thereshegoes’s blog

Old cards (recieved in April) but I hadn't put them up yet:

From Italy: A card featuring the most ancient Botanical Garden in the World.

Heurialus

From Estonia: A card featuring the island Saaremaa, the largest island in Estonia.

Ronne

From Turkey: A card featuring a sunrise view of the capital Istanbul.

Mgbayar

From Finland: A card featuring "the three wicked witches" by Virpi Pekkala

Hupsis

From Thailand: A card featuring a picture of Ayutthaya.

Timetoday

Bilder 060

One of my favourite things to bake. Not exactly good for diets though but still worth it. This thing combines three things that I like: Chocolate, "mud/sticky" cake, and coconut. They are kind of a mixture of a cake and bar.

Since I know most people here uses US volumes, I tried to convert and simplify as much as I could and stayed with 1 decimal.

Ingredients

The Cake
4 medium-sized eggs
5 deciliter (2.1 cups) granulated sugar
2.5 deciliter (1 cup) melted or liquid butter
5 deciliter (2.1 cups) wheat flour
8 tablespoon (1/2 cup) pure cacao powder
3 teaspoons of vanilla-flavoured sugar (could be replaced with vanillin)

The Topping
5 tablespoons of melted or liquid butter
1.5 deciliter (0.6 cup or 9½ tabelspoon) cream
3.5 deciliter (1.5 cups) light syrup (could be replaced with golden syrup or light corn syrup)
7.5 deciliter (3.2 cups) coconut flakes

How-To

1. Turn on the oven on 175 degrees C or 350 degrees F.
2. Mix the egg and the sugar together.
3. Add all the dry ingredients of the cake and mix them together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture and mix.
5. Add the butter to the mixture and mix.
6. Lay out the mixture on a pan that is covered in baking paper or greased and floured (I used paper).
7. Bake the cake in approximately 15 minutes. While it does, prepare the topping.
8. Put all the ingredients for the topping in a sauce pan and mix while it's on heat. Be careful not to put it on too high temperature for it could easily get burn.
9. Let it stew while stirring for around 5 minutes.
10. Lay out the coconut topping on the cake and let it bake in the oven again for approximately 15 minutes or until the topping has turned golden-grown. Depending on whether you want it to be sticky or dry, and how your owen works, you may have to take it out earlier (or later...).
11. Let it cool down before you cut it into small squares.
12. Enjoy :)

When I made these, they didn't even last for a day. My mum liked them especially :)

Saffron is in Sweden a very Christmas-ish spice. However, it can be used of course whenever you want something tasty and spicy :) These kringles are a kind of pretzel but not the same. Most pretzels are hard and crunchy while these are softer and more cookie-like.

As for the recipe, I think the trickiest thing might be the syrup. Here we have a golden syrup in different flavors that is used in baking (dark, light, white, baking and etc). I know that this isn't available everywhere. However, I can add that the syrup I used was a light one though it is fine to use a slightly darker. From another recipe I posted, someone mentioned that corn syrup works as a substitute for golden syrup so I added that to the ingredients list.  If you want to know more though about golden syrup, you can read about it here at wikipedia.

As for cream, any will do. Whipped cream, light cream used in food and etc. The thicker, the better though but of course, if you prefer to keep a minimum of fat, I guess you could subsitute it with a light one. I haven't tried that though!

Saffron Kringles (A kind of pretzel)

Ingredients:
100 gram softened butter
1/4 deciliter cream [1/10 cup]
1 package of saffron (0.5 gram)
1/2 deciliter white/light golden syrup (could be substituded with corn syrup. I think) [1/5 cup]
3 deciliter wheat flour [5/4 cup] (more if needed. Depends on the stickyness and more will be needed when you make the shapes probably)

Decoration:
1 beaten egg
Decorative sugar

How-To
1. Turn the oven on 200 degrees Celsius [392 degrees F].
2. Beat the butter to make it fluffy.
3. Add cream, saffron, syrup and most of the wheat flour and make it a dough.
4. If the dough is too sticky, add more wheat but be careful to not add too much so that it is too dry.
5. Let the dough rest and cool down for an hour in the refrigerator.
6. Cut the dough into pieces of 5.
7. Take one piece, roll it and cut it into smaller pieces (medium size though it depends on how big you want them to be). Keep the rest of the dough in the refrigerator while you do this.
8. Take a small piece, roll it to thick string and make the shape of a kringle (picture). If the dough is too sticky, put some wheat flour on your hands.
9. Continue with the rest of the dough.
10. Put them all on a plate with oven paper underneath.
11. Brush the cringles with a beaten egg. Add the decorative sugar.
12. Bake them in the oven for about 10-12 min (they should get lightly brown-tinted) in 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees F)

Some cards received.

