Did I set the Bar to High?

Yesterday was about relaxing, but I also did some things that made me happy:

Finished reading the book "Plagued by Quilt" by Molly MacRae.

Baked some bread that I can bring to work as lunch.... It's buns with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and sliced olives. They taste good just as they are, or with brie or peperoni or..... WHOOPS!! Watering mouth now just thinking of them :) I did not bake any Christmas cookies this Christmas - very unlike me - come to think of it: have not even baked since I came home from the boat trip late in July. Well need to bake some more during 2015!!

Getting some more stitches done on a scarf - did the dreaded part where I had to start using a new skein - normally that wouldn't scare me, if it wasn't for this delicate pattern..... oh well hope I did it ok so knitting away to complete the last part of the scarf.

Was I setting the bar to high by accomplishing above just in one day? Well I'd like to think of it as a good start of 2015.

Chocolate.... 24 Little Men Went To Work

My colleagues love any excuse to get cake, so here is my latest contribution to their everlasting cake-hunger/-craving..... it was supposed to have been a vacation cake, but that collided with a company party, so instead it became an after-vacation cake.

Anne Au Chocolat had the recipe featured in a freebie magazine - real chocolate instead of cocaopowder making this a bomb of a cake. Her Danish name for the cake is "chocolade ballade" which means chocolate trouble - and it is scrumptious!! Decided to add just a little extra - so opted for these pepernut men (pebbernut is a cookies mostly made at Christmas time) and found the recipe here - use google translate to get the recipes on those two websites in English etc.

 

24 little men went to work - and did their job :o)

Snowman

We do not have any snow *sigh* does not quite feel like December yet, so have to use alternative means to get a dose of snowman.

I agee, this does not look like snow....

This could have been a snowball - you know one of those kinds with a lot of dirt in them as snow is hardly covering the ground, but you just had to make that snowball.... but this is rice crispies.

Now it starting to look like something - after vast use of white fondant, no wonder Buddy and Co. in Cake Boss have a sheeter to do all the fondant rolling instead of doing it by hand. Call him (or is it a her judging from the hat and scarf??) Melding Snowman. The body - pound cake - cracked when covering it with fondant, so he looks deform - the rice crispy ball is his head.

Here is my result - my first attemt of making the snowman. We discussed with the instructor and we all agreed, as this is actually meant as a cake eye catcher and not the cake itself - body should also be made of rice crispy as it would otherwise get to heave.

 

These are both the creations of the course (4 hours) instructor at Specialkøbmanden - red one is her original one and light blue version was her snowman of the day when showing us how to make the various details.

 

My question is now: will I ever have the guts to eat my snowman? Since there is cake inside, it will not last very long before it starts getting bad.

Cake International - London 2013

Ever been to a mouth-watering show??

 

Ok, at first glance, this may not seem edible, but it IS cake. This amazing cakes was competing with other amazing cakes at Cake International - The Sugarcraft, Cake Decorating and Baking Show in London this past weekend.

I will be the first to admit, that I like watching tv programs like Cake Boss, Cupcake Wars, Ultimate Cake Off, The Next Great Baker because of the creative process. They could create something reminding of the cakes on display at this show.... but getting to see works of art like these close up is priceless.

I know that this owl is cake - but just look at this creature: How can one eat that? Or even cut slices of cake from that?

All the details on the cakes - spoke to some of the competitors as they were hanging around the creations talking to us visitors. Was mindblowing to hear how fast some worked, that some have only baked/ decorated for a very short time and what inspired them. They shared a lot of their thoughts as they could sense how a lot of us appreciated the creativity.

As an amateur baker it was great to get inspiration - somthing to look up to and something to aspire just a little bit when creating a cake. May never be as good as the competitors, but they do inspire you to move just a little out of your comfort zone every time.

More photos to be found here

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas

 

When I saw this add two weekends ago, I did not believe my own eyes: Christmas scented dish washing liquid??!! Had to ask friends from both the US and New Zealand to find out, if this country was just late in adapting this - the answer was a "no".

Must confess, that my curiosity won, so those two bottles are now to be found in my kitchen. The gingerbread one smells wonderful when using it, the other only have a faint scent of Christmas spices. I can not help me wonder, if these are introduced, since a lot of people are too busy to make homemade cookies etc. - the store bought ones simply does not add the Christmassy smell to your house - and they miss the wonderful scents connected to Christmas?

