Recipe: Ferrero Rocher Cake

Ingredients:

200 grams of fine ground hazelnuts
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of baking powder
2 table spoons floor
3 tablespoons caster sugar
5 eggs

Chocolate Cream:

3 tablespoons of Nutella
A few waffle cookies
200 grams of dark choclate
200 grams of butter
Ferrero Rocher chocolates

1. Sift the flour and cocoa powder in a bowl and add ground hazelnuts and baking powder. Put in another bowl, combine the eggs and sugar and beat it until a thick, frothy mass is obtained. Fold in the flour mixture gently by. Grease a 20cm cake tin with butter and top the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.

2. Fill the tin and put the form in the middle of the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. When the cake is baked, let it cool down for a while.

3. Now you can make the chocolate cream. Melt the chocolate au bain marie. Break the waffle biscuits into small pieces and set aside. Mix the butter until creamy and mix nutella and melted chocolate through. Add the waffles. Cut the cake horizontally through the middle. Spread the inside with chocolate cream. Coat the cake with remaining chocolate cream.

4. Sprinkle the top with coarsely chopped hazelnuts and decorate cake with Ferrero Rocher chocolates!

Recipe: Raffaello Cake

Ingredients:

5 eggs
180 g cake flour
150 g sugar
7 g vanilla sugar
Coconut flakes
400 g white chocolate spread
Two coffeepoons baking powder
500 ml unbeaten whipped cream
Raffaello chocolates and strawberries as decoration

1. Beat the sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs in a bowl, until it gets really creamy. Do this for 10 minutes. Add the flour and baking powder. Pour the mix in a greased cake tin and put the tin in the oven for 30 minutes (180 degrees).

2. Beat the whipped cream with two tablespoons of sugar and also add two tablespoons of coconut flakes. Put the cream in the fridge to keep it cool. Melt the white cholate spread (au bain marie). When the cake is baked (use a toothpick to insert the center to check if it comes out clean), turn the cake out onto cooling racks to cool.

3. Cut the cake in two or three layers. Spread the the first layer first with the melted white chocholate, then the whipped cream. Put the second layer on top and keep spreading.

4. When the layers are covered, spread the whole surface of the cake with the melted white chocolate. Add the coconut flakes on the cake. Decorate your cake with the Raffaello choclates and strawberries.

Enjoy!

Nailart: Glitter & Jewels

This easy nail tutorial glams up your nails instantly! All you need is a nice pastel colored nail polish and a glitter nail polish. First, paint two pastel layers on the top of half of your nails. Then paint the glitter coat on but paint two-third of the nail. Do this again but then take the top of half of your nail. At last, put one-third of the glitter coat on top. You will create this blending effect with every kind of glitter nail polish. Tip: Change the lilac color and take a nude base with silver glitters for a more subtile and romantic look!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this easy tutorial and give it a try!

New York: Bodhi Tree

Located in Central Village Noho is a petite restaurant called Bodhi Tree.. I thought the food here was Thailicious! I have a weakness for the combination of Asian food & pretty places. Affordable and tasty, take a look at the pictures (and menu) to decide if this is something for you:

New York: Luke’s Lobster

When you’re in New York, you can’t miss out on the Lobster Roll! Luke’s Lobster is located at Amsterdam Avenue and is known for their good lobster rolls. They also sell shrimp rolls if you’re not in to the lobster thing.

You can order only a lobster roll for 15 dollars. You can also choose the meal for 18 dollars which includes a lobster roll, pickle, drinks and chips:

New York: Kittichai

Brunches during the weekend is what New Yorkers like to do. Especially the All You Can Drink (AYCD) Brunches are very popular. One of the places I adore (beautiful interior!) is Kittichai, a Thai restaurant located in South Village, Manhattan. This place is wonderful and exciting to go with friends and just enjoy the weekend… At the lounge & bar: Inside the restaurant: A menu for brunch is 25 dollars. That’s including one meal and unlimited alcoholic drinks like lychee bellinis, blood orange mimosas and kittichai bloody mary’s! If you’re not into drinking (anymore..like me), you can order an entree instead of the brunch menu with non alcoholic drinks instead. I choose the Thai Ice Tea, which came with four glasses! One glass with ice tea, coconut juice and liquid sugar. This looked so cute! Ofcourse the bloody mary’s and drinks from the brunch seemed very good also: Then the food: The Five Spice French Toast, which comes with Thai Basil and Fruit Compete: The chicken Kittichai Pad Thai with garlic chives and roasted peanuts: The 3 eggs omelette with yellow curry roasted potatoes: And Pad Thai can be ordered with shrimps instead of chicken: Overall this was a place I could definitely recommend to anyone who loves Asian food and enjoys a great ambiance and beautiful interior! A good place when it’s pouring outside and you would like to experience a more exotic ambiance for the afternoon. 25 dollars for a brunch with unlimited alcoholic drinks is nuts and for the non alcoholic lovers, the Thai Ice Tea was amazing!

