are younger than 3 years). The highest CD4 count in that orphanage is 42. 42!! For those who don't know, a healthy CD4 count should be over 1 000. So these kids are VERY sick. One foot in the grave, as she said. It makes me sad how unfair it is. They did nothing wrong, why should they suffer? What was cool is that the best way to "counsel" them was just to play with them and I had a lot of fun doing just that! I really love children. They're so innocent and happy you know? Especially thinking of all that they go through and still manage to keep those smiles on. Makes you feel guilty for getting sad over trivial matters in life.

Then I went to a nursing home. Aren't old people just so adorable? I don't think I'd ever put my parents in a nursing home though. I know people have their reasons and I repect anyone's decision to. Just for me personally after seeing how lonely they are, I wouldn't send them there.
Let me tell you a story. Last week, one of the elderly people died and somehow the family got to hear about it. Do you know what they did? They went to his apartment and looted all his tuff. I mean literally everything of value, was gone. TV, hi-fi, you name it. And the worst part? When social services got there, his body was still sitting in the very position it had been in when he died. They hadn't even bothered to report it. Is that really the thanks our parents get for raising us? I should hope not.
Stories like this are just one of the many reasons I got into what I'm doing. It disgusts me sometimes, how we treat our fellow man.

Last, i went to a baby shelter.
I can't even begin to describe to you how hard that was. I had a chat with the house mother about how she came to be in charge of the welfare of the currently 12 babies under her care. (The oldest being just over 1 year, the youngest being 5 weeks). Apparently, some women go to hospital, give birth, then literally get up and walk out. I'm not kidding. And to them, that's a GOOD way of getting the babies. Because then the baby goes straight into the system. 2 of her babies were found in black garbage bags. To me this is just inconcievable. Some were found in public toilets, you know in those sanitary bins?
I don't think being a Social Worker is going to be easy at all hahaha half the time i just feel like I wanna kill people. If you can even call someone who does something like that a 'person'.
But yeah, people make their own decisions. I'm just lucky enough to be in a position where I can help rectify the consequences faced by the innocent people affected by those decisions and give them a better chance in life.
I spent the longest time at the baby shelter, just playing with them. i think I'm going to adopt one someday. When I'm older and less crazy lol

It's just sad. Statistics say that there's over 1 million orphans in South Africa. And of that 1 million, only 0.7% will ever get adopted. The rest will stay in the system. And i'm sorry to say this but I have studied our welfare system and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.
And I can go on and on about everything that's wrong here or I can get up off my ass (excuse the language) and do something about it.
So that's what I'm going to do. They say you really can change the world of you care enough.

I'm going to end this blog with a quote that I always find very inspirational.

Service to others is the rent you pay for living on this planet.
- Marian Wright Edelman

Have a great week everyone