 

I have not done any Cgristmas baking yet, but the scents from my Christmas teas fills up my appartment with wonderful scents of Christmas.....

Holidays Are Coming......

Received this season's first Christmas card today, so what better than mentioning a nice holiday read.

Pre-ordered this book, so received it in my mailbox on publishing day, and could not wait start reading it. It should come with a bit of a warning though, as you will find scrumptious recipes for Christmas bakery that will fuel cake cravings while reading it.... but help is not far away if you have the ingredients needed, as it is packed with recipes.

 

Austin is going to New York pursuing a good work opportunity leaving Issy in London, where she is considering her future: Should she remain in London with her beloved Cupcake Café that she has worked hard on creating or should she pursue new dreams in New York as surely, they need cupcakes too in the big apple.

 

One ca not help thinking about the phrase: "The grass is greener n the other side" - which you can encounter if you change jobs. You might get that strange feeling and thought "Did I really make the right decisiom?"

 

All this, recipes and then preparing for Christmas you have a story entertaining you for hours :o)

Cupcake Heaven

Just turning pages in that magazine makes my fingers itch to make some cupcakes... some of them are really mouth watering to look at... but here is the funny thing about me and cakes.... the might look scrumptious and tempt me.... but I can never eat much cake.

For me, most of it is the actual process making a cake/cookie... and sometimes friends persuade me to bake for them..... next year I am going a little further as has signed up for some classes :o)

Me-Time and scones

Yesterday was all me-time as we had a local holiday - that included sleeping in late, staying in the pyjamas ALL day, crafting, reading and.... baking.

Was suddenly in the mood for scones, and luckily I had all the ingredients in my house. Thanks to Sweet Paul Magazine, I had a recipe, that is super easy so follow .... LOL .. yes they got a little dark, the curse of suddenly not being able to find the oven gloves, and it only takes a splitsecond for the golden color to turn brown... but they taste scrumptious :o)

It was so much me-time yesterday, that I did not realise they they were finished in the oven at 8 PM, so skipped dinner and had a scone instead. It was just what I needed, and "just have to survive" one day at work and then weekend calls.

Everything seems more rush-rush these days - more fast-food or easy-cook meals are sold over the counter, 90% carries a mobile phone with them (yes I long back to the days where a phone was attached to the wall with the cord or if you wanted to call somebody when on the street, you had to use a payphone - work, family and friends had to wait until you were close to a phone, which usually was no problem), and old fashioned letters in your mailbox seems a million years ago. Since technology takes over more and more things and it is mobile, people can easily be stressed by having to be available more.

Believe that most people really should have a me-day, like I chose to have yesterday, and de-stress.... Know lots of people that would freak out over that thought, since they can not stand to spend a day for themselves: they have to be in the company of friends/family or at least have multiple phonecalls during the day, as they hate the thought of being alone. My "batteries" got fully re-charged, so I am ready to face the fast-moving world again.

Busy As a Bee

WOW did I really manage to do all that today?? And still little over one hour left of the day :o) So what is much? Well saw 3 (!!) photo exhibitions, attended 1 Sakura festival (celebrating the blooming Japanese cherry trees), laundry, grocery shopping, 2 cards, update of the wardrope (as in buying 6 pcs of clothing that can be mixed and matches so can be used both for work clothes and casual clothes), saw one movie on tv..... and created a scrumptios present for a teemage boy that I will give him tomorrow.

He is not allowed to eat sweets etc often, but tomorrow will be an exemption, and he loves cake. Had to improvise a little, as the tip I wanted to use for the frosting is soldout nationwide, but think these will make him smile before eating.

Ohh and the not decorated ones? They will be individually wrapped and placed in my freezer for "a rainy day" :o)

Katie Fforde's Recipe

Have read all Katie Fforde's previous books, so had pre-ordered this as soon as I saw that it was being published. Love those crafty worlds that all the heroines of this books are in trying to find their place of happiness.

Katie Fforde is following the beat: the trend of the vast number of reality shows with cooking and/or baking competitions (MasterChef, The Next Great Baker, CupCake Wars etc): the heroine of this book, Zoe Harper, has won a place in a cooking competition - winning this competition could get her closer to fullfilling her dream of opening a delicatessen.

I was in an almost all girls class for 3 years (24 girls and 4 boys), so I laughed when I read the description of another of the cooking competition participants, Cher. I have met persons like Cher - the persons that really puts your temper to the limit and demands a numerous count-to-tens in the hope not to explode with rage. That made me connect much more with Zoe while reading the book and it felt like sweeping into her world, as Katie Fforde is very good of describing the scenery.

