Royal Wedding Cupcakes

Today I am very proud of myself! I have been experimenting with baking and piping icing recently and, as you may have read, not been very successful. Today I had promised Mum I would bake for our Royal Wedding party but that meant that I couldn't go wrong.
I went shopping for the perfect piping nozzle, the infamous Wilton 1M!
I followed the icing recipe exactly and found where I had been going wrong, real butter! I automatically put margarine in a recipe even if it says butter, using real butter in my icing made it the right consistency and made it set! Yay!
Along with the right tools, I could finally make my cupcakes look professional (well, nearly) and this made me very happy.
Plus they were tasty.

My Handiwork

I had a go at Rosette icing and it worked pretty well, need some practice at being neater though.

I made victoria sponge cupcakes (some with jam), chocolate cupcakes and lemon drizzle cake. No mistakes!

A bit of a Trauma.

On Sunday, In my new found motivation to keep fit, I decided I wanted to go on a little bike ride in the sun to get me back into it.
I dug it out of the garage and found that both tyres needed pumping up and didn't look in brilliant condition after being neglected for a year or so. Anyway, I decided I would replace them in the summer and just go for a short ride today.
I set off and was quite wobbly due to it being quite a while since I'd ridden a bike. Driving a car is quite different!
I was thinking about the comment my Mum had made earlier, mocking me for the comments on my Cycling Proficiency Test certificate (having 'only just' passed about 9 years ago).
Anyway, it was fun, I got about half a mile down the road when I was half way down a hill and was suddenly going quite fast and needing to break, then I panicked. I'd forgotten which brake was which, and apparently also forgotten how much force I needed to apply.
I got it wrong.
I hit the front brake, with a lot of force.
I went flying over the handlebars bashing my knees first, slamming my hands down in front of me and bashing my chin a little on the ground.
I was in a bit of shock, I got up, leaving my bike in the road and sat on the grass for a few minutes.
At this point I checked my grazes which were pretty measly and checked that my phone was unscathed.
I cautiously rid home and put my bike away, about to go inside and laugh at how stupid I'd been.
Then a thought occured to me, I looked at my wrist to see my brand new birthday present, my Pandora bracelet. Two charms were scratched but one was battered, knocked all over and one of the pearl pieces missing, I was devistated, I'd only had it a day.
I went inside, Mum was sympathetic, Dad couldn't quite believe it and was annoyed that he couldn't 'fix' it (he's a 'fixer').
We went in the car to look for the missing piece but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Anyway, at the moment I'm wearing my bracelet minus the damaged bead not need quite sure how to approach the subject as it was rather expensive and from my Grandma so I may have to replace it at some point.
At the time, my thoughts turned materialistic, I wasn't bothered about being hurt I was agonizing over a 'thing'.
Anyway, it seems I'd underestimated my injuries a little as I spent the rest of the day with a fuzzy dizzy head, after a bath and a good nights sleep, I woke up with aches and pains all over.
Two days later, my knees are purple, my thighs have purple/green handlebar bruises and both my wrists are sore at times and there is a little blue bruise on my chin.
However, I am fine, I've just apparently forgotten how to ride a bike.
Oops.


Next time, I think I'll wear a helmet. It could have been a lot worse.

Musical Meme from Beatle Juice

Spotted this meme on Beatle Juice's blog and thought it sounded fun.
So the rules are.....

• Go to www.wikipedia.org. Hit 'random' and the first article you get is the name of your band.
• Then go to www.quotationspage.com, go to 'Random Quotations' and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
• Then, go to www.flickr.com and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

My Wikipedia was Fujian University of Technology. Not a brilliant name for a band? Wierdly my random quote was quite a good advert for a uni I think 'be good for something' taken from Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

However, not sure it makes such a great album cover along with the flickr picture.....more of a University prospectus.

Two Decades Old

So it was my Birthday on Saturday, I was very excited because mum had planned a schedule for the whole day and it was a complete surprise.


9am- Cake, Presents and Cards.
This was a little early for me but I was greeted by this...

Mum's homemade carrot cake with cream cheese lemony icing- yummy!

The theme of my presents was cake! I got cookbooks and baking magazines, some silicone 'tins', a biscuit tin and a cupcake stand. These will come in useful for our royal wedding party.


10am- Grandma arrives.
She came armed with more presents and easter goodies.


11am- Breakfast in Audlem Coffee House
I had veggie breakfast and it was delicious and it was nice and sunny outside.


