Changing seasons, changing flavours!

Can you believe Alex took this picture exactly one month ago when we went to the beach?


Winter is most definitely here! The last few days have been rather dismal. Over the past weekend we fired up the central heating for the first time. There were a few technical problems with that and one or two other things in the house but I won't go into all that! I prefer to think that everything is repaired.



The last couple of weeks have seen a change in the scenery in and around Nafplio. The view of the orange grove outside the front of our house is one thing that has changed dramatically.


A couple of weeks ago the oranges were small and very green. Now they have grown a lot and are starting to change from green to pale yellow and some even have their orange color already. It is amazing what a couple weeks of rain and a little sunshine can do!!!


It's exciting for my son. He can't wait for the oranges to ripen so he can have fresh juice! He has been asking nearly every day since we got here "when will the oranges be ready?" I am not sure if he realizes that he won't actually be able to help himself from the oranges across the street.


This week my Father in Law brought a huge bag of walnuts and another of quince from his trees in his village, Klepa, which is in the region of Northern Nafpaktos. Quince is not something I have cooked with before, so I started googling to see what delicious recipes I could find.


We settled on trying some quince jam first. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. We discovered that the color of the jam depends on the type of quince you have, some quinces make very deep pink jam and others make a more pale pink jam. Ours were the variety that make a paler coloured jam.


It was very nice on a slice of fresh crusty bread, but I also think it would be delicious on a freshly baked scone and, if I wanted to be very naughty, with a pile of whipped cream on top. If I get a chance to try it any time soon I will tell you if my conclusions were correct!





The change in the weather has made me put my mind to all the wonderful different flavours of cupcakes we will be able to make in the different seasons. In the café I want to try my best to have some flavors influenced by the seasons. This time of year it would be nice to have autumn-and-winter taste cupcakes. Something with pumpkin and winter fruits, like apple and pears or delicious spices, that remind you of sitting around the fire in winter, such as cinnamon and cloves, maybe cardamom. Quince? I am trying to think of a way to incorporate quince jam into or onto a cake! That could be interesting!

Liz

Q&A

The last post raised a few questions (on the greek side of the blog) so I will try my best to answer them (even though I can see from your comments that you're all taking care of it yourselves!)

Xanthi, I think it highly unlikely that you will find the Dairy Book of Home Cookery in any bookshop either in Athens or in the UK. The book was never distributed through book shops to my knowledge but was ordered and delivered by the local milkman (does anyone really remember the milkman?) I am not sure if there are 'Milk men' anymore. Every one seems to buy their milk from the grocery store nowadays. According to wikipedia the Milk Marketing Board was dissolved in 2002.

I was fairly surprised to find the book when I did a google search the other day. I thought that perhaps I might find a second hand one on Ebay. It seems that there must be a few still available at various online bookshops. If your children are staying in the Uk for a while they could certainly order it through one of the amazon sellers that I linked to in the last post and have it delivered to wherever they are staying.

Angeliki asked about getting cupcakes to be level on the top and not to dome.

First of all I'll point out that I always use my fan assisted oven. It makes a difference for baking cakes. My oven has two dials. One for the temperature and the other which has the different settings. With mine you can use the fan alone, the fan and the grill together. Obviously we don't want the grill on :P The fan makes the oven the same temperature all over so that it doesn't matter which level of the oven you put your cakes in (this enabled me to make three trays of cakes at a time for the wedding). Most oven manufacturers suggest lowering the temperature between 10 and 20 degrees when using the fan setting.


This is what I would do if my cakes were turning out domed:

First, I would check the oven temperature and maybe lower it by about 10 degrees. They could be rising too quickly because of the high temperature. So, I would try cooking at a slightly lower temperature for a few minutes longer. That should do the trick.


If that didn't work, I would try a different variety of SR flour. Each brand probably has different quantities of raising agent.

Lastly, I would check the size of eggs that I am using, maybe switch to the next size down or use one less.

If that failed, too, I would get a new recipe :)

Mass produced cakes are made using all sorts of pre-prepared ingredients and the amount of cake dropped into each case is controlled by a machine too! I am not a fan as you can imagine. I think the charm of home-made, baked from scratch is that they are not all exactly the same!

I am sure that the effort you made for your daughters cupcakes made them so much more special! I would have done exactly the same if my cakes had turned out domed. Adjusting the frosting to cover it is the genius solution and who can tell?? Another thing you can do is to slice off the dome and discard the domes or even better, make them into butterfly cakes.

Wedding cupcakes―the recipe

I promised to post my recipes for the cakes I made for the wedding. The recipe is so basic that you will probably be disappointed.

It is taken from the recipe book I go to when I want to make a well tested, no fail recipe.


This book was first published by the Milk Marketing Board in 1968, it was revised to Metric in 1978 and then the new version for the '90s was published in 1992. The new version includes how to take shortcuts by using the microwave etc. You can still find it if you look on the net; for example here.

It has lots of useful information on ingredients, such as how to buy the right cut of meat...


descriptions of pulses...



and more. In the baking section you can find recipes for all kinds of pastry, cakes, breads and delicious recipes like this..


While I have many cupcake books and recipes, I chose this basic recipe for the wedding cupcakes because I know it works and I know that those who eat these cakes usually groan with delight when they bite into them. So I'll write the basic recipe and then I'll tell you different ways you can alter it.

Basic cupcake recipe:
Makes 12

100g Butter
100g Sugar
100g SR Flour
2 Eggs

Beat butter and sugar until very light colored and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time with about a spoonful of flour.
Fold in remaining flour.
Divide the cake between the 12 cupcake cases and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg for 14-18 minutes. The time will vary according to your cooker and whether or not you use a fan assisted oven.

Resist the urge to over cook. When you take a cake out of the oven it will continue to bake for another minute or so anyway.

For Lemon cake: Add one to two teaspoons of grated lemon rind to the mix

For Chocolate cake: Replace 25g of the flour with cocoa powder (For the wedding cakes I added 25g of grated dark chocolate to ads a bit of depth)

This recipe is so adaptable. You can make it into carrot cake, raisin cakes, chocolate chip cakes or anything that you feel like. You could even add coloring to the cake if you want them to be interesting for kids although I personally prefer to avoid adding colors and add sprinkles or something similar for decoration.


The basic buttercream icing recipe is from the same book.

