December Favorites & a question for you

/ sarahgiebens / 10 Comments

Hi guys!

Is the 19th of January still a time to post December favorites? Absolutely! Yes, I usually post them the first blogging day of the new month buuuuuut I went skiing so that wasn’t really possible :p Now you also know why I ‘dissapeared’ for a while. I know lots of you keep blogging during your holidays but I took two weeks off. No social media, no phone, no nothing except for my family and our holiday :) It was awesome! I’ll probably share some pictures on my social channels later.

So now that my batteries are fully charged again – not that they were empty – I have a question for you. Yes, right now before we get to the yummy part of this post because now your brains aren’t distracted yet ;)

Soon, Sarah’s Little Kitchen will reach its 2nd birthday. (Hooray!) And that calls for something new/different. Blogging in Dutch! And still in English as well of course. Why? Because I miss playing with words in my own language. I want to be able to use my own language to express myself and English expressions and Dutch ones don’t exactly align xD So I was thinking about adding Dutch to my post. I don’t know how yet. I’ve seen different ways to write in two languages so I’m still figuring out what would be best.

What do you think? Do or don’t? Let me know in the comments!

Now let’s get to the yummy part!

#1: Tiramisu

Tiramisu

I LOVE Tiramisu! And I love this cake-like version from Ginger & Bread even more!

#2: Caramel Toffee Cheesecake

Caramel Toffee Cheesecake

Thank you The Frugal Hausfrau for making us this awesome cheesecake! It looks to die for… Really.

#3: Slutty Brownie Cake

Slutty-Brownie-Cake

Oh. My. God. This. Looks. Too. Good. To. Be. True. I guess this decadent – but without a doubt oh so delicious – dessert does make you feel slutty when you’ve finished the thing. Yes, the whole cake. You don’t think you could resist, do you? I hope this recipe from What’s Gaby Cooking comes with a bucket.

#4: Disco Ball Chocolate Cola Cake

disco-ball-chocolate-cola-cake

You may think this is a simple chocolate cake with glitters. And you’re probably right. But simple recipes are the best because they – almost- can’t fail! Which means you can have dessert! And who wouldn’t want this fancy chocolate cola cake from Cupcakes & Curries? :D

#5: Baileys Cheesecake

Baileys-Irish-Cream-baked-cheesecake

My mom would love this! She likes Cheesecake and Baileys – occasionally – so this would be a perfect fit for her :) Thank you Domestic Gothess. Now I know what birthday cake to make her in May ;)

Is your bucket full? ;)

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Twelfth-night Pie (Driekoningentaart)

/ sarahgiebens / Leave a comment

Hi guys!

It’s the 6th of January 2016 already and that means: Driekoningen! (Twelfth-Night or Epiphany)

I’m not making a new recipe this year so I got my lazy-mood on and just reblog last year’s post. Why change a winning recipe, right? ;)

I hope you guys like the pie and have one yourself!

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

Sarah's Little Kitchen

Hi guys!

Do you know what day it is today? Exactly! It’s the Twelfth-night or Driekoningen!
I don’t know if you guys celebrate this day but we, Belgian, do :D Children go door to door to sing and hopefully get some candy! (At least I always wanted candy as a kid. Nowadays kids want money rather than candy… Where did the world go)
Anyway, the kids love it!
There is a pie for this day. The pie was originally served on January the 5th.
The pie hides a bean or a figure inside and the one who gets the piece with the bean wins the crown!
This person gets to be the king on january the 6th.

I have some great memories from this day! As a child, I always went to my grnadmother to sing and eat this delicious pie.
For some mysterious reason, I always got that bean!…

View original post 408 more words

2015 in review

/ sarahgiebens / Leave a comment

Hi guys!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful evening with family or friends and a lot of happiness :) I wish you all the best for 2016 and make it YOUR year! Do the things you’ve always wanted to do, travel around the world, experience love and happiness and enjoy every moment. <3

Let’s go back to see what 2015 looked like for Sarah’s Little Kitchen :) I compared 2015 with 2014 and besides growing numbers (thank you guys so much!), not that much has changed :p

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for my blog.

