Japanese Gifts

Thank you, Yoko! I love to get gift boxes from my friends, especially from far away... My friend Yoko sent me some Japanese sweets, a little pouch, and a postcard from Kyoto.

 

I use the pouch for my external hard drive now. It's so cute!

Do you remember my green tea posts? I love green tea matcha latte products from Japan. Taiwan has some products as well but they don't taste quite as good. Now, Yoko sent me these matcha latte langues du chat.

 

She also gave me these cute looking candy. I was a little afraid to eat them because I wasn't sure, if it was indeed candy. I've seen some soap shaped as pralines some weeks ago... Also it's quite a shame to eat anything that looks so adorable...

 

I liked the green tea langues du chat a lot better ^.^ I'm such a fan of green tea products.

 

Recipe: Donauwelle Cupcake Version

Since my apartment doesn't have an oven and it's quite small, I bought a microwave-oven combination to save some space. Unfortunately, I can't bake any cakes anymore because the center won't become solid, while I have to be really careful with the top because it can burn easily. It's a mess!

Well, but I still like baking, so I switched to making muffins and cupcakes instead. This is how I make Donauwelle, a very famous German cake, as cupcake version.

Ingredients for the dough

• 150g of butter
• 150g of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g of flour
• 1/2 pck of baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1-2 tbsp cocoa
• 2/3 glass of morello cherries

Ingredients for the Buttercream

• 400g of sweetened condensed milk
• 250g of butter

200g of chocolate coating

 

Instructions

1. Stir the butter and sugar until it's foamy.
2. Add one egg after the other.
3. Mix the baking soda, the flour, and the salt.
4. Add it to the dough. Stir everything.
5. Divide the dough into two parts.
6. Add the cocoa to one part.
7. Drain the cherries.
8. Make the buttercream by mixing the sweetened condensed milk and the butter.
9. For each cupcake, add 1 tbsp of dark dough to your muffin cup, then 1 tbsp of light dough, and some cherries (about 5).
10. Bake them in your oven. 30min on 175°C. For my microwave-oven combination it takes 2x20 min on 150°C but it should be a lot faster in a normal oven. The second time it goes inside, I need to cover it up with aluminum foil.
11. Let your cupcakes cool down before the next step.
12. Pipe your buttercream with a pastry bag on top of the cupcake. If you can, you could form roses, but I'm not gifted enough...
13. When you're done with the buttercream, melt the chocolate coating in a water bath.
14. Coat each cupcake with 1 tbsp of chocolate.

Hope you like my cupcake version of the famous Donauwelle!

 

Great surprise this morning

A huge surprise waited for me this morning at 7 am. The postman somehow ended up playing hide and seek because he went to all the other floors except mine. In the end, he gave up and ringed my bell to tell me to get it myself... He was obviously upset and I didn't tell him that he could see from the arrangement of name tags and bells on which floor the people live.maybe next time.

My sweet friend M. sent me this as graduation gifts from Japan. Thank you so so much, my love.

Very cute lavender slippers and greentea cookies from Mochez (<< click >>). I love everything made of greentea... It's so delicious and I tell myself it's healthier than usual sweets. Japanese always put so much thoughts and work into everything. You have to love them ^.^

I will wear the slippers whenever I travel. The most amazing thing is that they fit perfectly.how do you know my size? Simply wonderful.

 

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Recipe: Strawberry Buttercream (Cup-)Cake

It's my favorite season of the year - it's strawberry time ˆ.ˆ

I'm going to show you my favorite new recipe - it's universal because it can be used to make little cupcakes / muffins or cakes. I also love buttercream, when it's homemade. I don't know what it is but I did not like any of those cakes in the US that were bought in the store instead of selfmade - I think it might be the shortening instead of real whipped cream or butter.

Doesn't this just look amazing? Hmm, yumyum... I made one round cake (28cm diameter), one squared (small IKEA baking pan) and four little cupcakes because the cakes had to serve different purposes (phd graduation of a friend, birthday of a friend and for my boyfriend and me).

There are different ways to make buttercream. I tried out butter and vanilla pudding which is not bad either but I like this version better - the sweetened condensed milk is like dulce de leche, especially after mixing it with butter.

So lets move on...

Ingredients for the above mentioned amount. If you take one cup instead of 1.5 cups, it will be enough for one baking tray.

• Dough
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 cup oil
• 1 pck vanilla sugar
• 1 pck baking powder
• 3 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• Optional: 3tbsp cocoa
• Buttercream
• 250g butter (unsalted)
• 400g sweetened condensed milk
• Topping
• 1kg strawberries
• 2 pck red glaze (Tortenguss)

Instructions

• Mix all ingredients for the dough and fill it in your desired baking tray. I usually put baking paper underneath instead of grease.
• Put it in the oven (medium tray, air circulation) at 175ºC for 40min.
• Meanwhile make the buttercream by mixing butter and sweetened condensed milk and keep it in the fridge.
• Wash the strawberries and cut them into smaller pieces.
• When the dough is done, let it cool down completely before you continue to spread the buttercream on top because otherwise the buttercream will melt...
• Spread Strawberries on top.
• Prepare the red glaze as instructed on the pack and pour it on the strawberries.

Enjoy!