100g Butter
225g Icing sugar, sifted
20 ml Milk
Couple of drops of vanilla extract

Beat the butter, milk and vanilla until very soft then beat in sugar.

For the wedding I added a couple of drops of red coloring (to match the wedding theme) per triple quantity of icing and I add the seeds from some Madagascan Vanilla Pods.


Vanilla pods are rather expensive to buy in the shops. I recently saw some at the supermarket for 5 Euro for one! Obviously it helps to have a Madagascan friend (Hi C) who just so happens to have returned recently with a supply for her crazy cupcake making friend!


Tip: After you have scraped the insides out of the pod, you can put it into a jar of sugar and you will get wonderful vanilla sugar which is great for all kinds of sweet baking or in your coffee if you take sugar. I always have a jar on the go.


OK... so you don't get the aroma through a photo.

For the chocolate cakes I added 25g of melted and cooled white chocolate to the icing. I use slightly less milk when I add melted chocolate.

Again you can do all sorts of variations with this recipe: You can make it citrus flavored with lemon or orange rind, you could add espresso powder, cocoa powder and many other things.

Enjoy experimenting! Remember not to over cook them!

Things I learned, aka We survived! (final part three)

After lunch the kids took a nap and we started on the chocolate cupcakes. We quickly fell into our routine that we got started in the morning. By 6 pm all the chocolate cakes were out of the oven.

I started on the frosting. Shortly after 7 I realized that it was going to be impractical to finish up and drive to Athens when the cakes were done. I hadn't packed a thing. We decided it would be more beneficial for the kids to get in their own beds for a relatively early night rather than have to face the trip. Olivia's fever was staying down for around 6 hours at a time and she had no other symptoms like coughing or ear ache. That way we would get up early and I would leave with the kids around 7 to arrive in Athens in time for my hair appointment. The cupcakes would go straight to the venue with Alex and Pappous. It proved to be the right thing to do.

At around 7.30 pm we had finished all the cupcakes and they were all packed in their boxes ready to go in the morning. I can't describe the sense of satisfaction I felt. That, and the sense of aching legs and shoulders!!!

We all took a break, tidied around the kitchen a little, snacked on whatever we could find in the fridge and, after the kids went to bed, I packed our things. Clothes for the wedding and other things we would need for the week-end.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early. Olivia had slept very well and her fever had not come up again at all during the night. She still appeared a little tired but I can only conclude that the fever was caused by exhaustion. We had been out for meals and ice-cream three nights in a row with our guests (forcing them to endure the tour of Nafplio by little train... not exactly the most exciting thing for adults...)



We didn't stay out too late, but I usually have the munchkins in bed early on school nights and I think the excitement and those few less hours of sleep must have been what did it.

I left with the kids for Athens leaving the boxes of cakes behind. My sense of satisfaction at having got them all done was only second to the sense of satisfaction I felt at hearing they had been delivered safely and had all travelled intact to the venue. The drive to Athens at that time of the morning was incredible. The sun was coming up and casting light patches on the mountains and leaving patches of shade where it hadn't risen quite enough yet. As the road rose and fell we could see the morning mist surrounding the ships along the coast and in valleys. Magical. Perhaps I found it even more enchanting because of the happiness I felt at managing to pull off the cake-making and for being able to give a gift that our family would treasure and remember? Who knows?



The rest is history... The wedding went exactly the way it was planned. The happy couple just came back from a romantic honeymoon week-end in Paris. All that remains is for me to tell you what I learned.


1. I tweeted about this one... Attending a wedding where you are a member of the family is much more tiring than making over 700 cupcakes for it!

2. Exterminating all flies from the confines of the house before work and during the day requires one person wholly devoted to the job! The joys of country living!

3. Happy helpers are extremely useful at times like this. My feet and back are especially grateful.

4. Having a professional kitchen and a larger oven would have made this job take a lot less time and been a lot easier. It is difficult when you have to pick something up in order to put something down!


5. My recipe worked just fine. It doesn't fail to impress. It's basic but can be altered in any amount of ways. I'll post it soon.

PS. My guests very very kindly did the remaining tidying and cleaning while we were away in Athens. Jens and Lone, thanks so much again! I promise that I won't make you work if you dare to come on vacation again!

We survived! (part two)

Like I said... Friday dawned. I was pretty calm and not too worried; even though I had hardly slept, I was feeling good and raring to go. I had everything organized in my head. I had made rough calculations as to how long it would take. I'd start when the kids got off to school at just after 8 and whenever we got finished (I estimated by about 7 or 8pm) we would pack up the cars and head to my in-laws' in Faliro to spend the night. Saturday morning the cakes would go with Alex to the venue and I would relax and spend the day getting my hair done and fixing my nails and playing around with Olivia's hair to make it look very sweet for the wedding. All this with a lovely sense of satisfaction that the cakes were done and were all ready and in their place!

At least, that was the plan.

We sat down for breakfast at the table and while we were munching on our cereal, Olivia started saying her head was hurting. Actually, at first she said it was itchy so I didn't take too much notice. It was probably one of her elaborate reasons as to why she would like me to spoon feed her or not to eat breakfast at all, which she does from time to time. As the rest of us finished our cereal and she was still lagging behind I noticed that she was rubbing her head quite a lot and her eyes were a bit dull. Usually they are bright and sparkly not to mention cheeky. I touched her forehead and it felt just a little warm. Trying to be optimistic I thought that she was just warm because of getting out of bed. In the back of my mind I was thinking it could not be possible for her to get ill today of all days. Neither of the kids have caught anything at all for months and months.

As time for leaving for school approached it became apparent that she wasn't just a little warm from the bed covers. I went to the medicine cabinet to retrieve the not recently used thermometer to see what we were dealing with. Nearly 38! Oh dear. No school for Olivia.


For the first time I started to get concerned. It was 8 am. Not a cake baked and a child with a fever who is clingy at the best of times but really really needs cuddles when she isn't well. The only thing we could do was administer Depon and for me to hand her over to the capable hands of Pappous (Grandad). We spent the next half an hour or so trying to persuade her to drink her medicine by herself. We failed. We used other medicine which I won't go into on a blog about cupcakes.