We then drove to Chester and took a trip to the Pandora shop!
I was treated to the bracelet from my Grandma and the heart pearl charm, the cupcake charm from my parents to go with the theme of the day and my boyfriend had already bought me the heart charm from the shop in Aberdeen.

4pm- Afternoon tea at Oddfellows
This was amazing, a quirky little place on the bottom floor of a hotel.

The awesome teacup and teapot chandelier hanging from the ceiling 

The tabletop was a mirror

Delicious Afternoon tea- smoked salmon (my favourite), egg mayo and cheese sandwiches, chocolate and cherry cake, lemon cake and scones with jam and cream. The cups of tea and coffee were Huge!

Just because it was my birthday I had a white chocolate liquor cocktail, tasted like Baileys,

I had an amazing day and would like to thank my Mum, Dad, Grandma and everyone else (including the 40 messages on facebook)!

Yesterday we went for lunch in Nantwich and for a walk along the river and around the lake in the sun.

I couldn't resist biting into his ears before taking the picture, sorry.

A reason to be cheerful?

It's my Birthday tomorrow!!!!!!!

My Easter so far....

So I'm back from Aberdeen! 


Something I forgot to mention before I went is the lovely day I spent with Ivy, we had a veggie BBQ and made a huge fruit salad which was yummy and it was lovely catching up with her and seeing her little siblings. Then, for some reason, we did the bleep test, the terrible test of fitness that they make you do at school, and I scored just as badly as I thought I would. This has kick started me into realising that I need to improve my fitness, I intend to do this next term with swimming and yoga- I'm going to give it a go! 


Anyway more on that later, for now, a reflection on my trip, mainly told in pictures due to my snazzy new phone with a decent camera.
I had a really nice time with the boyf, we had a couple of days in the city mooching and sightseeing, a bit of cooking and eating out and general lazy movie watching. 

Bridge over the River Don

The Sea! I loved just listening to it, it was a windy cold day though.

I like looking at Scottish notes, it feels like I'm  on holiday in a foreign country.

My wonderfully indulgent easter egg from the boyfriend. I'm ashamed to say I have already eaten it all but that is mainly due to lack of available food at breakfast/ lunch time.

This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen! You can't see it very well but it's a boy walking his helium dog! I don't know whether it was intentionally half inflated but it was bouncing along on it's little legs grabbing everyone's attention as it 'walked' past.

Silent Sunday (a little late!)- Travelling

I'm in Aberdeen! the epic journey is over...for now.

Nearly another year older....

So I'm home for Easter but the boyfriend is off back to Uni in Aberdeen on Sunday so I'm going with him until Friday. It's my birthday next Saturday and his next Wednesday so we're planning some joint celebrations before I return.


I've visited him in Aberdeen before and It's a very pretty place, I like all the old buildings! 

I went in November last time and we saw a fireworks display on the beach but as a beach lover, I really hope  I get to see it in the sun this time.

We went to this amazing Italian restaurant which was delicious, I will probably request we go here for a joint Birthday meal. http://www.lalombarda.co.uk/

We celebrated our birthday's last year at home. I went round to his house and this was my surprise....

He knows the way to my heart... Food!

Procrastinating about Assignment = Nail Painting

Laminated List

This week's Listography is awesome because it's related to Friends, I love the show So Much!
So here is my laminated 'people I can sleep with if the opportunity arises' list.


Adam Levine-Lead singer of Maroon 5. Oh Yes. (excuse the inappropriate image but come on!)





Jude Law- in his sexy glasses in 'The Holiday'.





Hugh Grant- I think it's the accent. Maybe in his younger days though!





Ben Feldman- After watching the Hilary Duff film 'The Perfect Man' I think he's pretty cute.





Milo Ventimiglia- Jess from Gilmore Girls, he plays a bad boy!

A Lovely Visit

My Boyfriend visited me at my uni house for a few days this week. I had made him a promise that I would cook him a meal of his choice. This was a valentine's day gesture that he had to redeem late.

I made Falafel burgers with Houmous, Salad and Curly Fries and it was delicious, followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding and custard (shop bought I'm afraid) .

Later that night, we decided to make bread with my house mate, she'd made it with the children on her placement and it had gone well so we used that recipe. I enjoyed making funny shapes like I had done as a child when my mum made bread. I made an S, a snowman, a bagel, a snail and an attempt a frog's face. The Pig my housemate made was my favourite. It was tasty too!

