Champagne and Sweets for New Years Eve

It's time to start preparing the New Years menu...and there is so much to choose from!! Since this blog is all about sweet stuff I thought you could use some inspiration on what to make for dessert.

Why not try this amazing Ferrero Rocher for New Years Milk Chocolate Cake with Hazelnuts from the blog Creative Culinary. Who doesn't love Ferrero Rocher?!

Healthy Butter-Milk Loaf with Nuts and Lingonberries

After all our Christmas food, cakes, cookies, chocolates and candy it's time for some healthy bread baking. Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you off, despite the many ingredients it's not difficult to make. It's also easy to add or remove spices, nuts, dried fruits and berries to make it suit your personal taste.

Christmas YOGA

While on holiday why not try Yoga?! I do it once a week and it's great when you are stressed or starting to feel a bit stiff in your muscles. It definitely helps you relax. For the holidays I highly recommend the Savasana exercise, as pictured above!:-)

Johanna  ♥

Lovely Soft Gingerbread Cake

OMG! You have to try this one! It's juicy, it's christmassy, it's soft, it's just lovely! I got this recipe from my boyfriend's mom, who in return got it from her husband's grandmother....so you could say the recipe is well tried in other words. And still does the trick! :-)

Crispbread a Swedish Classic

I found a recipe for crispbreads in a magazine and it sounded quite simple to make, so I thought I try and see for myself. In my family we eat a lot of crispbreads, as a snack or as a compliment for dinner. We always buy it at the supermarket, but since everything else homemade tastes much better than store bought, these should to?!

It wasn't that difficult, but since I decided to use gingerbread moulds it took a while. But it was worth it, they are so much prettier than just breaking them into pieces. For this recipe I used traditional bread spices such as fennel and caraway, but why not try to bake it with cinnamon to make it a more christmassy bread. The possibilities are endless:-)

All In...Christmas Chocolate

Chocolate is a favourite amongst many...including me...and homemade chocolate candy is perfect as DIY gifts for Christmas or as a treat for yourself! :-) I know I've already made chocolate, but it's impossible to make too much! This time the flavours are; Ginger and Hazelnut/Peach/Coffee.

With these chocolate treats I will also join "The Sweet of the month" or as it's called in Swedish "Månadens Sötsak". Every month Söta Saker has a challenge, where she challenges bloggers to bake something related to the challenge of the month. This month she challenges us to go "all in".

Gingerbread Flavoured Christmas Inspiration

Finally Friday! It really is time to go Christmas shopping, baking, preparing all the foods and making some yummie Christmas candy, this last weekend before Christmas. I hope you've have time for some relaxing as well?! Christmas is supposed to be a joyful time of year, but it seems like people are getting more stressed for every year. It's really no big deal if you don't make all your food, cakes, cookies, Christmas candy by yourself or have a perfectly cleaned house. It's more important to enjoy yourself and spend some extra time with your friends and family!

Here are some inspirational links for the weekend!

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon from Melissa's Munches. They are so cute, it's ALMOST a shame to eat them...!

Chocolate with Gingerbread Crumble

If you like chocolate and you like gingerbread cookies why not mix them?! I bought this kind of chocolate treat a few years ago at a Christmas Fair and fell deeply in love! I do not know how exactly theirs were made, however this is my recipe and it works for me. I hope you'll like them!

OMG!! The cutest Gingerbread Houses!!

You absolutely must check out these amazing and super cute gingerbread houses! I've never seen anything like it! The blogger is Sweetopia and her website is amazing with lots of tutorials, recipes and amazing pics.

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Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread biscuits is a must this time of year. It's hard to say no to these cute looking crunchy cookies..and they are best served with a big glass of cold milk. I know, milk and cookies are for children, but I can't help it, the combination is just unbeatable!

A different kind of Apple Cake

Thanks brother!! It's thanks to my older brother that I've baked this cake. It's somewhat different from other apple  cakes I have baked or eaten, and it must be one of the juiciest ones too. I truly understand why it's his favourite!

Swedish Chocolate Balls

This is a classic Swedish recipe and a favourite amongst many. It's one of the first things children learn to make and it's very popular at kids parties. However, you can find these chocolate balls at every café in Sweden. The traditional name for this ball is negerboll (negroball), however since that is a very offensive name, the name has changed to chocolate balls. To read more click here.

They are very easy to bake since they don't require any cooking or baking. Making a treat for yourself can't get much easier than this!

Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

These cookies are absolutely delicious! They are a favourite of mine and also very easy to make. My grandmother used to bake them when I was a little girl, so always when I eat these I think of her. They are perfect to have at hand in the freezer. I made mine with raspberry jam, but of course you can use any jam you like.

Christmas Fair

I LOVE going to Christmas Fairs! I always try to go to at least one before Christmas since it gets me into the Christmas mood straight away and it's such a wonderful feeling. This weekend I went with a very good friend of mine to Skansen which was founded in 1891 and was the first open-air museum. It exhibits historical buildings, gardens, animal enclosures, festivities, folk music and living crafts. The surroundings make it a great place for a Christmas Fair!

Sticky Toffee Cookies

These Toffee Cookies are irresistible! And the best thing is that they are super easy and quick to make and you do not need a lot of ingredients either. It takes less than 30 minutes, so they are perfect to bake when you have guests and nothing prepared. Or if you just want a treat for yourself:-).