Having Pappous here saved the day. Thank goodness he had decided to come the night before, or goodness knows how many hours we would have lost. Hours we didn't have! Pappous offered plenty of distraction and nice warm arms to cuddle into. We noticed that the fever stayed down for around 6 hours at a time and since Olivia didn't seem to have other symptoms, was eating and drinking well, we decided to just keep observing her. I made a mental list of persons who might be able to babysit for us the night of the wedding, should she be not well enough to attend.

I finally got the oven switched on shortly before 9.

I had decided the night before that I was just going to use my hand mixer since I didn't have time to really get to know the stand mixer and didn't want to lose more time, even if that meant I would arrive at the wedding with one arm more muscular than the other!


We started on the lemon cakes. We soon got a little production line going. With one of my happy helpers, breaking 6 eggs at a time into a bowl, grating the rind off the lemons, measuring flour and sugar. Another happy helper was lining the muffin trays with the paper cases and then transferring the warm cakes to the cooling racks and filling them up again. Even though we were baking 36 cakes at a time and they only needed about 15-17 minutes to cook, we soon found we were getting ahead of the oven and we managed to sit down here and there to give our feet a break.

Shortly before noon we had completed almost all of the 30 batches of lemon cakes. I started piping the frosting which I had made the night before. One happy helper added the sugar flowers and the other placed them carefully into the little pink cups and into the boxes. All the time keeping count. My other happy helpers, Alex and my Father in Law, had their own assignments.

Pappous volunteered to go to pick up Fin from school and together they went in search of food. By the time they returned we had switched off the oven. Half the cakes baked and quite a few of them frosted.

We took a much needed break for lunch...

We survived! (part one)

Well that was an adventure!


I am pleased to say that everything went perfectly with regard to making the cupcakes. My biggest concern was the transportation but I didn't need to worry, since they all arrived at the venue safe and sound.

Yes, you can fit 725 cupcakes in a VW Passat!


Where to start? We had decided to make two flavours and the previous week we had a practice run to see how we wanted them to look. The flavours we decided on were:

Lemon sponge with Madagascan vanilla frosting (in pink) topped with a handmade sugar flower; and

Dark chocolate sponge with white chocolate frosting and a milk chocolate drop.








I decided to start Thursday evening by preparing the pink frosting for the lemon cakes, since I was going to be baking them first. I had one of my capable assistants (our poor guests) measuring out icing sugar and butter ready for me to get working on. It took a couple of hours to get the 3 kilos of butter and more than 6 kilos of icing sugar whipped up into a delicious frosting. We tried out an old Kenwood free standing mixer belonging to my MIL but I was not used to using it and I felt like I could get things done faster with my ordinary hand mixer. The bride had told me that her dress was pale pink but I hadn't actually seen the color and when I saw the color of the dress and the color of the frosting I couldn't have been more pleased! They looked a perfect match.

After the kids went to bed, we put together the boxes and set out the first of the ingredients for the lemon cakes. Scrubbed the lemons from the trees in the garden at Palaio Faliro.

We went to bed fairly late and I for one didn't sleep well. Every time I dropped off, I had dreams of hundreds of cupcakes!

Friday morning dawned and my plan was to get the kids their breakfast, send them off merrily to school and start work. Things of course didn't turn out exactly as planned!

To be continued...

Wedding cupcakes preparation

Things are working out well so far. Liz is half-way through the second flavor of cupcakes, and our guests are having the out-of-body experience of their life in a working vacation!

Here is a shot of the Army of lemon cakes with Madagascan vanilla.


Some are waiting to be frosted, while their little comrades are ready to ship.


What we are carefully not showing is the mess in the house, and the ways we are working around each other and keeping our daughter (who after a stretch of many months decided to have a high temperature today) happy and occupied. But you can imagine all that, can't you?

Olivia happily sat with her grandad for ages playing and watching TV. A real mission saver!



At 6pm all the baking was done.


Time now for the final frosting session.


And now, after a full 12 hours, the whole lot is ready and packed. Tomorrow morning they will have to be loaded in the car and taken to the wedding venue. Hopefully they will look equally as nice as they do now.

Goes without saying that photos will be posted.

Alex.

We're on Twitter!

It's all go here and of all times I picked now to setup on Twitter. I thought the pace of things just necessitated it! Still a bit clumsy with how it works, though, so bear with us for a while.

Alex.

PS The most observant ones will have noticed the twitter updates gadget which is now added at the right. Boring, I know. Like I said, a bit of a noobie still...

Progress report

Thanks again everyone for showing such interest. My BIL was very touched at the kind thoughts you all wrote when he read the blog earlier on!

I wanted to mention that they had in fact asked me very early on about cupcakes for the wedding but at first it seemed like the venue would not allow home made things for the treat ("kerasma"). The couple were disappointed and spent some time looking into other things but kept feeling sad that they couldn't have cupcakes. Anyway, it turned out that we misunderstood the guidelines that the Ktima has, and that is why we ended up so close to the date before we knew that we had the OK for the cupcakes. As it happens, it wouldn't make any difference with regard to the time frame for making them: the cakes have to be done at the last minute to be fresh and tasty.

The edible gold dust can be found at this cake craft store or this one. They both deliver to Greece.

If anyone has any more questions or is wondering about anything, leave a comment and I will do my best to answer after the event (and after all the pain-relieving drugs have worn off and am lucid once again)!

So far everything is going according to plan. But I won't be posting again until Monday! The work really begins this evening with measuring out ingredients and preparing the boxes to transport them.

I have my happy helpers. Well, I don't know how happy they will be afterwards. They are Alex, children, guests and even my father in law, who thinks he is merely coming to drive us to Athens (our car will be full of cakes): little does he know what he is driving into!

The children's assignment is to keep quiet and out of the way :) one of the other adults may be assigned to assist them to do that!

Yours,

Just starting to get anxious!

Lots and lots of sugar flowers

Thanks for all the kind words and wishes for the couple! Hopefully we will get some nice photos of both the bride and groom and the cupcakes to share with you next week!


Yesterday morning I started on the sugar flowers for the wedding cupcakes. They are small sugar paste flowers and I dusted them with edible gold dust just to take away the stark white color.

It didn't take too long to make them with the little tool you see in the picture. Cutters like this are available from most cake craft supply stores on the internet. It is best to get the kind with a plunger so that you just cut and pop them out in one move. Then use the ball tool to make them a little more three dimensional.


