Living on the prairie

So, over this last week-end I have read all the Little House on the Prairie books. Such beautiful books filled of stories of an inspiring family! There was something charming with living back in those days, but reading the books also makes me grateful to be able to go to the shop and buy whatever I want without having to produce it myself 😀. It is so fun to read books about the stories of people that lived long ago, the people that made up the history of our world.

 

I think what is most beautiful about the books is the positive, sweet attitudes that the members of the Ingall's family had, both towards each other and towards life, despite the challenges. And as I look at the lives of people around me, I am reminded that we are all living our little prairie lives in our own way. We are all creating history, we are all leaving a legacy.

 

I also realized that living a little prairie life the way the Ingall's did is about living life to the full. Embracing the sunrises, the flowers, the fresh springs, the long winters, the hard work with a joy and a positive attitude...that is what makes life fun to live. Learning to squeeze out every last drop that the day has to offer.

 

Tonight I was meant to go to a baby shower for a friend, but it was cancelled because she had her baby instead. So I got to sit and enjoy the cupcakes I had made together with some friends and family and now I am sitting looking at the fire crackling in our fireplace and listening to my husband playing guitar and I am grateful... grateful for the life I have and the ability to enjoy living it, through the ups and downs.

 

These chocolate cupcakes were really good! Click here for a link to the recipe. The icing was AMAZING!!! I made a chocolate buttercream icing but threw in some extra cocoa and cream cheese:

125g margarine, room temperature

1/2 cup / 125 ml cocoa

2 cups / 500 ml icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

100 g cream cheese

 

1. Beat the marg until it gets whitish and light. Add the icing sugar and beat some more.

2. Add the cocoa, milk and cream cheese and beat until the consistency is smooth and creamy.

3. Spread or pipe over cupcakes.

 

Happy baking!

Love,

Heidi

 

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A whole lot of diggin' fun!

Children are a blessing! I remember the first time I held my oldest son, the feelings were overwhelming. Somehow when you get a child, you think you know what love is, but actually, the more time I spend with him the deeper the love grows. It is amazing the ability that children have in impacting our lives.

Now it's 5 years later and I can't believe that my baby is on his way to becoming a thoughtful, intelligent, kind yet strong young man!

What a blessing he is! When he turned 5 in November he wanted to have a building/construction party, here is some snapshots:

When the kids arrived they had a visit from "Builder Bull" who took them into the basement for some challenges. First they had to find head bands which then split the group into two teams depending on the colour headband they found. The two teams then had different relays so they could run off some energy. After that it was time for lunch, a "Build-your-own-burger bar". After lunch the birthday boy opened his presents and then we headed outside for some digging-in-the-sand games. It was a chilly day so after the games we came back inside to eat cake and ended off the day by crafting our own bulldozers. It was super fun!

Elias, I am so proud of you my son. I so look forward to the adventures, the laughter and the memories that lie ahead!




To all of you with kids...remember to cherish the moments, they go by so quickly and can never be brought back!




Love,

Heidi

 

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Happy Easter!

Here are some cute cupcakes for Easter! And they are dangerously delicious! I have found my new favourite "go to" chocolate cake recipe...Ina Garten is my new hero:-). This cake comes with a warning: it is DANGEROUS! Only because it's so easy to make and it's so delicious! Don't say I didn't warn you...

 

To see this recipe in Swedish, click here.

From Barefoot Contessa at Home

Chocolate cake
butter for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

1. Make the cake: sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.

2. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. with the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine. Pour the batter into 2 buttered and floured 9 inch cake pans or into your cipcake wrappers. Bake the cake at 180 degrees C for 40-45 minutes and the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Happy baking!

Love,

Heidi

 

 

 

30 wonderful years and the world's best family!

This Christmas was the first Christmas that I have spent at home in South Africa since I got married and it was such a special time with the family. It was also the first time that I have flown home in two years, which is definately the longest I've been away for...it was great to come home...and great to see many of my family and friends that I haven't seen for a long time!

 

While we were home, my older sister, Laura, turned 30, so we threw a big party for her. Seen as though she was born in the 80's we decided to have an 80's pool party theme...except when the day came around it was pouring. So the pool party turned into a not-so pool party but whenever my family puts together a party, it is always a blast!

 

To my precious Lauli! I love you and want you to know that I am proud of you, both as a person and a sister. I am grateful for all the years we have had together and look forward to the many more memories that are to be made! You are priceless!

 

Now to the food...we had a buffé of minis: small bacon and cheese rolls, quiche bites, mini sausages, fruit kebabs, cocktail sticks...

The cake was made with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and the topper was also layered with chocolate and vanilla cake. The cake has a story...

