Did you know that the ancient Egyptians can be credited with creating the celebration of birthdays? They believed that when their pharaohs were crowned, they became gods, so their coronation signified their new "birth" as a God.
Showing posts with label Cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cakes. Show all posts
Poppy Seed & Chai Mini Cakes with a Chai Cream Glaze
There obviously is no topic that is hotter and en vogue in the first month of the year than “health, fitness and weight loss!” Year for year we list our goals and, year for year these topics always make the top 5 list of New Year’s Resolutions. Over the turn of the year my WhatsApp and Telegram messages were brimming with all the tips and to dos my friends were planning as soon as January came along. The gym I go to has been uncommonly full this month with people, sweating and pushing a few extra weights, determined to stick to those earnest goals they set. Every blog and food website I have visited this month also has some awesome recipe list on “detox”, “clean” food and how we can eat better through the year. I guess that is why I waited patiently to post my first recipe of 2019. .
Rhubarb Pistachio Frangipane Tart
Rhubarb, for many, is an acquired taste, often not acquired till adulthood. I did not acquire the taste until a few years after I moved to Germany. Rhubarb is the harbinger of springtime, and like Spring it is transient and delightful.
Lingonberry Lebkuchen Festive Cake
It’s December! Again. I have dusted of some of the speckles of lint beginning to gather here. An unwanted break from the blog that extended into a bit of a Summer / Autumn interlude. And now here I am – it’s December and time for Christmas!
Christmas | Quark Butter Stollen and Cranberry Almond Butter Spelt Stollen
As the last of the golden leaves have fallen and the magnificent Autumnscape is replaced with barren trees and frosty fields, December comes around and I begin to crave spices, warming stews and curries. My kitchen itches for me to bring together flour, sugar and spice and that bottle of rum to plump up the dried fruit and maybe a nip between whisking and beating. While outside the gravel-grey skies are bare and the biting winter winds have stripped the last of the leaves from the trees, inside the inviting glow of the candles promise cosy warmth.
Rhubarb Strawberry Pavlova with Cardamon Skyr Cream
Peonies, scoops of ice cream, dances through the sprinkler, warm summer rains and juicy strawberries. All the things that are making summer a blast for us here in Weimar. Those end of year exams are done and dusted for my son, my last workshops and events for the first half of the year are under the belt and we are gearing towards summer break in just under a week.
Christmas Dessert: Butterscotch Pudding with Prunes and Walnuts and a Whisky Sauce
It has been quite a very sweet month as December always is. There are always nibbles of a cookie here and morsels of a stollen there and regardless of all the good intentions it’s so difficult to resist. However, we have been careful and although there are some indulgences - it is Christmas after all - on whole we are nourishing ourselves well and very balanced.
Christmas: Chocolate Gianduia Stollen With Cranberries and Papaya
The cakes of Christmas, be it the petite mince pie or the bombastic panettone or the heavyweight fruit cake, always bring with them a certain amount of joviality. Christmas (in most Western countries) has got to be the sweetest and most decadent month of the year – a proper festival of sugary, fruity, chocolaty treats!
Cherry Pistachio Meringue Tart
To me it never really feels like summer until cherries arrive in the markets. Cherries announce the beginning of the stone-fruit season and for me this kicks-off my favorite fruit season of the year. For a short time cherries are the stars before apricots, peaches and plums arrive and take over front row.
Celebrations: Vanilla Infused Kumquat Marmalade Semolina Cake
9 years! That’s how old this blog is today. That means an astonishing number of posts, a fascinating amount of images and a magnificent quantity of recipes, mishaps, experiments in my kitchen. When I think about my shaky, timid and naïve debut into the blogging world I cannot help but giggle and look back in amazement at all that has occurred since February 2006!
Gooseberry Nectarine Galette
It feels good to be back home! After over 3000 kilometers through the Normandy from Étretat to Mont Saint Michel then over to the Pays D’Auge and ending in Versailles and Paris, we are quite contended to be back home. After a little over two and half weeks of living in a RV the luxury of space is felt in every room but most of all in my kitchen. It was a sensational vacation: we hiked on steep cliffs, we relaxed under gorgeous cornflower blue skies, we swam in the ocean and we ate our weight in mussels, oysters and seafood.
