Recipe: Vanilla Christmas Cupcakes

Eeeeeks, merry Christmas!!!
Today is the day, the most wonderful day of the year! I hope you are having a cozy and magical day with your loved ones!
In case some of you need a last minute recipe for the holiday for which you will surely have all ingredients at home anyways, here I've got a Christmas cupcake recipe for you.
Here's what you need for the dough:
- 250g flour, 250g sugar, 5 tea spoons of baking powder, 250ml milk, 100g butter, 2 big eggs
- Cinnamon, fresh vanilla and some vanilla sugar

What you need for the frosting:
- Fresh vanilla, cinnamon, orange zest
- Curd cheese, butter and powder sugar (the amount depends on the consistency you prefer, I personally like using lots of powder sugar and only a little bit of butter and curd cheese so make it creamy)
Mix all ingredients for the dough and stirr everything until it's a creamy mixture.
Next, fill the creamy dough into your cupcake paper baking tins (fill about two third with dough) and let the cupcakes bake in the oven for about half an hour at 180°C (depending on your kind of oven: because ours is heatened with gas, time and temperature sometimes vary a bit and I can't leave the kitchen for too long without looking at the cupcakes).
Afterwards, mix the powder sugar with the curd cheese and the butter, add some vanilla, orange zest and cinnamon. Put it into the fridge so that you can then easily spread it over your cupcakes when it has the perfect consistency.
Done! :)
Enjoy your cupcakes and have super cozy holidays!!
Happy Christmas!
Lu

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Apple Crumble Recipe and Book Review

Hello, hello! Today I've got a book review and apple crumble recipe for you, maybe this is even a perfect dessert for tomorrow's Christmas dinner!
Before we come to the recipe, I'd love to talk about this awesome book. It's called "Vom Vanillekipferl zum Ribisltörtchen" and is a really special book with baking recipes from a family history of 200 years.
This book is a collection of recipes of Mädi's family. Mädi was born in Berlin in 1932 and her childhood was highly influenced by the war. Maybe these unruly years are the origin of her love for tradition and are the reason why she created this book to preserve her family's recipes and baking traditions and to give them on to the next generations.
This book has been made with Dreimorgen, a design agency in Frankfurt (am Main) who gave me this book for review.
When I first heard about this project, I got super excited because this book carries so much meaning. I got my own copy and started reading it.
The book is not only filled with the most delicious recipes for cookies, bisquits, cakes and pies, it also lets the reader dive into Mädi's family history which is really exciting!
Among all the delicious recipes which have been approved by Mädi and her ancestors over the decades, it wasn't easy to pick a favorite to try out. In the end, I decided to make Apple Crumble and I didn't regret it, soooo incredibly delicous!
What you need:
- 6-12 apples
- 1 tea spoon of cinnamon
- 2 table spoons of brown sugar
- Some raisins
- The juice of a fresh lemon
- Moreover, I also added vanilla and orange zest

What you need for the crumbles:
- 130g flour
- 130g butter
- 130g brown sugar
- A hand full of walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts
Here we go:
Cut the apples, put them into a baking dish, add cinnamon, sugar, raisins, lemon juice, vanilla and orange zest.
This is the orange zest I added.
Then make the crumbles: knead the dough consisting of flour, butter, sugar and nuts. Spread the crumbles all over the apples and bake your apple crumble in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180°.
Tastes perfect with cream or vanilla sauce and can be eaten hot or cold. :)
Enjoy!
At the end of the book, there's even an additional chapter with memories and family stories, this was one of my fave parts. When knowing about all those special stories which are related to Mädi's delicious recipes, they taste even better! :)
I'm really happy about having discovered this awesome baking recipe book, because with all those old recipes and stories related to it, it's way more than an normal collection of recipes.
Moreover, the book is super pretty to look at and the old photos and recipes have been put into a modern layout and design without changing old content's special meaning.
Happy baking and enjoy reading in case you buy the book yourself!
Lu

