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

International Office

The perks of working in an international organization are the little surprises my colleagues bring back from their travels.  My colleague who frequently travels to and from Japan kindly brought members of his team these green-tea flavoured KitKats,  can't wait to try it.  Cool gifts like these need to be saved for special moments.

Some Basler Läckerli from my hometown which I will bring in for my colleagues to try today

First Date in this City

On Friday night after work, I met ♥ at the train station and led him through the streets of Paquis to the very sweet and rustic, La crêperie des Pâquis. 

 Dark wood, exposed walls, interesting lighting: perfect for a date with your special someone

Some shots of our French dinner 

 Reading the menus in French and having to order in another language adds to the atmosphere

 I wasn't in the mood for a long meal in a beautiful restaurant as I was still in my conservative work attire. It hit the spot. He was very surprised and happy with the choice of eatery and happily ordered a crêpe stuffed with steak, spinach which was decorated with a fried egg. 

I opted for the "provençale chèvre", a crêpe filled with goats cheese and a tomato and herb sauce.  We topped off our meal with chocolate and chocolate-banana crêpes and for the first time,  I finished main and dessert before my ♥.  I was truly satisfied, so satisfied that I later fell asleep during our movie, the Guard.

Let's get this Ball rollin'

Hello Everyone,  I'm back in the game!

Now that I have been a strong independent women by moving into my new Swiss chalet-style cosy studio, accomplished a month of work in my new job and loved every day so far... and finally setting up my internet all by myself (8 days late) i'm ready to re-establish my presence on CookMeASmile.

my new home the day I moved in, at the end of September/ looks more homely now

Still not sporting a swanky camera yet but my new phone will have to do. It's Halloween today, and it's kind-of a tradition of mine to make Pumpkin Pie around this time.  I've been on a mission to get to the shops after work in time all week for the missing ingredients to my pie..spices.

 the Jack-O-Lantern in my offices cafeteria on Halloween: Every dish contained pumpkin!

Mashing by Hand

 My pastry Jack-O-Lantern which I forgot to put in the oven after my pie was cooked

 Baking Away in the free standing oven my mum donated to me when I moved

Cooling Pie, ready to be eaten

To make my Halloween Pumpkin Pie you will need:

Enough Shortcrust pasty to fill your pie dish (mine was 9")

Big Slice of Pumpkin, 

2 Eggs, 

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon, 

1/2 Teaspoon Ginger, 

1/8 Teaspoon clove, 

1 vanilla pod or teaspoon of vanilla essence, 

1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg, 

140ml Cream,

Cut the pumpkin into cubes and simmer for 15 minutes until soft. Drain then blend or mash with fork into a purée. Wait until the purée has cooled before mixing all the ingredients together in a big bowl. This can then be poured into the shortcrust pasty-lined baking tin and popped in the oven for an hour at 180 C.  Was great served with Crème brûlée flavoured ice-cream.  Monday night indulgence !

My Boy's Birthday

It's my ♥'s Birthday today and as usual I bake him a cake every year.  This year, for his 24th he requested a cake with chocolate, walnuts and caramel.  I had to substitute the walnuts for pecans because the biggest coop in our region was sold out...but I think it will taste better this way.  We had a lovely morning opening presents and eating a British breakfast in bed (eggs, beans, mini heart shaped french toast, bacon...) followed by a bath and a nap.  He's very happy to be off work this week. All my jogging and chocolate resistance this week will be on hold for today.  We are just about to make the most of these sun-rays and go have a drink by the Rhine at one of our favourite places, Veronica's.

 Chocolate, Pecan Cake with Caramel Icing & Dulce de leche drizzle

 Angle Shot

 Look at all those Pecans! I roasted them myself

Too many cake photos, I'm sorry for the overdose

 On another note, we finally put up the poster of a Louisiana Tree which I printed in A3 while I worked at HP

 Ready for a cold drink

Lazy morning in bed was so cosy

I better be off, but the cake recipe is coming soon  :-) ,  have a spectacular day everyone !

Happy Birthday Switzerland

On Monday it was Switzerland's national holiday and I was lucky to share the day with  ♥'s Swiss side of the family & their friends from Geneva. The day was filled with afternoon sips of white wine, hanging lanterns, eating fondue chinoise, communicating in broken French & of course lots and lots of sparkly fireworks (many of which I was brave enough to light myself)

I made my cheesecake for the occasion which turned out festive with a white chocolate cross...which cracked upon the crowning of the cake (I was worried that would come across shady to all the Swiss) but it ended up to be a success. 

