Ladies and gentlemen from kingdoms close and afar, it is time to put on fancy frocks, dust off the pearls and get ready for a real royal party! The Crown Prince of Luxembourg is getting married this weekend, and my whole country is preparing to celebrate this joyful occasion.

Yes, Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg is marrying his Stéphanie de Lannoy on October 20th, and Luxembourg is for once the centre of attention, unrelated to stories of tax evasion, cheap fuel or Eurozone debacles! Journalists from around the globe (including me) are flying in to report on this fairytale wedding, in which a prince from the last remaining dynasty of grand-dukes is taking a Belgian noblewoman to be his wife, to bear him children and ensure the peaceful continuation of this tiny grand duchy, which is so small that the country’s letters don’t fit on any world map. Sigh, Luxembourg, my little home country, you’re making me proud…

But! Can it be any better than last year’s British royal wedding? I mean, think back for a moment… William and Kate in a carriage, Pippa’s glorious bum, Princess Beatrice’s crazy hat, the frowning flower girl which turned into an internet sensation… It will be a hard one to top!

At least Kate and Wills have decided not to attend this wedding – so there won’t be any distraction from our very own royal couple!

Anyway, my inner patriot couldn’t let this event pass without coming up with a themed baked good! Hell, if I make cake for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and celebratory bagels for the Olympics, I can’t really get away with ignoring this glorious event!

So, ladies and gentlemen, majesties and grand-dukes, here you go: three royal wedding cupcakes! There’s a beautiful banana and rum cupcake, frosted with creamy cinnamon icing. Then, the chocolate orange cupcakes, which impresses with its dark bitter chocolate and tangy orange peel. Not to forget the coffee and walnut cupcake – a classic British cake, as a clin d’oeuil to the royal wedding rivalry…

All are best enjoyed with a glass of Luxembourg crémant. But not any crément, no, for this occasion you really need a glass of the special royal wedding crémant, which Vinsmoselle designed for this occasion. The Cuvée spéciale Mariage Princier 2012 can be found in Luxembourg stores across the country, and, if you happen to be outside of the country but don’t want to miss out, you can order your bottle online.

So on that note, cheers everyone! Enjoy the royal wedding, drink lots of crémant and let’s wish Guillaume and Stéphanie all the best for their special day!

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Quetschentaart, one of the classics of Luxembourgish baking. The simple fruit tart is a traditional autumn treat, and you’ll find it at bakeries across the country at this time of year. Plum tart is made with “Quetschen”, which translates into plum, but it’s not really exactly the same. Most of you will probably think of a plum as a round, dark reddish fruit, with a little round stone in the middle. While that’s perfectly correct, it’s not quite what we have in Luxembourg. Luxembourgish plums have a slightly elongated shape, they’re darker, almost deep purple, and they have a long, thin stone.

They are what the British call damson plums, and unfortunately, I find these quite hard to track down in Britain. Yes, some of you will say I should head to farmers’ markets, and I really should, but when the craving for this tart hit me, all I had was my local fruit and veg stall outside my tube station – and they only had plain, round, reddish plums.

So, I made the tart with these plums, and it still turned out amazingly well. Probably because the recipe’s really good. And how could it not be? It comes from the absolut bible of Luxembourg cookery – Ketty Thull.

This plum tart, or Quetschentaart, is just one of many traditional recipes featured in the Luxembourgish cookery bible Ketty Thull. Originally published in the mid 20th centruy, the book was recently given a contemporary makeover. Editions Schortgen republished the originl recipes with beautiful modern photography.

Ketty Thull really is the pillar of Luxembourg cookery. This is the book that newlyweds would get on their wedding day, so that the wife would know how to fill their husband’s belly with their favourite home-cooked foods.

These days, it’s the book most Luxembourgers would turn to for basic recipes such as mayonnaise, salad dressings and sauces or to find authentic recipes of our traditional Luxembourgish dishes. You’ll be able to discover Luxembourgish potato cakes (Gromperekichelcher), bean soup (Bouneschlupp), vol au vents filled with chicken (Paschteit) and Luxembourgish Cheesecake (Keistaart).

Cook Book Giveaway – This giveaway is now CLOSED

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As the days start growing colder again, and the brief summer is turning into autumn, we can turn towards warming flavours, with an autumnal feel. Still, not quite ready yet to fully accept that summer is over, I like to make dishes that sit kind of in between summer and autumn.

This sweet treat is the perfect example: summery blueberries soaked in rosemary-scented wine (a look-ahead to the cinnamony mulled wine to come in a few months) served with feather-light yet super buttery biscuits. The perfect dessert for any early autumn dinner party, or a naughty treat for late afternoons. Either way, I love how the combination of these simple flavours lifts this creation to a showstopping dessert.

A little note on the biscuits: These langues de chat biscuits are not perfectly shaped. In fact, they do look a bit wonky… That’s because the batter spreads out quite a bit in the oven, and did so unevenly because I didn’t pipe the batter out in a perfect, Martha Steward-like way.

Still, if you ask me, I like their rustic look, and I like their amazing taste even more. So, don’t be put off my imperfection, embrace it and focus on the fact that they’re homemade lovely treats!

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