Happy Happy Happy!

I passed my exams today!!!!! I am the happiest person in the world :)) I got the best marks! (all A's)
In chemistry, I talked about carboxylic acids and derivatives, in biology about abiogenesis and human evolution. In English, I was asked some questions about interpersonal relationships, transport in Prague and London and had to talk about charity and describe some pictures. In Czech, I talked about Myrer's The Last Convertible and American literature after World War II.

I was sooo scared until today's morning and I thought I wouldn't manage to learn all the things.

Oh, I was so so scared. 

But when I got to school, my nervousness was all gone and I even started enjoying the examinations. No lie! :)

Oh, and Peter baked me a cake! :))

and gave me the loveliest of presents :)

I am in love. Can't wait to hang it up tomorrow! :)

Oh, I am soo tired!

I am going to bed. Hoping for some nice dreams :)) 

The world is nice, my dear readers. 

Chocolate and/or Coffee Cupcakes Recipe

Today, I'd like to share with you a recipe for chocolate cupcakes. They are extremely easy to make (I believe these could be done even without a hand mixer), baked in no time and perfect in taste. Moreover, you can vary their flavor by adding more or less coffee and vanilla.

These cupcakes are not dense chocolate cupcakes, if that's what you are looking for. They are actually very light in texture. They go perfectly with sweet frostings because the chocolate cupcakes themselves are not as sweet. You can serve them with light Chantilly cream as well as with rich chocolate frostings.

Chocolate Cupcakes Recipe (serves 16)

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar 

7/8 cup flour

3/8 cup cocoa (Dutch processed) 

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup boiling water

1-2 teaspoons instant coffee 

Method:

1. Sieve flour and cocoa into a bowl. Add a half of sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. Into a larger bowl, lightly whip egg with the remaining sugar, add oil, vanilla and milk. 

3. Add the dry ingredients into the larger bowl and mix until incorporated. Don't forge to scrape the sides of the bowl. 

4. Make coffee using boiling water and soluble coffee and pour it immediately into the mixture. Add not more than one teaspoon if you want chocolate cupcakes. Add 2 teaspoons if you want them coffee-flavored. 

The batter will be very runny. (See pictures)

5. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and fill cups about 2/3 full. Bake the cupcakes in preheated oven at 180°C (350° F) for 20-25 minutes. Check the cupcakes and rotate the pan about 18 minutes after you've placed it in the oven. 

1. Sieve the dry ingredients:

2. Lightly whip egg, sugar, oil, vanilla and milk:

3. Add dry ingredients into the larger bowl with egg mixture.

Blend the mixture and scrape the sides of the bowl.

4. Make coffee and pour it into the mixture. 

This is how runny the batter will be:

5. Fill cupcake liners with the batter. 

(I put some raffaello balls inside some of them.)

And the result:

Lovin' it how perfectly flat they are ;))

This is their real color :))

And some chocolate cupcakes I baked:

Feel free to check out frosting recipes on my blog: 

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Honey Angel Frosting

White Chocolate Cream Frosting

Looking for a recipe for vanilla cupcakes? 

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Thank you all for reading :) Hope you are having a great time <3

If you have any questions, don't hesitate and ask me in the comments below ;))

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Monday, my dear readers! :) How are you doing?
I know that some of you already celebrated Easter yesterday but in the Czech Republic, we celebrate it on Monday so I thought I'd stick with it and wish you today.

My boyfriend came to my house in the morning to whip me with a pomlázka. I've been living on this Earth for more than 19 years and nobody did that to me until now. It's a bit unusual for someone who's grown up with 6 men in family. But our family never follows the traditions. I guess I should be glad, at least in this case :))


To familiarize you with our Czech traditions, it's believed that if a boy whips a girl with a pomlázka on Easter Monday, it will make her healthy and young. The girl then rewards the boy with hand-painted eggs or candy and ties a ribbon around the boy's pomlázka. A pomlázka is a braided whip made from pussy willow twigs. (Click here to see google pictures.)


Boys traditionally go through the village, whip girls, fill their bags with candy and eggs and their pomlázkas are turning more and more colorful as they receive the ribbons. And the girls buttocks are turning more and more red and they receive nothing. 

Ok, not my case. I got this beautiful, purebred chocolate bunny. And as you can see, it's pretty enlightened, too. ;)  [Deliberately using the word in a wrong way. Hoping it's punny enough.] My boyfriend, of course, knows I wouldn't let him whip me unless he gave me something back. Haha :)) 21st century girl from the city. 


