LIFE | Weddings, Christmas and Family

Oh, good. It has only been nearly two months since my last post. Not that much can happen within two months...

Only maybe a two-week holiday back in the homeland, aka Germany, primarily to be my friend Jenny's bridesmaid and of course to see friends and family and enjoy a gander and an alcohol infused beverage down a traditional Christmas market. 

That's right, despite being a slave to retail, I was lucky enough to get 2 weeks off during Christmas season. Let's face it, if you work or have ever worked in retail: Christmas starts around September. You can notice it starting earlier than that, but the Xmas stock and workload starts building up end of September-ish. So to get nearly two weeks off to go see friends and family was amazing! To be fair, I had booked it off even before I started back there, but still. Germany was absolutely amazing! My friend Kathi, who I have known since grade 1 (a good 22 years now? Bloody hell!) had given me a key to her flat, so I could get bits done during the day when she was at work without having to lock myself out. I landed on the 13th November, got picked up by her fella Pascal and had lunch cooked by his mother. Went to the flat and got straight onto working on the script for the wedding gift. That's right, we made a film amongst other fun gifts! Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we'd work on things for the wedding. When Kathi was at work, I'd venture into town, where I had spent half my adolescent life, and then get back and work on the icing roses I wanted to top cupcakes with. One of my bridesmaids duties was to make cupcakes after all.

Chocolate, Vanilla and Black Bottom Minis

Kathi would get home and work on photos for a sticker album and 2 posters to go with our film and the album. I think we spent about 5 hours each on thursday and friday, and Kathi also did bits whilst at work. On Saturday we decided to shoot our scenes in Hamburg. First scene was outside a cinema the couple frequent, and it was busy as heck. 

 

Not only was it a Saturday, the cinema is right on the High Street! It's like trying to film something on Oxford Street midday on a Saturday! We went on to film a scene at the church the wedding would take place at and after lunch, we went down to the harbour and did a boat-tour. Apparently these tours are included in our train fare! Sweet! 

Shattered, we made our way home and continued filming the next day. Sunday's shoot was mainly based in locations around town and our old school. We had to partially get changed in alleyways. Quite an experience! And it started raining, too, which made filming a little difficult and wet. We managed to film most of our scenes though and had indoor scenes left to film in the evening. As tired as we were at the end of it, the result is absolutely brilliant, thanks to Pascal's excellent editing work! Jenny and Fabian loved it, and that is all that matters. 

On my last day I got to spend some time with Jenny before leaving. We stopped at 3 Xmas markets (literally stopped and took a picture of the first two) and got us a mug of Hot Choc with a kick! I had Baileys in mine - I believe - and Jenny had a mint liqueur in hers. I kept my mug, as it makes a lovely souvenir. It is now my mug at work, so no touchy!!

Straight after getting back home, I only went on yet another season of nightshifts. "'Tis the season to avoid Grumpy and Stressed, and doze during the day due to lack of a sleeping pattern, any sleeping pattern." Yep, this year's night shifts have not done me any good. My bank account may be happier, but my health isn't. On my days off I'd just fall asleep for an hour or two all throughout the day. On the days I work, I'll get to sleep around 10/11 and wake up around 1pm, fall asleep and by 4pm I am up again. And all this despite trying to tire myself out at the gym after work! (Oh yeah, I had joined the gym a week or two before going to Germany and managed to go in 4 times a week most weeks.) I think it is safe to say that this year's night shifts are not as good as I had expected. (75mins till New Year and I am getting sleepy!)

Jenny's wedding was not the only wedding in the last 2 months. One of my cousins got hitched, too! Now, I have never been that close to my family over here, so initially wasn't that excited about the wedding. But for the first time in ....quite possibly ever, I have had a blast with my cousins! We drank together and the family pretty much owned the dancefloor! It was crazy! It was good and long overdue! 

My cousin Mala and I at the wedding

I saw most of them again on Christmas Day. We ate and drank and went for a walk....drank more. It's really nice to hang out with them! We never really made an effort with each other and never got to know each other the way we really are (we are so Asian. We only know each others "family-self". You know, the one that makes you look like a golden child.). I hope we get more chances in the new year to hang out with each other.

Some of the cousins and I on Xmas Day.

