Baking with Van - Carrot Cupcakes

Hey guys,

let's bake some 'healthy' cupcakes together!

Having way too many carrots at home, I've decided to bake some carrot cupcakes.

And I have to admit, these were my first cupcakes ever - until then I've just baked muffins.

So let's call it an experiment and let the show begin. :-D

What do we need first? Exactly...

Get Ready With Me: A Winter Wedding

Hey guys,

last weekend I've been to a winter wedding and not only the month 'Januar' defined it being one. Luckily, the bridal couple could celebrate their amazing day in a wonderful snowscape. 

All guests had to struggle a lit bit to arrive safely at the wedding because of slippery roads. Apart from that, it was a challenge to choose a proper outfit. Especially for all women the challenge was to look amazing, to wear high heels and to do not freeze. ;-)

At the end I can say it was a perfect day, for the bridal couple as well as for the guests. 

I want to share with you how I got ready and I give you some insights of the wedding location.

I decided to wear a knee-length dress, with a narrow cut at the chest passing over to a falling skirt. You may recognize it from my Winter Haul.

The dress I've worn to the wedding.

My Winter Beauty and Fashion Haul

Hey guys,

it might be that I did some successful shopping in December and January. :-)

Do you wanna see which things I've bought? So, let's take a look. 

Starting with the beauty stuff...

Some of you might guess - Van is a +ZoevaCosmetics - Fan, right! 

So besides the amazing Rose Golden Luxury Set on that I did a review, I got some more products like the Rodeo Belle(*) and Smoky(*) eyeshadow palette, the Luxe Color Blush(*) in the colour 'He Loves Me Maybe' and the Lip Crayon+(*) in the colour 'Second Chance'. 

I'm a kind of person I love creative names for beauty products and, being honest, sometimes I buy a product because of the name. ^^ Yes for sure, I like the products anyhow, I do not buy anything that I couldn't imagine to use. I really like the name 'He Loves Me Maybe', giving this blush-colour this 'Hm I'm a little bit shy, but anyhow I'm a self-confident woman' - expression. Great!

My wonderful collection of Zoeva products.

ZOEVA Rose Golden Luxury Set

Hey guys,

may I introduce my newest purchase to you? - The Zoeva Rose Golden Luxury Set!

Since I'm a huge fan of make-up brushes - and if you have read my last post on the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, you know that I love rosegold-coloured things - it was beyond all question that I had to buy this gorgeous set!

The set includes eight rosegold brushes and a brown elegant leather-imitated clutch (size 24 x 18 cm).

The eight Zoeva brushes of the Rose Golden Luxury Set.

Urban Decay Naked 3 Review

Hey guys,

this year at christmas I was a lucky girl - I got the Urban Decay Naked 3 eyeshadow palette as a gift from my partens. Since summer 2014 the brand is released in Germany and you can buy it at Douglas for around 50 €.

I've read a lot of blog posts of the Naked 1 and Naked 2 palettes before, telling that the pigmentation of the different eyeshadow colours is great and that the colours last the whole day. Even without primer the shades might show their true colour. So, let's check it out. ;-)

I own some eyeshadow palettes and until then I was every time a little bit disappointed even because of their lacking pigmentation. So I was more and more excited to get a Urban Decay product.

What I got for Christmas 2014

Hi guys,

I'm a little bit sad, that the christmas holidays went by so fast. At the end of november I start to get excited for christmas, I visit christmas markets, bake christmas cookies, decorate my flat, listen to christmas songs, go christmas shopping, all such things that you do during advent season.
Me, I always think that I have much time and I start planning events, like meeting friends for christmas dinner, having christmas parties but suddenly, it's one week before christmas and you realise that time has passed by and you have had time for nothing. ;-) Do you know this feeling?
So anyhow, I'm always excited for the christmas days and I try to enjoy very single minute with my family. It's this special kind of festive, loved, cozy feeling for that you're waiting the whole year.

I'd love to show you the presents that I got for christmas.

