Candy Cane Sprinkles

It has been sort of an obsession already for years during the holiday season....Candy Canes! I just love Candy Canes!!I collect them in all sorts and shapes, because no Candy Cane is the same.


Unwrapping them can be a little bit of a hassle. I hate it when they break into a few pieces, trying to remove the plastic. Not wanting to waste any of the broken pieces I make sprinkles of them. And besides tasting yummie, they look gorgeous as well!

Just put your broken Candy Cane(s) in the food processor and cut them into little pieces. Don't overblend it, because then you will end up with "sugar" and you want to have the structure and colours ofcours of the gorgeous Candy Canes.
Don't make more then you need, you can't store the sprinkles really well, they get sticky.
Use your sprinkles on your Cupcakes, cookies, cakes or like I did on macarons.


This is already the last post of the year; Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Blessed 2012. Filled with good times spend with your loved ones and lot's of sweetness!

Thank you for stopping by the blog this past year, looking forward to inspiring you in 2012!

Winter Spice Cookie

With Christmas almost here, our house is starting to smell delicious! We are doing some serious baking with the family...And ofcourse Christmas Cookies have to be a part of this!
In my last post I mentioned my husbands enormous dislike of ginger; Gingerbreadcookies are out of the question! But it wouldn't be wright not to decorate cookies.
So I came up with these Winter Spice cookies...They are absolutely delicious!! With a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, tea, breakfast, lunch, after dinner...And the good thing about this recipe is; the cookies are wonderful to decorate with icing. The taste of the winterspices combine delicious with icing and after baking they have the wright "shape" to ice them. Not to high, not to flat, beautiful and delicious structure, remain in perfect shape during baking...What are you waiting for? There is still enough time to start baking before Christmas!



Winter Spice Cookies

2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar (bruine basterdsuiker)
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons Winter Spice Mix
1 egg (M)
1/2 cup molasses (schenkstroop)
pinch of salt

Mix the butter and brown sugar together in the bowl of the electric standing mixer, high speed until it's a smooth mixture. Scrape sides of the bowl when needed.

Add Spice mix, pinch of salt, baking powder, egg and molasses and mix until well combined. Again, scrape sides of the bowl when needed.
Then mix in the flour; make sure your dough is firm, not sticky (add more flour if needed).

Wrap your dough in plastic foil and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge. Take your dough out of the fridge after half an hour and let it rest on the counter about two hours before using.

Roll out your dough on a floured working surface, about 0,5 cm thick, and cut out the shapes.
Bake them in a preheated oven (160 degrees Celsius), depending on size and shape, for about 10-14 minutes. After removing the cookies from the oven, place them on a wired rack to cool.

Now you're ready to decorate....or eat :) Enjoy!

Winter Spice Mix

Christmas is coming close and I'm looking forward to spending time with my family. Enjoying wonderful company of my loved ones and delicious food. The tradition of Gingerbreadhouses is starting to become more populair in Holland. Which I'm happy about because I just love baking and decorating them!
Unfortunately, my dear husband doesn't eat ginger! Really, he hates ginger!! The smell of it, the taste of it, the look of it, try presenting a Gingerbreadhouse in the dinnertable then...
To let him enjoy the sweets as well I came up with my own Winter Spice Mix, filled with delicious sents of gorgeous spices!


This Winter Spice Mix is easy to make and I promise you; you will never use a store bought spice mix again. Make sure you use a good quality of spices. It takes a little time but I like to ground the Nutmeg, Anis and Cardamon myself.


Winter Spice Mix
120 gr. Cinnamon
8 gr. Cardamom
15 gr. Nutmeg
20 gr. Anis

Mix all of the spices together, I use a blender (keep the lid on a minute after mixing!) Make a big batch of the mix and store it in a airtight container in your spice cubboard.

You can use the Winter Spice Mix for a lot of delicious treats; Cake, Cupcakes, for all the Dutch bakers...pepernoten. Or share under the Christmas tree as a present!