Your 2015 year in blogging

 

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Want to see your own report?
=> http://name-of-your-blog.wordpress.com/2015/annual-report/

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Your 9 Sarah’s Little Kitchen Favorites

/ sarahgiebens / 4 Comments

Hi guys!

Sadly, Christmas is over. You’re probably just getting over that indigestion, aren’t you :p Hurry up because New Year is right around the corner! And that mostly means: more eating & drinking! Hooray!

Since at its end, I thought it’d be a good time to share with you your year here on Sarah’s Little Kitchen :)

We’ll start from number 9 to the winning number 1. Let’s see what you guys loved most.

#9: Raspberry Brownies

Raspberry Brownies 04

#8: Nutella Brownies

Nutella Brownie01

#7: Chunky Monkey Brownies

Chunky Monkey 01

#6: Canelés de Bordeaux

Canelés de Bordeaux

#5: Spicy Chai Latté Brownies

Chai06

#4: Speculoos Blondies

blondd

#3: Nerdy Nummies Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nerdy Nummies Chocolate Chip Cookies!

#2: Oreo Cupcakes

Oreo Cupcake

#1: Oreo Cheesecake

Oreo07

Djeez guys! I had no idea you loved brownies so much :o Well, obviously you like them but I’d never thought almost every brownie recipe I’ve made would end up in the Best 9 Of 2015 xD And of course, nothing can beat Oreo’s! :D

My personal favorite: these yummy Nutella Cupcakes I made for my Dad’s birthday :)

Nutella Cupcake 02
Nutella Cupcake 01

I hope you had a great 2015 and may 2016 be even better! Happy New Year!

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Easy Christmas Cookies

/ sarahgiebens / 13 Comments

Hi guys!

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Let there be love, fun, happiness and… food! ;D

Today’s menu: super easy Christmas Cookies to hang in your Christmas tree :) I’ve said it before with my Christmas Jam Cookies: What’s Christmas without cookies? Just a meeting!

IMG_2924

What we need:

  • 250 g butter
  • 165 g sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 250 g flour
  • pinch of salt
  • Christmas cookie cutters
  • plastic foil
  • baking plate
  • baking paper
  • a straw
  • ribbon

 

Christmas Cookies

How to:

  1. Mix together butter and sugar until fluffy.
  2. Add the egg yolk.
  3. Sift the flour and add it together with the salt to the mixture.
  4. Mix until everything gets combined and it forms a real dough.
  5. Wrap the dough in plastic foil and store for 30 – 60 minutes in the fridge.
  6. Remove the foil and roll out the dough.
  7. Cut out different Christmas figures.
  8. Heat the oven at 190°C.
  9. Place the cookies on a sheet of baking paper on a baking plate and make a little hole in the cookie with the straw.
  10. Bake for 15 minutes at 190°C.
  11. Let the cookies cool on the baking plate for a bit until placing them on a rack to cool completely.
  12. Take some ribbon and put it through the cookie-hole to hang them in your tree :)

IMG_2936

Merry Christmas!

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Christmas Jam Cookies

/ sarahgiebens / 16 Comments

Hi guys!

Nothing says Christmas more than Christmas Cookies… I’m sorry but you can’t say you’ve celebrated Christmas if you haven’t had any cookies to go with it. You just can’t.

Sooooo I’ve made some yummy Jam Cookies! They can be used for several occasions because they aren’t Christmas exclusive as you can see but these star shaped cookies fit Christmas perfectly as well :)

IMG_2920

What we need:

  • 250 g butter
  • 165 g sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 250 g flour
  • pinch of salt
  • raspberry jam (or any kind of jam you like)
  • cookie cutters in 2 sizes
  • plastic foil
  • baking plate
  • baking paper

Christmas Jam Cookies

How to:

  1. Mix together butter and sugar until fluffy.
  2. Add the egg yolk.
  3. Sift the flour and add it together with the salt to the mixture.
  4. Mix until everything gets combined and it forms a real dough.
  5. Wrap the dough in plastic foil and store for 30 – 60 minutes in the fridge.
  6. Remove the foil and roll out the dough.
  7. Cut out as much stars as you can.
  8. Cut out a smaller piece in half of the stars (these will be your top stars).
  9. Heat the oven at 190°C.
  10. Place the cookies on a sheet of baking paper on a baking plate and bake for 15 minutes at 190°C.
  11. Let the cookies cool on the baking plate for a bit until placing them on a rack to cool completely.
  12. Take your ‘full’ stars and put some jam on them.
  13. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the top stars (the ones with the holes).
  14. Place the top stars on top of the jam.
  15. Serve! :D

Jam Cookies

Merry Christmas!

