Almost a month since my last post and I have not been sitting still either. More cakes made, more cake pictures taken and more cakes and cupcakes to come in the next few weeks. I have been sewing up a lil dress for Halloween for Anarosa with a few of the fabrics I bought at a fabric market here in town and my oldest daughter is in the UK at the moment. I am a little sad she doesn’t call me but at the same time it makes sense.. They got a full schedule and she probably is a little worried about the cost of the calls. I have texted her and I got a lil text message back so she’s all fine I know, I am just being a mommy and I’m missing her.  Well I think she is having a good time and I can’t wait to hear all the stories when she’s back. The place they are at is called Hastings and they are there for a school project. She’s doing her school in 2 languages, half her lessons she’s got in English and the other half in Dutch. This project is to stimulate the English and to get the kids to learn a little more about England and to be in a surrounding where they speak with native English speakers all day long. The kids are staying as guests with other families where they eat and sleep and in the mornings they go to a English language school. In the afternoons they got all kinds of trips to interesting places. In the evenings they also have organised a few things for the kids. So thats a full and very interesting week for them. I bet they are exhausted in the evenings when they get back to the family where they stay. Soon as I get a little more time on my hands I will post some pics and another post but as it is… I am very busy 🙂

Take care all..

Yah last week was very busy for me. Had a lot to do and prepare baked 3 cakes, made a newsletter for the community center, made a flyer, did my creative club, designed a logo (still have to refine it though) got an order for three more cakes, prepared the cupcake decoration stand for tomorrow at neighbourday in the community center and I decided just now to take a break from everything and update my blog with pictures of the cake and this story to go with it.

The first cake I just made for the community center for the first monday morning breakfast after the vacations and I used some of the roses that I had all ready made a while ago . The other two I made for a colleague. Her daughter had her birthday earlier this month and they had a little party to celebrate it.  Her daughter had tried my cake at the community center and wanted  my cakes  for her party. It was fun to do because she wanted Hello Kitty on her cakes and I had not made Hello Kitty cakes yet. Since she wanted two cakes, they both had to be different of course so that was a nice little challenge for me.

If I can find the time I will post pictures of the nieghbourday soon with my cupcake stand and everything else but now first the last three cakes I made.

In my Gallery  where my pictures are you can find a folder with all my cakes and I added more pictures of these cakes there including some detail pictures up close. The filling of these cakes are our all time favorite; vanilla butter creme, bakers creme and fresh strawberry’s. The decorations are made from roll fondant.

September 23 is Neighbourday here in Holland. On that day people organize all kinds of  fun stuff to do in their own neighbourhood. Those things can vary from planting trees to drinking a cup of tea together or a workshop to make cupcakes. Ofcourse community centers organize all sorts of things too and so does the community center where I am a volunteer at. I decided it would maybe be a fun thing to go decorate cupcakes at the community center and give the neighbours a chance to have a go at it as well. I would have cupcakes ready to be decorated and all colors of fondant to be used with the tools they need. I would have a little book with ideas and how-to’s and ofcourse offer the neighbours my own unlimited wisdom to help them create the most cutest cupcake ever. Since This would be a lot of work for just one person, I asked some help from a friend who comes often at the community center. She is way further with the whole cake and cupcake decorating thing as me so I was sure she would be a good choice to ask to help me. She liked the idea and wanted to come help, while discussing the plan it changed  arround completely. I turned my idea over to her and she was going to do it with another friend. I am perfectly fine with that, the problem is, what am I going to do then at the neighbourday celebration at the community center? After some brainstorming with a coworker and my husband we came up with another fun and delicious idea.  Lets have a little pancake house! And I will call it: “PANCAKES, IT IS!”

Since this too will take some work and would be maybe a little too much for just me to do, Antonio will help me and I will ask my daughter as well to help out if she is arround. So now I got to make a whole new plan and to do list. I am going to need to make a menu card with a price list, I am going to have to make a shopping list and gather a few recipe ideas. and then “PANCAKES, IT IS!” will be a fact. Soo what pancakes will be on the menu? Pancakes Naturel,  Pancakes with apple, Pancakes with bacon, Pancakes with cheese, and Pancakes with bacon and cheese. At the table the guests will find syrup, chocolatepaste, jam, powder sugar and butter. Maybe we should sell a glass of milk with it too. Hmm I got to brainstorm some more about this. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to make money out of this. I just want to have fun and give other people a fun day as well. Though I do have costs to make, ingredients need to be bought and its only fair that everyone just pays a little bit for their fresh and home made pancake. I am not sure how much to charge yet I am thinking about 50 cents for a pancake naturel and 60 cents for a pancake with apple, 75 cents for a pancake with bacon or cheese, 85 cents for a pancake with apple and bacon, and 1 euro for pancakes with bacon and cheese. The syrup and other stuff at the table will be for free. well for a glass of milk I could charge 35 to 50 cents right? Well not sure about what they gonna have to cost yet maybe I’ll find a sponsor who pay’s for all of it then they are free for all :). Good idea no?  to ask the supermarket if they wanna sponsor me :P.

