Oh no, not another Valentine’s blog post! Well, rest assured, this one has nothing to do with schmoozy love stuff. For me this post is dedicated to my amazing family and friends, who are making my world.

So let me thank you all for being so great. Especially mum, who’s at the moment the biggest and best supporter of a huge project I’m working on.
Christine, for being such an awesome sister and always listening.
Dad for helping me work out some of the complicated tasks ahead.
Emma for inspiring me over the years and never failing to amaze.
Verena for always being there.
Carole for being such a cool fellow foodie.
Elmira for being so enthusiastic about everything I do.
Ayshea for her hard work and amazing creativeness.
Jael for sharing cakes and stories.
Lawrence for being a token Brit and always helping out.

And everyone else too!!! Thank you for following this blog and loving great food! You’re all awesome!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

From The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes 12 small cupcakes

60g butter
150g sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 + 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

For the frosting:
150g icing sugar
25g butter
60g cream cheese
heart-shaped sugar sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 170° celsius.

In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer. Once the mix is light and fluffy, add the egg and beat until it’s nicely incorporated.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder, the food colouring and vanilla extract until it becomes a thick paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix until evenly combined. Keep whisking and add the buttermilk, flour, salt, bicarb of soda and vinegar until all is well combined.

Put paper cases into a 12-hole muffin tin. Distribute the dough between the cases, and bake for 25 minutes. The cupcakes are done when a skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Put on a wire rack and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Cut the butter into little cubes, and then using an electric whisk, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add the icing sugar in 3 parts, but hand beat the mixture at first (otherwise you end up covered in icing sugar dust). Once that is all in and mixed, carry on using the electric whist until any lumps have gone from the icing. Put in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.

Fill the icing sugar into a piping bag and pipe onto the cupcakes. Sprinkle with heart-shaped sugar sprinkles.

Yipee, today is the day! Today is the day that the Olympic Games start in my adopted hometown.

I remember back in the day when the bid was announced – 7 years ago – and I remember saying to myself “ok, that’s the deadline for me for leaving the UK”.  Yup, I was looking at the Olympics as my virtual deadline for packing my bags and getting the heck out of that strange country.

You see, back in the day I wasn’t so fond of London. I think London is a place that you have to hate first, only to discover its beauties later. Let’s face it: it’s a tough city, annoying, stressful, hectic, monstrous, rude, merciless, rainy, grey and always without a free table at your favourite restaurant. Still, us Londoners are a bit of a strange tribe – we hate our city, curse it on a daily basis, but deep down we would never want to leave it. That’s our daily dilemma. A very intense love/hate relationship with our city.

So, when we won the Olympic bid, all us Londoners could do was to bemoan our plight – for 7 long years. Olympics became the most cursed about word, sustainability and regeneration (two heavily promoted terms in relation to the Games) became the subject of continued ridicule, hell, we even made a show about how disorganized the whole event is (BBC’s Twenty Twelve – check it out, pure genius). We collectively decided to hate the Games. It was kind of a bonding experience, believe me, as soon as you mentioned the Olympics we all agreed, cursed together and then laughed. Very British.

But oh, how that has changed in the past week! You wouldn’t believe how our city has changed in the past 7 days! Suddenly, everyone became so overwhelmed by a cheerful Olympic feeling that one’s excused for suspecting they put something into our tap water… People are all of a sudden excited as soon as you mention the Games, they’re getting up early to watch the Olympic Torch relay and post endless cheerful comments on all available social networking platforms. On top of that, the sun has decided to finally come out (after one hellish month of merciless, non-stop downpour). Unrecognizable London and Londoners.

And, I have to admit, it has caught me too! The Olympic Spirit is indeed so contageous that I’ve made my own, culinary tribute to the Games. Olympic Bagels – the perfect snack for when you’re watching the Games.

Lastly, I’d like to give a big hollah to the Luxembourg athletes competing in the Games and wish them all the very best! I’m totally rooting for you!!! Especially our Olympic swimmer Laurent Carnol, whom I had the chance to spend a day with at his university. You can watch my video portrait of Laurent here. He rocks!

On that note: a great Games to you all! May the sun continue to shine and our Luxembourg team take home a few medals (and put our country on the map – once and for all!).

NOTE: The photos for this post were created in order to feature in the fabulous Sister Magazine, a free online mag run by the fantastic sisters Thea and Toni. Thea has played with these Olympic Bagels in a very creative way, and put together a stunning feature with amazing graphics. You can have a look at the magazine feature here.

Blue: Blueberry and cream cheese frosting

1 cinnamon bagel
65g cream cheese
100g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
25g butter
2 handfuls of blueberries

Beat the cream cheese with the icing sugar, vanilla essence and butter
with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy. Cut the bagel in half,
toast them and let them slightly cool down. Spread the cream cheese
frosting on them, then top with blueberries.

