January Favourites

This post is now a week overdue and I did contemplate not putting this up at all but I have found some really gems this month that you really all need to see!

• Mint Green Polka Dot Pug Make Up Bag - One of my friends bought this for me my last week and surprised me with it along with mini eggs and malteaster bunnies, she knows me well. I immediately swapped all my make up into this bag, it's so much more spacious, I think I need to buy some more make up. I believe she picked this up from Penneys for €4, if you're looking!
  
  
• Tan & Rose Gold Skinny Strap Watch - I've been on the hunt for a really simple watch for a couple of months now, I do love Olivia Burton ones at the moment, but they are a bit pricey. I found this beauty in New Look for €15! I couldn't locate it online but it should still be in stores.
  
  
• No7 Gel Look Shine Nail Colour in Persian Blue - Up until two weeks ago, I hadn't painted my nails since September and when I did go to paint them, I found that most of my nail polish had gone all gloopy, so I decided to pick this up with one of the No7 vouchers in Boots. I've tried a few Gel Look nail varnishes from lots of different brands, but this is by far the best, two coats and it is completely opaque. Managed to keep it on for three days without it chipping at all!
  
  
• Sally Hansen Double Duty Base & Top Coat - I discovered this upon raiding my friends nail stash after my gloopy nail varnish mishap. I had never used a base or a top coat before but she assured me that it stopped nail varnish from staining your nails and made them super shiny when applied as a top coat. She was right and I found myself in boots the next day spending my advantage card points on this.
  
  
• Grey Running Leggings - I have a love/hate relationship with these. They are perfect for laying around the house on, or putting on to run quick errands but the one time I tried to go for a run in them, they just would not stay in the right place. I really wanted a pair of high rise leggings to keep everything together but these are not the ones. They have to go in my favourites though as they are more comfortable than any other lounge wear I have ever worn and so soft. They were less than a tenner in Penney's so I won't lose sleep over the fact that I find them completely unfit for purpose.
  
  
• New Glasses - After struggling on for nearly a year with glasses that I had superglued together, I bit the bullet and treated myself to a new pair. I got them from Specsavers and although I was less than impressed with the customer service I am absolutely in love with my glasses. I wear them everyday so having a nice pair is a huge deal for me.
  
  
• Charmed - At the beginning of the year my boyfriend and I bought the most beautiful 32" smart TV anyone has ever seen, I also got myself a Netflix subscription. Out of aaaaall the shows I could have possibly chosen to watch, I picked an old favourite of mine from my preteen years. Three sister witches trying to rid the world of all evil while trying to live normal lives. I don't really know what to compare it too, possibly Buffy, I feel like you get involved with the characters more in Charmed though and that's why it would win in a battle between the two for me.
  
  

That concludes my January favourites! I love doing these and I am really enjoying blogging again. What were your must haves for January?

Spending Ban // Week 1

Something I have had to come to terms with in the last few months is the fact that I am really awful at saving money. I have always been of the opinion that I am quite good with money but nope - unfortunately that is not a thing. As much as I would like to think that I only ever spend on essentials things like food, travel and dog food, that't not really the case. Although I do spend a large chunk of my paycheck on these things there is still quite a lot of it unaccounted for. I enjoy a weekly pointless trip to Penneys where I usually come out with €20 worth of bargains that I didn't really need, eating take out food or eating out when I really cannot be bothered to cook even though I spent another €20 in Tesco the day before buying food for the fridge/cupboards and my personal favourite, taking out money from the ATM to buy one thing but spending the rest of it anyway because it was clearly burning a hole in my purse.

Upon this realization I decided to embark on a spending ban for six weeks that started on Monday the 26th of January and will end the 9th of March. Obviously I'm still going to be spending money on essential things such as food and travel, and I will be allowing myself to go out and do things if I want but I'm mainly trying to cut out pointless spending on clothes, beauty bits and take out food. I'm hoping I'll be able to give you guys weekly updates every Monday to let you know how I'm getting on and to share any tips. So here's what I've learnt on week one!