So, with one hour left of 2013 here in the UK - and me tucked in bed already- I would like to wish whoever is reading this a very happy new year!! I personally hope it brings me a few positive changes. I know some of my friends could do with something good to start the year with, too. I won't really do resolutions, as most resolutions are things that I feel don't need a change in digit to be done. The one thing I do want to achieve within the next year is to have tackled the Rory Gilmore reading challenge and watch a film a day, or at least 365 films within the year. That's my goals. And to stay positive, motivated and just generally be a good human being.

On that note, HAPPY NEW YEAR and thank you for reading!

x ♥ x

BAKING | Brains and Flowers

I have been wanting to try and make Halloween cakes, gooey Halloween cakes. However, I had been so lame this Halloween, I was too late to make them in time for the actual holiday and by the time I got to bake, I had to rush everything and due to mum's religious reasonings, I was forced to eat vegan-ish (milk is ok, but no egg, therefore, I could not even try my cakes). 

Anyways, I made some vanilla and double-choc cakes with white chocolate frosting. I think I slightly burnt the while chocolate, but the workmates still seemed to like the cakes! Main reason for baking, apart from wanting to try and make the brain cakepop deco, was me wanting to experiment a little with cupcake deco for Jenny's upcoming wedding. I bought butterfly stencils from TK Maxx and tested them on ready to roll icing purchased from Hobbycraft (they have an offer on them , 3 for £5 at the moment). Here are the results:

Mhh, bloody brains!!!

Brains and Butterflies!

They turned out ok, and I am hoping I get better at making flowers. Will have to try the brains again, with less icing in the cake mix. 

Thank you for stopping by!

x ♥ x

LIFE | An Update with Favourites

Oh, hello there!

It's been a long time since my last post. I have been doing extra hours/late hours at work and even joined the gym last week! Now that I have announced it on the internet, I shall hope I will keep it up and go regularly. That said, I am off on holiday for two weeks on weds! Had to go dress shopping (me in a dress.... what a nightmare!), since I am going to Germany for one of my best mate's wedding! The fool even asked me to be one of her bridesmaids!! I feel honoured, of course, but feel a tad anxious about the responsibilities. 

Jenny, the bride-to-be, also asked me and my friend Kathi to help her out with mini cupcakes. Now, I am not entirely sure what size the mini cupcakes are, but we'll manage. I am so happy she asked us to do this! And I hope they turn out amazing. I have started practising making sugar flowers and will try twotoned flowers later today. 

The book writing course is still patiently waiting for me to read and take the first test. I got halfway through the first module before work one day, but hadn't gotten around doing more. And on top of that I signed up to an online Excel course! I will get around doing both! Especially since the Excel course will have to be completed within a year. 

I have some favourites that I would like to share with the world for no apparent reason!

Music: Absolutely LOVING Hot Natured at the moment! People put it on at work a lot, and I have been listening to the album on spotify. My favourite track is their version of "Reversed Skydiving"  feat Anabel Englund.

Food: 

Apart from the PhD Nutrition Diet Whey in Belgium Choc (Mixed with Coconutmilk and a banana. Best.Breakfast.) and the discovery of warm Quest bars (we need more UK retailers to stock these!), it has got to be the Quorn Southern Fried Bites! Oh my, they are lush! And quite spicy! 

App: 

I have discovered Bloom.fm on my iPod. It is kind of like spotify. You can either choose a genre you like and listen to and discover songs within that playlist ("BloomZero", there is a limit, however, on how many times you can skip a song), or, you can search for artists and "borrow" tracks ("Bloom20", when bought online, £1.49 when purchased through mobile devices). For only a £1 a month I was able to borrow 20 tracks (after a free 1 month trial of Bloom20), which meant I had 20 tracks on my iPod I could listen to without actually buying them. I can "un-borrow" them at anytime and choose a different track to borrow. I thought this was a clever little app! If I had a speaker dock, I would consider Bloom200. It's £5 when bought online for the month and you can borrow 200 tracks. They have loads of artists and tracks available, although I haven't been able to find some of my current faves (such as Hot Natured). Worth checking out!

Beauty: 

Since my face had decided to be a teenager again (spotty doesn't even describe it! It's like a full force acne attack!), I tried to reduce the amount of products I use. The mothership recommended me a tumeric powder called Kasthuri Tumeric. I am not sure how it is different to normal tumeric, but I have been trying to use it at least twice weekly. I think it has helped fading my horrible dark spots/acne scars, but I have a long way to go. I have tried to reduce my make up usage (also because I find myself caking it on to try and cover the scars/spots), but ended up using mineral make-up underneath foundation, which I mix with moisturiser. We'll see how that goes.

