Cinnamon Floating Island - Show Us Your…Spice Collection!

There is a great event floating around in the cyber space called Show Us Your...and this time it is about our spice collection.

I remember at the begining of my cooking "career" I had only salt, black pepper and some paprika powder in my pantry. No wonder, because opening a pack of sausages and ready made pasta is not cooking. With the time I developed myself there where I am today. I think I can say that my spice collection is not small. Meanwhile I have more than three kinds of salt, including the French fleur de sel, himalayan salt, coarse-grained sea salt, Portuguese flor de sal. Of course my collection of pepper is also expanded: white, rose, lemon pepper, szechuan pepper in no way may be missed in my kitchen.

Beside the Hungarian paprika powder there is hot paprika powder, cayenne pepper, that is red hot chili pepper, and of course some dried chilies and chili flakes. Coriander is also a stable member of my spice collection, together with bay leaves, that I dry myself, oregnao, dried thyme and rosemary, caraway, majoram, kardamom, vanilla pods, saffron, mustard seeds and curcuma. I hope I have not forget anyone.

I store my spices actually everywhere in my small kitchen. Most I have in glasses on the shelves, except the paprika powder that I store in a steel box. Some of them that I do not use often are still in their original package closed with a clip. I would like to get steel boxes for my spices and store them on a magnet wall, I think that would look cute and would also be practical. My all time favourite spice is cinnamon.

I think it has somewhat a magical fragrance that can take you far away on a cold winter day or on a hot summer day flavouring a nice scoop of cinnamon ice, that is my favourite ice cream since my childhood. Before Christmas you can smell it everywhere in town. I love cinnamon because of its unique flavour, that you can not mix with anything else and somehow it has something mystical to me.

As this spice reminds me of my childhood I thought to prepare floating island that my mom often prepared for me using cinnamon to give it a special touch. I think I have always been a cinnamon fan!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 l milk
4 eggs
150 g sugar
2 packs vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour

Bring milk to boil and cook it on low heat.
Beat egg white with one pack vanilla and 3 tablespoon sugar. Beat in cocoa powder.
With a help of a spoon add beaten egg white and let it cook until it grows, turn and cook for
30 seconds, put aside.
Whisk the rest of the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, flour and egg yolks, add to the milk.
Stir constantly, but do not boil! When the milk begins to thicken turn off the heat. Add islands on top and let it cool. Serve chilled.