Apartment Tour

I absolutely love seeing other people's homes. Seeing how they arrange the furniture and the art work is just so darn fun! I get new ideas and feel like I'm learning a lot about the resident. Does anyone else obsessively try to peek into windows at night when people've accidentally left their curtains open? No? Oops, guess that's just me.

nope, this isn't our apartment. I wish.

Well, no need to fly over to Morocco and try to peek into my windows. This is our 3rd Rabat apartment since I moved here last September. It's the oldest of the group, but many people think the most "homey."

We'll start in my favorite room- the salon aka living room. This is the only room in the apartment completely covered in wood panelling and I sort of love it. Never thought I'd say that! It's a nice, light color and I feel like it gives the room a really nice texture. I don't even feel bad that I've hardly decorated the walls!

I love the large window and we get really nice light during the day. The room is big enough that I played around with lots of arrangement options, but in the ended opted for putting the TV in the corner- it's close to the seating area, but tucked away as to not be a main focal point and I can easily see out the window.

I could definitely use some art up on the walls. They may be my next mission, I need to take advantage of the great stuff I can get here at very reasonable prices!

We had this small table in the kitchen at our old place, but here it wouldn't quite fit. In the end I like that it adds a second functional area to the living room. If only we could keep from unloading all of our crap onto it as we walk into the house! The rug is used, Mohamed bought it from a guy off the street for less than $40. It's huge!

The living room opens to a fairly large entry area that we've done absolutely nothing with. You'd be amazed at the incredible lack of benches available in this place. Am I the only one who likes to sit and put my shoes on? A coat rack would also be a nice addition, I just haven't made the effort to purchase one.

On the other side of the entry way is the bedroom. It's another really nice sized room which is great as there are no closets. Our first investment after moving in here was a set of armoires. This room gets great light in the afternoon. The only downside is that the window looks out to our neighbor's patio. Oops. At least they only use it to hang laundry...

Whenever I open this window or water the plants I can't help thinking- If only that were my patio! Alas, we have to live with a very tiny balcony off of the second bedroom (not pictured).

From the entry way there's a small hallway leading to the bathrooms and kitchen. On one hand this makes it feel more like a real house, but on the other I can't stand how far the kitchen is from the living room. It's just so nice to be able to be preparing something in the kitchen, yet semi-involved with the happenings elsewhere in the house.

The bathroom is split into two separate rooms. Both are extremely fashionable with their bright blue and orange tiling. Definitely gives them some character.

The sad little toilet room. Definitely my least favorite place in the house. It's claustrophobic and contains a propane gas tank attached to our water heater. The tank covering really doesn't do much, but we tried.

Finally, tucked away in the back corner is the kitchen. It's quite nice aside from the location. 

The spice shelf is my favorite. Amazing how wonderful it feels when every single thing in your kitchen has a home. Ahhhhh.

Extra bonus- killer pantry! Storage space is generally what I find to be most lacking in apartments here. Shockingly, this is the only built in storage in the entire apartment. 

Just off of the kitchen is a small, enclosed patio area. Home of the washing machine, buckets and cleaning supplies. When it's really cold, I've also moved a chair in here to warm up. 

There is also a second bedroom, but we have done absolutely nothing with it and it's really pretty embarrassing. Maybe when it becomes functional I'll addend the tour.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our home. Maybe now you can refrain from looking into other people's windows for the day. Or maybe not. Happy spying!

Fluffy White Cake with Balsamic Strawberry Buttercream (happy birthday to me)!

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. You don't turn 29 every day, right? Oddly, this was the only birthday that I've actually felt a bit sad about. 28 was no problem, but 29?! There's just something about starting your 30th year. I knew I had to make a special birthday cake.

After scouring the web and my Pinterest baking idea board, I decided that I absolutely had to make this Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake from one of my favorite baking blogs- Raspberri Cupcakes.

This cake actually combines two recipes from two really great sources. The Balsamic Strawberry Buttercream comes from Raspberri Cupcakes, but the Fluffy Vanilla Cake is the favorite white cake of Sweetapolita. Check out these sites for the full recipes of this AMAZING cake.

I was so excited, that I technically took two days to make this. On Friday night I had to make my own cake flour. Usually I just substitute all-purpose in recipes that call for cake flour, but this time I just had to get it right. Turns out, making cake flour is so easy! You sift together all-purpose flour and cornstarch- for each cup of flour needed, substitute two tablespoons of the all-purpose for cornstarch. Easy peasy.

Saturday night was the main event. The first step in the cake recipe involves combining egg whites, milk and vanilla. I feel bad about kicking out the poor little egg yolks, but once again, this had to be perfect. Egg white mixture then gets set aside.

Next, you combine the dry ingredients in a big bowl before adding the rest of the milk and butter and mixing for a few minutes. When it's fairly well combined, you add the egg white mixture into the batter in three additions, mixing briefly between each one. When you're finished, you end up with the most beautiful, creamy, delicious vanilla cake batter you've ever encountered. I am seriously ashamed to say that I was actually eating this batter with a spoon.

This is far from a professional cake making operation. I do not have 8 inch round baking tins, or anything close to that. So, I make due with this much larger tart tin. Sigh. I fear I made a mistake by sticking to the double layer cake. With a pan this large, I should have just put all of the batter in. Alas, I didn't.

Being much thinner layers, my cakes baked much quicker than the time listed on the recipe. I also had to turn my oven down a bit after the first layer came out a little bit too golden. Here's the 2nd layer, on my makeshift cooling rack. As you can see from the side shot, it's pretty thin.

Next up, the buttercream! I was practically jumping up and down at this point. So excited to try to make (and devour) this frosting. First- puree the strawberries. This was so fun and quick thanks to my awesome blender. Next, create the buttercream base by mixing the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. I failed to get any photos of that step, but here I am adding the strawberry puree to the already fluffy buttercream!

Add the balsamic and mix until fluffy. I did have to add some extra powdered sugar to get the right consistency (smooth and spreadable, but not runny). The verdict: HOLY COW THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING FROSTING I'VE EVER HAD! Sorry for the caps lock, but it had to be done. This stuff is serious. Seriously incredibly delicious. Hopefully you've got the picture and are going to commence making your own right now.

Strawberries, fluffy vanilla cake and the delicious frosting. All ready for assembly. This frosting was so easy to spread and it didn't stick at all to the cake- must be the vinegar? I did a crumb coat (thin 1st layer to keep the crumbs in), but it was completely unnecessary. 

First layer was frosted in no time flat. 

If I were a professional baker, I would have certainly sliced off a thin layer of both cakes to make them flat. As you can see, I didn't do this and the layers didn't quite fit together. I solved this problem by filling the gap around the edges with more buttercream. hehe.

Mohamed's contribution: flattening the bumps I left in the frosting. So helpful ;-)

Ta da!!!! This is probably the prettiest cake I've ever made. I was proud. Too bad this was the night before my birthday so I didn't get to eat it yet. booooooo.

I didn't have to wait too long though as we ate it for breakfast the next morning! Nothing says Happy Birthday like the most amazing cake you've ever had for breakfast. I added a few halved strawberries as an extra touch before the feast.

The verdict: This cake absolutely lived up to the hype. Every single bite is like a mini strawberry shortcake explosion in your mouth. The cake is perfect (light, fluffy, flavorful) and the buttercream is to die for. I will definitely be keeping these recipes around. In fact, I think I'm going to have another piece right now!

If I want to make something more delicious for next year's birthday, I better start planning now!