Rosalia Rambles

Tag: dessert

  • Redundancy Review: Day 59, 60, 61, & 62: “Missing Milestones Due to an Impromptu Break”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia’s Rambles)

    Good morning truants and delinquents, welcome to… a fuck ton of days missed cause I felt like I should take a break, this covers Friday 8th August to Monday 11th August essentially.

    Why did I take a break? Well, I was trying to write something a bit more meaningful on Friday after having done a placeholder day on Thursday and… I just could not, no matter what kind of topic I wanted to tackle I could not find my rhythm, flow, or prose, tossing ideas into the void and feeling frustrated at what I was producing.

    So rather than forcing it, I decided on an impromptu break. Going into my weekend with the goal of enjoying myself and not thinking about writing which I definitely feel I needed.

    It might be that I had been getting burnt out with the idea of writing this series each day, even though I had a topic I could have written about on Friday by the time the evening rolled around, my focus was just not in it.

    Taking a break was good, and finding some time to relax helped a lot in not feeling as stressed… and then I found the window in our bedroom had cracked leading to an awkward moment of texting the landlords to try get that sorted but outside of that the weekend was great.

    I also finally got my first pay from my contracting role, that let me build my savings nest egg further, contribute a meaningful amount to the bills account once more, and treat myself to a few small things. Additionally I have been planning the last bits of my cosplay for my convention in less than a month’s time, so, hopefully that all comes together.

    It does feel a little bad I missed two milestones due to taking my break, missing both the sixty day mark and going past the two month milestone of being made redundant. It… feels weird to think of such a life changing event feeling simultaneously recent but also having a specific time behind it.

    Anyway, I want to post something today, and even if my review topic is another loose one, I want to share something I did that made me happy.

    I had never made a cake from scratch in my life until last week, with a friend of mine helping me out with this recipe:

    Easy caramel cake recipe | Good Food

    Even with my friend helping me out with each step, the recipe is incredibly easy to follow and made a delicious cake. Plus decorating the top with chocolate pieces in the shape of a rabbit made it look really cute as a caramel bunny cake.

    Initially I did want to do more for missing so many days, but, I guess my heart is still not as in it as I want it to be. Thank you for reading today’s edition of the Redundancy Review all the same, please stay hydrated and cool in this weather.

  • Redundancy Review: Day 12, “Moderate Stress”

    (for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: https://rosaliarambles.wordpress.com/2025/06/11/redundancy-review-day-1-a-new-beginning/) 

    Good morning miners and crafters, welcome to Day 12 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.

    Made it through the hottest day of the year so far pretty alright honestly, the temperature readout on the fan in my bedroom said it was 26 degrees Celsius this morning and in general the inside of the flat feels more pleasant to be around.

    That said, this morning feels a lot worse for me due to encountering other sources of stress last night. I am not going to go into too many details but the short of it is fighting for what I am entitled for due to my unemployment status and that being made difficult because of the administration company handling the situation. 

    Woke up feeling tired as hell because of it, and it sucks knowing I can not attempt to start fixing things until tomorrow – will probably try to take today a little easier to try to keep my energy reserves intact.

    Considering I have been temporarily screwed out of what I am entitled to, why not consider helping me out and hiring me for some writing work? If these reviews prove anything I can tackle a wide-range of topics and I have plenty of experience in writing professional copy for all sorts of projects.

    With the weather being so hot yesterday, cool drinks were on the agenda, and something I picked up on a recent Asda trip really helped out keeping my temperature down.

    (I mention Asda a lot in these reviews, I am not sponsored – just a fan)

    As a small introduction, one of my goals this year was to learn how to make perfect frappes in my blender. I have a variety of supplies all around the kitchen along with different recipes to try out, but success is currently limited.

    Cue my surprise when I saw a mocha frappe powder from my favourite chocolate producer, Galaxy. I picked it up and was excited to try it out.

    On my first time of using the powder, I followed the blender recipe on the packaging exactly:

    • 100ml of milk
    • 100g of ice
    • 4 heaped teaspoons of powder

    This… did not turn out so well. The mixture was delicious but it wasn’t as sippable as I would have liked it to be, often needing me to poke it with a spoon to get it to pour.

    I was not deterred though, and I tried again a little later with the following recipe:

    • 200ml of milk
    • 125g of ice
    • 4 heaped teaspoons of powder

    Not only did this blend together better, this went down so smoothly. Hitting the exact spot I wanted from a homemade frappe – creamy, chocolatey, and a good hit of coffee, along with making a greater quantity of drink.

    In Asda this powder cost me £2.98, and with current milk prices of around £1.20 for 2 pints, it is extremely cost effective to make homemade frappes with this, something I very much appreciate in my situation.

    That about covers everything for a slow Sunday redundancy review. Wherever you are I hope you are able to relax today and take things easy, you definitely could do with some chill time.

    Galaxy Mocha Frappe powder is available at Asda and Tesco in the UK.