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Cake Mix Challenge: Cupcake Edition

/ sarahgiebens / Leave a comment

Hi guys!

Christmas is getting really really close now… Are you guys excited? Christmas Tree all set? Gifts all wrapped? Dinner plans thought out? Awesome Christmas sweaters ready? :D

I know Christmas can be a real rush. Especially if you’re the one cooking! Best thing you can do is save time wherever you can to get you through the holidays with a smile. And that way you can spend as much tie with your loved ones as possible :) I don’t like saying it, but dessert is something you can ‘cheat’ on.

Looking for something easy but festive and delicious? Cupcakes are always a good idea! They’re easy to make and everyone loves them. How you can save even more time? Use a cake mix for cupcakes.

There are so many different cake mixes. They all look the same but there can be some differences. I’ve decided to try three different cake mixes to let you know which one is best :)

It’s on!

#1: Fun Cakes

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IMG_2905

Fun Cakes is a pretty known brand here in Belgium. Lots of cupcakeries and hobby stores have them. The cupcakes come out nicely and bake evenly. The taste is good, but maybe a little bit too dense for a cupcake. It reminds me of a vanilla cake instead of a cupcake. The mix also says it can be used as a regular cake mix.

#2: De Bakboetiek (The Bake Boutique)

IMG_2897
IMG_2908

This one is made by a local baking store. They sell their products in their store in Mechelen, Belgium and online. The cupcakes rise a bit more than the other cupcakes from Fun Cakes. The taste is in my opinion better since it really tastes like a cupcake (omnomnom). The texture of these cupcakes is is too. It’s much less dense and you can keep on eating them xD

#3: AVEVE / Horta (Farmer’s Union)

IMG_2902
IMG_2910

They look a lot like the ones from Fun Cakes. I didn’t manage to bake them 100% even as you can see. It tastes nice and the texture is okay. I feel like this one is inbetween vanilla cake and cupcake. This mix was made by the Farmer’s Union. I don’t know if I say this 100% correctly though.

 

You can probably guess which one is my favorite :) I guess a local store just puts more love into their products than a mass manufacturer. BUT no panic if you don’t have a local bakery who makes cupcake mixes. All three of them taste delicious and a good frosting can turn every cupcake into a real Christmas treat! (not the burned ones…) Just keep in mind the cupcake-level of each mix.

All though cake mixes seem so much faster, I don’t think it can ever live up to the result you get from adding flour and sugar yourself because there’s not much more to a cupcake than that. But I do understand people wanting to use them. So go ahead and use those mixes to serve your guests some lovely cupcakes!

Happy Holidays!

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Christmas gift idea: Elvea Limited Editions Box

/ sarahgiebens / 2 Comments

Hi guys!

I was invited to the official opening of the Elvea Pop-Up Boutique at Stadsfeestzaal, Antwerp. The famous canned tomato brand exists 130 years and that calls for some special celebrations!

Elvea launched the exclusive Selezione del Maestro. Beautiful products with Datterini tomatoes. These tomatoes are a bit sweeter than the others. You can buy them in the supermarket but the limited editions gift box (the four of them together in a beautiful gift box) is exclusively available at the Pop-Up Boutique. It makes the perfect gift for every tomato-lover!

IMG_2874

Looks fancy, huh :D The dark blue with the gold gives this special edition a very luxurious look. It looks good, tastes great and doesn’t cost you a fortune. What more would you wish for? This fabulous gift box is available in the Pop-Up Boutique at Stadsfeestzaal in Antwerp for 12,50 euros.

