Sugar syrup cake

Now that I am on Christmas break from university I have time to bake again. I decided to make an easy, but tasy cake. Because of the use of sugar syrup this cake stays moist a bit longer than if you would only use sugar.

Ingrediënts

200 g self raising flour
150 g butter
100 g cane sugar
100 g sugar syrup
2 tsp koekkruiden (mixed spice is similar)
2 tsp cointreau
2 eggs + 1 yolk

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the flour in a bowl and add the sugar and the koekkruiden (or mixed spice). Melt the butter a little but so you can mix it through the ingredients in the bowl easier. Add the eggs, and mix well. Than add the sugar syrup and the cointreau and mix untill the batter has a smooth consistensy. Put the the batter in a baking tin that is lined with baking paper or make sure it is well buttered. Bake the cake for about 30 minutes in the middle of the oven. 

Enjoy!

Christmas decorations

Saturday I went out in our garden and gathered twigs, holly, pine cones and more and made a Christmas piece and wreath to decorate our house. Making the wreath took forever, but I liked how it turned out.

I wish you a merry Christmas!

Music Monday #59

For some song I must be in a certain mood to listen to them, but I can listen to acousic guitar music any time. My dad send me this song, thinking I would like it, and it's actually by a band that I really love but haven't listened to in a while. Bear's Den always cheers me up!

Bear's Den - Magdalene

Music Monday #58

There aren't many Dutch bands I listen to, but Racoon is an exception. I love almost all the songs they make.
  Racoon - Brick by Brick

Music Monday #57

I used to listen to music on youtube, but I recently got Spotify. I'm absolutely loving it! Far more than youtube does it recommend me new music to listen to that I actually really like. Today I share with you a song that I discovered through Spotify!

Liza Anne - Ireland

Buitenkunst - 'Outside art'

During summer vacation my friend Sophie and I went to Buitenkust ('Outside art'). It's a place where you can camp during the summer and at the same time take art courses. Everyone staying there is also taking a course. Sophie had been there before, but for me it was the first time and I absolutely loved it! There are people from all ages; families with children, groups of young adult friends and elderly people. I loved all this diversity and eventhough everyone was so different we had the fact that we all loved art in common!
There were a lot of different courses you could take including photography, painting, writing, drama and music. Sophie really wanted to do Assembling, so I joined her. Basically the whole point of the course was to learn how to create a work of art using different materials together in a unique way. At the beginning of the course I was a little sceptical of all the advise that was being given, but throughout the course I started to notice that all the advise was actually spot-on and over the week my work definitely started to change.

Most of the stuff I made I couldn't take home, but here are two of the things I made. (Sadly the charger of my good camera is lost, so for now the pictures are not that great)

One of the assignments was to fill a little cigar box with something inspired by the words 'Op een dag' ('One day...'), which is also the text in the back, but it's a little hard to make out.

For another assignment we went to a second hand store and we were allowed buy stuff for 5 euros at max, to create something that 'has a soul'.

The whole atmosphere during the week was great. Everyone was very friendly and it was super easy to meet new people. Sophie and I became friend with the girl in the tent next to ours and we spend most of our free time together.
Buitenkunst is organised every year and I definitely see myself going there a lot more!

Music Monday #56

I discoverd First Aid Kit when I was doing an intership on an organic farm in Sweden during 11th grade. I talked a lot about music with the husband of the hostfamily I was staying with, and it turned out we had similar taste in music. He let me hear First Aid Kit for the first time. Eversince I've been a fan of their music.

First Aid Kit - My silver lining

Music Monday #55

Band of Horses - The Funeral

Music Monday #54

Over the past few months I've come across a lot of songs that I really like, so I thought it would be time for another Music Monday!

Fountains of Wayne - Hey Julie

The end of summer

Some months ago I told you that I was leaving for Argentina and that I was really excited about it. I've been back for a while now, but it's been pretty busy eversince. My parents moved, I moved out, went on a crafty vacation with one of my best friends and went on a canoeing trip in Sweden with another. After that came the introduction periods of the university where I started studying last week. The last couple of months have been crazy and hectic, but I met a lot of amazing people, and I have just really been enjoying my summer and the end of my gap year.

In the coming weeks you will probably see some posts about the places that I've been to and the amazing things that I got to do there. I hope you all, too, had an amazing summer!

The last couple of weeks it has been pretty silent here. Mostly because I was writing a lot, but I was also arranging things for my upcoming trip to Argentina! I'll be leaving coming sunday and I will be gone for seven weeks, so it's going to be really quiet here for a while.

Music Monday #53

Ben Howard - The Fear

Lemon tarts

It has been a while since I baked something. Most of the time I bake simple cake or cupcakes, but this time I wanted to make something different and decided on lemon tarts.