Maybe my fondness of Katie Fforde books reflects my wish to someday do something creative for a living - but currently that is only a distant dream, as I have no clue how to pursue it and make it happen. In the meantime I will "just" continue reading Katie Fforde's books.

Rubber Duck Cake - Trial And Error

Purchased the cake pan a few months ago, as I simply had to own it... was then put on a shelve, as Christmas cookie cake cutters were in use for season.

Chocolate duckie after it is taken out of the pan......... looks funny, but seing the colors on the photo I actually like it. It looks a bit "mysterious" to me, but cake needs to cool down before fondant is mounted, as the cake would otherwise be sweating.

Note to self: remember to buy white and black fondant to make proper eyes (cheating here, as eyes are paper). First time ever working with fondant, so surprised about the result........used two different brands of fondant, on very sticky but the other easy to work with.... think I am ready to make the cakes to be served "in public" next week :o)

December 9th - Christmas Cookies

These 3 magazine covers arrived at my place within one week - first one is a weekly magazine for women, and the last two, the free magazines of two major supermarket chains. Made me crave for some of the local traditional Christmas cookies, but since I am not going to be home much during December, I have decided against making my own batch of cookies.

So what is traditional Danish? I am giving you the Danish names - just try to google them, and you might get some good descriptions/recipes:

• Klejner
• Vanille kranse
• Pebernødder
• Honninghjerter

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Cake??

I was actually about to finish this post, while also catching up on blogposts, emails etc. from the previous days, when I spotted a post on Claire's blog. Wait.... me an expert on cupcakes?? Oh well, I did make this post for fun - and I have actually signed up for a cupcake course :o)

Like so many others, male cards often makes me wonder for a looooong time on how to even make one for that person, but since a HouseMouse stamp founds it's way to my home, several ideas have come into mind. Made this one earlier today the husband of one of my good friends, and he definately has a sweet tooth.

Well needed this card in a hurry, so no time to redo it - and would have altered the width of the brown pice of paper behind the ribbon (which is actually mint green - but only had my mobile phone at hand when taking the picture) to be a bit smaller.

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 3

If I told you, that the deer on the picture below was made of chocolate, would you believe me???

 

Choccywoccydoodah

Name of a chocolateria in Brighton, England, and the series on TLC (also aired on FoodChannel, SkyChannel, Virgin Channel etc) takes you inside the world of chocolate and shows the skulpture-like pieces of art, all eatable, as they are made of the thing, that I rarely eat myself. Chocolate lover or not - you can not help falling in love with some of these wonderful creations, but I will take a bite of chocolate cake anytime.

Whenever I am in London, I check if the time is there to visit a city outside London by train - hopefully next time I will be able to go to Brighton just to catch a glimse of their window decoration, that is supposed to be a seight itself.

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 2

CupCake Sisters

Onlike CakeBoss, I have read about these two baking sisters before watching the reality show on TLC. An online article described how they were making a cupcake wedding dress and I was intrigued. Untill then a cupcake was merely a cake and no hanky-panky about that.

The two sisters Katherine Kallinis (former eventplanner for Gucci) and Sopie LaMontagne (formerly employed in the finance sector) quit their jobs and opened DC Cupcakes in Georgetown, DC, USA. Well a cupcake is much more than a cupcake, and I can not wait to see the next episode :o)

Browsing though the October 2011 issue of Oprah Magazine, and I saw this little add - DC Cupcakes supporting the fight agains breastcancer:

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 1

TLC a new addtion to the tv-cable package. Did not think much about that news, but when flipping channels the other day I was immediately hooked. Normally I dislike reality tv due to all the drama, backstabbing, gossip etc. - only exception is Project Runway, do to the peak into creative peoples' minds and the process of creating something fabulous in a short period of time. But a reality show with a sceene like this photo, lured me into staying tuned at that channel - and they aired 3 reality shows in a row that caught my full attention.

Fascinated by scooters, and then to see a wedding cake, with the bride and groom riding a scooter in front of the wedding cake shaped like the Tower in Pisa ?!?! WOWZA!!

CakeBoss

Reality show about Buddy Valastro and his family/team from Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, creating the most elegant, creative, awesome etc. cakes to all sorts of occations/celebrations.

