Recipe - Berry Topped "Sun buns"

With all this waiting on my hands, I decided to bake.....again....now this baby has to arrive soon or I will continue to look this pregnant for a long time, even with the baby out ;)) These large yeast buns are an absolute killer on the scale of deliciousness, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Try them.....that's my advise!

Recipe - Berry Topped Sun buns (2 large buns)

Ingredients
Buns
50g yeast
2 teaspoons of Bicarbonate
150g Butter
5 dl Milk 
1 ½ cups of Sugar
1 teaspoon of Salt
2 teaspoons of Vanilla Sugar
2 teaspoons of Cardamom 
13-14 cups of White Flour

Vanilla Cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons of Sugar
2 tablespoons of of Maizena (corn starch)
2 cups of Milk
1 cup of Cream 
3 teaspoons of Vanilla Powder
2 tablespoons of Butter

Icing/Decoration
The icing is made from mixing water and powder sugar (be careful and test with a very small amount of water. I didn't write down the proportions I used), 3 cups of fresh Blueberries and Raspberries + 1 whisked egg.

Before baking in the oven

Directions
Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add milk and heat to max 37°C. Pour into the bowl with the yeast and stir until it has completely dissolved. 
Add sugar, salt, cardamom, vanilla sugar, bicarbonate and the flour. Knead the dough until smooth. Let rise under a towel for roughly 40 minutes. 

Mix all ingredients for the Vanilla Cream, except the butter, in a saucepan with a thick bottom. Heat while constantly whisking on medium heat. Take the pan away from the heat as soon as the first bubble appears, then take it off the stove and add the butter and whisk until it has melted. Let the cream cool down. 

Preheat oven to 200°C. 
Now split the dough in half and then form and flatten into two round buns,  about 1-2 cm's thick, on baking trays with baking paper. Whisk an egg and lightly brush onto the edges of the buns. Spread the Vanilla Cream on the roundels, but leave a border around the edges which is about 2 cm's wide (basically where you brushed the egg). Let rise for another 30 minutes then sprinkle the berries on top.
Bake in middle of oven for 15-20 minutes. Let cool on a rack. 
Stir together powder sugar and water and drizzle over the buns......and Voilaaaaa, your buns are ready to serve!

Enjoy ;p

xox

Seasonal Cooking - Fall Recipes

As I've mentioned before, something I love about Switzerland is the way they make such great use of the fruits and vegetables that are in season.... It would for instance be very difficult to be here, go to a store or a restaurant and miss when it's Asparagus or Pumpkin season. Great for the environment and for us consumers.... Since we got a whole heap of fresh veggies from our landlords garden, there was a dire need to make use of them and yesterday, I was really in the mood and decided to make this a kind of "seasonal cooking day".......and let's be honest, with all this waiting, there is not much else I can do ;))

Seasonal fruits, veggies and herbs at my disposal:
Green cabbage, Turnips, Apples, Parsley, Onions, Carrots.
Veggies and herbs already in our refrigerator: Broccoli, Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic, Tarragon, Basil, Thyme and Dill.

This is the 3-course dinner that came out of it:

Recipe - Green Cabbage and Broccoli Soup

Ingredients (4ppl)
1/2 a head of Green Cabbage
1 small head of Broccoli
1 Onion
2 Cubes of Vegetable Bouillon 
1 liters of water
1/2 cup of Cream
Butter
Olive oil
Parsley
Dried Chili Flakes

Directions
Fry the chopped onion in a mix of butter and olive oil until transparent. Add the fine slices of green cabbage (Just a tip! Ensure you rinse it properly once sliced to avoid un-welcomed guests in your soup ;)) and the broccoli. Stir together until the cabbage has softned. Add the water, bouillon, a pinch of chili flakes and chopped parsley and boil until the broccoli is soft. Add the cream. Now pour everything into a mixer or food processor and let it run until your soup is smooth.

Delicious, cheap and very simple to make!! Serve it as a starter or as a main course accompanied with some fresh bread. I had it both for lunch with some fresh bread and again as a starter during dinner...


