Favorite Baking Tools

I love baking. And I have a weakness for cute kitchen tools. You probably spotted some of the things I'm about to share in my kitchen tour post last year but I had some people ask for reviews so here we go:
my must-have baking tools

These reusable muffin cups are rad! I've had them for about half a year and I've used them at least 20 times since. They are really convenient because you don't have to worry about greasing your muffin pan or buying expensive paper liners. Nothing sticks to them and once you're done you can simply put them in the dishwasher - no hassle at all. The ones I bought are from a French company (sorry, I don't know the name) are really great because they are pretty thick so they keep their shape (my parents once had some really thin ones that didn't work well.)

Eeeeek, here are my favorites: my beloved kitchenaids. I bought the stand mixer(color: raspberry ice) last summer from my first paycheck. Probably the best investment of that year! I bought it in a bundle with the slicer/grater attachment (the one for the US market is slightly different but I'm sure it works just as well!) as well as the glass bowl. I love the additional bowl because I often need two separate bowls for one recipe and it has a lid! So whenever I make a dough that needs some alone time in the fridge I use the glass bowl.

The only additional thing I bought for the stand mixer is the flex beater. It's probably the best invention after the stand mixer itself. No more stopping to scrape the bowl and it feels like mixing ingredients is much faster and more thorough than before. Oh and the best thing? It's dishwasher safe! :)

I got the blender pretty spontaneously in Denmark. I was in a huge houseware store and there it was, the perfect green blender. My parents have the older model so I knew about how versatile and awesome it is. So the green one was a sample and it was on super sale. They had like 10 different colors and the only one on sale was the one I wanted. Perfect, right?

I didn't mind it being a sample at all because obviously it wasn't used and it looked perfect - no scratches, no flaws, not even fingerprints! So I dragged it to the checkout (that thing is heavy - I'm glad we didn't fly to Denmark otherwise I couldn't have bought it) and the cashier went to get the original packaging. Ten minutes later and she comes back - without the packaging. Apparently the store lost it. Or at least it wasn't where it was supposed to be. So I almost lost my nerves because the warranty leaflet and everything is in the packaging. And how on earth was I supposed to drag the thing back to the car that was parked about 5 miles away?!

The cashier apologized and told me to hold on a minute. Two minutes later she comes back - with another green blender in its original packaging, still sealed. And she offered it at the same price as the sample. I think I smiled for the next 10 hours straight. Dragging it back to the car was a pretty intense workout but so worth it!
I use the blender all the time. To make powdered sugar, to chop nuts, to make soups and pesto, to make smoothies and milkshakes... the possibilities are endless!

I've had about three different thrifted scales before I finally was willing to pay for a digital scale. It was really frustrating having an inaccurate scale or one that has a bowl on top, thus I couldn't put the kitchen aid bowl on it and always had to fill the ingredients I wanted to measure into three different bowls.
Not to mention that weighting yarn is useless if there's a +/- 30g accuracy.
I'm super happy with this one - you can change between oz and g which is really useful if you have a mix of American and European cookbooks like I do :)

Last but not least, measuring cups. I got the blue ones at winners (the Canadian version of Ross / TJ Maxx / ...) and the ceramic ones are from Anthropologie. I compared my teaspoons to the teaspoon measuring cup and my regular teaspoons only hold like 1/2 the amount the measuring cup does. So yeah, I always thought tsp/tbsp measuring cups were useless and I only bought them because they were only $2 and hand painted and so cute. Turns out it was a pretty food investment :)

So what are some of your kitchen must-haves? Anyone else who gets super excited about colorful kitchen tools and appliances?

ps: this is not a sponsored post and I'm not trying to advertise for any companies. I'm just sharing my experiences and opinions on products I like.

a birthday cake or two

My parents had the wise idea to get over with all our family's birthday within three months of the year. My sister is first, then two days later my mom. In April it's my birthday and four days later my brother's.   And then it's my dad's birthday in mid May. So we usually only get to celebrate three birthday parties, because my sis and my mom and my brother and I usually throw one together.
The best part? All the cake!