To complete your gift, use the download for the cute Christmas labels I made for you...Enjoy!

Torta di Castagne

Not to long ago is was still sunny and warm for the time of year, over here in Holland. Autumn is still showing it's face in so many ways. It's getting more cold every day, but there are still leaves on the trees in the most gorgeous colours!
Just recently I went to the forest with my family and we enjoyed a long walk, with Autumn showing it's face everywhere in beautiful ways...


As we do every year, we looked for chestnuts. We found them allright! We always look for Chestnuts near the same tree. A tree near the caste of Zypendeal. My grandmother and my mother always looked for chestnuts at this same tree. It makes me happy to be there with my family now. We took the chestnuts home to bake this delicious cake, but we left enough there for the animals in the forest....


This cake is Italian and not to sweet. I love the moist texture and the delicate taste of good chocolate in it. It has all the flavour of Autumn in it.



Torta di Castagne

250 gr peeled chestnuts
100 ml cream
125 gr brown sugar (bruine basterdsuiker)
35 gr sugar
6 eggs, yolks and whites separated
50 gr butter, room temparature
50 gr chocolate, melted (I love real bitter chocolate in this cake!)

A cake tin of 20 cm / 8 inches, sides brushed with butter and floured

Prehate your oven on 200 degrees, celsius.
With a sharp knife,make a cross in the flat side of every chestnut. Place them in the oven in a roasting tray and leave them there for about 20 minutes.

Let the chestnuts cool a few minutes, not too long though! If they cool they get more difficult to peel.
Now just take a seat and peel away...

When you have 250 gr of peeled chestnuts, bring them to a boil in the cream on low heat. The cream will be taken in by the chestnuts. When they are soft and mushy, let them cool for a moment.
Placed the mixture in a kitchen machine and ground them until you have chestnut flour (simulair to almond flour in texture).

Mix sugar and egg yolks until you have a light yellow creamy mixture. Add butter. When the butter in incorperated, add chocolate and chestnut flour.

Wisk egg whites with the white sugar until a soft peak stage. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chestnut mixture.
Pur the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in a preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes. Check if the cake is done by placing a skewer in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. Don't overbake this delicious cake, because it will get to dry.

Mascarpone frosting

Ofcourse you need a real good frosting to serve your cake with. Because the Torta di Castagne is not very sweet, you can add a little bit more sugar to the mascarpone if you prefer.

250 gr Mascarpone
75 gr butter
150 gr icing sugar, sifted

Place mascarpone, butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and at medium speed mix until you have a smooth frosting like concistency.
Place frosting in the fridge and allow it to set a little bit, for about two hours.

Serve your Torta di Castagne with frosting on top and sprinkle a little bit of finely chopped chocolate on it.

Enjoy and taste the Autumn!

Life is good.

Get yourself a lovely cup of tea and sit back....To watch this wonderful movie made by Unicorn Wedding Films Ryan and Mascha don't just make weddingvideo's. They make a film in which you and your loved ones are captured in a way, you will share with your grandchildren over years to come. During the workshop of Christine Meintjes I was amazed about how invisable Ryan and Mascha were with their camera's. Somehow they captured all the beautiful moments of that day and amazed me with the end result. Without me seeing the camera.

When the movie was finished I was in Italy. And although I loved the little village where we stayed (in the middle of sunny, gorgeous Tuscany) , I got a bit frustrated when I received an email from Ryan and Mascha. I could only read the mail on my phone. Internet was something not really available together with our dolcis and cappucino....So I had to wait until we arrived at the house of our friends in Pisa before seeing the movie.
After dinner I rushed to the computer. There, in the old centre of Pisa, after having dinner in an Italian city garden underneath a heavenly smelling Wisteria, I watched this movie for the first time and was happy. Just plain happiness, that I get to work with so many talented, sweet, kind and inspiring people....Life is good. Just watch the movie :)

Christine Meintjes Photo Workshop -THE MOVIE- from Ryan de Wit on Vimeo.