From Bruges...with love!

Have you ever been in Belgium?

Stefano and I had wanted to visit Belgium, specifically Bruges, after we saw the movie "In Bruges":

taken from Pinterest

We fell in love with the city while watching the movie (which has no romance, by the way) but haven't managed to actually plan a trip there till now.

We spent a long weekend there, back in June and we confirmed our love for this small city.

The city of Bruges is located in the Flemish side of Belgium, so the main language spoken by locals is Dutch - which means you won't understand one single word during your entire stay.

Bruges is very beautiful...as soon as you exit the train station you feel transported in a magic environment. You will be surrounded by the small river that runs through the city, the green trees and vegetation around it, the typical and colorful houses, the big tower with its bells and finally....the hundreds chocolate shops!

Temperature in June weren't as warm as the ones we are used to, but it was a nice break from the summer heat we are experiencing this year!

Few pictures of our small trip below:

Let's start from the center of this beautiful city...The Markt!

You can visit the tower (Burg) and climb all the stairs until you reach the bells room. The interesting part is that every day there is a man who plays a piano that is connected to the bells, the music can be heard in the whole historic center.... make sure you bring ear plugs with you!

Another view of the Markt:



and a view of what you can eat in the Markt:

:::Best waffle I have ever eaten!!:::

If you visit Belgium, there's something you must taste: Belgian beer!

This bar (2be) has thousands of different beers and, unless you spend a month there, you won't be able to taste them all. However, they offer some sort of samples depending on your preference (mix, strong, light) and I highly recommend this (cherry trappist beer is my favourite!).

:::The holiday selfie :D:::

[[ If you like my hat, you can find a similar one here and here ]]

I spent around 65 euros in this shop:

Bruges is full of chocolate shops, but only few of them make their own chocolate! The Chocolate Line is one of the few, and you can find chocolate for any taste and extravagance! They can box the chocolate so you can store it safely in your luggage {or in my case, they can give you a thermal bag since we bought so much chocolate that it didn't fit...}

Something you can't miss is the boat tour! It takes more or less 30 minutes and there are different starting point in the city.

For our last night in Bruges, we decided to go for some tapas and live music :) In Bruges and Brussels you can find many small restaurant and bistro that offer live music -- don't miss out!

Last but not least...something happened in Bruges!

Stefano and I got engaged ;)

Until next time,
Daniela

Food to Crave for: Tiramisú

Few days ago I have asked on my Facebook page, what I should have baked for my next blog post. Sandra suggested I should make Tiramisú, and since she is my dear dear colleague, I've decided to please her ;)









Also, Tiramisú is Stefano's favourite dessert... so, I made him happy too!


Here you have the recipe:

Prepare some coffee, pour it in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of Rum and let it cooling down.

Mascarpone cream:

Mix the egg yolks with sugar until the texture is creamy. 

Add the Mascarpone cheese first, then the whipped cream and mix everything together.

Proceedings:

Now, soak the ladyfinger biscuits in the coffee and place them in the baking dish (don't let them soak for too long or they will come apart!).

Once you have covered the bottom of the dish completely, spread some of the Mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers and add another layer of biscuits.

Finish the dessert with another layer of Mascarpone mixture and sprinkle some Cocoa powder on top.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and  enjoy :)

Until next time,

Daniela

Food to Crave for: Chocolate & Walnuts cake

On Easter day I have invited some friends over for coffee. In Italy we have a traditional cake called Colomba (dove) and even if I wanted to serve it with coffee, I wasn´t able to find it anywhere here in Spain L.

That hasn't really demotivated me - I got down to work and started baking a Chocolate & Walnuts cake ;o) 

I have written the below recipe - I didn't copy it from anywhere..so if you see something is not understandable, please let me know :)

Cake:

Break the chocolate bar in pieces and melt it with butter in a small sauce pan over a low flame. Chop the walnut in big pieces and add them to the melted chocolate.

Now separate the yolk from the egg whites, and beat the egg whites until stiff. 

In a separate bowl, mix the three egg yolks with sugar and, when the texture is creamy, add the stiffen egg whites and mix everything together.

Mix the baking powder with the flour and add the mixture to the egg yolk composed on small doses.

Finally, add the chocolate and walnut cream and mix everything together.

Pour the mixture in a cake pan – I suggest you to cover the pan with oven foil: the cake will be lighter and there are less chances it gets burned ;o) – and put the cake in the oven at 180c / 356f for 30 minutes.

Cream:

The filling and coverage is very easy!!

I have simply mixed fresh whipped cream with Nutella! 

I suggest you to buy fresh cream you can easily whip yourself - the flavour and the texture is much better.

Cover the cake and, as a final touch, add some walnuts and chocolate on top of the cake!

_________

It was a success!! Everybody absolutely loved it and even asked if I would take orders :)

Do you have a favourite cake recipe? Let me know about it! ;)

Until next time,

Daniela