Recipe - Salmon filets with Oven Baked Vegetables

Ingredients (4ppl)
4 pcs of Salmon filet (without skin)
Lemonjuice
Fresh Dill
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

2 Turnips
6 small Potatoes
2 Carrots
1 Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
8 Mushrooms
6 cloves of Garlic
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Tarragon
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil




Directions
As you will be using the oven for 3 different dishes here, first check that you an fit your dishes in the oven at the same time.

Baked Turnips
I'd like to mention that I had no clue how to cook turnips and so I googled for recipes and this idea is borrowed from a Swedish blog called: "Under vart tak"
I altered the recipe slightly to fit the ingredients I had at my disposal.

Peel the turnips, halve them and slice them almost the whole way through. Place them in a small, oven proof, dish. Slice garlic and press down about 4-5 slices into the cracks of each turnip halve (see image). Pour olive oil over the turnips and place chopped tarragon and thyme on top. Also add salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes in 200-225 degrees Celsius.

Baked Veggies
While the turnips start baking, get another oven proof dish and fill it with the potatoes cut into fine wedges, sliced carrots, onion wedges, sliced pepper, mushrooms in quarters and sliced garlic.

Chop the fresh herbs and place on top. Pour over a rich amount of olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Bake in the oven, together with the turnips, for roughly 30 minutes. Flip your veggies around at half-time to ensure the herbs are properly mixed in and that the veggies are evenly cooked and colored.

Salmon filets

While the above veggies are already baking in the oven. Place the salmon filets in an oven proof dish. Pour some lemon juice over them and season with salt and pepper. Place a little bit of chopped, fresh dill on top of each filet.

Cook in the oven, together with the veggies, for roughly 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of your filets). If you have coordinated this well enough, it should all be ready at the same time, so you can serve it all together while freshly taken out of the oven ;))

Very tasty and also easy to make! The turnips is a bit of puzzling but oh so worth it as they look very pretty when you serve them like this..... 

Recipe - Apple and Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients

3-4 Apples

3 Eggs

3.5 cups of Sugar

2 tsp of Vanilla Powder

2 tsp of Baking Powder

100 g of Butter

1 cup of Milk (3%)

3.5 cups of White Flour

100 grams Almond Paste

A pinch of Salt

Directions

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla powder until white and fluffy.

Melt 50 grams of butter and then add the milk. Pour into the egg batter.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and then gently fold it into the egg batter.

Grate the almond paste into the batter and mix gently together.

Slice the apples into fine wedges. Fry them in 50 grams of butter in a frying pan together with 1 cup of sugar and the cinnamon until soft. Mix the apples gently into your batter.

Place the batter in a buttered and breaded baking pan and bake in the oven in 150-175 degrees Celsius for 40min's-1 hr (depending on the strength of your oven). Check the readiness of the cake by a stick test to ensure the cake is not too sticky inside.

Let your cake cool down and serve as/is or with whipped cream, vanilla sauce or ice cream.

That's it! If you try any of these recipes, please do let me know what you think as I'm gathering to make a recipe collection.

xox

Seafood Gratin de Luxe - Recipe

I had another request for a recipe the other day. This time for a dish I cooked recently that I would call a "Swedish classic". This dish exists in various and numerous forms, but this is how I like to make it ;))

Seafood Gratin de Luxe (4 pers.)
Ingredients
600 g Ecological Cod filet (or similar)
1 teaspoon Salt
White or Black Pepper

100 g Mushrooms
50 g Leeks
8-10 Cherry Tomatoes
500 g Nordic Shrimps or other seafood of preference

Mashed Potatoes
800 g Potatoes
1 cup of Cream
2 tablespoons of butter
1 Egg Yolk

Sauce
1 tablespoon of Concentrated Lobster Stock
The Stock from the fish
2 tablespoons of Fresh, chopped Dill
4 cups of Cream
2 tablespoons of White Flour
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed Lemon
Salt
White or Black Pepper

Decoration
Lemon wedges
Fresh Dill
Fresh Parsley
Shrimps

Directions
Cut the fish filets into smaller pieces and put them in a baking dish. Add salt and pepper. Cover the fish with a sheet of baking paper and place in the oven for about 15 minutes in 225 degrees (Celsius). When ready, pour the stock from the fish into a sauce pan.
Add cream, lobster stock and white flour and whisk until it has boiled for roughly 3-4 minutes. Add lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper.

Chop the leeks, then slice the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and spread the vegetables around the fish. Peel the shrimps and place half on top of and around the fish (the other half is for decoration).