• Do a weekly food shop - This is something I had been wanting to do for a while now as I know a lot of money goes on little trips to Tesco, eating out and buying lunch when I could just make it at home. I spent €50 on food shopping on last Sunday (including buying a new wok, hurray) and managed to cook at home from scratch 5 nights of the week. I did make one additional trip to the shops to buy a Quorn lasagne after work and some baking bits but it is an improvement!
• Buy a travel card - I have a really bad habit of taking money out of my account because I don't have any for the bus but still spending the remainder on crap I didn't need. I use buses quite often and I have purchased bus passes before for the whole month but some months it's just not worth it. This month I decided to invest in a Leap Card, which is a card you top up buy as much as you like and the fare is taken off it when you scan it on the bus, fares are also 20% cheaper when you use it. Cards like these are great if you're not sure if a pass if worth the money but you don't want to be left fumbling around the change when your boyfriend can't pick you up from work.
• Avoid temptation - As I mentioned before, I really enjoy strolling into Penney's before work on a Sunday with nothing particular in mind that I need to buy but somehow I still manage to come out with a bag full of stuff. I walked in there a few weeks back and came out with a whole gym outfit, despite the fact that I have never been to a gym before in my life and haven't been since either. So in an effort to stop events like these happening I am trying to cut out window shopping and browsing completely. If I don't see all the nice things, I'll never know I needed them and be able to live without them.

So those are my top three tips for this week. Although I have had a few hiccups, one of which included a nude coloured Rimmel Apocolips, (but for less than €2,who can really blame a girl?) I am pretty proud of myself. The real test will be next week when I get paid, I may treat myself to a new camera but I'm going to call that an *essential* for the sake of my blog. 

Thank you so much for reading and let me know if you have any tips for me! 

Super Easy Jam and Cream Sponge Cake

Hello internet friends and wonderful people that have stuck around despite the fact that I haven't been around for the past five months, I have missed you all! It has been a long, busy and very eventful last few months, I am so glad I have managed to (kind of) sort my life out and finally make time for some blogging and other exciting projects. Since September my life has been super hectic and honestly, I haven't had any time to do anything that I actually want to do, like bake and blog and that just really does not do it for me. I have had so many ideas, the creative juices are well and truly flowing and I am so excited for everything to come. Thank you to everyone that has stuck around, I really appreciate it and I hope you'll all stick around for some 2015 adventures! Now onto the cake.. 

 Fun fact, up until last month I had never actually made a cake before. This recipe really could not be any more simple, very little ingredients, all of which you would almost certainly have in your cupboards and two sandwich tins! It's also a great one to use if you're looking for an easy Swiss Roll recipe, just replace the self raising flour with plain flour. This cake it a lot less airy and springy than a victoria sponge cake or a normal plain cupcake, I think that's mostly to do with how you whisk the eggs and sugar and the fact that it doesn't contain butter. It's very filling and moist, I'm terrible at describing things so you shall just have to try it for yourselves and see! I choose to use strawberry jam and cream as the filling but you can use anything you like, fresh strawberries for example would taste amazing and look great too. One of the main reasons I had never made a cake before was because I think it's really hard to distribute among friends and family and I was afraid that it wouldn't get eaten but this recipe is pretty small and you would only really get about 8 small-ish slices out it, which is perfect for my house, you don't want this hanging around for too long either because of the cream! Anyway, let's get on into it..

Ingredients:

3 eggs
90g caster sugar
90g self raising flour

For the filling:

300ml cream
4 tablespoons  jam
50g icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4/350F, grease two sandwich tins and line the bottoms with baking parchment.

2. Put the eggs and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl, whisk with an electric whisk until the mixture is pale and holds a figure of 8, basically until it's thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is taken out. It's best if you don't stop whisking until you think it's ready.

