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.

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.

I recurring theme is that I love lots of things in the shops but lack money. Here are some lovely things....

 Although I did get some 50p tulips- Bargain!

Oh, and we have a new pudding at work : Brownie Sundae.The little things cheer me up.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer/ looking forward to it.

Healthy date flapjacks

So this is a recipe my mum has been making for years and I love it!

200g Dates

1 cup oil (vegetable or sunflower)

1 cup concentrated apple juice- we get this from a local health shop and it's like a syrup consistency

1 cup water

8 cups oats

Firstly cover the dates in a small pan with water. Allow to boil until all water has adsorbed and dates are soft.

Next, add the oil, concentrated apple juice and water to a pan and boil.

Take off the heat and add the oats gradually, stirring well.

Line and grease a rectangular tin and add half the flapjack mixture. Smooth out with your hands so it's level and in all the corners!

Then layer on the dates with a spoon, spreading equally.

Finally add the second half of the flapjack mixture and level out.

Place in a preheated oven at 190°C for 35 minutes until golden brown.

Done! The flapjack has a lovely squidgy texture and is very tasty. I actually used concentrated apple & blackcurrant juice this time and it worked just as well. You could also miss out the layer of dates but I think it adds extra yummyness!

Home shopping

Last Saturday we went home shopping and it's lovely to see all the British things for the Jubilee and the Olympics. I liked these pictures and the teacup vase.

Busy week

So this week started with a visit to Lancaster with friends to visit another friend. We explored the Uni campus and found new lunch places and cupcake cafes.

Then I was preparing for this weekend. Yesterday we had a Strawberry Tea at the pub I work at, in aid of Breast Cancer Care. I made lots of jam filled strawberry cupcakes.

Everyone at work loved my cakes so much that I was put in charge of organising the cake table. It went down very well and we raised £500 for Breast Cancer Care.

Yesterday evening we had an Italian night at home. We drank Bellini, ate pasta, aubergine parmigiana and ice cream! Then we watched Young Victoria, a not-very-Italian but good film.

Today is Father's Day. We have a nice meal planned this evening but my presents to my Dad this morning were Lego cupcakes and Avengers tickets.

I'm also feeling rather organised with my new summer calender of exciting things to look forward to.

You may or may not have noticed that I'm instagram-ing everything!

Diamond Jubilee Weekend

To prepare the Jubilee weekend I made Red, White and Blue muffins with Strawberry and Blueberry.

I actually traveled back to my uni house for my housemates birthday this weekend and made him a trifle.

In honour of his birthday we went for lunch at Las Iguanas where they gave him a free drink which had edible glitter in!

It was lovely to see everybody so patriotic with bunting and flags. I watched the Jubilee concert on TV which was fantastic, made me proud to be british! 

Wax crayon art tutorial

I got the idea for this from Pinterest, not sure where it came from originally. There is lots of things you can do with it including adding a silhouette with an umbrella.

What you need-

Strong glue

canvas

a couple of packs of wax crayons

hairdryer

Firstly, you need to line your crayons up so that they fill the width of the canvas. I arranged mine by colour with black at one end and white at the other. I used two packs of 24 crayons.

Then you can skip this step and stick them on but I chose to peel all the crayons which took far longer than expected!

Then I started to stick them on carefully, I used a tube of extra strong all-purpose glue.I stuck them on one by one and tried to get them as straight as possible.

I stuck them across and left them to dry completely, Checking if they were stuck on by turning it upsidedown! Then it was time for the fun part!

I set the canvas upright with newspaper underneath and behind it.

I plugged the hairdryer in and set it on the hottest setting but with less power to stop the wax spraying in different directions (which happened a bit). Then I just started melting the crayons at the top, holding the hairdryer straight. You can do it for as long or as little as you want. I'm pleased with how mine turned out and it was so easy.

Then when dry, I hung it on the wall!

This would be great to do with kids as it's so easy, I'd love to see how people get on if they have a go.

Graze boxes

I received my third graze box today and I was very excited to open it!
Graze offer healthy snacks including nuts and dried fruit. Their new range offers dips and dippers and high tea including a tea bag!

Today I got Blueberry Swirl, Hazelnut espresso, Pistachios and Boston Baguettes with BBQ dip. The website gives me the ability to pick the my favourites and pick the things I'd like to try. I can also pick things that I never want to be sent, so I won't be getting any olives in mine!

Each box comes with nutritional information, some are one of your 5 a day, some are low in fat and all of these are under 200 calories. I've found all of mine to be very tasty and my ultimate favourite is the honeycomb flapjack but I don't think that's very healthy!

All the boxes are individually sealed so you can pop them in your handbag or the cupboard for later!

To have a look at the options yourself check out graze.com.

If you would like a free graze box enter the code 22Z238ND

Trip to London

  

Regent Street

I'm back from my trip to London with University, I really enjoyed it. We arrived on Sunday and had a bit of a shop on regent street and in Camden then had a walk to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

On Monday we had our training at the National Gallery on a project called 'Take One Picture' to use in schools, it was really interesting. 

Lego Kate, Wills and Harry.

Lego Queen in Hamley's Toy Shop

I loved the Lego floor in Hamley's.

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

One of my favourite shops was also M&M world with 3 floors of M&M's!

On Monday evening we went to the Ice Bar which was amazing, very cold but we got given a thermal cape and gloves. We got our first drink included in an ice glass!

We returned home after Tuesday at the National Gallery, ready for our own beds. We stayed in a hostel with 3 story bunk beds.

source