Insta-Thursty: week 4

With 3 minutes until thursday is over, I better get this post quickly published!

It has been a most certainly frosty week but it has led to the atmosphere feeling a little bit more christmassy although there is the odd pain of scraping the ice off the car every morning. It is all worth it however when you come to gathering bits and bobs for your dear family and friends for Christmas and can finally push your inner creativity out a bit more.

a DIY photo garland for the tree

cooking up a risotto with my sister

bitta nom for dinner

completing my art coursework at 11:30pm

beautiful sunset

first bit of snow!

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Black sesame macarons

It has been a most great week for me and I have absolutely been dying to share with you this recipe. 

It is an incredibly simple nut-free macaron recipe and gives those friends of ours who simply cannot "crack those nuts" an opportunity to indulge in the beauty of macarons.

The recipe comes from here and is so easy that I even decided to make a step-by-step post. And you know I don't normally do this! 

Of course, her photography is so much more amazing and she has sandwiched her yummies with an indulgent chocolate cherry ganache. I've just simply whipped up a quick mixed spice buttercream to spruce things up a bit ;)

Click here for the recipe!

You only need three simple ingredients for the tasty macaron shells!

Blend the sesame seeds and caster sugar together thoroughly to resemble a fine powder

Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and add the sugar. Now whisk to stiff peaks!

Sieve in the sesame seed and caster sugar powder through a fine sieve, blending again the bits too large to fit through and add to the mix in three batches. Fold through gently to resemble a lava-like consistency.

Using a tall glass, place the piping bag into it and fold the edges out. Fill the piping bag with the batter and then pipe rounds onto parchment paper. Sprinkle on some sesame seeds to garnish and bake! A cooked macaron base should look like the last photo.

I simply whisked up a quick and fluffy mixed spice buttercream. Spread over a half (or pipe if you're feeling posh!) and then sandwich with another half.

 And tra-da! Easy peasyyyyy - enjoy!

DIY: Photo Garland

After the last DIY post I did, I felt a little more encouraged to make another one, realising it wasn't as daunting to take photos at every step of the project. Today, I have decided to introduce a...

An extremely easy project that will satisfy your home! The only tricky part is probably choosing your most memorable photos of the year. I had always wanted to spruce up the christmas tree with a personal touch and so the idea of adding yearly photographs onto it came about. I think not only is it a good visual representation of the year, but also as a reminder of thanksgiving for such joyous moments and the many blessings I have had these 365 days (kinda, just a few weeks to go!). To make this photo garland, you will need:

To print my photographs out, I used picasa and selected "create a collage" from a folder of my chosen black and white photographs. I then used the "grid" format to arrange 12 photos onto one A4 page, a reasonable size for a mini photograph. You can, of course do it however you like! Cut out the photographs and then recount the happy memories of the year....

When you're done, we start making some awesome paperclips!

These easy-as-pie-cute-papeclips are not made by de-structuring a whole paperclip into a heart shape and not being able to actually use them as paperclips again, but are magically bended so that it works as a normal paperclip but with the added cute heart shape too. The steps are as follows:

1) Take a normal paperclip, coloured or non-coloured, it will look just as cute!

2) Like in the photo, make sure the flicky bit of the paperclip is at the top and pointing towards the right. Holding the middle of the bottom wire, flex upwards towards the left.

3) It should come something like this...

4) Flip the paperclip over and you should have something funny-looking like this. Do you vaguely see the outline of the heart shape?! And you're done - simply use and clip by sliding the photo in the slot, just under the "bottom point" of the heart!

Make a whole string of it by attaching each photo onto a long piece of ribbon. 

Just a few more to go! And then wrap it around your Christmas tree for some added memories of the happy year.

p.s. sorry you had to bear with the iphone pictures, camera had no battery!

Insta-thursty: Week 3

It has been such an encouraging Thursday today, finally receiving my piano exam results that I had been worrying about here. Well, aren't I just glad to announce that I have PASSED my exam, with a MERIT! I'm so so glad, and dearly thank God for this. Here's my week, instagram style!

The whimsical feathers of cloud

The beautiful sunset I love to watch

Covent gardens, London with my cousin and sister in the harsh but festive weather

Tree and lights are officially up this week, the Christmas spirit is officially ruling the house!

