Goodmorning from Denmark, – I hope you all are enjoying Easter, I am 🙂

Who does not love the Easter Bunny? – I do for sure, and I just want to share this cute Easter Bunny poem with you, – the poem is called: *Meeting the Easter Bunny.

On Easter morn at early dawn
before the cocks were crowing
I met a bob-tail bunnykin
and asked where he was going.
“Tis in the house and out the house
a-tispy, tipsy-toeing,
Tis round the house and ’bout the house
a-lightly I am going.”
“But what is that of every hue
you carry in your basket?”
“Tis eggs of gold and eggs of blue;
I wonder that you ask it.
“Tis chocolate eggs and bonbon eggs
and eggs of red and gray,
For every child in every house
on bonny Easter day.”
He perked his ears and winked his eye
and twitched his little nose;
He shook his tail — what tail he had —
and stood up on his toes.
“I must be gone before the sun;
the east is growing gray;
Tis almost time for bells to chime.” —
So he hippety-hopped away.

*This Easter Bunny poem is borrowed from sassycats.com ~ and written by Rowena Bennett, in 1930.

P.S. I hope you all will receive a lot of Easter eggs this Easter, – I all ready got a cute Easter egg from J, and that’s without even doing me the effort of writing him a “teaser letter” ♥

Good morning, today I am going on a 10 day holiday, back home to Denmark, to celebrate Easter with my family (Unfortunately this holiday I will be without my love J because he can´t travel this Easter because of his busy work schedule, sniff and snuffling).

Well – I love Easter, I love my family (mucho), and I love all the good Easter food, – especially my mom´s famous lamb dish and then of course all the Easter chocolate eggs with marzipan inside, yummm!

Do you, like me, also love Easter and all it’s traditions? And are you perhaps going to be the host of an Easter lunch this year? – and do you need some inspiration on how to set your table in an pastel – spring – sprouting Easter spirit? If yes, then here above I’ll show you a few Easter table decor inspirational pictures.

Happy Easter 🙂

*Pictures is from: loveitsomuch and Pinterest

*Gækkebrev (teaser letter)

In Denmark we have many Easter Traditions, but  sending a Gækkebrev (teaser letter) is one of the best and most loved among the Danes.

This tradition is the custom of sending  gækkebreve (teaser letters). In the weeks before Easter, especially children cut out elaborate letters, on which they write a so-called teaser verse written in the form of short poems or rhymes. The letter is anonymous, but signed with a number of dots corresponding to the number of letters in the sender’s name, so that the recipient has a chance of guessing who sent the letter. The pledge is a chocolate Easter egg redeemed at Easter. The letter is accompanied by a snowdrop, which is regarded as the first flower of the year.

If the receiver cannot guess the sender’s identity within a certain time, the receiver will have to give an Easter egg to the sender, and if the receiver guess who the letter is from, the the sender will have to give him/her a Easter Egg.

*The photo is borrowed from alive.dk

Fastelavn is the name for Carnival in Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe islands which is either the Sunday or Monday before Ash Wednesday.

This holiday occurs seven weeks before Easter Sunday and is sometimes described as a Nordic Halloween, with children dressing up in costumes and gathering treats for the Fastelavn feast. The holiday is generally considered to be a time for children’s fun and family games.

The term Fastelavn comes from Old Danish fastelaghen, which was a borrowing of the Middle Low German vastel-avent, meaning “fast-evening”, or the day before Lent.The word has cognates in other Germanic languages, including Limburgish Vastelaovend, Dutch Vastenavond and Scots Fastens-een.

Fastelavns festivities

Some towns in Denmark are renowned for their large Fastelavn festivities and parades. Traditional events include slå katten af tønden (“hit the cat out of the barrel”), which is somewhat similar to using a piñata. The Danes use a wooden barrel, which is full of candy and sometimes oranges and has the image of a cat on it. Historically there was a real black cat in the barrel, and beating the barrel was superstitiously considered a safeguard against evil. After the candy pours out, the game continues until the entire barrel is broken. The one who knocks down the bottom of the barrel (making all the candy spill out) becomes kattedronning (“queen of cats”); the one who knocks down the last piece of the barrel becomes kattekonge (“king of cats”).

In Denmark and Norway a popular baked good associated with the day is “Fastelavnsbolle” (“Fastelavns bun”, also known in English as “shrovetide bun” or “lenten bun”), a round sweet roll usually covered with icing and sometimes filled with whipped cream.

Oh God I get all sentimental now while writing this post. My mom used to sew the finest costumes for me and my two sisters when we were little and I remember us constantly singing this lovely song… tra la la la…

This a popular children’s Fastelavns song in Denmark

The picture above shows a genuine fastelavns barrel (Shrovetide ) and my beautiful lovely little nephew trying on his cool home-made pirate custume before he shall participate in his life first fastelavn (shrovetide) next Monday, he is so cute!!!

This weekend I want to bake gluten free fastelavn buns, I think it is about time that J gets to taste a bit of our wonderful Danish tradition, and of course the fastelavn buns are a gluten free version, so I can enjoy them as well

• Dough:
• 50g of fresh yeast
• 1 cup of milk (250ml)
• 125g of melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 500-600g gluten free flour mixture (Finax)
• Filling:
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of cornflour
• 1 cup of milk ((250ml))
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder

• Icing:
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 2 tablespoons of gluten free cocoa powder

Directions

Preparation: 2 hours  ›  Cook: 15min  ›  Ready in: 2hours, 15min

1. Gently warm the milk in a pot (it needs to be lukewarm, if it´s too hot it will kill the yeast). Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the melted butter, sugar, salt and eggs to the mixture. Gently work in the gluten free flour until you have a smooth dough, then leave to rise for 30 minutes.
2. While the dough is rising, make the filling. Whisk together the eggs and sugar then whisk in the milk and the cornflour. Cook over a gentle heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Add the vanilla to flavour and leave to cool.
3. Cover 2 large baking trays in baking paper and heat the oven to 225 degrees.
4. Divide the dough into two and roll the first piece into a 30 x 30cm square. Cut this into nine 10 x 10cm squares. Put one teaspoon of the filling in the middle of each square. Fold one corner over the mixture to its opposite corner. Then fold the remaining corners over.
5. Place each bun on the baking tray with the folded side face down. Brush each bun with egg and bake for 15 -20 minutes, (keep an eye on them during baking). Let the buns cool.
6. Mix all the ingredients for the icing together and spread onto each bun.

Healthy tips, you can also choose to make the filling healthy by using a mixture of peanut butter and banana instead of the filling recipe mentioned above.

Use 18 tsp of peanut butter and two bananas (more less)

Inspiration to the healthy filling is found on this amazing food blog: www.twin-food.dk

Thank´s Twin-food:)

Tonight J and I are having a cozy night-movie marathon and we are going to watch movies with a little guy with round glasses, a cape and a broom.

I am dreaming of Sydney while I’m writing this post, and at the same time I am preparing the movie goodies – gluten free brownie bites – the recipe is posted on the 13.02.14. Hmm who said multi-tasking hehe…

I wish I could take his broom and fly off to destination…… Sydney.

These Sydney photos above are from Paddy’s Market. A fantastic lunch at a restaurant in China Town. The Rocks – The nurses Walk and the last photo is from our farewell party at Slipp In, the bar where the Danish Crown Prince Frederik (Frede) met his great love the beautiful Tasmanian Crown Princess Mary.

Oh Sydney I miss you!