Also, I am in LOVE with the e.l.f. Flat Top brush!! It's so soft and makes applying my foundation so easy! It's very affordable, too!

Misc:

Scented frickin' candles!!! I just want to own them all! They make my room smell so lovely. Great after work, come home, light one these and unwind. It kinda does make me want to lick my walls a little...

Well, that is it for now! 

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog/post.

x ♥ x

LIFE | New Beginnings!?

It has been a while since the last post, but to be honest, there wasn't much going on. I hadn't even been baking much, say whaaat?!

Anyways, I am one of the employed again and, funny enough, it's at the place I had left at the end of Feb. I was unsure how I feel about this. I had left for many reasons, but after my search for the "real job" was fruitless, I must admit I was a little excited to go back. I know some people already and, apparently, I had not forgotten much of the work either, so it worked out well for both, the store and myself. 

Even though initially I felt like I had failed life by having to crawl back to where I had fled from, being catapulted back into the Ice Age after, what I had thought to be, taking a step towards a new career, I am putting a lot of effort into trying to be positive about it all. I mean, the important thing at the moment is: I have an income. I really did not want to claim, but it was getting to a point, where I had to consider it, at least. 

By now I have been back there nearly 2 weeks, working 5 hours in the evening, monday to friday. It's been alright! Luckily I have the morning to do things I like (watching Breaking Bad or Bates Motel) and keeping an eye out on the job market.

I also think I can spend this time learning new skills! Groupon had a code for an online Children's Book Writing Course. I am not particularly planning on writing kids books, but it's creative writing after all! So I am hoping to learn something from it which I can apply on other aspects of writing.

I also finally managed to pay my local library a visit! Sometime around late 2009 and early 2010, I had signed up to our library, took 2 books out, never read them. I then probably took another 2 or 3 books out, which I hardly read. That was 2 years ago. I started getting more into reading recently and wanted to see if they had any of James Franco's books. They did, but I had forgotten my pin and could not sign in and/or reserve it. Went to the library, got my pin changed and got these two beauties out. Even used self service! Awww yeah!

I never really was big on literature, don't have the patience or attention span usually, but I wanted to read some poems. They can be short sometimes, right?! These should help me use my mornings productively! 

That's the update. Back at the old job. It may not be the one that I will live for, but it will let me live! I can spend my weekends with the people I like to hang out with. At the moment, that's what matters to me most!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you find something that will help you stay positive!

x ♥ x

LIFE | What's my age?

It has been a while since my last post. There had been things I thought I should write down, but I guess I never really thought them important enough to put them down here. But, with me turning older I figured it was time for a new post.

Turned 28 on the 9th. There, I said it. I have revealed my age. I suppose it is about time I accept the fact that I am not 21 anymore and nor will I be in the future. After that busdriver incident, where, upon a busdriver asking me for my age, I panicked and blurted out "24" after dismissing my initial thought of saying "21" (hey, 21 is the safe age. Everywere you go you'll be fine with 21, right?!). I had to really think about this for a minute. How old am I? Probably doesn't help that me and my friends jokingly keep telling each other we were indeed 21 or whatever under 25 age we fancy at the time. I don't think I convinced myself to be younger than I am, it's just... well, I was expecting to be somewhere else at this point. 

I mean, I am 28, currently jobless and - apparently -not exactly packed with a huge variety of desired skills, or experience, especially not the ones needed for my dream job ( I am still not quite sure which one it actually is), I live at home- yes, I am Asian, but I refuse to use that as an excuse ... sometimes- and at nearly 30, I am feeling very anxious about the future. Life in your early 20s just seemed so much more promising. You just left university; yay, finally out of education, and after spending all that money and time you just go out there and get that big shot job. 

After the first few weeks you realise, the big job isn't happening as expected, but you need money. Well, I have customer service experience, I'll just apply and work till I can get that dream position. Yeah, right. Once you start your job, it is actually very difficult to get back to that ideal career path. So many people I have worked with had been stuck in a job they did not like, as it was meant to be the "transition-job", but never quite manage to get out of it. 

