The making of cupcakes.gr

Kourabiédes ― almond cookies

2011-12-13T17:00:00.005+02:00

These days we've added kourabiédes (pronounced: koor•amb•yéth•es) to our menu. Have you ever made them? They're not too difficult at all and they are really delicious. If you can read Greek, Kiki's is a perfect recipe to follow over at Mikri Kouzina.

As Kiki explains in her post, this recipe makes a lot of kourabiedes, so you may want to halve the recipe if you just want to make a few as an experiment or just for yourselves at home.

What makes them special? They're full of almonds. They are REALLY delicious. Just ask our customers!

PS Your hands might ache after making these!

Glamour reader offer

2011-11-15T19:00:00.023+02:00

Our friends over at Glamour magazine are celebrating their 10th anniversary! In the new issue of Glamour out today, you receive the Glamour Smart Shopping Card which entitles you to all sorts of discount and goodies.

We've created a special glamorous flavour for the occasion and cardholders will receive ONE FREE GLAMOUR cupcake when showing us their card. The offer starts today and lasts until the 1st of December.

What's the GLAMOUR cupcake? It's a delicious combination of Almond and Cherry. Almond cake, filled with cherry preserve and topped with our delicious cherry buttercream!

Looking forward to seeing all the glamourous girls (and boys).

Competition for November!

2011-10-30T17:00:00.001+02:00

Send us a photo or photos of you and your favourite Liz's Cupcakes at competitions@cupcakes.gr for a chance to win a box of 9 cupcakes to be picked up the next time you come in. The photo can be taken anywhere at any time!

The rules: We have to be able to recognize the cupcakes as ours! So it either has to be here in the store, or a close-up, or have our box or business card on show!

Use your imagination!

We'll pick a winner at the end of November.

Note: At no time put yourselves or our cupcakes in danger :P

Day-trippers!

2011-10-08T17:30:00.001+03:00

Last weekend we had a first. A coach-load of day-trippers decided to stop by for cupcakes! I've never seen such chaos in here before. But we survived!

Bring them on... We DO need some notice if you decide to come with a coach-load of your friends!

Greek inspiration ― Olive & Ouzo cupcake

2011-08-06T13:00:00.007+03:00

When Cat asked me to do a guest post for Sugar Daze I thought it was a great opportunity to play around with a couple of ideas I'd been having for new cupcake flavours. I thought about Greek products that might go well in a cupcake and might go well together.

Some of the ingredients I had in mind were figs, olives, brandy and ouzo.

I've had this jar of sweet olive preserve for a while now and I've been thinking of a good way to get them into a cupcake. Here in Greece it's very common to make a sweet preserve of various fruits and vegetables even.

It's not jam, marmalade or jelly but fruit or veg that is sometimes blanched and then stored in a sugar syrup. Depending on the fruit it can be boiled in the syrup or separately. You can get all the popular fruits such as cherry and grape and also more unusual things, such as baby egg-plant, all in sweet preserve form. They are often served on a small saucer, just a spoonful and are considered a healthy treat. They are fat free but are full of sugar!

In the photo below we have sour cherry on the left and my olive preserve on the right:

The thing that I admire about the women who make 'spooned sweets' as they're often referred to here, is that it totally encompasses thriftiness. Not a thing goes to waste. The abundance of fruit and vegetables from the trees and gardens can be preserved in sweet form for months.

Sweet Olive preserve is not widely available in Greece, well not at the supermarkets anyway, you probably have to go to a shop that specialises in sweets and other Greek produce. I get mine from a wonderful local shop: Melokipos (Honey garden).

So anyway... I was thinking that olives and figs together would be a very unusual concept but in the end I realised that the cinnamon and clove that are in the preserved olive just wouldn't work together so well.

I'd already soaked some dried figs in brandy overnight so in the end I made a simple batch of plain cake adding the finely chopped olives to half of it and the finely chopped brandy soaked figs in the other half.

I often use the simple recipe of 100g flour, 100g sugar, 100g butter & 2 eggs recipe when I'm doing experimenting. I can tell afterwards if I need to change the recipe to get it more or less moist, it's a good starting point.

There was a delicious smell in the kitchen as they were baking! For the frosting I made a simple buttercream; for the olive cakes I added some ouzo and for the fig cupcakes I added some brandy.

Findings: The Olive & Ouzo cupcake was really good and I'm not even an olive fan! Alex thought it was a little dry and maybe it could have done with a slightly more moist cake. The ouzo in the frosting is very interesting. You can barely tell it's there and then right at the end you get the slight taste of aniseed.

The Brandy Fig cupcake was divine too. I'm partial to figs so I knew this one was going to be my favourite.

I can't wait to try something similar when the fresh figs are in season, towards the end of summer. I also think that some cocoa in this cupcake wouldn't go amiss. It won't be too painful to have to do some more experimenting!

Life & Style

2011-07-29T21:00:00.003+03:00

This month Doya Karolini was kind enough to feature us in Life & Style magazine.

She also wrote a very nice post about us on her blog, “the 6 million dollar story”.

Thanks Doya!

Around Nafplio ― A day off

2011-06-23T20:30:00.004+03:00

We've been closed on Wednesdays for a few weeks to give ourselves a much needed break from working 7 days a week. When you open a café and are working it without any employees it gets very tiring. Not only for us but also for the kids whose lives have changed dramatically since we opened doors.

So, back at the end of March, when we had a sunny afternoon and the kids got home from school we got a picnic ready and went to a nearby spring at Kefalari to enjoy the sunshine and the sound of running water. The sun was glorious and we didn't need our jackets. There was one fat duck who the kids gave half their food to! No wonder he was fat.

Apart from the water source, there is a church which has been carved out of caves above and several seventies style tavernas which make you feel like you are in an old black and white film. You totally expect to see the old film stars of Greece like Aliki Vouyouklaki filming or something.

It's only about 15 minutes from Nafplio old town and great for a couple of hours entertainment.

The next day we had torrential rain so we were pleased we had taken the opportunity.

Colouring competition for May

2011-05-03T18:00:00.001+03:00

I don't know how, but April totally got away from us. Sorry about that! Anyway.

The May colouring competition is here. To enter, you must be 12 years old or under and able to visit our café to pick up your prize.

Enter the following ways:

1. Pass by the café and pick up a copy of this month's competition. Colour it and return.

2. Download and print the file. Colour it and then either bring it to the café, post it to us by regular mail or scan it and send it by email.

Don't forget to include your name, age and contact details.

The winner will be announced in the first day or two of June and they receive 12 cupcakes!

Colouring competition winner!

2011-04-07T18:30:00.001+03:00

We had a lot of entries to our colouring competition. We're so impressed with the capabilities of the children who entered.

Especially some of the younger ones. It was very difficult to choose a winner. It was difficult to choose between those who coloured neatly and those who used more creativity. Between those who were very young and those who were a bit older. Between boys and girls.

In the end we asked some customers who are totally unrelated to any of the children (and who also happen to be graphics artists!) to give us a hand in choosing the winner.

All the way from Australia and Japan! Thanks Athena and Shinichi!

And the winner is Yannis Smyrniotakis. Here's his entry:

We also especially liked these two:

Like I said, it was a very difficult choice. We're definitely going to ask for more help in choosing the winner the next time around. Stay tuned later this month for the next competition!

Liz Cupcakes

In the press

2011-03-31T22:00:00.004+03:00

I do apologise for abandoning the blog for so long. We have been extremely busy. Which is a good thing, only I really miss blogging so often and not getting a chance to read everyone else's blogs :(

The day before OPEN CUPCAKE we had a visit from Néna Dimitriou and Effie Paroútsa from “Kathimerini” (nationwide newspaper) and Stelios Parliaros' (pastry chef) “Glykes Istories” magazine (greek for ‘Sweet Stories’; nationwide publication).

We spent the morning photographing the café, the cupcakes and ourselves :o

The March issue came out two Mondays ago in Athens and we received our copy today last week.

Thanks again Nena for coming down and for writing about us. We had a lot of fun!

This month we were also featured in Glamour Magazine. In their 'agenda' section. Thanks Danai!

We were also mentioned in the Feb issue of Cosmopolitan, which we didn't know about until our customers kept mentioning that they'd seen us in Cosmo. Alex popped out to buy one and we found ourselves on their Cosmoscope page. Thanks to whoever it was who decided to include us there too :)

We've got so many things still to do to get the café the way we really want it. We realise it takes time; still sometimes we feel like there aren't enough hours in the day! One thing at a time is what I keep telling myself.

Liz Cupcakes

Anniversary ‘cake’ & Open Cupcake!

2011-03-07T12:00:00.002+02:00

Since we're around cake so much these days I didn't particularly feel like having cake for our anniversary. I can't deny that I'm very tired.

We had a busy weekend ahead of us so I decided to just make a little something tasty for us to tuck into while we were at the café.

I settled on cheesecake brownie. I cut it into heart shapes, and layered it with fresh strawberries and chocolate & strawberry sauce. It was just right. Chocolate and strawberries together are delicious.

On Saturday we were pleased (but somewhat dismayed) that the seating area furniture turned up 5 minutes before we were due to hand out the 200 mini cupcakes! We quickly unpacked the things as fast as we could and disposed of the packaging. The delivery firm only delivered the table tops and not their legs!!! (which finally arrived last Wednesday, a whole 4 days later...)

Open Cupcake went really well! Thanks for everyone who made it. Special thanks to those who came all the way from Athens for cupcakes :D I had to keep baking most of the afternoon because the counter was emptying quickly.

It was an exhausting day. The poor kids were worn out, even though they were very excited by the whole thing. Or maybe it was just the helium balloons we got that were so exciting! We went to bed after midnight and I had to be up again at 7 the next morning to be on my feet again for most of Sunday. My feet are still not very happy with this running a cupcakery thing.