Starting with my parents, I got a very, very cozy blanket with sleeves. That means you can sit on the sofa with a cup of tea or coffee, reading a book and when you want to grab your cup you don't have to freeze because your arm is out off the blanket - how cool is that. :-D

As second present I got the Urban Decay Cosmetics Naked 3 palette - oh yes !!! I wanted this palette for so so long. I love these rosegold colours so much. I did a review on it that you can read here.

My boyfriend's family gave me the new album of  Maroon 5 (V) and Cro (Melodie).  For those who don't live in Germany - Cro is a musician who combined pop music and rap music to 'RAOP'.

My boyfriends mother offered me the book 'The Glam Guide' from my favourite YouTuber +Fleur DeForce. It comes out the 12th of february and I still have to wait some while, but I'm OK with that.
A really nice and thoughtful present is a necklace chosen by his sister. It's a transparent medaillon, filled with real dandelions. I decided to take this amazing present as a talisman. Blowing dandelions in the wind means to me that you can give rein to your wishs.

My boyfriend offered me a calendar from Paperblanks. He gives me one every single year. Although I know before christmas that I will get a calendar it's still a surprise which cover he chooses and every single year I like it a lot and I'm happy with it. Another present I got are some warm and cozy bunny-slippers. I've seen some similar ones in the city before christmas which were so cute and I told him about them. Additionally I got a carrying bag with the Haribo logo and the new music album of Taylor Swift (1989). Since around two weeks I listen to her music every single day. I really like it, it's great for dancing and it makes a good mood. I still got something else that I will not mention here, you understand... ;-)

I also got some odds and ends like two bathbombs, an amazing hand cream from Rituals Cosmetics , a travelguide for New York and several gift coupons for Douglas. For those who don't know the store Douglas, it's comparable to Sephora.

What did you get for christmas 2014?

Kisses,
Van

The Cheeseburger Birthday Cake for my Boyfriend

Hey guys,

I'd like to share with you my idea for the birthday cake I've baked for my boyfriend last summer.

Yeah, you're right 'summer' is a while ago and we have 2015 right now, but hey, the idea is still great, so let's not pay attention to this. ;-)

So, since it was the 30th birthday of my boyfriend, I wanted to bake him something special. Until then I've just blowed some ideas like a cake with the logo of his favourite soccer club so I had to find a new one. Some blogs and YouTube videos inspired me to bake a cheeseburger cake. As he likes chesseburgers, I was sure he will love the cake. ;-)

I can tell you guys, this was so much fun to do.

The dough for the bottom and top of the burger is a lemon cake and for the burger meat I've chosen a receipe for chocolate brownies. 

Here are the single working steps:

1) I covered the bottom of the burger with marzipan. You can buy marzipan-covering especially for cakes. So you don't need to struggle with rolling out the marzipan. This is really no fun. ^^ 

2) Since it's a c-h-e-e-s-e-burger, we need some chesse. So that's easy to do. You buy some yellow food coloring and ... here comes the not so funny part... I'm sorry guys....we don't get out of rolling marzipan pieces out :-( ... we color the marzipan, yay. ;) This you do by kneading the marzipan as long until you are happy with its color. For rolling it out, I put some wrapping film around the marzipan. This helps you a lot because the marzipan doesn't stick on the rolling pin or the working surface. 

Then I've cut some cheese-shaped triangles and placed them beyond the edge of the cake bottom.

3) To replace the cucumber (the boyfriend hates them^^), I've decided to put also some green salad on the cheese, as known as green colored marzipan. I'm not sure if every cheeseburger is served with salad but hey, who cares ;)

I've used a cookie cutter that shape is the most similar to salad. Unfortunately you can hardly shape the marzipan by hand as you want to. It's not easy to work with marzipan, so I really respect all pastry cooks - you do a great job.

4) And now, ta da - well hello you yummi meat patty. Here in the picutre you see the bottom of my brownie cake but I really have to tell you... The receipe says that you should put additionally some chopped chocolate on top -  so the chocolate was still fluid in the middle of the brownie dough - that is the best thing - warm fluid chocolate - oh yes !

