Bellini Beauty: July 2012

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Eton Mess cupcakes

Eton Mess Cupcakes-

Recently a neighbour brought round some homegrown raspberries and strawberries, of course all handpicked strawberries aren't perfect and some needed surgery and a good wash. Anyway, I decided to make Eton mess cupcakes.

Cupcakes- makes 12

4oz margarine

4oz caster sugar

2 eggs

4oz self raising flour

-combine margarine and sugar until creamy

-add each egg individually and mix with a pinch of flour to prevent curdling

-add remaining flour and mix

-spoon into cupcake cases

-bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes at 180c

Then I made a regular vanilla buttercream

8oz icing sugar

4oz butter

splash of milk

-combine and add milk to bind

-pipe or spread onto cupcakes

I then added broken meringue pieces, strawberry pieces and raspberries.

Of course you could serve them like this but I decided they weren't messy enough!

Pre-drizzle

I then took a couple of handfuls of fruit and blitzed them, I passed it through a sieve to get rid of seeds and added a little icing sugar to thicken and sweeten. Then I simply drizzled the cupcakes with the compote I had made and put the rest in the freezer!

And there we have it, yummy! Let me know if you give them a go.

Cadbury chocolate cupcakes

Cadbury's chocolate cupcakes-

My trusty chocolate cupcake recipe- makes 12

4oz margarine

4oz caster sugar

2 eggs

3oz self raising flour

1oz cocoa

-mix sugar and margarine until creamy

-add each egg individually with a pinch of flour to avoid curdling

-add remaining flour and cocoa

-spoon into cake cases

-cook in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 mins at 180c.

My usual chocolate icing is just butter, icing sugar and cocoa but I find it's hard to get a nice colour without the icing being over cocoa-ey. So this time I used melted chocolate for a more indulgent taste.

Buttercream-

6oz Icing sugar

3oz butter

splash of milk

40g bar of Cadbury's 'Dairy Milk', melted

1 tablespoon cocoa (to colour)

-combine icing and butter

-add a splash of milk to bind

-add melted chocolate and cocoa and mix

-pipe or spoon onto cupcakes

I used white chocolate stars and edible glitter to decorate.

Simple but yummy, Enjoy!

Nail Art love

This summer something I've been getting into is Nail Art. Pinterest gave me a wealth of ideas to try including this design.

I call these firework nails but basically I painted my nails silver then added blobs of pink and purple polish in the corner and used a cocktail stick to give the effect.

Then I got in the Jubilee/olympic mood and bought a red, white and blue nail art set which worked as pens and polish and came with gems to decorate.

Then I finally got the hang of the nail pens and did union jack nails for the Olympic opening ceremony.

As I type another creation is drying....

map nails! Very simple really, I painted my nails white then dipped each one in vodka (or any clear alcohol) then pressed on a piece cut out from a map. When you peel it off the design is left behind, apply top coat straight away.

I'm looking forward to trying this with other papers and newspaper or book pages.

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Sun-less-summer

So an update on my summer so far, which contains very little sun!
My parents had a week off last week so we had a few day trips out. We went to Chester when there was a carnival on. Sorry the pictures are rubbish but there was pirate ships, devils and angels.

Then we went to an amazing french restaurant where I found a new love for chicken liver pate and sea bass! I also tried some of my Dad's flourless chocolate pudding, soo good!

I had an experiment with bento boxes and made this. It didn't look beautiful and dainty but was very tasty.

We also went on a day trip to Liverpool, I very much enjoyed the Rolf Harris art exhibition. We also went to Albert Dock and I had my first trip to Wagamama. I liked the lambananas too.