Oriental Dining in Montreux

On Sunday evening we escaped to the mini paradise which is Montreux.  it had been a few years back since we had been there, so it was lovely to reminisce walking through the little streets, feeling the breeze of the lake and noticing the flocks of people admiring the Freddy Mercury statue. ♥ treated me to dinner. We chose a little oriental restaurant which was amazingly decorated inside.  

I am wearing

Top Zara

Capris Miss 60

Current Happy Makers

Here are a couple of things that have made me happy this week. Have a lovely weekend !!!

Prosecco and blinis on my new chesterfield sofa

My bright happy toaster - if you're British, you gotta have one !

Surprise flowers for no reason :-)

This funny kitty-bank. I NEED to save

Finding the perfect table in a second hand shop with my Mum

He turns 25

Last weekend my ♥ turned 25! It's one of the big numbers in life, a milestone, where I guess you turn around and look back at all that you've become so far and look forward at everything you want to achieve (before 30).  The weekend was one of my favourite kinds, filled with food, spontaneity and just pure happiness.  As I made the 3 hour train journey back to my home town, I didn't have time to bake him his surprise cake as I do everyyear. But this weekend when he came to visit me in Geneva, I had a couple of red-velvet cup cakes waiting in the fridge ready to devour.

American icing & the cutest champagne candles

Patiently waiting to party !

Exploring the ultra cosy streets of Colmar with my ♥ 

Us two on a small boat on the Lauch river at "la petite Venise"

Back of the head 1 - Kids playing in the fountains

Back of the head 2 - The cool calm of the river in the shade

 Little gargoyles on Colmar cathedral

Candle daze

Dad made some birthday tapas for the night before

As ♥ comes from Louisiana, he incorporated crayfish into these brushettas

How to make the red velvet cupcakes (small batch)

150g Sugar

60g  White sugar

1 Egg

10-20 ml of red food colouring

1 Tsp Vanilla essence

10 g Rich high quality chocolate powder

120 ml butter milk

Pinch of salt

2Tsp baking powder

150g Flour

Pre-heat your oven to 170°C. In a mixer on slow speed or by hand, cream the butter and sugar for quite some time until it's fluffy and smooth. Add the egg and whisk until incorporated. In a separate bowl you can prepare the 'red' of the velvet, by mixing the vanilla, chocolate powder and food colouring together to form a rich dark paste. Add this to the creamed butter mixture and mix until the batter becomes one colour. Part by part, add the buttermilk, then flower, and salt with the baking powder and once it is fluid in texture, spoon into cupcake cases until they are about 2/3 full. I baked in the oven for 25 minutes as I used large cup cake cases. Please note that I only was able to make 5 maxi-cupcakes with this recipe, so if you would like a large batch, I would double the quantities. For the icing, most make a cream cheese icing, but as my ♥ is partly American, I cheated and bought a tub of  Funfetti American icing (for 9 Fr.-!) from a specialist American shop.

Gold

It's the little things in life, like bringing a batch of home-baked banana-chocolate muffins to work to share with colleagues which make people's days a little brighter. Didn't want to leave them at home anyway because I had three after each other last night and I wouldn't be able to stop myself if I had left them in temptation's reach. My dad got me a food processor ultra robot machine for my birthday and I finally used it (after spending a long time washing all the pieces and working out how to use the cake setting).  The mix was ready so quickly and I wonder if I will at all miss mixing the ingredients by hand like I have been until now.

Love these little gold casings which completely fit in with the Olympics going on at the moment

To get these nuggets of deliciousness:

125g Butter

20g Muscovado sugar (dark and molasses-y)
120g White sugar

1 Tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tsp dried ground vanilla pod (or a little splash of vanilla essence)

1/2 Tsp ground ginger

1/4 Ground cloves 

2 Ripe bananas

2 Eggs
1 Table spoon baking powder

180 Flour

20g High quality chocolate powder

1 Pack of chocolate chips

As fast as you can pre-heat your oven to 180°C these will be ready to bake.  In a large mixing bowl, or even better, a magi-mix processor, cream the butter and both sugars into smooth yellow oblivion. Add all the 'enhancing, yet barely noticeable when cooked flavours, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger & cloves. Throw in the two bananas and make sure they are pulped into the mixture without leaving any noticeable chunks. Once all blended, add the eggs, one at a time, making sure not to over-mix the mixture as you want these muffins to be light and fluffy. On a slow setting, or with a spatula, softly fold in the flour, baking powder and chocolate powder until everything is fully combined. For the finale add the chocolate chips, or chopped nuts if you wish before spooning the mixture into cupcake cases with an icecream scoop (makes nicely sized portions, and Max from '2 broke girls' does this).  I baked in the oven on fan setting for about 18 minutes, however best to check if a toothpick comes out clean as you may be using larger cup-cake cases and need a little longer. Makes about 20.

Proof of Yum: Someone who isn't even keen on bananas even complimented their loveliness