Oh Valentine, Sweet Valentine!

Valentine's Day breakfast ...

:: for my girl - she loves her bacon ... ::

:: and my boy, with a sweet tooth, like his Mum :) ::

Surprise Cupcakes

My boy likes to surprise his classmates 

with yummy vanilla cupcakes 

he's rather famous for. 

And trust me, he really does make 

absolutely delicious little cakes! 

He always asks me to do the frosting, though, 

and I'm happy to oblige :)

                   Gone in a jiffy, I was told!

Yummy Cycling

For all you avid cyclists out there, 

I have really wanted to share this. 

 I love it! 

I got the photos by mail, 

with no reference, 

so I cannot quote the source, sorry :(

Looks fun & delicious, doesn't it?

Taking It Easy

Now this is what I call a slow start into the new year. Nearly half of January has passed already and I'm on my second blog post! Well, it's been busy at our quarters in the last couple of weeks, what with my birthday celebrations and all ... And now I'm finally ready to embrace life at its usual pace :)

For a proper start, I'll make your mouth water with some of the Christmas & birthday goodies we made. As usual, I'm still not one for carrying my little camera around the house and taking photos of everything I do, so here's a very limited selection of our makings:

I always make shortbread for Christmas, following the above recipe. Always a success :)

Another batch was a chocolatey one - one half of the rice flour substituted by cocoa powder. Yummy!

The ones below are seriously the best biscuits ever. My little girl (with a brand new hair do) has been a busy bee :) And a great helper!

Next project and more help - I love making yummy treats with my girl!

The biscuits turned out absolutely gorgeous - and delicious. Looking forward to this year's Christmas :)

(P.S.: an Easter Bunny has hopped onto our plate of Christmas biscuits - no wonder, considering the weather!)

Sweet Surprise

My husband and I went cycling the other day. 

When we returned home, this was waiting for us:

Six pretty cups of sweet strawberry jelly. 

Courtesy of our boy.

With shiny sprinkles and hundreds and thousands.

Courtesy of our little girl.

Exceptional upbringing :)

For A Change

Today, for a change, let me post one of my daughter's outfits. She always looks adorable, naturally :), but I thought she was particularly gorgeous in this ensemble:

Well, perhaps we should have swapped her Hello Kitty slippers for something more elegant (she did wear her chocolate brown leather boots to school...) but hey - not everything can be perfect. And after all, they're a great match, aren't they?

Outfit details:

- top - hand-me-down from her cousin (sooo pretty, isn't it?)

- tulip skirt - Next

- tights - local clothes shop

- Hello Kitty slippers - local supermarket :)

And while we're on the subject, let me share some of my little girl's creativity. This is how she prepares her snack (banana & chocolate eggs; she likes her food to be yummy AND look good...):

Enjoy!

She certainly did :)

More Treats

For those with a sweet tooth this time: my birthday cake! I made this for my girlfriends' party. It was delicious, I was told. It's made with orange zest & juice and ground almonds. The recipe requires chocolate icing but I chose chocolate buttercream icing which made it even more gooey... The pralines add a nice touch plus they're totally delicious as well. As always, it took me some time before I remembered to take out my camera...

There's still a slice in the pantry, I believe. You're welcome :)

Calendar Cakes Part Three

If you have been reading my blog every now and then you might have stumbled upon these two posts about my 'Calendar Cakes'. By last November I had made ten lovely desserts based on the calendar recipes and of course, it would have been extremely rude not to complete the task :)

So, here come the end-of-year treats:

- Dundee Cake in November

Hopelessly delicious and as you can see, before I remembered to take out my little pink camera this was all that was left of it...

- Festive Yule Log in December

Rather yummy as well, I was told; I didn't actually have any. But the oooohs and aaahs of my family and friends proved the point :)

Here's to another round - hopefully!

Making Bread

I've been making my own bread recently. Every now and then. We are particularly fond of the corn bread. Like the one above. It was rather yummy, actually. This month, though, I will most probably turn into the traditional Christmas biscuit maker. Oh, I do love this time of year. Minus the snow, of course :)

Calendar Cakes Part Two

OK, it's July, right? Making Frosted Fruit Cake! This one was dead-easy to make and incredibly yummy as well. An ordinary 'light and airy sponge cake' with mixed berries covered in sugar on top. So refreshing.

