How I messed up the Ishihara Birthday cake...

So this year I even managed to make a cake for the best husband of all. And because he has a red-green-colourblindness and I am just a little bit mean, I wanted to make an Ishihara cake for him. Like this - with smarties...

Only I ran out of orange and green so I made it all colourful and even people with normal colourvision can't see the number. Brilliant, eh? :)

Here's the recipe though, the cake was delicious:
Original Recipe in German on Chefkoch.de: https://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1030221208238044/Schwarzer-Kirschkuchen.html

English translation

Black Cherry Cake
Recipe for 26-28cm round baking tray

Zutaten

250 g	granulated or caster sugar
125 g	flour
125 g	ground hazelnuts
150 g	chocolate chips
2 TL	baking powder
1 TL	cinnamon
4	eggs
ca 500g	dark cherries from glass
125 g	butter
	Butterfor the tray if needed

Preheat the oven to 180°C
Mix soft butter and sugar und whisk "fluffy". Add the eggs and whisk in.
Add the rest of the ingredients, bake for about 1 hrs. If necessary, cover the cake with some tin foil.

Seasonal table December 2018

Yaaayy, it only took me a week to publish the seasonal able, which also underwent quite a lot of changes in that time. We have our Mini-nativity scene (including 3 kings) on it already, and through the desert of stones and candles they find heir way to the crib - each Sunday of Advent a little closer. The candle holders are swedish traditional wooden ones called "kulljusstakar" and it just makes me feel really christmassy, when I see them. One day, I will also find myself a nice Dalahorse, but that's for another Christmas.

The Eugene Grasse "Belle Jardinière" Postcard for December

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and ... Modern Slavery

From Guardian

So, Black Friday, Cyber Monday are over of sorts and we are ready to enter the mad Christmas shopping time. Hunting for the best price and all that.

Have you ever wondered, how it is possible, that goods that were luxury only twenty years ago are now available for a good, cheap price? (Because it seems only cheap is good , if you listen to the ads...). How can we get giant shrimps from all the way across the globe to next to nothing? Because the price is paid for you by the workers on the fishing trailers. By the men and women who are sewing you cheap jeans, harvest the cheap cotton. In other words - we are taking it out of the poor. We (the Western industrial countries) are responsible for the effect or our consumerism.

If you want to know more about it, have a look around the web - there is plenty of information around. Or have a look here: https://www.walkfreefoundation.org/

And what about Christmas? How about giving less in numbers but more in quality. Maybe homemade? Or made in your own country? You can get lovely second hand items. Or just ask your partner, if they have a wish and help them fulfill it. We all don't need this stuff, that's just standing around, cluttering our space and minds.