Icing for decorating and frosting cakes.

Recipe for icing:
2 egg whites
400 grams icing sugar
Lemon drops


Put all ingredients into the mixing bowl. Stir for about 15 minutes. This gives a very stiff and white mass. Make sure to put plastic over the icing if you are not using it right away, it becomes pretty quickly a hard crust on it. If you're going to color the icing or the marzipan, it is recommended to use Wilton icing color. Put the icing in a decorating bag with the tip you want, and drop your imagination loose!

Want som more inspiration? Take a look at:

Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan


The Love Goddess' Cooking School

Visit Albena, Bulgaria. Beautiful beach for the perfect holiday and honeymoon.

This year’s holiday will soon come to an end, and one can summarize what opportunities there are to tasks in Albena, Bulgaria. The possibilities are many, so me and my husband did not have the opportunity to participate in everything.  There are many things to do for both children and adults. You can join organised tours or order a cheap taxi and travel on your own. If you want to go out of Albena there are opportunities for shopping in bigger cities such as Varna. You can participate in a jeep safari (maybe not suitable for the smallest children). If you do travel with children it is probably a safe trick to catch the bus to the water park where you can also see the dolphin show. In Albena, there are also possibilities for different kinds of water sports like water skiing, paragliding after a boat and more. My husband did of course manage to convince me to be a passenger on a water scooter. Shopping street in Albena is a quiet area where only a few cars are allowed to pass. It is very nice to walk in the street and take a look at all the small shops.

Especially in the evenings, it might be nice to have a table at one of the restaurants and listen to the music and life in the street. Like most resorts there is of course the opportunity to buy roses of the many salesmen. Not many people are equally happy for the salesmen, but it's probably something that belongs in most tourist places. For Kids there are special activities such as boats and climbing Castle which opens in the afternoon. They may also paint their own pottery and by self-made holiday gifts for Grandma:) 

We brought pictures of our kids and had it drawn of one of the artists in Albena. The result was impressive and it is strongly recommended. There are several very good artists sitting in the street, but take one round to see them work before you decide who you choose.  The beach of Albena is 4 km long and fine grain. This was a paradise for both children and adults. If you feel for walking you can walk along the promenade, and then in addition see many fine performances on the tour. (See pictures below.)

This was the second trip we made to Albena and we have no doubt taking the kids there for holiday. Albena is definitely the place to relaxing, while the possibilities are many if you want a more active holiday. Let the pictures talk for themselves. Should you find yourself taking the trip to Albena, or anywhere else for that matter, I wish all the best for you and your family during the holiday!



Beach and swimmingpool.





One of the restaurants, very nice and fun!



Very beautiful.




I would like to have this in my garden :)

 

Walking along the beach requires a cooling long drink.

 

So beautiful!





What more can you wish for? A romantic evening with roses and Sex on the beach?

About me

Vacation in Bulgaria august 2011.

Married to my husband:)  We have two kids and our house in the middle of Norway. I love everything you can do in redecorating and renovating a house. My husband does not :) I also like to try new things for dinner, and I find it fun to decorate a cake. As I told you in the intro, I am not an expert. But that`s the point. We can still manage to do things ourselves, and save a lot of money. It takes to much money to hire someone to do everything that needs to be done. So try do it like me; make it your way and be satisfied with yourself and the result of your work!

And for the profile picture: This was a fun thing made in Bulgaria during holiday. Not the way you would normally see me dressed.

Planning to make a cake for a baptism?



 

Planning to make a cake for a baptism?

This is a small clip of decorations that are applied to a cake for a baptism. Decoration is made of icing and marzipan colored by Wilton Icing Color. 

Recipe for icing can be found here.

Recipe for sponge can be found here.

See wedding cake for more ideas.

Want some more inspiration? Take a look at: 

Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan
The Love Goddess' Cooking School

Basic sponge for many cakes.

Recipe for basic sponge:

6 eggs

180 grams sugar

 120 grams flour

30 grams potato flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Add eggs and sugar to a bowl of a mixer. Whip for several minutes to get a thick mass. Add carefully the rest of the ingredients with a hand spatula. Spray the cake pan before you add cake into it. Put the cake pan in the bottom of the oven, 160 degrees for about 35 minutes. Cool off the cake before you cut it in parts for as many layers you want.  Do not forget to sprinkle each layer of the cake with such as milk, juice or pineapple juice, if not you get to eat a very dry cake.

Remember the double portion to have double cake!

This is just a basic recipe to use with many kinds of decoration. You can also vary filling if you want; different kinds of jam, vanilla cream, chocolate pastry puff or anything else you might want and like.

There are a number of different shaped cake pans to buy. If you don't have the one you need you can cut out the shape you want with a knife.

Want some more inspiration? Take a look at: 

Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan


The Love Goddess' Cooking School

Basic nut sponge for cakes and dessert.

Recipe basic nut sponge:

 300 grams powdered sugar/ icing sugar

 4 eggs

300 grams chopped nuts or almonds

1 dl wheat flour

 2 teaspoons baking powder

Put sugar and egg into a mixer bowl. Whip for several minutes to make a stiff mass. Add carefully the rest of the ingredients with a hand spatula. Spray the cake pan before you add cake into it. Put the cake pan in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees. Cooking time may vary depending on the individual oven function.

Want some more inspiration? Take a look at:
Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan

Cream cake with strawberries.



Cream cake with strawberries



There are countless varieties of cream cakes. It doesn't take so long to make, especially if you buy the sponge at the storeJ

If you have the time to make the sponge yourself, the recipe is here.

Cut the sponge in three layers. Do not forget to sprinkle each layer of the cake with such as milk, juice or pineapple juice, if not you get to eat a very dry cake.