3. Sift in the flour and fold in carefully with a spatula.

4. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tin, shake it all about a little and bang it against the counter top too get it evenly spread with no air bubbles (this is literally what I do) then place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the cake is beginning to come away from the sides of the tins.

5. Remove from tin, peel off the baking parchment from the bottoms and leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, spread the cream on the top of one of the sponges and the jam on the bottom of the other and sandwich them together. Use a sieve to dust some icing sugar over the top and viola, you're done!

As you can probably tell, I still haven't got a new camera. I was hoping to be able to save up enough to have a DSLR by now but that has not happened. Even though the quality of the pictures makes me want to hide and cry and not blog, I miss it waaay too much. So now I am thinking of purchasing a decent compact digital camera until I can afford a DSLR. The quality still wouldn't be as good as other bloggers but it would definitely be miles better than my phone's camera quality, what do you guys reckon?

Please comment below letting me know your favourite kinds of cake and if you try mine, tweet me a picture. Thanks for reading & happy baking! 

FOTD // The Feline Flick

I am really sorry to say that I have completed neglected my blog for the past couple of weeks, I thought it was going to be easy to work and blog but it's actually really difficult and hats off to all you ladies that manage it, you're all better women than I am.
I've had this face of the day post hanging about on my laptop for about a month now but I've lacked the inspiration to write and post it. Today though, I just got the sudden urge to blog again and I am suuuu-per happy about it, so here goes!

I started off by preparing my lips with Lush's Sweet Lips Lip Scrub, I don't think they do it in this flavour/scent but they still have many more to choose from and they are wonderful for getting rid of chapped lips. To keep my lips moisturised throughout the day I then applied Balmi Lip Balm in Coconut. I always use the same foundation, Rimmel Match Perfection in the shade "Porcelain". To conceal my under eye dark circles, I decided to go for a heavy duty concealer, Seventeen's Phwoarr Paint. Powder is a must in my make up routine, this time I decided to use Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder. At this stage I need to liven up and put a bit of colour back into my cheeks, I did so using a No7 blush that I have had in my make up collection for far too long. Onto the eyes, I started by lining my tightline with the Rimmel Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil. The only eyeshadow palette I keep in my make up bag is the Make Up Revolution Iconic 3 palette, I dusted the fourth shade all over my lid and then used the seventh colour in the outer corners. I've really been loving felt tip liners at the moment so I used this one from Collection to create a feline flick. Last but not least, to finish off the look I coated my lashes with Maybelline's the Rocket Volum' Mascara. 

The Perfect Sunday

I must admit, I've never been the biggest lover of Sundays. Not until I started working weekends that is. Since this Sunday, probably as you're reading this, I am going to be at work, I thought I'd tell you a few of my favourite things to do on a Sunday, a weekend or just a day off.

Walks 

With the pup and the boy. This is one of my absolute favourite things ever, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. There's nothing better than getting away for the afternoon with your favourite people and usually a picnic in our case.

Lazing About

Luckily, I did have last Sunday off work so the boy and I took to the couch armed with our duvet, lots of goodies and a laptop and that is where we remained for the duration of the day. We watched "Monty Python Live (Mostly)" and You've Got Mail. If you've never seen Monty Python before, I would highly recommend that you spend  your Sundays watching all of them because they are the most stupid, most hilarious thing you will ever watch and it is wonderful. 

Baking 

I don't think this will come as I surprise to any of you but I love to bake. If there's ever a day when I can spend the whole day baking, I will usually experiment and try new recipes. Sometimes they don't always work out so at least I know I will have time to bake an old trusty favourite.

Organising 

I left this one until last because I feel like it may be a bit of a weird one. On Sundays, I like to sit down with my notebook and plan out the week ahead. I'm one of those people that when they have too much going on in their head at once it just gets very full and I begin to feel quite overwhelmed. It's good for me to write out what my plan for the week is, maybe some meal planning and blog posts. 