A totally and completely delicious Summer Shortcake for August. Oh my, this was basically a giant shortbread biscuit with strawberries and cream. Still thinking about it...

I made a tasty & juicy Plum Cake (something along the lines of this recipe) in September - just in time for my little girl's birthday (this was only a side cake, of course, in case we ran out of the big three-tiered 'proper' birthday' cake - chocolate, please...; we didn't).

The picture does not really do it justice - the cake was really good but it did not look so, unfortunately. The plums were supposed to be showing through but they all sank into the batter...

The October recipe featured Halloween Muffins - made with pumpkin flesh from the Jack-o-Lanterns, with ginger frosting and marshmallow & sugarpaste 'Halloween' decorations (think little ghosts and stars and skulls - I didn't actually make the decorations because I couldn't get any marshmallows or sugarpaste on short notice :( ). I was again clever enough not to take any pictures before they were consumed. I was told they were absolutely delicious...

Two more to go until the end of the year! Dundee Cake in November and a Festive Yule Log (covered in chocolate...) in December. Will keep you posted!

Calendar Cakes Part One

Here's the story: back in January, I got, among other lovely things, a funny old present for my 40th birthday. A friend of mine gave me a calendar featuring a recipe for a 'fabulous seasonal treat' each month. And what's more, she accompanied the present with a smart remark: "I hope you make these puddings each month and have your friends taste them for you" :) What a nice challenge, don't you think? Well, I thought, consider it done.

The recipes in the calendar were (mostly) typical British desserts and I had already made some of them before I got this sweet calendar. The year started with the (not entirely British...) Black Forest Cherry Cake, which I made for the birthday party for my friends. It was absolutely delicious. You'll have to take my word for it. 

Photo: source

February featured vanilla-flavoured Valentine cupcakes. Yummy!

Springtime Cake, a classic sponge cake, decorated with flowers, was our March dessert.

In April I made not one, but two Simnel Cakes - I make one traditionally every Easter (the one on the photo below is the Easter one, not the 'a treat for friends' one).

A totally delicious One Mix Chocolate Sponge in May - ridiculously easy to make and oh-so yummy!

 Photo: source

Six months into the project, I finally activate my blogging mind and start taking my own photos: time for the very well-received Lavender Cake. Goodness me, it was different, but so so good.

To be continued...

Jubilee Cake

Photo: B. Senk

So, after the concert we had a party. It wasn't a celebration of Her Majesty's Jubilee, obviously - as I'm basically the only Royalist in the group :) - we had a little celebration before we parted for the summer. But I couldn't resist...

We had a fabulous time, with lots of yummy food and spontaneous singing. I'm grateful to have a bunch of friends like these. See you in September!

P.S.: The cake is an easy-peasy one-mix chocolate sponge sandwiched with whipped cream which is sweetened with apricot jam. Delicious!

Easter 2012 - Food

My dear friends, I hope you all had a lovely Easter. Ours was perfect - well, almost, as the weather was not entirely cooperative. We had another quick winter visit over the weekend and I'm afraid those pretty purple ballerinas that my little girl was looking forward to wearing to church on Easter Sunday will have to wait for a while. And they came all the way from Britain...! And just in time for Easter, too!

Anyway, for us, Easter is all about church and traditions, including some really yummy food. And since I'm much more into British traditions than our own I usually embark on preparing some tipically British dishes. As you can see, my Simnel Cake turned out perfectly well. And oh my, it was absolutely delicious! Mind the past tense - it's all gone now...

A box of chocolates I could not resist buying even though it was a bit on the pricey side. I loved the bunnies and the colours and would you believe it - the chocolates have not yet been eaten! I can hardly believe it myself...

Our Easter eggs - Basket No. 1; courtesy of my husband, children & Mum-in-law; for some strange reason, even though I love crafting, I'm not very much into egg colouring. Go figure.

More Easter bunnies - love love love the box, it's a keeper!

Another British tradition of mine - Hot Cross Buns. I always make loads and loads and give them away to all our family and friends. Yummy as well!

And some more bunnies... I told you I loved the colours and all... Plus you get to see our gorgeous daffodils!

Easter eggs - Basket No. 2. The brown ones are dyed with onion skin, so clever, isn't it!

Some more bunnies & pretty daffodils...

So good to be back!