Easter cookies and cupcakes ideas!

Are you ready for Easter yet? If you haven't finished your festive meals, here are a few suggestions of something sweet, of course! One of my biggest pleasures in life is to bake cakes and sweets, so whenever there is a major holiday coming up, it is natural of me to post some recipes on this blog. Decorating cakes is so much fun! So here I am with some Easter inspired cupcakes and cookies recipes, I hope you will love them!

 

I searched all around Pinterest for some inspiration and took some idea from there and decided to create some sort of bunny shapes from frosting while making the ears from sugar paste (or marzipan).

Then I made some Easter egg nests - these are my favorite! -  a few other bunny tails and the ones with strawberries were meant to represent carrots dug up from the ground, but my glazing technique failed me this time and it did not stick to the strawberries, so let's pretend  they are carrots, ok?

I also made some gingerbread Easter egg cookies, now I cheated a bit with these, because I used a dough mix from the store and did not make it myself, but I promise you I spent more than three hours decorating these!

I worked with four bowls or frosting, each in a different color and I messed up my kitchen with glaze, tiny butterflies and food coloring, but I so loved the final result, I mean, the whole designing process gave me such satisfaction!

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Easter is all about pastel colors and fun shapes, so creating these was so much fun for me, just looking at them brings me such joy, I bet that by tomorrow they will be all gone, at least I hope they are delicious too!

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the cupcakes dough: your basic 150 g flour, 120 g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 100 ml milk, 100 g butter and a bit of almond extract - my favorite.

Mixed all these and bake them for 25 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius

For the frosting - I used the same frosting for the cookies and cupcakes:

180 g of mascarpone cheese, 200 ml of whipped cream, a bit of vanilla extract.

You also need food coloring and various cake decorations, you can find them at the baking department in any hyper market.

I hope you like them and I will leave you by wishing you a very happy (and delicious) Easter!

The sweetest Valentine

 

Cupcake ideas for a sweet Valentine's Day!

I don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day, not because I'm single, but because I was never attracted to this holiday in particular, it always felt too...pink for me. However, I decided this time I would try to make an effort an celebrate it in a way that makes me excited and by that I mean baking cupcakes! You might know I am passionate creating this dessert, especially when there is a holiday involved, as you can see here and here. I decided not to skip Valentine's Day and see what I can come up with!

I really wanted to create little marzipan hearts, but I realized I lack the skills, so I opted to use some tiny sugar hearts as decor and since it is Valentine's Day, what kind of frosting can you use if not pink? Even the dough is pink on the inside, too bad you can't see that.

Anyway, instead of creating an outfit post or some makeup tutorials for this occasion, I thought this is a more romantic (and sweet) way to celebrate this day. I hope you feel inspired and don't forget the mandatory glass of wine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the dough: 200 g flour, 150 g sugar, 2 eggs, 120 g butter and orange zest. Baked for 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

For the frosting: 200 ml whipped cream mixed with 150 g of mascarpone and 30 g of butter and a bit of vanilla extract. 

I separated the frosting in two bowls and I added some red colorant gel in one of them to make the bright pink frosting.

Easy right? I hope you are willing to try it, I bet it will be a nice surprise for your loved one!

 Good luck and bon appetit!

M(b)aking of: Strawberry cupcakes

How's the weekend treating you so far?

Mine is actually quite sweet, I decided to bake some cupcakes this Saturday and I thought to share this with you, because I really love baking desserts and maybe there are some of you out there who feel the same!

Mind you, this is actually my first baking post on the blog, so I hope I will be on point and not ramble necessarily. Most importantly, I hope you feel inspired!

Ok, onto the actual recipe! 

First and foremost, here is what you will need ( I have my little cupcake book in Romanian and all the quantities are measured in grams and not pounds, so bare with me)

Here are the ingredients for 12 portions

For the dough you will need:

300 g strawberries

125 g of butter

125 g of sugar

2 eggs

150 g flour

1 tea spoon of baking powder

80 g of smashed almonds

For the frosting:

230 g of white chocolate

40 g butter

250 g of mascarpone

a few strawberries for decor

First thing you need to do is to smash the strawberries then boil them a minute while steering them. 