Mix vanilla cream with whipped cream and put this on each layers. Add slices of strawberry. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate. Put the layers on top of each other. Cover the cake with whipped cream. Ready to decorate!

Wilton Decorating Basics Lesson Plan

Renovating bathroom part 1 – Jacuzzi.

I have asked santa for a new bathroom for years. Finally he listened to me. Well, maybe it was not quite like that. We had to do all the work ourselves, but I am still very happy. It was fun and we learned a lot. My husband does not agree on the fun part….

Part one is of the corner with Jacuzzi. Later parts will show toilet, shower and furniture.

We covered the walls with respatex wall panels. These products are designed and manufactured in Norway. They have many designs to choose. You can see the gallery at Byggma Group. They also have instructions for download. We decided to use two different designs. The decorative panels provide instant waterproof, hygienic walls. It is important to follow the instructions. You don`t want a bathroom that are not waterproofJ

The floor is covered with bathroom tiles. Under we have membran, but you need to check with professionals to make sure you do everything buy the book.

Authorities where you live may have laid down special rules for renovation of rooms that needs to be waterproof.

Our bathroom was so small that we had to move one of the walls to make it bigger. Before moving the wall our bathroom was about the size of the Jacuzzi. So I am very satisfied with our new and much bigger bathroom.

When I said that we did the work ourselves that was just partly the truth. We did of course hire a plumber and an electrician to do the work we are refused to do by law. If not there might be major problems later if something happens and we need to use the insurance.

The second picture shows under floor heating. This was tested by an electrician before we covered it all with concrete. It would have been the most boring and expensive thing to find out that something was wrong with the under floor heating after the concrete was filled on top! So I strongly recommend testing this at first.



Before! The old bathroom were placed in the area with the blue wallpaper. The new bathroom includes all what you can see:)

Floor heating ready to be covered with concrete.

Testing tiles

Finished! YES!



Need help? Take a look at:

What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating

Sioux City, a great experience for both children and adults in the Canary Island.



Sioux City is a beautiful attraction.



If you plan to take a holiday in the Canary Island, you must go to look at the attraction Sioux City! Sioux City is made up as an old village, almost as brought out from a cowboy movie. It was due to making a movie the village was built, but now they use it as a tourist attraction where you can watch different shows throughout the day. These shows take place both indoor and outdoor. It is possible to go into several of the buildings where they have a variety of exciting exhibits, and a variety of reptiles behind glass. A souvenir shop is natural at such a place, and we could not avoid buying cowboy-equipment for our boy. This is a vacation memory he is going to enjoy for many years. As we travelled with children we decided to go on the day-show. If you travel without children I would recommend the evening show with barbeque and drinks included. I can vividly imagine that there is a special atmosphere in Sioux City during the night!

Dressing for sallad, meat and other dishes.

Dressing can certainly be made in a variety of flavors, but the recipe is here for those who put their soul into serving home-cooked food.

Recipe:
250 g mayonnaise
2.5 dl sour cream
1 dl ketchup
1 teaspoon lake of pickles or lemon juice
1 teaspoon paprika powder
Tabasco-careful!
Worchestersaus
Some sugar

Dressing can of course be varied with different spices sort. Ketchup can be dropped in favor of garlic and herbs, slightly depending on whether you are going to serve a salad or perhaps use it for a meat dish. Find your way!

For more inspiration and tips, you can take a look at George Geary`s book:

500 Best Sauces, Salad Dressings, Marinades and More

Decorate for baptism.

My youngest son celebrated his baptism this year. Or it may be more correct to say that we celebrated his baptism, since he was only two months old:)

Before the baptism I tried different ways to decorate the tables. Below you can take a look at some suggestions.

Suggestion on how to decorate a cake for baptism you can find here.

Colored sand, dried roses and butterfly.

Wedding cake

My brother-in-law just got married this summer. As we normally do her in Norway, a lot of the female guests are asked to bring a cake for the wedding.

Two hearts are carved out of sponge, filled with raspberry jam, whipped cream and chopped walnuts. In the absence of white marzipan I used premade. Not the most beautiful color, but it had to work. If you have only short time to work with the project, you can do the same as me: Buy a sponge at the store. Normally I use this basic recipe to make a sponge.

Decorating is made out of marzipan and icing. Recipe for icing is below the pictures. The bridge of the icing was created a few days before the wedding so that there would be sufficiently dried. Pattern was drawn on transparent baking paper and added over a rolling pin to get the buoy. With short of time you are not supposed to study the details so closely, but it's amazing what can be hidden behind a little icing, and other decorations:)

 

Recipe for icing:
2 egg whites
400 grams icing sugar
Lemon drops

Put all ingredients into the mixing bowl. Stir for about 15 minutes. This gives a very stiff and white mass. Make sure to put plastic over the icing if you are not using it right away, it becomes pretty quickly a hard crust on it. If you're going to color the icing or the marzipan, it is recommended to use Wilton icing color. Put the icing in a decorating bag with the tip you want, and drop your imagination loose!

There are a number of different shaped cake pans to buy. If you don't have the one you need you can cut out the shape you want with a knife.

Cool off the cake before you cut it in parts for as many layers you want.  Do not forget to sprinkle each layer of the cake with such as milk, juice or pineapple juice, if not you get to eat a very dry cake.

Remember the double portion to have double cake!

This is just a basic recipe to use with many kinds of decoration. You can also vary filling if you want; different kinds of jam, vanilla cream, chocolate pastry puff or anything else you might want and like.

Want some more inspiration? Take a look at:

What Your Contractor Can't Tell You: The Essential Guide to Building and Renovating