We're at the end of another holiday weekend. The town was busy. The weather did improve ever so slightly yesterday and the day before, with skies that allowed the sun to poke through just this little bit.

Up until the end of March we have a colouring competition for children who are under 12 (those who go to Demotikó). At the end of the month we'll choose a winner who will receive 12 cupcakes. Any under 12s are welcome to take part.

You can download the PDF file, colour and return it in the post (or just scan and email it to us)! Of course, should you win, you have to be able to come to Nafplio to pick up your prize!

Liz Cupcakes

Our anniversary & café open house!

2011-02-20T14:00:00.000+02:00

It's that time of year again although we've hardly had time to notice since we've been so busy with the café!

Remember last year? Our 19th anniversary cookie?

And the cake?

Yes, last year was our 19th and I wrote this: ''Happy Anniversary to us! Next year it's the big 20! Should I start planning the celebrations from now?''

Hmm. Well. I wouldn't have thought that our anniversary would have come so soon after the opening of the café! To celebrate we're going to have an open-house on the 26th. We'll be giving away 200 mini cupcakes! We were waiting for our seating area to be ready to do a Grand Opening and there is a chance that the furniture will be delivered by the 26th, but whether it is or not, we're going to be celebrating our 20th Anniversary with our friends and customers!

Perhaps some of you might be planning a day trip to Nafplio and if you are, we'd love to see you!

Liz Cupcakes

The vanilla goes to...

2011-02-17T19:45:00.003+02:00

Thanks again everyone.

There were 20 comments, giving a total of 19 entries for the vanilla pods (greek & english combined). And the winner is (drum roll, please)... Eirini!

Please contact us to let us know where to post them. We'd also like to know what you are going to do with them!

A whole month!

2011-01-30T11:00:00.001+02:00

WOW! I can't believe it has been almost a whole month since we opened! Of course the saying goes: ‘Time flies when you are having fun.’

Truthfully, the days have gone by so quickly we've hardly had a chance to register what day it was! We're getting into the swing of things. I'm getting used to my kitchen and (for the most part) remember where I've put things! We've been bringing in new flavours every few days and I've been trying to use lovely local fruit for some of them. I'll keep doing that as the seasons change.

One of the most exciting things of the past month has been finally getting to meet in person so many of you, who have been following our story here as well as on facebook and twitter. I can't describe the thrill I get when I see a car pulling up outside the café and the people inside with excited expressions on their face that they found us and are actually here! In a small way it is as though they feel like our café is theirs, too, and it really makes me feel good! Thanks so much for coming and keeping me going even though I've been totally exhausted this month :)

I've been answering lots of baking related questions from my customers, too. Lots of people, it seems, love to bake.

Olivia's arm is almost better; just two days ago the plaster came off. Of course, now she is taking antibiotics for a nasty bug she picked up! It's been a busy month from that point of view, too!

We've got lots planned in the next few days and weeks. We'll try our best to keep you all posted. It's been a while since we had a little give-away, so I thought it's time. I'm going to give away 5 madagascan vanilla pods. These pods are about 20cm (4in) long and very supple and fresh. You can use your vanilla pods by scraping out the seeds and adding them directly to your cake batter or your frosting, then you can use the leftover pod to make vanilla sugar. Which you can then add to your hot drinks or baking!

To enter leave a comment answering who in your household likes cooking? Everyone? No one? And what's the thing they like to cook? You have until midnight Saturday local time (GMT +2) to leave your comment. Only the first comment will count for each participant. Please make sure that we have a way to contact you if you win.

Liz Cupcakes

First impressions

2011-01-18T19:00:00.003+02:00

Thanks everyone for your kind words and wishes!

The past couple of weeks have been both extremely exciting & exhausting. Overall we've been thrilled by how well they went. The first Friday and Saturday Alex had to be in Athens so I was on my own at the café. My friend came to stay with her two children to help take care of our two. Those were two really long days for me. I ached everywhere!!!

Then, on the Saturday, Olivia had an accident at the playground and broke her arm. Fortunately it's not too serious and she is getting used to the cast the doctor put on.

Along with the excitement of having customers, we had to learn a lot of things really quickly and we still have a lot to learn. There are so many things you have to have in your mind. Lots of balls to juggle.

Many thanks to all the customers who showed patience if we were a bit slow. Many thanks also to our friends here, especially those who helped look after the kids so that they didn't lose their minds with boredom and have to spend hours doing nothing at the café, as well as others who ran around doing errands for us when it was difficult to get away and also helping us to get to grips with the coffee machine!

You may have noticed we have added our opening hours here at the side. For now we will close early on Wednesday and Sunday but it's probable that when we add our seating area we will be open until later on those days, too.

I made a little tower of cupcakes for the window display and Betsy of the internationally famous blog ‘Cupcakes take the cake’ posted a picture of it over there. Thanks again, Betsy!

We had a four-legged ‘would-be’ customer the other day :P He sat outside looking longingly in the window!

That's all for now. I have a little girl who needs extra cuddles.

Liz Cupcakes

What we've been waiting for!

2011-01-01T23:00:00.000+02:00

Liz's Cupcakes is OPEN for business!

It's been a long and arduous journey. Like a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs.

To be honest I really wondered several times whether we would be able to get this thing off the ground.

So, without further delay... here is a little tour:

As you can see, we don't have our seating area yet. We're still waiting for the permit for that (and some cash, too). There are two different permits: for shops which are for take-away only and shops for seated customers. Our property only had the first permit. The second permit is taking its time in coming because, as is the custom here, lots of paperwork needs to be provided and then considered. Hopefully it won't be much longer until you can sit in a cosy environment and enjoy a delicious coffee and cupcake. Until then, you can get your coffee and cakes to enjoy in the comfort of your home.

We have to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped us. Especially our parents, who helped in many many ways, both with physical work and financial support. They made a lot of sacrifices for us and we are extremely grateful. Our siblings have also helped in ways too many to mention. We were also overwhelmed with kindness and offers of help from all of our friends here and, last but not least, thanks to all of you who read this blog and who follow us on twitter and facebook, for the unfailing moral support. You've been cheering us from the sidelines by comments and by private email and messages. Your words really helped us to keep going!

When we moved here in August of 2009, we never imagined that it would take us so long to get the café going. We had a lot of expectations that didn't turn out the way we thought. We had a fair amount of disappointments and a lot of other stuff that I didn't really feel like writing about here! Maybe when I settle down into a routine with the café I'll finally be able to put it all into words. I readily admit that we had NO IDEA how long this whole thing would take and we had totally unrealistic ideas of the time frame. Having said that, most of the delays were due to things that were out of our control. We probably shouldn't have counted on some things. It has been one enormous learning curve.

So, here we are. Does the fun begin now? We'll see. We're planning on keeping the blog going, but from now on it will be about running the café, not planning it! One thing is for sure: I couldn't be happier that this phase of preparing the shop is over and now we can focus on what we wanted all this time, having a cosy café in a beautiful town and offering deliciousness to all of our customers on a daily basis.

We're sure you won't be disappointed!

Liz Cupcakes

We're almost there

2010-12-27T10:00:00.006+02:00

Sorry for our absence! We're down to the last steps for opening the store. Putting the last few things in place and cleaning.

We've had a few delays here and there and since we're doing (almost) everything ourselves, well, there is only so much you can do in a day. We hoped we would be all done and dusted a little while ago but we have come to realise that some things are just out of our hands or just not humanly possible for a couple with two children and their families!

So be patient a little longer. Any day now, all will be revealed.

These days we have been getting lots of deliveries of both equipment and also some supplies. We're going to be serving delicious coffee to go with your cupcakes. For take away at first and very shortly we'll be adding tables and chairs so the yumminess can be enjoyed in our relaxing and fun environment!

The countdown begins...

The olive harvest

2010-12-21T21:15:00.000+02:00

Earlier this month I took time out from the frantic last preparations for the café opening to go with the kids and visit some friends of ours who were in the last stages of harvesting the olives from their groves near Lygourió. Even though I've seen how it's done on TV, we had never actually joined in, so it was an opportunity I didn't want to put off until next year.

Needless to say, the kids had an amazing time. I really enjoyed it, too, even though I din't help that much because of my back.

It's common for families here to have olive groves for their own supply of oil and, if there is any left, they can sell it or give it away if they choose. When the middle of November comes around, everyone in the family, from old to young, knows it's time to start the olive harvest.

Large cloths are laid below the trees and then, with special 'combs' and ladders, the trees are stripped of their fruit. Usually some pruning of the trees takes place, too. Once all the olives are on the cloths, they're carefully lifted into a large 'sieve' which allows the leaves, which have also fallen, to be sorted out and the olives fall through into the sack below.

Once all the olives are harvested, they're taken by truck to the local olive press. The owner of the olives agrees in advance to either pay with money for the pressing of the oil or to give a percentage of the oil that is pressed to the mill owner, who, in turn, sells it. The smell emitted from the mill as olives are being pressed is one you either love or hate, but you certainly know you are in an olive producing region at this time of year! The smell is unmistakeable!

We only spent a few hours with our friends, including a break for some hearty bean soup to give the workers their energy. During the hours we were there, three trees were stripped and the fourth one was just begun. As you can imagine, it is hard work. But well worth it! The kids came home excited, exhausted and very dirty!

Liz Cupcakes

Old fashioned treats

2010-12-06T14:30:00.007+02:00

We're still frantically busy putting the finishing touches to the café and waiting for the last few things to be delivered.

I haven't been doing too much cupcake baking. I have, however, made one or two old fashioned sweets that remind me of my childhood: Toffee Apples and Rice Krispie treats.