Personally, in the past I could not find the energy to jobhunt after work. Working in retail is exhausting. I don't care how many people think it's just some easy shop-job, it's not. You carry around heavy stock, you have to move stock, you have to pay attention to a million things at a time, customers, your section, fellow workmates, prevent problems, solve problems.... it is very draining. That was the reason I had left when I did. I figured it was the perfect time financially for me, and work-wise, well, things were not as nice as they used to be, so in order to get back to a more positive self, I had to remove myself from there. 

Unfortunately, it has now been 6 months. Jobhunt is frustrating, I either don't have the work experience, not the right qualifications, I failed to do masses of internships when I was younger and now it is even harder to find somewhere that offers you the experience, without hundreds of (younger and more experienced) people also applying for it. I even started considering a masters. I know it's possibly the worst thing to think about when you are jobless, but it adds an extra qualification. To be fair, I would not start a masters course without making sure that it would definitely secure me a desirable position upon completion. Let's be real, how many courses do that? 

28. Bachelor in Film Studies, yet no work experience within the field, which btw also happens to be one of the most competitive ones. I have tried convincing possible employers that my skills gained in retail will be just as useful for their roles, but I was not convincing enough. So I go back to retail, but retail is sat there thinking "If you left your job to change your career, why would you want to come back here? You won't stay. No, thank you." Poop. 

Fortunately for me, I know that I am not the only one out there. This is not a good thing, but at least I know it is not just me. Not just me approaching the big three oh, not just me having to live with mommy and daddy and feel like a teenager again, not just me being nowhere near the whole "married with kids"-scenario (why did I think that the twenties were THE age to do all that? Can I blame popular culture for that sentiment?), not just me not having a clue what to do with life. 

Anyways, the original point of this post was, I at an age where I thought I would have figured it all out. But now I have reached this point I know that I indeed haven't. I sometimes feel more confused than a pubescent human, but then I have days where I think "Sure, I have not achieved all my goals, whichever ones they were, but I have a comfortable life. I have a roof over my head, I can feed myself, I have amazing friends. I just have to keep trying to achieve the rest."

And I don't think, that I have to "act 28". How do 28-year olds supposedly act anyways? I like the fact that I still think like a child sometimes and get amused by little things. So, as long as it has not any negative effects on anyone, I shall not feel pressured into having to try and be all adult! I have enough common sense to know how to act appropriately in certain situations. Therefore, I won't feel guilty about spending time on tumblr and "fan-girling" like I lost a decade or laugh at stupid gifs. Life's too short!

I know this has been a long ass post. If you made it all the way to the end: Thank you! You deserve a medal! I don't think I would read all this myself.....

Have a lovely day, don't give up hope if you are in a similar situation. 

x ♥ x

BAKING | Refreshing Strawberry Mascarpone Cake

It is SO hot outside at the moment! In fact, I believe it is even hotter in my room (thanks to it being located right next to our boiler). I find it very hard to find any motivation to cook or eat, so I have been living off fruits, yoghurt, sweets, iced drinks and lots and lots of water. However, I missed a good Sunday cake, so went onto chefkoch.de, in search for a nice summery cake recipe including fruits. I really fancied a good old strawberry cake. I found this one for a Strawberry-Mascarpone cake, which looked simple enough, and went out to get all my ingredients together.

That red stuff is a gelatine often used on cakes called "Tortenguss"

I replaced the sugar with fructose. We have certain dietary needs in our household, so I had purchased this a while back, and thought this was a great opportunity to use it. I still reduced the amount by a little bit. I also crushed pistachios and decorated the side of the cake with it. The cream part of the cake has the juice and grated peel in it, so it gives it a very refreshing zing! Such a lovely cake for hot, hot weather! Next time I will try this with a spongier base though, I think. These fruity cakes usually come with sponge base. I do like this more cheesecake-y base. Just seems unusual to me. 

Get in mah belly!!!

And since I mentioned the frozen yummy drinks before....

This was after discovering we owned a blender and I was so glad it actually blended those icecubes, too! That made my day! Iced coffe, all day everyday, b*****s!!! And it also made me experiment with flavours. I didn't go wild, just added different flavoured sachets of Options Hot Chocolate. The Orange flavour was my least favourite. The best one one so far is White Chocolate. Oh my jesus, I do love me some white chocolate!

