Me and those cakes

I love layered cakes. However I su** at making them. I have no idea what I do wrong. I ALWAYS do as the recipe tells me to and they are still not working for me. This following recipe being another example for that.

Classic chocolate cake with vanilla frosting
(recipe from Sweetpaul)
Ingredients:
Dough
240g salted butter
150g brown sugar
50g sugar
1 egg
240ml milk
1 tsp. vanilla
180g flour
1 tsp. backing powder
30g cocoa powder

Frosting
340g sugar
3 egg whites
80ml water
2 tsp. corn sirup
1/4 tsp backing powder
1 tsp vanilla

Prepare:
1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. Beat the butter and both types of sugar in a bowl and beat until frothy.
3. Add the egg and mix well.
4. Add milk, vanilla, flour, backing powder and the cocoa powder and again mix well until you have an even dough.
5. Divide the dough equally into two baking forms. (I weighed the dough and the half the weigh into each form.)
6. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a wooden stick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool off afterwards.
7. For the frosting you have to mix the sugar, egg whites, water, corn sirup and backing powder in a metal bowl (because you have to put it onto a water pot.)
8. Put the bowl onto the pot with water in it.
9. You have to mix the mixture well until thick and creamy.
10. Take the bowl from the pan and the vanilla. Then you have to beat the frosting until it cooled off completely. It's supposed to be fluffy.
11. Put one of the cakes onto a cake display and add 1/3 of the frosting and spread evenly. 
12. Put the second cake on top of the first and frosting and put the rest of the frosting on top and on the sides.
13. Add some sprinkles if you like.
14. The cake is supposed to cool off for an hour in the fridge before you serve it.
ENJOY!!

Now this recipe doesn't sound too hard, right? But somehow the cakes didn't went up in the oven and I got some really flat cakes. (First I thought everything vanished into thin air while baking. But when I took them out I could find the really thin cakes!:P) And then the frosting didn't go as planned. I had to add the baking form again because the frosting was leaving the scene...:/ (Even after letting it cool off in the fridge it kept running away...)
I don't know what it is with me and layered cakes. I guess I have to try until one of the recipes I use will be successful! AND I will try this recipe again!!! This has to work!;)

But the you know what?! THE CAKE TASTED AWESOME! So rich of chocolate and very soft and wet on the inside. Really really yummy!:)

15 Minutes...really?

I bought the "new" book from Jamie a while back and haven't been able to cook anything from the recipes. So I gave it a shot yesterday! Everybody who tried to cook some of his recipes knows, that you need quite a lot of ingredients. So I was really surprised when I read the recipes of the new book. They are quite simple and most of the things you have at home. 

It was easy cooking and didn't took as long as I prepared myself for. It took me only 20 minutes...so he is almost right with the time you need!:P Now I really like to do more of the recipes and I have already picked out some that I like to try.

Chorizo Carbonara

(adapted from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)

Ingredients:

320g pasta

70g chorizo

1/2 fresh red chilli

2 sprigs of fresh roesmary (I don't like rosemary, thats why I left that out')

olive oil

4 gloves of garlic

1 large egg

1/2 a lemon (I will use less for the next time, because it was too sour for my taste)

2 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt

40g Manchego cheese

How to...:

1. Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions.

2. Finely slice the chorizo, chilli and rosemary leaves and put into the frying pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of pepper, then squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher and move everything around until lightly golden.

3. Beat the egg, lemon juice, yoghurt and remaining finely grated Manchego together in a bowl. 

4. Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of the starchy cooking water. Toss the past into the chorizo pan, remove from the heat and mix well with the creamy sauce, loosening with a splash of cooking water, if needed, then season to taste.

5. DONE and ENJOY!!!\

His                                           Mine
It actually look really much like it,
but in the picture it looks very different...

Decide

1- I usually appreciate art, but this? Poor books...

2- Yellow Poppy's? First time I see those.

3- Pasta with yummy pesto.

4- Need a sign?

5- TV film crew at uni.

6- BBQ @ Kiwi

7- Only trouble with the new 5€

8- Found old friends known from Edinburgh.

9- Street fair in Eppendorf, Hamburg

25 @ 25

I wanted to publish this post on my 25th birthday but I had no time. Inspired by some other blogs (for example Ja-Sagerin) I decided to do a list of things I wanted to do when I am 25. I think 25 is also a special age, like turning 16(finally having an ID),18(finally able to drive a car) or 21(it's wasn't much of a change for me just something legal)... Since I wasn't blogging then I had no idea of such lists I have not done it before. So I decided to start one now and if it's going great to do that the following years!:) So on my list are 25 things I want to do at 25. On the list are all kinds of things I want to do, have to do or need to check out (do something new). 

Here's the list:

1--Travel at least 2 times outside of Germany

2--See at least on musical

3--Finish two old DIY-projects

4--See at least one concert

5--Do at least 5 DIY-project to give away

6--Watch 10 classic movies

7--Read 5 classic novels

8--Decorate something new/different than usual

9--Get a different haircut

10-Cook at least 5 meals out of "Jamies 15 Minute Meals"

11-Learn something new (language, game, craft...)

