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.