Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Paint-brushes and keychains



Hello there!

Earlier this day I was sitting in my room when I glanced at my latest DIY project and decided that I’d like to show you what exactly I did to make my room more comfy.  :)


1. Chevron pattern on canvas

Things you need:

  • Canvas
  • Ruler, pen
  • Painters tape
  • Paint brushes
  • Gold spray paint
  • Acrylic paint
  • Newspaper

How to:

- First, measure where you want your painters-tape (and your white stripes) to be.
- Then use your tape to mask out your wanted design.
- Use the gold spray paint to get a golden background on your canvas.
- Layer the different acrylic colors on the canvas by using different brushes.
- When the paint is completely dry, remove the tape to reveal your pattern

Process and result:





2. Key hooks for my keychains

Things you need:

  • Any kind of a wooden board – I used a small white shelf panel from IKEA
  • Ruler, pen
  • Something pointy like an awl
  • Spray paint
  • Common Nails
  • Hammer

How to:

- Measure where you want your nails to be and make markings with a pen
- Pre-drill with an awl or something else
- Spray paint the wooden board with a color you like
- Allow to dry
- Use the hammer to drive the nails in the board

Result:



    
Bye! :)

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Geology and baking - real sciences!



Hey Guys!

Today I’d like to tell you a bit more about my absolute favorite hobby – BAKING! Maybe you read about it in a few posts I wrote before, but today I’m going to show you the cake I made about two weeks ago for two of my sister’s colleagues who had their master’s exam.

Here’s a picture of the cake:

I think you can assume what these guys study ;)

The sponge was a simple Sachertorte, filled with apricot jam and covered with a dark ganache. I’ll put the recipes for both, the Sachertorte and the ganache down below. I made the whole decoration out of fondant, but because I had two different kinds of fondant, one of a lower and one of a higher quality, I colored the better one and used it to make kind of large slabs and rocks because those parts were actually going to be eaten. The hammers were made out of the fondant of lower quality – they took them down before cutting the cake and put them away :D 

Unfortunately, I didn’t make pictures of the process while making the cake, but I want to make another one in the future and then I’ll provide you an instruction on how to make a cake with fondant.


 



Here are the recipes:

Sachertorte

Ingredients:

> 10          eggs
> 260 g     butter
> 260 g     dark chocolate
> 260 g     icing sugar
> 200 g     flour
> 60 g       corn starch
> 1 pack.  baking powder
> 260 g     apricot jam (maybe a bit less, because you don’t have to cover the whole cake)
> 1 shot    rum

Method:

-          Grease and flour a cake tin (26cm)
-          Melt the chocolate and allow to cool down
-          Separate the yolk from the egg white
-          Mix the butter, 2/3 of the icing sugar and the yolk with a hand mixer until fluffy
-          Add the melted chocolate to the egg mixture and keep mixing
-          Whisk the egg whites with the remaining icing sugar until they forms stiff peaks
-          Mix flour, baking powder and corn starch
-          Fold the dry ingredients  into the egg mixture alternately with the stiff egg white
-          Fill the cake mixture into the cake tin and bake for about an hour in 180°C
-          Add a shot of rum to the jam and mix until smooth
-          Cut the cooled cake in half horizontally and fill it with apricot jam


Ganache:

Ingredients:

> 400 g     dark chocolate
> 200 ml   cream

Method:

-          Put the cream in a pot and allow to boil
-          Take the pot from the plate
-          Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add them to the cream
-          Leave the mixture for 2-3 minutes
-          Mix with a spoon until the cream and the chocolate are admixed
-          Use a hand blender to homogenize the mixture

The ganache now has the perfect texture to layer your cake. There will be some leftovers, but you can store them in your freezer and use them another time.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! 

Bye! :)

Monday, October 19, 2015

Good Bye Summer - Hello Autumn!

Dear readers,

I’M BAAAAACK! ;)

The summer break is over and so my everyday’s life as a student is returning back. And, speaking of which, I just came home in my socks, soaking wet - ugh. But I have to admit that I love this time of the year, when the leaves are changing to a beautiful yellow or red color just to fall down a few days later and cover the gray streets and the small paths in the woods.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk about autumn and winter that much for now because winter is coming fast enough.

source: https://wallpaperscraft.com/image/autumn_leaves_book_mood_7386_3840x2400.jpg

Actually, I wanted to tell you about my trip to Croatia and Italy with my sister and a friend of ours. We started our trip in Villach and were on the way to Poreč when our mother called and told us that we should visit our aunt who is living near Poreč. We didn’t hesitate as we see her only every now and then and took the road to Vižinada. She was pretty surprised as we rang the bell and she looked down from the balcony to see us stepping back from the door and waving our hands, saying “hi”. We then talked a bit, drank a beer from Germany we’ve never seen before and ate some figs from her garden. 

GERMAN BEER, CROATIAN FIGS

After eating a really good pizza from a local pizzeria we decided to hit the road again so we would finally get to our hostel in the city center. At this point I should maybe mention that it took us about 9 hours to get from Villach to Poreč, which is usually a 3-hours drive. :D

view from my aunts house

I don’t want to tell you in detail what we did in Croatia, because I think everyone is doing the same when making holidays in Croatia – we ate and drank A LOT and went to the sea as it was only a 5-minute walk from our hostel called “Papalinna” which I can seriously recommend!

Poreč

After 4 days in Croatia we travelled on to Italy, more precisely to Vignola where we stayed at a friend’s apartment. Vignola is a city in the province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region and just about 40 minutes away by car from the city. I didn’t like the city that much, but we’ve been to a bar, where you can go and get snacks from the bar when ordering your first drink. I must say, I liked it a lot! :D The next day we wandered around Vignola and took part in a guided tour through the castle where we saw the remarkable staircase you can see in the picture below.


Palazzo Barozzi - elliptical staircase

 One day before we headed back to Austria we visited Bologna, one of the most famous cities in Italy. I have to say that I kind of fell in love with this city, big and friendly at the same time. A city I’m definitely going to visit for a second time! 




Unfortunately, we had to go back to Austria on Friday and so there wasn’t enough time to visit more of the cities Vignola is surrounded by. But our next trip to Vignola will bring us to Firenze, Ferrara and maybe to Rimini ;). We will see!

That’s it for now :)

Cheers,
monin

PS: More pictures

Poreč

mhhhhh, fish

La torta Barozzi


Pyraser beer

no title for this one

delicious Greek food in Bologna