BLUE BAYOU

Roy Orbison, 1963.
Soft Sunday list on spotify updated!

And in my next post I'll take you all out to the bayou.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW : CANDY, GOODIES AND SWEETS

Or, rather : three things somewhat recently and one thing right now. But anyway.

Filled up some candy jars last time I was out at the farm house. You see the thing is, all that candy that was in the bag… it's not for eating. I only like the kind of sweets that will make you fat. As said before, I like candy for it's looks. I tend to keep a jar full of peppermints. That I never touch and NO ONE ELSE GODDAMIT but others still tend to secretly sneak a few of every now and then and quite often in fact. But now I have a stash to fill up after the boys -and husband- and their sticky fingers (literally) have been around.


On the boat on the way home I bought fruit drops! So old school you can't go any more old school. My grandmother always had these at home (a home which is now mine, funny) when I was a kid! More candy jars that is! Worse teeth for the boys!
And next time I travel I need to bring her a jar, didn't think of it until just now...


More sweetes; Eddi and I got a basket with an old porcelain coffee set and a big box of 50's cutlery as a wedding gift from his parents. Their house is just up on the hill opposite of the farm house, and full of past generation's furniture and items. His mom calls it old crap to get rid of, and well, I say Yes Please.


And now I just painted my nails sky blue - haven't had'em blue since I was 15 I think - and enjoyed a watermelon smoothie on the balcony, overflowed with the warm evening sun, at home in town.

And as little extra thing here I can tell you that Thrifted and Modern is offering you 15% off until August15, but you'd already know that if you'd hang out with me on Facebook, that's where it's all heard first.
The code is FREELANCERSFASHION15

THIS LITTLE PIGGY

Hello there! This is me last week in the Swedish town of Gränna, home of the striped pepper mint candy cane, polkagris!
Translated that would be 'polka pig'.

The dress is vintage (my grandmothers; found at the other summer cottage some years ago) and the headband is by Dolly Cool.But what you really want to now is that that bag in my hand right there is FULL OF CANDY.

AMY

I used to listen quite much to Amy Winehouse a few years ago, before she became a tabloid wreck, then she sort of slipped my mind. When people start becoming famous for something else than they originally did you tend to forget what they were all about in the beginning. I kind of fancied Amy not only because she was a good singer but also since she was cool and had a genuine style that was very much her own.

And as with all of the others in the club, every now and then it strikes me how young they actually were when they left. Especially now that I'm older than that myself.

I CAN STILL MAKE IT

Me by Trashy Diva, in Trashy Diva and with Trashy Diva (that would be in the bag).

And no my purse does not match the shoes (I hate it if things end up that way) but when traveling you sometimes have to compromise.

But anyway, just a reminder that you still have a couple more days to use my 20% discount code for Trashy Diva; which was FFB20PER!

(I just noticed they were kind enough to add some new designs so that I'd have something to shop too, haha. Ha ha. Damn. Because if you live in a country that has the Polar Circle running trough it you can never have enough summer dresses to use during those three months of sweet sunshine right? Especially if you spend a big amount of your time in harbour work gear. Yup.)

SOME SUNDAY BAKING pt.3: DREAM CREAM CANDY CAKE

Haha, at some point I actually thought I was going to have a monthly Sunday-baking thing instead of once every second year... (part1. from 2009 to be found here -click!...We actually baked a banana pie that same day but that baking will most likely remain unpublished then, sigh...)


But here you have it: Dream cream candy rhubarb cake - the recipe from the cake in the cherry picking sessions - this time with cherries and apples though, obviously. Rather easy to do and should turn out great no matter what!


The thing with the cake is to use condensed milk on top of the cake; you know, the heavy sweetened one you can cook in to a thick toffee like custard; dulce de leche, which will make the cake very yumyy and candy like.

Otherwise it is a basic sponge cake, "socker kaka" batter with fruit. However, I always change half of the wheat flour to spelt flour for a richer taste and healthier cake. For this latest version I also used finely grounded almonds.


So you will need fruit and berries of your choose, preferably sour.*
I like it sweet but not too sweet, and with contrasts - I used three apples and a bowl of cherries.


I use four or more ecological eggs for my cake, depending on the size of the mold, and adjust the rest thereafter. I don't measure that a much, I just go on about. For this one I used four eggs. Then about a cup (around 2-2,5 dl) of sugar, approx. 4 dl. of flour; including 1dl of almond flour, 150g butter, vanilla sugar, baking powder and 1,5 dl of liquid. I most often use milk, but water, fruit juice something sour like youghurt or creme fraiche will also do.**


First, boil the jar of milk for about three hours, depending on how thick you want it to be.***
Set aside to cool whenever you feel you are ready to start with the rest, put the oven to 175. Celcius.


Mix the sugar end eggs sluffy. Use a electrical mixer if you so prefer. I'm old school and go without. I use raw ecological sugar, better than regular, rather expensive. I use it because I somehow believe it is more healthy than regular sugar or regular raw sugar. Well - of course ecological products are in general better in many aspects but the difference is most likely not that big when it comes to healthiness in this case. But the thing is I like to go to the grocery store in my heels and red lips and buy all these expensive ecological items and just feel like a better person in every way
Oh well, back to the cake: add a couple of table spoons of vanilla sugar.


Blend the flours together with the baking powder, mix into the egg-and-sugar-fluff.


Add the liquid.


During all of this you also remembered to melt the butter; pour it in and stir smooth. The batter can be kind of loose and runny, sort of medium. Firmer than pancake batter but looser than the one for cupcakes.