5) As second last step I colored some marzipan red and designed some tomatoes. The most people thought the red marzipan is salami. Hello?! Who puts salami on a burger? Even though these red circles seem like salami, shouldn't it be clear that I want to have tomatoes on the burger? ;-) What do you think? Does it really not look like tomatoes? Be honest, don't worry. ;-) The green pieces is left over salad.^^

6) And now -  the top of the burger, citron cake covered with marzipan. :-D

7) And to make it more look like a birthday cake, I've written the holy '30' on it. ;)

And here is the happy birthday boy:

 

So you can say, one piece of cheeseburger cake is similar to three pieces of other cake

(you can also see that the chocolate is still a little bit fluid) ;-)

 And this is the leftover cake:

Seems like it was very tasting (without praising myself). :)

I was really excited to offer the cake to my boyfriend - and I was a little bit proud of myself that my baking directly suceeded. I hadn't time to try it before.

Even if baking with marzipan is hard work, you can create such great things with it. I also have to admit, that my baking utilities are not very professional and I had to improvise sometimes, but I think that makes the work much more fun sometimes. ;)

The next time I want to try some fudge instead of marzipan. Did you ever use fudge? Is it easy to work with it?

Do you like baking and being a little bit creative like this? 

If you have any pictures , I would be happy to see them. :-)

Kisses,

Van

New Job, Weekend-Relationship....?!

Hey you all,
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015! I hope you all had a good start in a great year!

How did you celebrate the beginning of 2015?
I've been in Berlin with my boyfriend and two amazing friends. We shared a flat all together which was really great. Every morning we had a cosy breakfast together before we went off to explore the city.

My boyfriend and I in Berlin (+)

Our yummi breakfast

We've been to Berlin several times before, so we knew all tourist attractions. Especially when you are in Berlin after the christmas holidays and before new years eve, the city is overloaded with people and you don't want to do all the tourist stuff. ;-)
But anyhow, a little bit of sightseeing is always intended.

On our way to the 'Reichstag', the plenary. (+)

The front view of the 'Reichstag'. (+)

The Brandenburg Gate (+)

Christmas decorations at the Sony Center.

The TV tower at Alexanderplatz.

On new years eve we had tickets for a location called 'Pier 13' near the Tempelhof harbour where we had some drinks and such a nice dinner. And later, to work out all the great food we had in the belly, there was a DJ playing very good dance music. ;-)

Frontview of Pier 13

The room with the dinner buffet and the dance floor. (+)

Only a small selection of the amazing food.

After midnight, the team of Pier 13 organised amazing fireworks, placed next to the harbour. By the way, it was a really romantic atmosphere, standing in the arms of your boyfriend, watching this great spectacle. I was really happy to celebrate in 2015 like we did.

Although it's not the best quality, a little impression of the fireworks. (+)

So here I am again, after such a long time without posting anything. I'm really sorry for that.
The reason is that I finished college and started a new job. This kind of lifestyle changing brought such a whirlwind in my life that I hardly had any time for myself, neither for all my private things to manage nor for my great hobby the cosmetics and my blog.
So please don't judge me for this.

During the week I live in a small flat-share in the city where I work and at the weekends I return to the flat that I share with my boyfriend. Yes, at the moment I have a weekend relationsship.
First, I was a little bit nervous how that lifestyle will change the relation to my boyfriend, but I've understood really fast that this brings also some advantages.
During the week, I have time for myself. Aside from focusing on work, I can organize my free time without making agreements. That means doing sports, meeting friends and colleagues, simply reading a book, watching movies my boyfriends doesn't like to watch (^^) and doing other girl-stuff.  So I "work off" the things during the week and at the weekend I focus on my relationship and spend the time together with my boyfriend.
Even though it sounds that I like this lifestyle and yes, there are some advantages, but I have to say that I'm really happy that it's limited. At the end of next year I'll move back to boyfriend and we'll move in a bigger flat. So, let's looking forward to this. :-)

What do you think about weekend-relationships and / or long-distance relationships? 
Do you think it's refreshing for your relationship when you see your partner only at the weekends or for example once a month or do you prefer having the opportunity to spend time with your love whenever you want to do?

Kisses,
Van

P.s. (+)Thanks to my friends for sharing the photos of our trip.