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

Cat Sitting

This weekend, I am back at my mum's house cat-sitting Muffin for her while she's in Amsterdam.  My first week in my new home and a bit of a busy week at work, made this the perfect plan.  We lit fires, made apple crumble and gave Muffin lots of TLC.  I did squeeze a little housey-shopping in and got a heart shaped bath mat and some colourful knifes.

 Apple Crumble straight out of the oven, ready to be devoured 

So comforting on a cold and windy day

 Admiring my work in-front of the fire which we kept on the whole evening

 Sunday morning, woke up to muffin snoozing on my make-up bag in the bathroom

To make a comforting warming crumble you will need:

100g Butter

100g Flour

50-75g Sugar plus 3 table spoons for the apples

3 Apples

2 tsp Cinnamon

2 whole cloves

This is a very quick and very tasty recipe. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C, then peel, cut in half, and slice the apples.  In a blender, or by using your fingertips, mix the flour, sugar and butter until you get dry yet buttery crumbs. Add the apple slices to a bake-proof dish and mix 3 tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon and the two cloves so each apple slice has a bit of both.  Pour the crumbs on top and pop into the oven for about 45 minutes until golden on the top.

On a cold day, anyone you're with will be thankful for this, and they may even stroke you to sleep in return

April Greys

April so far has been an eventful month for me.  I celebrated easter with my family, was able to catch up with old high-school friends in Basel who were over for the holidays. I popped to Germany and spotted the perfect sofa for my new apartment and I even squeezed in a trip to Zurich to visit my Brother even if it was a grey and chilly day.

 The gorgeous  colourful easterbunny I was given by my ♥ boyfriends family

  I gave this cute porcelain rhino a new home, he was found while furniture scouting in Germany

View of Zurich from the Lindenhof plateau...we later climbed up the right tower in this photo

Funny poster near the largest clock-face of Europe

Man fishing in the middle of the city

My Dad looking out over Zurich from one of the tower windows

Taking funny photographs at the top in the wind

My big brother and I with the self timer

Pretty Roofs

 In the warmth of Cafe Henrici, I quenched my thirst with a Glass of Moroccan Mint Lemonade

And I stuffed myself with this amazing Flammenkuchen, I was so satisfied by this, that I fell asleep in the car all the way home

Basel, Zurich, Geneva at one table in Germany

A short week of Work outfits

Thought it would be fun to take a photo every morning before I run up the street to catch my tram, then another, then a bus to the office.  I must admit,  I was pretty monotone last week until I crammed many colours into one day.

Off Early WHoooHooo

This afternoon while working away rather stressed and preparing for the e-mail mountain that will be awaiting my team and I in the peak event season I got a little surprise.  We all did. The founder and president of our organisation decided we could all leave at four.  What a difference 2 hours make.  Anyways,  I would like to leave you with some of my weekend photos in the Geneva sunshine with my friend Louise who was visiting from Manchester.

 Enjoying a quiet moment on my walk home from the post office where I sent my taxes on the last day

  Sipping on lemonade on sun loungers with a childhood friend at Terrasse le Paradis

 Such a view from this little friendly hippy spot

 Terrasse le Paradis from the bridge with the Jet d'eau in the back

  Yum

  Got some heart shaped glasses to show Geneva how much I love her

  I just love the weekend markets everywhere

Bright happy radishes

Dinner at Holy Cow which had extremely friendly and fast staff

 Check out the size of those Burgers

 View of Aux halles de l'Ile Bar in the middle of the river

The Beautiful Louise with her Mango Sorbet