zukr btq

What a whirlwind of a month and the month is not even over yet.  It is not like me to disappear from my blog but a mountain of challenges and changes were thrown my way that I had to address.  No sweat. I”m back!

The most exciting challenge of them all had to be prepping and finalizing the launch of Countlan Magazine Issue Two due out this week.  The other challenge/change is an impending move from Prague but more on that later.

Looking ahead, there are some exciting travel plans coming up which I look forward to sharing with you, my lovely readers.  The first stop is to Rome where I plan to eat a lot of pasta and gelato while checking out the sights and architecture of the city.  Next, I will be in Paris to visit family and make my second “pilgrimage” to Rose Bakery.  Finally, I will be spending New Years in London with two good friends, which I can’t wait for!  London is a city I can’t get enough of. There is so much to do, so much going on and of course, the dining is phenomenal.  The city won my heart over with Borough market, Ottolenghi and an Indian restaurant that is so spicy that I was coughing up a storm simply upon entering the restaurant and inhaling the spices in the air.

With the holidays coming up, I thought I would profile this neat online-only Edenburgh, Scotland based, sweet shop and bakery called Zukr BTQ (boutique).

Photo Source: 1

Zukr makes divine sweets such as handmade lollipops (their signature), artisan marshmallows (hibiscus, espresso, passion fruit, matcha tea), pate de fruit in raspberry and apricot (fruit jelly), dense royal brownies and macarons.  And get this- they ship internationally- You can order from Zukr and they will ship anywhere in the world!

Raspberry Marshmallows

Pate de Fruit

Salted Caramels

Violet Lollipops

Dark Chocolate and Bee Pollen Lollipop

Cherry Brownies

Baked Goods Product Photos Via Zukr Boutique Gallery

Zukr Boutique was started by a husband and wife team in 2010 who brought together the best of both worlds, pastry chef skills and design and photography skills.  (That is why their website looks so awesome!!).  If you are craving a behind the scenes look like I was, you can head on over to their YouTube feed and check out their four videos which show their macarons, lollipops, fruit pate and marshmallows.

If you prefer shopping on Etsy, Zukr also has an Etsy shop where you can browse and order their treats.

As one of my best friends suggested to me last week, I should compile a list of all the cool “order-online” bakeries where you can send people gifts.  I think she was just talking about in Toronto, but why not extend it to the whole world, if places like Zukr ship.  I will put it on my extensive and growing list of things to do.

Has anyone ordered from Zukr Boutique?  Does anyone have any recommendations of good “online-order friendly bakeries” that they would like to share in the comment section or on Facebook?  Send me your thoughts. I would love to hear your experiences.

West Elm Market

If you are a West Elm fan, here is some exciting news for you: This past week, West Elm launched a new concept store called West Elm Market in Dumbo (I used to live there!), New York.

The Market concept is focused on comfortable, affordable, well designed items for kitchen, garden and personal care.

More West Elm Market stores (in shop-in-shop) format will follow in Toronto, Nashville, Philadelphia, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle.  This looks pretty exciting for all you West Elm fans.  I hope to visit the Toronto store when I am back in March.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 

Arts + Science

Photo Source: New York Times Magazine

I love the industrial, yet natural looking interiors of Art & Science, a “general” concept store in Tokyo, Japan that offers up functional luxury items “to wear, to dwell and to eat”.

Photo Source: Think Silly

Sonya Park, the well known Korean stylist and owner of Arts & Science, has done a wonderful job curating a collection of high quality and well designed items for her five stores in Tokyo.

Photo Source: 1, 2

Torvehallerne Market: Inside and Out

I blogged about Torvehallerne market a while back (see: Torvehallerne Market) and FINALLY got the opportunity to go take a tour myself when I was in Copenhagen earlier this month.  Running back and forth between the two market buildings was a treat.  There were so many stalls to check out and sample, it could have kept me busy for weeks.  For that reason, I found myself returning daily during my weekend trip.

The market is centrally located in the city and spread out over two modern, industrial looking buildings.   There is a large uncovered paved section, in between the two market buildings, that seemed to resemble an outdoor extension of the indoor market which had several stalls selling beautiful fresh produce and some guys playing live music.

