Feb
27

Ice-cream floats

by Sofia   -   in Cooking  Party planning

I can not believe I had totally forgotten about this childhood birthday party favourite. Ice-cream and soda floats are so much fun! The newest edition of a Finnish cooking mag ( Glorian Ruoka ja Viini) had a little article about them and we had to make them for our hotdog picnic last weekend. Now I re-created some to take photos and added a sprinkle rim for extra fun! ( The thank you for the inspiration goes here. I think she is yet to publish those lovely photos on her blog but she did it first and I copied her with pride. Loved the idea!) On the mag they suggested making adult versions with alcohol. Like ice-coffee, a cream liquor and vanilla ice-cream, or elderflower juice, ice-cream and champagne. But even these super simple lemonade and ice-cream ones are yummy! And they are super duper easy to make. If you never made them before at parties as kids ( I´m an 80´s child so an ice-cream cake covered in candy and a glass of soda were pretty much the thing everyone served at a kid´s birthday and we just mixed the ice-cream in to our soda glasses) just drop a ball of ice-cream in a glass and pour your favourite fizzy drink on top. I like a nice, real vanilla ice-cream and some lemonade. But you could use whatever rocks your palate! The rims were made using candy melts and sprinkles but you could use white chocolate too ( candy melt just hardenes very well). You don´t need instructions here I´m sure.

Feb
23

Coffee and friends

by Sofia   -   in Cooking  Party planning

My lovely friend was visiting from England with her adorable daughter. I was swamped with work last week ( everyone else seemed to be on their winter vacation skiing somewhere on the sunny Alps) but wanted to invite them over for some morning coffee and a lot of talking ( as we both get very excited about lovely little things). I did not manage to squeeze in any baking that week so I relied on some ready made cookies and just whipped up tomato and mozzarella sandwiches. I heated the ciabatta bread in the oven for a few minutes before cutting and assembling so it would be a little warm. All it really needs is some good quality olive oil, ripe tomatoes, buffala mozzarella and plenty of sweet basil leaves topped off with Maldon salt and black pepper. The cookies were just Italian cantuccini and amaretti cookies which I love dipped in coffee. So very simple and easy. Here are a few photos from our gathering if you would like to see…

Feb
13

Have a love filled weekend!

by Sofia   -   in Cooking

What are you up to this weekend? Any romantic plans for Valentine´s Day? I´m going to take the girls to see Disney on Ice with my best childhood friend and her kids. As I told you Valentine´s is really a day for celebrating friendship here in Finland so what better way to spend it than with friends. That night we also have a ladies dinner and drinks planned and I have a breakfast date with another lovely friend in the morning so it truly will be spent with friends. But I am hoping for some romantic roses too bien sûr.

Here is some pink baking inspiration for you if you feel like it…

Pink heart shaped marshmallows