So there you go, just a few of my favourite things that occupy my Sundays. I hope you've all had a wonderful week & you're enjoying your Sunday. What are some of your favourite weekend things? 

Super Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Happy Friday to you all! It dawned on me last week that I haven't actually shown you guys my favourite baked treat before. They have been featured on a guest post over on the lovely Lizzie's blog but I've never put them on my blog. As they are my favourite thing to bake and by far my favourite thing to eat, I had to share the recipe with you guys.

 I mentioned last night on Twitter that there's nothing more satisfying than having a tin full of homemade brownies. As I'm writing this post, I am so tempted to sneak downstairs and have another one, I will try and refrain from doing so as it's just gone 11pm. If I don't just cut them up and eat them straight away, I put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, they come out all gooey, warm and chocolatey, like they have just come out of the oven.

I made brownies in my Minnie Mouse Silicone cake mould last week and they were super adorable, I posed a picture of those on Instagram if you fancy a look! However, that didn't turn out to be very practical as it involved baking four individual brownies, so it took about three hours in total. Some of the brownie also got stuck inside so all but one kind of failed. I usually just bake them in a square baking tin, as shown above. I line the tin with greaseproof paper and leave two flaps at either side so it's super easy to lift out of the tin when they come out of the oven. As you can see here, I had to use tin foil this week as I forgot to buy greaseproof paper, it worked fine too though! This recipe makes about 12 portions and I promise you after trying this once, it will be your go to brownie recipe!

Ingredients:

300g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g dark chocolate
200g butter
70g plain flour
1tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, line a square baking tin with greaseproof paper and grease the rest of the tin with butter. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs.

3. In a second bowl, break the chocolate into small chunks, cut the butter into cubes and microwave until melted. Do this in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each to make sure you don't burn the chocolate.

4. Once slightly cooled, add the chocolate mixture to the first bowl. Stir in until everything is completely combined. 

5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold in gently. Try not to stir the mixture. 

6. Pour into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. I find that the trick of putting a knife into cakes to see if they're cooked doesn't really work with brownies as you want them to still be slightly gooey inside. So bake until the edges start to come away from the sides of the tin. 

I hope you'll all give these brownies a go and be sure to tweet me if you do. Happy baking! 

July Favourites

Upon compiling these few bits that I've been loving this month I realised that over half of them are things that I've been using to make sure I smell good this month. It's been so hot and muggy here in July that things like a good deodorant are super important.

Black Clutch Bag 
So, I went a little crazy this month and actually left my house for an evening out. I realised that I don't actually own any clutch bags or even small handbags for taking out with me on a night out. I ventured into Penneys and found this beauty for only €3, which for the amount of use I will get out of it was about all I was willing to pay for a clutch. It's exactly what I was looking for, super simple, matte black faux leather effect with gold detailing and I am in love with it. I may even have to go out a few more times just to use it. 

Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Body Wash

Last week, I talked about the body butter and scrub from this range, you'll find my review here. I decided to use up the body wash this month as it smells amazing. That's all I'm really looking for in a body wash and this delivers. The smell also lingers on your skin for quite awhile after, so I find myself sniffing my own arm at various points of the day.

Maybelline The Rocket Volum' Express Mascara
Everyone has been raving about this mascara for so long and I am now ready to jump on the bandwagon. It does exactly what it says on the tin, creates amazingly voluminous lashes with no clumps in sight, fabulous! 

Mitchum Advanced Control Shower Fresh Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant 

Like I said above, it's really important to keep yourself smelling fresh all day. This deodorant does exactly that. This has been a favourite of mine for many months now but I decided to add it to this months favourites as it has been well and truly put to the test this month. 

Charlie Black Body Fragrance 

I am a big fan of body sprays, I think they're great to keep in your handbag or overnight bag and spray generously throughout day. something that you're unable to do with a perfume without using up a whole bottle. I'm really enjoying this one at the moment as I find that the scent actually sticks around, so I don't feel like I'm just using it as a room spray! On the boots website the scent is described as "a sparkling creation of mandarincherry and white musk", in case you were wondering. 

