Recipe: Dark&White Chocolate Decorations for Nerma's Nutella Birthday Cake

Dear readers,

The festive holiday season is still not over for us. Yesterday was Nerma's birthday and, as always, we made a birthdays cake for our friends. The cake itself is a delicious nutella cake with almost 500 g nutella and roasted hazelnuts. However, in this post we wanted to show you how to make this cool chocolate decorations for the cake, which will make just any cake stand out:

We found this awesome idea for drawing desert lace cups with chocolate on YouTube and it inspired us to try out something similar for Nerma's cake.

I started with drawing a template.

I covered the template with baking paper, then melted dark chocolate and made an improvised pastry bag out of a sheet of baking paper. Now I was ready to start drawing the chocolate design.

I filled the empty space with melted white Milka chocolate. Then I covered it with another sheet of baking paper and let it cool down. Before it was completely stiff, I cut it in pieces with a knife.

It's not perfect but since this was a first-time experiment, I'm pretty satisfied. I hope you'll give it a try since it is really super easy!

Love,
Emina Pin It Now!

Recipe: Emina's Birthday Cake with White Chocolate Shards and Pomegranate Seeds

Dear readers,

I love to make a fuss over my birthday and start annoying everyone about it a week in advance:) I also love surprises, I love to make surprises and to be surprised. As for the latter, I can't be thankful enough for the great people I'm surrounded with and who made this year's birthday special. You already read about the surprise birthday breakfast that Nerma, our brother, and my best friend prepared for me.

Nonetheless, I could not skip my annual tradition to make a special cake for the occasion. Do you still remember my last year's birthday cake? This year I surprised my colleagues at work with this beauty.

Although not visible at first sight, this is the simple tipple chocolate mouse cake that we have already made several times and that everyone loves. You have already seen it here (our Gossip Girl Cake) and here (our New Year's Eve Cake). 

Without further complicating the cake recipe, we recommend you to watch the video instructions from the cooking blog Dulce Delight. The girl behind the blog is so cute and her sweet recipes are just amazing.  

I have, however, added one alternation. In addition to the three layers of chocolate mousse, I added a crunchy crust.

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Happy Birthday, Emina!

Dear readers,

I had the most wonderful birthday morning! Nerma, Ajla, and Nerko, thank you for the beautiful surprise:) 

Nerma made 26 carrot cupcakes for my 26th birthday because she knows I'm nuts about cupcakes:)

One is never too old to be excited about wrapping up birthday presents:)

Love,
Emina


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Recipe: Bucket full of (Apple) Roses

Dear readers,

Maybe you have seen pictures of "French rose tarts". There are all over Pinterest and really look adorable.

Nerma wanted to make something similar for a surprise picnic with her boyfriend. She found a cute makeover of the original tart recipe and the result are these amazing cupcakes/muffins topped with a delicious caramel sauce.

Here they are just before putting the tray into the oven.

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Recipe: Bosnian Baklava with a Special Chocolate Twist - Eid Mubarek!

Eid Mubarek!

Eid is a special guest in our home and there is no Eid without Bosnian baklava. 

As long as we can remember our mother always stayed long after midnight the night before Eid, making baklava and preparing traditional dishes for the early Eid lunch next morning.

It has been two years since she passed away and Eid is no longer what it used to be. With the time passing Nerma and I are trying to replace her as much as possible. This also includes taking over the Eid preparations.

When it comes to baklava, I think it is safe to say that we have mastered it! 

This Eid I was in charge of making baklava from scratch since Nerma wasn't home. I used the opportunity to add a special twist which Nerma would have probably been against: I added chocolate to the filling! The outcome is delicious - approved by Nerma and everyone else who tried it:)

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Recipe: Mini Bruschetta in No Time

We could eat bruschetta every day anytime, as a side dish, main dish, doesn't matter:) We also love to make bruschetta when we have a lot of  friends coming over.

 There are of course thousands of recipes out there. We would like to share with you the recipe we use most of the time. It is pretty basic, fast and yummy:)

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Recipe: Mini No Bake Cheesecake with Raspberries

I found a great summerish and fresh alternative to the classic baked cheesecake and I am happy to share it with you.

 The best part about it is that it will not take you more than 20 minutes to make it. It does however has to stay in the fridge for an hour or two (over night is even better but let's be honest, who has time to wait so long?:))

As a starting point, I found this great tutorial on youtube for a normal sized cake and adjusted it a bit so that I could make three of these mini sized cakes. I will not bug you with details as the video tutorial is pretty self explanatory. Therefore, here are only my adjustments:

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Recipe: Twisted Bun with Homemade Marmelade

It has been raining for weeks over here which made me desperate! Although everyone thought the bad weather would ruin the 1st May celebrations, today we surprisingly had an almost rain-free and sunny day!

