The Great British Bake Off

Do we have any Great British Bake Off fans here?

Ben and I love it. It's such a treat to spend Tuesday evenings snuggled up on the sofa dreaming of cakes, biscuits and soggy bottoms.I don't have a favorite contestant yet, but how awesome were those matchstick bread-sticks last week?

We actually do quite a bit of baking ourselves. Sadly at the moment I'm trying to be healthy so I don't actually eat much of what we make - usually Ben ends up taking most of our baking creations to work. Apparently he's now known to his colleagues as Mr Kipling.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a couple of our most recent creations:

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

These were so easy to make but don't they look amazing? The cake is a basic vanilla cupcake from the Hummingbird Bakery book, the icing is just blue vanilla butter-cream piped using a basic star nozzle, the eyes are white chocolate buttons with a chocolate chips and the mouth is well... a cookie, obviously!

Chocolate Cake

This was our first attempt at making a large chocolate cake. Yesterday was my Mum's 50th birthday and she's coming to stay at ours tonight so this is just a little surprise for her. We used Jo Wheatley's recipe from her second book- Home Baking. The cake was actually very easy to make but the tricky bit came when we tried to cover the cake in the chocolate ganache- definitely not as easy as it sounds. There was chocolate everywhere... (Ben even found some on the front door at one point). And then disaster struck... we ran out of chocolate fingers!!! Where can you find chocolate fingers at 10 o'clock at night? Thankfully we have a 24 hour supermarket not too far from us so my lovely husaband drove my (in his pyjamas!!) to pick up extra supplies (I don't know what I'd do without him). Despite the mess and the late night shopping trip, I think the cake actually turned out looking pretty good. Fingers crossed Mum likes it.  

Rimmel - Districtly Come Dancing

As I've mentioned before I am still a novice nail painter however I have already decided that I'm a big fan of Rimmel 60 seconds nail varnish - they're really easy to apply and do dry very quickly. I bought this colour as I fancied something a little bit different from my usual pinks and reds.

This has a nice smooth texture and the brush is quite thick meaning the application is very easy. It did take 2 coats as the first was very light and patchy but  overall I'm really happy with the end result. It's pretty and feels nice and summery. I've only been wearing it a day but so far it's stayed put with no marks or chips. I would say, make sure you think ahead and plan when you wear this as it's definitely not a colour that will go with every outfit.

This range is currently on sale in Boots for a discounted price of £2.19. If you're looking for other colours in the 60 second range, check out Poundland as they seem to stock quite a lot at the moment.

Do you have any favourite bargain nail varnishes?

The Cream Tea Diaries - Part 1

Harriet's Tea Rooms, Cambridge.

Harriet's is a delightful oldy-style tea room tucked away in a little side street in Cambridge's city center. The tea room's decor and the staff's period costumes really did make you feel as though you'd been transported to a bygone era.

My husband and I opted to share a 2 scone cream tea and a slice of warm almond cake. The freshly baked scones were delicious, served with plenty of jam and clotted cream. One thing I would say is that I prefer scones to be served warm but that's just me- they were still lovely.  You do get a choice between plain and fruit scones which is a really nice touch as so many places seem to offer only (my less preferred) fruit scones. The almond cake was also amazing, I could have eaten more but that's just me being greedy.

Though the service was quick, we never felt rushed and were able to take our time and enjoy the entire experience. The total bill came to just over £10 which is brilliant value when you consider the location. I'd recommend these tea rooms to anybody both young and old but especially those looking for a little something extra!

Harriet's also sell a variety of other dishes which looked lovely but sadly we had neither the room nor the budget for. Still, we enjoyed our visit so much we've decided to go back and treat ourselves to afternoon tea later this month. Would you believe, I've never had afternoon tea out before - I'm so excited!!

Bird Print Cushion

I've had this beautiful fabric lying around for ages. It was actually a surprise present from my lovely husband after I'd admired it on a trip to Dunelm. However, because the fabric was so pretty, I'd been really nervous about making anything with it just in case I messed up. In the end I just had to be brave and hope it paid off.

So yesterday evening I dusted off my sewing machine and using this very simple tutorial, I made a new cushion for our bedroom.

Isn't it pretty? I'm really happy with the way it turned out and there weren't even that many breakdowns along the way.

If you really like this pattern but don't have the time to make a cushion, I've just discovered that Dunelm actually sell a ready made version.

Polka Dot Nails

This summer I finally managed to stop biting my nails :D

This is a massive achievement for me and I'm hoping I can keep it up. I think I will because having longer nails means I can paint them like this -

How pretty is this design?

And it's so easy to recreate. All you need is your base colour (in this case Rimmel Lycra Pro Nail Polish - Urban Purple), white nail polish & a Kirby grip.

First paint your nails using your base polish. I love this colour so much - it's amazingly deep after just one layer and the brush really does make it difficult to make mistakes (even for a beginner nail painter like me). Next, take your Kirby grip and using the smallest tip, dip it in the white nail polish and gently touch it to your nails to create the polka dots. Allow plenty of time for your nails to dry... smudged polka dots is not the best look!

Et voilà... beautiful summer nails, the perfect finishing touch for any pretty outfit.

Any other polka dot fans out there? Do you have any easy nail art tips?