Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

This is my favourite recipe for cupcakes that I found in a German baking book. It's not exactly easy to make but foreign recipes are usually quite elaborate for me... But it actually takes you not more than 15-20 to prepare the dough. So, I hope you don't find these cupcakes impossible to make and decide to try.

You need:

1. 2 Bananas

2. 100 g Butter

3. 250 g Flour + 2 tea spoons baking powder

4. 200g Dark Chocolate

5. 2 Eggs

6. 100 g Cooking cream

7. 100 g Sugar

The mixture makes for 12-14 cupcakes.

Preparation:

1.Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

2.Melt the chocolate and the butter. Mix the flour with the baking powder.

3. Cut the bananas in small pieces and make a purée out of them with a fork.

4.Mix the eggs with the cooking dream, the sugar, the banana purée and the choco butter [s.2] Stir or use a mixer [2-3 mins].

5. Add the flour and stir.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

P.S. I made some changes in this recipe that I think improve the taste. The original recipe requires you to put pieces of banana in the dough but I think they don't taste that good baked. And one more thing, you can also use the juice of one lemon to improve the taste. Personally, I don't think it improves anything.

Bon Appetit!

xxo P.

5 likes

Wow, it's Tuesday again! Weird how the times flies...

Here are my 5 likes for this week:

1. Kimbra - Thanks so much to my New Zealand friend for making me check out that amazing lady again. I completely ignored her last time and I deeply regret it.
And yes, that IS that chick that sings in that weird famous Australian song.
Check her out, you won't be disappointed.

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2. The city of Stuttgart and everyone in it. - I've been to a lot of cities the past year but that one just never leaves my heart. Besides, it was about time I gave it some credit.

3. The Ellen Degeneres Show - Since season 10 premiered yesterday, which I was reminded of by my Latvian friend, I thought I should mention how much I like that show. Sometimes I just watch a random video and suddenly, 2 hours later, I find myself still watching videos...

Darta, if you're reading this, I am so looking forward to our Ellen-night sometime in the near future.

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4. Fancy Balconies - One day I'll have something like that in my house/apartment 

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5. Portuguese - I have no picture for that one. I just love how the language sounds and I'd love to learn Portuguese someday!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

xxo P.

September's bittersweet

Today I woke up and went to the kitchen to make myself breakfast and I realized it's not warm enough any more to walk around the appartment in huge T-shirts. And that brings me to the conclusion that summer's slipping through my fingers and there's just about nothing I can do to stop it.

Well, according to Facebook, lots of people have come to this realization but I first thought about it today. And for the first time in ages, a cup of black tea doesn't make it all better.

But you know what? Autumn is the best season for projects and for my wardrobe and for getting stuff done. So, I decided to make a list of goals for this fall that I'm going to share with you this week. 

And now, I think I'm going out and get one of my last decent portions of vitamin D for the year. And by the way, this is probably the last Monday of the year that doesn't make me feel depressed and suicidal since I'm starting school next week, so I think I'll enjoy it. 

I hope you enjoy your Monday, too.

xxo P.

My 4 favourite websites

Well, hello there! I hope you're having a nice Sunday. I know I am. Skyping with friends from all over the world always makes my mood about 200% better.

I decided to share my 4 favourite websites with you today. In case you don't know them already, I hope you like them and find them useful.

Here they are in no specific order:

1. Stumble upon

This website for me, is what makes sitting in front of the computer worth it, and not just a waste of valuable time that you could spend reading or studying. It is basically a rich database with countless other websites, pages and pictures on various topics. What you do is, you choose a topic/topics and you browse/stumble for stuff you like. When you find something nice, you click the Like button and it goes right to your homepage where you could check it out again any time you like. I love that website. 

2. Picmonkey

Okey, so here's a secret. I don't use Photoshop. I don't have it, I don't know how to work with it. I just never learned how... 

So, in case you have the same "dirty little secret" or you just want to add effects to your photos quickly using a website, that's my solution for you. Check it out, it's awesome.

3. We are hunted

I might get accused of being a hipster for that one, but this website offers you a rich library of music in different categories. Some of the songs are really hipster-ish but I have found some really cool tracks there, so give it a chance. I love the interface.

4. The World's Best Ever.
The name speaks for itself. It has amazing music, videos, photos and articles for anyone's interests.
Check it out, you won't be disappointed.






I hope you like these websites. Sometimes the stuff I find on there makes my day.
xxo P.

I had a bad day...

I'm not going to go into detail about all the things that went wrong today, I just wanted to share with you my personal "reward" to myself for making it through a bad day - a healthy and delicious fruit salad.

The aim of this post is to convince you that even though you have some small "disasters" in your life sometimes, you can still choose to finish the day with a smile. Because, let's face it, there's no one in the world whose plans haven't gone down the drain at least once in their life. 

Never beat yourself up for that kind of stuff, eat fruits instead!

And finally, I would like to apologize to a dear friend of mine for not being able to enjoy Bucharest with her today. I'm sorry, may be some other time...?

- xxo P.

It's Thursday...

Well I'm in this weird mood where I'm not exactly sad but I'm not exactly happy either [for sure]. I'm listening to Amy Winehouse's last record and thinking of going out because it's just such a beautiful day outside! 

But when I think about what I'm going to see when I go out, and it's not Stuttgart's beautiful park but a main street with no soul, I'm not so sure about the whole going-out thing any more.

I spent the morning baking with my mom and it was nice, I like my mom. By the way, if you want the recipe for these delicious... I really have no idea how they are called in English, please, let me know.  Now I have to do some stuff for school but since school hasn't even started yet, I can't bring myself to do them... I'm just lazy as hell!

Well, Amy is singing now: My tears dry on their own. 

I'm not crying but it seems appropriate. I think it's time for me to start forming some kind of life here. After all, I do have 2 more years of school left and I'm going to have to make it somehow bearable. 

May be I should actually consider going out. I don't really know anyone who's had a decent social relationship with a laptop, so before I turn into a creepy facebook freak with no life, I think I'm going to finish this post and make myself a cup of tea.

I hope you have a beautiful day!

xxo P.

5 likes

Okay, it's time again!

My 5 likes for this week:

1. Lentil soup. I l.o.v.e. it

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2. Be Delicious by DKNY 

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I love that perfume. It's kind of old and cliché and it sort of smells like old cucumbers BUT it's still awesome!

3. George Gerschwin

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My favourite composer. Unfortunately, I don't have any of his music on vinyl but Youtube makes up for it. Kind of.

4.  Hair Buns

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I love messy hair buns. They're so girlie and at the same time so... casual. I think my hair's not long enough [yet] for a decent bun but... someday.

5. Theatre. Plays.

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I've been watching theatre plays since I was 5. I'm really grateful that my mom raised me with great love for theatre, this quite old but still amazing form of art. My favourite play is by far Harold and Modd but I like many many others, too.

I went to the theatre 3 times when I was in Germany and I saw "Little Shop of Horrors", "Faust" and "The Death of a Salesman". Well, I liked the first one the best. Faust was kind of... weird. Too abstract for me. And I like abstract, so I guess this makes the play just... bad. Not the play itself but the interpretation.

I like Bulgarian theatre more. Germany has [and gives] more money for that kind of stuff but I still prefer the way actors perform and approach a play here, in Bulgaria.

I actually did my externship [job shadowing] at the National Theatre in Stuttgart. It was pretty great but I'll tell you more about that some other time.

I hope you enjoyed my 5 likes!

xxo P.