Only 350 of the wedding cupcakes will have sugar flowers on. My shoulders are only aching slightly! Actually, it was quite a pleasant job since I had peace and quiet with the munchkins at school. My favorite time of day.


Later on I will be going shopping for the rest of the ingredients. This morning I nearly bought twice as much butter as needed. Oops!

I spoke with the wedding planner a little while ago and we discussed how they will be displayed and whether or not to keep a stash of cupcakes for the dinner guests to enjoy later on too. Sounds like a good plan :P

Sorted out what we will all wear.

Liz

A challenge

So here's the thing. My Brother in Law is getting married in on Saturday. My future SIL asked me just over a week ago if it might be possible for me to make cupcakes for a treat (kerasma) for the guests. 700 of them!

It is rather a large number to turn out from my kitchen. It is rather a long way from our house to the venue. It's a bit scary. Still I am confident I can do it. This is when a spare freezer, a kitchen aid and a van might be useful! We'll think of something! (If the follow up to this story requires that I use the tag 'disaster' I will retire from making cupcakes forever.)

They won't be too large, and probably just two flavors. I am not going to be giving anything else away for now.

I have a more pressing concern: what to wear!

That, and I have guests this week.

Our latest

It's been a while since I wrote a proper entry with our news. It's been a busy time. We still haven't completely settled in. Still got some curtains to put up. Not a picture on the walls yet! How pathetic are we?

Of course there has been plenty going on. My parents came for a visit and we spent a few days going to the beach and generally doing not much really. It's hard to get going again after the summer. We needed the rest (and still do) but it has left me feeling like we haven't really got everything done that we needed to.

We have one or two teething problems with the house, too. It's a new house so it is to be expected that some little problems would surface when things were used for the first time. We had a dripping pipe under the kitchen sink which caused a mini kitchen flood. It seems like the weather suddenly changed with September coming in. We have had some amazing storms. The kids have been thrilled watching the lightening and listening to the thunder from their loft bedroom. The other night was one of the loudest and most violent storms I have seen in Greece for a long time. The basement flooded! Alex happened to go downstairs for something and spotted the muddy water pouring in. I had a small carpet down there which was floating! We had some nice books which we hadn't unpacked yet. Lovely Architecture and Design coffee table type books. Fortunately the card boxes held up quite well and we managed to rescue most but not all of them. Just as well Alex went down for whatever it was. If we hadn't noticed until the next morning we would have lost lots more. All my picture frames with paintings and prints were still in boxes as well. Phew!

The vacuum broke. The washing wouldn't dry because of all the rain!

Anyway, all these things are getting worked on and it still doesn't put us off living here!

The kids are back at school. That took a bit of looking around and searching. The first week is always hard. Getting back into a routine of getting up early and getting breakfast and out the door by a certain time. Next week will be easier.

As far as the shop is concerned, we have been busy with that, too. Scouting the area for locations, while doing our research about costs and permits and grants etc. It takes a lot of time and will-power. Not so easy when you are already tired! We've also been reading guide books on starting a successful business.

No matter how tired I feel or how many little hiccups may have happened so far, I am still so pleased that we made the decision to move to Nafplio. I am so glad I don't have to face the apartment block across the street in Palaio Faliro when I look out of the window or the traffic in Athens while dropping my daughter off at nursery. Out of my window I see an orange grove and on the way to nursery I look left and see the different shades of mountains as the sun comes over them. They look like they have been cut out of enormous pieces of card and placed to make the set for some beautiful show at the theater. Out of the right side of the car I see the Palamidi. In the evening we get beautiful views of the sun's rays beaming out from the clouds and then heading off behind the mountains.

Update September 21, 2009: The basement flooded again on Saturday night! As I write we have got workmen outside trying to make sure it doesn't happen again!

Liz

PS My mother brought me this lovely new book. I have tried one or two things in it. I am sure you can gain a kilo or two just by reading it.

If you do one thing today....

Make these cheesecake marbled brownies!!! They are wonderful. So good in fact, I had to make them twice to make sure I hadn't imagined it! Plus... the blog writer just had a baby last week and has also posted some pics of a baby that you just want to eat!

Now, I am thinking of making them into cupcakes (brownies, not babies!) You know, just to see how they would taste in a different shape! Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the sake of science.

Liz

"For the kids"

One thing I love about living in the country is the lovely local produce available.

Typical Greek hospitality means that if someone has something to offer you from their own garden or shop or business, they absolutely will. Especially if you have young children.

"Please take this...it's for the kids."

We've been here less than two months but we have already been on the receiving end of such gifts. On one side of our house there is a gentleman who has 6 chickens. The kids were looking at them over the verandah one day when he was tending to them and we got to chatting about moving here. He told us that he keeps chickens for eggs for his three grandchildren and also raises about 3 sheep a year for meat for them, "because you don't know what you are buying from the shops these days", a valid point. He then proceeded to give us the eggs laid that day. Five beautiful large eggs. You can't get much fresher than that! My son absolutely loves eggs and promptly ate one for his supper.

Then the other day the owner of our house came by. With a crate of beautiful organic lettuces. So tender and delicious. "You can give these to your children without fear."


I love it. It's not that you don't get this in the city but not many have the ability to give you freshly grown things in town.

I guess you could say we are enjoying ourselves since we moved here. There are of course some things which take getting used to. I'll write more about that soon!

A week already

WOW! We have been living in Nafplio for a week now! It's been so much of a blur of activity that I don't think we have really taken it in! True to their promise, OTE got our internet arranged within a couple of days with only a few technical difficulties. Finding the time to come on and post has been more difficult!

The move went fairly painlessly, I suppose (there was quite a bit of muscle and back pain!) We had lots of helpers at both ends. It is so nice when you have relatives and friends who are willing to put themselves out to help you when you need them. Two Fridays ago, the 7th, the truck came and loaded all our stuff, which only just fit in! We slept for only a few hours and then set off Saturday morning for THE journey to Nafplio. Of course we have been so many times before but there was something more exciting about this trip. As we left the city, I told the kids to call out "Bye Athens, we'll see you when we come on holiday!" in an attempt to get them to realize the magnitude of it all. Our son definitely understands but I am not so sure about our daughter. I think maybe she has the impression we are on a long holiday.

