Chance...

I'll admit it, personally I hate reading perfume reviews, but I couldn't resist quickly sharing my favourite Winter smell. Chance by Chanel. This morning I decided to switch from my summer perfume, and spritz this beauty on. (Sorry about the photo quality, it's well loved, I've lost the lid and the bottle is scratched from being thrown in my handbag all the time. Atleast you can tell I really love it.)

It's funny isn't it how a smell can instantly remind you of a season? This makes me think of crisp Winter mornings, wrapping up in a big fur coat. Cosey nights in, with a glass of red, hot water bottle and a wooly blanket. The great thing about this perfume, is that you can literally spray in the morning, and it lasts all day. It's such a full, rich smell. I do think it's an aquired taste though, so make sure you test it out first if you're thinking of ordering it.

Today, the ladies and I decided to go for express steaks and a glass of red at lunchtime. I'm not gonna lie, returned to the desk a little tipsy. I ate far too much of this cake too, probably the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted. It has Dime Bars all crushed up on top and a layer of toffee in the middle. YUM. If only I could bake something this good!

Anyway, seeing as it's payday, I thought you might be interested in a little Chanel treat :) Do you change your perfume in the winter? What's your favourite Winter perfume? x



White Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Brownies are like a secret cure for PMT (sorry fellas).

Sometimes we need a hug, sometimes we need brownies. Most times, we need both.

Last night, I decided these brownie cookies were very necessary.

I had already come to terms with the fact that I was going to eat them straight out of the oven. Don’t judge.

Ingredients (Makes around 10 or 11 large brownie cookies)

8 ounces of dark chocolate

1 packet (around 125g) of white chocolate

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup of flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of vanilla essence

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

Method

Preheat your oven to around 180 degrees, grease and line a large baking tray.

In a large pan bring about 2 inches of water to the boil.

Smash up all the dark chocolate, it’s easiest if you leave it in the packet and just give it a good old bash against your kitchen worktop.

Put all the chocolate pieces in a small saucepan and lower into the boiling water. The smaller the pieces are, the quicker they will melt.

Stir the chocolate until it starts to melt, then add the butter. Stir until it has all melted and then set aside to cool.

Next, sieve the flour into a large bowl. Wisk in the salt and Baking powder.

Return to your chocolate mixture; add the sugar, vanilla essence and the eggs, one by one.

Stir thoroughly until combined.

Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir until all the flour has been combined.

Smash up the white chocolate into chunks and fold in the chocolate pieces into the mixture.

Bake for 11 minutes if you want them slightly undercooked and sloppy, or 16 Minutes if you’re not a fan of the sloppy-ness.

Enjoy with a large glass of full-fat milk, yum!

Donning my Pinny

I absolutely support any excuse to eat cake.

This carrot cake recipe is INSANE. Probably the best carrot cake you will ever bake.

The secret ingredient? Pineapple. Yeh, pineapple.

I know, it sounds totally weird right?! But totally incredible. I promise.

Cake Ingredients

3 1/3 cups of all purpose flour

2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of salt

2 tsps of ground cinnamon

3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 ¾ cups of vegetable oil

1 cup of drained crushed pineapple

2 tsps of vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups of grated carrots (this is plenty for the cake and the topping)

½ cup of sweetened shredded coconut

¼ cup raisons

¼ cup chopped walnuts (plus extra for topping)

*if you don’t own a set of measuring cups, Just use a standard size tea-cup and estimate. That’s what I do, it seems to work pretty well.

Icing Ingredients

1 tub of Philadelphia cream cheese

1/2cup of unsalted butter (leave this out to soften for a couple of hours)

2 cups of sifted icing sugar

2 tsps of Vanilla extract

Dash of lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Cake Method

Pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake tin (or if you own a fancy cake tin, you know the ones with the frilly edges, totally use that!).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolk, and sugar until slightly thickened.

Add the oil, crushed pineapple and vanilla extract, whisk thoroughly.

Add the wet pineapple mixture, to the dry flour mixture and mix thoroughly.

Add the carrots, coconut, raisons and nuts.

Pour into the cake tine and bake for around 45 minutes (you may need to cover the top of the cake with baking paper, to prevent it from burning).

When baked, let the cake cool for 15 minutes before placing on a wire rack. Leave to completely cool.

Icing Method

Empty all the cream cheese into a bowl and beat until it is soft.

Add the butter and beat until thoroughly combined.

Add the salt, sugar, lemon juice and finally the vanilla extract and beat together until all the sugar has disappeared.

Spread immediately over the cooled cake.

