Bábovka

HDR bábovka with coconut, nom nom!

The reason why it took me a week to make a new post is that I've been trying to find the best recipe for another Czech recipe - the wonderful bábovka [baah-boph-kah]. I made three different bábovkas in the past week, three different recipes and three different results. Since you probably have no idea what a bábovka is, I tried to find a translation and the most plausible one is "pound cake". Yet, my English flatmate has never heard about pound cakes so let me describe bábovka for you: it is a rather thick, somewhat heavy (as opposed to fluffy) cake that is VERY easy to bake and its charm is in its variability. You can bake bábovka theoretically with everything - fruit, nuts, jam, yogurth, heavy cream, poppy seeds, coconut, etc.

Palačinky

It was about time that I posted this recipe for palačinky [pah-lah-chin-keh], czech something-like-crepes. While it is not exactly a product of baking, the preparation process is completely fool-proof and the result is wonderful. I was very happy when I found out that I can make them on my own and not only ask my mom to make palačinky for dinner. Actually, palačinky can be eaten not only for dinner but as breakfast or brunch too. Their simplicity is their strength beacause they go well with a lot of fillings. French people would put Nutella in them but we Czechs know better - a strawberry, raspberry or blueberry jam, Spanish natilla or any similar vanilla pudding-y substance and even curd, that all goes very well with palačinky and the door to experimentation are always open. There's no excuse for not having palačinky at least once in a month.

Dorn

the box art

If there is one thing I don't like in board games, it's the amount of luck you need to have to succeed. Rolling five dices and failing in all 5 instances makes me rage like nothing else. The thing is that when you, as a board game designer, reduce the luck factor, the players' success depends purely on their skill and the game becomes more strategic and chess-like. Which is actually a very good way to describe Dorn, a fantasy themed turn-based RPG that is heavily based on mathematics.

The story of the game goes that there is a dungeon with an evil lord in it and there is a town which is in danger. A group of heroes appears and goes on a quest to kill the evil lord. The beautifully designed game plan contains several areas through which the heroes wander and defeat groups and groups of monsters summoned by the evil lord. Players play for both the heroes and the evil lord, they take turns in planning and performing their actions.

Orange Layer cake

a slice of orange heaven

It was really an idea that came late to me. I live in Spain now and yet I didn't bake anything with oranges. I found a link to a recipe for an orange cake on a board site I visit (not on 4chan) but I didn't like that cake too much. I took some parts of the recipe and tried to find good alternatives to ingredients they don't have here in Spain. After a stressful hour or two, a cake was born and while it could be sweeter, I think it was very well done. So if you like your cakes sweeter, up the amount of sugar in this one.

Carcassonne

I see Carcassonne as a good entry game into the whole board game business. It's simple, yet quite complex, it doesn't take too long, yet there is a good deal of strategy present. Unfortunately it took a turn similar to the Settlers of Catan and Talisman - the core game was expanded by many and many expansions and while some actually enhance the gameplay, some just crumble the core into a nonsense (I'm looking at you, Princess and Dragon).

The goal is to have the most points at the end of the game. You achieve that by expanding an area around the starting tile by adding another tiles. You can only add a tile in a fashion that it graphically connects with the already-laid tiles and doesn't clash with any neighbouring tile. The tiles have four different features on them, but not always they have all 4 of them present. There are roads, meadows, city and monastery, and connecting them to each other always somehow yields points.

The Stars Are Right

It is no big secret that I have a fondness for everything lovecraftian, green and with tentacles. When I saw a small box with cartoon Cthulhu on it, I was kinda intrigued. The price wasn't too bad (around 20 euro) and I wanted a game with Cthulhu ever since I played Arkham Horror (about which I'll talk some other time). Checking couple of reviews on the internet, I decided to buy it and I must say that I will never regret it.

To anyone who knows the Cthulhu mythos will the phrase "The stars are right," seem familiar as it is said that the sunken city of R'lyeh and Cthulhu will arise when the stars are aligned (they "are right"). Each player takes a role of a cultist who tries to align the stars to summon creatures from beyond the space. Whoever has 10 points worth of creatures at the end of his turn, wins.