Two of my wonderful sisters helped to bake the cake and cupcakes as my husband and I were celebrating our 5 year anniversary. When we came back home from celebrating, somehow someone had brought out a coaster that lit up in different colours when a glass was put on it. There was only one in the house but I knew that we had to have it for the cake tiers as it would really enhance the 80's feel. The thing is, no-one knew where to get them from, but instead of giving up my dad and little sister go on a search, calling around to find where we could get more. They even called the manufacturers to ask where they sell them, and they were told that these lights are no longer produced. Yet, someone, within a couple of hours my dad found a place that had a few left. That is one of the things I love the most about my fam, nothing is impossible and they go the extra mile! I love you guys!

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the beginning of a new week! Take the opportunity this Valentine's Day on Tuesday to show those that you love how much you appreciate them!

 

Love, Heidi

 

 

Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Sneak preview of what is to come...

Oh dear...it has been a hectic summer...which means ZERO time for updating blogs. I hope that ya'll haven't missed me too much! ;-)

A few weeks ago I had the biggest order up-to-date...100 cupcakes plus a wedding cake for 130 people...for a special friend's wedding. Unfortunately this HUGE order (which by the way was all made in my tiny kitchen...miracles can happen) also coincided with the death of my precious morfar (grandfather). More on both of these events later...I just wanted to send a sneak preview of the cupcakes and hopefully get you excited for seeing THE cake!

I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out!

That's it for now.

Love,
Heidi

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Kärleksmums...

Love is always in the air in Sweden during the summer. There are usually many weddings to attend and many wedding pictures to look over! It's a fun time of year!

This year I have several wedding cakes/cupcakes lined up so it's pretty exciting! A few weeks ago I made a delivery for a cute couple that live close to me and wanted to have cupcakes for their wedding and a little cake as well. They have a great company that works with events and catering, you can check their homepage out here. They wanted pink polka dot cupcake holders with a "kärleksmums" cupcake..which is a chocolatey cake with a delicous icing. "Kärlek" means love in Swedish, so it kind of suits a wedding, don't you think? They also wanted fresh strawberries to decorate the cupcakes. For the cake: they wanted a pink cake, a "princesstårta" which is also a Swedish classic, with chiffon cake layered with a vanilla cream. On the same day of their wedding, I was attending some of my dear friend's wedding, so I was only able to deliver the cake and cupcakes and not set it up at the location, which I usually like to do. But they promised to send photos of what it looked like on the day. I'll keep you posted!

This is how they turned out:

Thursday, 30 June 2011

Jnytt TV

This week I had the opportunity to bake cupcakes on Jnytt's webTV. It was a fun experience! It was also one of the brightest days we've had so far this summer so filming in my kitchen was a bit tricky, but it worked out pretty ok. I made lemon poppy cupcakes with white chocolate frosting. The recipe I used was my easy all-in-one cake batter (click here to check it out...). I added the zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon and about 2 tsp lemon poppy seeds and mixed it into the batter instead of the cheesecake filing. You can find the frosting recipe here.

Here's some pictures from some cupcakes I made a few days ago. Cute, aren't they?

Click here to watch some of my best cupcake tips!

I'm off to go and prepare some cupcakes and a cake for a wedding on Saturday!

Have a great day everyone!

Love,
Heidi

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Strawberry cheesecake cupcakes...

Phenomenal cupcakes...seriously. These things take cupcakes to a new level! In the middle of these delicious vanilla cakes lies the most delicious strawberry cheesecake filling, and to top it off...the most amazing white chocolate icing. That may seem like a pretty exaggerative explanation...but seriously, they ARE that good!

You have to try for yourself!

Makes 12 cupcakes:

(To see this recipe in Swedish, click here)

Vanilla cupcakes:
120 g melted butter or margarine
2 eggs
180g flour (about 400ml)
1 ¼ dl milk
140 g sugar (about ¾ cup)
1 pinch salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Cheesecake filling:
100g cream cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
150 ml strawberry puré (made easily by blending half frozen strawberries)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put cupcake liners in a muffin tray, use 6 big ones or 12 normal sixed liners.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the cupcakes in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix all the ingredients for the cheesecake (except the strawberry) until smooth. Once smooth, add the strawberry puré and stir a few times.
4. Put some batter in the liners, then about 1 tbsp cheesecake filling, and top it off with some more cupcake batter, until the liners are about ¾ fill. The cheesecake filling is quite runny so some of it comes to the top, but that just adds to the marbled effect.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Let them cool completely.
6. Top with my favourite icing (you can find the recipe here) and some fresh strawberries.

Happy baking and delicious eating!

Love,
Heidi

Thursday, 28 April 2011

My favourite icing!