Peter got chocolate eggs and a piece of a lamb cake. 

I didn't bother with fancy decorating. I just painted red eyes on the Easter lamb to make it look creepy. 

Quark cheese + lemon + coconut + vanilla

I liked the taste, it was quite unique :) I usually bake another types of cake doughs so it was a nice change. 

The lamb has been slaughtered. 

I shouldn't be ending the post with such a cruel picture. 

Oh, well.

Shame on me. 

Have a lovely day wherever you are <3 !

Shopping Update and a Few Other Things

It seems to me I'll be presenting you my life only with pictures the next few months. 

Which might actually be good.

Nobody likes to read long stuff. 

I do.

I'm super busy with my exams. 

Lacking time. 

28 days left.

Not prepared at all.

Sinking into despair. 

Anyway.

This is my new dress.

My new love. 

And a necklace.

I really adore butterflies. They are so beautiful as they flutter in a meadow full of flowers.

Such fragile creatures :)

A webcam pic follows:

And my new ballet flats.

I wore them in all of my outfits last week. 

My new asexy ring bought at a vietnamese store.

Cost me 1 CZK :-D (6 cents). 

I didn't even get on the subway and it had already gotten broken. 

Fixed it with super glue. 

Cute earrings Peter got me when we went to the amusement park. 

And a t-shirt I bought for him. 

(Yes, he already knows)

Should I keep the tee for myself? Haha :D

Easter is near! = Baking

Finally found where they sell mini marshmallows. 

+ 500 g of quark cheese, 250 g butter and 200 g of whipping cream are waiting in the fridge.

Off to drink

read The Picture of Dorian Gray!

You take care :)

My Nameday

:) 

No time on my hands.

Sitting an exam on Thursday.

=

Just a quick post.

I got these delicious bonbons and nougats from my dad for my nameday.

=

Happy. Puppy.

What happened the last two weeks? 

Went to the movies to see Kiss Mig.

Earlier that day me and my best friend bought the same rainbow socks.

Wore the socks in the same outfit.

=

An ultra gayday. :D

Today I "helped" at work to a friend of mine.

=

Buying black shoes tomorrow.

The week before last week: 

Went to the amusement park. 

Ate marzipan and cotton candy.

Had a delicious pizza with cheese and rucola at a fancy restaurant.

Had A LOT of fun. 

Got a new friend:

Peter won it for me in a claw crane!! <3

Compare how I looked 2 years ago:

 

and if you like, you can hype my outfit from the last week: 

I really couldn't fit my head in the picture. 

Next time I have to remember how many books I should put under the camera.

Goodbye <3 

I'll hopefully post a cupcake recipe later this week. :))

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting Recipe

For the special occasion of our "little anniversary", I've decided to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate sour cream frosting for me and my boyfriend.

The frosting was delicious! It wasn't too sweet like many others are and it was quite good to pipe. That's why I'd like to share the recipe with you :))

Even if you don't like sour cream, don't worry. You cannot sense it when the frosting's done :)) !

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting 

(enough to frost 14 cupcakes)

Ingredients: 

140 g chocolate

45 g butter

90 g sour cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

approx. 150 g confectioner's (icing) sugar

Method:

Over a pan with simmering water, melt butter and chocolate (baking, sweet, dark, chocolate chips) together. When cool to touch, beat in sour cream and vanilla extract. Sieve in confectioner's sugar and whip it with a hand mixer on medium speed for 7-10 minutes. Add more sugar if desired. 

Place the frosting into the refrigerator for 20 minutes before using it so it can firm up. 

A decorating tip:

* If using a piping bag when decorating, fill it with only a half of the frosting and keep the rest of the frosting in the refrigerator. (When I decorated last 3 or 4 cupcakes, the frosting didn't hold the shape well enough. So I just scraped it off and started again after 10 minutes. :-) )

This is how the frosting looks before placing into the fridge:

Compare how the frosting looks after all firmed up: 

Now let's decorate cakes using this frosting :)

You don't have to place the frosting into the fridge,

you can just spread the frosting over a cake like this:

Or take some cupcakes and...

...get creative :)

For snow white Honey Angel Frosting, click here. :))

I also baked itsy bitsy bundt cakes and decorated them with remaining frosting:

All cupcakes were decorated using a 1M Wilton tip.

I hope you've enjoyed the post, give the frosting a try and let me know how it went! :))

To all my regular readers, I can't wait to tell you about the wonderful day of yesterday which I spent in an amusement park with Peter :)) <3 Peter managed to win a prize for me in a claw crane, yattaaaa~