K is for Kitchen

I love cooking, I love baking and I love my kitchen, it is not flash, no dishwasher, no microwave but everything I need, have a look in my basic kitchen.

Have a great week and don't forget to have a look at my webshop: www.lovelyliving.co.nz

C is for Cake and Coffee

I am not a big fan of breakfast and lunch, but I love morning tea. I don't eat cake every day, but I could! I have to bake a lot . In my shop I organize craft classes and I always serve morning tea or afternoon tea with some home made cakes.

This is the blueberry cake I made last week for the girls in the class. I am not sure if they come for craft or cake, but we always have great fun.

And for me is morning tea not complete without a nice cup of latte ( this one is made by my daughter , she did a coffee course in the school holiday, lucky me!!)

I am off now making myself a nice cup of coffee without cake :(

Wish you a lovely day!

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 :)

Just a wet Sunday!

Life is not always easy, teenagers, family, lots of things to sort out and being forty something. No the sun is not always shining even like the weather last Sunday, wet and cold.
But I always try to be positive so why not organize a little party. I bought myself a new Cath Kidston bag (Why not) and love it , so to celebrate this little baby we had a little party.

First I had a good look around for a nice cake /dessert recipe and found this ! Yum Yum

Then I picked some flowers from the garden when it was dry outside, what is a party without flowers?

I wrapped up some nice chocolate with pretty pink paper and some Cath Kidston stickers.

Lit a candle in a handmade candle holder. An old mustard jar covered with a Cath Kidston paper napkin and finished of with a lovely ribbon.

Made a starter.

A nice pasta salad.

And a super dessert. It was delicious, we eat it all !!

I think the cake I made looks even better than the one from the book.

At the end we all had a great time so even when the "sun" is not shining you can have a little party!

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.

Every body that knows me a bit better knows that I LOVE a nice coffee, but not only coffee I love home made baking as well. Love to bake but also love to eat it. Not good I know, but you only live ones isn't it.

This is a great Dutch recipe from speculaas.

If you feel like it here is the recipe:

300 grams self raising flour

175 gram soft brown sugar

1.5 tablespoon milk

200 gram butter

3 tablespoons "speculaas kruiden" or mixed spice

70 gram sliced almonds

1 egg

Mix the ingredients together and wrap in glad wrap for a few hours.

Roll out and brush with the egg and sprinkle with almonds.

Bake for 40 minutes on 175 degree.

Enjoy with a great coffee!!

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.

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.