monday moodboard - reaching for the stars

 When there is nothing for you in your neighborhood, all you have to do is reach out...
Why not for the stars?

1. LaNiqueHOME    2. LeelaBijou

3.StaroftheEast   4.nezoshop

To see more moodboards featuring  members of the EuropeanStreetTeam visit Star of the East

weekend cooking - chocolate cake with a touch of orange

Sometimes I don't feel like doing much. I just want to sit on a couch, read a book, enjoy a cup of aromatic tea and a piece of cake. Since I don't feel like doing much, the cake must be easy to make. Since I want to enjoy it - it has to be extremely nice. Like this chocolate with orange aroma.

Chocolate Cake with a Touch of Orange
 (one 30x40cm pan)

225 gram dark chocolate, broken into little pieces
125 gram butter
grated rind and juice of 1 big orange
6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
your favorite topping/frosting (optional)


Melt chocolate with butter in a small pot, put it aside to cool down a bit. When chocolate is lukewarm, beat the egg yolks with sugar until white and creamy, then - beating constantly at a low speed of the mixer - gradually add the chocolate, orange rind and juice. Gradually add flour and baking powder.
In another bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Pour chocolate mixture over whites, folding gently until just blended.
Turn mixture into a buttered and floured baking pan, bake at 180ºC for 30 minutes.
When the cake is done, leave it in the pan to cool.
You can put your favorite chocolate topping over the cake and sprinkle it without even more chocolate or finely grated and dried orange peel.

 I must say the cake is nicer after a couple of hours, and the next day it's even better. If it only gets any chances of surviving that long ;-)

styles and occasions - gray scale

Today I won't do much talking, I'll just let you look at the pictures.

So, let me introduce the piece that is being in the spotlight today

'Tropical Cyclone' pendant from the 'Stormy Weather' series

Karolina will be wearing the pendant with different outfits again.
First - a summer dress with some floral pattern, the pendant is strung on a cord made of same fabric as the lower part of the dress.

  

With a casual school outfit the pendant is being worn on a simple stainless steel cord

 

To fit a long sleeveless sweater we hung the pendant on a long, black leather cord

And the last combo for today - an oversized leather jacket (borrowed from my husband) and the pendant strung on a very short black leather cord fit each other perfectly.

And there is one more photo I would like to share. It's a bit moved, but still - I just love this one :-)

monday moodboard - there's always hope

While there's life, there's hope.
No matter how tenuous or thin it might be, there is always hope...
Hope is necessary in every condition.

So, I'm hoping for the best today...

1. Ioana Photography 2. Pia Barile 3. Tanya Soroka 4. lesjouesgrises  

To see more moodboards featuring the members of the EuropeanStreetTeam visit Star of the East

weekend cooking - sugar waffles from liege

Since cooking is one of my great passions, I decided to start a new series of posts on my blog. 'Weekend Cooking', that's it. On Fridays I will be posting my favorite recipes, perfect to be tried out over a weekend to make it really special. Some of them are quite time-consuming, but they are well worth all the time and effort. I hope you will enjoy the idea, the recipes and the pictures showing the results of my culinary efforts :-)

There are some things about Belgium that are really bad, like Belgian drivers and the overall chaos...

But there are also some things about Belgium that are wonderful - like Belgian beers (Kriek being my favorite), Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffles. 

There are many sorts of waffles: with or without yeast, with or without beer, not sweet at all or extremely sweet. One thing they have in common (at least those that I have already tried) is that they are very, very nice. The nicer the colder the weather is and the waffles warmer.

In Belgium you can get waffles anywhere: in a supermarket, at a restaurant, on a street corner. Or you can make them at home - then not only will you get the great taste of waffles, but also your kids, husbands, boyfriends etc. will simply adore you.

Liege Sugar Waffles

(about 20 small waffles)


750 g flour
270 ml lukewarm milk
70 g fresh yeast
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
15 g salt
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
400 g very soft butter
500 g pearl sugar

Put all the ingredients except for butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 45-60 minutes.
Punch dough down, add butter and sugar and work the dough for a short while - only until the butter is well mixed in. You don't want the sugar to dissolve.
Divide the dough into 20 balls (can be less or more - the thing is they have to fit into your waffle iron), place them on a board and place in a warm place to rise.
Preheat the waffle iron - remember not to grease it! When the iron is hot, start frying the waffles: place the dough balls in the iron (possibly two at a time), close the lid and let the waffles fry for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown.

And just one remark...

Because of the amount of butter and sugar in the dough your iron will be a total mess at the end, but the waffles are very well worth it :-)

new start, surprisingly in pink!

I've been neglecting my blog for too long, now it's time to get back to taking some proper care of it.
For a good start - a completely new series of jewelry, completely new color and - a completely new idea of presenting my pieces.

Different styles and occasions - it will be a series of posts in which I will be showing various outfits accompanied by my jewelry pieces. All this to show that they can be worn in many different ways and that they not always are only what they seem to be when you look at them in my shop on Etsy.

On Etsy I am selling my pendants with a simple stainless steel cord choker. Not because I think it's the prettiest, but because I want to leave lots of space for their future owners to be creative. The choker is very easy to remove and replace with some other stringing material, so that one pendant can fit many styles and occasions, never becoming boring.

 For today I have chosen a pendant from my newest 'Sentimental Journey' series. The pendant is titled 'First Kiss' and in some pictures it is being accompanied by the 'Memories' ring.
We will join Karolina (my favorite and only model at the moment) sitting at work, walking with Val (also a great model, unfortunately not for jewelry ;-)), preparing for a date and going to a theater or some elegant party at her elderly auntie. Personally I think the pendant (and the ring for more fancy occasions) is doing just great :)

So, let's take a closer look. For a girlish and casual look we have combined the pendant strung on a short white ribbon with a simple white shirt and a sweater in similar shade as the pendant itself. Light pants, ankle high boots, a golden retriever - and  Karolina's ready for her walk.

(featuring our sweet Valeria here :-))

Now, shouldn't we go to work for a little while? Karolina decided to work for some serious office today, so we went for some professional yet individual look. A grey shirt accompanied by a long grey jacket, dark pants and glasses. All this accompanied by the pendant strung on a stainless steel choker. Simple and classy, the boss sure will like it :-)

 

After work there is time for some relax. How about a date? Karolina wanted to look sexy and feminine, so we went for something that always works: a lace see-through top and a black skirt, plus high heels. The pendant was strung on a black satin choker and accompanied by the big ring from the same series of jewelry.

Yes, it was a very nice date...

Oops... Now something really serious, a visit to a theater. Karolina prefers simple outfits, so we chose a simple black dress accompanied by our pendant and big ring. But this time the pendant is strung on a long strand of faux pearls - the outfit is still simple but elegant enough to wear it to a theater or to your auntie's official golden wedding anniversary party...

So, that's it for the first time. It has been my first shoot of this kind with Karolina, we still need some practice as a team, but still  I think we haven't done bad... And we definitely are going to do something like this again!