I tried to capture a couple of my favourite market stalls as I walked around but it was really busy inside and out and there were always people in my shots!  Oh well…

We taste tested a pizza from Gorm’s– and WOW!  Their pizza is incredible. The crust is paper thin, almost like a cracker.  They use fresh ingredient and create your pie like true chefs, as opposed to treating your pizza like fast food (simply reheating a slice).  When we received our pizza it was drizzled with a basil-pesto oil that kicked the flavour up to new heights.

I thought these were funny shaped radishes, so I took a picture.  They reminded me of a pill in a capsule.  When I picture a radish, I think of it having a round shape, not cylindrical.  Maybe these are special Danish radishes!

More cupcakes from Agnes.

Delicious baked goods from

My favourite stalls: Agnes Cupcakes (which I blogged about here “Birthday Cupcakes from Agnes”), Gorm’s (thin crust pizza), Laura Bakery (Bakery identity by Johannes Trope), The Coffee Collective, Nordic (cheese + dairy), A Xoco (premium crafted quality chocolate by Anthon Berg) and whoever is doing the flowers.

I was thinking about this….the thing about visiting markets (anywhere in the world) is that unless you live in the city, you’re relegated to samples and simple take away items, which can sometimes be frustrating and unsatisfying if you are really into food.  The fun of such a beautiful market like this is getting to buy ingredients to cook a meal.  I guess you can always imagine what that would be like and stick to the samples.

The meat, fish, produce, cheese, sauces and spices also looked excellent here.  Torvehallerne is a great, bustling hub in the city that is certainly worth a visit if you are in town.

OTHER PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT TORVEHALLERNE

1. New York Times Travel: An open invitation to eat in Copenhagen

2. Food Republic: Copenhagen: At Torvehallerne Market, Impeccable Taste, Design and Smoked Scallops

3. Conde Nast The Daily Traveler: Photos from the Road: Copenhagen’s Torvehallerne Market

Bedynky Box #2: Fresh Bedynky

I received my second bedynky box last night.  How exciting!

This one looked more promising than the first one from last week.  Last night’s box had a lot of apples, two red peppers, some onions and red potatoes, a lot of dirty carrots, one big beet, one big other root vegetable that I cannot identify, some fresh bread, delicious dates, walnuts (I do not have a nut cracker), goat cheese, tofu and buttermilk.

I tried a new company called Fresh Bedynky.com, an online bio/farmer retailer that delivers to your house (a bonus).  It seems like there are more customization options when you order on Freshbedynky.com than the company I used last week.  I am still contemplating testing out a third company just to see what the difference is, but so far, I think I would use Freshbedynky.com again.

I received a text message Monday morning to let me know that my delivery window was between 6 and 8pm, and sure enough, the guy showed up at 7:30 with the box.  We unpacked it on our kitchen table as we asked ourselves what we were going to cook with our random mix of ingredients.

We wasted no time and got to work on turning all the apples in our box into an apple crisp.

As for the rest, I’m still scratching my head, but I will figure something out.  It is kind of like being on that reality, cooking game-show, Master Chef, where the chefs do not know which ingredients they are going to cook with until the host does the big reveal.

The Belated Birthday Cake

There are a lot of Libras and Virgos in mine and my husband’s families.  Between September 10th and October 21st there are seven birthdays that I can think of off the top of my head.  That is a lot of birthday cake to eat in the span of five weeks.  Could you imagine eating seven birthday cakes in less than one month? That is at least a cake a week and sometimes two per week.

Since moving abroad, we only get to eat “virtual” cake with our family members who celebrate in September and October- not a bad thing on the waist line- but of course it doesn’t beat the real thing!

This year, it turns out that my husband and I were out of the city travelling over both of our birthdays so no one got to bake or eat a “proper” birthday cake.  To rectify this birthday “injustice”, we made a belated birthday cake and celebrated with a few friends in Prague.

I set out to make a chocolate buttercream.  I went to the grocery store to find the appropriate baking chocolate but whatever I purchased was not what I thought it was and when I tried to make the chocolate buttercream the day before, it did not taste right, so I threw it out and started again.

Fortunately I had a bag of white chocolate chips sitting in my baking drawer on hand from an earlier out-of-Prague adventure that I’ve been meaning to use up.  I consulted my trusty “More from Magnolia” cookbook and decided to try Magnolia Bakery’s white chocolate buttercream frosting recipe which I paired with the vanilla butter cake recipe in Amy Atlas‘ “Sweet Designs” book.