The unpacking is coming along quite well. It is a hard job while trying to keep the kids entertained and do cooking and laundry like usual. The first couple of days my SIL cooked for us all. That was so kind of her, since there were lots of us! I owe her some cupcakes for sure! The house still needs a fair amount of cleaning as well. It was cleaned of the building dust but the windows and floors, as well as the insides of the cupboards, all needed and still need some work. Yesterday the tiredness finally caught up with us and we were both incapable of getting much done.

We've managed to go swimming a couple of times since we arrived. It was more a necessity than a pleasure. The kids needed to get out. Still, it's good to dip aching muscles in the sea! The area is absolutely packed with foreign and Greek tourists, so I suppose this is going to be a busy period when we get the shop open. I keep trying to anticipate what it will be like when we finally open doors. My latest thoughts are that we will have to take our own vacation at some other time of year!

That's all for now. I have lots to do and I'll be having visitors today and others later in the week. I hope to catch up with everyone as soon as possible!

Liz

Illness and Acropolis

It's all go here. Sort of. The moving van is coming on Friday. The apartment is full of boxes. I'm ill.

Yes, I caught a virus. I don't know if it is something I have been incubating for a couple of weeks or something new I caught when I took the kids to the Acropolis museum last Friday but I started with a sore throat and excruciating headache on Friday evening and it went downhill from there.

Actually, I feel a lot better today. But I am still feeling the effects of whatever it was. I could hardly see straight over the week-end and certainly couldn't write any posts! Still it's 2 days of packing time out the window! I suppose catching something is to be expected when you are burning both ends of the candle. That's why I am not going to write much now. Just stealing 5 minutes with a cup of tea to catch up (hubby does not approve of cups of tea near computers; electronics and liquids are a bad mix, he says).

So, last week I decided the kids couldn't handle the boredom of not going anywhere much more and I arranged to go with a friend to the Αcropolis museum. The kids are fairly young to really appreciate the exhibits but it was a trip for them to experience the atmosphere of a museum and maybe pick up a fact or two along the way. We only paid 1 euro each to get in and all four kids ranging from 3-15 years old got in free.

Excerpts from the comments of my 6 and 3-year-olds.

"Oh look, a broken bowl"

"Oh look, a broken leg"

"Oh look, a broken horse"

"Oh look, a broken arm"

and perhaps most amusingly...

"Oh look, he's got a ..."

We had a drink in the café/restaurant and, I have to say, the prices were very good. We had one coke, two iced teas and three freshly squeezed juices for 11 euro. I was being nosey and looking at what everyone else ordered and I'd say the cold salads and sandwiches looked very good value and tasty, too. My friend and I worked out that for a couple to go around 6 or 7 pm, pay the entrance fee, browse the exhibits and then have a glass of wine and a salad or sandwich, sitting beneath the Parthenon, it would cost less than 10 euro. Not per person... altogether!

Of course, both of us have small children, so it's nice for us to dream of doing civilised things like that, knowing all too well that we will in all likelihood not do it ever.

So, I am winding it up here. I doubt I will be posting again until I get to Nafplio. We are assured by OTE that we will have a phone line before we even get there and will have internet two days after that. So I will be seeing you all again in about six months!!! Just kidding. I'll be checking in on Alex's iPhone.

Ciao.............

We survived the party!

The kids had a wonderful time.  Even though we had to have it completely inside the apartment with the air conditioning blasting! It was rather hot this past week-end in Athens!

We had games with prizes like bubbles and those blower thingys! The kids seem to love those most of all! We did a treasure hunt, too, the prize being lots of chocolate and sweeties (for added hyperactivity).

The whole thing was fairly simple, so I didn't get too tired. For the food I made a shallow pasticchio which I cut into child-sized portions, some small tuna sandwiches, cucumber sticks and, to supplement it, we got a couple of large pizzas for the older kids and adults. I make a nice pizza but this time it was just too much to think about! For the sweet I made some simple vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and this Kit Kat and m&m ice-cream cake!

Inside it was a basic 2 layer chocolate cake which I filled with homemade chocolate ice cream and then decorated with the Kit Kats and m&ms. It looked very impressive and exciting to the kids and tasted wonderful, although I have to admit, it was total chocolate overkill! You definitely have to cut small portions with this one! The Kit Kats made it easy to divide the portions though.

We started around 6 and by 10 all the little munchkins had gone and half an hour later my two were showered and in bed! They really sleep soundly after an exhausting afternoon like that! I do, too!!!

Now, it's back to the packing. The countdown has really begun now!

Espresso walnut cookies

With all of the searching for a house and everything, I haven't had much opportunity to bake this past week or two. Last week Marie came by, our insurance lady, and I thought I would whip up some cookies to have with our tea/coffee.

I usually make a few alterations to the recipe. The recipe says to put teaspoons of the mixture, well apart on a greased baking sheet. I add a little more flour at the end to make the mixture firm enough for me to roll into small balls and shape them slightly. I like to make them slightly oval shaped and score them with a knife so that they slightly resemble coffee beans. The other thing I sometimes do is to dip them in chocolate or half dip them, which I did with some of these but unfortunately they didn't last long enough for a picture!

About the greased baking sheet: I don't usually do this because as you notice there is a lot of butter in the cookies anyway and I have never had them stick to the baking sheet. But do whatever you feel.

Oven temperatures vary, of course. My cookies usually take a good couple of minutes LESS than the amount it states in the recipe. You know your ovens. It is better to err on the side of caution than to overcook them.

Recipe for Espresso Walnut Cookies

100g butter, softened
50g sugar
50g walnuts, finely chopped
100g flour
2 tsp espresso coffee powder

Cream the butter and sugar until light in color and creamy looking
Add walnuts. Stir in flour and coffee powder.
Put 18-20 teaspoons of mixture, well apart on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 190°C for 15 minutes.
Leave to cool for 1'-2' before transferring to a cooling rack.

Do you like my cooling rack by the way? It is from Lakeland and is very versatile. It has three separate racks but you can stack them which is great when you don't have much space. It also folds down to store away.

If you want to, instead of adding the espresso powder you can add chopped dried fruit. Today I added cranberries to some of mine. Or you could change the walnuts for chocolate chips and the cranberries for glace cherries.

Marie enjoyed them and promptly asked for the recipe.

Liz

Disclaimer: I decline responsibility for any large credit card bills which may be accrued after clicking on the Lakeland link.

Busy busy busy

Things are moving along at a fast pace over here.

