Birthday Torta per la giovane fiorentina

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! LOVE YOUR LIFE AND BE ALWAYS HAPPY!

Inspired by Jamie Oliver's Torta della giovane Sara I created a birthday cake for my daughter living in Florence right now. 

Vik, if you liked the pictures and want to taste it in real-life, follow the recipe:

250g       butter, melted
500g       flour
4             eggs
300g       sugar
1             lemon or orange, peel and juice
1 sachet  of dry yeast ( 11g)
100g       pine nuts

Whisk the eggs together with the sugar until creamy. Add all the remaining ingredients but the pine nuts (the melted butter should be cooled down a bit) and mix well.
Fill the dough into a buttered baking form and sprinkle it with the pine nuts. Bake in a preheated oven (180°) for 30 - 40 minutes depending on the size of the baking forms. I took three small forms and let them in the oven for 35 minutes.
(I must confess, that I also sprinkled candied orange zests over the dough. CAUTION, they  didn't sink in but adopted the appearance of roasted onions. Luckily I could shake them off...) Enjoy!

27 february

Good Morning! ♥♥♥

Ground Peanut Brittle

Still ice on the lake today.

Schlossteich, Moritzburg

In my kitchen a bowl of leftover roasted and salted peanuts from the last party. STANDING THERE FOR DAYS. Strange ideas about  homemade peanut butter  had already passed my mind when I stumbled upon an amazing recipe in one of my favourite food Blogs  EatMakeRead by Kelly Carámbula.  Ground Peanut Brittle! After having left Kelly a spontaneous "Thank you"note I went straight to the kitchen to adapt her recipe to my needs.

This meant to wash off the surplus of salt, to dry and ground the peanuts. For the rest I followed Kelly's recipe to the letter.  DIVINE!

Happy Saturday!

Schlossteich,  Moritzburg

spring detox

Days are getting longer and brighter, sun is shining and even the birds sing in the morning (I don't know how they are able to in  -10°..).  This is the perfect moment to go for  the detox program!
Detox doesn't mean not to eat. It's not a diet. It's simply a spring-cleaning for the liver, the kidneys, the skin - and the whole rest of your body:

• start the day with a glass of lukewarm  slightly salted water and a few minutes of hula hoop
• drink two cups of nettle tea and plenty of water during the day
• eat "pure" food, which means non processed food, no instant microwave food
• eat much more fruit and vegetable you normally do
• use rather herbs than salt for seasoning
• drink less coffee and tea you normally do
• abstain from spirits (a good glass of wine is ok)
• eat a bit of dark chocolate if you are craving sweets
• finish the day with a glass of lukewarm slightly salted water and a few minutes of hula hoop

That's all - enjoy!

English Seed Cake

Had a cool morning with one of my best friends drinking café au lait, eating English Seed Cake and gossiping.

8:00 p.m.

Homemade Blood Orange Jam

I hope this recipe comes  still in time....

because usually the good quality sicilian blood oranges are sold  by the end of February. If nevertheless you decide to have a try in your own kitchen, you should start  NOW with the adventure race in search for the last organic blood oranges. I promise it's worth the effort: this Jam is to die for!

"La Marianna" is not organically grown. I bought 1kg of organic oranges ( for peel and juice) and 1kg of the regular "Marianna" (for juice).

peel, pulp and juice

The recipe

2kg      blood oranges, zested and pressed (should yield 1l of juice)

500g    sugar

2 tbs    apple pectin

100ml freshly pressed lemon juice

Instead of sugar and apple pectin, you may use 500g of  "2:1 sugar" containing already the pectin.

Zest the organic oranges with a zesting tool. Then squeeze the oranges  and the lemon. Add also the pulp of the oranges. Add the zests of 2 oranges. Should yield 1l altogether.

Add sugar and apple pectin, bring to boil stirring constantly. I cooked the mixture for 10 minutes always stirring. If you are not sure if the jam is ready, place a small amount on a chilled plate. If it wrinkles 

the jam is ready to be filled in glasses.

Spread  the remaining zests on a baking paper, sprinkle with sugar and let them dry during the night.

Next morning you'll find a most delicious candied treat!

19 february

skyline in -10

lomo - the wild side of photography

"It began with a fateful encounter in the early 1990s, when two students in Vienna, Austria, stumbled upon the Lomo Kompakt Automat – a small, enigmatic Russian camera." So to read in www.lomography com.  The pictures taken with this small plastic toy are so vibrant. What most inspires me  about Lomo is the touch of anarchy  in the perfect world of  post-processed digital photos.


Yesterday Lomo entered our lives.. My daughter and I were out and about, buying some camera equipment, when from a sudden mood my daughter asked the salesman for a lomographie camera. WE DON'T SELL PLASTIC. ah.... great disappointment, and suddenly the lomo was not a mood anymore: it had become an object of desire. NECESSARY TO OWN. And you won't be surpirsed by the end of the day, sweet Viki calls herself the proud owner of a lomo. I must admit, it's a  cute  little thing: just 4  distances to choose the right focus, the pictograms of clouds and sun for aperture and choice between day and night for the shutter. An analogue film reel ISO 400 and there you go! 


Can't wait to see the first pictures of my daughters little "Diana"!

two fish in a float pool

Can you imagine to ride through the Universe in velvetlike blackness?   It's amazing to step out of speedy daylife and lose any touch with gravity for a while.
When we left  Schwebebad float pools we felt energized, relaxed and clean. In fact, so clean that only a simple white fish with lemon dinner came in question, to not destroy the fresh lightness we had achieved.
Sorry for not offering  poolshots from my own lens. Next time I'll  bring the camera!

Golden Meteorite

I immediately loved this video when I found it in the Blog of Chelsea Farmer's Club and I couldn't have imagined a better drink to introduce the infamous SPIRITS CART.

( Dr. House? Is that you? )

Happy Saint Valentine!

A makeover for the Spirits Cart

From my parents-in-law I got an old Spirits Cart (or Cocktail Trolley ??) which in the 50ies must have been the culmination of stylishness. Brown oakwood with a top side of flowered plastic tiles.  Consisting the awful tiles in one single piece integrated in the wood, they couldn't be removed without destroying the whole cart. So what to do?
I decided to risk it all and just rely on the  beneficial effects of strong colours and lacqer. Anyway, it was worth a try!

Actually we were so inspired and "in-the-flow" that even our lunch came out red and white.

Some side pieces, quickly produced during the drying times:

Last lacquer layer for today. Don't miss the post about the finished cart!