Recipe: Couscous Tuna Salad

It’s getting hotter, finally! With this weather, some delicious salads with fish would do more then fine. Sitting at your balcony sipping on a glass of wine or a fresh home made Ice Tea, sounds good right.. This recipe is easy and quick, so you can relax more and enjoy the sunny days. You can also make variations by adding pangafilet instead of tuna steaks. My dear friend Zinaida came up with this recipe, she keeps coming up with salads/healthy food that her daughter of 4 who doesn’t like vegetables actually gratefully eats!

Ingredients:

Tuna steaks / pangafilet (one for each person)
Leaf lettuce with baby spinach (80 gram)
Goat Cheese with honey (125 gram)
Green olives
1/2 bag of couscous (a 400 g)
Pine nuts
Cherry tomatoes
1 Carrot
Olive Oil
1/2 Onion

1. Chop the carrots to small pieces and prepare the cous cous. Add a spoon of olive oil on the cous cous.

2. Move the cous cous to a big plate/bowl when it’s done. Cut the cherry tomatoes into half, add the carrots and tomatoes to the cous cous. Also cut the onion into small pieces and slice the goat cheese. Roast the pine nuts and also add them to the plate. Season the pangafilet or tuna steaks with salt and pepper, grill them for a few minutes.

3. Place the salad on top of the cous cous and mix everything.

4. There’s no dressing needed further. Just put the tuna steak or pangefilet on top of the salad and enjoy!

New York: Madison Sq. Eats

Madison Sq. Eats is a food festival at the Madison Square Park. The most popular chefs and well know restaurants in New York are bringing their dishes to this market. There are so many different cuisines like Italian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Mexican and Portugese food. Also the most delicious pretzels, macaroons and ice cream sandwiches are available. This is definitely something you shouldn’t miss out on when you’re near the neighborhood! Also a good idea for lunch during work. Check below when this market is open and more pics of the amazing food stalls!

When: MAY 2 – MAY 30 & SEPTEMBER 5 – OCTOBER 3, 2014
11AM – 9PM DAILY

Fresh Coconut Juice!

Shrimp tacos

Summer rolls! One includes goat cheese, lentils and beets. The other one has corn, coconut and curry!

Famous Roberta’s pizza! Roberta’s was openened in Brooklyn in 2008. This is one of the most well known restaurants in Brooklyn. In 2012, the couple behind Roberta’s opened their now Michelin-starred 12-seat tasting restaurant Blanca.

New York: The Mermaid Inn

My friend took me to the Mermaid Inn last Tuesday and I was already excited because of the name! Between 5 PM and 7 PM, it’s happy hour which means the oysters will be sold for 1 dollar each! Look at the pictures and stop by there whenever you’re near!

The staff was friendly, the vibe was good and the food was nice. You’ll get chocolate pudding after your dinner from the restaurant. With the bill they will give you a fortune teller fish which predicts your mood. Sitting outside and watching people during the oysters is a must!

A sneak peek of the menu:

New York: Chelsea Market

If you’d like to try a lot of different kinds of food at one place, the Chelsea Market is definitely a great idea. This indoor food hall is located in the Meatpacking district. The building used to be a biscuit factory. That’s why the market has an underground vibe with lots of nice food, drinks and more.

The market is open every day. From Monday till Saturday starting from 7 AM to 9 PM. Only on Sundy the market starts at 8 AM t0 8 PM.

The nice thing about the market is that you can get a preview of all the things inside. Check out the pictures below of the variety of food and spices:

The cookies from Eleni’s inside the market are playful and unique. They’re nice as a gift, also sold as a set in boxes. The cookies are shaped and colored as rainbows, taxi’s and other sweet things. Not only does she sell the cutest cookies but also the coffee is worth a try!

There is a nice Morrocan store inside as well with magical lamps and carpets. I liked the art work on the walls a lot. If they were sold as postcards, I would grab a few to enlist them at home 🙂

Enjoying Eleni’s New York coffee on the way back!

When: MAY 2 – MAY 30 & SEPTEMBER 5 – OCTOBER 3, 2014 11AM – 9PM DAILY

When: MAY 2 – MAY 30 & SEPTEMBER 5 – OCTOBER 3, 2014
11AM – 9PM DAILY