Recipes abound all over the internet for these, so I'll let you find one that suits you best rather than copy from my cookbook.

We're getting really close to opening and we've already got a wedding booked for shortly after we open! Eek!

A quick update ― sneak peek

2010-11-20T23:30:00.000+02:00

We're sorry we haven't been able to keep you all as up to date as we would have liked with the renovations at the café. We have been taking photos though, so you will get to see them... eventually.

We're moving ahead at quite a good pace and we're getting close to opening date. I'm not saying exactly when, because when you're waiting for things to be delivered... or even delivered correctly, you can't always be sure you'll get things when you are told. Until just one week ago everything was still upside-down in the shop; now things are looking a lot different.

We're doing most of the work ourselves. This basically means that my Father in Law has done pretty much everything with a little help from us and some friends.

Really, without our friends and relatives letting us use tools and volunteering for hard labour, we wouldn't be anywhere near finished! Other friends have volunteered to come in at the end to help with the final decoration and clearing up. Yet other friends have helped us along by encouraging us not to give up!

There are still not enough hours in every day to get everything done on our 'to-do' lists, but we're trying!

Last week I injured my back and were out of action for about 3 days. Not the best timing... but then again when is there a good time to be ill?

So that's all for now. I've been able to give more frequent short updates on our facebook page so, if you want to know more, pass by there.

Liz Cupcakes

Baked doughnuts

2010-10-28T18:00:00.004+03:00

The special offers at LIDL last week were for baking tins and other cookware. I went along and got, among other things, two mini doughnut baking tins. I quickly started googling recipes for baked doughnuts.

The tins performed well and the doughnuts were yummy. OK, they're not the same as fried doughnuts... but they are very tasty and can do just as much damage to your arteries as fried ones, in my opinion :) Plus... with these... you don't have to wait for yeast to work its magic.

You can find the recipe I used here.

Liz Cupcakes

New winner

2010-10-16T21:00:00.003+03:00

Hi everyone,

We're announcing a new winner for the salt & pepper grinders since we were unable to contact the winner who was announced.

The new winner is Stella! Please contact us to let us know where to send your prize!

Liz Cupcakes

Follow us...

2010-10-11T10:13:00.005+03:00

Sorry that we haven't posted an update yet. It's coming soon, I promise.

Follow us on twitter or like us on facebook for more frequent mini updates!

Liz cupcakes.

The winner is...

2010-09-20T17:30:00.001+03:00

I realized after the giveaway got going and I read your comments that I asked a similar question a few months ago when we did a giveaway! That shows how preoccupied I've been these days! I did have a purpose to my question.. as usual :P

Without further procrastination let's see who is going to be making perfectly seasoned dishes with their new salt & pepper grinders.

We had 34 comments (don't forget to look on both languages of the blog, in case you're counting).

The winner is Maria:

Congratulations! Please email us to let us know where to send your gift :)

Happy grinding.

Liz Cupcakes

Seaside cupcakes - Giveaway

2010-09-11T12:40:00.002+03:00

Over the last few weeks I didn't cook too many cupcakes. The temperatures were so high and we don't have A/C in the kitchen at home. I did make these cupcakes for fun. They are decorated with sweeties from the local sweety shop.

This week we've started organising the renovation work for the shop. We hope to actually start the work early next week. The kids will also be back to school and we will be back into the Autumn routine. Three months is a long time to be off school.

I popped out to Cookshop this morning. I wanted to find a little gift to give away. Now that everyone is back and we're all getting back into the grind of work/school life I thought it would be nice to have something to cheer us up!

I've had my eye on these salt & pepper grinders for a while. They are SO cute. They are shaped like little bunny rabbits. Cuteness overload.

What is even cuter is that they're also magnetic! You can put them on your refrigerator or other metal surface in your kitchen.

Do you want to have these cute little magnetic bunny salt & pepper grinders? If you do, leave a comment telling me how often you treat yourself or others to something for the kitchen? And I'm not talking about food or alcohol :P

You have until next Saturday midnight (that's Athens DST time, GMT+3) to leave your comment.

Liz Cupcakes

We're pleased to announce...

2010-09-05T18:00:00.014+03:00

While you were all away on vacation we have been busy busy.

I was beginning to think this day would never come. We have finally found and signed for our retail location!

After the first disappointment we had, with the store that the owner gave to someone else, we wasted another five weeks negotiating with the owners of another store, only to realise that we were never going to come to any agreement with them. If you had told me a year ago, when we first moved here, that I wouldn't have my shop open by now, I wouldn't have believed you.

I really felt like giving up after that. Could it really be so hard just to find a location to open the store? That was at the end of July. We took a couple of days off for a break and to try and think again about our options.

The following week we left the kids with our family and set off in the sweltering heat of August to start looking again. The last one we looked at seemed to be perfect for our needs and we signed the contract. To say I was relieved is an understatement.

I'll try to answer some of the questions I think you'll want answers to.

Where is it?

Unfortunately the shop is NOT in the old town of Nafplio. This is something that has been a disappointment to us. The planning laws in the old town make it extremely difficult to find a suitable location where the law allows a kitchen and not just a sales outlet. We decided, after much thought, that we can't wait for something suitable and within our budget to become available.

As I mentioned last time, we had tried to get a small shop very close to the old town but it wasn't to be. We expanded our search to some other streets we hadn't thought of before and that's when we found the perfect spot. Right at the base of Palamídi castle! This is the view when you look up from the front door:

Where exactly?

The exact address is: 13, 25 Martíou St (it's pronounced “Eikostís Pémptis Martíou”, and it means “25th of March”; we're on number 13 on this street). For those of you who know the area at all, 25 Martíou is the street which takes you to the Palamídi (if you drive & avoid the 1000 steps). It's also the road to the beautiful Karathóna beach. Most locals know the street and visitors pass by to go sightseeing or swimming. Even the little Nafplio tour train comes by; now all we have to do is convince them to make a stop :P

View Larger Map

We still haven't ruled out the thought of having somewhere in the old town as a second location in the future but for now our focus is on renovating and making cupcakes as soon as possible!

Is there a lot of work to do?

The shop is in fair condition but the last business was a souvlaki shop so, of course, there's going to be plenty of work to transform it. We need to divide off the rooms, build a kitchen and a bathroom and decorate. My Parents in Law have offered their time and expertise and apart from that I'm enlisting volunteers :P

What is the next step?

We have been waiting to get some of the paperwork out of the way before letting you all know. We have our pre-approval by the Town Hall and we just finished off the paperwork at the tax office. I am now a private enterprise :-)

So, when will you be opening doors?

A good question. We have a date we're aiming for but I have already learned that setting dates for things usually ends up with those dates flying by and me being depressed! When we know, you'll know!

We'll be blogging the shop transformation along the way. So get your dust sheets and paintbrushes out and stay tuned!

Liz Cupcakes

Cheesecakes!

2010-08-24T18:00:00.000+03:00

We're back and boy have we got news for you!

First of all, what was that heat like? Not good for cupcake making, that's for sure. It is impossible to keep buttercream from melting at almost 40 degrees and no air conditioning! I had to make some samples for a couple last week and I was really NOT happy with the way they turned out.

Cheesecake, unlike cupcakes, is meant to be kept in the refrigerator, so I made a few different kinds of cheesecake these past few weeks. Cupcakes will be back on the blog now that the temperature has gone down a little! I think cheesecupcakes might be very nice during the summer months!

I'd love to say that we are refreshed and relaxed from our vacation but, as you'll see in the next few days, we have been busy busy busy. Only the blog has been on vacation! September is going to roll around in a few short days, so get ready for the roller coaster which is about to begin. If you follow us on twitter or facebook you have a clue about the exciting things coming up.

Full disclosure coming very soon.

Liz Cupcakes

Vacation

2010-08-04T15:00:00.000+03:00

It's too hot to be baking these days :P So the blog is going on vacation.

So many of you are on vacation we thought we may as well have a vacation too. A vacation from blogging anyway.

Have a wonderful wonderful summer and we'll catch up with you all soon.

Liz Cupcakes

Whoopie pies

2010-07-24T16:15:00.001+03:00

Whoopie pies and macarons are two things I have been meaning to have a go at for a long time. I see lots of recipes for both on Tastespotting.

A couple of weeks ago my sister in law asked me whether I had ever made whoopie pies. She'd seen them in a magazine (which I gave her...) and assured me she would be more than happy to do a taste test!

The same day as she mentioned it, I had seen this list of recipes at the kithcn.

I went ahead and made the first ones on the list. Making a few little alterations to it. They were delicious. My sister in law agrees.

I might have whoopie pies in the shop from time to time, but I feel that, since they are essentially the same as cupcakes but in a different shape and not so easy to transport or eat, it's probably best to stick to cupcakes!

I might have to keep making them until I've made up my mind.

Liz Cupcakes

Ice cream sandwiches ― Update

2010-07-16T18:00:00.004+03:00

There is a lot going on over here behind the scenes. No, my next post is NOT going to announce the shop is open. Although I'd love it if that was what my post was about, wouldn't you miss all the renovation photos?

The thing is, I really can't blog about it until things are official. Let's just say we seem to be finally moving forward and not backwards. Let's say now we really are coming face to face with bureaucracy.

When we finally get this place open, I'll consider it one of my life's achievements. That is, if I haven't gone missing under a mountain of paperwork.

So, let's all have something tasty to cool us and our nerves down.

I've seen quite a few recipes for cookie ice-cream sandwiches flying about the internet lately. I love ice-cream sandwiches, so I was itching to try.

I found myself with some spare chocolate chip cookies which I'd made for topping the cupcakes from the last post. There was also some cheapy ice-cream in the freezer, so I decided to go ahead and sandwich some of them together.

