You know what, I am right in the swing now, for daily posts. Inevitable result of such a high-producing initiative as a fundraiser. (Which, btw, is not fully concluded yet. There may be some more donations coming in, so there may be a final final update on that, soon.) And maybe also a reaction to the sad news of losing dear KellyDS as a regular RA blogger. While I wish her all the best for her non-blogging future, I am sad to see her go. But well, as Servetus already pointed out, Kelly’s gem of a blog, NowhereinparticularRA, will remain online. If you are a newish fandom member, I encourage you to hop over to her page and read through her old posts. She really has a knack for illustrating her posts with gifs that get the funniest captions from her. And while we are in the process of praising fans, may I also take the opportunity and refer old and new fans to the veritable Armitapedia of the fandom?
#41 RAnet Special
We are talking of Richardarmitagenet.com, often also abbreviated to the intimate “RAnet”. I was thinking of Ali, the webmistress and fan behind RAnet, yesterday when I was adding up the auction proceeds. – RAnet has been a regular port-of-call for anyone who is looking for specific material about RA – or for newly infected RA watchers who come across her site as they are frantically searching for any info about Richard. Her archives are bursting with old newspaper and magazine articles, she’s got a comprehensive gallery full of screen caps and images of all of Richard’s roles as well as public appearances, and she keeps a running time line of all things RA on her landing page. She does all of this for free and for our benefit, even though she *could* give herself a salary. You see, Ali has integrated three Amazon buttons on her page. If you intend to purchase on Amazon, you can go through her buttons – and every purchase then made will then incur a referral fee that is paid back to Ali. Instead of keeping these fees, Ali has been donating *all of them* to Richard’s charities over the years. To give you an idea: In the first six months of 2016, Ali received referral fees of 1,139£ (1,500$) from Amazon and donated each and every penny to charity! The total comes to 9,826£ (12,995$). Read more HERE. I have included a handy link to Ali on my blog’s landing page now (side bar), and I am also linking to the fandom’s US port-of-call, Richard Armitage Central. RAC also comes with tons of articles, links and images. You can waste indulge for hours in the material that is available there. So do check them out, if you haven’t already 🙂
Raffles etc.
Staying with the topic of thanks – now is the time to raise the balloons for the lucky winner of the RAPS, raffled among all of you who passed on the message about the fundraiser on the various platforms. It took me quite a while to go through comments, tweets and blogs to compile the list of names, but eventually I got it together. Randompicker has worked its magic, and the winner is… 🎈dwarfmaiden13 🎈over on Twitter. Congratulations and many thanks for helping spread the word 💋!
Here is the draw protocol:
[ETA: Glady just pointed out I made a mistake with the raffle protocol above – I put the wrong prize into it. So replace Glady’s gift with a RAPS for this. Sorry!]
Also, as a special thank you for fans who wanted to donate to the fundraiser, our fellow fan Glady has made a gift package containing some sweet-scented RA items. What a lovely idea! Glady will send the gifts to you directly – I hope it is alright if I pass on your address to her. I am still waiting for a couple of days but will raffle the gift soon. Updates here.
Cake
Lastly, for all who missed out on the raffles – and asked for the recipe – here is some cake for you:
Armitage Cake
(aka Vegan Red Wine Cake)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup unrefined cane sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup strawberry jam
- 1 cup red wine
Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. Then add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix. Add water if too dry.
Grease round tin with olive oil and dust in cocoa powder. Pour batter in and bake for 45-50 minutes at 180°C. Dust generously in cocoa powder.
One of the easiest, quickest recipes ever, ideal for using up left-over wine, you can even hand-mix the batter, which usually gives better results to this kind of cake. You can also use whole meal wheat flour instead of white. The cake is not extremely sweet, so replace cane sugar with refined sugar if you are a sweet tooth :-). Likewise, strawberry jam can be substituted with any berry jam. Tastes best when hot and served with a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream and/or stewed berries. The latter also applies to the eponymous actor. 😀
Guylty Pleasure 
You are so naughty! Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
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Hehe, couldn’t resist continuing that cake metaphor.
