Project Life: Week 17

Tags

baking, bonsai, cake, diary, eclipse, harry, hastings, journal, life, lunar, medeira, plant, potter, project, recipe, scrapbook, seed, studios, tour

It’s been another wonderful week with lots to include in my Project Life! From catch up’s with friends, to my new found Instagram addiction, to what was possibly the best day of my life…EVER, it’s been wonderful to look back on it all and put these pages together.

The collage on the top left was a way for me to include some of my first Instagram pictures. I finally got the app after months of hearing everyone else raving about it, and I love it! You can follow me @morningdollface to see all of the things that I get up to!

On Thursday night we took an impromptu trip to Hasting to see the partial lunar eclipse. Although only a small amount of the moon was covered in shadow, the sky was so clear and it looked beautiful reflected on the sea water.

I also included my recipe for the week (my first medeira cake!), the progress of my second bonsai seedling (the first one died!) and a screenshot of some of the snaps I took at my first Love Peggy Rose product photo-shoot.

The second page was dedicated entirely to the most wonderfully magical experience – my trip to the Harry Potter Studios Tour…

As a proud Potter Geek there is nowhere I’d rather be than the Harry Potter Studios Tour, except perhaps The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but a road trip up the M25 is much easier (and cheaper) than a flight to Florida! If I could, I would live at the studios, and I think that even if I was there every day I still wouldn’t be able to take everything in! I was in awe from the moment we arrived and couldn’t have imagined it better. For anyone who is even remotely interested in Harry Potter, or even just in films, it is a must-see. I honestly cannot recommend it enough! I’m going to stop there, because I could definitely go on about it all day, but let’s just say that my life has now been made by perhaps the best week ever.

 

New Recipe: Week 17

Tags

bake, baking, cake, dense, medeira, new, recipe, sponge

For my new recipe this week I tried my hand at a medeira cake. I’ve made countless victoria sponges in my time, and do love a medeira cake so I thought it was about time for me to make my own!

The recipe I used was from my trusty old Be-Ro recipe book (but you can find an up-to-date version here) and it was simple to follow.

It is a fairly long bake, so it’s best to plan in advance to make sure you have enough time, as it’s not one of those recipes you can use to whip up a quick sponge after dinner!

The end result was a mild, dense sponge which really should cater to all tastes!

 

Project Life: Week 13

Tags

birthday, brownies, cake, creme, easter, egg, life, organise, project, weekend

With this week being my Dad’s birthday week and Easter weekend, there was lots of unhealthy treats around! You can see the Batman birthday cake that I make for my dad, my delicious white chocolate Easter egg from Stas Chocolatier and my recipe of the week – Creme Egg Brownies!

This week I saw Sam’s band Where’s Lewis? play at the TN4 bar in Tunbridge Wells – they went down really well, which was great for only their second gig! I also started thinking more about future careers and spent a day helping my Dad organise his office – I am in love with organising so it was a great day!

New Recipe: Week 7

Tags

bakery, cake, cheese, cookbook, cream, cupcake, days, frosting, hummingbird, icing, new, recipe, red, velvet

For my recipe this week I wanted to try something sweet, as my recent recipes have been savoury for the most part.

Everyone raves about red velvet cupcakes, and I’ve tasted a few in my time, but have never actually baked any, so I thought it was the perfect sweet treat to try!

I decided to use the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days cookbook.

In all honesty it was a lot of effort to go to! Usually cupcakes are quick and easy to make with hardly any mess, but not these! The kitchen ended up in a state with bowls everywhere!

Unfortunately, I found the taste disappointing too. I love a rich, chocolatey cupcake and these just weren’t up to scratch. It’s a shame, but I can’t expect every recipe I try to go well! I’ll definitely be sticking to good old double chocolate in the future!

Time For Cake!

Tags

baking, cake, Christmas, decoration, gingerbread, home, house, icing, made, men, royal, trees

One of the most fun things to do at Christmas time is to make the cake! You can have so much fun with the decoration and, in a bold move, we decided to create a gingerbread scene on top of our cake this year (we’ve never made gingerbread before!).

Here’s the finished product – it’s a little rough around the edges but we’re proud of it!

And what’s even better is that we’ve got loads of leftover gingerbread for me to snack on!

 

Candy Floss Cupcakes!

Tags

baking, cake, candy, cupcakes, floss

I thought I’d add a little something extra to my cupcakes this weekend by topping them with a cloud of candy floss! I love how dreamy they look! Simple, yet effective!

 

Vanilla Windmill Cupcakes

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baking, blue, british, buttercream, cake, cases, cupcakes, dot, paper, polka, seaside, vanilla, windmill

With the house to myself this morning, it was only natural that the first thing I did was to start baking.

I decided to make some simple vanilla cupcakes, but I wanted to create something that would make me smile!

A while ago my Mum bought me some paper windmills that had been sitting in my baking box until now – I always feel like they capture the spirit of trips to the seaside from my childhood, so I decided to pair them with red and white polka dot cupcake cases and blue buttercream – very seaside and very British!