Posts

My Red Velvet Cake

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Finally I managed to do it! Is quite a long time now that I'm fancying at doing the red velvet cake. But you know, when you're renting and you move every 2-3 years is difficult to have all the things in the kitchen but even with the simplest utensils, you still can make it.  Every recipe I've looked at, it mentioned the difficulty level high, so I was not very confident that I could make it. But never say never :) My inspiration comes from the recipe of Ernst Knam, the Italian Chocolate King. Original recipe here . Ingredients (3 layers cake): 150g butter, softened 375g granulated sugar 120g eggs (2 eggs) 5g salt 1 vanilla bean 30g red food colouring 50g unsweetened cocoa powder 300g plain yogurt 375g all purpose flower 10g baking powder 30g white vinegar For the frosting: 525g cream cheese, softened 150g butter, softened 300g powdered sugar 1 lemon zest  How to do it: Preheat oven at 175 degrees. Butter the cake round. Dust with flou...

Nero d'Avola, Palazzi Wine

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Are you a wine lover?  Today we have tried Nero d'Avola, one of the most important red wine grape in Sicily, Italy. It is named after Avola, a small town in south east Sicily where several hundred years ago, "the black grape of Avola" appears to have been selected by growers.  It has a very strong fruity perfume and has a warm and full-bodied flavour.  Nero d'Avola grapes give floral ripe black cherry and plum fruit flavours with a hint of spice.  A perfectly balanced wine to complete a host of food, in our case a delicious carbonara :) You need to try it!

Lovely breakfast cake

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Oh wow, my last post was in December 2013...Shame on me... Incredible how fast time flies...and unfortunately it will never come back. So, in between this crazy work life, I'll better try to find out a little time for me too...for my old sweet hobbies... a little bit of cooking, a little bit of eating, a little bit of photographing and a little bit of blogging... The life is not always easy but important is that we try to make it easier and always look ahead with optimism. My husband likes very much the rhubarb and I was looking for some recipes to make something sweet. Once I found the recipe, I went shopping. Most of the time I see at the supermarket the rhubarb imported from Australia, but of course the day I wanted to buy it, no rhubarb at the supermarket....this is always my luck. Anyway, since I wanted to make something sweet I have replaced the rhubarb with blueberries and voitla' the cake was exquisite. It is a very simple cake and you need only 15 to 20 m...

31 December 2013 - happy New Year everyone!

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And today is the last day of the year. I'm still in the office and I think that is the first time that I'm working on 31 of December. But anyway I cannot complain. I had a very interesting year, full of changes and new challenges. This year, end of January we relocated in Singapore and I can say that we have started a new life...we speak a new language, have a new home, a new job....everything new, starting from zero....only with a lot of love and confidence in our hearts, and it worked!! We're very happy that we did it and we're very proud of ourselves!! Very modest...:) Now, we wait 2014, another year full of other challenges! I wish you a very happy New Year!!! ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** E oggi è l'ultimo giorno dell'anno. Sono ancora in ufficio e penso che è la prima volta che sto lavorando il 31 dicembre. Ma comunque non...

Christmas time

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Oh yes, it's Christmas time already, I cannot believe how fast the time is passing by. Even if here in Singapore the weather is still hot, with 30 degrees outside, the Christmas is here. I've always wondered myself how is to be in a hot country in Christmas time and I have to recognize that at least for me is very very strange. I'm sure that because all my life I was used to spend the Christmas with cold and snow and for this reason now I cannot feel the Christmas feeling with 30 degrees outside. Even if it's not snowing, the streets are full of Christmas decorations, Santa Claus, Christmas pastries and everywhere you can hear only Christmas songs. It's quite impressive. This weekend I wanted to go out and take some pictures because all Singapore is dressed in Christmas decorations but unfortunately a very bad flu kept me at home, in bed. For our first Christmas in Singapore we did this beautiful tree full of love and joy. I wish you all a Merry Merry Chr...

Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok?

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Definitely Singapore!! And now let me explain why for me is definitely Singapore. When we've decided to relocate in Asia, we've had some options: Singapore, Hong Kong or maybe Bangkok. Some times ago we spent a weekend in Hong Kong and last weekend we did a little trip in Bangkok. Hong Kong is a very nice city, old and new, restaurants, public transport and lifestyle quite good. The thing that I didn't like was that is too crowdy and chaotic, seems that nobody sleeps in this city. *************************************************************************************************************************************************** Sicuramente Singapore! E ora lasciatemi spiegare perché per me è sicuramente Singapore. Quando abbiamo deciso di trasferirci in Asia, abbiamo avuto alcune opzioni: Singapore, Hong Kong o forse Bangkok. Qualche tempo fa abbiamo trascorso un fine settimana a Hong Kong e lo scorso fine settimana abbiamo fatto un piccolo viaggio a Bangkok. H...

It's me again

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Yes, it's me again....after a very long break here I am. I'm sorry for my long absence but unfortunately from when we moved, my spare time is not too much and we are trying to enjoy Singapore as much as we can. It is amazing that we came here almost an year ago and while in Europe now is winter, here the weather is still the same. The temperature is everyday around 29-30 degrees Celsius. Now is the thunderstorm season and almost every day is raining a half an hour, an hour and in the evening you can see the sky flashing above the sea. It's so easy to fall in love with this place. Obviously, like everywhere, there are ups and downs but in the end matters only the things that make us happy (like living in a city with at least 1000 bakery and pastry shops...:)) Some days ago I had a business dinner in a very nice restaurant at Level 33 with an amazing Marina Bay view. Level 33 is actually a brewery where tradition meets technology. We started with a delicious foie...