Completing my art homework and indulging in my sesame macarons at the same time (recipe to follow up soon!)

and lastly, my exam certificate that just arrived this afternoon :)

Thank you God for such a blessed week!

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Green Tea and Strawberry Chiffon Cake

Firstly, hello December! I've been looking forward to this month of festive celebrations and traditions since last year!

And secondly, oh haven't I just got the most fabi-doo-cious cake to share!

I have instagrammed about this cake previously; the making of it, to the assembling of it and to the eating of it. Pure nom.

The cake is simply made up of two layers of green tea chiffon cake and two layers of strawberry chiffon cake. I have been on the hunt for a strawberry chiffon cake that uses real strawberries, not flavouring or colouring - uh-huh. And I'm so glad I managed to fall upon this recipe. Real strawberries is what I wanted to see. It says to use a strawberry paste but I wasn't able to find any when I decided to make this cake at the very last minute. Luckily, the strawberry flavour does shine through ever so vaguely and you get a hint of its berriness.

I'm so pleased that both cakes came out of the oven so successful - both cakes were so light and spongey and when cut, had the lovely contrast between the two colours; natural pink and green colours.

As I had to travel all the way to central London with the cake, I could not possibly use a whip cream topping I normally go for with chiffon cakes. Therefore, it calls for the instant angel delight pudding. I have chosen to use a strawberry flavoured one to emphasise on the vague strawberry sponge and also for its bright colour. I have also previously used it for this birthday cake! And to top it all off, I added some fruit flakes to it :P

Happy Birthday to my dearest Grandma

Goodbye Movember..

Although I haven't taken part in Movember very much, (partly because I don't have the ability to grow a nice curly moustache) I still have had a lot of fun seeing the variety of gelled and styled bristles as the month draws to a close. I must say, it has been a pretty tough month for me with various exams and bits and pieces. And with the harsh weather homing in for Christmas, I would like to close the month with a very happy Movember to everyone and remind you to get your advent calendars ready - Christmas is fast approaching!! And oh haven't I got some more DIY tutorials to share ;)

Insta-Thursty: Week 2

It has most certainly been a stressful week and I am glad to announce my piano exam, over. Done and dusted! Having played the piano for a whopping ten years, I am glad to say I have finally finished my grade 8! Calls for a spot of baking :P

Preparation for my piano exam - it's certainly a pain learning all these words and knowing you will only need two from the list!

So blessed to have amazing friends that give me so much love and support - gotta love 'em!

A celebratory meal at Harvester with my family to mark the completion of my grade 8 piano

A most certainly missed treat since - chocolate marshmallow treats with a fruity jam centre :P

Wow. -  "A picture is worth a thousand words."

The birthday cake I made for my grandma

Most slowly but certainly, I am starting to get my act together again and enjoy the blogging life. I have previously blogged about a birthday cake I made for my grandma's birthday on Insta-Thursty last week. Hopefully, I will get round to posting it with pictures from the last slice of cake I managed to save for breakfast! As of now, happy Insta-Thursty :)

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Insta-thursty: week 1

It's the first week of Insta-thursty!! And I have two bakes I have instagrammed since last weeks post. And believe me, baking has relieved some of the stress that is overflowing out of me - I have a piano exam on Saturday; a scary, grade 8 one that I believe will make my legs tremble.

Please, pray for me.

First up, my grandma's birthday at which I decided to bake a layered strawberry and green tea sponge cake. I have realised the decoration is somehow extremely sloppy for my liking but disaster struck when I opened the strawberries the night before to find that they have all gone mouldy!

I've ended up smothering it with angel delight and sprinkling on some fruit flakes. However, I don't think it is the presentation that counts all the time as the cake was memorably decorated by me and my cousins, one of who is only five and loves to contribute to a pink and green cake!

Secondly, a dream come true. I had this vision one night as I was laying in bed and an insane idea struck.

I imagined this massive cookie with gooey marshmallows oozing out if the centre and there it was, a giant s'more cookie.

As it was my good friend's birthday today, I had baked up this giant cookie, just for her!

And you know what, my dream came true.

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