When I grow up, I want to be an interior designer

Although I don't live in my own home yet I still can't resist getting some cute homeware things when I see them. Just like these two cups I found the other day. They were in a sale...and then I saw the typography on the left hand side one and fell in love with it. Its the secret interior-designer in me speaking! 

Sunshine and beaches

This weekend has been pretty full and busy for my standards. If I'm not working on weekends I'm either usually not even in the country or I'm just hibernating at home resting and catching up with cooking or crafting.  This weekend however I've had a special visitor in the form of my boyfriend. He is definitely the kind of guy who likes to remain active throughout the day....a complete contrast to someone like me, who can quite happily spend the entire day doing absolutely nothing in particular and not moving from the same place!

Because the weather was supposed to be fairly sunny and not too cold we decided it would be a nice idea to visit an old quaint village in Kent called Rye. It's full of cute old buildings and cobbled streets, as well as unusual gift shops. It can be nice to spend an afternoon walking around exploring, especially if the weather is as good. 

The best part about Rye however is probably the fact that a short bus ride away or a short cycle ride away if you're lucky....(more about that in a minute) lies the beautiful sandy beach of Camber. You might not think a sandy beach is that special, but for someone who lives in England it definitely is, as we don't really get sandy beaches here but rather pebbly ones. Unfortunately by the time we got to the bike rental place it was closed already, but we plan to make up for that by renting some bikes today instead.

I could really have taken pictures at the beach all day long! 

Isn't it nice? And I think that the polaroid camera on my iPhone makes it look even better. 

And lastly, it's always nice to be given the opportunity to sit down at the beach and take in the world so easily as this :)

It may not be Christmas anymore...but....

Earlier on in December I made a Kugelhopf, which are mostly traditionally eaten around that time of year (but can also be enjoyed at any other time of the year as well). 

I thought I'd share the recipe with you because it's something I really enjoyed making and it's something that I think looks really pretty after it's finished.


1) Gather your ingredients: 

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (less than 1 envelope)

2 tablespoons warm water (105–115°F)

1 cup whole milk

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces and softened

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups golden raisins

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange or lemon zest

About 20 whole blanched almonds (1/2 ounces)

1 tablespoon confectioners sugar

2)  Stir together yeast and water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Heat milk with 6 tablespoons butter and granulated sugar over low heat, stirring, until mixture is warm (105 to 115°F), butter is melted, and sugar is dissolved.

3)Sift together flour and salt into bowl of standing mixer. Make a well in flour and add yeast mixture. Add warm milk in a slow stream, mixing at low speed with paddle attachment. Increase speed to medium and beat in eggs 1 at a time, then beat in raisins and zest. Continue to beat until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (Dough will be very sticky.)

4)Butter kugelhopf mold with remaining tablespoon butter. Put 1 almond in each depression in bottom of mold (the almonds are only decorative; you can skip them altogether if your mold has no depressions), then scrape spoonfuls of dough evenly into mold (dough will be very elastic). Cover top of mold with oiled plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a warm place until it fills pan, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

5)Remove towel from kugelhopf and gently peel off plastic wrap. Bake kugelhopf in middle of oven 15 minutes, then loosely cover mold with foil and continue to bake until golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes more. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert cake onto a rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. Dust with confectioners sugar.

Going dotty

Because of my job I don't often see the point in doing manicures any more because due to the amount of times I have to wash my hands during the day manicures never last more than a day without chipping and turning horrible looking. I have a few days off in the coming week though and because of that I decided to go ahead and do a polka dot manicure. Its the first time that I really used the dotting tool that my lovely friend Savannah gave me, but I think it looks cute anyway. Now let's see how long it lasts!

Finally finished...

Ta da! Finished off this beautiful sea green coloured alpaca cabled neck warmer/scarf. In actual fact, I had finished days ago but only got around to putting on these vintage buttons today (when I say vintage,I mean great grandmother's collection vintage). You can't really see the cables that well because this picture has been taken from the front view and also because I have such a large amount of thick, curly hair to cover it! I hope the recipient will like it as much as I do. I'm almost sad to give it away!

How to protect yourself against vampires...garlic cupcakes!

It's no secret that I'm a big lover of garlic. Pretty much all of my favourite foods have got garlic in them, when I go to restaurants the first thing on the menu that will catch my eye is the word garlic and when I cook at home I always usually use garlic too, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. 

I'm quite sure that I inherited this garlic love from my father. If you thought I was bad, he's even worse. He's been known to even enjoy a 'garlic sandwich'. 

Last week my dad came home for a visit (he works away for months at a time) and today while I was browsing through some of my favourite baking blogs I came across a recipe for garlic cupcakes from The Cupcake Project which I thought would be absolutely perfect to make for him! 

Sure, I know, it sounds like a weird combination but think of all the other great weird food combinations that have worked....: Bacon and maple syrup, chocolate and beer, chocolate and chilli...the list is endless! 

Oh, and sorry, but as usual I was being my forgetful self and only remembered way after I'd finished the baking part that I had forgotten to document the making of it. I'm really sorry about that and promise that next time I'll do a picture tutorial. 

Here's the ingredients you'll need for the chocolate garlic sponge: 

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup of butter (unsalted)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup brewed coffee
• 8 cloves of roasted garlic (you can see the tutorial here of how to roast garlic)

and here is the method on how to make them: 

1) Whisk flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl

2) Beat butter and sugar in a bowl for 1 minute until light and fluffy.

3)Beat in eggs and sour cream.

4)Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave.

5)Mix the chocolate into the wet ingredients.

6)Alternately fold in the flour mixture and coffee into the batter.

7)Mash garlic cloves and mix into batter.

8)Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.

9)Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean.

And here's what you'll need for the cream cheese frosting: 

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature

3 C powdered sugar, sifted

2 t garlic powder

1 t ground coffee 

Here's the method on how to make the frosting:

1)Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.

2)Slowly mix in the powdered sugar.

3)Mix in the garlic powder and ground coffee until integrated.

Enjoy! But more importantly, remember to stock up on breathe mints! :P 

Thank you to The Cupcake Project for this great recipe!

I love...

My new Aztec printed skirt! Please ignore the grey socks, they will not be part of this outfit in the future! :P