The next day we went for a baguette and cake in a lovely cafe then walked along the river in the sun. I'd never walked there before and we found a nice park, I always discover new things in the city when I have visitors.

Practise Makes Perfect...and I need a lot!

I've been excited to try out my new piping bag since I got it and since we're having a chocolatey weekend for my Grandma I decided it could be my first attempt.


I had an idea in my head, tall swirly icing with many chocolatey things sticking out! Something like this...

 

So I picked the cupcake recipe, that was pretty easy, just a simple victroria sponge with cocoa added. They turned out pretty well.

Then the hard part, the icing. Maybe the first part of the problem is that I didn't follow a recipe, I just softened some butter and threw in some cocoa and icing sugar until it seemed thick. But having never piped icing before, I probably wasn't very good at judging what thick enough actually looked like!

So I was ready to start piping, I filled up the bag and had a go on cling film first. My next realisation was that the nozzle was a lot smaller than I had anticipated and it would be difficult to fill a whole cupcake, it wasn't the look I'd hoped for.

I starting filling whole cupcakes and sticking the decorations on but they were all pretty flat and disappointing.

I then decided to pipe some only in the middle and balance a piece of chocolate on top, this looked ok but they then sank a little!

 I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, I know they'll be tasty and my Grandma will like them. I'm just not sure whether the icing will actually set due to the consistency. Next time I will try with a bigger nozzle and think carefully about the icing to prevent the squishy, runny mess.

The Best One!

Listography- First 5 Albums

This week's Listography doesn't involve looking back that far into the past really. I can't really remember the first five albums I bought but I'll make a pretty accurate guess.


Spice Girls- Spiceworld
I have many memories of dressing up as the Spice Girls with friends, I always wanted to be Baby Spice (Emma Bunton), but I was often made to be Posh because I had brown hair. I remember loving the movie too.

Britney Spears- Hit Me Baby One More Time
I was a massive Britney fan, I had the albums, the singles, the video....the doll! 

Steps- Step One
I remember watching them on SMTV Live and having a thing for H. Oh dear, look at that curtain haircut!

S Club 7- Sunshine
I know I owned the album but I don't really remember listening to it much. I did watch their TV show a lot though.

A1- The A List
This is an album with a story- Just after they stopped being popular, I opened a children's bank account with Natwest- the free gifts were a Children's World Atlas and a choice of a CD. I chose A1- The A List, so there can't have been many good one's on the list! Anyway, I don't think I ever listened to it.

YAY Baking!

So it turns out when I gave my mum her choice of Mothers Day meals she chose Rocket and Olive salad, Garlic bread and homemade Vegetable Lasagne. Her choice of dessert was cheesecake brownies which we actually ate for afternoon tea.


This is the recipe I used and I have to say they tasted Amazing! I think I swirled the cheese in a little too much but you could still taste the yummyness.

Before cutting

Little pieces of heaven!

Next weekend I'll have a go at making extremely chocolatey cupcakes for my Grandma's brithday. I will make a first attempt at fancy piped icing with my piping bag, I need my practice because apparently I'm catering for our Royal Wedding garden party which is exciting!

Inspiration

Yesterday, I went to Birmingham for the day with my boyfriend and his family.
We had a lovely lunch in Cafe Rouge, where I realised how much the french don't like vegetarians when I asked for the only veggie thing on the menu and they asked me if I would like chicken with it?!

We then went to the IKON gallery. The first floor was an exhibition called 'Endless Facade'. I have to say I really didn't get it, even after the idea was explained to me it seemed a little far fetched! However, upstairs there was an exhibit called Gestures and I really enjoyed it. It was three rooms full of observational photographs that were really interesting. I came out wishing I had a camera on me and was looking for good shots all day. For example, I saw a statue sitting on a step next to a woman who looked like she was talking to him when she was infact on the phone, I also saw a modern sculpture with a path of water which a little girl was playing in, in her wellies!

When I got home and had a look  at the website I noticed that each picture was under a heading and enjoyed looking at them again to interpret them in a different way. It's definitely worth a look- http://www.theatrumorbisterrarum.com/gestures . I think it might inspire a few 'Silent Sunday' or 'The Gallery' entries in weeks to come. Watch this space!

Then, my day got better when I had a piece of this in Selfridges......AMAZING!
http://www.englishcheesecake.com/shop/product/id/203

And as I'm currently baking Cheesecake Brownies (rather than Brownie Cheesecake!) this is going to be an unhealthy weekend!