I love cupcakes - UPDATE!

I ended up making the cupcakes round my sisters flat last night, was so fun! The red velvet-ness was not as velvety as I had hoped, but they were yummy all the same, and the cream cheese toppin g was incred! Here is a photo of Rowanne loving a bit o' frosting.....


Anyway, I don't have a picture of the inside of the cupcakes, but they were gorgeous and red (obviously hahahaha)! We decorated them with cute little pink sprinkles that I bought from Sainsbury's...I love making things look pretty!

Here are our cakes woo!


We gave them to my best friend Laura for her birthday, along with one of my home sewn bags...she loved them! I would definatley recommend making gifts for people instead of buying something; its much more personal and makes giving that little bit more special!

So sleepy today, not in the mood for a long post, but I'm sure I will think of something amaze to write tomorrow :)

Love,
Lauren x

I love cupcakes

So I’m sat here trying to engross myself in a powerpoint presentation, but distraction has driven me to search online for delish cupcake recipes.


I found a recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes! YUM. Not sure how many people have heard of Red Velvet cakes as I think they are more of an American thing, but I personally heard about them years ago when I watched that ever so intellectual reality show ‘Newlyweds’, starring everyone’s favourite couple Jess and Nick (yeah right..)







They had a Red Velvet wedding cake, which to be fair looked 10 out of 10 yummers. I couldn’t actually find a good picture of their exact cake, so here is a random picture of a slice of Red Velvet cake (we can just pretend that this is the exact one they ate, yeah?)



Looks yummy right?



Well you too could be chowing down on some Red Velvet cake tonight like I will be, if you just follow these ever so simple (?) directions…




Red Velvet cupcake recipe




6 0g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr. Oetker's as red food colourings vary in strength)
½tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½tsp salt
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½tsp white wine vinegar


For the cream cheese frosting:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold





Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.



Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.



In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).



Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.




Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.




Meanwhile for the cream cheese frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.



When the cupcakes are cold, spoon over the cream cheese frosting on top.








Man that’s long. Anyway, I’m off to Sainsbury’s soon to buy the ingredients, hope they turn out well! Maybe if you are lucky I will post a picture of these beauties after I am done later.

If you make them too, I hope you enjoy!



Love,
Lauren x

I love CK

I don’t know how it all started really. Well I do, but I’m still trying to figure out how I actually got so obsessed. You see, I love Cath Kidston. No, not the actual woman, because that would probably be a little bit weird, but I literally am in love with EVERYTHING that she designs. Here is a delicious little taster of her god damn incredible work…..

Ooooh! SO cute it actually makes me want to cry inside a little. Yes, I’m insane. No, I don’t care.

Anyway, it all started when it was my sister’s birthday. I was deliberating whether to get her something standard (Some jewellery (SALE items, naturally), a nail varnish and a bottle of £3.99 rose – yeah ok I’m Scrooge in disguise..), or to be the nice sister that I am and push the boat out. I decided on the latter, which posed a problem because I had absolutely no idea what might constitute an interesting present. I started thinking about a bag, but it is well known that a nice bag is usually expensive (think Mulberry, Louis Vuitton and suchlike). So I looked around online a little, not expecting to find anything, when I suddenly stumbled across Cath Kidston and her array of incredible bags. So to cut a long story short (you will find that I tend to beat around the bush in my story telling ways..) I decided a Cath Kidston bag would make a nice thoughtful present (lucky girl eh!), so off I pottered to the Cath Kidston shop in good old Winchester.

And oh my, as soon as I stepped across the threshold I was hooked…

From bags to aprons, bedding to mugs and purses to phone covers, every single household or practical item is there, but just adorned with one of her gorgeous patterns. I ran around the place like a kid in a sweet shop, squealing in delight at the exciting things that I found. After half an hour of said squealing, I remembered what I was there for. The bag. This became an issue in itself as Cath Kidston not only makes about a million different styles of bag, each style comes in an array of different patterns! OH GOD this was too difficult for me..I loved them all. But this wasn’t for me, sadly it was for Rowanne (damn her) so I eventually decided on this beauty.

Lovely eh?

