Danish Almond Layer Cake

 This layer cake is made of all my favorite things and it tastes like heaven. I made it the other day when visiting my grandmother and thought I would share one of her wonderful recipes.


Nutty Buns

4 eggs
175 g sugar
1 t vanilla sugar
100 g almond flour
60 g flour
100 g butter
1 t baking powder
1 T lemon zest
50 g of chopped almonds
50 g marzipan

Whip eggs and sugar fluffy. Add almond flour, grated marzipan and lemon zest. Melt the butter and add it to the eggs. Add flour and baking powder. Divide between 2 cake forms. bake at 200C for 7-10 min. Or until light golden.
Filling

Chocolate cream filling
20 g of chocolate
1 cup of cream

Melt the chocolate and the cream in a pot. Let it cool down completely before you whip it.

Raspberry cream filling
1/2 cup of Raspberries
1 cup of cream

Whip the cream. Mash the raspberries with a fork and add to the whipped cream.

One layer of each filling between the almond buns is my favorite!

Puffy Darts

Yes! I finally made my own skirt (with clear instructions from my mother) and some additions here and there. Nothing much yet, but it's a start to my new sewing career - JK;-). It was a very basic skirt with an invisible zipper. I added some puffy darts front and back and a waist band, which was not originally a part of the pattern. The fabric, I got from the Cloth House on Berwick Street in London. Berwick street has lots of great fabric boutiques, but they are semi pricey. Goldhawk Road is another great street in London that is loaded with fabric shops and generally more price friendly than Berwick Street. If it wasn't for my upcoming travels to China, I probably would have bought a whole suitcase full of silks and chiffons!

Big Perfect Donut Bun

Some say that you can use a cut off sock to wrap your hair around for a perfect voluminous bun, but I think this spongy scrunchie thingy is much better. I got it on my trip to London for just £1. Wrap the hair around the scrunchie and pin it. I left out a section of hair and fish bone braided it to hide all the pins.

Chicago

Sorry about poor updating the entire month of July. I haven't been very creative, but been busy traveling and preparing for my Beijing internship. Here are a few pics from Chicago in July. We stayed in the Wicker Park area, which is a great area to stay in - lots of great restaurants and shops and just a few stops from downtown. And then of course a must when your are in Chicago, ended the trip with a true Chicago style deep dish pizza.

Visitor

Picked my brother up in the airport yesterday and went to Fogo de Chao for dinner. Probably the best meat buffet I have ever had..

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I saw these yummy cinnamon roll inspired pancakes on pinterest and just had to make them! Plus it's Sunday, so very suitable :-)


Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Recipe adapted from: life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com  (which has a ton of great recipes btw)

For Pancakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten


Cinnamon Filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon


Prepare Cinnamon Filling first: In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. (You want this to rest and 'set up' while your preparing the other ingredients. Its best if it gets a little thicker, you dont want it liquidy)

Prepare Pancake batter:  In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg just until batter is moistened. 

Twister Updo

 

 

It has been a while since I've posted a hairstyle and think it's time for another one. I did this messy twister up-do for a little date night with my hubby.

4th Of July

Silver Gemstone Necklace

I saw these origami gemstones on http://www.minieco.co.uk/paper-gems/ which inspired me to make this necklace

Hollow constructed Sterling silver and sterling silver plated with custom paperclip hinge.

.

 

I constructed these silver gemstones out of sheet metal, hollow and light to wear. Then scored them, folded them and soldered the seems together pretty much using the same idea as when you work with paper - just a little harder.

My class just finished and I already sold one of my pieces (not pictured) It was a smaller and single silver gemstone in a necklace. Pretty exciting :-)  Happy 4th of July \!!/

My First Casting

Final finish of the earrings - Sand blasted Sterling Silver cast and freshwater pearls

Wax model

Plaster mold with liquid metal

Raw Casting with stem and spruces.

French Macaroons, yes please..

Since last summer, where Jeremy and I traveled around in Europe, I've been craving these french delicacies. They are quite time consuming but so worth it when you get to enjoy the treats after your hard work. I made 5 flavors of macaroons; vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, strawberry and blueberry using the real deal for flavor and a little food color for appearance.

I started out by making the basic recipe and divided it up into five bowls where I added the different flavors and colors.

Basic Macaroon Recipe

300 g of almond flour
480 g powdered sugar
200 g egg whites (about 6)

Mix the almond flour and the sugar. Beat the egg white until they form stiff peaks. Add the egg whites to the almond mixture and beat all air out the mixture.

After dividing the portion into 5...

Macaroon Variations

Vanilla macaroon - add 1-2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar. No food coloring.
Chocolate macaroon - add 1 tablespoon dutch process cocoa. No food coloring.
Pistachio macaroon - add 1 dl of ground pistachio nuts. Add a little green food coloring.
Strawberry macaroon - add 2-3 strawberries (pureed in a blender) also add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little red food coloring.
Blueberry macaroon - add 2-3 tablespoon of pureed blueberry. Also, add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little blue food coloring.

Set the oven to 140 C or 275 F.

Add the mixtures to different decorating bags with a decent size tip. Make very small macaroons on the parchment paper with good spacing- they will get larger. Then let the macaroons "dry" for about 20 minutes before you put them in the oven. This is very important ( I messed up on this on the first round), they crack, they don't raise and they just don't look very good. Then place the macaroons in the oven for 10-12 minutes depending on how large they are.