Mix-mix-the Amy Atlas vanilla butter cake was simple, quick and a delight to work with. Love this cake, it is my new go to vanilla cake recipe!

30 minutes later, I had two beautiful 8″ cakes cooling on the wire rack making my kitchen smell amazing.

Next, the white chocolate buttercream.  I ran out of vanilla (liquid form) so I used vanilla bean paste instead which worked out quite well.  The bottle in the picture below is my LAST bottle of vanilla in Prague, so I have to reserve it for extra special baking going forward, or find a way to order Neilsen Massey online!

My white chocolate chips from Jane Asher, melt nicely in a double boiler on the stove top.

And poof! It magically turns into a double layer sprinkle covered belated vanilla birthday cake 🙂

We sliced into it after dinner and it was pretty sweet (tasting and deliciousness).

While I was assembling the cake, I thought to make four layers and perhaps put a layer of lemon curd or jam in between to cut down on the overly sweet white chocolate buttercream, but I was having trouble evenly cutting my layers so I nixed that idea and left it as a sweet, sweet cake.

Vanilla Butter Cake (from Amy Atlas’s book: Sweet Designs)

NOTE: I doubled her recipe and used two 8″ cake pans for taller cakes.  Her recipe indicates it makes enough for one 9-inch cake or 12 cupcakes.

1 stick of butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/2 tsp of salt (I omitted salt because I hate the salt I currently have- it makes things taste too salty)
3/4 cup whole milk (I used whatever milk I had in the fridge)

Heat oven to 350F.   Line your cake pan with parchment paper.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and continue beating while you add one egg at a time and then the vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two parts alternating with the milk.  Beat for 1-2 minutes until the batter is smooth.  Transfer to your cake pan.

Bake for approximately 17-20 minutes (mine took longer because of my small oven and the need to cook a double recipe for longer)- Watch your cakes and test to make sure the centre comes out clean.  Let the cake cool in the pan for five minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

What type of icing do you like to pair with a simple vanilla cake?  Do you have the Amy Atlas book? Have you tried making this cake recipe before?  I wish there was a chocolate version.

Pumpkins

I had a super productive kitchen afternoon. Not only did I bake and ice a belated-birthday cake, I also I finally got around to using the pumpkin that I received in last week’s bedynky box (farmer box).  After browsing several recipes, I settled on trying out a roasted pumpkin and pear soup.  It’s still cooking downstairs so I will post the recipe and some pictures after I taste test it.

In the mean time, here are a couple pumpkin ideas/inspirations, should you happen to receive a pumpkin in your farmer box this coming week!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Bedynky Box: One

I am conducting an experiment for the next couple weeks.  I decided to try something new when it comes to grocery shopping and switch it up a bit.   Instead of going to a store to grocery shop, which seems to be our routine, I am testing out ordering bedynky boxes (farmer’s boxes/green boxes) from different companies around Prague and cooking with what arrives.  My husband and I have been talking about this for a while now but never put our plan into action.  The farmer’s markets are winding down the end of this month, but we are still interested in purchased local food.  The other fun thing about shopping this way, is that you don’t always know in advance what you are going to receive so in a way, you are forced to learn how to cook with different vegetables that might be outside of your weekly routine.

I picked up my first box today from Bio Zahrada.  In it I received the following: One leek, one radishy-turnip looking vegetable, a bunch of onions, some potatoes, some very muddy carrots, a pumpkin, and four pears.  I also tried ordering organic chicken breasts, lamb shoulder and this interesting honey, almond spread (the item in the jar).

I forgot how much dirt comes on vegetables when they are fresh from the farm.  My counter and sink were covered, as I attempted to clean the vegetables.  

Tonight I cooked three recipes from 101 Cookbooks and used up  the leek, three potatoes, and an onion from my veggie box. I am not sure I could taste any difference but I felt good about supporting the local farmers and eating food that did not travel miles to get to my table.

Prior to writing this blog post, I put an order in for a new box to arrive next week, this time from an online bedynky box company called Fresh Bedynky that delivers to your house.  I was curious  to see how the two boxes differ, if at all, before becoming a repeat customer with Bio Zahrada.

Have you tried ordering a farmer’s box, or CSA (North American term)?  What was your experience like?  Leave me a comment below or on Facebook.