Peel and cut the potatoes into smaller pieces and boil them until very soft. Pour out the water and mash the potatoes with a mixer or similar. Mix the potatoes with the cream, butter, salt and pepper. Stir in the egg yolk, then pipe the mashed potatoes onto your dish.

Cook the gratin in the oven for roughly 10-15 minutes in 225 degrees (Celsius).
Decorate with shrimps (or whatever other seafood you have chosen), lemon wedges and fresh dill and parsley.

Absolutely delicious!! Bon Appetite ;))

xox

Sugar Buns - Recipe

A week ago or so, one of my aqaintances, who runs the Swedish blog "Loving and Living", posted a photo on Instagram of these amazingly yummy looking Sugar Buns that she had made and I asked her to share the recipe....which she kindly did!
Well, yesterday, as the rain poured down, I decided to give this recipe a try. Since it's in Swedish with some specific Swedish ingredients originally in it (Hjorthornssalt och Filmjölk ;)), I had to tweak it a bit and am happy to say that they turned out GREAT!! I also posted the photo of the result on my private Facebook page and on Instagram and also got requests to share the recipe...so with this in mind, I'm translating my tweaked version of the recipe into English for you here:

Sugar Buns (18-20 buns)
Ingredients
1/2 of a Yeast cube
200g Butter
2 cups of Milk
150g Greek Yoghurt
2 table spoons of Cream
1 cup of Sugar
2 teaspoons of Bicarbonate
1 teaspoons of Vanilla Sugar
A pinch of Salt
Ground Cardamom
9-10 cup of White Flour
1/2 an egg (for brushing)

For the coating
50g of melted Butter
2 cups of Sugar

Directions
Melt the butter on the stove. Add milk, yoghurt and cream and ensure it's body temperatured. Pour the fluid over the crumbled yeast in a baking mixer and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add sugar, salt, cardamom, vanilla and bicarbonate and finally, mix in the flour. Once the ingredients are all mixed, leave it to beat in the mixer for about 10 more minutes. Leave it to rise for about 40 minutes.
Once done, split the dough into 18-20 pcs. and roll your buns into the desired shape. Leave to rise for another 40 minutes. Set the oven to 225-250 degrees (Celsius). Brush your buns lightly with egg and leave them to bake in the oven for about 8 minutes.
To coat the buns, leave them first on a cooling rack for about 5-10 minutes to avoid burning your fingers or having the buns fall apart ;)). Melt butter in a pan and put the sugar in a bowl. Brush the buns with butter, then roll them in the sugar (one by one) and you're all set! 

Absolutely delish!!!! Enjoy ;))

xox

Fig filled Goat Cheese Tartlets - Recipe

Do you want an amazingly yummy and easy to make starter? Try making these goat cheese tartlets!

Fig filled Goat Cheese Tartlets (6-8 pcs)
Ingredients
200-300g  Goat Cheese (Chevre)
400g Philadelphia Cheese
200g Sour Creme
4 eggs
Sea salt
Black pepper
3 fresh Figs
Honey 
Thyme
Phyllo dough (Filodeg SE) or any other, softer kind, of pie dough.

Directions
Put the oven to 200 degrees (Celsius). 
Mix the cheese, Philadelphia cheese, sour cream and eggs together in a mixer/food processor. Add some sea salt and black pepper to the batter.
Grease a muffin/cupcake pan or similar and place the rolled dough inside the molds and when done, brush it with a bit of egg. 
Pour the cheese batter into the small tartlets/pies, then halve the figs and place them on top. Push them a bit down into the batter gently.

Bake in the oven for roughly 10-15 minutes (but please check them as I'm not sure exactly how long it took). Once out, let them first cool down to lukewarm temperature before removing them for the pan. Serve the tartlets with honey and some fresh thyme
Pssssttt....they are actually also really good to eat cold (more goat cheese flavor ;)).

Enjoy!

xox

Waffle Breakfast Galore

What to do on a beautifully sunny Sunday morning? WAFFLES!!! ;))
We keep the waffle iron on the table on our balcony so we can eat them really fresh while enjoying the sunshine...... Served with a mix of toppings such as Vanilla Flavored Whipped Cream, Fresh Blueberries, Blueberry Jam, Maple Syrup and Fudge Sauce. So incredibly delicious and soooo easy to make!!