My grandma always bakes a cake of our choice for each birthday and I've adapted the same habit. So this is the cake I made for my mom this year:

A chocolate hazelnut cake that's kind of a family recipe. Someone's cousin's wife (?) gave it to my grandma who gave it to my mom and me. It takes longer to make than an average cake because you have to grate most of the ingredients (I'm so, so thankful for the KitchenAid shredder attachment!) but investing some time in this cake really pays off. I don't wanna know much many calories there are in one slice but it's so worth it.

I'm not very good at decorating cakes - especially compared to awesome and talented bakers like Esther. Apparently the chocolate cooled down too quickly because there were air bubbles all over the cake. Oh and covering a whole cake in melted chocolate will end up in a huge mess, no matter how careful you are ;)

My sister asked for a cherry cheesecake. I didn't get to take any better pictures because it was gone so fast...

Hello, March

I can't believe it's March already. February felt like forever. Too much happened. Too many things happened I wish I could undo. But Match will be good. I currently don't have classes, just several exams and an essay. So I could stay up late and sleep in every day. I could stay in bed all day watching TV series. But that wouldn't make me happy. So I wrote a huge 'to do list' with the all things I've been procrastinating for months. Like do my taxes, sell some stuff on ebay, write down that knitting pattern I've had on my mind for weeks, organize my craft shelf and get a job.

And in between all that: study, study, study so I won't fail another exam. Which, btw, is 'no big deal' in Germany because we can take each exam 3-4 times. That's really weird in my opinion. I'm still used to the Canadian system where you either pass an exam and move on or fail and re-take the course the following term. But wasting up to two years just studying for the same exam over and over again? Depressing. Being able to retake the failed exam a couple weeks later doesn't make failing an exam any more bearable. Whether you were too lazy to study or all you could think about is how a loved one drew his last breath just days ago - failing gets you down.

But I don't want this to be a depressing post. March marks the beginning of spring; I can't wait for some sunshine, planting some vegetables, early morning runs and the smell of freshly baked bread in my apartment. I'm also planning on sewing my first garment this spring - as soon as I get my sewing machine back. (Which hopefully won't be within the next two weeks because it would make studying so much harder.)

Do you have any grand plans for March?

my favorite knitting tools

Over the past years I've accumulated quite a collection of knitting tools. Not all turned out to be useful for me(e.g. that  clover yarn guide ring I got hoping it would make color knitting more bearable for me... didn't work for me.) so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite tools. This is not a sponsored post - I'm just sharing my opinion on products I love.

1. My knitting needle organizer. I made it myself because I didn't find an affordable one out there that I loved. I love it because it's super easy to find the needles you're looking for - if they're actually in there. I tend to just toss my needles in a drawer where I keep my knitting supplies because I'm too lazy to put them back in their right spot. But every couple of months I organize my needles and put them all back in :)
2. My sock project bag. I always keep it in my purse so whenever I have a couple of minutes I get it out and knit a couple of rows. I made it a while ago. I can't recall which tutorial I used but there are many easy box bag tutorials out there if you fancy making one.
3. The clover knitting stitch counter. It took me quite some time until I could justify buying it because it's pretty expensive considering it's just a piece of plastic made in China. But I never regretted buying it. It works great and it's very sturdy (my cat's favorite game is throwing it on the floor and playing with it until it ends up somewhere under one of my kitchen cabinets).
4. A good pair of scissors. Mine are from Madeira and were a gift from one of my mom's friends.
5. A measuring tape. I got this one from my roomie for Christmas - it's an owl! So cute :) And it has both metric and English scales on it.
6. T-pins. For wet blocking. Cats seem to love them too :(
7. a project bag. I've gifted similar project bags to knitting friends and they all love it. It keeps the knitting secure and clean and it's not as noisy as a plastic bag (that's what I used to hold my knitting before I decided to sew a project bag.)

A local potter made this custom yarn bowl for me. It's really great because it's big enough to hold my yarn and needles and it's much harder to lose than a project bag ;) I have quite a lot of hand winded balls of yarn so this is perfect for keeping them in place (and cat proof!)

This yarn holder is my newest toy. My mom gave it to me for Christmas and I've been using it pretty much every day since! It's perfect in combination with a ball winder because the yarn won't get super messy anymore (except if you've managed to completely mess up... then you'll end up with a big mess of a ball on your yarn holder like I currently have.). Oh and those stoppers/needle protectors are great, too! I only have the small size but they also work for bigger needles. Especially if you're knitting lace you don't wanna accidentally loose a couple of stitches...