For those of you who live in Antwerp or have visited the city in the near past know how the Pop-Up stores inside the Stadsfeestzaal look like. Elvea has claimed its place next to Zest Juice Bar, at the main entrance. You can’t miss it! :D

IMG_2867
IMG_2868
IMG_2872
IMG_2869

The Pop-Up Boutique also offers you the regular and newest products by Elvea. So you can easily buy your own canned tomatoes whilst Christmas shopping for family and friends ;)

To promote the Pop-Up Boutique, Elvea has created this fabulous Fiat 500:

IMG_2877

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Red Velvet Christmas Crinkle Cookies

/ sarahgiebens / 18 Comments

Hi guys!

I’m sorry forgot posting a Christmas recipe last Tuesday. It’s not that I didn’t want to or didn’t try. I was making these awesome Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies Tuesday night at around 10 pm. I had hoped to finish them in time to post them before midnight but my oven had other plans…

Everything went well until I put the first batch in the oven. After just a few minutes I started to smell something weird. My first thought was: “Djeez these cookies smell bad, my god!” You know something’s really wrong when there’s smoke coming out of the oven!

NO PANIC! I had it all under control. Except for that awfull burned smell that lived in our appartment for two days…

But the second time went perfectly well as you can tell by these yummy Crinkle Cookies :)

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Store the cookies in an airtight container. If you don’t, the cookies will become soft and they’ll taste more like cake than cookie xD It becomes a cake-cookie :p Tastes great too.

I was lucky to try a cookie before going to bed. It was crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Just the way they are supposed to be.
I had put them in a box and left them on the table when I went to bed. You never guess what I saw when I woke up: the cookie box had been opened!

I secretly think the boyfriend has something to do with it. He may have stolen a cookie when he got home from his boys night out or he might have just looked inside to see what I made. Either way, he forgot to close the box and left his marks! Busted! ;)

Red Velvet Christmas Crinkle Cookies

What do we need:

  • 390 g self-raising flour
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 180 g butter
  • 160 g sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 teaspoons red food coloring
  • 130 g powdered sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • baking paper

Crinkle Cookies going in the oven

How to:

  1. Put the flour, cocoa powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
  2. Mix together butter and sugar until the sugar is absorbed by the butter.
  3. Add 1 egg at a time and mix until smooth.
  4. Add the food coloring.
  5. Add the other ingredients you had set aside in the bowl and mix until the batter is smooth.
  6. Put the dough in a bowl, wrap it with foil and put in the fridge for about 2 hours.
  7. Butter your hands and make small balls of dough.
  8. Put the powdered sugar in a bowl and roll every ball in the sugar. One  at a time.
  9. Place the balls on a baking sheet.
  10. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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Christmas Wishlist 2015

/ sarahgiebens / Leave a comment

Hi guys!

2 more nights and Saint Nicholas is here. And then comes Christmas! :D As every one of you do I also have a little wishlist for Christmas. No, I’m not putting all the books I want on this list because I wouldn’t want you to be still reading this list tomorrow morning… ;)

#1: Sushi Kit

 

easy-sushi-kit-preparation-maki-sushi

I would love to make my own Sushi one day :) I promise to let you guys know how I did when I do ^^

#2: Booze Mixes

melange-mojito-fraisemelange-blue-lagoon

I usually don’t drink. Maybe some wine at a party or dinner but that’s all. But I saw these cute mixes for Strawberry Mojito and Blue Lagoon and I’m tempted to try these out. Or to just put them in our vitrine because to never take out because they look so cool :p

#3: Tea Case with healthy Kusmi Tea

coffret-les-thes-bien-etre

I love tea. Don’t you think this case looks great? I’d love to have this one, even if I wouldn’t like the tastes. It would look great in our kitchen :) But I bet it tastes great too! And the teas are all supposed to be healthy so that’s an extra plus ^^

#4: Donut Box

coffret-donuts

Do I really have to give a reason for this one? Come on…

#5: Mug Cake Set

coffret-mugcake

Don’t you just love these cute mugs? :D I’ve tried and tested some Mug Cakes before and the relationship just didn’t work. But I’m pretty convinced they would taste so much better in these mugs! What do you say, shall I give it a try? :p

Every item on my list can be found at Alice Délice, by far my favorite cooking store!

If you could have anything in the world, no matter how expensive, what would it be?

Have a delicious day <3
xxx Sarah

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