Serve any time of day with a lovely cup of English breakfast tea or even better, a cup of fresh Columbian coffee, yum!

Chocolate Chunk and rasberry pancakes

Pancakes make me happy, FACT. 

These particular chocolate chunk, raspberry and maple syrup pancakes are an ABSOLUTE TREAT. I found this gorgeous pancake recipe from a secret source, and I'm telling you're a fool if you don't try it out. A fool.

Besides, who says you can't eat chocolate at breakfast? Pfft! Do it!  I wont tell anyone, I promise.

Ingredients

1 cup of all-purpose (plain) flour 1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

dash of ground cinnamon

1 cup of buttermilk (you can find this in any supermarket next to the cream)

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 large egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/3 cup of dark chocolate chunks

1/2 cup of fresh raspberries

Maple syrup

Method

1) Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract.

3) Add the dry ingredients, all at once to the wet ingredients.  Whisk. Don't worry too much about a few lumps. Stir in chocolate chips.

4) Add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter to the non-stick frying pan and heat.

5) Add 2 tablespoon of batter to the pan for each pancake.  Cook until browned, flip once and cook on the other side until golden brown.

6) Smash a small handful of raspberries with a fork. Serve on top of the pancakes and add maple syrup as desired.

Most importantly of all, share them with your breakfast partner and enjoy!

Topshop felt pen eyeliner review, and a spot of baking

Hello my gorgeous little beauties, I'm on a blogging role today, can you tell? 3rd post in as many hours tehe *grins*

This weekend, I'm refusing to make any plans. I'm tired. I want to stay at home aaaaall weekend and get some R&R in, possibly catch up with some products I've been sent to review!
The only thing I'm really planning on doing apart from watching copious amounts of reality TV, and baking some muffins. And then eating them all. Nom Nom.


Carrot cake muffins with the cream frosting on the inside...AMAZE!!

I'm not quite sure mine will turn out as lovely as this, but I can only hope!

Now, let's get down to beauty. A couple of weeks ago, the lovely team for Topshop PR send me a few make-up bits to try, thanks Topshop lovlies :)

One of the products I've been using nearly every day to achieve perfect peepers, is the Topshop felt pen eyeliner in Jet .

  

Believe it or not I had actually never used a 'felt pen' style eyeliner before, but I love it! It's kind of bizare, I felt like a child using my felt tips on my face. Only good things to say though...

This kind of applicator is super soft (I find sometimes pencils can drag the skin on my eye lid).
It's great for when you want a really precise and controlled application. It gives the most precise line ever! Really good news for those of you who like to do 'flicks' from the corners of your eyes.

Its super long wearing, it doesn't budge. At all. Infact It's actually pretty hard to get off. I loved this, most of you will know I have issues with eyeliner heading south, or giving me watery eyes. This does neither of those things, woop.

Best of all, this fantastic liner is only £6.50. Complete flippin' bargin in my opinion, HELL YEAH!! One for the make-up bag beauties :)

Xx

Tangerine Dream

Hello there beauties!

My, it's been a while. *slaps wrist*

I've been meaning to blog about orange/coral lipstick for sooo long now, (I know most of you are probably completly over this by now, but I still heart it, especially with matching nails!). I've just been rather busy of late, what with a new job (huzzah) and various other things going on in my life.

On Friday night I celebrated my sisters 31st birthday, rounders in the park and drinks in Camden.

Saturday was spent sunning outside with the neighbours, and cupcake baking in the evening for said sisters birthday...

Sunday was family lunch at The Spaniards Inn followed by a cream tea on Hampstead Heath... lovely jubly :)

 

 Hope you all got out in the sunshine? It's still scorching here!

So, the orange lipstick trend is not just for models and celebs, oh no no no!

 If you want a bold lip colour and are sick of classic red why not try a slick of tangerine orange :)

This is such a great look for those of you with a golden complexion who like to brighten up natural make-up. Never fear though, pale beauties also look stunning rocking this shade, why not follow suit from January Jones?

I tried Barry M "coral". This is such a steal at only £4.49, and the colour is a matte tangerine perfect, so a round of applause goes to Barry M for coming up with this one. I love this lipstick and I love this price. 

It's really creamy and has good lasting power too. I think its a really wearable shade of coral...one for the handbag ladies :) I'd love to be able to say that this didn't dry out my lips at all, but unfortunetly it did after an hour or so. It's hard for me to find a lipstick that doesn't if I'm honest. So maybe that wouldn't be a negative for the rest of you beauties.

So c'mon beauties, big up the Barry M lipstick love!!

Xx