Royal Wedding

Did you all watch the Royal Wedding? I didn't want to face the crowds in central London, so I stayed at home to watch it on television and baked Royal Wedding themed cupcakes instead. I almost cried watching the ceremony! The best part was when you could lip-read William telling Kate that she looked beautiful when she first walked up to the altar. So cute. I then attended our street party in the afternoon. I loved all the bunting, amazing outfits, red and white food and happy atmosphere.

xx

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello! I'm back from Paris and ready to start blogging again! I hope you all had a lovely week... I'll be back over the next few days with some Paris photos!
I found these sweet chocolate "Love Bugs" in Marks and Spencers last week and had to buy them for my flatmates. I wrapped them separately in cellophane and used pink ribbon to attach paper heart labels. They smelt so yummy when I was wrapping them that I wish I had got one for myself (though that would have been a bit sad!)

Are you doing anything special for Valentine's day?

xox

Cupcakes

I haven't baked in such a long time. It's so much easier at home with all the equipment, pretty decorations (and free ingredients!). I'm nipping home this weekend for my dad's birthday and I'm already starting to plan my next baking session.

Now, which ones to make...?

Gingerbread cupcakes with fluffy cream cheese filling

Filled lemon poppy seed cupcakes

Golden globe cupcakes

Triple salted caramel cupcakes

YUM. Have any recommendations?

xx

Whisk Kid

I have a new favourite blog that I'd like to share with you all. A fried of mine sent me a link a few weeks ago to this amazing cake on a blog I hadn't come across before (we're making that cake one day by the way, just you wait!).

Whisk Kid is a beautiful blog about baking, written by university student Kaitlin. What I like about it most is actually the way she writes. She writes so well - just about random, everyday things. And then there's her photographs... stunning.

I love reading her blog especially as she's the same age as me. I can't believe she manages to produce such beautiful and delicious-looking desserts from a university accommodation kitchen! There you have seriously talented blogger, so I suggest you go and check out these amazing recipes.

Tomorrow is my first day of studio work on my new course at university. From now on it's 9am - 5pm every weekday... yawn. I'm so nervous about the crits that we have, showing the work we did over the summer! I'm excited to get started as well though. 

Oh, and another thing - I've FINALLY joined the world of Twitter. I thought it was about time. I currently have two followers so come and join me and make me feel less lonely HERE :)

I don't know many people who "Tweet" (is that the right word?!), so I need some new people to follow! If you have an account, leave the url in your comment and I'll come and say hello!

xxxxxxxx

Paris

I was hoping to write a mini Paris guide to put up here, with a run-through of what my friend and I filled our busy two days in Paris with. However, I'm struggling with time issues at the moment thanks to the insane amount of work my university sent me in advance. Just a taster of what is to come, I'm sure! So, for now at least, I'm just going to do a shorter post.

We spent most of our time window shopping and wandering, mainly around the Marais area. I didn't buy that much as everything was so expensive and I happened to spend most of my money on food and little things like postcards! But these are a few purchases I made...

This pretty little mirror was from one of my favourite shops we visited - Loulou Addict. It's only a tiny shop but it's stuffed full of beautiful things (and a lot of Rice products, my fave!). We spent a long time in there! (The mirror was about 16 euros I think, from Rice).

I don't think I could have come back from Paris without some Japenese masking tape. It was everywhere and so so pretty. It took me ages to choose which patterns to get and I almost wish I'd bought some more!

Remember my red and pink bird garland? I got that in Paris last year from the Pompidou centre and I love it so much I decided to get another one to take to university with me! The masking tape was from there too.

Some pretty lacey ribbon from a shop in the Marais.

So I just got little things really as I didn't have enough money to splash out on anything big! We spent most of our time in little boutique shops anyway, where these sorts of things were sold.

On the first day we ate at the L'as Du Fallafel, which I highly recommend. It was about 5 euros for a huge pitta with delicious falafels, aubergines, salads etc.

On the second day we splashed out on an amazing breakfast at Angelina. Their hot chocolates (at 7 euros each!) were so worth the price. They were like liquid chocolate... so yummy.