So those are the things that I have been loving this month! Leave a comment below telling me what your favourites have been in the month of July! 

Chocolate Swirled Banana Cupcakes

I can't believe it's Sunday again and I haven't blogged since Wednesday. I knew I couldn't go more than a week without posting a recipe though. That's something I want to keep to, if nothing else. I do really miss blogging though, and I cannot wait for my two days off this week to just sit down and blog. Anyway, this week  I am bringing you Chocolate Swirled Banana Cupcakes. Anything that includes chocolate is always a hit for me and there's nearly always bananas in my kitchen that need to be used up.

Banana bread was the first thing that I ever made from scratch, so it's an old favourite of mine. I decided a few months back, after getting bored of the plain banana bread recipe that I would throw some chocolate in the mix, to change things up a bit. This got mixed reviews in my house, some people didn't like the chocolate taste with the banana, but I liked it. As I said earlier, anything with chocolate in it, I will probably eat.
These cupcakes are so easy to make and I made around 18 cupcakes with this recipe. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

150g caster sugar
120ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 bananas
220g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp vanilla extract
3tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line the cupcake tin with cases. 

2. In a large bowl, mix  the flour, cinnamon and baking powder. 

3. In a separate bowl,  whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. 

4. Mash up the bananas, in the third smaller bowl. 

5. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until they're fully combined. 

6. Fold in the bananas.

7. Take two small bowls and divide up the mixture, 1/3 in one bowl and 2/3 in the other. 

8. Add the cocoa powder to the bowl with the smaller amount of mixture, add 2 tablespoons of milk if it becomes to dry. 

9. Place 1 teaspoon of the plain mixture into the cupcakes cases, followed by a teaspoon of the chocolate mixture, then a further teaspoon of the plain mixture on top. Continue to do this with all the cupcakes.

10. Swirl the mixture in the cases, lightly, with a toothpick to make the swirls. 

11. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Sandal Ready Feet

Today I am tackling the subject of a certain body part that most people do not like to talk about, feet. Before you click off this instantly after hearing the word "feet", I promise you there will be no foot close ups or I will not be letting you know the full extent of my foot neglect. I just want to show you guys the little routine that I put into action when it's time to ditch the heavy socks and boots and bring out the sandals.

Firstly, I soak my feet in a dish full of warm water. Most of the time it's more like hot water because I find that softens them the best. I then go in with generous amount of Soap & Glory's Scrub Of Your Life, I mostly use this on my heels. I would also suggest buying a foot file and using it after you wash off the scrub to really get your heels nice and soft. After that, I soak them again, in clean hot water. All that's left do then is to pat your feet dry and apply a generous amount of moisturiser. I use Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Body Butter all over my feet and I then go in with Soap & Glory's Heel Genius on just my heels. I would suggest putting on a big pair of fluffy socks until all the moisturiser has been absorbed.

My favourite kind of polish to apply on my toes is Rimmel's Salon Pro Nail Varnish. The one pictures here is in the colour, Jazz Funk. I find Gel Effect nail varnish's look best on the toes. They last a super long time and they look really good and shiny for quite awhile. Minimal touch ups required!

Anyone else guilty of neglecting their feet?

Sunday Soup: Carrot, Orange & Lentils

So, my blog has been somewhat lacking in posts this week and I must apologise for that. I really haven't felt myself at all this week and I started my new job yesterday. After breaking my camera and realising that the quality of my photos was going to be awful (and has been for a few posts) it really got me down. I know photos aren't the most important thing about the blog, but in my opinion they are something that needs to be of good quality. So now I am stuck as to what to do next. I'm thinking of buying a compact canon camera that will do me until Christmas when I've saved up some money for a DSLR. I hate uploading a post with really bad quality photos, it doesn't look good and I know people will notice. I'm hoping to get organised on my few days off before working the end of the week & weekend. I really enjoy blogging and I always feel bad when I don't post regularly!

