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.

Birthday 27

Last week was quite busy and exciting.  It was my older Brother's birthday on Saturday and we had a mini BBQ party for him at my mum's house.  I volunteered to make him his cake this year and thought long and hard about what he would like.  I chose to go with a light raspberry and cream sponge with was inspired by the classic British Victoria Sponge (Which my mum used to make us for many birthdays).

I used the wonderful weather to ride my bike, a 21st birthday present to Coop to get all the goodies. One of the perks of living in Switzerland - everywhere is accessible by bike !

On my bike, the Roadcat with ingredients on the back

 The cake in action with the candles

 Fresh raspberries, white chocolate '27' and a star on top

200g Butter make the cake yummy !

 Mum's cat Moon Muffin

 Found a snail on the way back to the car

To make this summer celebration treat:


200g (~1cup) Butter at room temperature
200g (1cup) Sugar
4 Eggs
200g (1.5 cup) Flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon of Orange Zest/or Lemon
as much Vanilla essence as you wish


For Filling/top
250g Raspberries
500ml Cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
white chocolate
50g butter

Pre-heat oven to 180 °C (375°F). Cream butter & sugar, then add each egg one by one and mix (if it curdles, add a spoon of flour with each egg). Stir in the essence & peel,  then sift in the flour & baking powder while carefully folding it into the mixture.  Bake in oven for about 20 min if you split the mix between two cake tins.  If you choose to split the cake later, bake for about 25 min, then lower temp to 130 °C for another 15-20 min.

 To decorate add generous layer of whipped cream on bottom half and sprinkle raspberries all over. To ice, mix a few blended rasberries & a spoon of sugar & vanilla essence with the left-over cream and spead all over top. Add last rasberries & to make decorations, melt some white chocolate, spread on a greased plate/surface & mould with cookie cutters, or cut out number/letters with knife and cool in fridge until needed.

P.S Because of all the baking on Friday, my love suggested that he make his special southern spiced burgers for dinner.  We did a bit of teamwork and I made these lazy amazing 'chips'. Par-boiled potatoes for 15 min, slice, then drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & fresh rosemary and pop in the oven until golden! hmmmmm! 

 Lazy but amazing 'chips'