Recipe: Crispy Waffles (10-12 waffles)

Ingredients
3.25 dl/cups white flour
2.75 dl/cups cold water
A pinch of sea salt
4 dl/cups whipping cream
Butter for the frying/baking
Toppings of your choice

Directions
Whisk the cream until fairly firm. Separately mix the flour, water and salt.
Mix it all together.
Put some butter in the waffle iron before every baking/frying.
Let the waffles lay on a grid to cool to preserve the crispiness

I prefer mine with a bit of Whipped Cream and a mix of Fresh Blueberries and Blueberry Jam

....Chris prefers a bit of sweeter taste, so he takes his with Maple Syrup and Whipped Cream ;))

Enjoy!

xox

Blueberry Cheesecake

I experimented myself into to a Blueberry Cheesecake this past Saturday and since it turned out quite well, I thought I'd share the recipe with you.... Super easy to make, but if you do decide to make it, just bare in mind that it needs to stand several hours in the refrigerator before serving ;)

Ingredients (8 pcs)
Bottom
18 pieces Digestive biscuits
120 grams of melted butter
The zest of one lemon + the juice of half the lemon


Filling
4 leaves of Gelatine
4 cups of Cream
1 cup of granulated Sugar
1/2 cup of real Vanilla
300 grams of fresh Blueberries
200 grams of Cream Cheese (I use Philadelphia)
Fresh Blueberries for garnish


Directions
Start by running the biscuits, melted butter and lemon zest/juice in a food processor or crush/blend it with a mixer. Once the biscuits are completely crumbled, press the mixture into the bottom of a baking pan with a removable bottom. Let it rest in the refrigerator while you complete the filling.


As a second step, put the Gelatine leaves in a bowl with cold water.


As a third step, pour cream, vanilla and sugar in a thick bottomed saucepan and simmer it on low heat until the sugar dissolves and it starts to lightly boil. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze it dry, then stir it into the cream mixture. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool slightly.


Now mix the blueberries with a mixer-rod or in a food processor to a puree. Stir in the cream cheese and add the cream mixture. Whisk everything into a smooth cream and pour it on top of the bottom you prepared.


Let the cake stand in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours or until it has completely solidified. Serve it with fresh berries....


A learning.....if you think your cake is too pale in color, add some frozen blueberries or some blueberry jam into the mixture as the fresh blueberries are not giving too much color on their own ;))


Certainly not the last time I made this one, which is also why I decided to document this recipe while it's still fresh enough in my mind! I especially liked this cake since it's not too sweet like desserts normally tend to be...but if you like it sweeter, just add more sugar! He he!


Enjoy!

xox

PS. Sorry about the photo quality! I only had my iPhone at hand and it was very dark.

Chris's Vegetarian Thai Curry

After several requests, here it is, the recipe of Chris's veggie thai curry that I'm always drewling over and posting pictures of on Instagram..... Written by Chris.

Rice
Ingredients
cup of basmati or jasmine rice
1 tablespoon of butter or indian plant butter (you will find it in an Asia food store)
1 teaspoon of salt

Preparation:
Rinse the rice in a strainer. Fry the butter, salt and the rice in a pan until it is shiny. Add 1-1.5 cups of water. Put the lid on the pan and wait until the mixture boils, as soon as it boils, switch off the stove and leave the pan on the hot plate for about 15 minutes.

Vegetarian Thai Curry
Ingredients (3-4 people): 
2 tablespoons of butter or indian plant butter
1-2 tablespoon of sesame oil (if you like the taste, otherwise use normal oil)
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of Curry paste (I use Mae Ploy and I found it quite spicy, if you use something else try and add more curry paste to enhance the taste, if you like it)
1-1.5 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 stick of lemongrass
Veggies (potatoes, pumpkin, aubegine, thai-aubergine, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, etc)
Sweet (Thai) basil (some prefer Lemon- or Orange-Leaves)
1 pack or can of coconut milk (about 0.5 liters)

