I have a very special treat for you on the blog today. My very first cooking video! Oh yes - jaunty jingle and everything. It's the New Year and everyone is going for the healthy eating angle so today my cake is an apple and pear cake! You know, so you can feel vaguely like you are being healthy whilst eating cake...
I hope you enjoy watching! Click the picture to link through to the video!
Not too many favourites this month as I haven't really been here but what I have been loving you will find below!
Music
Only a couple of new songs on the favourites this month, I haven't found a new album I've loved but I'll leave you with these two:
First up - one of my songs of the Summer ~ Milky Chance with Stolen Dance
Secondly - Holdin On by Flume ~ I haven't stopped listening to this and I'm still not sick of it
Books
A very long time ago I started reading a book called 'A Discovery of Witches' and completly loved it. After a little wait Book 2 'Shadow of the Night' came out and finally 2 years later, just in time for my holiday 'The Book of Life' was avaliable. These books written by Debroah Harkness are rich with Vampires and Witches but without the real cheesy-ness of Twilight. There is also a healthy dose of history in there that appeals to my desire to read about the past. These books are brilliant in their detail and also provide you with a romance and passion. My rating: The second book is the best in the series.
Food/Drink
I hate fizzy water, I just don't get it. However mixed with my new favourite thing ~ Elderflower cordial it's a little bit tasty, very bubbly and makes me happy. It's also a healthier alternative, if like me, you quite like the fizzy pop.
Home
The last thing I need in the house is more mugs but I saw these and they were just too sunshiney to say No to! They also go wonderfully in my Yellow Kitchen and were only a £1 each from Asda. They have sold out of the yellow ones but they do have black ones which you can find here.
Does a month go by without me loving something from Wilkinsons? The homeware section is really good and nice and cheap.
This month I picked up these cute little bowls for £4.50 - perfect for dips when my friends pop over and we demolish a whole bag of kettle chips.
Life
I want to take more time and garden. It would be nice to look out of the kitchen window and not see an overgrown mess. I also want to bring the garden indoors, and my bright idea for this is to grow Chives and Basil in little kilner jars. I just think it will look really cute, and after my last herb garden got knocked off the windowsill by the cat I am taking no chances this time and they are on a shelf. They haven't grown yet but I will keep you updates on the progress!
Also as many of you will have realised by my many blog posts I have just been on holiday! It was a fantastic holiday, and so lovely to have a chance to relax.
Told you there weren't many ~ also there are no fashion favourites this month as I have already written about all my new clothes purchases for the month here and I'm trying to abstain from buying more! Ha!
The sun is shining and it's been a very happy month. Here are some things I've been loving in June.
Music
Clean Bandit's new album - New Eyes - is a brilliant summer album filled with lots of tracks that Clean Bandit fans will know plus some new fun tunes that evoke a sense of summer spirit.My favourite tracks are Telephone Banking and Come Over.
I am also loving this track from Budapest by George Ezra
Books
I have just started reading The Wrong Knickers by Bryony Gordon and it's as funny as the reviews say. It's current and about a girl who's my age who lives in London so what's not to love! I've been buying quite a few books recently for my summer holidays and am planning on doing a Summer Holiday book review soon.
Food/Drink
I have been loving ginger this month. Ginger Beer, Ginger Cider, Ginger with rum. It is most definitely my drink of the summer.
I had to work an event this month and there was the nicest man there selling his jams and chutneys. They are all homemade and very, very good. I got these two, but I might have to get in touch and try to order some of the BBQ marinade as well. You can have a look at the other's here
Home
I've not really been home shopping this month but I did pick up some silicon cupcake cases and I am never going back. I'm not even sure how I have gone this long without owning any!
Life
I went home for the first time in 6 months this month! I should see my parents more than I do really since they are only an hour away but it was lovely to spend the day at home in the garden having a BBQ and a chat. I am loving the fact that we will also get to see them on our holiday!
Fashion
You can find a list of all my new favourite fashion bits on my Pay Day Haul post!
I also popped into Primark and picked up a few items including a whole heap of amazing summer nails!
It's May Favourites time! I've been a bit busy with revising but here are some of the things that I've been loving this month... Music There's a couple of singles and an album on my favourites list this month - Firstly Sleepless by Cazette
Secondly Goddess by Banks
And the album of the month is Flume - Deluxe remix. This is an album from 2013 but I have only just got round to giving it a proper listen and it's really good, especially some of the remixes.
