FÄRGARGÅRDEN

I began Sunday with a friend at Färgargården. It's a lovely café, close to green and water. 

I had coffee and waffle ☆

It's nice to take Sundays slow and just chat and enjoy time. 

my macaron

I have been so obsessed with perfecting these small French delights during these last weekends.

I failed a couple of times in the beginning, but I finally managed to get a perfect batter after the 5th try!

Above you find my dark choco baileys macarons and maccha macarons.

Recipe coming soon!

I also gave away some :)

sweet paradise

I ordered two books today from Bokus. 

One is a cupcake & muffin cookbook by famous Hummingbird Bakery in London, and the other one is actually a cookbook for macarons. It's written by Hisako Ogita, which promises simple recipes for beginners. Perfect for a macaron-rookie like myself.

I can't wait until these arrive! I'm quite sure that the pictures in these two will be very beautiful and mouthwatering...  

Hummingbird Bakery

So, so, so, pretty!

Me and M swung by the Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill when we visited London, it was cupcake heaven I tell you! The shop was very small though, but filled with sweetness. I warmly recommend a visit! 

Hihi, I know how I want my wedding cake to look like...

the first wine&cheese night 2011

Yesterday I hosted this year's first wine&cheese night with a couple of great friends. 

We had different kinds of cheese: brie/goat cheese, cranberry brie and one unknown :) They all were lovely!

I also baked cupcakes, this time with a purple sweet potato frosting. 

The choice of wine was a bottle of MASI passo doble malbec corvina and a small bottle of sparkling sake (hou hou shu). 

Thank you for a lovely night!

last supper of year 2010

During New Year's Eve we had split into three groups for the dinner course. Two persons in each group. 

Our hosting couple E and M made this delicious soup and grissini (grossini?)

Me and Maria made risotto with smoked salmon, mascarpone, caviar and crayfish. 

It was actually our first time making risotto, but we somehow managed *laughs*

Dessert-team made a very rich chocolate cake with raspberry and mint. It was a lovely combination. 

ABSOLUT WATKINS

Never ever have I wanted alcohol this much.

This is a limited edition Absolut Vodka bottle named after illustrator Liselott Watkins. I am soooo buying this bottle when I'm flying to Japan next month. A total must-have in my future apartment.

A CUPECAKE FOR HALLOWEEN

I love baking cupcakes and share it with my friends. It is somewhat a passion of mine...or could you call it a hobby?

At the end of this month I am co-hosting a Japanese-culture party and I am thinking of baking some cupcakes. Since it occurs during Halloween, I am thinking of a Halloween-theme for the cupcakes.

I want it to be simple yet tasty. Right now the image is a rich chocolate bottom topped with orange zest cream and some fancy sprinkles.

But maybe my mind will change until then...it's exactly two weeks left! I can barely wait. The guests count is now up to 20, so we have a lot of stomaches to please on that night.

EARL GREY IS A FAVORITE

Tadaaa!

The cookies yesterday turend out really well. My mum also liked them :)

I followed the recipe below but reduced the sugar amount and added instead some vanilla sugar.

Warmly recommend this recipe!

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Me and my friend talked about baking some moments ago, so I decided that I am going to bake earl grey tea cookies tomorrow.

I googled after some recipes and stumbled across Martha Stewarts recipe *laughs*

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves, (from about 8 bags)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 (8 ounce) sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

**

1.Whisk together flour, tea, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

2.Put butter, sugar, and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; slowly mix in flour mixture until just combined.

3.Divide dough in half. Transfer each half to a piece of parchment paper; shape into logs. Roll in parchment to 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log and force out air. Transfer in parchment to paper-towel tubes; freeze 1 hour.

4.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut logs into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.

5.Bake until edges turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Seems simple right?

I'll challenge it tomorrow! 

MACARON

I did not leave empty-handed when I left Paris yesterday *laughs*

Besides getting the French Vogue October issue (90th Anniversary issue) I couldn't resist to get a box of macarons when I spotted Ladurèe's shop.

Delicious little things from Ladurée.

Pumpkin and Tiramisu

Today I went on a small souvenir hunt, I have almost gotten everything, so it feels quite good.

While I had some time over I had a quick lunch at Soup Stock and also could not resist to buy some sweets from La Maison's bakery/cakery.

I'll show you later what lies inside the pretty box.

☆ありがとうございました☆

Yesterday me and W's family went to a dreamy and beautiful restaurant in Hachiouji.

Thank you for the lovely dinner!

And also thank you to Ukai restaurant that took this photo and for the sweet flowers.

Me and W

I also recieved chocolate♡

Our personal chef was very funny and entertaining♪

LA MAISON♡

I wonder how many times I have been to La Maison on this visit to Japan *laughs*

Yesterday me and W went to have tea and cake♡

My choice, apple, almond, maple and chocolate tart.

I love La Maison!

Say CHEESE!

Somedays ago I made a healthy cheesecake with raisins.

The healthy version is mixing the cream cheese with cottage cheese and reducing the sugar amount.

The raisins also contributes a natural sweet taste.

TAKOYAKI

Yesterday me, W and Iwata-san made okonomiyaki and takoyaki. Everything was for prepping for the party that will be held in Sweden at the end of October. We wanted to make takoyaki more presentable and alluring.

Which resulted in this design above.

Wと岩田さん、お疲れ様でした☆

LA MAISON

Special Dessert Plate at La Maison!

Yummie yummie!

Sweetheart Ken-chan!

Cherry tart pie

Earl Gray chocolate pudding

Caramel ice-cream with caramel sauce and cocoa powder

Lunch: salmon mozarella pasta

Location: La Maison (Lumine F5) in Ikebukuro.

GYOZA

Today I made gyoza　♡

OKINAWA in GINZA

Somedays ago me and Ken-chan went to Ginza to have delicious Okinawa food.

The menu was small and cute. We had all kinds of delicious stuff! Hihi...

Kentaro-san at Achikoko, thank you!

APPLECAKE

Today I have been baking with W's mum. We made applecake with brandy, yummie yummie.

I topped it with lot's of apple!

Dooooone!

We served it with tea and rum raisin ice-cream.

Recipe

125gram butter

approx. 150ml sugar

2 eggs

200ml wheat

1 teaspoon baking powder

a couple of drops of vanilla essence

brandy (just add the amount you want)

1~2 apples (depends on the size)

cinnamon and sugar

**

So begin with whipping the roomtemp. butter with the sugar. It should be white and fluffy. Add vanilla essence and one egg at the time. Mix it together well. Add brandy.

Finally you add the dry items.

Cut the apples and mix it together with some sugar and cinnamon (I also added a bit of brandy in it)

Fill the form with the fluffy mix and top it with apples.

The oven should be on 175℃ and put it on the lowest shelf. Bake it for 40minutes.

Serve with ice-cream!