Preparation: 
Prepare all the veggies and ingredients first, cut the lemon grass into pieces and open the pack or can with coconut milk. Put the butter into a frying pan and heat it up. Add the curry paste and the lemon grass and fry it good. Then add the coconut milk and the same amount of water (you can flush out the pack or can which contained the coconut milk). 
Add the hard veggies first (potatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, etc.). Add the salt, sugar, fish sauce and sesame oil. At this point you can also try and vary with different other asian sauces such as Hoisin sauce, Oyster sauce, Pad Thais sauce or the like (TRY THE CURRY AFTER EACH SAUCE-SHOT, SOME OF THE SAUCES ARE  REALLY STRONG AND CAN DESTROY THE TASTE). Add the thai basil leaves. About 2-3 minutes before you serve the Curry, add the soft veggies (cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.). 
Serve the Curry with some fresh Coriander leaves on top.

Timing:
I normally start the "Mise en place" then I make the rice and then I cook the Curry, which takes about 10-15 minutes, so the rice is ready when the Curry is done :).

Enjoy and let me know how to improve the taste :). 


Regards,
Chris

My week of baking

This week, besides my business trip to Milan, has been aaaaall about baking. I can't remember ever baking so much in one single week. The reason? Well, at work we have a birthday baking list you can sign up for. This is optional, but once you are signed up, somebody bakes a cake for your birthday and then it's your turn to bake for the person whose birthday comes after yours. A great and fun idea!! 
Well, only one little "problem".......you see, I am signed up for two of these baking lists, one of my own department and one with the marketing department and guess what? The people I was baking for both had their birthday's in the same week ;)) On top of this, we had guests this weekend, so I wanted to make them and our landlords some cupcakes. All fun, but quite exhausting! Especially the cakes as they were baked in the evening and decorated only in the morning. Now I think I will have a baking-free few weeks to recover my baking energy =))

All though experimental, they all turned out pretty great, both in looks (all though not perfect ;)) and in taste, so I will share my recipes with you!


The 3-layered Chocolate Shock Birthday Cake
Ingredients, Cake
200g butter
3 cups of fine, brown sugar
2 tablespoons of vanilla essence
4 eggs
3 cups of milk
5 cups of flour
1.5 dl cocoa powder of good quality
3 teaspoons of baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoons of vanilla powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
200 g's of Dark Chocolate
Bread crumbs


Directions: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat butter and sugar and vanilla essence until creamy. Separate the eggs and stir in the yolks with the butter cream. Combine flour, cocoa powder,  baking powder,  vanilla powder,  ginger and salt. Gently fold the milk and flour mixture into the egg mixture. Melt the chocolate in a water bath or in the microwave and fold it gently into the batter. Beat the whites to a froth and fold them into the batter. Spread the batter evenly over three buttered and breaded cake molds with removable bottoms (I used a 24cm in diameter mold). Bake each one in middle of oven for about 15 minutes. Put them on a cooling rack.


Ingredients, Chocolate Mousse Filling
200g of good quality,  dark chocolate 
4 egg yolks 
5 dl's of cream
Directions: Stir in the egg yolks one by one. Stir carefully between each one. Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave and let it cool down to NOT HOTTER THAN 65 degrees Celsius (otherwise the egg may coagulate). Let the batter cool down., Whip the cream. Not too hard. When done,  carefully stir everything together and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Once the cake foundation has cooled down, put the chocolate mousse in between each layer. Be careful as the cake itself is quite heavy so use moderate amounts and you might have to smooth the edges before putting on the exterior frosting ;))


Ingredients, Chocolate Frosting
200 g softened butter
5 dl's powder sugar
2 dl's of good quality cocoa powder
Directions: Mix all the ingredients together with an electrical mixer until smooth and properly blended. Put on and around the cake as desired.
When done, keep the cake refrideratored until it's time to serve! 
Voilaaaaaaa!



Sticky White Chocolate Cake
Ingredients, cake
400g of white chocolate
200g butter
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups of white sugar
2 tablespoons of dark rum


Directions: Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Melt the butter in a pan. Remove from heat and add the chocolate while stirring until it melts. Beat the eggs and the sugar until fluffy. Stir in chocolate,  rum and flour. Pour the batter into a greased and breaded or "coconutted", 24cm in diameter mold with a removable bottom (I use grained coconut instead of bread crumbs to get a nicer flavor, but both woth fine ;)). Bake in the bottom of the oven for roughly 30 minutes. Please note that the cake should still be sticky inside! Allow the cake to cool on a cooling rack. 