The result was tasty but a little too sweet. The chocolate cookies are fairly sweet anyway and, like I mentioned, the ice-cream was a bit of a cheap one. If I was going to make them deliberately, as opposed to just stuffing together whatever I had in the house, I would choose the recipes a bit more carefully. I'd pick a less sweet cookie and a much better quality ice-cream or even a home-made one.

After you have put a dollop of ice cream on one cookie, you just squash it all together with the other one and, if liked, dip in sprinkles.

Then store tightly wrapped individually in cellophane in the freezer until ready to eat. You have to work quickly, unless your kitchen is nice and cool! An extra pair of hands might have been useful!

Liz Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

2010-07-09T19:30:00.006+03:00

Here are some chocolate chip cookie cupcakes. Home made cookies on the top and bottom and chocolate chip cake and vanilla buttercream in between.

'nuff said.

Liz Cupcakes

Peach cupcakes & update

2010-07-02T18:25:00.001+03:00

It has been a difficult couple of weeks. We had found a location. We were going to sign the contract. We told the owner we needed to check one last thing about how we would fit an extractor fan. We had to be away over the weekend and when Alex went by the property after the weekend, he discovered the owner had given the property to someone else.

Needless to say we were very disappointed. We had to start the search all over again. Just as you think you are about to move onto the next step then you end up back where you were.

We are still forging ahead but sometimes it feels like we are going backwards instead of forwards.

This week I made peach cupcakes. They were delicious and will definitely be a seasonal item on the menu.

Speaking of the menu. I've been working on the daily/weekly menu of the shop. To take my mind off the things which are progressing more slowly, I sat down and wrote a list of all the flavours I've been working on and a handful which I intend to add but haven't refined my recipe yet. I was quite surprised that the list was pretty long! Then I made a a rough plan of my weekly menu, which cupcakes and how many I'll have available daily, which flavours will rotate, as well as seasonal cupcake flavours, ones with seasonal fruits or vegetables in them.

So that's where we are up to this week. I just realised today that we didn't have our monthly give-away for June. It was a rather frantic month with one thing and another. Keep checking in and we will have a give-away soon. I promise! :-)

Liz Cupcakes

Monkey bread

2010-06-25T16:50:00.000+03:00

I first saw a recipe for this on Ree's (aka The Pioneer Woman's) blog. I thought at the time it would be delicious, but I would make it with home made dough and not bought. Before I got around to making it, I saw another version by Deb at Smitten Kitchen.

I finally got round to making it a few weeks ago. Which recipe did I use? Well, sort of both of them. I made my own dough pretty much following the Smitten Kitchen recipe, but then I sort of followed the rest of the instructions from The Pioneer Woman's recipe. A bit vague, I know, but basically I did what I thought would be the easiest! It was divine. And it might be a bit calorific.

You could easily cut down the butter a little. But not too much, since it is supposed to be a treat! I think it makes a perfect recipe for setting up on an evening and then baking in the morning for breakfast. In fact, when I have guests this summer (starting today) I'm going to be making it for them!

Liz Cupcakes

A new yummy flavour

2010-06-23T17:15:00.006+03:00

I'm back! Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes for my Dad. The operation went very well and he is recovering very nicely. He stayed in hospital for two and a half days and then I spent a day getting groceries and then the next day I cooked food from morning until night to fill up the refrigerator and freezer so they don't have to think about cooking for a week or so! I haven't been on my feet in the kitchen for so many hours since I baked 700 cupcakes for my Brother-in-law's wedding!

Anyway, the doctors say some sea swimming will help him build up his strength but he has to let 12 weeks pass from the date of the operation, so hopefully they will get to come for some swimming before the summer is over.

Here is a new yummy flavour I experimented with before I left. They were delicious. I'm not going to reveal all my ideas for flavours but if you look closely you can probably tell!

I'd have liked the flavour in the cake to be a little bit stronger, but the frosting was very good!

Liz Cupcakes

Black forest ― Greek style

2010-06-09T06:00:00.013+03:00

There are interesting developments with the shop, but I feel I'd better not tell you until it is definite :)

So instead of news, I'm offering another one of my experiments. I made black forest cupcakes last year when the blog was in its infancy. Back when I was trying new recipes and we were learning the art of photographing them.
Now that cherries are back in season I thought I'd do a bit more experimenting.The cherry season is so short here and I love cherries so I'm already crying over the season ending and it is only beginning now! Thanks to Kiki who kindly sent me some preserved cherries and a cherry liqueur. They gave me the idea to revisit the black forest cupcakes.

They were delicious!

I am travelling to the UK to help take care of my Dad who is having his hip replaced. I'm leaving Alex in charge of the blog and, more importantly, the kids :P Pappous and Yiayia are coming to help him, too. I'll be back soon,

Liz Cupcakes

Wedding cupcakes

2010-06-04T16:00:00.005+03:00

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Myrtó. She and her sister Eirini, run an old fashioned-style barber's shop in Nafplio. They cut the hair of the men in our house. Myrtó was in the middle of planning her wedding and wanted to have some cupcakes for their intimate beach gathering after the wedding.

If you've ever been to Karathóna beach you'll know it is a beautiful bay with mountains all around. It's exciting to make the cupcakes for a beach wedding! I popped by the shop and we had a discussion about flavours and numbers. Myrtó is a very laid back person and liked every suggestion!

We decided on triple chocolate and strawberry filled vanilla.

So, last Saturday night we popped by the party. We were supposed to be there taking photos but we ended up staying a while. They had candles and oil lanterns all around and bougainvillea flowers. The weather was perfect, too. It was cool but not cold and after a little while the moon rose over the mountains behind us. It was a starry night, not a cloud in the sky.

I think this is really a wonderful way to have a wedding. It was a lovely place and atmosphere. You can make it as elaborate or as simple as you like. The kids thought it was totally cool having their flip flops on (or off, after about 5 minutes).

Congratulations, George and Myrtó!

Liz Cupcakes

The stencils go to...

2010-05-29T12:20:00.001+03:00

So, most of us eat sweet things more than we would like :P

The stencils go to zoi! (8th comment on the greek side of the blog, trust me...)

We'll get your stencils in the post on Monday morning. Please let us know your address as soon as possible.

So here is something slightly less sweet than cupcakes:

These cereal bars were delicious. Oats, pistachios, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds & cranberries. A little bit chewy and a little bit crunchy. Great for breakfast or an energy snack.

Liz Cupcakes

Give-away & Chocolate-dipped strawberries

2010-05-22T23:00:00.003+03:00

It's been a busy week. We have been all over Napflio and we've looked at a lot of shops which are for rent. We found out some new information at the various authorities and it seems that one of our choices might, after all, be suitable. We're waiting for written confirmation. I'm not getting excited though. We've been here before and got nowhere.

So right now we are keeping our options open. We've looked at properties which are at the edge of the old town and also at properties which are nowhere near the old town.

Another thought is that of opening somewhere in the new town and then to think about opening a second location in the old town, which will only sell cupcakes made at the first location and thus not have a kitchen area.

Like I said, we're considering all options.

Enough about that! I went down to CookShop to find something cute for this month's give-away.

I found lots of cute things. I found an absolutely gorgeous silicone cake mould in the shape of a sandcastle. Unfortunately I didn't get it. If I had bought it, I would have been unable to give it away! It was that cute!

I found these lovely stencils for decorating desserts. I got a flower design...

... and a football design. This one might come in handy, since the World Cup is coming up soon! Greeks are a football-loving nation!

To enter the give-away leave a comment telling me When do you find yourself eating sweets? Do you like to eat dessert when you've gone for coffee with friends, after a meal, watching TV, if someone brings some over, or all of the above? Closing time is midnight (GMT +2) Friday, May 28. One comment per person please!

While you are thinking about that, have one of these lovely chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Liz Cupcakes

Lavender cupcakes & the way things work here

2010-05-19T09:30:00.005+03:00

So last week I was all excited. I thought that I would have some thrilling news about finally securing our location for the store this week. We had three hot possibilities in the old town of Nafplio and were thinking over the advantages & disadvantages of each one. Before that, we had to make a trip to the Town Planning authorities to check out the licensing laws for the specific buildings, since we know that not all buildings can receive a permit in the old town. It turns out that none of our possibilities were suitable. It also seems highly unlikely that we will be able to find something appropriate within the old town anytime this century.

A law was passed in 1989. It was obviously supposed to protect the old town's character, but it is quite likely that it is now smothering the economy, too. The law states that, to open some sort of food establishment, you have to find a building to buy or rent which back in 1989 held the same sort of permit that you want to get. For example, if you want to open a taverna you have to find a building that was a licensed taverna in 1989; if you want to open a café with a food preparation area you have to find an available place which was a café with a food preparation area in 1989. One of our possibilities has always been some sort of food establishment but, apparently, it was operating without a license all those years...

The kind people at both the Mayor's office and the Town Planning authority have been very helpful, trying to find some sort of way we could do things right, such as changing the nature of the shop, getting a patisserie license instead of a café and so on. But each one of their suggestions brings with it its own set of drawbacks.

We feel a bit sad and frustrated about it all. We have something exciting and innovative to offer the town. We're not asking to open a rowdy night club. It's a shame that the law was written in such a way that they can not consider applications based on their merits instead of just having to refuse anyone trying to do something positive.

C'est la vie. So now we are back to searching. We're now looking for somewhere as close as possible to the old town but that does not fall under the fateful law of 1989! We can't sit around and wait for some building that falls into the category we need to become available. Of course, it doesn't mean that we won't find a way to open something or other in the old town! But for now that will have to wait.

Let's talk about cupcakes. These are one of my latest experiments. They look beautiful but I can't really say they were a success.

We have lavender in the garden now and I thought 'why not?'

