Chocolate chip cookies

Hi,

Today I'm back with another recipe :) I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies.
It's a quick recipe that you can make anytime for any occasion.

What to you need:
120 gr unsalted butter
180 gr dark brown sugar
180 gr sugar
2 eggs
540 gr all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt

Preheat the oven at 190°C and put parchment paper on 2 baking sheets.
1. Put the butter in a microwave safe bowl and put it in the microwave until melted. Let it cool for a bit. Then whisk the sugars, eggs and butter in a large bowl until smooth.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, you can do this with your hands if you like or with a wooden spoon. Next you can stir in the chocolate chips in it.
3. Roll the dough into balls and put them on the baking sheets, with some space in between them. Bake the cookies until golden but still soft in the middle, for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how chewy you like your cookies.
4. Transfer the hot cookies with a spatula to a cooling rack. After that they are ready to serve.
Store the cookies in a sealed container for up to 5 days. If they last that long :)

I hope you enjoy making these cookies as much as I did, it so easy and quick to do.
Enjoy eating them with friends or family :)
Love,
Sarah

Chocolate cake

Hi,

So yesterday was my sisters birthday and I made a chocolate cake for her.
Here is the recipe I used :)

This is what you need:
250gr plain flour
125gr  cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
425gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
350gr golden caster sugar
2 eggs
225ml milk
400gr icing sugar
4 tablespoons of milk

Step 1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease 2 tins of 20cm with butter.
Step 2. Mix the flower, 75gr of cocoa, the baking powder and 1 teaspoon of fine salt in a bowl and whisk it all together. Keep it to one side.
Step 3. Cut 125gr of the butter into chunks and place into a bowl and beat it for a couple of minutes until creamy.
Step 4. Add the sugar and beat for a few more minutes until pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, make sure scrapping the mixture off the sides and bottom.
Step 5. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix slowly until it all comes together.
Step 6. Beat vigorously for a minute, then divide the batter between the two cake tins. Place them in the middle of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. When they are ready leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now for the buttercream.
Step 1. Cut the remaining butter into chances and place into a bowl. Beat on a high speed for 2 minutes until creamy, then put in the remaining cocoa and half the icing sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and beat again for 1 minute.
Step 2. Add in the remaining icing sugar and add the remaining milk, then beat everything on a high speed for a couple of minutes until super smooth.
Step 3. Spoon some buttercream on the first cake and spread it out to the edges, then top it with the second cake.
Step 4. Spoon on the rest of the buttercream and gently spread it over the top of the cake and down the sides, until the entire cake is covered.
Step 5. On top off the cake you can also putt some shavings of chocolate, if you like.
You can decorate with what you like :)

I hope you enjoy making and eating this cake as much as I did :)
Love,
Sarah

 

Harry Potter Dinner

Hi,

I'm back with a new blog today.
Yesterday I went to a Harry Potter themed dinner with my cousin. We were super excited!
A friend of mine found it on a website and told to me about it. After looking on the site I was sold, it looked awesome!

So we had to be there at 19:20 and the line was long, I think that there were around 400 people. But on the outside they've put some colorful lights and you could here the music from inside.
Once at the door we showed the tickets and you could take a picture, there were also some little shops with Harry Potter gadgets. But I already have a lot of things so I didn't buy anything.

When you entered the great hall you could see the tables like in the movie with the banners hanging over them. At the end you had the table with the teachers and you also had the flying candles.
In the middle of the room you had a stage where something was going to happen. On the tables you had butterbeer and water. Honestly I had the butterbeer in the London studios and it was way better there, here I think it was a lemonade with vanilla extract, so totally not my thing.
You also had 2 tables with the dessert buffet. I didn't think it would be enough for all those people and other people shared the same feeling, but it looked amazing.

