Tag Archives: cute

A Wee Wilko Haul! (And a moan)

wilko haul

For those of you don’t know, Wilkinson in a low end, affordable department store we have in the UK. That means that it sells toiletries and cleaners but also does D.I.Y, pets and some really lovely home and kitchen items. It’s known for being cheap and cheerful and to be honest I probably wouldn’t even think to shop there had to not worked there for three years. Anyway, they’ve revamped their whole make up section so I went in to take a look and picked up a few bits and pieces I thought I’d share with you all.

A WEE WILKO HAUL…
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Looking for the perfect Bikini!

bikini

In case you haven’t noticed, it is well and truly summer! I know lots of you will be planning your holidays and buying your essentials and what’s more essential to a wonderful summer holiday than a bikini? I just thought I’d share with your some of my favourite bikinis on the market at the moment…

THE PERFECT BIKINI…?
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Looking for the perfect Summer Ball Dress!

summer ball dress

I don’t know about you guys, but my summer ball is approaching and I’m already on the hunt for the perfect dress! I couldn’t resist having a cheeky online shop and seeing what the high stores had to offer… I think I came up with some crackers but I’d love to hear about anything else you’re loving. Offerings from Topshop, Zara, Oasis and French Connection. Here we go…

THE PERFECT DRESS…?
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A spot of easy baking: Cornflake Cakes and Victoria Sponge!

victoria spongecornflake cakes

Hello all! Just wanted to share a spot of simple baking with you all today for puddings you can make easily and in a rush…

NOMMING…
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A spot of Easter baking: Gingerbread Iced Easter Cookies!

easter cookies

Hello all! It’s good friday, so I’ve done a spot of Easter baking ready for our Sunday family get together. Here are my results. These are perfect nibbles for any spring do so I hope you like them!

NOMMING AT EASTER…
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Coordinates and Separates finds for Spring!

coords

I absolutely adore coords and it has been my mission to purchase myself some for so long now but I’ve never found ones that are absolutely perfect for me. So I thought I’d go on a little online hunt and show you what I came up with…

CO ORDS AHOY…
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St Patrick’s Day Green Themed Inspiration!

st patricks day outfit

In case you weren’t aware, it’s St Patrick’s Day today… so happy St Patrick’s Day to you laddy! What this means is you should don your best green outfit, get out your lucky horseshoe and your four leaf clover and tuck into a nice pint of Guinness… Nom! Seriously though, this holiday has inspired to pick out some of my favourite green things. Here we go.

GOING GREEN FOR ST PATRICK…

Firstly the three dresses above are from Topshop (£60), Pixiemarket ($55) and Arrogant Cat at ASOS (£55) respectively. I think all three of them are absolutely adorable and if you’re looking for a pop of colour to spice up your spring wardrobe then these are as good as any!

jeffrey campbell boots

Next I spotted these absolutely amazing platforms from Jeffrey Campbell ($185). They’re mega pricey but the mint green colour is just so pretty. They’re leather lined with a suede finish and to be frank they’re just to die for. If I owned a pair of shoes like this you’d never get them off my feet!

michael kors green bag

This Michael Kors bag (£242) is also super precious. I’d find it hard to commit to a green bag for that amount of money because green has never been one of my main accent colours (I myself have two bright red handbags) but if you think you could pull it off, this would be an amazing statement piece.

topman mint shirt

Not to leave out the boys… I’m also super in love with this shirt from Topman (£25). Now I feel like I’m kind of cheating here because this is one of the things I bought my boyfriend for his birthday, but I absolutely love it. I realise it looks a little blue in the image but it’s very green in person and it’s absolutely on trend for spring!

green zara coat

Last but by no means least this is gorgeous coat from Zara (£69.99) which I think is just so so beautiful. In fact, if you’re looking for a new coat at the moment, you’d be a fool not to look in Zara first of all. They have so many stunning, colourful spring jackets in at the moment and I just want to scoop them all up (I’m such a coat fiend). In any case, this beautiful green wool coat does not disappoint.

That’s it for my green roundup! I really enjoyed looking for new items and it’s really got me into the spirit of Paddy’s Day!

xx

SOURCES AND RELEVANT LINKS

St Patrick’s Day Website || My Inspiration for this Post || Guinness Website

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Making a Kitty Cat Birthday Cake

kitty cat cakekitty cat cake

So it’s my boyfriend’s birthday today and he absolutely loves cats, so what kind of cake was I to make for his birthday? A cat one of of course! I followed a recipe from a very old book, so I’ll post that below as well a a simplified version of the items I used.