We've arranged a date with the removal men and are leaving Athens on the 8th of August! Our hopes and plans are coming to fruition.

I have mixed feelings, of course. On the one hand I am very excited about the move and on the other a bit sad to be leaving close friends here. Having said that, I am certain that quite a few of them will be regular visitors to our new home.

These last few days I have been packing boxes. My back is already feeling the strain. Of course, once the boxes are packed it brings another problem! Where to put the boxes? Things that were on shelves and in cupboards are now in boxes and we haven't got the floor space to store them!

This weekend we are having a small leaving party for the kids and a few of their friends. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The time being when we explained to FZ we would be leaving Athens. I thought that it would keep his mind off the part about leaving his friends and the house he has grown up in so far! Now I am thinking "What was I thinking?"

So this morning I am off to Jumbo sans kids. (I've explained my aversion to taking kids shopping before, and it applies even more so to shopping at a toy store!) I'll get little prizes for the party games and balloons etc. Then I will supplement what I get with various unsuitable sweets and chocolate items! They'll be hyperactive for weeks!

For the rest of the food I will have things like homemade pizza and hotdogs for them and a layer cake (I think I first saw the idea on tastespotting ) and some cupcakes for dessert. I am tempted to fill the cake with ice-cream instead of buttercream, but I am not sure how the decorations I intend to add will be if they get frozen. All will be revealed next week!

So now what remains is to make enough space on the floor so there is space for games, and decorate in such a way as to mask the fact that the walls are totally bare and not exactly brilliant white! Oh, and clean the house.

Liz

A story

When we move to Nafplio we are going to do a good deed. Whom it is good for I am not entirely sure!

Let me tell you a story. The story of Rex!

Last summer, when all the family (we live in a family building where we all live upstairs and downstairs from each other) returned from our various vacations, we found this guy had moved into the back yard (sorry about the quality of the picture but he isn't exactly used to posing).


At first we were a bit alarmed but we soon discovered that he is a total sweetheart and also a good guard dog. He was extremely scruffy with that distinct dog smell!

We tried to find out if he was lost and printed posters and stuck them up around the neighborhood. No one called. We asked at the vet. No one knew anything. Meanwhile, many of neighbours had taken pity on him and started feeding him. It's funny really, because we have never given him anything other than a dog biscuit here and there (since we know the others are feeding him), but he seems to love us most of all. It must be the kids. When we go for a walk to the play ground he follows us and does circles around the perimeter all the time we are there. He followed Alex on the motorbike in the mornings when he took my boy to school!

After a while, one of the neighbours managed to persuade an animal protection agency to pick him up (Filozoiki). There were a lot of tears from the kids when they realized he was gone. But I convinced them that it was better for him because they would clean him up and feed him up and try to find him a nice new home where the people would love him very much.

A few weeks later we arrived home one night fairly late and, as we parked the car in the drive way and got out, we noticed in the dark a hairy bundle galloping excitedly towards us. It was Rex (we had decided we needed to call him something, so when my mother called him Rex one day it sort of stuck, all the neighbors picked up the name, too, so it's official). He looked a lot sleeker and less like a street dog.

The lady across the street who was there when they brought him back, explained that the Filozoiki don't re-home animals and, since they knew he had been managing fine on the street, they fixed him up and brought him back! My boy burst into tears with happiness! I think Rex might have done the same if that's how dogs expressed emotion.

So there we have it. I am sure you know where the story goes next. Rex is moving house soon. That's our good deed. I am certain it will be good for him. It will also be good for the kids. I am just not sure how good it will be for me! Usually it's the Mammy who ends up taking care of the pets! He is not a very young dog, so I don't know how long we will have him with us, but it will be nice for him to live out his golden years with love and fresh air!

Liz

We found a house

First of all I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has been posting very positive and encouraging comments about our plans. It keeps us inspired and motivates us!

The search is over and I am very relieved! Alex went down to Nafplio on Wednesday and signed the rental for the house we looked at last week.

It's a new build (with a few finishing off jobs left to do on the interior). It is about 5km from the centre of town, in a quiet country lane and the front verandah overlooks an orange grove. There is only a little bit of garden around it but I am happy that I will be able to do something with it. For the kids it will be great to go out and play, even if they haven't got acres and acres to run around.

The apartment we have been living in is a lovely apartment but it just doesn't suit our needs anymore. It's really perfect for a couple. Once children and the volume of things they acquire are added to the equation, well, it just doesn't work out anymore. For quite some time now, we have lost total control of the situation. Things have begun piling up in the hallways, living areas, in fact in every square meter of real estate! The result is that it is now impossible to have a tidy living area. All rooms merge into one.

The new place should help solve things. Hopefully all things will have their place and we should be able to keep it moderately tidy.

So now I really have to get going on the packing because if everything goes to plan we will have moved before the middle of August. We have to be there in good time to settle down in time for my eldest to start school again in September. It would probably be a good idea to find out where the school is!

I've also promised the kids a small leaving party, so I better get organizing that too. That will definitely involve cupcakes!

Liz

Too cute

Theo, a friend of ours over at 0comments, posted about a wedding he went to last week. Instead of a Boubouniera the couple gave out these gorgeous little things!


I thought it was a such a sweet idea. Literally! I love it when some choose something a little different than usual for their wedding! In this case there were two different types of preserved sweet in these cute little jars, wrapped and with a teaspoon to take home!

It's been a while since I got married. We married in the UK many moons ago. I loved my wedding. I would have done lots of things myself if I had known then the things I know now (and had the skills to do them). I'd start by keeping things very small and personal, with only a few guests. I'd cook some things myself, the cake for instance, and I would organize the rest of the meal myself, too. Decorations and flowers, too. It would be with a small budget but stylish!

I was but a girl then, so now all I can do is look back at the pictures and cringe at our hairstyles!

Did you have the wedding you dreamed of? Would you do it any differently now?

Liz

House hunting

We went down to the area of Nafplio this past Tuesday and stayed until yesterday. In case you didn't know, searching for a new place to live with two small children accompanying you is NOT a piece of cake. Even though FZ, my oldest, understands and is very excited about the move, it is still very boring sitting in the car going from location to location inspecting houses.