Angelina

We ate lunch at Le Potager du Marais, a lovely little vegetarian restaurant (if you haven't guessed already, my friend and I are both vegetarian! So that worked out quite well). It was really tasty food, but I have to say I still preferred the falafels.

The view from the hotel

In case you're interested, we stayed in a cheap and basic hotel right by the pompidou. I recommend it if you are doing a quick trip and are on a tight budget like we were.

I start my first year at university in 6 days from now so these next few weeks are probably going to be a little crazy and I'm afraid blogging won't be right at the top of my priority list, but I'll do my best. This week includes finishing uni work, packing and also making 60 cupcakes. No, I haven't gone cupcake crazy - friends of my parents are having a party and have commissioned me!



much love xxxx

Lavender cupcakes and CSN review

If you remember, CSN sent me a load of baking equipment recently and it's made me very happy! You know why? Because now I can continue to bake cakes when I move away to university :) It's also very brightly coloured which is nice.

So of course I made cupcakes to test out these beauties, and my friend Polly came to join in. We used the Hummingbird Bakery's simple vanilla cupcake recipe but substituted the sugar for homemade lavender sugar (mmm that stuff smells sooo good!). We followed Hummingbird's recipe for lavender frosting, where you infuse milk with dried lavender for a few hours beforehand.

I was sent a beautifully shiny Kenwood whisk, which made my mum jealous.

I apologise for the rather poor quality pictures! We made them in the evening so the light wasn't great.

We decorated them with dried lavender. My little brother complained about there being "branches on top of the cakes"... oh dear, he just doesn't understand!

The morning after... not many cakes left! I guess that means they tasted good!

Everything sent from CSN was really good quality and did its job perfectly (and looked pretty at the same time!). I would only review products that I would recommend to my readers and I definitely do.

I also recommend this cake recipe to my readers!

xxx

Homemade Oreo Cookies

It's been a while since I've baked. I guess in the summer you're outside more and feel less like slaving away in the kitchen, but now it's cooling down I feel like getting back into it. I had seen recipes floating around the internet for these, and was inspired to make them after I found my brother munching his way through some Oreos on Friday.

I have to say that they were delicious, and very Oreo-like. The only difference was that they were a little less crunchy, and maybe a bit sweeter. I could only find American recipes online (perhaps because Oreos are much rarer in England anyway) so I have adapted this recipe from cups - grams for people who, like me, cannot measure in cups! If you like, you can find the original recipe here.

Homemade Oreos

makes 25-30 sandwich cookies

Ingredients
For the chocolate wafers:

160g all-purpose flour
65g unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
200g caster sugar
250g room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:

65g room-temperature, unsalted butter
65g vegetable shortening
260g sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used clear vanilla extract)
Optional- Gel dye

Method

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded half teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy. (Optional: Blend in a tiny bit of gel dye until you reach the desired color.)
6. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

Enjoy! xx

PS. I'm off to Paris for a couple of days tomorrow (eek!) very early in the morning and so won't be posting again until at least Thursday. Have a good week! xxx

Another Lunch

I just discovered the blog Another Lunch and I find looking at these pictures of beautifully presented lunchboxes so unbelievably satisfying. They are so lovely and organised.

I know these lunches are for kids, but I might have to pop back to this blog for inspiration when I start having to make lunches to take into uni. I'm so lazy with my lunches - it's always a sandwich, cereal bar and an apple! Do you buy lunches or take them into work/ school/ college?

xxx

Guest post: Just Peachy

Today's guest post is from Natalie of the lovely The SoHo blog. This recipe looks like a perfect summer dessert, and includes two of my favourite ingredients. Yum! Thanks Natalie! xx

There's something that works so wonderfully when peaches are paired with amaretto, and this dessert is all about that wonderfulness. This recipe for amaretti and peach crisp from king of sweets David Lebovitz is simple and straightforward, and the results are nutty, gooey, comforting and delicious. Pair it with vanilla ice cream and you've got a bowl of summertime happiness.