Love Hearts for the garden.

Before you all starts to think that I only bake and eat cake I want to show you some love hearts that I made for the garden.
Living on the coast is living with wind , so I made these table cloth weight to prevent my table cloth flying off the table. You can buy the plastic ones but I don't like them so I made some love hears and filth them with rice. They do a great job.

And they look pretty in my garden room when we not having a outdoor dinner.

Are you a Chocolate fan ???

Are you a Chocolate fan ,than this is a great cake. I made it last week for my friend when we had a craft evening (it is always more talking than craft but we always have fun).

Here is the recipe, so easy and so good!

Add all these dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well,

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Add all the liquid ingredients and mix well,

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

1heaped tsp of instant coffee in 1 cup of warm water

1 cup milk

1 cup canola oil

The mixture looks thin but that's ok, bake for 40 min on 180 degrees Celsius.

For the icing you need:

200 gram Nestle cooking chocolate

25 Gram butter

1/2 cup cream

Melt the chocolate and mix with the butter and cream.

DELICIOUS!!!

Choc-strawberry meringue gateau Recipe

Here the recipe for all of you that asked for it.

125 gr. butter

4 eggs, separated

165 gr. sugar

150 gr. self -raising flour

35 gr. cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

250 ml milk

150 gr. caster sugar, extra

30 gr. coarsely chopped roasted hazelnuts

160 ml. thickened cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

250 gr. strawberries

* preheat oven to160 degrees

* Beat egg yolks and sugar in bowl, stir in flour,cocoa and soda and the milk.

Divide mixture between 2 pans.

* Beat egg white in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form, ad little by little the

sugar.

* Divide meringue over cake mixture in pan.

* Sprinkle hazelnuts over one cake.

* Bake uncovered for 25 min.

* Cover pans with foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

* Beat cream and icing sugar.

* Place cake without nuts on a plate, spread with cream and strawberries, top with remaining

cake.

TIP: This recipe is best made on the day of serving, so you have to eat a lot !!

HAPPY BAKING :)

Birthday weekend.

Last weekend we had a birthday weekend. In the beginning it was very strange to celebrate it without our friends and family because they are on the other site of the world. But after 5 years we found our own way to celebrate it. For the kids we always organize a party with school friends, but when it comes to our birthdays we love to go away.
I organized a trip for André as a surprise.
But before we went we had a great family dinner and a made a nice table in blue and white.

I love cooking and baking so I made this lovely apple cake.

And this is how it looks with 40 something candles.

After dinner we still enjoyed the lovely flowers and candles.

In a later post I'll tell you all about the trip were we went and what we did. I can tell you it was great !!

Baking time.

Wednesday already, last weekend our plan was to make a start with the garden room, but the weather was horrible. It was freezing cold and it was raining most of the day. For me a good opportunity to bake. I love cooking and baking but when the weather is to good I feel always guilty and want to be outside.




For my birthday I've got this great book with the most delicious recipes. But what to make first ??
I made a decision to make all the recipes out of the book, try to do one each week. (I'm not sure if i can do it but you need a goal isn't it).

This looks OK to me, but........

This looks better, Coconut, caramel, macadamia and white chocolate.

And this is the end result and I can tell you it was more than delicious!!!

I'm looking forward to the next baking project.

Recycling.

I was tiding up the table, it was full with a lot of little items that I use everyday. Like measuring tape, scissors , treats etc. I had it in my hand to put it somewhere else and on that moment I thought I need a litlle basket to put it in. I could put an old ice ream container out of the drawer but I don't like plastic so it had to be something else. I went true my pile of fabrics and found an old pillowcase. And the basket was born.

I teared the pillowcase in strips from 1 cm. Made a nice ball and started to crochet. After an hour I had my little recycling basket and the table looks nice and tidy again.

Have a great weekend!

Just a quick post before I have to pick up one of the girls form school. This is on my table today. I'm making another bath mat from scraps. This are all left overs from a previous quilt.

I use an and old towel as backing like I did with the other bath mat. You can wash them over and over again.

Have a great day !!!

My moment.

After work I always make myself a nice cup of coffee. That's my moment. I enjoy every minute.
And what is better than a great bowl of nice coffee with a good fluff on top and some chocolate.
I bought the bowl on a garage sale and use it now every day.
This is the coffee I like , Lazy Sunday, but o so nice during the week to give you a lazy Sunday feeling.

The plunger and the milk-foam maker are also garage sale founds.

I enjoyed my coffee today with home made mixed spice cake with sultanas (kruidkoek).

Here the recipe if you want to make it;

400 gram self raising flour

200 gram soft brown sugar

1/2 packet mixed spice

1 table spoon cinnamon

black pepper and salt

approx. 300 ml. water to make a soft dough.

handful sultanas, sun flour seeds, pumpkin seed, dried apricots, oats .

bake for 1 hour on 170 degrees Celsius.

ENJOY!!

Easter break.

Hope you all had a great Easter break. We enjoyed it, no work, no school, no sport, just nothing, it was great. The weather was perfect (like most of the time) and that makes it all so good.
The girls still like it to have an Easter egg hunt, so we had one in the garden.

I made this bread for breakfast. The dough is made in the bread maker the night before.

After 20 min. in the oven I filled it with a spread of marscapone and lemon curd. Some spread on top and fresh fruit and mint. It was a great start of the day!

Of course, we painted some eggs, don't they look colour full.

I made a Greek diner with an espresso cake with a chocolate/walnut topping for dessert.

As you can see we loved it. My birthday is coming soon and I think I want this cake as my birthday cake. I probably have to make it myself but I don't mind. It was Delicious.

Now with the Easter behind us , I've put some handmade love heart in the Easter tree as a colour full decoration.

Sewing time.

There is a lot of sewing going on at the moment because I have a stall at the big Easter market on the coast. I give you a little peek of what I'm making. More later in a other post.



I made some Easter bunnies from an old wool cardigan. Found the tutorial here. And as you see my valentine tree is now an Easter tree. What you all can do with a little branch out of the garden.

Easter is around the corner.

Unbelievable almost April, time goes to fast. before we know we are preparing for Christmas again. But firstwe have Easter. For me it is still strange to celebrate Easter in Autumn. I think spring makes more sense , birds lay their eggs and all the bulbs show first life. But we have falling leaves, so absolute no Easter feeling.
I made an Easter wreath with egg shells. It so easy to make and as you know I like wreaths. I have them in all sorts of material.