The area that we were really interested in didn't have anything available or within or budget. We discovered that there are a wide range of buildings being built around the area but that not many of them were very functional for a modern family. For example, there were three or four bedroom houses which only had one bathroom. It's all very well having lots of balconies but what if both your kids need to go to the toilet at the same time? I can see that they might be good as a holiday home but not so good as a permanent residence.

In the end we looked at one or two close to our relatives who have just moved there. We think we may have found something suitable but we haven't signed anything yet. It's sort of a relief to think we probably don't have to do any more searching but, on the other hand, the house we are interested in isn't quite finished so that's a bit of a concern!

I am now going to turn my attention to sorting through our things here and maybe packing some things that we don't use on an everyday basis.

When we get settled in, we have to start the search for premises for our cupcake tea-shop or café. I am still thinking about whether to give it the title "tea-shop" or "café". I really believe the key to success for cupcake sales will be finding the right location. Nafplio has lots of shops so we will have to find the right place in the heart of the town.

It's both exciting and tiring thinking about it!

Liz

I'm dreaming of...

A compost heap!

Yes, I know, a strange thing to dream of. One of the things I am looking forward to when we move out of Athens, apart from having a little more space to live in, is having a little more space to live out. Hopefully! We will begin our search for something to rent in the coming week. Let's hope it is not too exhausting.

I am a country girl, really. Wasn't built for the big city. So for me it will sort of be a coming home only 2,000 miles away from home! Each time we visit my parents in the North West of England I enjoy their garden, the amount of time we spend in it, and the fruits of their hard work. Or should I say vegetables of their hard work? (That's my Dad there at the back.)


These are the things the kids planted with their Grandad in April when we visited. Everything has really sprouted up! Must be all the lovely rain! They always have a really great time together planting vegetables. They get so absorbed. I am really looking forward to having even a little bit of outdoor space to grow something with the kids. It tastes much better when you have grown it yourself! It is much more entertaining and wholesome for them than watching TV, although they do plenty of that when we go to England as well.

Which brings us to the compost heap. My Dad has a really big one at the top of the garden. It feels so good having a compost heap. It's like giving back, and it feels so "green". It can only be good for everyone.

These were the thoughts going through my mind as I prepared the Yemista the other day. I had a pile of potato skin, pepper seeds and stalks off the herbs. They were just begging to be composted!

A girl can dream, can't she?

Cookie cutters and more

The other day I managed to get to IKEA and have a little look around. My son, FZ, loves going to IKEA, and now he is on vacation from school and is bored, it was an opportunity for a morning out of the house. OZ is still at nursery until tomorrow so it was a morning for the two of us. There are two reasons why FZ loves IKEA:

1) Hot dogs,
2) Ice cream,
3) His ultimate trip would include both!

Err... somehow that became 3... oops.

I don't usually hang around browsing much when I have one or both or the kids with me. They suffer. I suffer. In my opinion, kids and shops don't go together. Even if it is a place as kid friendly as IKEA. So, as usual, we did a quick fly-by of the top floor, stopping for the obligatory amount of time in the kids section for a spin in those egg shaped chairs that close over them and they are hidden. After that we went downstairs to the household stuff and discovered that they have brought some new utensils for baking and cooking. I came across these lovely cutters.



There are 13 altogether and they come in their own storage box (conveniently stamped with the pattern on it so you can work out how to fit them all in again). They were just less than 7 Euro, if I remember correctly. I liked that there are large and small cutters in, and that they are fairly deep too so you could use them for cutting cute sandwiches for the kids or even cutting out cake shapes. I thought the hearts will be used often as well as the abstract flower type shape.

I will post some pictures of anything I make with them. I'm looking forward to using them but time is proving short. Off to start today's lunch. We are having Yemista. I haven't made them for a while, preferring less time consuming dishes lately, but I just love the aroma they give off while baking.

Liz

Photos update

We've been so busy with the move and everything, so apologies for the delay! Anyway, here is the size range. Which one would you pick for "Venti"?

Alex

Size matters

One of the things that I have been contemplating a lot when considering what I will offer in the shop is the size of the cupcakes. Since it's not going to be an enormous concern, I am not going to have too much time every day to make a huge selection of sizes. So I am questioning what people will want. Of course I can only suppose, and will know what people want when I actually open the shop.

Then, there is the matter of what to call them. You could go down the route of most western chain stores and refuse to call anything small. So should we name the ones which are not the biggest "regular" or maybe "medium" or should we go the... we know it's small but we don't want to call it that, so we'll think of something cute to call it...such as "mini" or "baby" ?

Maybe we should just go the way of Starbucks and confuse every one so that there are not three sizes but four, so if you ask for medium you have to choose between the two smallest or the the two middle sizes.

"Would you like that cupcake short, tall, grande or venti?"

Maybe not.

Liz

Red velvet - I don't think so!

This week I haven't been in a baking mood. I think it is to do with the fact that I feel there are so many more things that we need to be getting on with regarding the move, but we can't until we get some other things out of the way. One good thing is that Fin finished school this week for the summer. We have to collect his "grades" on Monday. I put "grades" in inverted commas because he has only finished the first year and I am not sure yet how serious grades are at that age. No doubt we will find out on Monday! In a another week to ten days we should be able to turn our attention to actually finding a place and moving.

Anyway, today was the first day I felt like getting the mixer out and I decided to have another go at making red velvet cake/cupcakes. The trouble is... I just cannot under any circumstances bring myself to put that amount of red food coloring into a cake! I JUST CAN'T DO IT!! This is my second attempt. The first time I did vanilla cake which turned out a pleasant pink shade but by no means could you call them red velvet. This time I added a dash of cocoa powder. It just turned out looking like a very tasty chocolate cake. So the big problem is the coloring. It just seems to go against my whole being to add so much fake color just to get it red! It's not like it adds to the flavor after all.

I am beginning to think that red velvet won't be featuring on my menu in the shop. I did read somewhere out there on the net that someone of a similar mind to me made them with beetroot for coloring and it's something I might consider trying when I have a little time to experiment. Maybe I can add them to the vegetable range. It could be quite good. Chocolate and courgette (that's zucchini to the Americans reading, and I'll tell an amusing story about my first attempt at those another day), sweet pea, carrot (of course) and another recipe I found on tastespotting and really want to try is brownies with spinach! I can market them to parents whose kids won't eat healthily, although I am not sure the value of getting kids to eat cake in order to eat veg... How many cakes will they have to eat to get their RDA? How about 'get your 5 a day from 5 different cakes' a day??? Maybe NOT!