 My 1st of August outfit- was surprised I was the only one wearing 'Swiss Red'

The only shot I managed to get of my cake- on my lap in the car on the way there

 Hanging lanterns in the tree,  they looked so pretty at night, but sadly ♥'s phone isn't too good in the darkness

 When we get out own place, I need need need lanterns, the are so magical at night

 Dancing in the garden with sparklers

  You can see the lanterns we hung on the patio in the background

 Fondue Chinoise - something I had never tried before I met ♥. Must be a Swiss thing, cooking raw meat in broth

Most memorable moment of the night? When ♥ held my hand whilst we watched the volcano sparkle

On another note,  I am really excited for this weekend as we will be driving down to Locarno to go to the 64th Film Festival to see Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford & Olivia Wilde present their new film Cowboys & Aliens in the Piazza Grande open-air cinema. I also can't wait to take advantage of being so close to Italy by having lots of Gelati, Caffè and other yummy specialities whilst on our trip. And until then, arrivederci.

Little smiles you can eat

One of the things that reminds me of my childhood in Switzerland is Linzertorte. The merging of jam, spices and crumbly nutty crust in this cake make me think of primary school in a foreign language, summers spent exploring the outdoors and my loving mum always having a surprise treat for us around 4*. Although very different to the Cake, I was inspired to try some Linzer-cookies.

*Z'vieri (meaning Four): time where the Swiss have a break and enjoy a little snack, ours was usually sweet.

I love eating pretty looking treats

 All my little cute faces lined up plus some love

With a powdered sugar sun-tan

To make these soft, pretty things:

50g Powdered sugar plus some for the end

150g Butter

1 pack Vanilla sugar/or dash of vanilla essence

1 Egg

150g flour

150g ground almonds

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of clove

pinch of cardamom

1/2 Jar of Jam of your choice

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the vanilla & spices along with the egg, lightly beaten in. It will curdle but that's OK.  Now add the flour and almonds and mix quickly as not to over work the egg.  Once combined, wrap in foil/cling-film and pop in the fridge for at least an hour. Once cool enough, roll out on a floured surface until about 3-4mm thick and cut out two shapes for each cookie, one with a face/heart cut out in the middle.

Bake in the oven at 150°C/302°F for about 6-8 minutes until just the edges are beginning to brown slightly. Cool on a wire rack and once ready spread un-cut sides with jam and place the cut out opposite (which you sprinkle with icing sugar) on top. voilà 

My brother, who is very honest and not too big on compliments said these tasted shop-bought !   

Quiet Week

Hellooo from the Sofa.  I have been relatively out of action after work due to my muscles not being used to the action of cleaning/moving radiators, tables & more. To help me get through the rest of the week, my chocolate cravings and to keep up with these happy America-vibes from earlier, I magically produced these scrumptious brownies. 

After work I went on a nut-shop.  I bought peanut butter & walnuts. The latter were used to bring a lovely slight crunch to the brownies.

Perfect while watching night-time telly

 Close up shot so you see the walnuts

Just like somebody's momma made them

To make your stomach satisfied and feel over-the moon, you'll need:

180g (1 cup) of dark chocolate

180g (~3/4 cup) butter

28g (1oz) cocoa powder

100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

100g (1/2 cup) castor sugar

dash of vanilla essence

3 free-range eggs

95g (3/4 cup) plain flour

pinch of salt

50g (~2oz) chocolate chips

100 g (~4oz) chopped walnuts (optional)

This was surprisingly easy because I made the mixture all in one pan so there was next to no mess (the last think you wanna do after you've been cleaning all day).  Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 356°F/180 °C then get to work by melting the butter & chocolate in a large bowl over a pan with simmering water.  Once all rich, smooth and delicious-looking, add the vanilla, cocoa powder & both types of sugar. Beat in each egg and whisk for about a minute, then finally add the flour.  If you want to give your brownies an extra kick, stir in the chocolate chips & chopped walnuts at the end.

Bake in the oven for 23-30 minutes until they reach the texture you desire, I baked them for 24 minutes because I could see the brownie-trademark crisp on the top and when I tested with a toothpick, it came out relatively clean. Let them cool before you cut them into squares.