Ingrediënts

Dough
200 g flour
100 g butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
cold water

Filling
3 lemons
2 eggs
125 g sugar
60 g ground almonds
125 ml whipped cream

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Add the butter in little pieces and mash it through the flour and sugar. Add the egg yolk and a little bit of water and knead the mixture until it is a smooth dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and line the cake tins with it (I had enough dough for about 6 tins of 9 cm diameter). Line the cake bottoms with baking paper and place baking beans in them. Bake them for about 10 minutes and then remove the baking paper.
Put the juice of the lemons in a bowl and add the eggs, sugar, ground almonds and whipped cream. Whisk the mixture and pour in on the cake bottoms. Bake it for about 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!

Music Monday #52

I discovered Tom Odell's music just recently. I really like all of his songs, but especially Another love. I love how this song starts out quite slow, but increasingly gets more powerful. 

Tom Odell - Another love

Finished painting

Today I finished another painting. This one is really the first one that hasn't been standing against my wall for months before I knew how to continue. It's not perfect, but I feel like I'm getting a little better at painting noses and mouths.

Music Monday #51

Bastille - Flaws

Music Monday #50

Imagine Dragons - Demons

Music Monday #49

My father usually knows what kind of music I like and this time he suggested this song that I really like.

Tamikrest - Imanin bas zihoun

Simple top

This weekend I made a new top. I was feeling a bit lazy, so I made a really simple one. I just used one of the tops that I already owned and traced it on fabric. I added 1 cm on each side, except for the lower side where I added about 3 cms for the seam. I sewed the sides and the straps and then I seamed the edges. All done!

Music Monday #48

The Samples - Taking Us Home



The Samples - Who Am I
I couldn't really find an interesting video clip, but this song is probably my favorite by The Samples.

The Green Girl

Unfinished paintings were starting to pile up in my room. I finally finished one. It has been standing against the wall for a very long time now and every now and then I would pick it up again and add something new. Today I added some last details and finally felt like there was nothing more that I could add.

Music Monday #47

Saint Raymond - Fall at your feet

Out and about

Today my friend Sophie and I went hiking and once again I took a lot of photos. It was pretty cold outside, but the light was so pretty!

 

 

Music Monday #46

The music I'm sharing today is a bit different than what I normaly share. It is a piano piece and it was one of the first ones to inspire me to try to play piano. I can't play it yet, but one day I will.

George Winston - Joy

Going for a hike

Last sunday Suzan and I went hiking in a woodland and moorland. The weather was beautiful and, eventhough it is only January, it made me feel like spring was almost upon us. I took my new camera with me and made a lot of photos.

Music Monday #45

A while ago my brother showed me some songs by Alt-J to hear. We listened to it through the speakers of his laptop and I thought it was okay. When I visited my brother we listened to the record and it made such a difference! I actually really like their music and love it more each time I hear it.

Alt J - Tessellate



Alt J - Matilda

Enra - Pleiades

Today I wanted to share an inspirational permonance by enra. Enra incorporates images in their live performances to create something quite unique.

Trip to Delft & The Hague

Last weekend I visited my brother in Delft and together we went to The Hague.

First we visited a permanent exhibition of M.C. Escher's work in the former palace of Queen Emma in The Hague. Escher was a Dutch artist who made woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints and used a lot of mathematical pricipals in his work. He is best known for his impossible constructions and tessellations.

We wandered around in The Hague for the rest of the day and in the evening we ate at an Indonesian restaurant.

 The next day we went to the city centre of Delft and I also took a couple of pictures there. 

We also visited the Johannes Vermeer centre and in the afternoon we went to a concert of Eefje de Visser. Johannes Vermeer was a painter from the 17th century who lived in Delft.

Music Monday #44

Yesterday my brother and I went to a concert of Eefje de Visser. She is a dutch sing a song writer who also sings in dutch. Usualy I'm not really a big fan of songs in dutch, but I find hers really good!

Eefje de Visser - Dat kan ('which can')



Eefje deVisser - Ongeveer ('approximately')

Oat flake cookies

As a kid oat flake cookies used to be one of my favorites! They are really easy to make and taste very good. If you think them to plain, you could add pieces of chocolate or raisins for instance.

Ingrediënts

100 g self raising flour
200 g brow sugar
125 g butter
1 tbsp milk
150 gr small oat flakes

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix. Add the butter and cut it into little pieces, then mash it through the mixture. Add the milk and make sure the mixture has an even consistency. Then you can add the oat flakes. When you think the oat flakes are evenly spread throughout the mixture you can make small rounds of it, flatten them and put them on baking paper. Make sure to leave enough space between the cookies, because they will spread due to the self raising flour. Bake for about 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

A new camera

I got a new camera which is far better than my old one. The last couple of days I've spent making a ridiculous amount of pictures. The coming weeks you'll probably will be seeing more photos. Here are some random pictures I took this week.

I'm still trying everything out so it will probably take a while before I really get the hang of it, but it is so much fun!