Prepare a mold.
I prefer silicone molds as those are so easy, ust pour it ine and flop it out afterwards, but mine was in town so I used a teflon one with a detachable bottom (recommendable). I bread it with butter and some almond flour and cut out a circle of baking paper for the bottom; the cake will be sticky, it will be easier to get out this way.
And now of course it is time for you to pour the batter in the mold.


Add the fruit. Cut the apples thin enough so they will soften neough in the oven. Sprinkle the cherries on top.


Add the dulce de leche. The thicker you have cooked it, the harder it will be to spread it evenly. Use a spatula as help and try to get it out evenly.


Put in the over for about an hour 45 min or so. Clean up the kitchen during that time or whatever you feel like. I actually had a beer.

You might have to cover the cake with a piece of folio after about one hour for the edges not to burn, depends on you oven I guess. Try it with a cake stick every now and then. It can be a bit sticky in the middle but the edges have to leave the stick clean.


Take out and let cool. You can keep it in the refrigerator over night, it will be nice and moist the next day(s) too. We however had our cake within an hour. (my cake got a little crack when taking it out from the mold but I'm cool with that). Thanks to my sister for hand modeling btw.


Decorate it with some pieces of fruit or whatever you prefer. Or leave it as it is.


Serve with ice cream. Or vanilla sauce or whipped cream. Or nothing else, it will work fine alone.
And oh it is just so damn good!


Note:
*) As already mentioned, the cake was originally intended for rhubarb as I came up with it during that season and thought the sour rhubarb would go greet with the planned toffee like batter. I made another version with rhubarb and raspberries too, which was greet. Now the rhubarbs are gone from the garden but we had cherries instead which I thought also would do good with apples and the sweet milk. It will soon be wine berry season which I think will work excellent.

**) if a sour milk product is used as liquid then mix baking powder with baking soda.


***) The first time I did this I did not cook the milk, only poured it over the batter and rhubarbs, about half the can, which made a very juicy cake. About 45 min to one hour in the over was enough. The second time I cooked the milk for about an hour or two, but the jar was not completely covered in water which resulted in a somewhat thick yellow custard that was easily pourable over the rhubarbs and raspberries still. I used up all the milk that time and it required about half an hour longer in the oven then - the cake gets a bit more soggy in this version. All versions however highly recommendable!

Enjoy!

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VERY FOND OF THE SEA

On the ferry from Denmark to Sweden earlier today.

OH, CHERRIES!

Well right now I'm on kiddie holiday elsewhere but last week I was picking cherries in the garden at the farm. And oh how I love those berries! (or I think they actually are fruit? You never know when it comes to plants; bananas are berries, tomatoes are fruit (although in The States, legally vegetables...), and so on...)


Obviously, I am never going to get thin again.

Recipe coming up soon; it's my own, and it's worth getting a little bit of that more to love for.
And hey, there can never be enough love now can there?

TIKI IN BLACK AND WHITE AND COLOUR

Last week the new Itty-Bitty Tease Cabaret crew had an outdoor photo shoot.


Emma shot us wild jungle girls.


Afterwards we headed out to town and met up Ina at the Tiki Thursday club. (Although pretty much every day is tiki-day at the Tiki bar of course... We'll have our next show there August 25th at the Kokonut Kult club! With a brand new demonic act!)


But this time we left the eeeevil shaking for later and just treated ourselves to those nice tropical cocktails.


And I added a parasol to my huge hairdo (which I tell you is not possible to make out of my own hair alone) for a little tiki flair.

HEADLINE

So, now I'm off with Eddi and the kids to Legoland!
(Do you know how many lego animations and whatever there is out there on youtube? Some very, some less well done. Got stuck watching them half trough the night when looking for something to post. Thank you fuck you very much, internet!)

Now if someone was hoping to (once again) see me in a post instead of grooving lego men you still can get your daily dose by watching Baltic Coasts today on TV1; I'll be doing some harbor stuff and burlesque too on tonights episode. I know that some of you elsewhere have seen it already and apparently my three minutes made a huge impact on some, since I started receiving Facebook friend requests and emails (basically saying "Hi, I saw you on tv." Ummmm, aha, ok.) from a lot of people I don't know. Which is a bit weird maybe -now the series are actually quite well made and interesting, but I've seen my insert and it is totally alright but I am still not starting my own Facebook fan page quite yet... How the voice over manages to translate my words of "sometimes it has even happened that a car has caught fire" with "Many times cars bursts into flames!" is and will remain a linguistic enigma for me at least. The harbor is a dangerous place. Eh, sort of. But ta-ta for now!

BLUE IN THE RAIN

Well hello there, perfect dress!

AUSTIN WAS GREAT

After Las Vegas we flew to Austin. In Texas, you know. The difference was enormous and right then, tired as we were, for the better - after the 24 hour bling bling and slot machine ringing of Vegas Austin was easy going with bird song, organic food and guys playing guitars in the corners of the streets. I didn't even feel like wearing lipstick. We stayed at the Hotel San Jose which with it's Eames chairs, rain water bottles, vintage carpets and signed rock n'roll posters on the walls was designed to the max, although still surprisingly laid back. I suppose at another place it would have been all too much hipster for me but right then right there it was just perfect. It was terribly hot and we took it easy by the pool, browsed vintage stores and had hoummus sandwiches, mexican food some beers at night, mostly around South Congress.

Then we rented a car and drove 3300 kilometers, but I'll get back to the rest later.

THE HALF PAST NINE EVENING SUNSHINE

In a few weeks the evenings will slowly darken, but now the light is still very very strong very late, too strong to keep your eyes open in front of. And all the jasmin flowers in the garden smell sweet too.

My shorts are from Vivien of Holloway, the top is plain H&M.