After everyone entered and took a seat the show began, professor Dumbledore took the stage and started the speech. It was literally the same speech as in the movie, then professor Umbridge interrupted, also like in the movie. It was ok and funny to see. Then on the center stage you had professor McGonagall who did the sorting hat ceremony. That was nicely done, except for the part when you see people who are totally dressed in a house and you put them in another house, you saw there disappointment, I thought that they could do that part better. The people who registered to get sorted but didn't got called on stage were asked to go to the photo area where a personalized letter would wait for them. But when we got there they said that there were no letters, but you could take  your picture with the sorting hat on.
Then they announced that we could get in line for the buffet, but table by table to keep some order. Buy that time everyone was hungry and waiting to get in line. We were at the third table and you already could hear people wonder if there would be enough for everyone. By the time it was our tables turn there was less choice than in the beginning I felt, the buffet tables were less full. But in we go! We got a little of everything, but the pieces we got were not normal slices of cake, there were like mini slices and we could only take one of each. Like I don't like whipped cream on anything so I could choose from less, so I asked of one if I could have a second one and they said no. Also when you booked your ticket you could let them know if you had an allergy and I heard the people in front of us complain about that, cause there son had an allergy and they didn't got anything in the place like they said online, so the kid had to eat a few chocolate frogs instead.

When we got back to our table we started to eat and honestly it were the worst cakes I had ever eaten. We were so disappointed by that time. And we weren't the only ones, we heard a lot of people complain about several things.
While eating my cousin saw that there were owls standing in the corner where you could take pictures of them, so after our meal we got to see them. I found it a bit sad for the owls cause of the lights in the room and all the noise. Then we got back to the table and everyone wondered if something else would happen, maybe another show... And indeed then there was a video they played about Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff, it was weird but funny, the content wasn't quite correct with the original storyline. And after that it was finished, they said that the bar would stay open for a little while more but that was it. Before we left my cousin saw a guy walking around with a real life snake on him and I wanted to get out of there :) but he passed us and we both touched the snake, but again I felt so sorry for the poor animal.

I hope you enjoyed my blog more then I enjoyed my night. Everyone just expected more cause on the site it looked all so nice. I just gonna have to go back to the London studios or maybe to the park in the USA. But for the first time that they organized this it was ok I guess, they only can take the comments of the people and do it better next time.

Love,
Sarah

Cheese and mushroom pastry dinner

Hi,
It's been a while but I'm back :)

I've been a vegetarian for a few months now, I'm not really missing the meat and fish, actually not at all. In the beginning I thought that I was going to miss it, but thats not the case.
Today I'm going to show you how to make an easy veggie diner, this is a really easy and fast type of dinner.

Here we go.
This is what you're going to need:
- camembert cheese
- mushrooms (you can mix different types here)
- garlic
- puff pastry
- salt and pepper
- egg

So I'm going to start with cutting and cooking the mushrooms. Also add a bit of salt and pepper, how much you like and also the garlic. I put one clove of garlic in it, depends on your taste. You can also add parsley and union in it if you want, but I didn't because my sister is allergic to it.

Then you take you puff pastry and cut 6 circles out of it. If you make it for 2 people like I'm doing use 2 puff pastries. After cutting your pastry you can start cutting your cheese. Put the cheese on half of your pastries and on top of that you can put your mushrooms. Then cover it up with another pastry. You can now roll up the edges of the pastry and then push it together using a fork. With the fork you should also put some holes on top of the pastry, so the air can come out.

Now put your pastries on an oven dish and before putting them in you can take the egg and mix it up. Then take a brush and put the egg on top of your pastries. Now you can put it in the oven. Put the oven on 200°C for 15 minutes. Let it cool down for a few minutes. In this time you can put a salad together to eat with your pastry.

I hope you enjoy making it and eating it.
Let me know if you make it and what you think of it :)
If you like brie you can also make it with that and put a little bit of honey on top of it.
Enjoy!

Love,
Sarah

New year, new me. Or not :)

Happy new year!! 2017 has started!

