My Weekend Back in the UK

This weekend I went back to the UK for a holiday, although it never seems much of a holiday when you come back more exhausted than before you left! But nonetheless I had a great time catching up with my friends and family and going to see the football! I was only back for a flying visit of 3 days but this is what I got up to:

Thursday

Since I have been gone my best friend Jenny gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Alice. I visited after she was born but she is growing so quickly that so much changes every time I go back that I have to take advantage of the valuable time I get with her. We made the most of the brief gap in the horrid weather that has plagued the south of England and went into town for the afternoon. I love the town I grew up in but it is such a weird feeling when it doesn’t feel like home anymore.

Enjoying Cuddles with Baby Alice

In the evening we went to my dads for a good ol’british favourite of ‘chippy tea’. You just can’t get fish and chips like they make it in the UK in Berlin so it was the perfect holiday treat.

Friday

Old habits die hard so on Friday I had my haircut by my favourite hairdresser, she did a great job as usual, and if you are in the Bournemouth area and looking for a great hairdresser please get in contact and I will pass on her details. Another day of retail therapy in town whilst enjoying a rare bit of British sunshine and a pub lunch was just what the doctor ordered before meeting my mum and sister for a catch up. A highlight of my weekend was spending Friday night with some of my closest friends. We enjoyed snacks and a lot of alcohol whilst talking the night away.

Drinks with Friends

Saturday

My whole trip was planned around this day, the last game of the championship season day. As a Southampton fan and season ticket holder I probably moved away at the most pivotal time in the clubs 125 year history. I unfortunately missed the promotion party from League 1 last year but I was not going to make the same mistake again! I was so excited, I am always excited when I am going to football, especially now that is only once or twice every 3-4 months, but this was an even bigger excitement. Today was the day that Southampton FC could be back in the premier league, back where we belong and I could finally put those haunting memories on the day we were relegated in 2005 behind me. Although the game was not as tense as I had anticipated with a comfortable final result of 4-0 over Coventry it did not take away from the celebrations that began.

Celebrating on the Pitch with my Dad

I am proud to say I was one of 20,00 on the pitch celebrating with players and friends alike our long awaited return to the Premier League, and despite a long and nerveracking season at the top I could not be prouder as a Southampton fan. I had a great day and I cannot wait for next season to begin, I just hope that the first game of the 2012/2013 Premiership Campaign does not clash with my holiday to Vancouver in August!

Sunday

After saying our goodbyes we said goodbye to the UK and headed back to Berlin and to the glorious sunshine that awaits. I had a great weekend but one full of emotion. I love seeing my friends but it does tend to remind me of how much I miss them despite loving my life here in Berlin and the drive to the airport was certainly the hardest one I have done since moving in February 2011.

Thankfully I took over 150 photos and can look back and remember a great weekend and certainly one I will be telling people about for the rest of my life.

White Chocolate Cheesecake Cups

Late last night my boyfriend got called into work which left me to my own devices, which is not always a good thing but last night it was!

I decided to make a treat so that hopefully we would get to relax together for at least part of the weekend.  As my cheesecake was such a hit at our dinner party last weekend I wanted to make it again but as our friends are away in the UK this weekend it did not seem worth making a large cheesecake for the 2 of us. So this weekend I have been inventive and have made White Chocolate Cheesecake Cups, mini cheesecakes for us to enjoy. They are a great idea if you do not have the right equipment to make the Triple Chocolate Cheesecake that I shared with you before or if you are looking for small individual treats to enjoy.

This is how I made them;

Ingredients

• 100g of Chocolate Digestives
• 20g of Butter
• 200g of Cream Cheese
• 1 heaped tbsp of Icing Sugar
• 200g of White Chocolate

Method

1. Ground the chocolate digestives until fine
2. Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly
3. Mix the butter and ground biscuits into a bowl and squeeze together with the back of a wooden spoon
4. Tip into 4 individual cups or dishes
5. Push down gently in a flat even surface, do not compact it too tightly as it will be hard to eat
6. Mix the cream cheese and icing sugar together gently (this does not take long)
7. Melt 100g of the white chocolate in a glass bowl
8. Add the cream cheese dollop by dollop into the chocolate, continually stirring until you get an evenly coloured mixture
9. Poor on top of the biscuit base then smooth and flatten
10. Chill for 1 hour
11. When it has cooled melt 75g of the white chocolate in a glass bowl
12. Pour on top of the cheesecake and move the tin around to spread the topping evenly
13. Chill until the chocolate topping is set
14. Before serving grate the remaining 25g of white chocolate and sprinkle evenly over the top

My White Chocolate Cheesecake Cups

As you can see they look really great and they taste delicious too, once you have this cheesecake recipe you can adapt it and enjoy how you like. I think this may be the last time I will be making them for a while after calculating the calorie content as the ‘diet starts on Monday’.

Carrot and Coriander Soup Recipe

Tonight I had planned to write a post about football, but I do not want to talk about that as it did not quite go as planned. As a way to make myself feel better I cooked my delicious home-made carrot and coriander soup. This recipe is really simple, low cost and most importantly low calorie. I recommend it to you all;

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp of Oil
• 1 Sliced Onion
• 450g of Chopped Carrots
• 1tbsp of Ground Coriander
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1.2 Litres of Vegetable Stock

My Carrot and Coriander Soup Simmering

Recipe

1. Heat oil in a large pan
2. Add the onions and carrots
3. Cook for 3-4 minutes until they begin to soften
4. Stir in the coriander and season with salt and pepper to taste
5. Cook for 2 further minutes
6. Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil
7. Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender
8. Whizz with a hand blender until smooth
9. Pour into a clean pan and reheat

Serving Suggestion

Serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

My Soup is Served

This recipe makes 4 large portions and can be refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen to enjoy as a quick and tasty snack when needed. I created this recipe 2 months ago and have made it a countless number of times since, it is so delicious you will not get bored of it!