Inspirational pics from food mecca London...

I had a such a great time in London! It was a lot of fun to meet my friends from University again, and to be in a city I love. Even if I haven't seen some of them since last year, it only felt like yesterday, but I hope it wont be too long until I see them again. The weather was nice too...yes actually...much better than Stockholm at least. Sunny days, lots of yummi foods and cakes, Starbucks coffee, strolls in Kensington gardens and Hyde Park, Borough Market and Portobello Market. What else can a girl want?!

Quote of the Week!

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" - Albert Einstein


It may not be easy to relate to above quote when something negative happens in your life, but I agree with one of the smartest man ever lived :-) Sometimes you need a kick in the but! When bad things happens, it's a great opportunity to evalutae your life and yourself and hopefully the negative thing that happened might end up being the best thing that could ever happen to you....


    
    

  Johanna  ♥

I Totally Agree!

This is a true saying for a sweettooth like me and many of you!



     

    Johanna  ♥

I'm going to London!

This weekend I will go to London with my boyfriend for a reunion with some of my friends from university. Some of us will fly in from different cities in Europe and some are living in London. I'm really looking forward to see them all again, even though I was in London just a few weeks back and met some of them:-). I really love London, it's an amazing city!!

I'd love to go to the Borough Market while in London, they have a large number of foods stalls with everything you can imagine...and a little bit more. It's a paradise for a foodie like me! :-)

Christmas is apporaching!

I love Christmas! I love everything about Christmas, the decorations, the Christmas carols, the food and desserts..of course, but most of all I love that it's the time of year when we spend a lot of time with friends and family. This weekend me and my mom went to my grandmothers to bake "Lussekatter". It's a saffron bun which is strongly associated with Christmas in Sweden. We bake and eat it during the entire month of December and since it's December very soon, I thought it's about time to get started with the Christmas preparations.

The saffron gives the bun this beautiful yellow colour.

Chocolate and Cardamom Cupcakes

It's getting colder and colder here in Sweden, even if the weather is still unusually warm for the time of year with temperatures around 7 degrees Celsius, it still feels cold..and soon the snow will probably start to fall...and on top of it all, it gets dark already around 4-5pm! Don't get me wrong I actually love wintertime, and it's amazingly beautiful on a sunny winter day with the sparkling white snow. One of the best things to do on a winterday like that, is to dress warm and go out for a long walk on the countryside and afterwards stay at a cozy café for a "fika". You out there who are not Swedish may not be familiar with the "fika" culture we have in Sweden. Basically it means to have a coffee/tea/hot chocolate/cold drink-break with something sweet to eat, or sometimes a sandwich. So, even if I do like wintertime and especially Christmas, I must confess that I do miss Singapore...with its warm and sunny weather:-).

Petite Cinnamon and Berry Tartelettes

I had planned to bake something with blueberries since it's a favourite, and it goes very well with basically everything sweet you'd like to bake... at least in my opinion. But then I remembered this little recipe. I baked these tartelettes earlier this fall when I was in northern Sweden on a holiday for a couple of days and I had lots of freshly picked lingonberries. Cinnamon and lingonberries goes very well together and feels a bit autumn like….so blueberries have to wait until another day...

But of course you can bake these tartelettes and fill them with whatever you prefer; berries, apples, pears or your favourite jam. These tartelettes are really easy to bake and it's also easy to change the recipe to suit your own tastebuds. Like switch from cinnamon to cardamom or vanilla and use the topping of your preference. I filled my tartelettes with both lingonberries and raspberries this time.

Hellooooo, is there anybody out there...?!

So you've found my blog!

I'm just getting started, but I hope you'll find what I have on my site so far, interesting and that you'll continue to follow my blog and my adventures in the kitchen and in life.  

My great passion in life is everything involving sweets and food. I like to read about tasty recipes in magazines and blogs, I like to watch food and dessert shows on TV, but most of all, I love to eat the tasty sweets I bake myself. When I've baked something truly delicious, and I've had my very first bite of my creation, I have this stupid but yet very, very satisfied smile on my face!

My boyfriend loves my cooking and baking, but honestly gets a bit bored, when I yet again am overly excited of some new recipe I found and want to discuss the delicious little treat in detail...and that's why I thought I'd start this blog. It's better and more rewarding for me to share my interest with others, who have the same passion for delicious desserts as me. I will also write about other things I find interesting, such as travelling, healthy lifestyle and whatever that crosses my mind.

I will make my next update as soon as I find the perfect recipe to share with you. I want it to be something special and it will probably include blueberries as it is a favourite berry of mine. It's delicious in its taste, it's perfect for baking with its heavenly blue colours and it's considered to be a super berry with great nutritional benefits. Ok...I used the word "nutritional" ingredient in the same sentence as baking, but don't worry, my recipes will not include any skinny muffin, low fat, no sugar desserts. If I eat desserts, it needs to be the real, fully flavoured, sweet and buttery thing, without artificial and strange substances. I rather eat a real choklate cake with lots of calories that tastes amazing instead of a sugare and fat free muffin that tastes of nothing. The latter is not worth the calories in my opinion...

Thanks for popping by and I hope you'll continue to follow my blog!

   Johanna ♥