Black: Black olive tapenade

1 bagel
70g good quality stoned black olives
2 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove
1 tsp capers
a pinch of herbes de provence
1 tbsp olive oil

Put the olives, anchovy fillets, garlic clove, capers and herbes de
provence into a blender, and pulshe in intervals to create a smooth paste.
Add the olive oil once you have a smooth paste, mix and spread on your
toasted bagel.
Note: don’t add salt to this, as the olives, anchovies and capers are
already really salty

Red: Tomato bruschetta

1 bagel
12 good quality cherry tomatoes
1 small garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch sea salt flakes
pepper

Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut into small dice. Crush the garlic clove
and add to the tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, add some sea salt flakes
and pepper. Cut the bagel into half, toast and top with the tomato mix.

Yellow: Curried egg mayo

1 bagel
2 eggs
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp mango chutney
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 spring onions

Boil the eggs for 10 minutes. Let them cool down. Peel the eggs and chop
into small dice. Mix the mayonnaise, chutney and curry powder in a bowl.
Wash the spring onions, finely chop them (discarding the last 10cm of the
green bits) and add to the mayonnaise. Add the eggs to the mayonnaise and
gently mix. Cut the bagel into half, toast and top with the egg mayo.

Green: Pesto and Mozarella

1 bagel
1 mozarella ball
4 tbsp good quality pesto
a few basil leaves

Cut the mozarella into fine slices. Cut the bagel into half, toast and top
with the mozarella slices. Drizzle the pesto over the mozarella and
decorate with the basil leaves.

Anne’s Kitchen is back!

After months of hibernation I’ve finally managed to move into my dream flat – with the nicest kitchen in town, tons and tons of natural light and a roof terrace! It doesn’t get better than this! So, I’m finally able to cook, bake and most importantly photograph again!

My first post after such a long time back is concentrating on a combination of my favourite things: rhubarb and cheesecake! Aren’t they both absolutely fantastic? The tangyness of pink rhubarb mixed with the indulgent creaminess of cheesecake is simply hard to beat.

This is actually a bit of a lighter cheesecake, not so heavy and dense as the American cheesecakes. It’s more like a continental European cheesecake, fluffy and light. The secret lies in beating eggwhites to snow and carefully incorporating that with the cream cheese, to create a far lighter cheese-mix. Try for yourselves and see which one you prefer, US or European cheesecake? I for myself can’t decide, I love them all!!!

As for how to serve it – best with a nice cup of coffee, and if you want some rhubarb compote. Lovely! ★

Rhubarb Cheesecake

Make one big tray (about 12 big slices)

For the dough:

270g flour
110g sugar
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
170g cold unsalted butter

For the topping:

650g rhubarb
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
500g cream cheese
4 egg yolks
1 tsp cornflour
170g sugar
1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste / vanilla essence)
4 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 200° celsius (180° celsius if using a fan-oven).

For the dough: combine flour, sugar, egg yolk and salt in a bowl. Cut the cold butter into slices and add to the flour mix. Whisk on a high speed until the dough resembles fine breadcrumbs. This may take a while and I find it’s easiest if you use your hands at some point to rub the flour mix between both hands – that will get rid of the big lumps. Then use the electric whisk again til all the major big lumps are gone.

Line a square tin with baking paper (I used one of 23cmx32cm). Pour the flour mix into the tin, spread it evenly and press it all with your hands so that it forms an even dough.

Pre-bake the dough for 15 mins. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down.

Meanwhile: lower the oven temperature to 180° celsius (160° celsius if using a fan-oven).

Wash the rhubarb and cut into pieces of about 1 + 1/2 cm. Put into a bowl and mix with a tablespoon of sugar and cinnamon.

In a bowl mix the cream cheese with the egg yolks, corn flour, sugar and vanilla bean until smooth.

In a separate bowl: mount the egg whites to snow. Once it’s stiff, fold into the cream cheese mixture with a wooden spoon. Don’t mix it! Just fold it in gently until you’ve got a fluffy even mix.

Spread the rhubarb slices evenly on the dough base. Top with the fluffy cream cheese mixture. Even out the mixture and bake in the oven for about 45 mins. (Tip: if the cheesecake starts to brown on the top, cover it with a piece of baking paper to stop it from burning).

Let the cheesecake cool down before serving.

Oh lord, can I please tell you all how amazingly motivated I am after this weekend?! I am literally bursting with ideas – ideas for recipes, posts, projects, videos, businesses, you name it, I am motivated to do it! Seriously, I feel like I just came back from an intense Tony Robbins workshop, but instead I just spent the most amazing weekend at Food Bloggers Connect. A whole 3 days of meeting fellow food bloggers, laughing and crying with them (no, actually, no crying, just lots of laughing), listening to informative talks about how to improve your food photography, write recipes, build up traffic and  most importantly, have fun whilst doing it.