One thing, that I have been enjoying making are these 2-ingredient pancakes!! I originally saw this on Instagram by videomeals, and then saw it again somewhere else and decided to try it. All it is, is mixing an egg or two with a mashed up banana. Done. Yummy breakfast pancake right there! I added a little cinnamon to it and drizzle agave over it. And I may use a bit of nutella, but.... that's a secret. Definitely try it! It's quick and easy and not too bad for the waistline, as far as I understand.

So, that's another baking post. If anyone reads this, and really would love to know the recipe and would like it to be translated, let me know and I shall translate away!.

For now I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely weather! Just makes me want to have a pool and just sit in it. All. Day. 

Thank you for reading!

x ♥ x

BEAUTY | Gosh Matt Effect Top Coat

I have finally tried out the Gosh Matte Effect polish after receiving it in my Box Swap with Jenny. I was going to wait for a black polish to try in on, but then I put on MeMeMe in Indulgent (#58), which came in one of the Beautyboxes, and since the top coat was just sat there, I had to try it out immediately. 

You could watch the polish go from shiny to matt within seconds! It was so much fun just watching it change! (Sounds kinda lame, doesn't it...) It doesn't really come up as good on the picture, but I really liked the effect. 

Check out my water and frozen grapes, yo!

I have also tried it with a Nails Inc. polish. This one was also a Beautybox item. I can't find the name on it, but I think it was the Portobello polish. Yeah, it definitely is. I found it in tiny writing just below the "flammable". Such a lovely summery colour! And I absolutely love how it looks with the matt coat on. 

This one was the closest I could get to the real colour. I think it's absolutely lovely!

If you want to try the Gosh matte polish yourself, I believe bigger Superdrug stores sell them here in the U.K..

Cheers for reading!

x ♥ x

ART | Lots of (fake)blood and Franco in Drag?!

Last week I decided to travel up to London to catch up with some friends. Since London has such a variety of free museums/galleries/exhibitions to offer, my friend and I decided to at least go and see one. She suggested the Psycho Nacirema exhibition at the Pace Gallery. 

After wandering through Camden and grabbing a coffee there, we ventured towards Soho. Now, I don't think I have actually been to Soho before, at least not knowingly. We stumbled upon this amazing vintage magazine store. They had all sorts of vintage pictures and posters and bits and bops! I even found a German poster for- and this is a good guess- Audrey Hepburn's Funny Face. Everytime I came across another cool poster, I imagined, how awesome these would look framed and hung in a hallway! One day, when I have my own place, this will happen. They also sold, as the name suggests, loads of older issues of various magazines! While I was marvelling at Vogue covers from the 60s, Chelsey nearly exploded from excitement at finding Fangoria issues. What an amazing find this place was!

Something missing, but rearrange the letters.

The Pace Gallery was pretty much opposite the store. We didn't initially find it, as the entrance is rather inconspicuous. Maybe I just expected too much, you know, glass doors with art in the windows. I haven't been to many galleries, can you tell? Anyways, we kind of walked around the building and nearly got lost, even though we had noticed the actual entrance, but had dismissed it. We got back to that door we thought would not really be the entrance, oh, but it was! We weren't sure whether we had to ring the bell or just open, and that's when someone security-guard-looking walks towards us and just opens the door and goes in. We followed, of course, and went up to the gallery.

Please sign in, Chelsey!

There, you are first greeted by an infodesk. Past the infodesk was the entrance to "the Motel". You were invited to sign into a massive guestbook, which was pretty cool. And then there was loads of "blood". Bloody messages, handprints... you name it. There were 2 main rooms, excluding the area with the guestbook, a bathroom and a very peculiar third room, that showed slow motion videos on each wall. Now, if you are easily offended, I suggest you do not enter that last room. Or enter and try not to watch the videos. Not all four of them are could be deemed possibly offensive. Only one of them grossed me out a bit, had to look away. 

Look through it and watch what happens!

You got red on you.

If anyone is in London, do go check out the gallery. It is worth a look. Even though I still haven't figured out what the significance of that video room was. To me, apart from the bed itself, the images made not much sense in connection with the rest of the gallery. But, hey, what do I know about art. 

The exhibition will be there for at least until the end of July, although I was certain I had seen it to be there until September somewhere.! According to the Pace Gallery website, there will also be a James Franco book launch on the 2. July. 