 I got woken up pretty early by the sunshine (I thought I was dreaming!) and used the opportunity to make twisted buns for breakfast before anyone else got out of bed (thanks to the public holidays Nerma and I managed to escape the city for a few days and spend a prolonged weekend with our family).

Everyone loves these buns, especially when I make them with Nerma's homemade plum marmalade (she really made it from scratch!) and walnuts.

The rest of the morning was just picturesque: sitting in the garden filled with the scent of my favorite flower, lilac, reading my book and enjoying warm twisted bun with a cup of milk. I wished there were more of these moments:)

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Recipe: Chocolate Magic

I was CRAVING for chocolate today and this is what I came up with: I basically  improvised a chocolate truffle/molten lava cake. 

It turned out just perfect: warm molten chocolate + crunchy chocolate crust + soft whip cream + frozen cherries. Sounds like heaven? That's just how it tastes:) Complexity level? Absolutely everyone can make this cake!

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Recipe: Heart-Shaped Sunny Side Up

Happy Sunday morning, everyone!

Here is a classic breakfast reinvented to make someone special feel very special:)
In our case, we surprised our little brother with an extra cute way to make his favorite breakfast.

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Our Happy New Year's Cake and Cookies!

Before heading to the mountains for New Year' Eve, here're some pictures of our NYE Cake decoration and cookies for our friends. We don't have time to post the recipes but we'll hopefully make it up to you when we come back:)

We wish you all a happy New Year!

Love,
Emina and Nerma

PS. Please don't make to many resolutions for 2014:)



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DIY/Recipe: Christmas Cookies Card

Dear readers,

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

For this special holiday season I thought of something festive: the ultimate Christmas & New Year's card with cookies!

Although we don't celebrate Christmas we love to make Christmas cookies ("Plätzchen" in German) and share them with friends and family. As this is the perfect time of year to give away small and special gifts, I have been inspired to make these cute little cards with handmade cookies for my colleagues at work and thereby bring a holiday flare to the office.

The recipe for the cookies is the easiest you will find and the whole thing will not take a lot of your time. 

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Recipe: Emina's Chocolate Truffle Birthday Cake

Nerma and I made two birthday cakes for my birthday, one for my office and this one for my girlfriends. We found the recipe on YouTube and the decoration idea is originally from Pinterest. As always, we added our own signature.

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Recipe: Simple Maki Sushi

We have finally read enough recipes, watched enough sushi videos on YouTube and bought all the exotic ingredients to make our very own maki sushi. Here is our experience.

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Recipe: Heart-Shaped Mini Berliner

You have no idea how much I love Berlin. Oh, actually, you have already had a chance to see why this city is so special to me.

But that is not why I am posting this recipe today. I have been using this recipe for Berliner (Though no one calls them like that in Berlin. There they are, strangely, called Pfannkuchen) for years and they are a success every time.

Now I added a special twist using a cute small heart-shaped biscuit cutter to make them extra sweet:)

Enjoy the recipe:)

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Recipe: Banana dipped in chocolate. Yummy!

The easiest way to refresh your guests on a hot summer day and it takes you less than half an hour.

Dip banana in melted chocolate and top with whatever you love and/or have around in your kitchen. I prefer toasted almond:) Don't forget to serve it with ice cream and flowers, for an extra pop of color and summer feeling! 

Now you only need a cozy spot in your garden, on the balcony, anywhere outdoors:)

Yes, I love summer:) 

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Recipe: Apple Strudel With The Most Awesome Crust Ever

I watched Jamie Oliver doing his magic in the kitchen the other day. He had this awesome idea to boost up a  puff pastry from the supermarket. It's genius! I decided to try out the same with a simple apple strudel.

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Recipe: Delicious Sunshine Strawberry Tart

It is strawberry season, finally!

Yesterday we spent a perfect sunny day in the garden in our family house. While Nerma and our brother were planting flowers and mowing the grass, I surprised them with a strawberry tart (not only to escape the "hard" work in the garden:))

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Recipe: The Inevitable Cake Pops

I love good-looking food. After I read about cake pops on a blog for the first time, I was amazed. Then I read another post about cake pops and another one and another one. When I finally decided to make them myself, I checked YouTube for video tutorials. I was overwhelmed by the quantity of cake pops tutorials! I found out that they are a big hit in the U.S.- and that I have obviously overslept this trend:)

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Recipe: Birthday Fortune Cookies for Nerma

Last week was Nerma's birthday and she will most certainly never forget it! We made a big surprise for her that almost gave her a heart attack!:) She was having exams the whole month and didn't even think about celebrating (plus, I haven't been home for a few days and she didn't expect me at all).

Her friends, boyfriend and me (10 people) knocked at her door at midnight. When she opened, we started singing "Happy Birthday" while holding balloons, a birthday cake and presents!

Here is one of the handmade gifts that I made for her: Birthday Fortune Cookies! 

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