sacher torte, of sorts, and another soup

decided to try this sacher torte, the recipe is in finnish so i won't post a link, sorry. i was at my brother's house and had the little niece to help me, so i had an extra pair of hands. the recipe might have required a smaller cake pan, the cake turned out ok, it just could have been a little higher.





used orange juice to moisten the cake, apricot jam as filling





little sous pastry chef at work





always thought that chocolate frosting would be hard to make, it's not!





the cake at the cottage, we brought to my mom. orange and yellow nonparells on top





for lunch today we had frankfurter vegetable soup, as easy as they come. i used carrots, rutabaga, parsnip, root parsley, celery, potatoes and frankfurters





chopped veggies, minus potatoes. i started by sauteing the chopped veggies in olive oil for a couple of minutes, then adding 2 stock cubes and boiling water to cover veggis. after 15 mins, i added the potatoes and some more boiling water, after another 10 mins the frankfurters. another 10 mins and the soup is ready.





didn't have any leaf parsley, that would have been nice garnish, or chives





curious thing at the cottage... there is this tiny flower bed with daffodils. last year the daffodils were the normal size, approx 25 to 30 cm high. this year, they are in full bloom but are only approx 12 cm tall, or short i should say. mom did replant some in the fall, but there are no new bulbs in the flower bed. weird, is what i think