fredag 26. august 2011

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. 


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

onsdag 17. august 2011

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

tirsdag 16. august 2011

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

mandag 15. august 2011

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