However, earlier this week I started experimenting with soups and although I am well aware of how hot it is, I still can' help myself. I am praying for Winter. I made this wonderful carrot, orange and red spilt lentil soup. The orange makes it quite zest-y and the lentils are a great source of protein. The potato is optional depending if you would like to thicken the soup up or not. It's been tried and tested by myself and my brother this week and it is a hit. So I knew I had to share it with you guys!

600g carrots
1 small onion

2 tbsp butter
1 medium potato (optional)
200g lentils
1 zest & juice of orange
2 vegetable stock cubes
800ml boiled water

1. Place the butter in the pan, along with the onions. Simmer on a low heat for five minutes.

2. Add the chopped carrots and potato, simmer for a further five minutes. 

3. Mix together the boiled water and stock cubes, add this to the vegetables. As well as adding the juice and zest of the orange then also add the lentils.

4. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the carrots begin to soften. 

5. Remove from heat and leave to cool before liquidizing with a hand blender. 

6. This recipe makes four big servings and I kept it it in air tight containers in the fridge and freezer!

FOTD // A Casual Wednesday

At the moment, I can't do an "Everyday Make Up" routine because I don't wear make up everyday. I think this will be changing soon those as I think I would probably scare everyone at work coming in with a bare face. For now, I thought I would show you the products I throw on my face when I'm just running errands.

As a base, I used the Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation and dotted some of the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer under my eyes and onto any spots. I then used the Mavala Transparent Pressed Powder anywhere on my face that my get oily throughout the day. To add a bit of colour to my cheeks, I used the Natural Collection Blush in Peach Melba.
For the eyes, I kept things pretty simple and used two shades from the Make Up Revolution's Iconic 3 palette. I lined my tight-line with Rimmel Soft Khol Kajal Eye Pencil and added a coat of Maybelline The Rocket Volum' Express Mascara to my lashes.

I apologise for the poor photo of this look. I am awful at taking pictures of myself and taking pictures of make up looks is totally new to me, so hopefully I will improve. 

Leave a comment below letting me know if you liked the format of this post & if you would like to see more of them! 

REVIEW: Boots Extracts Body Butter & Sugar Scrub

Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Body Butter:  I'm sure we can all agree that moisturising isn't top on any of our lists of things to do. The only time I really moisturise is when I've just shaved my legs or I'm having a pamper evening. Neither of which happen too often. However, this body butter makes me want to make more of an effort. It smells amazing and leaves my skin feeling super silky soft. The smell also lingers on your skin, which I really like. It't not extremely greasy and doesn't take too long to dry in. I would call it a dupe for the body shop's body butter and at half the price you can't really go wrong!

Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Sugar Scrub: This is my favourite scrub to use before shaving my legs. It's the perfect consistency, really easy to scrub in, almost melts into the skin. It's not extremely abrasive, so if that's what you're looking for I would try a salt scrub. However, for me and my sensitive skin, this is perfect. Again, it smells amazing and leaves you feeling moisturised before you even use the body butter.

This is my first ever review, so I'd love some feedback. I would highly recommend these products, let me know if you've tried them or anything else from the Boots Extracts range!

A Sunday Chat

Good morning and happy Sunday to you all! I'm taking a break from "Seven Happy Things" this Sunday and just sitting down to have a chat with you guys. This week has been crazy for me. I feel slightly disconnected with my blog this week and I didn't get the chance to get involved with blogger chats last week.  Exciting things have been having in my life this week though so I thought I'd share them with you.

I finally managed to find a job. This has been an ongoing task for way too long now, which has proved to be very difficult and often just plain upsetting and disheartening. However, I am happy to report that it has happened and I could not be happier. I don't think it'll be something that I will be mentioning on my blog again, as it probably won't be relevant, but as a life event for me, it is huge. I'm hoping that my blog won't suffer massively because of it. I'm excited to see how I'm going to organise everything, I'm sure I will get into the swing of scheduling posts. I feel like a lot more than that has actually happened this week, but it's just such a huge thing that has included a lot of little steps along the way.