Macaroon filling

2 egg whites
1 dl sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1 dl of soft butter (unsalted)

Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and whisk on high speed until mixture is cool and stiff peaks form, about 6 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Beat the butter and add to the meringue mixture. 

Filling variations

Vanilla - as is. ( I added a little more vanilla though  :-)
Chocolate - add 1 Tablespoon Dutch Process cocoa
Pistachio - add 2-3 Tablespoon fine chopped pistachio nuts
Strawberry - add 2 Tablespoon strawberry puree
Blueberry - add 2 Tablespoon blueberry puree

Mix and match the macaroons and fillings for fun variations. Happy macaroonie day!

Wells Park

This weekend and week has been pretty busy with guests most of the weekend and finishing my final jewelry piece for tomorrow. Can't believe it's already been four weeks. These pictures are taken in Wells park Overlook about a 10 min. drive south of Lawrence. The First picture has little Lawrence in the background. There is only about 3 1/2 weeks until I'll be leaving Kansas for new adventures. Can't wait!

Pesto Farfalle with Andouille Sausage

Made this easy but yummy pasta recipe the other day and thought I would share.

Recipe:

3/4 pound of pasta
12 oz of frozen peas
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound Andouille sausage

Pesto:
1 Handful basil
1 Handful arugula 
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoon of pasta water
2 Tablespoon pine nuts
1 garlic clove
Tiny squeeze of lemon
Salt and Pepper

Cook the the pasta, adding the frozen peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Meanwhile, cut the Andouille sausage into thin slices and heat in skillet. Mix all the ingredients for the pesto in a food processor until its creamy. Cool the pasta and the peas and add the meat and the pesto. Enjoy!

Opskrift:

750 g Pasta
350 frosne aerter
1 Spsk. Oliven Olie
500 g Andoiulle polse

Pesto:
1 handfuld basilikum
1 handfuld rucola
2 Spsk. Oliven olie
2 Spsk. pasta vand
2 Spsk. pinje kerner
1 fed hvidlog
1 lille tsk. citron
Salt og peber

Kog pastaen og tilsaet de frosne aerter 3 min. inden pastaen er faerdig. Imens, skaer Andouille poelsen i tynde skiver og steg paa panden. Bland alle ingredienser til pestoen i en food processor. Koel pastaen og tilsaet Andouille poelserne og pestoen.

DIY - Leather Scarf

I finally finished my deerskin lace scarf. To make it more fluffy and give it structure and volume, I used a patent knitting pattern - (I'm actually not sure what the correct name is in English - patent is the Danish name:-)   The amount of masks must be divisible by 3 - I used 30 stitches with size 15 (10mm) needles. Start with knitting two together. Create one mask and lift one over. Repeat. You should always be starting a row knitting two together and finishing with lifting one mask over.

Irregular Sterling Silver Pentagon Rings

This week we've been learning different methods of setting stones, how to texture metal and create different patinas. I made these rings from sterling silver sheet metal. One of them is polished on the outside and brushed on the inside. The other one is made by reticulation, which means to heat up the metal with a torch so hot that it almost melts but only starts wrinkling or distorting. Tomorrow I'll be going to a gemstone show in KC. I'm really excited to start adding stones to the metal.

Crabcakes

  

Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner. We made these delicious crabcakes, roasted potatoes and vegetables.

 Crabcake Recipe

2 Cans of crabmeat

1 Egg

1 Cup of chopped cilantro

Chopped green onions

2 Tablespoon flour

2 Tablespoon breadcrumbs

1 Teaspoon chili powder

1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 Teaspoon salt

Krabbekager Opskrift

2 Daser krabbe kod

1 aeg

1 handfuld cilantro

Finthakket forarslog

2 Spsk. mel

2 Spsk. rasp

1 Tsk. Chili

1 Tsk. Cayenne peber

1 Tsk. salt

Mix all ingredients well then form little cakes. Fry on a pan with generous oil.

 

 

Hammered Brass Gold-plated Bracelet

Our first jewelry project was due today ( the other one was just for fun or because I wanted a bangle:-). The "Gypsy" piece is what our professor called it. There wasn't really a design strategy or an idea from the beginning, just start hammering, rolling and soldering. I started with a foot of 16 gauge round brass wire, hammered like crazy, annealed, soldered, sanded and polished and ended up with this leafy shaped bracelet. Gold-plated it. Finally getting excited about metal work!

Formal Topsytail

This formal hairstyle takes about 5 min. and is extremely easy to make. It's basically a triple topsy tail pinned in a bun.

Early Birthday Present

Yay! Early birthday present from my hubby. Already got some fabric and started my next project. Probably a dress or a skirt- I haven't quite decided yet.

Jewelry Class

I started my jewelry class this week. Things were kind of slow in the beginning getting to know all the tools and techniques, but I finally made something; A ring and a bracelet out of Sterling silver wire. Brushed on the sides and polished on the outside and inside. I also got to stamp it Sterling. Pretty simple for now, but I'm working on it;-)

Audi R8 Model

This Audi R8 was a group project from last year studying a monocoque frame system. The model is made with basswood and acrylic and has a select pine base with a fluorescent tube light that lights up the acrylic etched drawing.