The Sunny Side Up Cake
I’ve been having a lot of fun lately! Maybe it’s the break of spring and the wonderful warm weather we’ve been having. I just feel a lightness in all my activities, tasks and chores and my ideas are running freely again. I just wish I could find out how to make time double up for me to have enough of it to realize and try making them all come true. So, instead I am making sure to have fun with those activities and tasks I have decided to focus on and give priority to.
Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Brownies
While 2013 was the year of the kale it seems that cauliflower is the new superfood trending in the food hit list for 2014. Kale or “grünkohl” as it is known in Germany has always been a traditional vegetable here; popular in the northern regions of Germany, but the hype made around it in the US was quite fascinating to watch as it developed. Now, however it is time to pack away the kale chips, kale lasagna, kale salads and even those kale popsicles and make room for cauliflower.
Christmas: Spekulatius Spiced Madeleines
The Holiday time is often brimming with emotion, where anxiety, cheerfulness and the grey areas are entwined with each other. There will be some who have happy memories of Christmases past, while others face a painful time to endeavour. We all have memories and experiences in our lives that make us who we are.
Cherry and Roasted Almond Marzipan Tart
It feels as if my head has been in a big fuzzy bubble over the past few months. Seriously! Moving on auto-pilot, hardly registering many of the good things happening around me, was extremely alienated to me. I like laughing and being happy. It’s me … from head to toe. My energy keeps me buzzing and alive, something I have not been feeling very much of lately.
“Well,” I said to myself, “if you do not like the way things are going …. change the course you are on!”
Rhubarb, Ginger and Quark Strudel
She was a proud buxom lady who commanded a very special aura of respect whenever she entered the oversized kitchen. It was the kind of respect you knew never to mess with because behind her kind smiles and her liberal patience there was her haughty dignity of being one of the best in her field. Anyone who dared to disregard this fact by challenging her significance, would become the subject of being abundantly praised out of her kitchen and into one of her inferior colleagues’ less meaningful sculleries. Before they even realized the poor exchange they had made, it was far too late to make any amends and many a wretched trainee ended up biting in the sour apple.
Easter Treats: Pistachio Lime Cupcakes with a White Chocolate Frosting
I am realizing the restrictions a person has when part of the body does not function as usual. Simple things that we take for granted have become frustrating obstacles.
Have you ever actually thought about the simple act of climbing or coming down the stairs? Living in a 3 storey house this has become my daily feat. Taking it for granted as I would often run up and down the stairs from kitchen to my studio to my prop attic.
Christmas: An Orange Marmalade Date Fig and Quark Stollen
How much kitsch is allowed at Christmas? As I walked past the stalls of the Christmas market this weekend, I felt a surge of happiness as I saw the plethora of flashy ornaments and gaudy adornments. It seems Christmas is the season where anything goes and everything is allowed.
Tinsel, baubles, lametta, ribbons, fake snow, dancing Santa Claus, snow in cans - and we’re just getting started. I could not help filling my basket with a bit of each.
Honey Cinnamon Zwetschgen and Hazelnut Cream Tart
After my return from Dubai I was thinking of taking a few days out before jumping into the familiar high powered routine I usually have. We arrived just in time for a bank holiday in the middle of the week and there was nothing standing in the way of a few extra days of tranquility and lounging around the house recuperating from the intense eight days in Dubai. I was not tired nor did I feel drained, on the contrary I was full of energy and motivated, raring to shift into sixth gear and zoom ahead.
Maple Roasted Pumpkin and Allspice Babka with Cinnamon Icing
Strawberries, raspberries and cherries lie scattered on the countertop in the kitchen. The fresh asparagus glistening vibrant green in the sink waiting to be turned into a pesto. I consult my recipe and style sheet to make sure I have everything ready. The temperatures are mild outside, in my flip flops I take a step out on the porch, inhaling the clean and fresh air - it smelled just like it does in early Spring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)