Τhe lavender was a bit too overwhelming. If I try them again, then I'll definitely have to try to give them a more subtle taste.

This post is a bit depressing but it is pretty, don't you think?

Liz Cupcakes

Mini meringues

2010-05-10T07:30:00.000+03:00

We had last minute dinner guests the other night and I felt like making something a little lighter for dessert. Before I started force-feeding all my guests with various cupcake recipes I was trying, mini-meringues were my go-to dessert when having guests.

I was the one who always brought them along everywhere or was asked 'could you bring some of those nice meringues you make?' I suppose I was Lizpavlova before becoming Lizcupcakes!

They make a light dessert after a large meal, especially when served with low-fat yoghurt and a drizzle of honey. They're also great year-round because you can just use whatever fruit that's in season on top! If you want it to be a bit more naughty than nice, you can do this:

Whipped cream, hazelnuts and chocolate shavings. Even though I'd class this as naughty, it is still pretty light.

Update: This week I attended a business seminar which is run by the Greek job center (OAED). It's necessary to have attended the course in order to take advantage of some funding programs and grants it offers. Now that that is over, things will hopefully move a bit faster around here.

I'll be honest and say that we have been a little disappointed that we haven't been able to move along as quickly as we had hoped with the shop. We thought we'd be open long before now. The summer season is upon us and we imagined we would be in full swing by now. Of course, in the back of mind I always knew that this sort of thing takes a lot more time, patience and money thank you think. Still it seems like we're finally moving forward. I hope that things are going to get even sweeter around here in the coming days!

Liz Cupcakes

Spring has sprung

2010-05-05T12:00:00.011+03:00

It is well and truly spring. The weather is warm and sunny most of the time. The orange blossoms are still heavy with scent and the sides of the roads have wild flowers growing out of control! It's truly beautiful.

My lettuces have grown and we've eaten most of them. A few days ago, when I was gardening with the children, we noticed a few pea pods on the little pea bush so I pulled a couple off and gave them a couple of peas to eat each! Of course they thought that was great! We started off a few other seeds.

What's been cooking? Some kiddy cupcakes! Chocolate cupcakes with gummy worms!

And strawberry shortcake.

I hope the rest of your week is yummy!

Liz Cupcakes

Saffron cupcakes ― A Taste of Greece

2010-04-27T18:30:00.000+03:00

This is my offering for today. In the shop I want to serve some cupcakes with more unusual ingredients. Today I started experimenting with saffron from Kozani. Saffron has a unusual taste but an amazingly beautiful colour!

I was undecided about what flavour frosting I should pair the cake with. Some of my ideas were almond, orange, lemon, pistachio, honey, rose-water or vanilla. I used vanilla but I think some of my other ideas may also have been good. The idea of lemon appeals because of the whole yellow thing that we've got going.

Kozani saffron is a product with protected designation of origin. It's expensive and it's also organic. It can be used as wonderful natural colouring. I think I'd like to make the whole cupcake organic the next time. I didn't do these ones organic but I think it can easily be done.

So again a little tweaking needed but overall a good cake.

Liz Cupcakes

Give-away winner and something sweet

2010-04-25T20:02:00.015+03:00

Thank you all for joining in and telling me what is missing from your kitchens! Or, in some cases, it is the kitchen itself that is missing, or at least space.

If we're food lovers, can we ever have a big enough kitchen???

Without more suspense we can tell you that the winner is comment #27, Mary (who, by the way, makes adorable cake miniatures-I wouldn't mind one of those mini cupcakes!!!) over on the Greek blog. The thing missing from her kitchen is a cookbook for cupcakes. So it looks like that space is going to filled!

Let us know where to send the book and the silicone cases and they'll be on their way as soon as possible.

Here's a consolation prize for the rest of you: have a chocolate eclair. In the UK we usually fill our eclairs with whipped cream while in Greece they are usually filed with pastry cream. I like pastry cream but I also like the simplicity of the whipped cream.

The next post is a new flavour I've been trying out!

Liz Cupcakes

Feeling glamourous?

2010-04-21T13:00:00.012+03:00

Our give-away is still on until Sunday night so don't forget to pop below to leave your comment. The gift this month is a cupcake recipe book and some silicone cases.

The May issue of Glamour is on sale and you are going to find some familiar faces in it! On page 214 there is a wonderful article on Greek food bloggers and we are featured among them! Many thanks to Glamour and Senior editor Danai Christopoulou for writing it.

Glamourous cupcakes!

There is also a recipe for Strawberries and Cream cupcakes. Vanilla cake filled with strawberry jam and topped with whipped cream and a strawberry. Perfect for spring!

Also featured are our blogging friends, Kiki of Mikri Kouzina and Vicky of TasteFULL. The Glamour girls. Ha-ha.

Danai calls me 'Liz cupcakes' at the top of the article. I use the name @lizcupcakes on twitter but I'm beginning to think I should change my name permanently! How cute would that be? Henceforth I shall be named Liz Cupcakes. Now let me go and practice my new signature...

Liz Cupcakes

P.S. It's true. In the article I confess to having another blog. This, ladies and gentlemen, is not my first blog; I also have an ex-blog. I've been a blogger since 2005, but I'm not telling you where my other blog is!

This one is better anyway.

Liz

Shopping and give-away!

2010-04-20T19:50:00.000+03:00

So we just came back from our vacation in England. As I mentioned before I may have got one or two things while I was there. But before we get onto that I wanted to show you my new glass storage jars!

They came from Denmark. Home of very good design. I've posted about stylish Danish gifts before and shortly before we left for our vacation we had some more friends visiting from there and, wouldn't you know it, they read my blog and decided, very kindly, to add to my collection of Danish design. Thanks again J&K (not to be confused with J&L)!

It would be nice if every time I mentioned things that I like I received them from somewhere... such as the special edition red Kitchen Aid with glass mixing bowl that I have been drooling over :P

Back to the shopping. I got all sorts of things in England. Mostly to use in the shop and some for home. I got these:

This one came from the local market for only £4!

The difficulty of getting cake-stands which do not come in boxes from there to here is another matter. In fact, this is not the first crystal cake-stand to make the trip from England to Greece. The last one didn't survive. Smashed to smithereens. It was carried in my hand luggage all the way to London, through air-port security, onto the plane, off the plane, home from the airport to Palaio Faliro and got dropped on the front stairs on its way into the house. Let's just say it had something to do with the little fingers of a certain little girl we all know, poking little holes into the plastic bag during the journey from Spata to Palaio Faliro.

So this time I was forced to buy some boxes in order to ensure a safe flight.

I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere around the house or shop.

I also got these:

You can use them for chocolate or fondant icing. I thought that they'd be great for topping cupcakes. In fact I've seen other lovely cupcakes doing it so I know they'll look good.

I got buttons, butterflies, hearts, roses, and these:

Stilettos! I had a try out with white chocolate. Before I put the chocolate in, I added some sprinkles to some and sparkly sugar to others. I got the sparkly sugar in England. If you look closely you can see that there were some little air pockets around the sugar and sprinkles. I'll have to think about that before I do my next pair of Prada! I was wondering how I could achieve the trademark look of red-soled Louboutins? How cute will they be on some girly cupcakes!

I also got these cake pans and some more oven gloves and an apron. Tools of the trade :)

Then there are the books, too. I'll go into more detail about that later. I managed to find a smaller version of one of the cupcake books I already have, a more compact one which is more useful for me.

So, today I am giving my 'old' copy. It is in very good condition. No cake splatters, I promise. Just to make it even sweeter, here are some silicone cupcake cases which you can use again and again! To enter the give-away, let me know what's missing from your kitchen which you'd love to get. I think you may have guessed what I want!

Oh, you have until Sunday night (that's Athens DST time, GMT+3)!

Liz

Oreo cookie cupcakes ― recipe

2010-04-18T18:15:00.003+03:00

I thought I'd upload the recipe we used for the OREO Cookie Cupcakes on the show for those of you who either don't understand Greek or didn't have your pencils handy! You can now also watch the video on Star.gr.

I made a simplified version for the show but on the internet you can find many other versions with different ingredients and methods.

Oreo cookie cupcakes
1 pckt Oreo cookies (or any other cream filled chocolate cookies)
75g self raising flour
25g good quality cocoa powder
100g light brown sugar
100g butter, room temperature
2 eggs (preferably free range or organic)

200ml whipping cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 packet of mini Oreo cookies

How to do it
Preheat the oven to 180°C (170°C with air).
Place 12 paper or silicone cases into your muffin tin.
Carefully twist each cookie to separate the top and bottom halves and place the half which has the creamy filling into the cupcake cases with the cream upwards. One reason I prefer Oreo cookies is because they can be pulled apart easily. This will give our cupcakes a yummy crispy base.
Reserve the other halves.

Sift the flour and the cocoa together.
Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time with a spoon full of the flour/cocoa.
Fold in the remaining flour/cocoa with a spoon or spatula.
Divide the mixture between the cases.
Bake for about 14-17 minutes depending on your oven. Leave to cool.

Once cool, whip the cream with the icing sugar. Crush the reserved cookie halves and fold into the whipped cream. Pipe or spread onto the cupcakes and top with a mini Oreo.

If somehow you don't manage to eat them all at once (doesn't happen often) you can store the cakes in the refrigerator but let them come up to room temperature before eating.

Liz

Cupcakes craze sweeps across the nation!

2010-04-15T12:00:00.007+03:00

I promised that exciting stuff would be coming along this month and the excitement starts here. This morning my humble little cupcakes became 'famous'! They were on TV!