From Finland:

From Germany:

From USA:

Castorbee

1 comment

From Lithuania:

Bite66

Bilder 070

I have no idea what you call these in English but we call these 'Kärlekmums' or 'Mockarutor'. Basically: A chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and coconut flakes or sprinkles. They are very popular here in Sweden and you can, along with "kladdkaka" find them in most cafés.

I tried to convert the units into the American measurements.

Ingredients
150g butter
1 1/2 deciliter milk [0.6 cup]
3 medium eggs
3 deciliter granulated sugar [1.25 cups]
1 tablespoon of vanilla-flavored sugar
3/4 deciliter cacao [0.32 cup]
2 teaspoons of baking powder
4 deciliter wheat flour [1.7 cups]

Frosting:
75 gram butter
3/4 dl coffee [0.32 cup] (drinkable, and in water that is. Cold or warm doesn't matter)
1/2 deciliter cacao [0.2 cup]
1 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla-flavored sugar
5 deciliter confectioner's sugar [2.1 cups]

Topping:
coconut flakes or sprinkles.

How To:
1. Turn on the oven on 175 degrees C or 347 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter (or use liquid margarine. 150g = 1½ dl = 0.6cup]
3. Pour the milk in the butter. Let everything cool down.
4. Mix the egg and the sugar.
5. Mix vanilla-flavored sugar, cacao, baking powder and wheat flour and add it to the batter. Mix thoroughly.
6. Add the mixture of butter and milk. Mix thoroughly.
7. Put the mixture in a roasting pan (say 30cm). Either have the plate covered in paper (parchment paper) or smear it with butter and rasping. However you prefer to do.
8. Let it bake in the middle of the oven for around 15-20 min depending on your oven. Check  using a toothpick or the like. If the cake is still very sticky, it needs to bake more.
9. When the cake is done, let it cool for a little bit (it still suppose to be warm but not super-warm)

The Frosting
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. Add the coffee, cacao, vanilla-flavored sugar and the confectioner's sugar. Mix well.
3. Smear the top of the cake with the frosting.
4. Add the coconut flakes (or sprinkles) on top.
5. To get the shapes, I used gingerbread cutters. Usually these are actually cut into squares though.

I'm very late with this but I have had so much to do :( My three latest cards are all from the

The first one is from JoiElecta. It's a beautiful picture of Lake Siperior.

The second one is from dmitterhofer. It's picture she has taken of the 9/11 Memorial Clock Tower, in Somerville, New Jersey. I love it :)

The third one is from postcard_Cathy.It's a postcard with a traditional Boston dish, the New Clam Chowder England. It even came with a recipe, yay! :)

I have gotten four new cards! :)

The first one is from CPE and is from Tokyo, Japan. It's a stunning view of Tokyo and it's Tower during the night.

The second one is also from Japan but this one is from panofsky. This card is so beautiful and shows the highest mountain in Japan, Mt. Fuji.

The third one is from nenia of Norway and depicts the traditional cute norwegian trolls.

The fourth one is from Southern Georgia, USA from bladeblaz2000 and  is a stunning senic view of the absolutely beautiful waterfalls there.

I got a new card today! It was from Gymnast. The card is from Rochester, New York, a place which I would absolutely love to visit :D

Gymnast

Bavarde

I got this card about a week ago. It's from Japan, which I think is awesome because I had never gotten a card from Japan. The card is from bavarde. It's a beautiful picture of the Tokyo Tower in the night view. Apparently though, there is a new Tokyo Tower being built which will be over 600m high.I think that is amazing.

I have gotten two new pretty cards from Finland. The first one is from paulav and it is actually her first card that she sent out. Thank you very much! :) The second one is from hrauman :D