Welcome back to The Line-Up folks, your weekly mine of the best events around. This week Niamh Geaney had rounded up some top-things to do with BYOB underground cinema, free chocolate tastings, choons and gay film screenings all making an appearance.
This chocolate and nut granola will satiate your sweet cravings while providing you with a healthy, clean and antioxidant-filled breakfast.
Really, what more could we ask for?!
If you make a big batch of this on a Sunday, it will do you for the week.
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It’s true that Ireland couldn’t cope without potatoes back in 1845, but we reckon we’d get on okay in 2014. We have rice, pasta, bread… loads of other carbs!
However there ARE some things that we really could not go on without… one of them being chocolate. It is a key food group after all.
So we are more than a little panicked about the claim by two of the world’s leading chocolate manufacturers, Mars, Inc. and Barry Callebaut, that the globe is slowly but surely running out of cocoa – the main ingredient in our favourite treat.
Production of cocoa in West Africa has been cut by around 30 to 40% in recent years, due to increasingly dry weather. With larger countries like China consuming more and more chocolate these days, supply is well exceeding demand.
So does that mean we’ll be eating chocolate-flavoured Galaxy bars in the near future? Hopefully not. There are a number of preventative measures in place – one of which being that many companies are making their bars a little smaller. So don’t complain next time you notice that your Milky Way is a little more fun-size than it was before – it’s better than nothing!
Scientists in West Africa are also working on developing a cocoa bean tree that could produce seven times more beans – though taste may be compromised. Excuse us while we go and stockpile enough Dairy Milk bars to last us for the next year…
If you’re having a bit of a quarter-life crisis and wondering what to do with yourself, why not consider a new job? Specifically, a new job as a Doctor of Chocolate. Yes, you heard us. Doc of Choc.
Cambridge University is hiring someone for the unusual new post, starting next January. Unfortunately though, you’ll need to know a little more about chocolate than the merits of Golden Crisps versus Galaxy Honeycombs, or which Snack bar goes best with a cuppa.
The main focus of the job is to study how chocolate can be stored in warm climates… not quite Willy Wonka stuff, really.
While you will get to be around a lot of chocolate as part of the role, we’re not sure you’d actually get to eat any of it. Also, the job is for PhD students only, so that does rule out some of the chocolate fiends among us.
We really had our hopes up for a while! Hopefully Cambridge will let us know if their research project requires any chocolate tasters down the line… That is a role we would be more than qualified for!
LEGO was already basically the best thing ever (and completely ok for grownups, it doesn’t matter that the box says ages 8-14, that’s just a suggestion) but it just got even better.
Japanese artist and designer Akihiro Mizuuchi has developed a way of making functional LEGO bricks out of chocolate, so that you build and eat at the same time.
The chocolate is a bit harder and more robust than normal so that it doesn’t break or melt during building, but it still edible.
It was made my pouring chocolate into tiny silicone moulds, which are easy to pop out without damaging the shape. He managed to make dark, milk and white chocolate bricks, and the detail is pretty impressive.
There’s no word on whether LEGO are looking into making this an actual product but we can only hope. And email them twice a day.
Are you sick of how healthy bananas are? Do you hate how fruit doesn’t cause obesity?
Well finally there is a solution to the problem that nobody had.
DestapaBanana is a new device that allows you to inject a caramel core into a banana – without removing the peel.
This way you can carry around your Frankenstein banana for a quick, on-the-go hit of diabetes.
To create this monstrosity, you hold the banana in the DestapaBanana’s tube vice, which extracts the core of the banana. Then you replace it with a sugary liquid of your choice from the refillable bottle.
The DestapaBanana is not available to buy yet, but we’re sure such a useful and necessary product will be in every home in no time…
We’ve all heard of the word superfood – but rather than your carrot with a superman cape on, the term superfood simply means foods that are rich in nutrients and are particularly beneficial to our health and wellbeing.
Here are five superfoods you need in your life:
Eggs
Eggs are a great source of protein, iron, zinc, vitamins and amino acids and they aren’t particularly expensive to pick up.
Garlic
Not particularly good if you are planning on locking lips, garlic is jam-packed with bioactive compounds great for maintaining healthy levels of cholesterol.
Berries
Even if they weren’t a superfood we’d be munching on these anyway. They are full of dietary fibres, are low in sugar, and are full of anti-oxidants.
Dark chocolate
We couldn’t compile a list of good foods without mentioning chocolate. Now we’re not talking about the milk version, but dark chocolate that has at least 60% cocoa content is full of anti-oxidants and is lower in fat than the milk version.
Goji berries
Great for protecting the liver and improving eyesight, goji berries are anti-inflammatory and taste great in smoothies.
What better way to make the most of warm days ahead, then with some chocolate mint macaroons. The recipe for this French treat may be long, but the results are worth it.
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This recipe is not only easy to make but also makes the perfect summer snack.
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You’ll never want to go the bakery again thanks to this easy and delicious chocolate caramel shortbread recipe.
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Love your salt and sweet treats? Well, a London bakery has finally created a new Marmite cupcake to satisfy those taste needs.
The bakery, which is called Lola’s Cupcakes created the unusual treat especially for Father’s Day.
The cupcake has a chocolate sponge with a salted Marmite caramel centre. The cupcake is then topped with rich Marmite buttercream and chocolate icing.
Asher Budwig, the managing director of Lola’s Cupcakes, said: “I’m always searching for ways to create innovative, exciting cupcakes with unusual ingredients. Marmite’s saltiness complements the caramel extremely well, but the centre will either be a shock, or a pleasure depending on where your Marmite sensibilities lie.”
Hmm not sure if we’ll be trying this out but these cupcakes are definitely a must for Marmite lovers.
Delicious and easy to make, these peanut butter chocolate brownies are the perfect summer treat.
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1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Butter the sides of your baking tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and coco powder into a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until very soft. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, coco powder and the chopped chocolate and mix to form a dough.
4. Place the dough into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until golden brown and almost firm in the centre.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, before removing and cutting into squares.
