Thursday Tunes.

This month I bought a 'best of Elvis Presley'-CD and it reminded me how much I love his voice. I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite songs.

Christmas wishlist.

I know Christmas is still a month away but I thought I would already share my wishlist. You never know if the Boyfriend stumbles on this site for some inspiration. I am aware that not all of the things on the list are very realistic, but it never hurts to try!

1. Citytrip to Prague  (a girl can dream) // 2. Necklace Forever 21 // 3. Book Khaled Hosseini: And the mountains echoed // 4. Dog with bobbling head for in my car // 5. iPad 2 (again: a girl can dream) // 6. Scarf 

And what do you want for christmas?

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

This weekend I was watching Sinterklaas's (comparable with the more known Santa Claus) arrival on television and it got me in the mood for baking. I didn't have any recipes at hand so I decided to do a little experimenting on my own. Surprisingly the results were not bad at all! I even invented my own vanilla butter cream frosting. Although you don't have to be a genius to come up with that, I admit. As you can see, I'm not the world's best cupcake decorator. I'm horrible, I know! I have tried so many times but I guess it's just not meant to be. Well, the taste is more important than the looks anyway, no? 

Iced coffee.

I decided to immediately put my vanilla syrup to the test and made some iced coffee. There are many ways you can make iced coffee. I used to make coffee and let it cool off in the fridge over night but apparently there is a better way: cold brew your iced coffee. I tried it and I liked it. Here's how it's done:

Vanilla syrup.

In Leuven you have all these great coffee bars. And although I'm not a coffee addict or anything, I love a good latte every once and a while. Man, do I love those vanilla lattes! The only downside to it, is that it is quite expensive. Certainly for a poor student like myself. But I just might have found the solution! A couple of years ago, I discovered this recipe and I thought it was such a great idea but I didn't want to "waste" my expensive vanilla extract on it. But then last week, I ordered my first "playin' vanilla" of the year (that's how it's called in the coffee bar) and I realised that I should be able to make this at home! I remembered the post and since I learned how to make my own vanilla extract, I didn't feel like I would be "wasting" anything! I adapted the recipe a little bit though, I like it more vanilla-y.