Today I felt like some good carrot cake and made some Martha Stewart carrot cake cupcakes using the Japanese cupcake liners Marné sent me for our annual Christmas swap.

Regular readers know that I do not extremely stand out for my excellent baking skills but I keep practicing. Of course I read the instructions wrong and didn't fill the liners with enough batter so I ended up with teeny tiny cupcakes. Being inventive, and not want to waste perfectly tasting tiny cupcakes, I made cupcake sandwiches instead. I smeared cream frosting on one and stuck the other one on top and believe me, it's delicious!

Jugs by GreenGate
Mushroom bucket from Velda

Thank you so much for the your comments on my previous post. I really enjoyed reading them all, they are extremely therapeutic. I'm so chuffed about the comments I get in general, they are so long, heartfelt, sincere and intelligent. It feels like a have a whole bunch of new friends I can discuss things with and I don't even know you all.

I just feel like hugging my screen each time I get a lovely comment and I sometimes feel quite frustrated that I can't do anything back. So I baked you a heart shaped pear pie.

This pie is really easy to make, just follow these simple directions and you'll be ready to stuff your face in no time.

Preheat your oven to 180 °C (350F)

Peel the pears, toss them in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

To make a perfect pie crust follow this recipe:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Bake for an hour

Serve with whipped cream, vanilla, cinnamon or pear ice cream or if you want to go nuts serve all on on big plate. Make sure the pie is hot for the extra yummy factor.

Enjoy!

The dish is by Emile Henry and the tea towel by CK.

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SENT ME LOVE MAIL, IT MADE MY MOTHER WEEP!!

So what's up?

I took a little unannounced blog-o-holiday because I needed one. I got a bit fed up with some e-mail I received, as you may know I'm quite sensitive about my e-mail, so I just didn't feel like updating. I don't like it if people ask me bluntly "are you going to post something new soon?" or push me to do something. I'm not good at dealing with that.

But I'm back celebrating the last month of the summer we probably never going to get and that makes me happy. It's not been a bad summer for me personally and I'm actually really happy for people who plan their summer holidays in March because they get their money's worth. It's such a waste to leave the country to spend two weeks on a French campsite when it's tropical hot at home. At least now they're able to say "oh we had such a lovely weather, I heard that it rained here most of the time" - arrrghh!!!

I've been playing around in the kitchen, mostly working on my baking. I baked blueberry muffins with blueberries I picked from my own garden.

I've also made a mucky mat from Cath Kidston oilcloth.

It's really useful because I can roll it out put all my mucky baking stuff on it, wipe it clean, roll it up again and put it in the kitchen drawer.

I've decided to start a little shop and sell useful kitchen stuff I use myself from CK scarps. Watch out for that. Oh and aren't you proud of my muffins?

Oops I forget to tell you where I got some of the items. The jugs are by GreenGate, the muffin liners I bought at the Hema, a Dutch department store, the pictured DVD is The Royal Tenenbaums and the mucky mat is by me soon available in The Yvestown Shop.

This is easy, you can try it at home!

I can't bake but I love to decorate. So when we were invited to come over for dinner at my friends house last night I wanted to get her kids something. I made these from pre-made cupcakes, ready made icing and used my food coloring paste and decorations to do the rest.

I started off the fancy way trying to make pretty swirls but it made a hell of a mess and the icing went too fast. In the end I just picked a knife and smeared the icing on top of the cupcakes. It was done in a jiffy and the ooh's and aah's when the kids opened that tin were absolutely worth all the mess that I made in my kitchen.

Try it, it's a great, cheap and simple gift to give.

Click here for a larger image

Easy peasy this noodle soup

To put in the soup:

• egg noodles
• chinese cabbage (paksoi)
• celery
• 1 egg for 2 people, 2 for 4 people etc.
• chicken filet
• vegetable stock

• soy sauce
• nutmeg
• black pepper

Stephanie from Creature Bug tagged me and when we're talking food ... I'm in!!!

"Name five foods, dishes or otherwise, that were a part of your childhood, and that you sometimes miss when nostalgia gets to you..."

1. Back in the eighties it wasn't common yet that both parents worked but my parents did. I grew up with the same nanny for 11 years who cooked, cleaned and was always there for me when I got out of school with biscuits and tea. My parents always arrived home at six and we always shared a meal with the whole family every night. There was one night that was special and that was Bakker Bart (Bakery Bart) night. It's a chain of bakeries in The Netherlands and they are to die for. My mother worked in the city as a teacher and, I think it was on Thursday, she'd pick up all sorts of delicious bread at Bakker Bart and a variety of fresh fish at the market. Our table was packed with sliced bread, buns, rolls, pigs in blankets, fish and fish salads and we could pick and mix. I LOVED IT!!
2. The Surinamese chicken pie I've made recently I loved as a child. My mother isn't such a cook so we only got a chance to eat it at parties. I remember my cousin making them in little cups. Me and my sister were always having a close watch so that the pies wouldn't go fast because food that was left over on one of my mother's party was OURS!!
3. Remember Sherbet Fountain? Love it, can't get it here anymore!!
4. Now that I'm talking sweets. We used to have these people selling sweet in their hallways. You used to buy them for 5 up to 25 cents a piece that way you could collect a good filled bag of a mixture of sweets for about a guilder (woo the good old days) Because of stupid new laws and tax laws people can't sell in their own homes anymore.
5. We used to have Sunday outings which started with breakfast on my parents bed and sips of coffee with lots of sugar and milk. After that we would get in the car and drive to a castle, museum ... something cultural. We would end the day at a restaurant and me and my sister could pick the restaurant. My sister always picked something fancy (she still does) and I always picked something rustic with lots of grilled meat, country potatoes, deer heads hanging over fireplaces and warm woolly rugs on the floor. Those places are vanished now as people in The Netherlands care more about how beautifully their plates are decorated and how hip the restaurant is. Less is trendy!! One can get the rustic atmosphere at a pancake restaurant but they're always packed with screaming kids and well, they only serve pancakes!!

1. Jes because I know she works hard in the kitchen too
2. Dawn because she's a kitchen princes
3. Bea because I love ... I LOVE!! German food
4. Samantha because I miss sponge cake with syrup
5. Leslie because I don't even know if she eats at all!!

1. Cuisine et Compagnie
2. French Word-A-Day
3. Cucina Testa Rossa
4. Creature Bug
5. Yvestown
   

My mother is originally from a country in South America that used to be a Dutch colony before 1977, Suriname. My mother isn't such a kitchen princes but she's excellent in organizing parties. I learned a lot of the Surinamese kitchen by peeking over my cousin's shoulder who always catered my mother's parties. And when I received my first Surinamese cookbook (the only one) I was so excited that I couldn't wait to start experimenting.

This is my absolute favorite dish. It takes forever to make but trust me, you'll gain a lot of friends serving it!

For the stuffing:

• 500 grams Chicken filet
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg
• butter
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 large union
• 2 tomatoes
• ½ a pot of peas
• ½ a pot of carrots
• parsley
• 3 boiled eggs

• 500 grams flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 200 grams butter
• 2 battered eggs
• a dash of milk