The you need to let them cool down.

While the strawberries are cooling down, you can blend the almond flakes until they feel reach a soft sand texture.

While this is completed, you need to mix the sugar with the butter until it becomes a soft cream - it will take a few minutes -  then add the two eggs. After this you need to add the flour with the baking powder, the smashed almonds and slowly add the strawberries to the end.

You need to preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, put the mixture in cupcakes shapes - I had silicone ones, but you can use disposable paper ones as well and it is best to put them in a muffin/cupcake pan because they will sit there perfectly so the dough will not spill around - that can happen with paper shapes especially.

You need to let them bake for 25 minutes.

While the cupcakes are backing, you can start making the cream. 

You need to melt the white chocolate with the 40 g of butter on bain-marie, carefully steer it so the cream won't cut - it happened to me, but then I added a bit of hot water and steered it until it was fixed!

After it cools down a bit, you can add the mascarpone until you have a dense, thick and fine cream.

After the cupcakes are done and cooled down, you can add the frosting and some strawberries for decor and you're done! It's very important to let them cool down, otherwise the frosting will just melt and you'll have a hot mess.

 Of course, you can add all kinds if things for decor, you only need to use your imagination!

I had loads of fun making this recipe, of course, I made a whole mess in the kitchen and I still need to work on my design skills, but I am determined to master that! The result was really delicious, the cupcakes were really appreciated by my friends, so I call that a success!

I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think.

Bon appetit!

Another year older

 

 The beginning of a new month and the beginning of a new year for me started with a cloudy day but turned into a sunny warm one, thank God! 

 Turning 24 is like going home on the same path everyday - it makes no difference at all. After you pass the age of 20, you kind of loose count. Perhaps next year I will take on another path, who knows?

 After a change of plans, I decided to remain in the city which of course was not that crowded with people, because since 1st of May means something like Labour Day here, everybody left for their mini-holidays.

So I took advantage of my free day, went out and took photos (how about my new thrifted dress?)
The blazer is part of the gift my lovely house mates gave me for my birthday, thank you giiiirls!

   

Afterwards, we went at this lovely place, highly appreciated here for their food and sweets (it's called Camino) Too bad I forgot to take more pictures to show them to you. In any case, it looks very vintage and cute.

And I treated myself with this holy apple cake with vanilla cream - it was rainbow in my mouth!

Of course, how else to end my day without some shopping?
I spent a lot, but I thought "whatever, it's my birthday" -  and now I have to keep my money only for food for the rest of the month, how boring
I will show you soon what I bought!

Hope you all had a great day yesterday and I wish you all a great one today, after all, the partying is not over.

Wearing: thrifted dress and belt, H&M necklace, Asos shoes, Parfois earrings, Primark thrifted bag, Stradivarius blazer.

Delicious moments

While I was away in Bucharest for these past few days, I have seen once again Roger Waters performing The Wall live - amazing concert! - and in between seeing old friends and just having great times, I also met my blogger girlfriends whom I adore and missed!
So, I and Laura, Andreea, the Hearabouts girls, Silvia and Raluca drank lemonades, coffes, ate delicious high caloric cakes while having juicy conversations like girls usually do.
Aaaand as you read this I am probably on my way to the train station, departing with new fun memories.
 Until next time girls!

   

 Wearing: H&M skirt, Pimkie top, no name necklace, MiniPrix.ro sandals

 

 

Sweets addict

 

 I went yesterday with my mom at the most delicious pastry shop ever! It's called Zoomserie and I am sorry I haven't discovered it sooner; I tell you, the cakes simply melt in your mouth and their recipes and ingredients are so different from what I am used to. You can also buy the cakes on a smaller scale and take them home with you; they also have macarons! If you live in Bucharest - or Greece (that is were they come from) - pay them a visit! 

For more information, click HERE

 

 

 

 

   

Wearing: H&M skirt, Zara top, random brand shoes and sunglasses, Giuka bag.