A couple of months ago we got a call from Christianna Baxevani, the (~~producer~~; apologies, we're kinda star-struck and 'lost' Galánis Michópoulos!) editor-in-chief of the TV show Nistikoí Práktores ('Starving Special Agents', after a play on words in the Greek). You probably remember I mentioned them here back in February. Christianna asked us if we would like to bring along some cupcakes to the show and also demonstrate a recipe. After picking myself up off the floor where I fell in shock and saying over and over 'I don't really think I can do it', we decided that I really must go since it is obviously a very good way for people who don't already know about cupcakes to get to know about them! One of my 'missions' apart from opening my little café is to get everyone to know what a cupcake is and to get people to love them!

The day to film the show came around quickly and off we popped to the Star Channel Studio in Athens with a big box of cupcakes, some ingredients and the children in tow.

We really had a great time with everyone at the show. They were all so kind, polite and patient with us. Dína Nikoláou and Thanássis Pátras are really fun and also talented. The whole show is done without rehearsal and they just get right into it and the word 'cut' is hardly mentioned! Before I knew it, my microphone was being clipped on and it was time for my part demonstrating how to make Oreo cookie cupcakes. I was so worried about messing up with my Greek that I let Dina and Thanassis do most of the talking. They were so relaxed, though, that they helped me be a tiny bit less nervous.

The kids were so sweet and well behaved and got to visit the control room. Then they came back down in time to come on for the last few minutes of the show! They were so excited about that! I was a little bit nervous about it, especially when Dina started asking them questions! It was difficult not to laugh at the end when Dina asked them what other nice food does Mammy cook and Olivia piped up 'lentil soup'. It was a great moment for me and it's true: even though you might think we told her to say it, we didn't! She loves lentils! Imagine if she had said 'fish fingers'! (for the record, we have lentils about once every 10 days and fish fingers only in emergencies!)

All in all we had a really fun time and it was an interesting experience for us and the kids! We'd like to thank Dina, Thanassis, Christianna, Galanis and everyone else at Nistikoi Praktores and Star Channel who were a part of our day. We're looking forward to having you over for cupcakes when we open! And if Dina or Thanassis are coming on any 'missions' in our neighbourhood we can cook up another delicious cupcake recipe again!

Just in case you missed us you can watch the segment on Star.gr or here. We will provide it through the blog soon!

PS The day of the taping we had some guests visiting from Denmark. Hi Kamilla and Jannie! Thank you for being so gracious when we totally dumped you for the entire day! I hope the cupcake tasting made up for it slightly.

Mint choc chip

2010-04-14T11:32:00.017+03:00

We're back in Nafplio! We had a really great time! I didn't realise how much I needed that break but I really did! Even though the weather forecast was not looking good when we left and it was really really cold when we arrived in the evening, it picked up and was sunny nearly every day!

Just before we left, the orange groves were starting to bud and the difference two weeks makes is amazing. They are in full bloom! As we were driving home along the last stretch of road towards Nafplio yesterday in the late afternoon we were suddenly engulfed in the delicious scent! We have a grove opposite our house and it's like living in a perfume bottle.

The garden has also gone wild! I'll have to try and tidy it up a little and let you see. I have managed to get a few little things going and it's time to get sowing some more things!

So, now we're back and I really should be unpacking, so the natural thing for me to do was to whip up a new flavour for you to try. One of my favourite flavour combinations is mint and chocolate. It's a popular flavour in the UK but not so often found here in Greece.

This is a Mint Chocolate Chip cupcake. Chocolate chip cake topped with mint infused white chocolate ganache on top and a minty chocolate to crown it off. This one is definitely not sugar-free. It's not fat free either. Or gluten free. It's for pure indulgence. A treat. A one-off. If you can resist the rest.

In other news...I may or may not have done some shopping in the UK and I may or may not have found one or two cute little things to give-away. But we will get to that in another post since I haven't unpacked yet :)

Liz

Behold...the hummingbird!

2010-04-07T13:20:00.028+03:00

We're still on our little vacation in the UK, visiting Grandad and Granny cupcakes. Wish you were here. Well, not really! The weather has been very good so far with only two days of rain and it's forecast to be sunny for the rest of our stay so I won't be spending much time in the kitchen!

Here's a little something to keep you going until we get back. This is a hummingbird cupcake (you'll have to excuse the light in these pictures ― they were taken on one of the rainy days). Depending on the recipe you use, hummingbird cupcakes have banana, pineapple, sometimes carrot and coconut inside. The frosting is usually cream cheese. So what's so special about this hummingbird?

Well... (blowing trumpet ahead of me) this is my first attempt at a sugar free cupcake. Yes, sugar free!

What's the point of a sugar free cupcake, you might ask. Well there is a lot of point if you happen to be a diabetic. It was time to try out a few recipes for those who have special dietary requirements, so after doing quite a bit of research and asking for some advice from another lovely cupcake baker, Laura, I had my first attempt.

Now, sugar plays several roles in the baking process. Not only does it add sweetness but it also adds volume (as well as colour) to a recipe. Sugar substitutes don't add volume or colour, only sweetness. Take a look inside the cupcake:

You can see that it is very pale. That is something I am going to try and work on. The overall appearance of the cake was good. The overall taste, well, if you are a sugar addict it might not quite hit the spot, but if you are not allowed to have sugar in your daily life and only on a special occasion, then you would find that this little cake actually does it!

For my first sugar free recipe it wasn't too bad, I thought. I'm going to be experimenting more, so we have a sugar free option on our menu some days or available for special orders.

Liz

Sunset at Silloth, Cumbria, UK ― April 2010
(Nafplio / Shmafplio, it's all the same...)

Apron ― Winner

2010-03-26T11:47:00.018+02:00

I'm glad that most of you thought the little apron is cute. It seems that most of you wear an apron at some time or other, even if it's just to cover your good clothes before guests arrive!

The winner of the apron is Comment No. 7! Congratulations Katerina! I'll be in touch to find out where to post it.

We'll have a selection for men, women and children in the shop (and possibly online) for whomever would like to buy for themselves or to buy as a sweet gift from Nafplio!

We're going to be having some days away over the holidays. I'll leave you with these yummy chocolate & orange cupcakes, just so that you don't suffer from low blood sugar while I'm gone!

I might sneak a post in before we get back since I will be cooking while I'm away.

See you when we get back. There is lots of fun stuff coming up in April but I'm just going to keep you guessing about that!

Liz

Update & Give-away

2010-03-22T08:49:00.017+02:00

Just letting you know we have a couple of hot possibilities for our shop location. We need to check with the public authorities whether or not they are allowed to be used as a food establishment and then hopefully we can make a move.

This last two weeks we have been held up with some other pressing matters and now the holidays are upon us. I'm trying to be optimistic but I feel like the time is getting away from me and out hoped for opening period is going by!

We can only do what we can. Now for the good bit of the post...

In the shop we are planning on wearing cute hand-made aprons. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Alex in his!

I have three friends who are excellent at sewing and we have been working on some prototypes. If there is enough interest we will also sell them in the shop and possibly on our site when we get the full shop site up and running.

There will be aprons for men, women and children eventually but so far we have just done two or three to see how cute they are. We are going to improve the designs and fabric quality along the way.

I've decided to give one of the prototype aprons away. This little cutie:

Its a woman-sized half apron. To have the opportunity to get a hold of this apron for yourself or for some-one in your life just let me know in the comments whether or not you wear an apron when cooking?

I tend to put my apron on at times when I know there is going to be a lot of mess but judging from the way I always end up in a mess without one, I should really wear it all the time!

You have until Sunday evening to leave your comment!

Liz

Brownies

2010-03-17T17:27:00.005+02:00

The other day we were looking through our photos and realised we didn't have any photos of brownies. How could this be, since I have made them quite a few times in the last few months? I have been trying different recipes to find out which one I like.

To cut a long story short, when I discovered we needed a photo model of some brownies to add to our 'menu' I thought I'd better remedy the situation quickly! Behold cheesecake brownies. Absolutely no calories what-so-ever!!!

The thing I have discovered about brownies is that everyone has a favourite way of making them. Each their own version. Some like it to be more cake like and some like it to be more fudgy. Smitten Kitchen has quite a few different versions. The fact that we didn't manage to take any photographs until I made some especially testifies to how yummy brownies are!

I have made some brownie cupcakes before. You have to find a special recipe for that, though because unlike most cake recipes which can be converted into cupcakes, brownies need a little tweeking (don't ask how I know that :P).

They're divine warmed up with a little cream or ice-cream.

Liz

Breadsticks

2010-03-14T17:40:00.002+02:00

OK. I know I am totally late with this post but I just wanted to join the list of Kiki's fans! I received my copy of her lovely book "Little kitchen ― breads & doughs" as soon as it came out.

I quickly made the delicious recipe for cinnamon rolls but unfortunately they were so delicious that we ate all of them before we could take a photo.

Kiki's instructions are very clear and easy to understand (for those who don't read Greek you'll just have to email Kiki and ask her to translate a recipe for you) and I only had a minor problem making them, which was nothing to do with the recipe but rather the fact that my house was too cold to rise the dough and I had to put them in the oven on a low temperature. I should have thought of that at the beginning, but I was so excited about trying out a recipe, it didn't occur to me that it was really cold in the house that day!

So finally the other day I got the chance to make another recipe from the book. This time I made some of the breadsticks. I thought it would be a great thing to make with the kids, especially after watching Kiki make them in her TV debut the night before.

We made the feta/beer breadsticks and the poppyseed sticks that she made on the show! The kids had a really good time. They were really fast to make and the kids had a great time rolling them out and twisting them into shapes. Not to mention the fun they had eating them when they were done. They cook quickly, too, which is another reason they're a great thing to make with the kids. Quick results with minimum effort. I deliberately made two recipes so there was no chance we could eat them all before we took some photographs.

We had a little pease pudding left that I'd made for lunch that day so we used it for dipping!