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Lovely! And I’m getting ready to bake some cookies–with chocolate. Ha!
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How did the cookies turn out? Did you think of Richard when you ate them 😉 ?
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Scrumptious! Even my hubby said so, and he is more of an oatmeal raisin cookie kind of guy. And oh yes, Richard’s earlier stated preference for chocolate did call him to my mind. Ha!
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Hehe, that’s not a bad association to have. I often think of RA when I’m eating. Raspberries and peaches come to mind 😉
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Thank you for the recipe. It might be a bit before I make this cake, got to open some red wine first. I will let you know what I think.
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Probably the best bit of the recipe is having to drink the wine first 😉
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I tend to drink whites over reds but I do have some so maybe I will have make some pasta and save a cup of wine out of the bottle.
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Good plan!!
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The recipe looks interesting and easy. There is only one thing wrong with it, who has leftover wine? Not in my house. Bottle is always empty at the end of the night. 🙂
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LOL – you are probably right. Myself and hubs are really atypical. We both never drink at home. Unless there are visitors. And then there’s always something left over.
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Lovely! And congrats to Dwarfmaiden13 for her lovely prize!
I love how you plugged RAnet here. When I got back from my vacation Ali’s site was my first port of call to catch up with all I had missed in Armitage-land. RA Central has been a valuable source to me as well. So, THANK YOU RA Net and RA Central for all the work you put in!
Hmm, the cake does sound easy, even for me! Although I agree with Kathy – we never have leftover wine in our house either. We’re killing another bottle right now (albeit it chilled white wine because it’s been so hot today).
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I did the same when I returned from Croatia earlier this summer. Rather than wade through tons of tweets and blog posts, I scrolled through Ali’s timeline and got an immediate overview over the various news. Perfect. I regularly go into the gallery when I need material for my shrines. And it has become a habit to click on her Amazon links when I want to make a purchase. It cannot be said often enough that fan sites such as RAnet and RAC provide the backbone of the fandom. I don’t think that Twitter, FB, boards or blogs can replace the archives and easy overview that a conventional website format offers.
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I full-heartedly agree!
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Hats off to Ali!!! And thanx for sharing button information 😀 And thanx for the recipe! ❤
Congrats to Dwarfmaiden13 on raps, she will surely enjoy it.
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Yeah, check those buttons out – it doesn’t cost us anything to generate donations that way…
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Congratulations again! I love the RANet RAPS, so special! I like very much the background behind JT, well-done, as always! The winner should be very happy!!! Funny happening with the recipe – I realized I know it very well, it’s a standard cake for the fasting periods here, you can even buy it in many stores. The standard recipe we use does not contain wine, only water, but be sure I’ll try yours next time 🙂 I also add small pieces of black chocolate, they melt inside.
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RAnet and Central are amazing sites for info and pics when you enter the online world of RA. They provided me with so much that I didn’t have a clue about during the years I floundered around on my own, and led me so many other places in the last few years. Once more, your auction, Glady’s gifts, shipping donations, and anything I may be forgetting are a testament to the members of this fandom, truly. Guylty, that is a very interesting cake, I’ll have to try it.
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Hope you’ll try the cake.
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Definitely trying that cake. Have been curious since I read about it.
I’ll miss Kelly’s blog also. Hers was actually the first blog I stumbled across and her GIFs and wit always improved my day. And her “55 Reasons British Men Are Gorgeous” will remain a highly instructional guide.
THANK YOU for mentioning RANet. I’m constantly directing newbies to it. It’s important for them to research Mr. A on their own to become familiar with him and his work.
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I think that is a really good point – approaching RA in his own words (interviews) and his roles, rather than the filter of a fan. I love all fan sites that deal with RA exclusively, but the RAnet and RAC are the basic tools for current and future fans 😄
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