I LOVE MY KITTY CAT…

Simplified for experienced bakers:

  • I made two standard Victoria Sponge cakes, in a 1 pint pudding basin and a 2 pint pudding basin
  • I shaped the smaller cake into a sphere so it could be the head
  • I stuck the two cakes together with buttercream icing
  • I used this buttercream icing with orange food dye to cover the cake
  • I used sponge fingers  to make the paws and the tail, covering them in icing also
  • The ears are made out of hollowed out ice cream cones
  • The nose, collar and mouth are assorted pick ‘n’ mix sweets
  • I cut the eyes out of regular icing, which also formed the writing
  • And finally added the spaghetti whiskers for good measure

kitty cat cakekitty cat cake

Official recipe as per my cook book:

You will need (cake):1 pint pudding basin, 2 pint pudding basin 250g butter, 250g caster sugar, 4 eggs, 250g self-raising flour and 2 tablespoons of hot water, 3 sponge fingers, 2 ice cream cones, few liquorice sweets, 1 piece red liquorice ribbon, few short pieces of spaghetti

You will need (butter icing): 250g butter, 500g sifted icing sugar, 4 tablespoons milk, colourant

  1. Line and grease the pudding basins
  2. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees/Gas mark 4
  3. Cream the fat and the sugar together until light and fluffy
  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with the third egg
  5. Fold in the remaining flour with a metal spoon, then the hot water
  6. Two-thirds fill each basin with the mixture
  7. Bake in the preheated oven an hour for the small cake and an hour and twenty minutes for the large
  8. While cooking, make the butter icing (recipe below)
  9. Turn onto a wire rack to cool
  10. Trim the small cake into a ball for the head
  11. Place the large cake on a cake board and fix the small one on top with a little butter icing
  12. Position a sponge finger at the side for a tail
  13. Cut a slice off the other sponge fingers, place them either side of the chest, as legs and paws
  14. Cut the tips off the ice cream cones and place on either side of the head for ears
  15. Cover the kitten with icing
  16. Shape the sweets for the eyes and nose, press into position
  17. Tie the liquorice round the neck in a bow and position the spaghetti as whiskers

Butter Icing:

  1. Beat the butter with half the icing sugar until smooth
  2. Add remaining icing sugar with the milk and flavouring/colourant
  3. Beat until creamy

Hope this helped and that you enjoyed my kitty cat cake! xxxxx

SOURCES AND RELEVANT LINKS

All the Bakeware || More cat cakes || One of my favourite baking blogs

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Baking Valentines Day Cupcakes!

foody things

Before we go ahead please bear in my that this was my first ever solo baking venture! All things considered, I’m rather pleased with how it all turned out and I received very positive feedback from everyone who was lucky enough to try my yummy cakes! Inspired by my very good friend Sarah who makes the best cakes of anyone I know!

AHOY VALENTINES DAY CUPCAKES…

baking equipmentheart cake cases
melting butterpinkcake mixture

I used a BBC Food recipe which is linked below, but the basic ingredients for the cupcakes are:  110g of softened butter, 110g of caster sugar, 2 free range eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 110g of self raising flour and 2 tablespoon of milk.

And to make the buttercream icing you will need: 140g of softened butter, 280g of icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

To make it a little bit different I used cute little heart shaped cake cases from Wilkinson and instead of colouring my icing I used vanilla extract to make it even yummier. I also bought little chocolate hearts to place on the top!

As a side note, I just love love love the baby pink little weighing scales I bought (also from Wilkinson). They were £8, reduced from £12 and while they might not be as accurate as their electronic equivalent they are so much more adorable!

I also learnt through this venture that investing in an electronic whisk/mixer would be very beneficial. My weedy arm muscles did not appreciate my endeavours and nor did my hands when they were covered in blisters from my wooden spoon. Oops!

Nevertheless I was happy happy with the results…

heart cakesheart cupcake

Had some extra mixture so made a couple of normal ones too, also forgot to take a picture of them iced and then there was only one left, oh dear! Got carried away wanting to eat them all up!

That’s all! Had a wonderful Valentines Day and hope everyone else did too! xxx

SOURCES AND RELEVANT LINKS

BBC Food Recipe || Wilkinson Baking Section || Sarahlouuu makes the best cakes

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