Last but not least, Gertrud. My family's iPad is packed with hundreds of knitting patterns. I use an app called 'good reader' (also works for iPhones...) that's GENIUS. It saves sooo much money and paper if you don't have to print out every pattern. Also, you can zoom in if the charts are too small to read. And the app allows you to highlight and even hand write in the pdfs! It's great especially if you knit several repeats of one chart. My printouts used to get pretty messy and sometimes I had to print a page twice because it just wasn't readable anymore.

What are your favorite knitting tools?

ps: in case you were wondering... I use knit pro/knit picks needles. I bought an interchangeable needle set when I started getting serious about knitting and I'm very happy with them. I've had a couple of broken needles over the past years but my LYS is very customer friendly when it comes to exchanging needles. I also have a couple of addi needles that I like but I can't afford changing systems right now. If you're looking for something very durable, I'd go for the Addis. If you're on a budget but can't stand the feel of cold metal in your hands (like me...) I'd go for the knit picks.

52 Craft Projects // owl

I have an owl (partly visible in this picture) sitting in my chair that seems to attract visitors; whenever my friend A. is over she picks up my owl and won't let go off her until she has to leave. She mentioned about 2691 times that she'd love to have an owl like that.

Her 21st birthday was a great opportunity to make one for her. I used some red flannel from my mom's stash for the main body, an old shirt for the belly (I had a really hard time cutting it up; if it was 12 sizes smaller I would've worn it instead of cutting it into pieces!) and some Ikea fabrics scraps for the eyes and nose. I recycled the filling from an old pillow (which was a BIG mess; I still find the stuffing EVERYWHERE in my apartment. Literally. Even in my fridge!?!!) so it's a pretty 'green' gift :)

I love how chubby she(I decided she's female.) looks. I've had a pretty hard time giving her away after having her sit in my shelf, watching me study for hours and hours, every day for two weeks. But I know that she's in a warm and cozy home now where she gets lots of attention. And my owl probably would've been jealous if I had kept her. My chair is only big enough for one owl so unless I kick out my roomie and put a gigantic couch into his room I won't adopt another owl, no matter how cute and chubby she is.


This is project #7 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013.
You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

around here

Life is good. Classes are over but I still have finals every 2-3 weeks. But since I'm known for my procrastination skills I have lots of time for some fun stuff. Like baking and taking pretty food pictures. Have you watched Parks & Rec lately? I loved Ben's explanation of a 'foodie'!

Among many other things, I baked golden toast (SO good. Seriously. I'm never gonna buy toast again. Ever.), cinnamon buns and apple crumble (it was gone so fast I couldn't take a picture). I can't wait for spring - don't get me wrong, I love winter but the lack of sunshine in the past months is seriously influencing my mood. I've been trying to surround myself with colorful fabrics and yarn which seems to help a little but I wouldn't mind spending a couple days somewhere sunny and warm.

My sewing machine was pretty busy lately (isn't the wrist pincushion my mom gave me for Christmas adorable?) - I made a couple of gifts and some small bits and pieces. The owl pillow deserves a whole blog post. Sadly, my beloved sewing machine decided she doesn't like thick seams and stopped working properly. She'll be picked up today and sent halfway around the country where hopefully she'll get fixed quickly. I guess I'll be back to knitting and spinning for the next couple of weeks before I get her back.

I finally got back into reading! I went through three novels in the past two weeks. I'm thinking about doing a book report every 2-3 months... what do you think?

Last but not least, a cute picture of Lina because how could an 'around here' blog post not include at least one picture of a cat?

52 Craft Projects // Star Crossed Slouchy Beret

Pattern: Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson 
Yarn Used: Malabrigo Merino Worsted (~60g of the color 'Bobby Blue')
Needles: 7mm circulars
Modifications: none

ravelry project page: here

Thoughts:
Quick and easy project - I didn't find the needles the pattern called for so I went down a size - still fits great. The hat is a gift for a friend in Vancouver - I'm sure she'll love it :)
This is project #6 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013.
You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.