Things i'm loving this monday

okay so this week i have really enjoyed collecting little things that i have found and really liked or found funny and have been waiting eagerly for monday to post this. so i hope you enjoy my finds from the week.

                             This tutorial for a watermelon candy cane.

This. i am definitely sending my friends some whales in the future.

This.

This recipe for BANANA SUSHI!

Okay how much do you love the cantaloupe joke! i hope you liked my finds from the week, and maybe try and make some banana sushi, i know i will be.

love A x

Duomatic

 Duomatic is my new favourite iphone photo app, its really easy to use and turns out really great. i came across it when ready miss indie (which is one of the BEST blogs) and she said that it was one of her favourite apps so i decided to try it out. what it does is you either take or choose from your photo library, two pictures and the app makes them into a double exposure photo. you can adjust how strong you see either photo and the results are really cool. here are a few of the photos i have made using the  app.   

i hope you check out this app and maybe you will find you really love it.
Have a good week. Ax

Things i'm loving this Monday

I have decided to do a new feature called 'things i'm loving this Monday'. I have seen lots of people do similar things on other blogs, which is basically posting things that i have found during the week that i like enough to share with you, so that you can check them out as well. I also decided to do it on a monday, because no one really likes mondays (especially me) and i thought that this was a little thing that could brighten up the mondays ahead.


                        This lace-shirt DIY by A beautiful mess.

  This amazing Hunger games poster (there is definitely space for this in my room) 

                                       These really cool pinata biscuits

                                     This beautiful scratch off world map

                        This picture actually made my day when i saw it

                                 These sandals are actually Amazing

I thought i would try this out till the end of june and if its going well and i have kept it up, i will keep doing it. I hope you liked my first 'things i'm loving this monday' post and cary on reading.

                                        Hope you have a lovely week ahead.
                                                        Love A x

Double chocolate brownie recipe

 I havent blogged in ages, and to be honest i don't really have an excuse. but i thought i would make it up to you with my favourite chocolate brownie recipe. i have been wanting to post a recipe for ages instead of just doing thing that i have made, following other peoples recipes, so when i made these brownies the other day i thought it was the perfect opportunity.

when i first got into baking i made these brownies all the time, they are really simple to do and taste pretty professional, so its a win win situation.

serves 6

ingredients:

225g Butter, plus extra for greasing the tin
500g plain chocolate
1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder
1 tablespoon of hot water
3 large eggs
175g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g self raising flour

optional: pecan nuts brocken into pieces

steps:

1. preheat the oven to 190°C /375°F/ gas mark 5. grease and line a 20x30cm brownie tin with greaseproof paper.


2. chop 175g of the chocolate into chunks and set aside. put the rest in a bowl with the butter, and melt slowly over a pan of boiling water. stir until smooth then leave to cool. meanwhile, dissolve the coffee in hot water.


3. lightly whisk the eggs, coffee,sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl. gradually whisk in the chocolate and butter mixture, then fold in the flour and chocolate chunks (add pecan nuts). pour mixture into the prepared brownie tin. bake for 35-40 minuets or until firm when touched.


4. leave to cool for 5 minutes, then cut into squares. cool in the tin before removing and placing on a cooling rack. dust with cocoa powder before serving.




hope you enjoy your brownies and have a lovely weekend.
A x

Lemon tarts

 For my aunties birthday i wanted to bake something for her and i found this recipe for lemon tarts in the observer magazine. It was quite easy but took a long time and there were lots of steps.

 I also got the pastry recipe from the observer magazine and you can find it here, i got lots of compliments about the pastry and apparently it was the perfect consistency (but i didn't do anything special i just followed the recipe)

My Auntie loved them and so did everyone else and i hope that if you decide to make them that your family will appreciate them as well.
                                                    Hope your having a nice start to the week
                                                                           A X

Gooey chocolate cupcakes

The other day i was really in the mood for doing some baking, so when my friends came round and said that they really fancied some chocolate cupcakes i told them that i would make them some. I got the recipe from here but instead of caster sugar i used granulated and it made them taste really yummy.

 For the buttercream i used this recipe, then melted 200g of dark chocolate and stirred it in, it tasted pretty good even if i do say so myself.

In the end both my friends ended up having 3 each! and they where all gone by the end of the day, i took this as a big compliment and will definitely be making these again!
                                           
                                              hope you have a happy friday.
                                                                  A x

Cake pops

For the easter holidays we went away to the country, and while we were there i wanted to do some baking (whats better then baking in the country?) so i decided to make some cake pops for everybody. I got a this really good recipe from 'the kitchn' and it showed you how to make them from scratch without using cake mix and ready made icing which was really good.