So if you read Greek and haven't already got hold of a copy, I strongly recommend that you do. You won't be sorry. You can find out more about how to get hold of a copy from Kiki's blog - Mikri Kouzina (Greek for "Little Kitchen").

Liz

Cupcake pops

2010-03-09T23:00:00.003+02:00

I made cake balls last year and posted about them here.

The inspiration for them came from Bakerella. I'd been meaning to have another go so this time I tried cupcake pops.

Again I was limited by the availability of some ingredients which we can't get here but I thought they turned out quite cute.

I said it before and I'll say it again. A cake on a stick is much more appealing to a child than the same thing not on a stick!

They can be quite time consuming. I don't know if I'll be able to have them in the shop every day. They might have to go on the available for special order list!

STOP PRESS: Bakerella just announced that she is bringing out a book. I'm sure it is going to be filled with amazing cake-pop ideas. I for one want to get my hands on a copy as soon as it comes out!

It's our blogiversary!

2010-03-05T18:20:00.001+02:00

We started this blog last year in March, after coming to the decision to leave Athens and move to Nafplio with our children to give them a simpler life. We're in the what-sometimes-seems-never-ending-process of opening a cupcake shop in the town. We decided to keep a record of the process for ourselves and future customers! Here are a few pictures from the past year!

We started with the search for a new place to live and lots of recipe testing!

In June we found a new place to live and in July we did a small leaving party for the kids.

By September we were settling in and enjoying the kindness of neighbours and friends.

October brought with it the wedding of Alex's youngest brother and the ensuing challenge of making over 700 hundred cupcakes to treat their guests.

At the end of November we were very excited to be featured in the national daily newspaper TA NÉA.

The last few months I've been finalizing products and recipes and we've been striving to take better photos, that involved all sorts of yumminess.

We've been blogging 'The making of cupcakes.gr' for over a year now! Where does the time go? I've had a personal blog since 2005, but I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment with this blog, especially now we are getting closer and closer to our goal of opening our shop and actually getting cupcakes 'from our kitchen to your coffee table'! Thanks everyone for coming along with us and reading about our experience.

Liz & Alex

Leftovers

2010-03-03T20:40:00.007+02:00

It's already March. I thought I'd better show you a few of the other things I baked and cooked in December and January before they go out of date!

First up, here are some cupcakes. Lots of them.

I also made this orange marmalade. We were given quite a supply of organic oranges and since the recipe I used calls for boiling the whole orange, I thought that organic oranges were the way to go.

Now, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I was given lemons this time. I decided I should try my hand at some limoncello. I've got that brewing. It takes time though, so I'll keep you updated on that if it turns out well. I think it will go extremely well in some buttercream.

We've been doing more running around this week and looking at possible locations for the shop. It has been very enlightening.

I wish there was more interesting things to say but that's all for now.

Liz

Winner and the OTHER anniversary cake

2010-02-28T11:20:00.003+02:00

Thanks for all the entries into the give-away. It was enlightening. It seems like coffee was the run away winner of that one! Maybe it has to do with the slight bitterness of coffee together with the sweetness of cake.

By the way, I drink water with cake and Alex likes black coffee, no sugar!

So we had lots of comments on both sides again but the winner of the heart shaped baking tin is...no. 14!

Congratulations Kiki! The tin will be in the post on Monday morning.

On Tuesday I made another cake.

It's a recipe I've been meaning to try for a while and since it had enormous quantities of chocolate, butter and cream, it needed a special occasion!

Thanks again to everyone who entered. There will be another give-away coming up soon. Don't forget to answer the question in your comments in order to be entered into the give-away :)

Liz

Wedding anniversary - Giveaway

2010-02-23T21:40:00.000+02:00

Today Alex and I have our wedding anniversary! 19 years! Most of the time I wonder how it can be possible that 19 years have passed, but when I actually take time to think of all the things we've done, places we've been and the places we've lived then I realise it really is 19 years. The time started flying by even faster after the addition of our son, seven years ago, and our daughter, in 2006.

To celebrate I made this:

I got the idea from the fabulous Bakerella. I made a few little alterations. Some because I wanted to and others because I had no choice. First of all, I made mine into a millionaire's shortbread, adding caramel on top of the cookie base instead of butterscotch chips.

I also had to free style with my M&M design since my tin was a little smaller than the one Bakerella used. Also because in the states you can buy M&Ms by the colour, which we can't do here in Greece. I tried my best by sorting out two enormous packets into colours and then fiddled around with a piece of paper working out a design. Next time I might try and work with those little 'treat size' smarties packages, although I don't know whether I could face sorting out the colours again :)

I didn't manage to achieve the neon sign look that Bakerella did, but, overall, I think it looks OK. To be perfectly honest, millionaire's shortbread certainly doesn't need any extra embellishing with M&Ms but it was a fun way to write a little message.

Just in case anyone would like to try and recreate this giant cookie, I'm giving away one of these heart-shaped tins! I found it worked really well for the cookie and it came out easily. It's also deep enough to make a cake or some other sort of sweet or savoury tart.

If you'd like the opportunity to own this tin, just leave a comment below and tell me what your favourite drink is when you are having cake? Tea, coffee, champagne? You have until Saturday evening to comment and we'll pick the winner on Sunday.

Happy Anniversary to us! Next year it's the big 20! Should I start planning the celebrations from now?

Liz

Twitteropita :) (aka Twitter-pie)

2010-02-11T13:00:00.010+02:00

A few weeks ago, while I was browsing through my twitter page, Irene mentioned that she was just going to have a slice of her homemade lemon pie. Since we had exchanged a few tweets about how her family used to own Zaharoplasteía (patisserie or confection shop to you and me) I was highly interested! The thought of the zaharoplasteía and the fact I had a big bag of lemons made me promptly ask for the recipe. Which she very kindly gave me!

It turned out that it was not an ancient recipe from the family recipe book but rather one from the TV show Nistikoí Práktores! ('Starving Special Agents' to you and me). Even though it wasn't an old family recipe, it tasted excellent!

I hereby call it twitteropita, since that's how I came about the recipe! It's actually a very simple recipe and you can easily make it into a lemon meringue pie if that's what you fancy!

Here's the recipe. Thanks, Irene, and of course the 'special agents'! It didn't last long!

Lemon pie

For the pastry:
250g flour
125g butter
1 egg
20g sugar
Pinch of salt

For the filling:
Rind and juice of two lemons
2 eggs
75g butter, melted
20g corn flour
220g sugar

Put all the pastry ingredients into a mixer bowl and mix until pastry comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry and line the base and sides of a 24cm wide dish. Prick with a fork.

Beat the eggs and sugar, add the melted butter and beat until well combined.

Combine a little of the lemon juice with the corn flour, then add to the egg mixture with the rest of the lemon juice and rind.

Pour over the base.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30'-40'. If it starts to brown too much, cover loosely with foil and then remove just before the end.

If liked cover with meringue topping and bake it for a few more seconds in a very hot oven, or you could add whipped cream.

Notes: I found the pastry harder to roll after chilling, so I think the next time I'd roll it and put it in the dish and then chill it. Also, I'd lower the temperature slightly because my oven seemed a bit too hot on 180°C with the fan on.

Liz

Starting a business...

2010-02-04T16:30:00.002+02:00

I thought I'd better do a little update about how things are coming along. Starting a business is a time-consuming and frustrating thing. It's not like I didn't know this when we began; some days, however, you do wonder if you are ever going to manage to get things going.

For example, to qualify for A you need to have B and in order to get B you have to have A. You see where I am going with this.

As well as gathering even more information about everything from recipes to suppliers, we are sorting through all the requirements needed with regard to health, hygiene, planning authorities, tax authorities etc etc. It's a long and arduous process.

We have more firm ideas about where in the town we would like our location to be, but we will have to see if there is anything available where we want when we are ready to start renting.

I sometimes feel it looks as though we aren't doing anything but, behind the scenes, there is a lot going on. I really hope that soon I will be updating with information about signed leases and renovation and shopping for equipment! At least I have some idea of where to get it all now!

When I get tired, I go and bake or make jam or generally do things in the kitchen.

This week my parents are making a short visit, so I expect I'll be making an apple pie somewhere along the way! I'm also attending another food industry Expo on Friday. The more information I can gather the better.

Have you ever been out and thought "Oh look, there's a new shop, when did that open?" I think that we are going to be one of them!

Liz

Flavours ― and winner!

2010-02-01T10:30:00.002+02:00

Gadgets and gifts

2010-01-27T20:00:00.016+02:00

Most of my friends and family know that if they are looking for a gift for me they just need to bring me something related to baking cakes, cooking in general, eating or reading about any of the above!

Some of the very thoughtful gifts I've received in the recent past are these from our Danish visitors (hi, J&L!):

They are super cool storage bags. The scandinavians know all about cool design. You can't deny that. The bags can be reversed.

And look at the large one...

It has little magnets inside so you can keep your lovely homemade bread rolls warm in the morning.

I LOVE them!!

They are made by Stelton. When you look at their products page you start forming a list of things you 'need'.

Next up are the gifts that travelled across the ocean... I have to admit here that I did actually drop a rather large hint for these things... actually I outright asked for some of them... but the others were a lovely surprise.

Look at these lovelies!!! I have several baking books which have American recipes in. The measurements are in cups and not metric. It is not impossible to convert, of course, but it is much simpler just to get out these lovely things and use them!!! I've already used them several times.

These measuring spoons are great. They are robust and they have little magnets in the tip so that you can keep them stored together easily.

These cookie cutters are going to come in handy! Heart shapes and snowflake shapes. I'm going to have a lot of fun with these!

Thanks again all concerned. You know how much I love these things!