So anyway, I got home, and began getting over excited about CK’s fine wares. I needed a bedroom like the one set up in her store. I needed a floral bedspread, a spotty lamp and some union jacks to adorn my newly designed bedroom. From then on, literally everything I bought was floral/spotty/vintage/shabby chic/insanely cute. As I swiftly ran out of money (not everything CK sells is cheap my friends) I decided that surely I could make a variety of cute vintage inspired items myself for much less dollar?! Here is the current view of my bed. I made all of these cushions myself (oi, don’t look so shocked!)

So this is where the sewing obsession began. If I had never had gone to the Cath Kidston shop to buy my sister a bag, I might never have become like a crazed maniac when presented with floral fabric and a sewing machine.

Thanks Cath Kidston for inspiring me. Big love.

Lauren x

I love blogs

Well, here we are. I have finally made some time to actually start this blog (which needless to say I have been babbling on about for ages..), but now comes the hard part; what to actually write about?

I have been asked numerous times (well, like twice ha) what my hobbies are? The answer to this has always been embarrassingly straight forward. I didn’t have any.

“You don’t have any hobbies?!! That’s crazy! Surely there must be something you like doing in your spare time?!” people would exclaim! ”Well I’m sorry”, I would reply, “I just haven’t found anything that really interests me yet”. You see, when I was younger, I tried lots of different hobbies to see if I could find one to suit me, but each time I gave up within the first few weeks. As you will see, my reasons for abandoning ship were usually just bad excuses. Gymnastics (too strenuous), Horse Riding (too smelly), Painting (too messy), Swimming (too lazy), Collecting Lamb cuddly toys (too geeky)….I did however teach myself the guitar when I was 14 (which I still play now, might I add), but this was only to impress a ‘cool’ guy at my school who was really in to rock music, so really this was just me pretending to have a really interesting hobby.

I can honestly say that up until now, my primary extra-curricular activity has been drinking wine, but I think that’s more of a necessity in life rather than a hobby ;)

However, at the ripe old age of 24, the tide is a’ turning. I think I may have found something that can actually turn in to a real hobby!

Drumroll please………

My new found obsession is........sewing!

GOD I sound cool.

But seriously, I have found something that I absolutely love doing, and it is a hobby that I literally know I will never give up. All I want to do is get out the sewing machine and make new things, one Sunday I actually got up at 9 in the morning, and made things ‘till the sun went down. Yes it was summer. Yes the sun went down around 9. Yes I am insane. But I cant stop!!!

It all started when I became obsessed with Cath Kidston. You all know her, the woman who makes the delicious floral bits and bobs. We will discuss her at a later date, all you need to know right now is that she was the inspiration behind my new found psycho ways. So I decided to decorate my bedroom using Cath Kidston’s delightful influence, but I could really find any cute cushions or decorative bits in the shops that would go with my theme?! What was a girl to do? My beautiful CK boudoir was fast becoming a distant dream, would it ever be within my reach?!! FEAR NOT everybody, because I swiftly came up with a cunning plan: I WILL MAKE MY OWN.

Make my own?! Surely this would not be possible? I didn’t even have a sewing maching, let alone know how to use it! Que Grandma. She had been hiding away an amazing Singer sewing machine dating back to the 1950’s (which incredibly still works) which she had probably been hoping I would never get my grubby little mitts on, but I asked her very nicely if I would pretty please with cherries on top borrow it to make a cushion cover, and she graciously obliged. She showed me how to thread that bad boy up and get him working, and soon I was well away.

Here is my beautiful sewing machine in all its glory.

Old huh. Well yes, but it does the job (well aside from the fact the only stitch it does is straight, but its good nonetheless and still works after 60 years...trooper)

Needless to say my first attempt a making a cushion cover was a bit shoddy, but I was shocked at how good it was considering it was my first ever time using a sewing machine.

Here is said cushion.

Since that day (about a month ago ahahaha) I have made about 8 cushions, lots of little heart shaped hanging things (pics to follow if you don’t know what in the name of Mary I am talking about) , half made a patchwork quilt and have even made a bag. YES A BAG.

I love sewing sew much HAHAHA please excuse the pun! I love my new hobby and I hope to use this blog to share all of my creations/ideas/general musings with the world. And don’t worry, its not only sewing I will be talking about……I love baking, knitting, cute shizz, music, beauty, the odd celeb and muchos more, so keep checking back to see what I am loving this week

Ok, I have chatted on long enough. Time to get back to the real word.

Love,
Lauren x