I am so proud to be British, we have the best food, the best country, the best weather...oh wait, but we do have a beautiful countryside! Thanks to Rebecca at Brunette Lifestyle for the tag!

How many cups of tea do you have a day? How many sugars?

I reckon 1 or 2 a day, either green tea or your typical breakfast tea. I love a good cup of green tea but there's some kind of comfort in having a great cup of breakfast tea. 

Favourite part of the roast?

Mmm, this is difficult and making me so hungry. My Dad can whip up a great roast dinner, so I reckon his yorkshire puddings, but for me a roast dinner is never complete without some carrots!

Favourite dunking biscuit?

Er rich tea, is this not obvious?! They are literally made for dunking.

Favourite quintessentially British past-time?

Baking, obviously.

Favourite British word?

Cheeky. That's British enough right?

Cockney rhyming slang?

Elephant's Trunk for Drunk.

Favourite British sweet?

Fizzy bubblegum bottles, I used to eat them all the time...

What would your pub be called?

Adele's Place, original I know, there would be copious amounts of wine and cocktails, and free wifi and bloggers from everywhere could hang out and share their ideas and work together. Sounds fun right?

No. 1 British person?

This is so hard! I've been thinking about baking recently (duh, when am i not), so Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would be up there. I also saw them cook live at the Good Food Show which was good!

Favourite shop/ restaurant?

My favourite shop has to be Hema, or maybe Tiger, it originates from the Netherlands I believe and they have so many different great things for pretty good prices too. Check out their website here so you can see how great it is.

What's the first British song that pops into your head?

One Direction of course, Night Changes.

Marmite- love or hate?

Love, I do have to be in the right mood for it though.


If you've taken the time to read all of this then I tag YOU. Yes, you. Only if you're British of course. 

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Cookie Crumbles Awesome Wholesome Brownies

I recently went to the Good Food Show in London and it was so great! My mum and I enjoyed the wine samples a lot!

Anyway, I was looking for some new things to try and found this Brownie Mix. It looked great from the start, I absolutely love the packaging, and it looks so great and is very original!

To make it even better, it is made with wholemeal flour and you use oil as the fat in it. The process to make it is so quick and easy; you put everything into a bowl (the mix, oil, water and eggs) and mix it all together so that it is well combined. Grease and line the tray you want to use with greaseproof paper and pour the mixture into it.

Bake the brownies for 20 minutes and remove from the oven to enjoy.

They were so well received by my work colleagues, they’re asking for more already!

There’s also a little fact on the back of the packaging: “Did you know…that wholemeal flour is an important source of protein and fibre and is also an amazing source of vitamins and minerals?”

These are aimed at children, as it is an easy way for them to learn how to bake.

I would so recommend them, even if you’re a big kid like I am, they’re still really good and they taste so great!

Neapolitan Cupcakes

I found this on pinterest and loved how the layers looked so I had to make some!

I used a basic cake recipe and added strawberry flavouring and pink colouring for the icing.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes -

4 oz self raising flour

4 oz butter

4 oz sugar

2 eggs

½ oz cocoa powder

A splash of vanilla essence

Icing –

5 oz butter

10 oz icing sugar

1 – 2 tbsp milk

Pink food colouring

Strawberry flavouring

Start by making the basic cake recipe, if you have a mixer you can chuck all the ingredients together. Having just started my job, I’m yet to be able to afford such equipment.

So for you all in similar situations, cream the sugar and butter together. Followed by beating in the eggs then folding in the flour.

Halve the mixture, to one half add some vanilla essence and to the other half add the cocoa powder.

In each cupcake case, put a layer of chocolate mixture and smooth it down so the top is even. Then put a layer of vanilla mixture and smooth it down evenly again.

Don’t forget that you only have half the mixture that you need to divide evenly between 12 cases.

Bake in the oven at 170C for 15 – 20 minutes. Then allow to cool.

While they are cooking, make the icing to this recipe, replacing the blue colouring with pink and adding some strawberry flavouring.

I love the layers in this cupcake, it makes it really different to any that I’ve made before and as with the ice cream, the flavours all work together.

What’s your favourite flavour cupcake you’ve made or tried?

Getting Back Into Cooking

So for a few weeks I was very conscious of the fact that I wasn’t cooking, I would just grab the quickest thing I could find instead of putting a bit of thought into what I should be eating, what I had already eaten that day or even that week and choosing my meals based on that.

I have already noticed this week that I have really changed the way that I think about what I should be eating. I’m really making sure that I get the vegetables I should, and the fruit as well which I have been eating as a snack. There is something about clementines and similar fruit that should be eaten just at autumn and Christmas, maybe that’s when they are in season? I don’t know, either way I know that I will be regularly buying these fruits in the build up to Christmas to make sure that I get all of the vitamin C that I should be.

Now you all know how much I love cooking and I always have the freezer stocked up with all kinds of food so I am now using what I’ve got and making up recipes with the ingredients that I have, so that I am not spending money which I don’t have!

I start work again in a couple of weeks, in a retail store and I know that this is going to be quite a hard job over Christmas and I need to be able to keep my energy levels up and also not get ill at Christmas! I’m already thinking about the meals that I can make while being in my budget and also things that are quick and easy after a long day at work. As well I need to consider what to have for my lunch so that I don’t go out to Marks and Spencer and spend nearly £5 a day, I know I can make myself a better lunch than that ;)

I’ll come back in a couple of weeks and show you the ideas that I have been making myself. If you have any good ideas that I can use then please send them my way!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Blue Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

Cupcakes -

4 oz self raising flour

4 oz butter

4 oz sugar

2 eggs

½ oz cocoa powder

1 pack of chocolate chips (typically 100g)

Icing –

5 oz butter

10 oz icing sugar

1 – 2 tbsp milk

Blue food colouring

Methods:

Start by making the cupcakes. Cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and mix together well. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder to the mixture then do the same with the chocolate chips.

Spoon the mixture out into 12 cupcake cases and put in a preheated oven at 160C for roughly 20 minutes.

It is always best to cook cakes on a low heat so that you get an even bake and you don’t burn the tops. When it is coming to the end of the cooking time, keep a close eye on them and keep checking by either sticking a knife in and seeing if it comes out clean or pressing lightly on the top and seeing if it springs back.

Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them to cool.

In the meantime, make the blue icing. Obviously you can make them any colour but I wanted to do something a bit different instead of my typical pink!

First cream the butter till it is smooth, and then slowly adds in the icing sugar making sure that it is all blended together. Then add in the milk and food colouring. Whisk it all together until it is thoroughly blended together then pour into a piping bag to pipe onto the cakes.