Today I made some DELICIOUS strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. They were SOOO good! I will share the recipe with you all in a few days, but to start with I will share my FAVOURITE frosting/icing recipe that I used to decorate the cupcakes with. I often use it when I make cakes as well...like this one. It is so tasty and the flavours are well balanced. Why don't you give it a try?

(För att se receptet på svenska titta lite längre ner på sidan)

White chocolate icing:

Enough to ice about 12 cupcakes

250 g white chocolate
340 g natural cream cheese
85 g butter
1 1/2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 dl icing sugar
food colouring (if needed)

1. Melt the chocolate carefully.

2. Mix the rest of the ingrediants in a blender very quickly. Add the chocolate and mix until combined.

3. Pour the icing into a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

4. Take out and mix with an electric beater until desired consistency.

Vitchoklad glasyr:

250g vitchoklad
340g mjukost
85g smör, rumstemperatur
1 1/2 msk creme fraiche
1 tsk vaniljsocker
1/2 dl florsocker

1. Smälta chokladen försiktigt

2. Lägg alla ingredienser (förutom chokladen) i en skål och mixar med en stavmixer. Blanda ner chokladen och mixar väl.

3. Låt vila i kylskåpet i minst 1 timme.

4. Mixar med elvisp till önskad konsistens.

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Rocky Road Cupcakes

Hello everyone!

This week has been full of baking and caking, so there are many exciting recipes and photos waiting to be written about! I recently found a wonderful book at Åhléns in Jönköping that was all about Cupcakes, cookies and cheesecakes. It is so full of fun and inspiring ideas that I can't wait to try out!



The first recipe that I tried was their Rocky Roads Cupcakes. Like usual, I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly as it stands, I'm always finding ways to put my own touch on something. But even so, I seriously LOVE cookbooks...I could sit for hours just looking and being inspired!

Here's the recipe my way: (to see this recipe in Swedish click here!)

Rocky Road Cupcakes, makes about 12



125g butter or margarine, room temperature
½ tsp vanilla essence
1½ dl sugar (150ml)
2 eggs
2½ dl flour (1 cup)
1½ tsp baking powder
¾ dl milk (75ml)
1 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp extra milk

Rocky road topping:

500g milk chocolate, melted
50g pistachio nuts
50g cashew nuts
50g mini marshmallows

Here's how:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.

2. Beat the butter, vanilla and sugar for about 5 minutes. Mix in one egg at a time. Beat for a few more minutes until light and fluffy.

3. Mix in the flour, baking powder and milk.

4. Divide the batter into 2 bowls. Mix the cocoa and the 2 tbsp milk and add to one of the batters.

5. Put a lillte of each batter into the cupcake liners. Stir around gently with a toothpick to get a marbled effect.

6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

7. Mix all the ingredients for the Rocky Roads in a bowl. Top each cupcake with a spoonful. Drizzle a little bit of dark chocolate over the top.

Happy baking!

Love,
Heidi

Sunday, 23 January 2011

It's a girl!

Good morning everyone!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful week-end!

Before you get to excited about the heading (no, I'm not pregnant ;-) ), some friends of ours just had the cutest little baby girl! We are so happy for them and warmly welcome their little princess into our big world.

To celebrate I made some cute little butterfly cupcakes. The recipe for the cupcakes is a normal vanilla cupcake recipe like this one:

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

3 1/2 dl (1 1/2 cups) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
125 g butter (room temperature)
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 dl (3/4 cup) milk (room temperature)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.
2. Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until creamy (about 3 minutes).
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. On low speed, beat in the flour (about 3 additions) alternating with the milk. Start with the flour and end with the flour and beat until just blended. BEWARE of over-beating at this stage...you will knock the air out of your cupcakes and they won't rise properly.
6. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 full. Bake until golden and until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. About 20 minutes.
7. Remove from the muffin tray and cool completely.

(From the book: Kids Parties by Lisa Atwood)





The frosting recipe is one that I have wanted to try for a long time...

One of my favourite blogs is written by a lady called Manuela over at Passion for baking. She always has such lovely posts and ideas. One of the frostings that she uses a lot is called "Angel feather icing". It tastes exactly as it looks...delicious and fluffy and sweet. It's basically like a meringue (or like the filling in those delicious chocolate covered Sweetie-pies).

Here's the recipe (or you can click here to see it on Manuela's site in Norwegian).