Books No new books for me this month unless you count the ones I have been reading for my course. If you fancy reading any nineteenth century literature I recommend The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. This has been by far the best book on the course. It's a story of love, marriage, betrayal and mystery told through lots of different points of view. There's plot twists and old school romance and it's just a really fun, easy to read nineteenth century novel.
Food/Drink I have a new found love of croissants which although regrettably aren't the most healthy thing to eat but they just taste so darn good. Last month I discovered croissants in a can and I blogged about them here, so if you haven't already try and make some!
Home After saying for ages that I needed cake tins I have finally got round to getting some and I was also gifted three, so now I can make as many cakes as I want and find a home for them all.
The rose tins I found on Amazon for £5.99 and the set of three are £6.50 from Wilkinsons.
I was given some lovely ceramic mixing bowls as a present and they just look so pretty in my kitchen. I am loving open shelving at the moment and just wish I could redo my kitchen! Look at their beautiful pastel colour. I managed to hunt down their location so if you want to get these bowls you need to head on over to Sainsburys.
Fashion A couple of fashion pieces for you! I wish I had more money this month because there are some lovely summer pieces out at the moment that I am dying to get for my holiday but here are some I have purchased already. Starting with this lovely swimsuit! I am just in love with floral so this is perfect!
Beauty I recently went make up shopping for the first time ever with a good friend and a separate blog post will be coming about all of the things I bought but I thought I should mention my favourite item out of the whole trip which has to be my eyebrow mascara. Yes, you heard me right - eyebrow mascara. It helps keeps the eyebrows neat and darkens them slightly. It is also a hell of a lot easier than sitting there trying to fill in the brow line with a pencil or eyeshadow. This one is from Maybelline in the colour Dark Brown. Honestly this has been a revelation!
I feel like my favourites are a bit sparse this month but I will be on my 'summer holiday' and on a little break from Uni in June so I will have time to find and do more things that I'm sure I will love. Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading this post, let me know what you love this month!
250g
self-raising flour 1tsp lemon juice 100g raspberries
Method to the Madness
Preheat the oven
to 180C /350F / Gas 4. Grease a cake tin.
Mix together
the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one
at a time and beat before folding in the flour. Next add a little bit of food colouring at a time until you get a lovely pink colour.
Drop in the raspberries and pour in the lemon juice stirring in before pouring the mixture into the tin. Well trying a bit first and then pouring in....
Pop in the oven for 45 minutes or so until it is lovely and brown. Once the cake is cooked place on a wire
rack to cool.
I cheated a little bit with the topping as I was in a rush to head out to the park and dish up the cake to my friends so I added some food colouring to Betty Croker's cream cheese icing and spread on to the cake adding some more raspberries for decoration.
Preheat
the oven to 180°C. Grab a loaf pan and lightly grease.
Combine
the poppy seeds and milk in a bowl and set aside for 15 minutes.
Add
all the ingredients to an electric mixer. Beat on high for 5 minutes until the
mixture is pale and thick.
Pour into your greased pan
Bake in the oven for
40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn
onto a wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile,
melt the remaining butter and place in a bowl with the icing sugar and lemon
juice. Beat with an electric beater until smooth, then drizzle over the cake.
If you are a reader of Miss Mint then you will have seen my Wanderlust post about mine and Leigh's day trip to Brighton. However I took so many lovely pictures that I needed to share them all with you so there's going to be a bit of an overlap on posts but I hope you don't mind! The day started bright and we headed down to Brighton, nearly missing our train as per usual. It doesn't matter how much time I leave we always have to rush for the train!
We like to share.....
Once in Brighton we went for breakfast at Bill's. I booked ahead and I'm glad I did because it was heaving by the time we left. We spent ages looking at all the jams and chutneys but in the end we decided to go for a Mango Chutney and it is delicious. When I get paid I'm definitely going to buy all of their stock!
After breakfast we went down to the pier managing to get caught in this crazy wind, rain, hail combo so we stayed in the arcade until it stopped and then went to the end of the pier to take some pictures of the choppy sea and sun dappled sky.
Next up we went and got some chips and had a walk along the beach in the sun before it started hailing again.
We ran up to the station to get the train to Stamner House where we had booked Afternoon Tea. The place was gorgeous and we pigged out on quite a bit of food which given how much we had already eaten was quite a challenge.
After tea we headed back to London! This is definitely the shorter version of the day trip if you want to read the full blown account then head over here and give some of my other blog posts a read too. Happy Valentines kids! Cara x