Wow, so I came home after a day at work at the community center, did some groceries, we had a lil bbq and then I sat down checking my mail and facebook etc. So while browsing down some posts on my facebook I see this post from Spa&fruit, you know the company with the promotion where I won this city trip recently? Well ofcourse I had told my mom and she participated too, not thinking she would win.. guess what.. today there was a notice that she did win!!!! 🙂 hahah is that cool or what! 🙂

OMG I so love eating roti once every so often. I grew up in a small town in the country and my neighbours where hindustani. Very friendly kind people, I would almost say its like they where family. They had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. The youngest was just a little younger then me and we used to play together when we where young. My brother was hanging out with the boys a lot and many times we had diner there. So I sort of grew up with roti all be it not daily. Our neighbour was a great cook, at least I like to think so. And in all those years since I have moved away and did not had a meal at their house any more I never have eaten such a good roti with chicken anymore. Untill I found out about Roopram roti in Amsterdam.

I don’t give free advertisement and I don’t give false advertisement, I am not gonna say something is good when I don’t think it is, and I certainly won’t say something is the best if it is not.  If you mess up and are being a total dork I will tell you and if you are wonderful and amazing I will be the first one to tell you, and it this case I did not only told them they where great but I am even blogging about it. So to everyone out there who is reading this, Rooprams roti in Amsterdam has the best  roti ever. How do I know? Well every so often when I walked past a restaurant that sold roti and where it smelled pretty good, I just walked in and tried it out to never return there again cause the roti they served was just not what I  was used to I even have tried my own hands at it and although it was not bad it  was again, not what I was used to.. Was I spoiled?  Haha but I could not imagine there was not anywhere else where they would have such good food so I kept searching. And when I finally moved to Amsterdam I went to the Dappermarket  (if you are from Amsterdam you know what I talk about.) and there was again another place selling roti. Rooprams roti it was called. I passed by there a few times and kept thinking every time about trying it out, but you see, I dont like being disappointed so it took a while before I finally went inside. There was always a long row of ppl standing till outside even so it had to be good right? that’s how I convinced myself.

That guy in the white shirt, yeah you are right that’s where the end of the line was at the time that this picture was taken. And from the lights on the ceiling you can tell how much further inside you can go and with that how long that line must be.

That day I had been at the park with Merel my oldest daughter and this was long before I meet Antonio. It was as usual very bussy so as I say I went inside I should say I joined the line on the sidewalk and no I am not kidding. I am serious. I joined the line at the sidewalk. Once I was finally inside, still in the line though, I looked around. the place did not looked too fancy,  old bar chairs and cheap kitchen tables, the plates where people where eating from did not match even but they all seem to enjoy the food a lot. The place was clean, the man behind the bar who just took the orders and where you paid was kind, serious, helpful but did not waste time, he couldn’t its always busy there and hungry people are not the nicest. I know so because I am not nice when I am hungry. Anyhow now I was still standing there in line , had ordered my meal and paid for it. Then finally there it was. I took it home because if it was a disappointment, I didn’t wanted everyone to know it.

And here’s my meal roti chicken with  potatoes and kouseband. the red stuff you see  on the chicken is sambal, a pepper sauce that I don’t use on it. I am thinking the person already had eaten some looking at how little chicken was left  I found this pic on the web somewhere and simply stole it:P  I am sure they don’t mind. I have no clue who made it and where it came from so if you recognize your picture, let me know and I give you proper credit.

On the way home I stopped at mcDonalds for my daughter because she, I was sure, would most definitely, not like roti with chicken. So we picked up a happy meal and moved on. At home I couldn’t wait to eat. I was hungry and it smelled so good. And it was good, no wait it wasnt good that would not give proper credit to my delicious meal. It was the best, the best I ever had since my neighbours roti. So if you are ever in Amsterdam and like roti please by all means stop by at Roomrams roti , Eerste van Swindenstraat 4 in Amsterdam near the  Oosterpark .

And you know what, I am not the only one who likes it and writes about it. I found this post during a random surfing session on the web.