Oh well. I didn't have the chance to frost the nice brown red velvet cakes so stay tuned for some pictures of those coming up and then I will mention another pressing issue.

Liz

Cake balls photos

And here we are, just like I promised: approved by OZ.

Cake balls

Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to make some cake balls à la bakerella. I have been wanting to try them for some time because I see lots of people on the internet making them and raving about how good they are. The reason I haven't had a chance to do them before now is because here in Greece it is a bit difficult to come by some of the ingredients. The main difficulty being the candy melts.

Anyway, I had a left over cake from Monday night (sports evening) which I had rejected for not being big enough (very size-ist of me, I know). A plain chocolate cake. I also had a little bit of buttercream of various colours left. I decide to just dip the balls in melted milk chocolate and then drizzle over some white chocolate.

Unfortunately, we were in a hurry to go where we were taking them and didn't have a chance to take any photos (that's what I'll tell myself anyway), but, fortunately, there are a few frozen balls left in my freezer. I will be able to take photos of them at leisure when I finish off the next batch.

The great thing about these, aside from the taste that is, is that a) There is so much potential to do amazing things with them. Just check out the things Bakerella has created over time! Cake pops, Cake balls and Cake bites; b) You can easily alter the directions like I did. I used a left over cake and buttercream instead of the suggested cake and frosting in the directions. This means it's a great way of using leftovers and not wasting a single crumb; and c) If you are a beginner in the kitchen, you can follow the directions exactly and use the packet mix and ready frosting (those are available in the larger supermarkets even in Greece) and get great results.

The only thing is that, now that the weather is hotting up over here, you might not successfully be able to transport them so well to someone's house if they are a gift. We just managed last night to get to where we were going without the chocolate melting. (I wonder if candy melts hold together a bit better in the heat?)

That leaves you with two choices, only make them in the winter OR, and I have to say I am more inclined this way..., eat them all yourself!

Pics next time, I promise.

Liz

Photos update

I updated the photos of the carrot cupcake post to bring them up to par with the rest of the blog.

Strawberry tart

On Monday, when I was making the cupcakes for the Nursery sports evening, I made some strawberry buttercream. I added some fresh pureed strawberries to my basic buttercream recipe. I was free-styling a bit and added a few too many, the result being that the frosting wouldn't really hold its shape so much. I decided to halve what I had made and add more icing sugar to the one I wanted to pipe, and popped the rest in a bowl in the fridge.

I'm not one to waste things, and since I also had some leftover strawberries, I decided to make a flan. It's something I haven't made in years! In fact, I had to give my flan tin a really good scrub! Now, I would normally fill a strawberry flan with cream or mascarpone, or something a little plainer, but, in the interests of being economical, I'd say this works very well. It's not exactly low fat, but there isn't any butter in the cake, so that makes up for it. I think.

So, this is a plain cake recipe, topped with my strawberry buttercream "disaster" and fresh sliced strawberries. I added a little gelatin at the end, just to make it lovely and glossy.

Progress

Things have been moving along at a fast pace. Our plans are taking shape. We will be making the big move sometime through the summer vacation. Its a bit difficult to turn our attention to that when we still have school for a couple more weeks.

We have been keeping ourselves busy with trying new recipes and photographing them. AZ is getting quite the photographer! We've uploaded a sampler to Flickr and Picasa. I've been finding plenty of willing subjects to test out the finished products too! We've also consulted a very talented graphic designer to help us work on our image.

My little girl, OZ is having her nursery school sports evening tonight and I am providing some cupcakes. I decided on cupcake babies for the children (over 100 of them) and three dozen of three other flavours just for folks to try. The kitchen table is loaded down with the cakes and shortly I will start frosting them.

Liz

Bought stuff

Had a good vacation in England and managed to track down a cake supply shop not far away and bought a few cake making related stuff. Now all I have to do is find time to do a bit of experimenting! Hopefully I can find the time to practice my piping skills and I also want to do a little bit of fondant work and some sugar flower craft so I can make prettier cakes for special orders.

Update: Finding time for this is proving difficult!

Liz

Anniversary cupcakes

My lovely parents in law celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary recently and we decided to have a small party at home to celebrate.

It was a good opportunity to try out the cupcake stand I bought and fill it up with yummy cakes. I made three kinds. Carrot with Cream cheese frosting, Lemon meringue and Chocolate mud with Whipped cream. Everyone seemed to enjoy them and several people insisted on trying all three flavours.

Liz

Experiment

This week I tried a new chocolate frosting. It was with condensed milk. It didn't turn out the way it looked on the blog I got the recipe from. It was supposed to be thick and a little fudgey but mine turned out too runny to do what I wanted with the decorations. Maybe I didn't convert the measurements properly or maybe I just didn't measure carefully. It's not so easy to measure condensed milk. They tasted ok.

Anyway... you win some you lose some.

I have chocolate brownie cupcakes in the oven now and hopefully they will turn out well. They smell nice. I am hoping to make the choc chip cookie recipe for photographing this weekend.

Update: The brownie cupcakes were out of this world and the cookies were great. The cookie photos make you just want to reach out and grab one. Morning light gives a lovely "I want one of those for my breakfast" feeling...

Liz

Carrot cupcakes ― update

Yes. These were definitely very good. I did a half recipe which yielded 12 large cupcakes. I used the mixed spice I found at AB and even though it smelled more of cinnamon than what we get in England it tasted fine. I think a bit more carrot would have been good too. The cream cheese icing was good too.

I have started making a weekly to do list. Things to find out and get done.

Carrot cupcakes

Today I am trying carrot cupcakes. They smell good. More later.

Trying recipes

I have been making lots of lists and bookmarking lots and lots of recipes and sites that I think might be useful. I am working through some of them so I can take pics and draw conclusions on them.

Last night I tried Smitten kitchen's Chocolate and Hazelnut Biscotti. They turned out quite good even though I put too much egg in. I halved the recipe but still put four eggs in instead of two. Oops. My eggs were probably smaller anyway I think because the dough was nowhere near as soft as Deb describes in her recipe. I also didn't have enough hazelnuts and I can tell that they would have been a lot tastier with the full amount.

All in all, I would describe them as a possible keeper.