Ironman Cake

It's Damian's 7th birthday Tuesday but we already celebrated it yesterday.

In May he, his Mom, little brother Ryan, his auntie Joyce and cousins Quincy and Owen went 2 weeks to USA to visit their (great)grandma and other relatives. There he saw Ironman for the first time and that had to be the cake for his birthday.

While googling I found an interesting cake decorating technique. It's called FBCT which stands for Frozen ButterCream Transfer. I had to try it out and this is the result:

But.........I made a "big" mistake though. It was not his 8th but 7th birthday!!!!! I did manage to correct it before the cake was cut.....

To learn more about FBCT check out this site:  http://www.soggycheerios.com/archives/197  or watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2DZDuv9XA

Birthday Card

Friend Yolande and her partner Willem celebrated their 60th and 55th birthdays  together last Saturday and we joined in the fun. I made this card for them having used the image (drawn by Willem)  of their invitation.

Bicycle Card

Here is a card I made for daughter Joyce and son-in-law Frank and family. They surprised me with a brand new bicycle!! Why??..........for babysitting the kids and because we are going to take the oldest one Quincy (10) with us to USA for 6 weeks.
Need a bicycle too? Take your grandkid(s) on a vacation with you and....who knows.......LOL

And here is my new bike:

Thank you Frank, Joyce, Quincy and Owen!!!

Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping

What to do with over-ripe bananas????  You make a banana bread! I've tried several recipes but this is one of my favorite. The honey and cinnamon crumble topping make it a bit different than the classic version. It's really closer to cake than bread.  Made this banana bread for my friend Hafeda.

Ingredients:

· 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
· 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
· 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 medium)
· 2 large eggs
· 1/2 cup vegetable oil
· 1/4 cup honey
· 1/4 cup water
· 2 1/2 tablespoons  brown sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9x5x3-inch cake pan.
Mix together: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and baking soda  in medium bowl. Whisk next 5 ingredients in large bowl until smooth.
Add dry ingredients; stir to blend.
Transfer  to pan.

Mix 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar and sprinkle over batter.

Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
Cool bread in pan 15 minutes.

Adapted from "Bon Appetit" September 2008

Four day weekend Germany

Last weekend we spent a long weekend in Germany. We rented a "Ferienwohnung" in Schönenberg-Kügelberg from a very warm and hospitable couple Ilona and Josef Schneider. They live in an old farmhouse which they have turned into 4 apartments. One of them as a vacation home where we stayed in.

One of the main purpose of going to Germany was to attend Volksmarches which are held on Saturday and Sunday. (If you don't know what aVolksmarch is, this link will explain it: http://www.ava.org/clubs/sstrider/what_are.htm)
The one on Saturday was organized by the Ramstein Roadrunners, an American-German Volksmarching club. It was a beautiful day to walk and the 20 km route we walked was one with beautiful views. Lots of yellow rapeseed fields.

Next day we went to Landsweiler-Reden but because it had rained all night and in the morning, the trails were very muddy.

Because the route went mainly through woods, we made our choice quick and choose for  the 10km. I don't mind walking through woods but not for 20 km over muddy trails. Also, I like a variety of views. The only interesting thing we saw on this walk was an ant hill. They were so busy at work!!

Poor lady-bug.......

When we were back in our apartment, Josef came by and brought us four pieces of delicious "Torte" (cake).

 Kaiserslautern was on our program for Monday.The weather was great to  take a stroll through the Japanese Garden. We were told that the end of May and June the garden will be at its most beautiful. We were a bit too early to find more flowers in bloom. http://www.japanischergarten.de/index_en.html#

Tuesday we left and the weather turned out a lot cooler. It was raining all the way back to Holland....

I can recommend this vacation apartment to anybody and have posted their website if interested: http://www.ferienwohnung-klingbachtal.de/

More pictures can be found here.

Walk Sint Geertruid

The weather is perfect for walks here lately, so I used another railway day card ticket to go to Sint Geertruid in the province of Limburg, last Sunday. A two hour ride by train plus 20 minutes busride.
This time of the year nature is at it's  most beautiful. While I saw many spring flowers  in my last walk, in this one the (fruit)trees were in full bloom.

I will follow the 15 km ...

I love to walk these narrow country paths meandering through the fields..

fruit orchard

Pear blossoms

How can I get rid of these flies?

Typical farm for this area.

Let's see....which route shall I follow....

St. Geertrudis Curch of Sint Geertruid

More pictures of this walk can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/geke57/WalkAroundSintGeertruid#

More about Sint Geertruid: http://www.margraten.nl/margraten?waxtrapp=ixjDsHkoOloOnHAiFjEN

Walk in Anna Paulowna

Last Sunday I took the train and did the Narcissentocht (Daffodils walk). It was a beautiful spring day. The first part of the route wasn't much of interest. It went zigzagging through residential areas for about two km before we headed to the outskirt of  town. Here the route lead us to the Poldertuin (Polder garden) also called little Keukenhof. It's free accessible.

Tulipo Concerto

Fritillaria Meleagris

Scarlet Baby tulip

The next part of the walk were some long stretches of polder roads through the flower bulb fields.  

Would you like to have a windmill in your backyard?

Anemone Blanda 

Via Breezand we walked back to Anna Paulowna.

Batik Technique

Made some backgrounds using the batik technique. Batik is a method of dyeing fabric with wax but this technique can also be used on mulberry paper.
Instead of using wax, embossing powder and pigment ink are used.

You need:
White mulberry paper
Dye re-inkers
Rubber stamps
White (or clear) pigment ink
White (or clear) embossing powder
Plastic sheet protector (cut open)
Iron (without steam)
Heat tool
Spritzer bottle with water
Copy paper

Instructions:
Stamp  images with white pigment ink on  mulberry paper and emboss with white embossing powder.
Open the sheet protector and put some drops of ink on the inside of the sheet. I used three different colors.
Spritz water on the ink and also wet the Washi paper with the embossed images.
Put the Washi paper on the ink/water and close the sheet.
Blend the colors with your fingers.
Open the sheet and carefully take the paper off the ink and put it between two sheets of copy paper.
Set the iron on medium to hot setting and press about one minute. Carefully lift off the copy paper. If it sticks put the copy paper down and reheat that part again.
Your background is ready.