Now... I love receiving gifts but I enjoy giving them too. I've decided to give a gift. I popped down to Cookshop and found these:

How cute are these? Wondering what they are?

Having a drinks party? Your guests won't have trouble remembering which glass is theirs with these little cuties! They are little characters which stick to the outside of the glass. They even have names. There's 'sneaky', 'cuddly' and 'mysterious', to name a few!

So, if you want to be the one to receive the gift leave a comment below telling me which ingredient you would most like to see in a cupcake. You can leave your comment on either side of the blog, English or Greek but only once please. Make sure I have a way of contacting you. You have until Sunday (31st) evening to leave your comment and I'll pick a winner on Monday morning.

Give-aways will be a regular feature of the blog from now on, so be sure not to miss a post by following the blog or following us on twitter where we we'll keep you posted with new blog posts and give-aways.

Liz

Apple Pie

2010-01-22T14:00:00.001+02:00

Here is another thing I love to bake. I really, really, love apple pie. This is a good old fashioned apple pie. English style. Freshly baked apple pie reminds me of childhood and it's still one of my Dad's favourite desserts that he looks for when he goes out for a meal.

Unfortunately, many establishments in the UK don't do 'homemade' anymore and serve up something commercially made, which I find rather shocking. I am beginning to sound like Gordon Ramsay or Hector Botrini (without the profanity of course). It's not that difficult to make an apple pie from scratch. It's obviously all about the money, that and serving frozen chips. Don't get me started on why otherwise very good restaurants serve frozen chips...

Anyway, this is how I like my apple pie. It shouldn't be too sweet. There should be a bit of tanginess to it. Double crust. No cinnamon, no raisins. Best served hot with cream, custard or ice-cream.

I'm not sure if apple pie will be on the daily menu at the 'shop'. It will definitely be on somewhere and it will definitely be available for special orders.

The same day I made the apple pie, I made these chocolate truffles. These didn't turn out as beautiful as I would have liked. Partly because I was free-styling a bit with the recipe and partly because I had 'help' from my littlest helper.

They were tasty though. Very tasty.

Don't miss the next post. There'll be a new blog feature.

We're back!

2010-01-10T16:00:00.004+02:00

It's been a while I know! Finally the kids are back at school. I've been using the last few days to get my thoughts together and get into the swing of things trying to become a more organized person in general so I can execute 'the plan' better.

We had plenty of visitors in the last three weeks. First, my brother came from England for a week, and then our friends from Madagascar/Athens came for a long week-end too. There was lots of cooking, eating, baking, walking, visiting other friends and playing SCRABBLE with the kids! It's their new favourite game. My brother also brought a couple of nice books for Fin, the sort which take a bit longer to read. He is really enjoying reading stories where you have to wait until the next chapter to find out what happens next...

So, what have I been baking? I owe you something with chocolate, so here we are...

What's so special about these, you might ask? Well, for a start they contain this...

and then there's this

Inside there is this:

Yes, they are filled cakes. Chocolate ganache. Finally to really make them to die for...

I dipped some of them in the leftover ganache. And WOW. More about that in a minute.

I adapted the recipe by Deb at Smitten Kitchen. If you do a quick google search of Guinness and Bailey's you will find plenty of versions of this flavour.

The idea of dipping them came from Kari at Retro Bakery One look at their menu page will have you reaching for the nearest sweet thing you can get your hands on.

I've been meaning to try this recipe for a while and since the recipe makes 24 cupcakes I wanted to make them when I could give several of them away! I have to say that even though the cakes were amazing I promptly made some notes on what I'd do differently when I make them again. I don't think I'd put them on my menu exactly as they are, but the same elements in some different combination maybe.

January is going to be a busy month. I'll be attending HO.RE.CA (an expo for the hotel, restaurant and cafe business) in Athens at the end of the month. Hopefully we'll be applying for some funding within the month and we are also working on the website. Things are definitely going to be getting more business-oriented around here! I'll still post about how great it is living in the country though! I can't help that (like planting my lettuce seedlings into the garden this morning and going down to the beach this evening with the kids to collect driftwood for the fire).

Finally thanks to Gasteroplix and Xanthi for nominating me for a sunshine award! That's so kind of you both. I really appreciate it. It's difficult for me to choose who I'd nominate for one, especially since many of the lovely ladies I read have already received them, so I'll just name some of the blogs I love to read...

So apart from the above mentioned Asproula's recipes and Gasteroplix here are some food related blogs I enjoy reading.

Asterolila, Betty, Ivy, Maria, Cheryl, Eleftheria, Kiki, Niki, Recipes of the heart, Lila

Actually, I check out many more blogs, not all food related, too many to mention here. These are just a small selection that are capable of making my mouth water at any given time! So, for that have a cake...

I'll leave you with the thought of those for now. Soon I'll post some other pics of things I baked on my 'blog holiday'.

Liz

Banana cake with peanut frosting

2009-12-19T15:25:00.003+02:00

I know I promised a chocolate recipe but I had some ripe bananas I wanted to use up.

These cupcakes were wonderful, as testified by everyone who ate them (Alex, who obviously gets to eat a lot of cupcakes, couldn't stop going on about how wonderful they were). The cakes are extremely light and the frosting so soft it was almost like mousse. These will definitely be on the menu!

I'll be having various family members and friends over the next couple of weeks, so I'll be busy cooking and spending time with them and the kids while they are on their school holidays. So the blog is going to bed for a couple of weeks. I'll definitely be cooking though, so look forward to plenty more pictures and our shop news again, when cupcakes.gr wakes up from hibernation!

Liz

Q&A - tips on frosting

2009-12-17T11:25:00.006+02:00

A reader asks: 'what other things can you use on your cupcakes for soft frosting apart from buttercream, if that is not your favourite?'

You can use whipped cream. You can add some vanilla, sugar, or melted chocolate (this is called 'ganache').

Then there are also meringue based toppings made with beaten egg whites and sugar.

A final suggestion would be some sort of cream cheese frosting (with icing sugar).

Whipped cream goes especially well with chocolate cakes (as does ganache). It is also good if you want to decorate with fresh fruit.

The disadvantage with whipped cream is that it shouldn't be left out of the refrigerator for long periods. So, either have the cream whipped and decorate your cupcakes right before you serve them (keep the cream already whipped in a cold glass bowl in the fridge so you don't have to leave your guests long), or decorate your cakes in advance and then remove them from the refrigerator at least half an hour before serving to allow them to come up to room temperature.

Meringue topping goes very nicely on lemon cake. A nice suggestion would be to make your cakes and then spread on a little lemon curd (you can find ready-made lemon curd at shops like AB in Greece) or make a small hole in the cake and fill them with curd and then add your meringue on top. These are delicious at the end of a heavy meal. Light and refreshing. meringue topping just keeps improving when left at room temperature. Cupcakes made with can be made well in advance.

I love cream cheese and personally think it goes with just about any flavour cake.

The reader mentions that she can 'feel' the sugar in the buttercream. So here are a couple of tips for making smooth buttercream.

Have the butter at room temperature. Beat very well before adding any sugar.

Sift the icing sugar carefully. Do it twice if necessary.

Add the icing sugar in small quantities to make sure it doesn't get lumps, then, when it is all added, continue beating for a couple more minutes. A properly made buttercream should not be grainy.

Only refrigerate your buttercream if you have made it too soft, and even then it only needs a minute or so to harden up enough to decorate.

Hope these tips are helpful.

Liz

Date & Walnut Spice with/without caramel

2009-12-13T17:10:00.001+02:00

For a while now I've been trying to find the time to try out some new flavours or ones that I haven't baked for a long time. I finally came to terms with the fact that I am not going to find the time so I just have to go ahead and do it. I've started a list and I am going to try and do a flavour or two a week. Writing it down here is supposed to force myself to do it.

These are Date & Walnut Spice.

It's a denser fruit cake and when baking it the smell in the kitchen is wonderful.

I added some caramel to a few of them. It was good.

And for others, I let the decoration speak for itself.

My weekend guests approved.

Note: When I post these new flavours unfortunately I am not going to be posting the recipes unless I base them on some recipe or other I found on the internet where I will of course share where they are from. The internet is full of recipes! For obvious reasons I'd like to keep some secrets to myself!

Coming soon: Something with chocolate!

Photos (for those with a sense of Moo-mour)

2009-12-10T18:00:00.004+02:00

A few months ago back when we were still looking for a new place to live in Nafplio we made several day trips, and once or twice stayed over for a couple of nights.

On one such occasion we came across this on the road from Corinth to Nafplio.

In case you can't quite make it in the photo, here's a close-up:

The kids were highly aMOOsed. As were we, so much so that we slowed down for the cow-car to overtake us again and for Alex to take the photo.

Then, and I kid you not, after overtaking the pick up once again, a few hundred meters ahead, we came across this car!

Once again, just in case you missed it, here's a close-up:

Which we found even more aMOOsing. So much so that we slowed down again to be overtaken once more and take its photo.

Ok. Enough of the ridiculous MOO jokes. Some might say 'Only in Greece' and I admit I was rather tempted to title the post that, but then I am sure that if I did, people would tell me they had seen something similar elsewhere!

Wedding photos

2009-12-03T10:20:00.006+02:00

I shall henceforth be referring to my BIL as SZ and his new wife as EZ III.

My Parents in Law have three sons. Each one of them has married a girl with the initials EZ. In fact all of our names start with "El..."! It can be confusing at times. So anyway I am EZ I and my other SIL is EZ II and the newest SIL is EZ III!

Just so there's no confusion! :p

They got their official wedding pics!

Aren't they sweet? I haven't see any cupcakes in any of the pictures though! Admittedly, I haven't seen them all. I did dare my BIL to ask for a pic with a cupcake in, but he must have decided against it!