Thank you for reading and go enjoy some culture!

x ♥ x

LIFE | Gardening and the return of the Mothership

My sister and mum are back now from their vacation. Quite refreshing having them back after a month. I am sure that feeling will fade soon enough! :)

They brought me some lovely shiny things back. I wasn't sure what else to ask for and considering you can get accessories for quite cheap over there, that was what I asked for.

Shiny things

The musical note is my favourite! I used to have a very simple silver one, which I had bought at a German Christmas market in Edingburgh a few years back and can't find now. Would you believe, each of these were less than a fiver! Much less in some cases!

And while mother was away, me and my dad decided to tackle that jungle growing in our backyard.  

Holy Moly! This had to go!

Yeah, long-ass grass, right! With the weather being so lovely at the time (it does happen), it was just unpleasant to look at and hanging up the washing was more like an adventure, when all you can think about is "I wonder what's hiding in there". As much as I'd like to be, I am not the biggest fan of creepy crawlies. Any crawlies, really! And since our lawnmower refused to tackle this, I borrowed some garden shears and started chopping bit by bit. I must say, this was such a great workout! We spent about 4 or 5 hours in the heat chopping away. While I cut bits off with the shears, dad went over the patch with the mower. We got about a third of the garden done and worked another few days on it. I was aching so badly! I even felt muscles on the top of my hands for days! Say whaaat? So worth it. Fancy a good workout? GARDENING will do the trick!

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

x ♥ x

FILM | Sweet 6teen... Best bloody party I have seen.

I am so psyched to write this post today!!! Basically, in earlier April I had the chance to be part of a short film production, which I may have mentioned before. I had been appointed to take care of the Art Department, try and get all the necessary props (which in my case also meant baking some cupcakes! awww yeah) and getting the set ready for filming. My friend Chelsey Burdon wrote, directed and- I guess- produced this 3 minute horror short. We had Kate Mollins in cinematography, Matthew Law in sound, Olivia Whitaker in hair & make-up and Michael Savva in editing. The short is called Sweet 6teen and is starring Emily Rose Perrin and Cassandra Bond. It will be entered into the 666 Shortcuts to Hell competition and the winner will be selected by FrightFest, Movie Mogul and the Horror Channel. It's an exciting opportunity and, without further ado:

Here is Sweet 6teen. 

I hope you enjoy watching it. Feel free to rate, comment and share! 

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

x ♥ x

BAKING | Cabin Fever and a Green Treat

It's so lovely outside! After days of glum and rain, the sun came out to play! And even though I am usually not the outdoor type, I knew I had to get out and soak up the vitamin D while I could! I even got a handy little tracking app (RunKeeper) to keep me humoured! Since a nice walk is a free and fun form of exercise, and - to be fair - the most exercise I'll be doing, I just had to pop my tunes in and go for a random walk. I did get lost at one point, but what are smartphones and their gps maps for, right? Besides, I think I was more excited about trying out the app than anything else.

As a little treat, I had a slice of the Waldmeister cake I had made Thursday night. My friend Jenny would always bring some packets of "Waldmeister" flavoured jelly over when she came to visit, and since I had hardly touched them, it was time I started using them up. (I never found a good translation to that flavour, until the other day. Apparently it is known as "woodruff". It is quite a common flavour for sweets back in Germany, from what I remember, and I absolutely love it!) 

So the other day I did make a batch of jelly, but with my sister and mum on holiday, it's just me eating it. I wanted to try and make a cake with it and looked on chefkoch.de for recipes I could try. After sifting through the numerous recipes, I decided I would try this one, and so began the hunt for the vital ingredient: Quark. Our local shops did not stock it nor any adequat substitute. Finally found it in town in a massive Sainsbury's. So, I made the cake, finally having gathered all my ingredients (after realising I didn't actually have any flour in the house, so had to run back into local shop.) and unfortunately I overbaked the base a little. It's come out a little dry! :( But that's ok, It still tastes very refreshing. I have also halved the sugar content, cause I usually tone down on the sugar in my baking. Makes me feel less guilty.

My mixer broke completely. Disaster!!!

At the beginning of the week I went on a little train-journey to Bracknell to meet with Tash and Jo, and also meet Jo's furry niece Lola. We had a lovely day walking through Bracknell and having coffee and taking little Lola out for a walk in the park. 

Lola, either waiting for the ball or her drink

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

x ♥ x

BAKING | Happy Birthday to Mumsy and adding a little glitter

It's May. Which means: I am having to go through a hell of a lot of birthdays! Recently, it was mum's birthday. I don't usually need an excuse to bake a cake, but mother's birthday is a pretty good one.