12-Finish my 2012 travel diary

13-Do something regularly (at least: once a week for a month)

14-Do something crazy

15-Redesign my blog header

16-Do a scrapbook class

17-See more (sights...) of the area (at home and in Hamburg)

18-Sell old things (at least one)

19-Sew a bag

20-Write a short story (at least five pages)

21-Do something for others (help somewhere...)

22-Try a new ride (motorcycle, quad bike...)

23-Go to a book fair

24-Get a make-up consult

25-HAVE A FUN YEAR!

I am pretty sure some of them will challenge me but I hope to have a lot of fun 

Happy New Year...Wait, Whaaaat??

uups..guess that was a while ago!!!:P

Right?

But here it goes since I haven't been able to do this earlier!!

So here are my last years resolutions:

Resolutions for 2012:
-to get outside at least 15 minutes per day
-read 3 books a month
-find an internship
-watch two movies at the cinema each month
-craft more, e.g. sewing, handicraft and paint 

The ones that are strikethrough I have been able to achieve. You know it's really hard to get outside for 15 minutes a day? I tried to and kept it up quite some time, but especially weekends are bad, because I sit at home and do Uni stuff and don't get outside. But this year I will do better, I try!  I also was able to read as many books as I wanted to, partly because of my BA-thesis and party because I was not in the reading mood. You ask: How come? I don't know, every time I picked up a book and started it, it reminded me of something (mostly sad) and I didn't want to read on....

So next(ahhh, this ^^) years resolutions are:

- Bake all recipes from my calender (there are 12)

- Read 24 (or more) books throughout the year

- Buy quality instead of quantity

- make sure to save 1€ a day (guess that'll be the hard one)

- Finish my BA and start something new

- Embrace new beginnings, whatever they are

And now there will be some thoughts on 2012:

The best that happened to me last year: there is not just one thing this year! It’s the wedding, my internship, my trip to Edinburgh and Praha…

This didn't have to happen in 2012: making others see me in a different way.

I have learned in 2012 that good friends are hard to come around to!

My movie of the year 2012 was Ziemlich Beste Freunde

My book of the year 2012 was Cecilia Ahern "One Hundred Names"

My song of the year 2012 was Robbie Williams "Candy"

My TV-show of the year was Desperate Housewives and Private Practice (both gone :( )

I've been there the first time in 2012 Praha and Edinburgh

In 2012 I travelled to: Cheb, Kalovy Vary, Luxembourg, Hockenheim Ring, Bamberg,  Kaiserslautern, Edinburgh Strasbourg and Prag

I am proud of myself for doing this in 2012: my internship.

In 2012 I should have checked off more from my resolution list

In 2012 I should have been less sidetracked.

In 2012 the saddest thing was that I felt left behind at one point…

In 2012 I spend most of my time researching.

Five words that describe 2012 for me relax, bridesmaid, get-together, goodbyes and research.

I am excited about 2013 because I’m going to finish my BA. and start something new.

Things I need to do more in 2013: focus on the important things (in life, at uni, in friendships)

Things I need to do less in 2013: buy crappy things just because they are cheap.

The craziest thing I did in 2012 was make a scene.

In 2012 I went to a (real big) wedding for the first time.

In 2012 I did this after a long time again: Seeing my friends and former Au-Pairs.

Word of the year? Bridesmaid or internship

City of the year? Praha

Best time spend with? A great friend in Edinburgh.

Best moment? Being part of the ‘Wedding of the Year’.

2012 was a really fun and exciting year for me!

Cooking, baking, eating

Creating all new recipes or trying out new one's! Or just make the one's I really love!!;) 

Very yummy

Christmas cookies already...:P

 

Something quick

Tried it for the first time...very yummy

supposed to look like this

our creation

Yummy Quiche kind of thing

Mushrooms-spaghetti 

Wok-noodles -- not so good though!

Back baking

I was finally able to bake something again. The time was just not there and I was too tired to bake after work. So now I had the time... I wanted to make some brownies from a new cook book I bought. The recipe was not really hard but somehow they didn't quite taste like the brownies I love. Will do them again and hope they taste much better then...

Coocking time again

Finally doing some real cocking again. I bought some new cook books and honestly I would love to try all the recipes...but I can't do that much cooking if nobody is eating it in my family except for me.... Anyway, here are some pics of what I cooked recently....

Things of interest

 

Here are some pics of what I have read, listen to or bought in the last couple of weeks. 

I bought a new clutch for the wedding. I LOVE this type as a handbag. For events or just because I feel like it and it goes with the outfit. I could use these all the time! It's a nice accessory! However I didn't own a black one which I needed for my outfit I would wear on the wedding day and so I decided to buy a new one for this occasion. I had a different one in mind but liked this one very much and so now it's mine!:)

I am currently trying new magazines. I wanted to try the JamieOliver magazine for quite a while and now it had like a ton of recipes for green asparagus which I happen to love in them and it made the decision easy!;)

While reading it I saw an ad in it for this other magazine. And since these topics are some of my favorite topics I had to try it! I already got like 5 new ideas for new DIY-projects and a lot of inspiration!!

