I know it has been a bit quiet on the blog lately. It is because I have had a few doubts about it. First of all I really disliked all the ads and secondly I wanted to write more about our new adventure PatríaPura. So here we are, the new blog from Patría:
http://patriablog.es/

Autumn is mushroom season. This year I’m planning on going hunting mushrooms in the nearby woods. But while I’m waiting for the chance to go foraging, I’ve made these! To decorate my Christmas tree…

You need: cardboard, fabric (red colours and beige), thin rope, thread, rice, cushion filling

Last week we celebrated David’s birthday and in our family we have a cake tradition, which we brought with us to Spain, to big amusement for our kids’ friends. This cake was very typical in our Danish childhood, where our mums made it. At a child’s birthday party there would always be a “cake man” or “cake woman”.

Thursday morning, when David was in school, I baked a big chocolate cake. It doesn’t have to be this exact recipe, but it is super easy and the kids love it! (You can find the recipe on the bottom of the page) When it had cooled of, I cut it in the shape of a boy. Obviously at Thea’s parties, the cake is shaped with a dress instead of trousers.

The first kids arriving help decorating the cake with candy. While I spread the icing on top of the cake, they are ordered to wash their hands, and then we are ready. They always have lots of fun doing it; two blue-coloured sweets for eyes, yellow for hair etc. to make it look like the birthday child.

Remember(!!!) to buy plenty of candy, because half of it goes on the cake and the other half in their mouths.

Where Thomas’ and my cake traditions divide, are at the actually part of eating it. In my childhood we would scream while we made the first cut into the cake. Yes, I know it is a bit barbaric. But again, it’s good to let out some steam sometimes, hehe…

Here is a small video of it: (you might turn down the volume!)

Chocolate cake:(for 15 -20 kids)

750 gr butter
1250 gr sugar
10 eggs
875 gr flour
5 teaspoon baking powder
5 teaspoon vanilla sugar
20 soup spoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3,75 ml milk
3,75 ml boiling water

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

In a large bowl whip the sugar and softened butter well, add the eggs one by one until the mass is white and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and cocoa and then add it bit by bit to the sugar mass, while you stir it gently and adding milk. When the batter is smooth, add the boiling water and again stir until smooth; the batter will be thin. Pour the batter into a pan prepared with baking paper.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before you cut the shape of a boy/girl.

Have fun!

A couple of days ago, I was so fortunate to be invited to a light sculpture show, which I can highly recommend to everybody to experience.

Second Wind by the artist James Turrell(Los Angeles, California, 1943) is an underground architectural skyspace piece, not far from Vejer de la Frontera. Here the viewers enter an inner pyramid, via a tunnel. Inside is a stone stupa, surrounded by a pool. Stupas are circular domes used in Buddhist architecture, and whose shape and position have the effect of making the cosmos appear closer. The passageway into the stupa leads to a room with a circular hole in the ceiling, open to the sky. Here, you can sit down and watch the changes of light “sculpted” by the artist.  The color of the lights in the room makes you observe a change in colors of the sky. It is recommended to enjoy the “show” in twilight, when light is at its most intense and the colours of the sky are enhanced, altering the viewer’s perception of the sky as a space, a shape and an object.

The photos are taken of the same hole in the ceiling in a time frame of 45 minutes. In the twilight and by changing the colors of the lights inside, the color of the sky changes to various shades. I didn’t taken a photo while the red light made the sky turn green or later when the sky turned red, that you have to experience for yourself;-)

To enter: http://www.fundacionnmac.org/en/activities/second-wind

(NB. It would have been totally cool, if they had played Pink Floyds Shine on you, crazy Diamond during the show)

I found an old wooden window frame, which I thoroughly cleaned, treated for wood worms with diesel and at last gave it a thick layer of dark grey oil paint. Then it was ready as a photo frame for this cool print from Naranjas Chinas.

This Spanish company makes some really nice retro-style prints. Besides prints, they make T-shirts, badges, post cards, shoppping bags… Quite often with English texts! See: http://naranjaschinas.com/

In kids room