Happy December: 5 new things and an afterthought

Pinch punch, third of the month (it could be a thing).

I bought a couple of cool things this week, and even more pleasingly have had some lovely things bought for Christmas.

HP

I am unconditionally bound to Harry Potter and evidently don’t care who knows it.  My friend bought me these amazing note cards, so that when I send people letters or thank you notes or birthday cards, I can entirely cement into your heads the fact I am a 24 year old Bellatrix wannabe. You know, in case there were any doubts.

NOBEL

My mother and I brought some of this tea home, the last time that we went to Cyprus. I have a large but well managed obsession with tea, and if I see chai tea in a shop I tend to buy it. No two chai tea brands are ever the same, as chai is a blend of different spices. Each manufacturer makes it to their own taste. Although this isn’t called Chai, it is the same type of flavour and my all time favourite tea. Soz, but you can only buy it on an obscure Cypriot website.

MAC

Speaking of obsessions, lipstick and I have a consistently OTT relationship. Mainly dark berries and burgundies, but why even lie? Any colour. A wonderful friend of mine bought me an early Christmas present: Dark Side Amplified. It is a dark chocolate brown lipstick, which she added a lip pencil (Nightmoth) to. The lip pencil is considerably darker than the lipstick, and if you blend the two together at the edges, your lips will look INSANE. I might not have to get those lip fillers after all, cheers Georgia.

VOGUE

In addition to the make-up and the note cards, this annoyingly good friend of mine bought me one of these bad boys. I’ve always loved colouring in. Actually, no. When I was at the age when I should have loved colouring in, I was horrific at it. I tend to get bored quite easily and as soon as I’d screw up and colour outside of the lines I was all “Yeah great what else is new”. But ever since colouring for adults has found itself back in style, it has also found itself miraculously into my house. In all seriousness, it helps with anxiety and depression, as well as it being fucking cool. This specific Vogue book has dated annotations of each cover girl you’re colouring in.

BAUBLES

Finally, I thought I’d end it on a festive note. While in London last week I had to stop at Harrods, because the Christmas season needs THREE things to begin for me. I’ve gone to the German market, I watched Love, Actually and so... Harrods was the only thing left. I’m not living with my mother anymore so even though I’ll be there over Christmas, I have my own home to decorate now. Being a VM means I have seen a lot of Christmas Shops, decorated a lot of trees in a lot of expensive baubles. No amount of experience will ever prepare you for Harrods Christmas World 2015. I bought a couple of baubles to adorn my sad bare tree with tomorrow, when the incessant decorating begins.

AFTERTHOUGHT

If you find yourself bored and too broke for Netflix, AmazonPrime has an AMAZING one time miniseries out about one of my favourite things: ballet. Flesh & Bone is addictive and kind of verges on sickening. This show touches on every theme ever. Sex, dancing, opera, incest, love and caviar. I urge you to watch it, you will be buying me colouring books and lipstick in no time.

x

Recipe: Sticky banana & salted caramel muffins

Good evening! 
As if I don't bake enough as it is, I evolve into an incessant dough-on-her-face monster around Christmas. Possibly because it's too cold to be outside, possibly because I love winter and when I'm happy I cook. 
So, I'm going to show you my latest creation: Sticky banana & salted caramel muffins, with a coconut and peanut glaze. 

Ingredients
90g melted butter (cooled)
270g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
130g demerara sugar
2 tsp salted caramel flavouring/vanilla extract
2 large ripe bananas
2 large eggs
135ml milk

For Glaze and icing
2 tablespoons course coconut oil
1 table spoon peanut butter
Desiccated coconut sprinkle for garnish/decoration
Icing Sugar
Salted caramel flavouring

To prepare
So, preheat your oven to 200C and when it's time to put the dough in, lower it to 190C.
Sift the flour, baking powder, the spices and bicarbonate of soda in a big bowl and add the sugar. Stir it all well.
With a fork, beat the eggs with the flavouring, the melted butter and the milk. Mash the bananas really well and add those into the wet ingredients. 
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg mixture. Stir it but don't overdo it or play with the mixture too thoroughly. 

Fill your muffin cases and put them in your baking tray.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 190C, or until you can tell they are coming away from the sides.
Pull them out and rub the glaze over the tops, and return them into the oven for another 5 minutes.

With water icing, I just mix a certain amount of spoonfuls of icing sugar with cold water until I get the consistency I want. If you have salted caramel add that into the icing mix too, and when the muffins have cooled, brush the icing on the tops. Sprinkle your coconut, put them in the fridge or wait an hour for the icing to set, and you're ready to go!

I got a lot of people trying out the florentines, so please go ahead and try these out too, let me know how you get on and show me your photos!

E x

Festive Recipe: Cherry & Almond Florentines

It is a day in the week, which means it's time to bake food and eat it excessively!
I thought I'd show you a really easy recipe for florentines since we are nearing Christmas, and it's half of this blog's namesake.
The good thing about florentines is that they makeshift easily into what you want them to taste like. I've gone slightly traditional, but you can add pistachios, walnuts, cranberries or any other grown up sounding ingredient that twelve-year-old-you would've scowled at.

Ingredients:
60g butter
60g demerara sugar
60g golden syrup
50g plain flour
200g chocolate

For the flavour:
60g glace cherries
60g almonds

Yeah, I am not joking. The ingredients and measurements are that straightforward. As long as the flavour ingredients equate to 120g, you can include most anything. Flaked almonds are necessary, but you can chop any nuts or currants to go with them. It is also worth noting that dark chocolate tastes best on florentines. They are covered in caramel and unless your sweet tooth is colossal, white and milk chocolate will only cause a seizure. 

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180C and get three baking trays ready. DO NOT do a single thing without having baking paper in your house. 
Measure your sugar, syrup and butter and gently heat them in a pan til melted.
Remove pan from the heat, and add the flour, cherries and almonds. 
Stir until there is barely any caramel at the bottom of the bowl. 
Spoon sixteen teaspoons of the mixture onto your trays and bake them for 10 minutes. 
Once they're out let them harden and cool before putting them on a wire rack.
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and spread it on the flat side of the florentines. If you're feeling particularly insane, mark out a pattern with a fork. 
Put them in the fridge for an hour to cool.

Try the recipe and let me know how it goes, or better yet, I'm happy to test them for you.

E x