Everyone said that they were extra yummy and were eaten up pretty quickly, they did take a lot of work but it payed off in the end.
                       Hope you are having a good easter holidays
                                               Love A x

Homemade focaccia bread

 My family are always bugging me about making this bread ever since a few years ago, when i first found the recipe in a cook book by Tana Ramsey, so the other day i finally gave in and i made some with olives and cherry tomatoes. It's not a hard recipe at all and its also not one of those recipes where you decide to make bread for lunch, and then half way through it tells you you have to leave it to rise for like 3 hours! (i have had a few experiences with recipes like this)

      Everyone really enjoyed the bread and it was eaten up pretty quickly (mostly by my older brother)
                                    Happy weekend and happy easter holidays!
                                                               love Ax

Book cake

 For mothers day i wanted to make my mum a cake that was really special, so seeing as she is a writer and loves to read i thought a book that was really a cake was perfect! i made a circular sponge cake and then cut it into a square, i cut a slit down the middle and covered it in a sheet of white roll out icing,  i then wrote on it with a paint brush and black food colouring, I also painted stripes down the sides so that it looks like they are pages.

I was expecting it to be really difficult and take me all night, but i was not that hard at all and didn't take much longer then making a normal cake. i hope you liked my cake/book, and that you are having a nice weekend.
                                                          love Ax
         

Knitted striped baby hat

 A few weeks ago my cousin told us that she was going to have a baby, so i decided to knit something for her. we found the pattern for this baby hat in a really cute little book of patterns and seeing as we don't know if it is going to be a boy or a girl i chose some neutral colours so that i wouldn't matter.

i got really into it and found it really fun to knit so it only took me three days! (which is good for me because i am an extremely slow knitter) i hoped you liked it and if you want to make your own little hat you can find the pattern book at this shop.
                                                           Love Ax

Last Feb photo-a-day challenge

i know that i haven't been at all good about blogging my photos on time, but i have really been having fun with it. i decided to do it every other month, so i will start again in april, but miss out the march photo-a-day because i already missed the first week. here are my photos from the last week.

 Day twenty-five-Green: The green fields in the country.

 Day twenty-six-Night: The moon.

 Day twenty-seven-Something you ate: We ate barbies bum...

 Day twenty-eight-Money: My younger brothers money box.

Day twenty-nine-Something your listening to: My new favourite artist.

i hope you enjoyed my photos from the last month and that you also joined in in the feb photo-a-day challenge, or if you didn't that you will take part in the march one.

Love Ax

Barbie princess cake

 when i wan younger i was never very girly, but as i've got older i've got nostalgic for the little thing that i missed out on, like a barbie princess cake! so i decided to make one for my birthday this year. its not my birthday till thursday but i wanted to make a practise one incase i went terribly wrong on the day.

i made little pink icing hearts to stick around the edge of the dress/cake to make it look prettier.

The barbie that we had didn't actually have any hair (i am not quite sue why) so we had to make a pink bob out of icing, it actually looked really cool (and i don't think a skinhead would of suited her style). it was also quite easy to make, except the cake took at least an hour in the oven but it was all fine in the end.

                                                           Happy Saturday

                                                              Love Ax

Feb photo-a-day challenge: Week four

This is just a post for the end of week four but i hope you like it anyway. its nearly the end of the challenge so i'm am going to try really hard to get my next post on time (because the last two haven't been) but i hope you enjoy my last photos from week four.

 Day twenty-two-where you work:My extremely messy desk

 Day twenty-three-your shoes: my new converse shoes, i'd quite like a pair of every colour that would be cool.

Day twenty-four- inside your bathroom cabinet: The bathroom closet i share with my two brothers (that is the reason it is so messy)

                                   i hope you enjoyed my last photos from the week.
                                                    have a good weekend
                                                            love Ax

Feb photo-a-day challenge: week three (and a bit of four)

I'm sorry that this week, i haven't been very good about posting my photo a day's on the right day, so i am posting the photos from last week and a bit of this week, i am still finding the challenge really fun and  really like having a set task to take one picture each day. Here are the photos i have taken since the last update.

 Day eleven-makes you happy: the sun on the snow

Day twelve-inside your coset: seeing as i don't have a closet i decide to take a picture of my chest of drawers.

Day thirteen-blue: my blue nail polish.

Day fourteen-heart: my friends heart jumper for valentines day.

Day fifteen-phone: my big phone which plugs into my little phone.

Day sixteen-something new: my new cosy socks.

 Day seventeen-time: the clock that hangs on our kitchen wall.

Day eighteen-drink: i don't think i could live without my daily innocent smoothie

Day nineteen-something you hate to do: my maths homework (which even though i took a picture of i still haven't done)

 Day twenty-handwritting: my new favourite style of writing

Day twenty one- a fave photo of you: my favourite photo from when i was a baby.

i hope you enjoyed my photo's and i am really hoping that there is going to be a march photo-a-day because i'm finding this one so much fun.
                                          love Ax