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Christmas Sweet Table

Hello everyone! Last weekend I've been hosting my yearly Crafty Christmas party. We were crafting all afternoon and had a super fun time. Of course every party needs a proper sweet table, so I prepared a candy color Christmas sweet table. :)
My dear cooperation partner Partyerie again provided me with paper plates, cupcake paper tins, paper cups, paper straws and some honey combs. :) We have been cooperating for occassions like this one for about half a year now and it's always a pleasure and her products help a lot to make a great party pefect! :) Thank you!
Honey combs are so super pretty!! It took me a while to prettily arrange them in the way you can see them on the photo and I had lots of fun putting together all the different colors. :) The turquoise tree bunting is handmade.
In addition to our kitchen table who served as a sweet table, I used another tiny table for the paper dishes and some lemonade.
These cupcakes have been my cupcake masterpiece so far! :) They are vanilla cupcakes with cinnamon, so delicous! Recipe coming in a few days.
As you can see in this photo, I again used my white braches for decor and hung some candy color ornaments. I love this color concept!
We were having cinnamon stars, tiny chocolate beads, marzipan, donuts, gingerbread bisquits, spiced cookies, meringue, cookies and homemade cupcakes.
Awww, I made tiny mitten cake toppers and toppers with handmade present stamps.
This decor made me sooo incredibly happy! I'd been planning the details and the color scheme a while ahead and then I was so excited when I finally finished everything!! :)
This awesome cardboard cakestand is from Partyerie, too, I got it for my last project that she supported by sponsoring some pretty items. :)
Writing this blog post makes me want to eat some cupcakes again! :)
I hope you enjoyed looking at those photos as much as I do!

Happy Sunday!
Lu

P.S.: As you already read, some of the items shown in this post have been sponsored, but this of course doesn't change my opinion or way of displaying them.

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My Crafty Christmas Party Goody Bags // Giveaway

Hello hello, dear readers! :) Two days ago, I have already been blogging about last weekend's Crafty Christmas party and today I want to show you the goodie bags and what was in them. :)
They consisted of sponsored items I got from some of my favorite cooperation partners and of some tiny surprises that I provided myself.
One of my goodie bag sponsors was edding. Apart from sending me lots of permantent markers for the DIY table, they sent white permanent spray for each goodie bag. I love their products and especially this spray paint, maybe you remember me using it for my bike restyle project or for my Advent candles. :) Can't wait to see what my guests make with it!
My dearest aentschie, who is not only a blogger, but also a media designer, made this awesome printable for gift tags and envelopes for last minute presents or to make giving away money or a voucher more personal. :)
My lovely sponsor Snaply Nähkram provided us with their colorful heart pins. Using them always makes me happy when I'm sewing, because they are so colorful! :)
Of course there has also been something that I provided, so I filled the goody bags with my candy color reindeer postcards.
Another fantastic sponsor was Garn & mehr. Apart from receiving all the pretty rolls of yarn for the DIY tables, we also got the prettiest yarn rolls in each color for the goody bags, eeeks! This baker's twine is perfect for DIY projects, for decor stuff and for wrapping presents. :)
Moreover, the guests got my handmade gift tags I designed recently. :) If you want to have them, too, you can simply print them out.
Last but not least, my goody bags were also filled with those pretty chevron paper bags by Partyerie (who also provided me with decor and supplies for my food table, blogpost coming tomorrow). These bags were perfect for filling them with sweets for my guests. :)
To fill them with all the pretty goodies, I first had to prepare the goodie bags. :)
For making and embellishing the goody bags, I could use all the supplies I have at home. Paper, twine, punchers, tape, ...
Of course I used the beautiful baker's twine.
Moreover, I recycled some pretty rolls of paper and used my handmade Christmas stamp for the tags.
To make those tags, I cut out white cardboard with the puncher and stamped them.
Using the baker's twine, I finished my tags.
Because the paper bags were way too big, I had to make them smaller. I cut them in half and put the upper part into the lower part.
>Then I used tape to fix it and my bags were ready.
Moreover, I embellished all of them with washi tape stars on the outside and later added the gift tags, tiny name tags and put tissue paper on top.
After finishing the goodie bags, they still needed to be filled with all those pretty things! :)
First of all, I made the candy bags.
Yummy!
Next, I rolled Anja's printables and wrapped them in colorful twine.
Moreover, I used masking tape to embellish tea lights.
Don't they look incredibly colorful and pretty? :)
I'm extremely happy about how the goody bags turned out and I love my concept of making them matching my candy color decor! :)
The best moment was definitely watching my guests opening them and being excited about the content, this was worth all the planning and effort! :)
So here's a big thank you to my sponsors who made this possible:
Snaply Nähkram, Garn & mehr, aentschie's blog, edding and Partyerie.

To send one of you a tiny Christmas present, here's a little giveaway for you!
One of you can win such a goodie bag, there's not much you need to do:
Leave a comment with your e-mail adress and tell me about your dearest wish for Christmas.
The giveaway will be closed on Saturday, December 28, 2013, 6 p.m. It's open worldwide.

Good luck and happy holidays!
Lu

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