If I saw one of those cakes in real life, I would be busy photographing all the details to help me remember that creation in front of me, and most likely forget to taste the cake - bet there must be a wonderful display at their shop window too. Next time I visit NewYork a trip to that shop is a definate must-do.

Why Do I Feel Like....

.... FBI Agent Dale Cooper in an episode of "Twin Peaks"??

Could it be because of this:

Just made my own first cherry pie ever, inspired by a blogpost the other day (picture is just before my slice of it), and now wondering why I have never made one before. Hmm made me think: Why did my mum never make a cherry pie, cause she made strawberry, blackberry or apple pies in large quantities? We did have several cherry trees which produced a lot of cherrys every year, so that could not be the reason, why she did not make one.

Well Dale Cooper had his pies with hot cups of coffee, I will take mine with tea, since I do not like coffee and wish I could watch the first episode of "Twin Peaks" again.

Lunch was, uh, six dollars and thirty-one cents at the Lamplighter Inn, that's on Highway Two near Lewis Fork. That was a tuna fish sandwich one whole wheat, slice of cherry pie, and a cup of coffee. Damn good food. Diane, if you ever get up this way that cherry pie is worth a stop.

Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks

Cookies On My Mind

A while ago, I started reading "The Christmas Cookie Club" by Ann Pearlman - which prompted a question from one of my fellow crafters in Paper Craft Planet's chatroom: "Are you going to start one?".... The idea is tempting, but how many people could I gather in December for such an event? And my appartment is far from big enough to host let's say 10 people.

Did a couple of Christmas cards those days, where I read a few chapters in the book - it was not hard to get into the X-massy mood despite that the world outside my appartments screams "SPRINGTIME!" - I can just hear people saying "I bet she put on X-mas music too!"

While reading a cookie recipe was running around in the back of my head. A couple of weeks ago, one of the free newspapers had a reacipe with healthy cookies. Healthy cookies - well that is usually a contradiction of terms. But this one was highly recommended as a dessert by doctors, especially for people with high cholesterol and/or overweight.

I suffer from neither, but am always on the lookout for better eating habits, and this is in sync with my MS Diet = lots of nuts and tried cranberries. And believe me, if you eat two of them as an afternoon snack, you will only have a limited appetite at dinner time.
Usually I have no problems with following a recipe, but there was something wrong with this one. Not enough liquid/moist to keep the ingredients together, so I had to add extra sirup. Wanted to publish the recipe for you to see, but since I have doubts about the how-to description, I will try to locate the original recipe in the book, from which the newspaper was inspired.

TAD 2011 - Day 13: Do You Know the Muffin (Wo)Man?

Do you know the muffin man, The muffin man, the muffin man, Do you know the muffin man, Who lives in Drury Lane. When you wake up with an English nursery rhyme like this, you know, that you should make birthday muffins for your colleagues (yep another year) to bring to work tomorrow :o) The recipe is one of the easiest ever - and since you use oil and not butter, it is not as heavy as some muffins are - and where berries is mentioned, you can use whatever you want like chocholate chip, nuts, fruit etc. My favourite is either apple+cinnamon or chocolate chip. 200g (7 ounces) berries 150g (5,2 ounces) sugar 1 large egg 1 tbsp. vanilla 1 dl (½ cup) sunflower oil 1½ dl (3/4 cup) milk 2 tbsp baking powder 250g (8,8 ounces) wheat flour If you are using berries, make sure that you drain them for juice. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then gently add the berries. Use paper cups (chose some who match the occation or opt for a not so cheap batch from stores like DollarStore, Tiger, PoundEmporium etc. - mine was found at Ikea for a bargain price) Bake 20-25 minutes in preheated oven at 180 Celcius (350 Fahrenheit) - a batch makes 12 muffins. Cool them off before eating. Just looked up the nursery rhyme, and it is actually mentioned in a Jane Austen book - is that a hint, that I should spend time on my couch reading something by her? Something only a few of us realise - a muffin in the old English days was nothing like the cake we know so well. Needless to say - I made more than one batch, so I will treat myself with one now.

TAD 2011 - Day 7:Crisp Bread

Today does not have to do with scissors, tape, paper etc. But flour, oil, sunflower seeds, dried pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, wheat flakes, salt, baking powder, linseed... Would have been cheaper just to buy Wasa crip bread at the supermarket - but this way I can decide exactly what goes inside.... and it helps my stomach being on the right track. YumYum :o)