Anyone up for a Cupcake Affair?

Calling all Cupcake lovers!!

I wanted to turn the spotlight briefly towards one of my newly found favorite stores, located in the centre of Zurich, with a very reasonable walking distance from the Zurich main station. It is a wonderful little gem of a shop who makes and sells very pretty and amazingly yummy cupcakes. The store is called Cupcake Affair and if you, like me, love Cupcakes - I recommend you to go there and give it a try!!!

My favourites so far are Marilyn Monroe, a Chocolate Cupcake with an amazingly yummy Raspberry filling and Spring fling, which is a Poppyseed and Lemon Cupcake filled with delicious berries. Both so good that if I was a dog, my tail would be wagging by the pure thought or smell of them ;)


Something else that I love about the assortment at Cupcake Affair is that the Cupcakes come in two very handy sizes, one normal sized version and one mini sized version, which is just perfect when you are indecisive (like myself) as you can, instead of only choosing one flavour, make yourself a little take-away variety pack! The assortment is not huge though as their philosophy is that only the very best recipes make it to the store....

The store seen from outside

Cupcakes!

The current assortment

Pretty and practical take-away boxes

Address: Spitalgasse 12, CH-8200 Zurich

The opening hours are Mon-Fr 11:00 - 19:00, Sa 10:00 - 17:00 and closed on Sundays and Bank holidays. You can also call or order by e-mail. Details can be found, in German and English on their website: http://www.cupcake-affair.ch

PS. Also a BIG plus for the friendly staff!!

Enjoy!
xox

The Busy Bee and her two weekends of Italian atmosphere

Coucouuuu!

I have been crazy busy as of lately and, as you have probably noticed, as a subscriber of this blog, also in a low mood. Well, we can't be all shiny and happy all the time ;)) Anyhow, the reason why my mood is now finally back to normal is because of the last two weekends! Both so magical and full of lovely moments, amazing food, shopping, love, sunshine, laughter and relaxation....

Photo blog: Ticino

If you know Switzerland, you will know that Ticino, or the Tessin as it's called here in the German speaking part, is the canton closest to Italy. The atmosphere and landscapes there are very different from the German part and of course, Italian is also the language most commonly spoken. Two weekends ago, we went there with friends and it was so lovely! We were in Locarno and had an amazing spring weekend with 30 degrees and sunshine the whole time (which for a Swede, in April, is unbelievable!!!)!! During this weekend, I also feel that I discovered a new truly great friend and I must say, here in Schaffhausen, I have missed that desperately. The four of us had an amazing Saturday evening with a divine Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto together with wine, a very fun game (sorry, but I don't remember the name ;)) and a huge amount of much needed laughter!! Medicine for a tired soul.....really! 

On Sunday, we went for a little trip to the Verzasca dam that James Bond bungeed off in Golden Eye (impressive place!!) and then we went down to the river to dip our feet in its still very cold, crystal clear waters.....where unfortunately, my camera battery died =(

 Photo blog: Rome

Last weekend, a long weekend, was spent in Rome. It was my first visit there and I really can't understand why it took me so long to finally go there!! It is one of the most impressive places I have ever seen......and we didn't have a boring moment. So full of historical beauty and well, the food.....oh my GOD!!! Definitely one of the best culinary experiences as well!! I LOVE pasta, pizza and ice cream - and the Italians are certainly the masters in this area, without any threat ;) We walked during almost the entire stay, when we were not sleeping, which means we covered more or less the whole city and visited places such as the Vatican, walked around in the area of the Colosseum, entered the impressive Pantheon, walked up the Spanish steps, shopped on Via Condotti, saw Fontana di Trevi among many MANY other interesting places and buldings. Really, if you haven't been there yet and you are thinking about where to go for a weekend trip, I recommend Rome with all my heart!! It was certainly not the last visit there.....

I wish you all a very HAPPY EASTER!!!

xox

A girls struggle in a mans world

Source: http://www.jillposener.com/photodetail.cfm?file=FiatAd.jpg&category=graffiti

How come that, in the year 2011, after having worked in the same field for over 10 years, having proved myself over and over again, I still have to hear comments such as "I suppose science wasn't your favourite subject in school?" or "Well that shouldn't be a problem for you because you are cute ;)" or, the most frequent one, "You must be the assistant?". 
Now why would you assume that??

 Just a thought on a Thursday morning.... Raaaaaawwwwwrrrrrrrr!

xox

Declaration of war

The ground is moving under my feet and I am in dire need of making a choice. I am clinging and clawing to a path that I know is probably not right for me and my stubborn mind tells me to ride it out, to show persistence and to never give up.......while my soul is tired and wants me to change direction..... I'm battling between being socially acceptable, to achieve some kind of status and accepting myself. I am screaming on the inside, yet smiling on the outside. I am so angry and yet, I have to control myself in public not to make a scene. I want so desperately to speak my opinion, but doing it, I know I will get burned. I have a desperate urge to express myself but know I will be judged, hard, by doing so. I'm constantly fighting for what I believe is right, while I see so many others just fight for themselves, knowing that they are wrong, just to get advantages...to get ahead.....and it works. 


I want to change things for the better, but keep banging my head against the wall while trying to make my surroundings move. I am suffering from the "good girl complex", meaning I go out of my way to achieve what is expected, without exceptions, to help out, to avoid disasters and to make things move in the right direction - just to hear that hard work doesn't pay off in the end and that no one will ever thank me for it.  How incredibly demotivating.... I don't understand that world nor its inhabitants and I think my sad conclusion is that I never will. 


I feel out of place, misunderstood, awkward, controversial, sad and desperate. I am surrounded by negative energy, being constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place...fighting for nothing while almost loosing myself. People tell me "it's not worth it" but I never listened.....well I think I have finally realized that they are right, it's not worth it....it can never be worth it......


Luckily, this is just a part of my life and thankfully not the most important part, but:
This is me declaring war against myself! This is me screaming for liberation! This is me attempting to stop caring about what others may think while making choices and decisions I know are right for me. This is ME and I will make no excuses for it! This is me swearing that from here on after - I'll be catching that dream, MY dream, not just chasing it!


xox

BBQ premiere

There is something so liberating about spring!  Something about the way everything snaps out of hibernation mode, not only animals and plants, but also people. Suddenly it is as if everyone remembers what they love about life and it makes them smile.....and that, exactly that - always makes me smile too.


On Friday, we finally went to shop outdoors furniture for the balcony and the timing could not have been better ;)) You see, Saturday had no less that 25 degrees (!) and full sunshine in store for us and we could finally extend our apartment by furnishing that "extra room"! Since this, of course, also enabled the BBQ season to finally kick-off, it inspired me to come up with a new salad recipe that we used for the BBQ that evening....and I must say I was very pleased with the result.


Minted Blood Grapefruit Salad with Grilled Tuna 

Ingredients, 2 ppl:
 2 Marinated Tuna filet's (lightly BBQ'd on a very hot grill for about 2 minutes on each side)


Salad:
1 Blood Grapefruit
200 grams of Corn salad/Mache Salad/Nusslisalat
1 Avocado
1 dl Roasted Cashews (lightly roasted in a hot frying pan)
Mint leaves, gently chopped


Salad Sauce:
1dl Olive oil
3 tablespoons of Balsamico
2 teaspoons of Honey
Chili flakes
Salt
Pepar


Served with a well chilled Rose wine. Great combination of flavours!!
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture with the tuna on top of the salad since it had gotten too dark for macro shots when we were ready to eat....but I'm sure you can visualize it ;))

Hope you all had equally beautiful and sunny weekends!! If not, I hope that the sunshine will soon come your way!
xox