Yeah yeah, you hear the word conference and think ‘booooring’. In fact, some of my friends were referring to my food blogging weekend as “the geek conference”. Hello?! Yes, geeky maybe a tiny bit, but geeky with tons of food and wine. Still sounds like a boring conference? No? Though so!

Finally meeting Mowie and Sari

The stunning venue

Lemon Tart

Meeta taking photos

The weekend kicked off with a wine tasting – and a test! We had to guess what countries certain wines came from, what grapes they were made of and what vintage they were. Hmmm, glad it was multiple choice, so I could just close my eyes and circle one option (and like this I got 4 out of 6 right!). Yes, I’m not a wine conoisseur at all! I love drinking it (loads), but have no idea about anything more than if I like it or not. I’d love to pair up with a wine buff to take Anne’s Kitchen to the next level and suggest wines to go with my meals. Anyone out there? Preferably male, good-looking and single! Ha, just kidding!

The tasting was followed by a great Skype conference with Jaden of Steamy Kitchen, whose enthusiasm was just amazing and rubbed off on everyone! Afterwards we all gathered outside again for more wine and some food. It was the most beautiful, warm summer evening – a real precious rarity in London. So, thanks weather gods for squeezing in some sun and warm temperatures (on Monday after the conference it started raining again!).

The fabulous Kerrin from My Kugelhopf

The coolest thing about FBC was hanging out with all those fabulous people!

I had a blast talking to Kerrin of My Kugelhopf (honestly, who doesn’t have a great time with that girl?! She’s the most entertaining person in the world, hell, make it the universe). I was quite surprised to hear that she nearly moved to Luxembourg instead of Zurich, and I seriously wonder how My Kugelhof would have turned out if set there. Maybe it would have been called “My Luxemburger”?

I had a fabulous time talking to the ever so lovely Mowie of Mowielicious. His amazing photos still blow me away, even though he let me in to some production secrets… I think I’ll have to go over to his place one day and watch the master at work – and eat his cakes!

Found out that Sarah of Maison Cupcake had been at the same casting for the TV baking show (and didn’t make it either – we’re both happy to have missed out on that stress!). Then chatted to Rachel of Cookyourlife and found out that she is actually going to be a contestant on a British TV cooking show, so fingers double crossed for you girl!

Bumped into Bron of Feast with Bron, and recognized her from the Food and Drinks Journalism course we took 3 years ago! Good to see we’re still both passionate about it!

A big thumbs up to Sari of Cooking your Dream, who let four international bloggers crash at her place! Great to meet the lovely Tiina of Sparkling Ink and the real Cooking Ninja! Shared many laughs with the delightful mother-daughter bloggers of Peanut Butter and Jealous, and met the lovely Reena of Coconut Raita. And I finally got to touch an iPad thanks to Nando of Cuca Brazuca.

I was also very happy to get some great chocolate and beautiful spoons from Julia of Always Leave Room For Dessert. She brought them all the way from Canada! Can’t wait to use them as props in my next shoot!

And last but not least, a massive thank you to Beth of Dirty Kitchen Secrets for all her hard work in organizing this event!

Anyway, so much to share and tell, so many amazingly lovely people I met. I can’t name them all, but have a look at my blogroll on the right hand side and see how many new links are there? They’re all fabulous, so please click on some and explore their blogs!

Tiina from Sparkling Ink

Pamela, The Cooking Ninja!

With the delightful mother and daughter team of Peanut Butter and Jealous!

Chilling between talks

Julia from Always Leave Room For Dessert

So, since I haven’t been able to bake all weekend, or last week, I decided to go back to my recipe archive (yes, I have a whole library of recipes stacked in some folder on my computer), and pull out this lovely passion fruit cupcake recipe. Passion fruit for passionate people. Makes sense, right?!

What struck me about this cupcake recipe is that it is in fact quite unusual for a cupcake. It’s not your usual sponge base topped with loads and loads of butter cream. The secret to this cupcake is its lightness and its freshness that comes from the use of cream cheese. It’s quite a fluffy cake, more on the soufflé side than on the sponge cake one.

Don’t be surprised that the cupcakes collapse when you take them out of the oven. Really, no need to shed a tear for that imploded middle bit! Because that’s where your superhero, the frosting, comes into play! We’ll be able to hide that hole with a good slap of frosting, just like the best concealer can cover up those dark rings under your eyes on a hangover day.

Trust me, magic’s in the make-up and in the frosting! ★

Passion Fruit Cupcakes

Makes about 12

For the cupcakes:

185g unsalted butter, softened
170g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
125g cream cheese
2 passion fruits (get 5 in total, since you need 3 more for the frosting)
125g self-raising flour (if you can’t get that then use normal flour with 1 tbsp baking powder)
30g plain flour
60ml milk

For the frosting:

250g icing sugar
100g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
3 passion fruits

Preheat the oven to 180°.