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

Every Sunday my boyfriend and I take it in turns with our friends to host dinner. We alternate week by week who hosts and cooks dinner and who bring dessert and wine. It has become our own little tradition and has been going for over 5 months. This has meant that the challenge has become finding new and delicious things to cook each week. This week it was my turn to make dessert so I made a Triple Chocolate Cheesecake for the first time.

My Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

The cheesecake was a great success and so delicious, although a little sickly, after an amazing Ukrainian dinner of perogy’s nobody was asking for a second piece. However it made a delicious snack the next day (for each of the four of us). Here is the recipe;

Ingredients

• 400g of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits
• 75g of Butter
• 800g of Cream Cheese
• 4 heaped tbsp of Icing Sugar
• 100g of Dark Chocolate
• 300g of Milk Chocolate
• 100g of White Chocolate

Method

1. Ground the chocolate digestives until fine
2. Melt the butter and allow to cool slightly
3. Mix the butter and ground biscuits into a bowl and squeeze together with the back of a wooden spoon
4. Tip into a 26cm spring form tin
5. Push down to compact in a flat even surface
6. Mix the cream cheese and icing sugar together gently (this does not take long)
7. Melt 3/4 of the dark and milk chocolate together in a glass bowl
8. Add the cream cheese dollop by dollop into the chocolate, continually stirring until you get an evenly coloured mixture
9. Poor on top of the biscuit base then smooth and flatten
10. Chill for 2 hours
11. When it has cooled melt the rest of the dark, milk and white chocolate in a glass bowl, as it melts stir as little as possible to get a swirl in the colouring
12. Pour on top of the cheesecake and move the tin around to spread the topping evenly
13. Chill until the chocolate topping is set
14. Before taking the cheesecake out of the tin run a knife that has been heated by warm water around the edge to ensure it does not stick

The recipe is really simple, but it is time consuming and extremely messy! However I can promise you that the results are more than worth the effort for a delicious cheesecake.

Another Great Anniversary

I had the best day yesterday; my boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary together. Last year we had just moved into a new home in a new country so the celebrations got lost amongst the chaos. So this year we decided to do something special.

We had a spending limit on presents, which is always ignored but it is at least a guideline, we are going to Canada on vacation later this year and that is taking all of our spare cash! Regardless I was so happy with my presents. As you may have gathered I love cooking but this love is sometimes hindered by my kitchenware, my collection of gadgets and dishes has definitely increased recently but it still needs some work. I am happy to announce my latest additions as a beautiful apron, I might be a good cook, but I am a messy one, and a cupcake cake stand which has encouraged me to adapt my chocolate cake recipe into cupcakes.

My Anniversary Presents

We both unfortunately had to work that day and the next so the celebrations could not be anything too exciting, so we decided to go for a curry at our favourite Pakistani restaurant ‘Sadhu’. The food is delicious and they have a great selection of curry dishes and side orders. The service is always great and the staff are really helpful, we have eaten there a shameful number of times but would always go back.

I had a great day and cannot wait to spend the next one doing something even more exciting together!

Easter Sunday Chocolate Cake

This year we decided not to go back to the UK for Easter but instead to stay in Berlin and celebrate in our own home for the first time. It did kind of suck to not have a hoard of Easter Eggs waiting for me this year. But my boyfriend made up for it with this amazing Easter Basket just for me.

My Easter Present

On Easter Sunday we invited round our closest friends and I prepared a day of board games, movies and snacks to enjoy after our Roast Dinner and delicious dessert of Easter Chocolate Cake. This was the first time that I had made this cake and I felt a lot of pressure to perform as the recipe has been borrowed from a family member, who ‘makes the best chocolate cake’. Here is a picture of my finished product:

My Easter Chocolate Cake

As you can see the cake looks great and it was extremely delicious too to I had to change parts of the recipe to suit the kitchenware I had and ingredients that were available in Germany. So I thought I would share my adapted recipe with you;

Ingredients

For the Cake;

• 5 oz of Castor Sugar
• 6 ½ oz of Plain Flour
• 1 ½ level tsp of Baking Powder
• 1 level tsp of Bicarbonate of Soda
• 2 tbsp of Cocoa
• 2 Lightly Beaten Eggs
• ¼ pt of Milk
• ¼ pt of Oil (light oil e.g. rape seed sunflower or light olive oil)
• 1 tbsp of Hot Water

For the Topping;

• 3 oz of Margarine or Butter
• 3 oz of Sieved Icing Sugar (slightly more if using soft margarine)
• 1 oz of Cocoa
• 8 oz bar of White Chocolate

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150c
2. Sieve all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together thoroughly
3. Mix the oil, milk and eggs into a jug
4. Gradually add the oil, milk and eggs to the dry ingredients and you mix until smooth
5. Once the mixture is smooth add the hot water and mix
6. Lightly oil a 10” cake tin
7. Poor the mixture into the tin
8. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes
9. Once the cake has cooled thoroughly you can make the topping;
10. Mix together the icing sugar and cocoa until the colour is even
11. The add the butter and mix until you have a smooth mixture
12. Spread over the top of the cake, whilst still in the cake tin
13. Put into the fridge for 1 hour and allow to set
14. Once this has set;
15. Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl (Over a saucepan of hot water)
16. Then pour the chocolate over the top of the cake and turn the tin so that the chocolate spreads evenly
17. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until it has set

This cake is so delicious and was a great success even after I changed the recipe slightly. Next time I make it I am thinking of creating cupcakes instead of one large cake!

If you try this recipe I would love to know how it goes.