Ingredients, Glazing

200g white chocolate

1/2 cups of cream

2 dl's powder sugar

Topping of your choice (I'm using fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and lime and a little bit of powder sugar).

Directions, Glazing: Chop the chocolate. Boil the cream. Remove the cream from the heat and add the chocolate while stirring until it melts. Let the glazing solidify about 5-10 minutes in the refrigerator. Spread the glazing over cake and let it harden in the fridge. 

Apple and Cinnamon Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Topping
Ingredients, 12 Cupcakes
Roughly 250g's of flour (I didn't really measure)
2 dl's of white sugar
1 table spoon of real Vanilla powder
1 egg
1 apple
0.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon of Cinnamon
0.5 dl's of of Sunflower oil
2 dl's of Milk


Directions: Pre-heat the oven to about 175 degrees. Chop the apple into small pieces. Blend all of the ingredients together with an electrical mixer until properly blended. Spoon the batter into 12 cupcake liners.
Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Ingredients,  Vanilla topping (cheat version ;))
Swedish version: Marsankräm
English version: Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
Blend according to pack.
Looks very nice decorate with chopped nuts or cinnamon.


Enjoy and if you try them, let me know what you think!!
xox

By request, here is my Gingerbread Cupcake recipe

Gingerbread Cupcakes, 12-16pcs.
250g butter (chopped)
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white flour
¾ cup milk
1 tablespoon milk
0.5 teaspoon Cloves
0.5 teaspoon Ginger
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Sprinkles or other decorations of your own choice


Gingerbread Cream Cheese Frosting
200g cream cheese softened
200g butter (room temperature)
3-4 dl's of powdered sugar
Crushed Gingerbread cookies
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place the cupcake liners (this recipe made roughly 20 Cupcakes) on the baking tray.Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, until pale and creamy. 
Add the eggs, one at a time and also beat in the vanilla, spices and milk.
Lightly fold the flour into the creamy mixture. 
Layer the batter in the liners gently. 
Bake in the lower part of the owen for around 20 minutes and then place them on a wire rack to cool for about 1 hour.

Now make the icing in a small bowl. Start with grinding the gingerbread cookies into tiny crumbles. Then add the rest of the ingredients, mixing them all together with an electric mixer and pipe it onto your cupcakes.
Finish off with your desired decorations..... Voilaaaaa!


xox

Ooops! I did it again....

Fellow Cupcake Lovers,
Have you ever found yourself un-deliberately baking Cupcakes? I mean....just very spontaneously? That's what I just did. Like one minute I was working....the next minute I had shut down for the day and 30 minutes later I had a full rack of Cupcakes in front of me, ready for cooling and decorating. The recipe was also quite spontaneous, just using what I had at home and the great thing is I used the same batter and the same frosting base and then after split into two flavors..... Easy-cheesy and very good taste and texture!!
Here is the result and the recipe.

Vanilla Cupcake

Ingredients: 
Vanilla Cupcakes
250g butter (chopped)
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla powder
2 ¼ cups white flour
¾ cup milk
1 tablespoon milk

Nutella and Pistachio Cupcakes

Nutella and Pistachio Cupcake

Same recipe as above, but add Nutella and chopped pistachios to the batter and stir properly.

Ingredients: 

Cream Cheese Frosting
100g cream cheese
60g butter (room temperatured)
5 dl's of powder sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 teaspoons of vanilla powder  

Food coloring of your choice and amount

Sprinkles or other decorations of your own choice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place the cupcake liners on the baking tray (this recipe made roughly 16 Cupcakes). Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, until pale and creamy.
Add the eggs, one at a time and also beat in the vanilla and milk. 

Lightly fold the flour into the creamy mixture and then add the baking powder.

Put the batter in the liners gently. I would say filled to half makes a good size.
Bake in the lower part of the owen for around 20 minutes and then place them on a wire rack to cool for about 1 hour.

Once your cupcakes are cooled down, you can start the decoration. I used red food coloring for the vanilla cupcakes and used small, round, multi-colored sprinkles as decoration. For the Nutella and Pistachio ones, I used the base frosting recipe above without any additions or color and sprinkled with chopped pistachios.

Enjoy!!!

xox