DIY bunny wrapping paper

Today I was in mood for some printing by hand with potatoes, so I made some bunny wrapping paper for Easter. Printing makes hungry so after that some delicious tagliatelle with white asparagus, cherry tomatoes, rosemary and fresh parmesan. Yummy!

Speculoos

I love speculoos and I love the Belgian people for eating them all year long. In Germany speculoos aka. spekulatius are only eaten during Christmas time which is very a pity. The Belgians even have speculoos paste, which has a similar texture like peanut butter, or chocolate with speculoos. In a sweet café in Antwerp, called Tartine, I ordered a piece of cheese cake which had a dough that was surprisingly made of speculoos. So delicious! Finally, there was no way around buying Marabout's "30 recettes cultes" about speculoos! Let's see what to try out first...

Antwerp and Bruges

I had such a great time in Belgium! The weather was soo nice and the food was delicious. If I say food, I mean of course all the sweet things available in Belgium. Bruges calls itself the chocolate capital of Europe which may be true if you count all the chocolateries and chocolate shops. And the city with its small canals is really lovely but although it was only March, the whole city was full of tourists.Antwerp reminded my a lot of my hometown Cologne, because it is not as picturesque as Bruges but full of life and there are a lot of  museums, art galleries and cafés to visit!

Madeleines au chocolat

I love foreign cookbooks! I think they are nicer than the German ones, but maybe that is just my imagination. But especially in France there are so many lovely cookbooks, small ones which are not so expensive, but made with a lot of love, nice recipes and great photos. So everytime I get into a French bookshop I am tempted to buy a new one. One of my favourites is this little book full of recipes of madeleines. Even the one for the plain ones is absolutely mouth watering.Add 50g of milk chocolate to make the chocolate ones.

 

Sunday walk and a present from India

Although the days are getting longer it is still grey outside and I would like to see the sun for more motivation to get up earlier in the morning. But as long as it is not raining I like to have a nice walk through the city. And my last present from India finally found it's way to a very a good of mine. I was very happy to see her after our last meeting in July.

"Kemm'sche Kuchen"

After seeing this box so often I finally just had to buy it! I love the nostalgic look of the tin but I was also curious about the taste of the cookies. It is a traditional hanseatic recipe which is about 200 years old and very popular in Northern Germany. The cookies taste quite similar to gingerbread cookies although there is a slight difference in taste but I am not really sure what it is. 

I definitely need some positive thinking.

The Holstee manifesto is always an inspiration and a source of positive thinking. It's never to late to change something. Start now.

 

Photo of the day: sad little dog

Today I went by a clothing shop and there I saw this little dog lying sadly on the floor, looking around and probably waiting for the shop owner to finally go home on this rainy day. But it was only afternoon then so he still had some hours to spend....

There's a rabbit waiting for Easter.

And there are even more flowers blooming. There was a little bit of sunshine today, but that is not enough!!

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Mhhmm... chocolate cupcakes with cheese cake filling! This is a recipe from the current special edition of LECKER magazine (LECKER bakery), with lot's of sweet, delicious recipes. I used grated lemon zest instead of vanilla for the cheese cake filling because I think cheese cakes need a lemon touch!

That's what you need for 12 cupcakes:
200g cream cheese
60g + 200g sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
200g wheat flour
30g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
80 ml neutral oil
1 tbsp. apple vinegar

1. Whisk together cream cheese, 60g sugar, egg yolk and leon zest. Preheat oven at 175 degrees.
2. Mix all dry ingredients: flour, 200g sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add 250ml water, oil and vinegar and whisk shortly until everything's mixed up.
3. Put cupcake paper molds in a cupcake tin for 12 cupcakes and spread the dark dough in the molds. Add tablespoon of the cream cheese mix on top of each cupcake. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Praliné club

I am so happy about me joining the praliné club last month. I already receives two deliveries, the welcome package with pralinés packed in a dark wooden box and the 30 pralinés of March. I've eaten quite a lot of chocolate and pralinés in my life and these ones are definitely one of best I ever had. I am really looking forward to trying these months sweet treats, especially the Sacher Praliné, the Crevisio Baileys Giottina and Bienenstich praliné!

Package love

After reading last week's article about packaging by Design Sponge's Kate Pruitt, I have to admit that I am also kind of a package fanatic. I would rather by something unnecessary in case it is nicely packed than something I might really need but which has a loveless design. So I am always looking for the loveliest package around, especially the things in my every day life. Here are some of my finds...

1. Anijsblokjes from the Netherlands., 2. Butter Bonbony from the Netherlands., 3. Bertagni, Pasta sauce, bought in Vienna., 4. Fazer Marianne, Mint Chocolate Bonbons, design by Sanna Annukka., 5. Coffee from Bratislava., 6. Lov Tea., 7. Penguin Clothbound Classics., 8. Bruschetta Spices from Italy., 9. Nougats and Chocolate Olives by La Cure Gourmande, Marseille.

Chocolaterie Hernando Cortez

I just love the hot chocolate at the chocolaterie Hernando Cortez (who is supposed to be the importer of the cocoa bean to Europe), especially the white one with a little bit of vanilla. We had a little guglhupf with morsels of chocolate and a slice of walnut cake with a thick layer of chocolate cream. And of course two cups of hot white chocolate. Mhhhmm....!