the nicest things about these holidays – apart from having my family here and eating all day:) – is that I finally have some time time to just hang around, watching movies (“In search of a midnight kiss” is amazing), rummaging in Flickr and my favourite blogs and trying out my new camera tripod…
Here are some pictures of my home sweet home

 

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I hope you all had a great christmas! I had my family in Barcelona and had an amazing and funny time, still have muscle ache from laughing all these days…
We had some red wine left and my brother and I decided to try some muffins with it, reminding us of the “Glühwein” – the spiced red wine we used to drink in Germany in the winter holidays

happy holidays

Red Wine Muffins
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Ingredients for 12 muffins:
*175 g flour
*1 Tablespoon baking powder
*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*1 teaspoon cocoa powder
*2 eggs
*60g dark chocolate, grated
*125g butter, melted
*125g sugar
*1 cup red wine
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Warm the oven @ 200ºC
Place muffin paper cups in a muffin pan (12 units)
In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon and grated chocolate.
In another bowl beat the eggs until fluffy and stir in the butter and sugar – mix until well combined.
Then add the liquid mixture bit by bit to the dry mixture and mix well, then add the red wine.
Pour into the muffin pan and bake for 20 min

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I found an amazing japanese pastry shop in Barcelona! The japanese confectioner Takashi Ochiai came to Barcelona in the 80’s to learn about catalan pastries and opened OCHIAI, which sells incredible traditional japanese and catalan sweet treats As I am addicted to green tea I had to give it a try and made these yummy white chocolate green tea pralines. So easy to make and a really cute gift….

Green tea pralines
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You need a silicon chocolate mold with 15 units

Ingredients:
*200g white chocolate
*2 teaspoons of Matcha green tea powder
*1 tablespoon cream

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Break 3/4 of the chocolate in pieces and warm slowly in a double pot boiler (Bain-marie) @ approx 50ºC until completely melted. Be careful not to heat too much, otherwise the white chocolate can get crumby.
Fill half of the fluid chocolate in the silicone mould.
Then stir the matcha green tea and the cream into the fluid chocolate, stir until well combined and fill in the mould on top of the white chocolate. Break the remaining 1/4 chocolate in pieces and let melt. Then fill in the silicon mould on top of the green tea chocolate. Put in the fridge and let cool for 2 hours…

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I am sick at home – can’t even think of working or baking :( So I guess it’s finally time to present you my new Blythe I have to get a mohair barette and gloves for here – maybe I should start to hand knit again…? Sigh…So many projects – so little time:)

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This is a cheer-up-your-day-muffin – after a far too short weekend again. I guess my friend Astrid is right – Marzipan has a therapeutic effect on women, although I only started to like it some years ago. Today I forgot all technical sketches, sweater measurements, trend for winter 2010 and buying meetings after coming home and eating one of these….

Raspberry Marzipan Muffins
( adapted from Anne’s Food)
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Ingredients for 12-14 Muffins

*300g flour
*175g brown sugar
*2 Tsps baking powder
*1/2 Tsps salt
*1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1 egg, beaten
*250ml soymilk (or cow’s milk)
*150ml melted buttter

Filling:

*4-6 Tbsps raspberry jam
*180g marzipan raw mixture

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Preheat the oven@ 190ºC
Roll the marzipan and cut into 24-28 equal pieces and roll to a flat circle; add a small amount of raspberry jam on top it and cover with the other half.

In a bowl mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
In another bowl mix the egg, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract until well combined. Then add the dry ingredients but by bit and stir well.

Add half of the dough into a muffin papers in a muffin pan. Place the marzipan and cover with the other half of dough.
Bake for 20 min and enjoy

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It’s freezing cold and getting really christmasy here in Barcelona… Honestly I’ve never been into christmas traditions and I’ve never been a big fan of christmas decorations, trees, presents, snow etc. But after 6 years out of Germany I have to say I am starting to appreciate it more and more and we’ll actually celebrate christmas this year!!! – of course in my own way:) Here are the first cookies I made with caramel and had together with a nice cup of Glühwein…

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Another stroke of genius of Tim Walker  – in the Vogue UK december issue. I cannot help but looking at it again and again…

 

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I am back home from my Asia trip, feeling exhausted from too many incredible impressions and wondering why people here are so rude in comparison to Japan:( However can’t wait to make cookies with my new bunny cookie cutters from Tokyo… Here are some more impressions of the city of my dreams

 

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I am in wonderland…! Here are the first pictures from Tokyo – you see the comments if you click through the pictures. I Tokyo

 

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I am on a work trip to Asia and sadly didn’t have time to see much of amazing Hong Kong and Shanghai:(
Just to let you know I am alive and that I won’t post any new recipes until next weekend. Tomorrow I am off to Tokyo – can’t wait to show you pictures of my favourite places there…besos

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