My confidence has taken a massive hit in the past two years. I became a lot more shy and reclusive, I had trouble talking to people, online and in real life. I didn't feel like myself and I didn't feel worthy of being around other people. Within the past few months, that has all changed and it is mostly down to this blog and it's readers. It has given me something to focus on and something to be proud of. I'm not as afraid to talk to people, in fact I really enjoy interacting with everyone. So I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone that reads, comments, follows me on twitter and all that jazz. So I took my new found belief in myself and wandered off into the real world, I would like to think it helped me secure my place in college and my new job. I am so happy I started this blog and I am so thankful to everyone that supports me.

I am extremely excited for all the positive changes that are happening in my life and I hope you guys will stick around to see things out with me. I can see a Boots Haul in the not so distant future, people underestimate how hard it is to be a beauty blogger when you're broke. I have a list as long as my arm of things I am lusting after, you have been warned.

So thank you again and I hope you all have had a wonderful week. Leave a comment below telling me the positive things that have been happening in your lives lately! 

Chocolate & Raspberry Cupcakes

One step down from my favourite ever baked treat, brownies, are chocolate cupcakes. I've made chocolate orange cupcakes before, you can find the recipe here. However, this week I thought I'd try a new fruity addition in the form of some freshly picked raspberries. Creating the perfect chocolate cupcake is something I am still striving towards. Although, everyone's definition of what the perfect chocolate cupcake is like will be different, I'm sure. I think I would rate these a 8/10 on perfect cupcake scale.

The addition of the raspberries was wonderful. You're first greeted by the rich taste of the dark chocolate then the sweet, almost sour taste of the raspberries hits and it is magical. This may be how I am justifying the fact that I ate nearly the whole batch in a matter of days. I also added a tablespoon of coffee to the water, which is totally optional but I really think it helped to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes and they are super simple to make, I promise! Happy baking!

Ingredients:

60g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
60g dark chocolate
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
120ml vegetable oil
1tsp vanilla extract
140g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
100ml water ( +1tsp instant coffee, optional)
250g frozen raspberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line your cupcake tin with cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar.

3. Melt the chocolate, leave aside until it is cool to the touch, add to your butter and sugar mixture. 

4. Add in the eggs and egg yolks, one by one. Whisk until fully combined. 

5. Mix in the oil and vanilla. The oil may lay on the top for awhile, so be sure to give it a good mix with an electric mixer. 

6. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Slowly combine with the wet ingredients. 

7. Add in the water and give the mixture on last stir. If you're adding coffee, brew it at normal but leave to cool until it's at room temperature before mixing  it in. 

8. Fill your cases to be about 3/4 of the way full and pop in the oven for 20 minutes. 

9. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool!

Kitchen Wishlist

KitchenAid Artisan KSM150 Red Stand Mixer // Debenhams 

Printed Tea Towel // H&M

Ceramic Floral Scalloped Mixing Bowl // Debenhams 

Little Bird Wire Cake Stand // Next 

Wooden Egg House // Next

Blue Spotted Dog Oven Mitt // Debenhams

"Eat Me" Cookie Stamp // Not On The Highstreet

Red Wire Recipe Stand // Debenhams 

Vintage Three Tier Cake Stand // Not On The Highstreet

I have been wanting to make a "Kitchen Wishlist" for awhile now. I am obsessed with cute little kitchen knick knacks and baking utensils. Of course, I had to included the KitchenAid, every girl dreams of some day owning one, right? I also absolutely adore the wooden egg house, we have one in our kitchen at the moment, but it's no where near as adorable as this one. I hope you liked having a look at the things I'm dying to put into my own kitchen. Have you seen anything you like in this wishlist? 