Yesterday was theatre at my Uni. This time it was a play in German. It was really funny and I am glad I had the chance to see it this time(wasn't able last semester)!!

Great book...

very recommendable!!! I usually don't recommend many books because everybody has a different taste. But this one is a must read, I think. It's has some love story in, is entertaining and mainly very funny! 

It is part of the Stephanie Plum Series and is #11. It's was very successful as a book and is now a motion picture. Stephanie quite her job as a bounty hunter in this book but her life does not necessarily get easier... It is so funny and I think my neighbors thought that I was going crazy because I had to laugh that much and for a long time...

I guess...

...it's exam week! We have a room with lockers and at the moment not a lot of them are empty. You have to be very lucky. At the time the pic was taken, I guess there were like 3-5 lockers left unused. This always happens when it is exam week or there is a date were eveybody has to hand in a term paper. The week before that, it's always crowed even if it's semester holidays!!

Quotes

Do now that feeling when you have quotes going through your thoughts but you just don’t know from which movie, serial, song or book they are? It drives me crazy. I’m thinking so hard for as long as it takes until it – suddenly – it hit me. And most of the time I realize that this particular quote is from a movie, serial, song or book which I watched, listened to or read recently. But sometimes I even remember quotes from an old movie or so. And that strikes me the most, because it’s so far back and I can still remember, how creepy, right? It’s just that sometimes the quotes are so magnificent, true or simply touching that I can’t forget them…

"For on that day 

he not only altered Joe Theismann's life, 

but mine as well."

Lists

I guess lists make my life a whole lot easier. A couple of days ago I made a list of books I want to read. I know I know. I already have a list, but these are books I already have and since I haven't read any classical ones and must reads I made another one. It's actually an idea from the book 1001 books you have to read before you die. I don't know yet if I want to read them in a year or so or if it's like in the title. Some books in my list are classics that one should read and unfortunately I never did (like Romeo and Juliet). I think it's very sad that we didn't read these in school but hey if we did I couldn't have made a new list... here are some:

 

1. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
2. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
3. Atonement – Ian McEwan
4. Charlie and the Choclate Factory – Roald Dahl
5. Harry Potter – JK Rowling
6. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
7. Romeo and Juliet – William Shekespear
8. Kabale und Liebe – Schiller
9. Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank
10. One Day – David Nicholls, Simone Jakob
11. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
12. A tale of two cities – Charles Dickens
13. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
14. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
15. Crime of Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Check out...

...my other pages here on this blog! I have a seperate page for favorit movies, books and some recipes I have posted. 

I have a section for my favorite movies and hopefully will add some movies I have seen in the cinema lately but that is still under construction.;)

As you see there is a seperate section about myself, where you get to know some more about me, if you like!;)

In the third section you can inform yourself about my favorite books, but as well, this section is still under construction. It gives you the name of the book, a small summary and my opinion on the story. 

The last section is about the recipes I posted on the blog and it is just to see them at one page so you dont have to search the whole blog to be able to read them. 

I always...

...wanted one of these!

Do you remember Cruel Intension where Sebastian kept a diary?Ever since I kept diaries I wanted a leather bound diary and I know they are expensive so I already looked in the States but they are expensive there, too. And when I found this little sweety on a discount I wanted to have it. And now it's mine...that's so greea! I am so in LOVE! (@Tini:I finally got my first one...isn't it great?)

Just to order...

...some books. But also had to make some pics! Love this town, but sometimes I think the citicens are strange...

Something in between...

When I work I need something that distracts me from all the work in my head. So I read. At the moment I am just about to finish a book... Do you know that feeling? It's all coming to an end and you don't want it to be finished but nevertheless you have to keep reading because it's too thrilling to put it aside. Well this book was like this and now I have just one thing I look forward to. I am going to read them in the right order (1-4, not 4 and then backwards to 1^^) some time...

Thinking about it

"Maybe you think you'll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn't work that way. Happiness takes as much practice as unhappiness does. It's by living that you live more. By waiting you wait more. Every waiting day makes your life a little less. Every lonely day makes you a little smaller. Every day you put off your life makes you less capable of living it."

The angels come to visit us,

            and we only know them
when they are gone.

-George Eliot

I finished the 'Sisterhood everlasting'. These quotes above are taken from it. I think it summons up what the book is trying to say and what the reader should learn from it. I thought of it as an end for this sisterhood in its written way (and maybe in its way as a movie). 

A friendship needs hard work to survive and when you have made friends for life they will be there for you no matter what if both side are willing to work for it. And if you have a great friendship you are proud of, don't waste it. Even if you are apart, as long as you keep them in your heart, they are always with you...

Back to the good old times

new book and already in LOVE...

Package...

...arrived on Monday and I was really really happy! Because it gives me some more to read but also to spur me on to finish off the other book I am reading!;)

Nicholas Sparks-True Believer

Nicholas Sparks- The Choice

Asa Larsson- Sonnensturm

Ann Brashares- Sisterhood everlasting

... but these books are not the only one's I want to read this summer (what summer?)!More than ten books are waiting for me on the shelves. And since their growing in size and I don't know where to put all the fabulous books I planning on adding two new shelves to my room...