Anyway, you probably now that I’ve been lusting after a KitchenAid stand mixer for years. The problem is that they’re very expensive here in Europe (around 500€ is not uncommon) so, obviously, it’s had to wait for a long time. Well, my mom told me that I should buy it this year, and since I had saved up a bit and she was very generous and paid for the difference, I finally ordered one today! But before I tell you how much it finally cost, let me talk about the color I chose. At first, I was in love with this teal one, but apparently the real color is nothing like the picture, and when I saw pictures of how it really looked like, I decided it wasn’t for me. Plus, then I found out that they don’t sell that color in Europe anyways.

Then I fell in love with this cheery green one. But my boyfriend vetoed it. I figured since it’s going to be on permanent display on the kitchen counter, he should get a vote on the color. So then I told him I liked the pearl gray one, and he said he was okay with either a gray or the traditional red one. I talked about it with my mom and some friends and everyone voted for the red one. I still loved the gray one, but was going to go ahead and order the red one for 455€ here, since they didn’t have a gray one and it was the cheapest one I could find.

And then, just this morning, I found the pearl gray one for 333€ plus 28€ shipping! That was almost 90€ savings and I couldn’t pass it up. Gray it was.

Before I placed the order, I decided to look around for some promotional codes. And I’m glad I did! I was able to save another 10€ just by Googling for 2 minutes. So here’s the total I ended up paying:

I was able to save 100€ with respect to the red one, and I love the gray color. It’s still a lot more expensive than what it costs in the US, but there’s nothing I can do about that. And I can’t wait for it to arrive so I can start baking stuff with it! Just the other day I almost broke my handheld mixer while baking a Gateau Basque.

What about you guys? Any big purchases lately that you’ve been wanting for years? Do you have any good tips on how to save on shipping, or how to find promotional codes online? Do share!

After measuring the space I wanted the map to fill, I searched Etsy and Ebay for a few weeks and finally found a favorite:

And crazy affordable, too!

So I ordered it right away (plus another bonus print). This was approximately two months ago, and I still struggled a bit to get the present ready on time. The map arrived without a hitch, but the hardest part was yet to come: adding a cork backing, ordering the right push pins, and framing it. Thankfully with the help of some friends I was able to finish everything. I don’t have pictures of the process, since I had little time to work on it (while my boyfriend was at handball practice, basically, and I had to hide it under the bed and hope that he didn’t find it) but this is what I did:

I bought a frame and basic white fabric at Ikea to cover the cork, a cork roll at a local home improvement store, and the push pins through eBay. I then proceeded to return said cork since a friend had some leftover from a project she was working on. I cut everything to size and glued the cork to the frame backing.

Which was basically when I realized that I needed a staple gun, or else. So I also bought a staple gun for 12€ (which I love and hope to use in an upholstery project sometime). I stapled the fabric to the frame backing as well, over the cork of course. Then I simply used double sided tape to hold the map in place. And finally, I got to add pushpins to signal the places we’ve traveled to together: Berlin, Paris (twice), Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague, Fribourg, Geneve, London and Chicago. Hopefully we’ll be adding more pins as time goes by. Here’s what it looks like:

We still have to hang it, of course, and now that we’re adding that to the wall we’ll probably move the bookcase elsewhere and build another one that fills the nook completely and grounds the map better (i.e. is a bit wider than the map). But I think it’s safe to say that my boyfriend loved it! Which is a good thing, since it is always so hard to find gifts he likes/wants/needs.

So, what do you guys think of the map?

We woke up after little sleep the next day, ready to continue the celebration with my family. I made dessert, as usual: chocolate pecan pie. My boyfriend cooked a couple of (Spanish) tortillas. One of my aunts prepared a lot of pintxos. And my mom did everything else: more pintxos, a ton of cheeses, the main dish, and even more desserts (madeleines, financiers and canelés). Needless to say, there was a ton of food, and we had lots of leftovers. Everything was delicious though.

On Sunday, we left early in the morning to go to Hondarribia, a nearby town about an hour and a half away. The boys had a handball match there and we were planning on eating there afterwards and visiting a decor store on the way back. In the end, it didn’t quite work out that way and came back home earlier than expected– but that’s okay, since Hondarribia was very nice and we took a walk along the shore before the match began. Plus they’re having another game in the area in two weeks, so maybe then I’ll be able to take a look at the store.

The weekend’s over and I’m back to my normal routine, but with another birthday coming up this Saturday, I’m sure we’ll have tons to do as well. I’ll leave you with the chocolate pecan pie recipe in case you want to bake something similar for Thanksgiving, because it was absolutely delicious!