Seven Happy Things #8

You know those weeks in which you have so much going on by the time Sunday rolls around the week seems to have flown and you have no idea what you've done? That's the kind of week I have had. I know this week has been pretty hectic but the days have all muddled into one and I'm finding this Sunday post quite hard. Maybe I should write down my things from the day as they happen. 

• At the beginning of the week I had a day of just running errands and getting grown up things done. Productive days are great.
  
  
• Tuesday was a baking day. I made Shortbread biscuits, you can find the post about them here. I used my Disney Cookie cutter for the first time and the biscuits looked adorable!
  
  
• I have been letting my hair grow for over a year now. I really should have gotten it cut before now but I just couldn't do it. However, I took the plunge this week and got most of it cut off. I absolutely love it. All the dye has been cut out of it too now so I'm back to my natural blonde colour now.
  
  
• If you read Friday's post, you will know that I had an accident with my camera and it has died. I have spent the last week looking for a new replacement but I am lacking in funds at the moment so for awhile camera photos will have to suffice. I was really worried about the quality being very poor but I was surprised by the pictures I could achieve using my phone.
  
  
• I popped into Boots on Friday after an interview and treated myself to a blusher and a nail varnish. I am very bad at treating myself, I rarely do it these days so I was very happy with my purchases.
  
  
• Yesterday morning, I got up early and made chocolate and raspberry cupcakes. They were amazing and I ate too many of them. I cannot wait to share the recipe with you guys next week!
  
  
• Sunday has found it's way around again and as I am writing this I am contemplating taking a nap and then eating the rest of the cupcakes I made yesterday. Sunday's are not my favourite days. 

That has been my week! I'm feeling very nervous right now, I'm hoping for good news tomorrow, trying to send out positive vibes.

 I hope you all had a wonderful week, let me know what you have been up to! 

Best Ever Shortbread

I have decided to call this the "best ever" shortbread because I have tried a lot of different recipes and chopped and changed between different ingredients to get the perfect shortbread. It may seem super simple (which it is) but I found that depending on how much of each ingredient you use and which sugar you use, the end result can differ. I also added a little something extra in the form of vanilla sugar that my Mum happened to randomly pick up last week which proved to be the perfect addition to these biscuits.

Unfortunately, there was a fatality while I was baking these biscuits, my camera fell off the kitchen counter and onto the tiled floor. The lens has gone all funky, and because my camera is a bridge camera, the lens is attached so therein lies the problem. The pictures of the biscuits in the making were taken on my camera, before it's incident but the pictures of the finished product were taken on my phone, hence the horrific quality. If anyone has any recommendations on a good DSLR that isn't too expensive, I would really appreciate it.

You'll notice that I took this opportunity to use my Disneyland Eiffel Tower cookie cutter and also that I then got annoyed with using it so the rest out with a circle cookie cutter instead. In theory, it seemed like a great idea to use my Disneyland souvenir, but it turned out not to be so practical as it is an awkward shape. They did come out looking adorable though and I will definitely be bringing it out for special occasions.

What I would usually do with shortbread, would be dip one side in chocolate or drizzle some melted chocolate over the top. However, we didn't have any chocolate in the house at the time I was baking these. Don't worry though, this problem has been rectified and we are now fully stocked with chocolate. This recipe makes about 20 cookies, depending on what shape you decide to cut them into. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

300g plain flour
150g caster sugar
50g icing sugar
200g butter, softened
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp water
4tbsp vanilla sugar/caster sugar, for sprinkling

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, two types of sugar and vanilla extract with an electric mixer. You need to mix this really well, until there's no chunks of butter left. 

2. Gradually sieve the flour into the bowl. Combine together with your hands. 

3. Add in the water and continue to mix together. Wrap in cling-film, place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease a baking tray or line with parchment paper. 

5. On a floured surface, roll out your dough to be about 1cm thick and then cut into your desired shape.

6. Place on the baking tray. Using a fork prick a few small holes in each biscuit then sprinkle with sugar.

7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until slightly golden. 

8. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.