TWD: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes

This weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was super easy and very tasty: two thumbs up!! The Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes were picked by Wendy of Pink Stripes.

I took the cake to work and forgot to take pictures when I set them up, so by the time I finally remembered that I still had to photograph the cake there was only half a slice left!!

The only problem I had with this cake: there wasn't enough of it!!! I should have never halved the recipe!!

The recipe can found over at Pink Stripes. Go visit the LYL to see what my fellow TWD-ers thought of the Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes.

CEiMB - Chicken Paella with Sausage and Olives

Yes, I'm back!! Back at cooking with Craving Ellie in My Belly, where we cook up healthy and delicious Ellie Krieger recipes every week and then share our experiences. Recipes get chosen from web-based recipes at Foodnetwork.com or Ellie's books 'The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life' and 'So Easy: Luscious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week'.

This weeks recipe was picked by one of my favorite bloggers: Margaret from Tea and Scones. And boy, did she pick the perfect recipe!! About two weeks ago I was visiting Spain to attend a friends wedding and now Margaret brings Spain to my home by picking Chicken Paella with Sausage and Olives!

Shopping for this recipe was quite easy: no need to go to specialty stores because I could simply buy all the ingredients I needed at the supermarket and market. Prepping was pretty straightforward to: cut, chop, slice everything into pieces. Then I was supposed to use a Dutch oven-type pan and couldn't find it. This was quite necessary, since the Paella was finished in the oven... Instead I cooked it on the stove.... Ofcourse as soon the Paella was cooked and I finished my plate I noticed my Dutch oven. Guess where it was..... Right next to the stove!!!! Duh!!!

On Twitter Margaret mentioned that she thought the paella was a bit bland and after tasting a bite of my finished product I agreed with her, so I added 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/8 tsp paprika powder and a bit more salt and pepper. Now it was almost perfect: a little spicy, but not to much!! Next time I might add a bit more garlic though....

For the recipe, visit Margaret at Tea and Scones. Wanna know what my fellow Ellie-istas thought of the Paella? Go here!! And if you want to join in on the fun, you're absolutely welcome!! Go visit our site to check out the rules and join us!

P.S. Don't forget to enter one or both of my giveaways:

- to win a surprise foodie package go here to Guess this Food, deadline is Friday 25th, midnight CET.

- to win a $70 CSN gift card go here, deadline is Saturday 26th, midnight CET.

TWD: Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake

This week Dorie taught us how to dress up a simple chocolate loaf cake to turn it into something quite fancy. And we owe it all to Amy of Amy Ruth Bakes as she picked the Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake for this weeks recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie.

This cake was so easy to make. I started by baking the cake and then because I was in a rush I tried to take it out of the tin too early: big mistake!! I accidentally dropped half of it on the floor and unfortunately had to throw it out...

After I finally got over this tragic loss, I continued on to make the cherry syrup by combining the cherry marmalade with some water and cooking it. The cake was then cut into three pieces and each piece got smothered with the cherry syrup before it was topped with another layer of cake.

To frost the cake Dorie had us make a gorgeous chocolate sour cream frosting and I added my own touch by drizzling some miniature chocolate chips on top that I had leftover from last years trip to Canada.

The cake travelled with me to a BBQ with lots of hungry secretaries where it ended up being served up as dessert. They all enjoyed their piece. The cake was quite moist, partly due to the cherry syrup, and very dense: a small piece went a long way! I loved this cake, it reminded me of a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte I ate years ago in Germany. I will definitely be making this again, in fact I'm thinking of serving it at my birthday party!

Go here to check out the problems and questions that were discussed over at Tuesdays with Dorie. The recipe can be found over at Amy Ruth Bakes and be sure to check out the LYL to see if my fellow TWD-ers loved this cake as much as I did!

P.S. Don't forget to enter one or both of my giveaways:

- to win a surprise foodie package go here to Guess this Food, deadline is Friday 25th, midnight CET.

- to win a $70 CSN gift card go here, deadline is Saturday 26th, midnight CET.

Giveaway: CSN $70 gift card

A while ago, back in March I hosted a giveaway for CSN Stores. This week I was once again contacted by Ashley of CSN Stores with the request to host another giveaway. Of course I'm more than happy to oblige!!! CSN has a lot of different shops filled with lovely items and I wish they would ship items to Europe, so I that I could shop with them. I'd love to buy some one of their platform beds as I love their designs and how the provide storage space underneath the bed!

This time around the people from CSN graciously offer one $70 gift card to be spent at one of their sites.

Want to win the $70 gift card? Here's what you have to do:

Visit http://www.cookware.com/ and leave a comment on this post telling me what you use the gift card on.

For extra entries:

For one extra entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a link in a comment on this post.

For another extra entry: mention this giveaway on Facebook and leave a link in a comment on this post.

Followers get an extra entry, mention that you're a follower in a comment on this post.

Each entry has to be submitted in a separate comment!

Giveaway details:

Contest is only open to US and Canada residents

This contest ends on Saturday June 26th at midnight CET

Winner will be chosen at random via Random.com generator and announced here on Sunday June 27th

P.S. Don't forget to enter my 'Guess this Food'-Giveaway, deadline is Friday June 25th

Giveaway: Guess this Food!!!

Yes, it's time for another giveaway!! Last weekend I was in Spain and picked up some lovely goodies, one of which is pictured above and below. But what is it???

Guess what food you think is in the picture and leave me your answer in a comment. I'll pick a winner from the correct answers. Deadline is Friday June 25th, I'll post the winner on Saturday June 26th. Good luck!!!

MSC: (Naked) Strawberry Cupcakes

On May 29th I read an article online at www.nu.nl in which the author wrote about how healthy strawberries are: apparentlty they protect against nutritional diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart and vascular disease.

How fortunate that Sherry of Sherry Starts Cooking had selected the Strawberry Cupcakes for this month’s Martha Stewart Cupcake Club! This is the first time I visited Sherry's blog and in the first sentence of this post I found out we have something in common: she got her wisdom teeth pulled out yesterday, one of mine was pulled today: no fun!!!!

These cupcakes were a breeze to make, I halved the recipe and ended up with 24 cupcakes instead of 16. I guess the Dutch eat smaller cupcakes than the Americans. I made the recipe on Tuesday and wanted to bring them into work on Thursday. So when the cupcakes had cooled down completely I popped them into the freezer. I pulled them out early Thursday morning so that they could thaw while I made the Strawberry Meringue Frosting to go on top.

Unfortunately the strawberries I had saved to go into the frosting had gone bad and were of no use to me whatsoever. What to do?? It was to early to go to the supermarket to buy some whipped cream for topping instead, as it wasn’t open yet. I decided my coworkers would have to eat naked cupcakes! And they liked them a lot, they didn’t even feel there was something missing!! Check out the recipe over at Sherry Starts Cooking and visit MSC!!

P.S. Stay tuned for a couple of giveaways this week!! One will be posted tomorrow, the other on Friday.