I have been wanting to make a German cake called "Schneewittchenkuchen", which translates to "Snow White cake". I used to make this one all the time back in Germany. It is usually a traybake, but I found a recipe to make a Donauwelle (which to me seems the same, just with a different name. If anyone knows the difference between these two, please feel free to enlighten me!), and they had used a springform. I had to change the recipe slightly; pretty much halve the amount of sugar and use light brown cane instead of white granulated, I also used shortening instead of palm fat, and... that's all I can think of at the moment. Oh yeah, I used coconut milk instead of cow's milk. I couldn't completely veganise it, so tried substituting the ingredients I knew how to. 

Overall, it turned out alright! The custard-crème was a little too runny for my liking and the chocolate on top too hard, but people liked it. 

Cutting nice slices without everything exploding was a mission and a half!

The recipe I used was found on Chefkoch.de, but as I mentioned above, I modified it a little. 

Since I am here, I thought I'd show you a new nail polish I bought a while ago. I went into superdrugs and they had a 3 for 2 offer on all make-up, I think. Bought the Rimmel Wake Me UP Foundation in Natural Beige and a couple of nail polishes. 

The first one I had picked up was a Sequin Nail Effect polish by Barry M. Now, I have tried this on and, well, I can't decide whether I like it or not. I put two layers on and it does not look too nice with the second coat on, as the white in it is a little milky and paints right over the first coat of sequin-like glitter. It also gave the nails a structured feel, which I am guessing were the glitter bits poking out the top coat, so not sure how I feel about that bumpy feel. 

Two coats of the Barry M Sequin Effects

Quite glittery, right?! The second polish was a nice glittery one, too, but this one was from Maybelline. Even though the Barry M polish did not blow my mind, I am looking forward to trying the Maybelline polish, as it would make quite a nice colour for the summer, I think. It looks like the sea at night! 

Barry M Sequin Nail Effects in SNP1 White

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots in 198 Shooting Stars

That's it for now. Happy Birthday, Momma!

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

x ♥ x

BAKING | It's Chocolate Cake time!

I have a major sweet-tooth and I absolutely love baking. When I was younger, I baked on quite a regular basis. Lots of traybakes, cakes, muffins.... I loved trying out new recipes. I would sometimes trade recipes with my aunt, talk about new things we have tried, school bake sales were awesome, although, admittedly, mum had to do a lot of baking for me then, since I was lazy and not organised enough. Thanks, mum!

When we moved to the UK, I just didn't get back into it, until I started working at my last job and people would bring in home made cupcakes. Cupcakes was something I had never tried before, so I looked online and tried. Over the last 2-3 years I have baked more regularly again, which my workmates possibly benefited from the most! More recently I have looked into more healthier ways of baking, including vegan baking. I am not confident enough with vegan baking just yet, but it is something I want to explore more.

Browsing the web for some new cook books, I came across a book called Cook Yourself Thin. It had the "Look Inside" option and after having a little peek at some of the recipes, I decided to buy it. At the time I did not realise that there had been a TV show with the same name on Channel 4 with Gizzi Erskine, who is one of the writers of the cook book. When I found out I could watch episodes on YouTube, I was obsessed with watching it! She had so many great ideas! The only downside was the lack of vegetarian friendly dishes on the show, but I think you could probably just swap the meat for a Quorn, or another veggie-friendly products.

Anyways, back to baking. I saw her make a orange chocolate cake on the show and remembered, that I had the cook book, which had a desserts section in it! It was not the same cake, although you can get that recipe from the Channel 4 website, but it sounded very delicious, so I tried it yesterday. 

It's the Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cake. 

Sounds strange, but it is such a rich cake! You don't taste vegetable in there at all! I have had to improvise a little with the recipe, for example instead of muscovado sugar I just used light brown cane sugar and I have had to substitute the maple syrup with agave nectar. In this recipe it also says to use a high loose bottomed tin, but I only had two sandwich tins and divided the batter up into both and halved the baking time. It turned out fine! Instead of flower petals, I grated a little white chocolate over the top of the cake. Even my dad, who is probably the only person in this family without a sweet-tooth, liked it.

If you like dark chocolate and baking, you should give this a try! 

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

x ♥ x