Elderflower Syrup

Finally, the elderflower blossoms, and this year, I had to pay quite a price for the syrup. It happened that I discovered a wonderful, huge elder tree just on my way home from work, which was laden with elderflowers just in my reach. I happily started plucking the umbels and was so absorbed that I only got a strange feeling as something crawled into both my ears. 
And that was when I was already covered in black ants, from head to toe! Apparently, they had a street along the sidewalk and thought that I was an ideal bridge, or whatever. To make matter worse, they found their way under my clothes, but not back out again, which was regrettable for everyone involved! Well, after removing nearly all the ants (to the great entertainment of people passing by) I fearlessly (and very fast) plucked some more umbels and went on retreat...and I really value this year's syrup after all that I had to do to obtain it! ;-)

Mango-Mousse in Chocolate-Cups (Explosion of the Senses...and Chocolate)

What could be a better decoration for a mango mousse than a chic chocolate cup? At least that's what I thought this morning. I'd seen the great idea of making chocolate cups out of air ballons in this blog, and wanted to try it. Unfortunately, I hadn't read the comments beneath the post, these ladies had had similar problems as I experienced - we had chocolate in our faces (and splattered across the whole kitchen) instead of on the rack!

Cantuccini and Biscotti for Mother's Day

This year, my sister and I couldn't visit our parents for Mother's Day, so we sent our Mum baked italian cookies via mail: Biscotti alle Nocciole, cookies with hazelnuts, and toscan almond cookies, the famous Cantuccini.

The Biscotti are stable enough to survive the transport and our Mum was very happy! :-)

Lilac-Syrup

Since the elderflowers are still not out this year (what's in bloom right now and _looks_ like elderflowers is in fact the related snowball, which is slightly poisonous) and pink syrup is a fancy contrast, I decided to make lilac syrup. It can be enjoyed just like elderflower syrup in sparkling wine or presecco, with sparkling water or on ice cream, and it really tastes like the lilac flowers smell!

BMW M3 Bear (Rehrücken)

For his birthday, my boyfriend traditionally gets a cake (called Rehrücken, "deer's back" in German) in the shape of a teddy bear - ever since his parents got the bear mould in the US and his mother found out that one Rehrücken recipe fits exactly into the mould.

In the last years, the honour of baking the cake fell to me, however I'll still need to practice for a while as I still have big issues with getting the bear out of the mould! This year, we had M-Bear, matching the M3 that I rented for the day in the BMW World - which I can greatly recommend by the way!