FACTS

The last weekend of September/begin October has always been my weekend. For a few years now, I’ve been going to FACTS, Belgium’s comic con, or at least one of them. There are so many of them right now that I lost count. But FACTS has been my first love, and my only one for the moment. Each time this event has been taking place, I had to go. Since last year they organize it two times a year (once around April, then in September/October). And the last one was last weekend. I went on the first of April and it has been the best day of this year so far.

This issue was bigger and better than ever. Loads of stands where you can buy things, several set pieces that have been rebuild, off course loads of Star Wars props and Harry Potter props. And off course you could meet several actors. This year FACTS welcomed Ben McKenzie, Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin, Amanda Tapping and Kristian Nairn (Hodor!!). Off course I had to go to some of the Q&A’s, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to get a signature or a picture with one of them.

There was so much to do that I didn’t get the chance to do all that FACTS could offer me this edition. Next time I’ll go the entire weekend, just to have time to enjoy all of it. Next appointment: 21-22 October. In the meanwhile, I’ll continue to enjoy all the pictures and go through all my favourite movies and series to see what I’ll cosplay next time…

What about you? Have you been to FACTS or any other comic con or other event? What did you do in your weekend. Let me know.

love

Anna-Lisa ❤

Recipe: Chocolate Raspberry Valentine Cupcakes

It’s that time of the year again, when all the shops are colored in red and little hearts start to pop up everywhere. I’m one of those persons that love to celebrate love the entire year round, but sometimes I like to give myself over to consumerism and I love to celebrate love with one of my favorite sweets of all times: Cupcakes!!

Here you can find one of my ‘inventions’. I put two of my favorites recipes together and put my favorite fruit in it. You can find the recipe below.

Chocolate Raspberry Valentine Cupcakes

• Ingredients for the cupcakes
  • 40 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 140 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g self-raising flour
  • 20 g cocoa-powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 120 ml whole milk
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 12 raspberries
• Ingredients for the topping
  • 300 g icing sugar, sifted
  • 50 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 125 g cream cheese, cold
• Directions
  • Preheat the oven to 170° C.
  • Put the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and use an electric hand mixer or a kitchen robot and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
  • Add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed.
  • In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder and the self-raising flour. 
  • In another bowl put the vanilla extract in the milk. 
  • Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour half the flour-mixture – beat until well mixed, then add half the milk and mix until everything is well incorporated. 
  • Repeat this process until everything has been added. 
  • Scrape down the side of the bowl again and turn the mixer up to high speed and mix until you have a smooth mixture.
  • Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full, put one raspberry in each case and submerge them in mixture. Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. 
  • When you insert a knife in the centre, it should come out clean. 
  • Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before putting the to cool on a wire cooling rack. 
  • For the Cream cheese frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together on medium-slow speed until the mixture is well mixed. (Watch out, the sugar can go everywhere.)
  • Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. 
  • Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy. It takes more or less 5 minutes. 
  • When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the frosting on top and decorate as you like. 
  • I made a raspberry coulis (raspberries, water and sugar, cook it until you get a thick sauce) and then drew with a spoon little hearts on the frosting.

These make adorable and delicious sweets and one of the most loving days of the year. I adapted two recipes of the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and found the recipes here and here. Off course I changed them a little bit to my taste. I would certainly recommend to try these and go crazy and change them a little bit. That’s the fun things with cupcakes. You can make infinite combinations.

xoxo

Anna-Lisa ❤