Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

Happy Thursday Lovelies, 

This weekend it was my Sister in laws birthday, we spent the weekend visiting Welbeck open art studios and baking cupcakes. 

We had to use an american recipe for the cupcakes as Sannie did not have any weighing scales and I didn't take mine. I will list the recipe that we used and a recipe with measurements in grams as well. 

Cups 

• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of caster sugar 
• 2 and 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
• 3 eggs 
• 1/2 cup of milk 
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Grams 

• 150g unsalted butter 
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g self-raising flour 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder 

You can add any flavouring to the mixtures, we chopped up a cheap chocolate bar to make choc chunks and added these. 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees F
2. Place bun/muffin cases into a muffin tin 
3. Cream the butter and sugar
4. Mix in eggs and flour a little at a time 
5. Add baking powder and mix
6. Mix in chopped chocolate   
7. Spoon mixture into cases 
8. Place in oven for 10-12 mins or until golden brown on top
9. Place cupcakes on a cooling wire and leave to fully cool 
10. The fun part DECORATING time!! 

We forgot to add baking powder ooops!!

To decorate the cupcakes we cheated and bough Dr. Oetker chocolate icing in a can.(I would highly recommend this if you are not to keen on having to wash a lot of dishes) I did find that the can only decorated around 8 cupcakes though. 

For toppings we used Asda's own popping candy and chocolate toppings which included; white chocolate stars, white, dark and milk choc covered cereal, milk choc covered toffee pieces and brownie pieces. 

We also had a bag of matchsticks, I found that I ate more of these than I used for decorating haha. 

This was the result!!

 

Nearer Christmas I will hopefully be doing more Christmas themed baking, as long as I have the time and energy. Baby is definitely taking up a lot of energy at the minute and when he's here I'm sure I will be very busy, but I will hopefully have more mummy and baby posts :D.   

Let me know if you have a go at making your own cakes or any cheats that you have for decorating. 

xx

Christmas Nails, Blogmas (Maybe)

Hello Lovelies, 

I can't believe that it is December already! Where has the time gone, not only is it nearly Christmas but it's also nearly my due date eeeekkk. 

I was going to start a YouTube channel but feeling huge, emotional and the fact that at any point I will be having a baby, I decided that maybe it's not the right time. So instead of filming vlogs etc. I opted for trying to blog more through Xmas. 

I have a list of blog posts that I want to do so hopefully I will be able to upload more, I'm not making any promises though, just in case haha.   

So here is the first Blogmas post. Christmas nails. I have searched through my nail varnish collection for the most Christamassy/ Wintery colours that I have. I may have even purchased a couple more.

Before painting my nails I always use collections 2 in 1 Base Coat and Ridge Filler. I find that this gives me an even base to cover over. It also protects my nails from staining if using a darker colour.

I may post some combinations and nail art using the varnishes. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see this post. 

 Usually around Christmas I tend to stick to my Reds and Glitter, however this year I have also been loving Icy Blue shades. 
Left to right here are Ciaté caviar pearls midnight in mahattan, this was one from last years Ciaté mini mani Christmas Calendar, next is Barry M that I was gifted last year (I think), I believe that it was a superdrug special, Sinful Colors in the shade Cinerella has been a go to this year, it is such a lovely shade. Last but not least in the Icy Blues and glitter is Collection Bedazzled nail effect in the shade Razzle Dazzle. This has silver and blue glitter in, I love to use it on it's own or as a top coat.

  The Ciaté mini caviar and glitter (sprinkles) are from my advent calendar last year. R to L: Twinkle Toes, Metallic Pearls - silver, Caviar Pearls Metallic gold, Sequin dallas dolly, Caviar cookies and cream and varnish Fit for a Queen. 

Onto the classic Christmas reds and glitter. Ciaté boudoir  and Barry M red glitter. The Barry M glitter is more of a full varnish than a glitter top coat. 

Essie shades are; A List (Red) and Set in Stones. These were my cheeky purchases from the weekend when I was supposed to be Christmas shopping ooopsie. I haven't used these myself yet but did paint both of my sisters nails, I have to say that I was impressed with the application of the essie polishes. 

xx