In a big mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the cream cheese and the passion fruit pulp (including the pips) and beat until smooth.

Now add the flours alternatively with the milk to the passion fruit mix. When it’s all smooth and mixed, distribute the dough in the 12 cupcake holes (which you have lined with cupcake cases).

Bake for 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Let the cupcakes cool down for a bit until transferring onto a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile make the icing: Mix the butter and cream cheese in a bowl. Gradually incorporate the icing sugar (in small batches! You don’t want your kitchen full of exploding icing sugar dust!). This will take about 5 mins. Once it’s smooth, beat in the pulp (including pips) of 1 and 1/2 passion fruits. Beat for 2 minutes until it’s all nice and smooth. Put in the fridge until the cupcakes have cooled down completely.

Once the cupcakes are cold, take the icing out of the frige and let it warm up for 5 minutes (so it’s easier to spread). Either spread the icing on with a spoon or, like I did, use a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle to make a nice shaped icing. Top all the cakes with a bit of the remaining passion fruit pulp.

I would recommend eating these on the day they’re made, or the next day, but don’t keep them for longer since they will only disappoint.

Voila, the perfect cupcake for passionate people!

Carrot Cake. What is more heavenly than the moist seductiveness of a creamy carrot cake?! Cinnamon, cream cheese and an unbeatable texture just make this cake the king of all baking creations for me. Yes, I love carrot cake. Badly.

I remember the first time I had carrot cake. I was pretty little, maybe around 10, and our American neighbour Rita handed us some home-baked cake over the fence that separated our gardens. I had a bite and was immediately transported into a totally new universe. I had never, ever tasted something like that before. Cinnamon, moist, juicy, creamy, and extremely sweet. Hell, I was instantly hooked.

But what followed were years and years of  disappointment. When, every time I had found a slice of carrot cake, that sad feeling would overcome me… It would normally come after taking the first bite and realizing that this cake was either too dry, too stodgy or simply didn’t taste of cinnamon at all. My search for that perfect carrot cake took me from Starbucks to small bakeries in Switzerland (where they call it Rübli Kuchen) and street markets in London, all in vain. That is until I discovered this recipe.

In fact, it was my friend Gordon who introduced me to the world’s best ever carrot cake. If it weren’t for him, I’d still be desperately eating carrot cake in every London coffee shop, sighing every time another disappointment would come my way. But for my last birthday, Gordon brought along this beauty, which he had made especially for me. A perfect carrot cake. So perfect it put a tear in my eye and instantly transported me back to that moment Rita handed me her slice of carrot cake. Heaven…

Now the funny thing about this cake is that it is no secret over-the-generations-handed-down family recipe. No. It’s in fact adapted from the recipe of a British sandwich franchise called Pret A Manger, which is actually owned by McDonalds!!! Ridiculous, ey?! It sounds like making coffee with a Starbucks recipe – pretty insulting to any proper foodie. But… I have to say… damn, it really is the ultimate carrot cake recipe. Amazing. Fantastic. Mindblowing. Unbeatable. What? I hear you say no! Well, go on and try it and tell me if you have a better one. I dare you! And if you do say you can top this one, I’ll happily try out your recipe. Promised. ★

The Perfect Carrot Cake

Makes 1 cake for 10 people

For the Cake:

2 medium eggs
200g brown sugar
150ml of sunflower or vegetable oil
200g plain flour
40g desiccated coconut
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
200g grated carrot
50g walnuts
75g tinned pineapple

For the Icing:

100g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 150c. Line a square baking tin (about 20 cm on each side) with baking paper.

Chop the walnut and pineapple pieces so they end up quite small.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs at high speed, add the sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy. Keep the whisk on at high speed, and add the oil in a steady stream. Keep beating until the mixture holds the shape of any trail across the surface.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, dessicated coconut, the cinnamon, baking powder, and salt, then fold into the egg mix. Once mixed, gently incorporate the grated carrot, the pineapple and the walnuts.

Transfer the mixture to your tin and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. If it browns too much before the middle is done, then chuck some foil over it to stop it from burning.

Prepare the icing. Cut the butter into little blocks, and then using an electric whisk, cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add the icing sugar in 3 parts, but hand beat the mixture at first (otherwise you end up covered in icing sugar dust). Once that is all in and mixed, carry on using the electric whist until any lumps have gone from the icing. Put in the fridge to set.

Once your cake is done, leave to cool for 10-15 mins, before turning onto a wire rack. Then, when it’s cool, spread the icing generously over the top.

Voila, pure carrot pleasure!!