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Recipe tweaked from Epicurious

• Pie crust (I cheated and used a store bought one since I had little time, but the one from Epicurious sounds really, really good)
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
• 1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder (I used Callebaut and Valrhona)
• 4 large egg yolks (I saved the egg whites to bake macarons, since my generous parents gave a macaron baking set as a birthday gift)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 dark corn syrup (I substituted this for 1/3 brown sugar + 1.5 Tbsp water since I didn’t have corn syrup)
• 4 Tbsp (60g) butter, softened
• 3 oz (85g) dark or milk chocolate, depending on whether you like sweeter desserts or not (I used dark Valrhona)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Press the dough on to your preferred pan (9 inch round pan with removable bottom, for example). Cover with parchment paper and press thoroughly. Place dried beans or rice and bake for about 20 minutes at 425ºF. Remove beans and parchment paper; prick dough with a fork and return to oven for about 7 minutes until golden brown.
2. Remove crust from oven and arrange pecan halves on the bottom of the crust.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine all the remaining ingredients except for the vanilla extract and cook moderately over low heat, stirring constantly (don’t let the mixture boil), until it’s smooth and uniform (about 5-7 minutes). Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla extract.
4. Pour the filling over the pecan halves. Let it sit for about a minute and arrange more pecan halves around the perimeter of the pie (see photo).
5. Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes, or until filling is almost set but still jiggles a bit.
6. Let the pie rest for about 45 minutes before removing from pan.
7. Serve with whipped cream spiked with Kahlua (optional).

I’m not by any means a cake expert… but here’s the recipe that works for me.

Not a wedding cake: chocolate, raspberry & mascarpone

Note: we used this recipe for our wedding cake a year and a half later. Oh the irony. I did vary the timeline for this, and made it in two days, simply served it on the third one.

For the chocolate cake

• 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup dutch processed cocoa
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 12 oz (340g) butter
• 3 cups brown sugar
• 6 large eggs, slightly beaten

1. Preheat oven at 355ºF (180ºC).
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Mix the cocoa with the hot water; once it’s cooled, add in the buttermilk.
4. With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar. Gradually beat in the eggs.
5. Add the dry ingredients in 3 turns and the cocoa mixture in 2 turns alternating, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
6. Divide the dough into separate molds (I used two medium sized and two smallish sized). Cook until the top is springy; depending on the size of the mold, it’ll be 20 minutes approx. for the smaller one, and 30 minutes for the bigger one.
7. Let the layers cool thoroughly. If you’ve done the four layers separately, a good way to have the tops be completely leveled and even besides cutting them with a serrated knife is placing heavy books on top.

For the raspberry filling

• Fresh raspberries
• Raspberry jam

1. Since it’s best to make the cake a couple of days early, I use a bit of jam so it’s not very dry and then place the raspberries on top.

For the hazelnut filling

• Chocolate
• Milk
• Hazelnut praliné
• Part of the frosting

1. In a double boiler, melt a bit of chocolate and stir in the praliné and a bit of milk. (I kind of eyeballed the quantities, sorry). Let it cool.
2. Add in a bit of the frosting and stir. Let it rest for a bit in the fridge.

For the mascarpone vanilla frosting

• 10 oz (300g) whipping cream
• 10 oz (300g) mascarpone
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp white sugar (or 2 if you like it sweeter)

1. You’ll definitely need to multiply this recipe by 2-3 (or even 4 if you decorate the cake a lot) but I think it’s better if you do it one at a time (or two). You can also just keep in mind the proportion of whipping cream to mascarpone (1:1, or even a bit more of whipping cream if you’d like) and eye ball the sugar and vanilla extract, so you’re not left with a ton of frosting.
2. With a mixer, beat the whipping cream, mascarpone, extract and sugar until stiff peaks are formed. Use immediately.

Assembly and timeline

1. Day 1: Bake the cakes. Let them cool thoroughly. Level them with a serrated knife or by placing heavy books on top. Wrap tightly and store.
2. Day 2: Prepare some frosting and the fillings. With a pastry bag, pipe a ring of frosting along the border of the cake. Fill with rasperry jam and raspberries, or chocolate-hazelnut frosting. Place another layer on top. Use the rest of the frosting for a crumb coat, to seal the crumbs on the cake. Let it cool on the fridge.
3. Day 3: Prepare the rest of the frosting. With an offset spatula, frost the cake. Using the small mold as a guideline, place the small tier on top of the big tier. Finish decorating with the help of a pastry bag.