Today we make our new years resolutions.
What are yours?
For me and my family I hope it's a year without sorrow or setback. Actually I hope that for everyone of you! That everyone has a great year and that all your wishes may come true!
For me personally I will start a diet and really stick to it! I hope to have lost at least 10kg by this summer and then another 10kg after the summer, that would be nice. For my health and for me in general. Let's hope this works!
For me it's not really a new year a new me, I'm not gonna change dramatically, at least not my personality, cause I know who I am and what I want. The only thing that is gonna change is hopefully my body and mindset about food :)
I'll keep you posted and let my progress know in about 6 months, hopefully I don't let myself and you guys down.

So new years eve, what have you done?
Party or stayed home?
I stayed home with the family, like last couple of years, I'm not really liking going out. Maybe I'm getting old or maybe it's just not the same anymore... Don't really now.
But I like staying home with the family in the holidays, thats what's it all about for me.

I hope you all had great holidays and to all a happy new year!

Love,
Sarah

Christmas tree

It's that time of the year again!
Time to put the christmas tree up!
We have bought a fake christmas tree a few years ago, because my sister is allergic to the real thing.
But it's a good quality tree, at the time it was around the 100 euros we paid for it and we have it more than 6 years for sure. It's about 1m80 of length.
In the package there's a foot to stand the tree up on, and then there's 3 pieces to put on top of each other and then you have our tree. It's up in about 5 minutes or less, but after you have to open up the branches a little and that takes a good 10 minutes if you wanna do it nicely.
Tadaaa now you have a tree :)




Now it's time to put some lights in it.
I've bought new ones this year and I went for warm ones, but I didn't looked at the length of it so I had to go back and buy a second pair of lights :)
I've started from the bottom up and put them more on the outside of the tree, so you see them really good instead of hiding them. Halfway up the tree I had to start with my second pair of lights that I bought. And this is the result!
I think it came out really nice.





Lets put in some ornaments in it!
This year we went for the colors red and gold, so it's a warm tree this year. We change it up each year.
First I've put in the red ornaments in, a bit all over the tree. The smaller ones I've put on top and the bigger ones in the bottom. We have shiny ones, matt ones and glitter ones. After that I've put in the golden ones, those are the same ones as the red ones. We bought those for about 15 euros the box, there are 24 ornaments per box. We finished it of with some bowes, also in red and gold. This time it didn't want to work for me, so my mom was so nice to help with the bowes.
This is the end result!
Hope you like my christmas tree, by now there are also some presents under it, you can see it on my instagram @theadventure_oflife . I'm interested to see your christmas tree, so you can share it with me if you want.

Love,
Sarah

Christmas Cupcakes

This week we will make some delicious cupcakes, specially decorated for Christmas.
It's a pretty easy recipe and they're really good.
It takes about an hour to make them.

These are the ingredients: 150gr of butter, 500gr all purpose flowers, 280gr caster sugar, 15ml baking powder, pinch of salt, 3 eggs, 150ml milk, 50ml water, 5ml vanilla essence.


Start baking!
Put the butter and the dry ingredients together.
But the milk, the water, the eggs and the vanilla essence in and mix, about 3 minutes by hand, if you do it with a mixer it's good after 1,5 minutes.
This should be good for around 20 cupcakes, you can put the mix in cupcake forms now.
Pre heat the oven at 180 degrees, then put the cupcakes in for 10 - 15 minutes.
If you wanna know if they're ready put a tooth pick in it and if there is no dough sticking on it they are ready.
This is how they should look, I also had a little more cupcakes :)

Now let's start the decorations :)
First I made the buttercream, for this you need butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
I used 250gr butter and with that 370gr sugar and about a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Then I separated the buttercream in 3 bowls and in 2 of then I put food coloring, in one green and the other red.
Then first I cut a whole in each cupcake, in one half I put some dark chocolate cream and in the other strawberry jam.
After that you can put the buttercream on top of it.
I also bought some other little decorations to put on it. I cut a christmas tree out of sugar paste and on top of it I put some sugar balls. I also used some candy cane decoration and mistletoe.

Hope you guys like my designs? Don't hesitate to share yours :)
Love,
Sarah