2 egg whites
170 g sugar
1 dl white corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I have a hard time getting a hold of this in Sweden, so I used the same amount of distilled vinegar(Ättiksprit)instead)
1 tsp vanilla
(A few drops of red food colouring...you can leave this out or colour it whichever way you want to)

1. Put all the ingredients, except the vanilla and colouring, in a glass bowl. Make sure that the bowl is free from any grease as this will prevent the egg whites from beating up properly.
2. Put the bowl over a pot with boiling water. While the water is boiling, beat with an electric mixer until the mixture becomes white and fluffy.
3. Take the bowl off the pot and continue mixing. The more you mix the stiffer the icing will get and the better it will hold it's shape.
4. When you reach your desired consistency, add the vanilla and colouring and you're ready to go!



I decorated these cupcakes with pastry bags and tips that I bought at Cervera. Then I sprinkled on some pink crystals with pink and purple hearts. Finally I made small little butterflies with fondant that I painted with pearl dust to give them a glimmer I bought the little butterfly cookie cutters at Åhléns.

Happy baking!

Love,
Heidi

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Christmas cupcakes

Here in Jönköping it is a beautiful winter's day. There aren't many things more beautiful than the sun shining on a winter wonderland!


Today we're getting out all of our Christmas decor and we're going to get our little home ready for Christmas. Christmas is such a great time of year here in Sweden as it is so beautiful and cosy and cold…The wonderful thing with spending Christmas in Sweden is that it is usually a white one...but there are times when I really miss being in South Africa during this time of year. It's so funny seeing people running around in Santa outfits and sweating from the heat, spending the afternoon at the beach or lounging around the pool! But this year will be a white Christmas for me again. So I will light my candles and bake my pepparkakor (gingerbread men) and enjoy every minute of this lovely season!



This week-end the whole of Sweden is celebrating the first advent, so I made some yummy Christmassy cupcakes to enjoy with some Glögg, a warm, spicy drink that most Swedes love. I don't love it as much...but at least I can enjoy the cupcakes ;-) !
To see this recipe in Swedish, click here.

Cinnamon Cupcakes:
3½ dl flour * (just under 1½ cups flour)
½ tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
125g butter or marg
2 dl sugar (just over ¾ cup)
2 eggs, room temperature
1 dl sour cream (just under ½ cup)
50 ml milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until white.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla essence.
5. Mix in half of the dry ingredients, then the sour cream and milk, and finally mix in the rest of the dry ingredients.
6. Fill the cupcake liners ¾ fill. A tip: Pour the batter into a piping bag with a 1 cm hole and “pipe” the batter into the liners…a very easy, mess free way of making cupcakes!
7. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool.

Cream Cheese frosting:
It’s important that all the ingredients for the frosting are at room temperature before you mix them. This helps to give you a smooth frosting that looks and tastes yummy.

100g cream cheese
50 g butter
3-4 dl icing sugar (about 1½ cup)

1. Beat the cheese and butter together until very smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar, 1 dl at a time until you get your desired consistency. The more icing sugar you have, the firmer the frosting will be…and the sweeter the icing will be.
3. Pipe onto the cooled off cupcakes. I used the same bag (washed) that I used for the batter to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
4. Mix 1 tsp cinnamon with 1 tsp sugar and sprinkle over the cupcakes.

Happy baking!

*1 dl=100 ml, so 3½ dl = 350 ml flour etc…

Thursday, 25 November 2010

One-bowl cupcakes

This is one of my favourite recipes of all time...mostly because it is SOOO easy! Even someone like me, who loves to bake, also loves easy recipes sometimes. The lovely thing with this recipe is that it can be made in one bowl! All the ingredients are poured into a bowl and mixed...it's that simple!

The other great thing with this recipe is that it can easily be made chocolate or vanilla...just by substituting some of the flour for cocoa.

I found this recipe years ago in my mom's tried and tested recipe box and it's stuck with me since. The amount of times it's been baked in our house and the memories that it brings are endless. Some of those best memories have been with my sisters, late at night, mixing the batter and then eating it...yup, you read right, we ate the batter…and still do ;-) ! It is DELICIOUS!

One more great thing with this recipe is that it can easily be made cupcakes or it can just as easily be a cake. And just about any frosting works with them.



Lazy housewife’s cake
Ingredients
-120 g marg – melted (125ml)
-2 eggs
-140g cake flour ( 287ml)
-40 g cocoa ( 100ml) ( add 40 extra flour for a vanilla cake)
-125ml milk
-140g( 175ml) castor sugar
-Pinch of salt
-10ml baking powder
-5 ml vanilla essence

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
3. Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl mix for 1 minute.
4. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes.



One secret...make sure not to leave them in the oven for too long...otherwise they will get too dry.

Happy baking and happy thanksgiving to everyone! Thanksgiving is such a wonderful tradition. There is so much in life to be thankful for! I’m thankful for being blessed with a lovely husband and the world’s cutest son and the best family ever!

What things are you grateful for in your life?

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