Cranberry Bundt Cake

Monday meant going back to school for me after a whole week off. Although I spent pretty much the last 5 days being sick and ill, the rest was devoted to a bit of relaxation of baking. Oh, and an ickle bit of homework and revision! 

There's really nothing better than a warm cake for tea. I had been on the hunt for new recipes on pinterest when all of a sudden, I came across this cake. The smashing pink icing told me to click on it. So I did. Of course, it had to be the day when there happens to be no cranberry juice in the fridge. "Oh well" I thought, the cake looks so amazing that the icing may be unnecessary! 

This cranberry cake didn't come along easy - I had no fresh cranberries either for the filling. But what I did find, were a large pouch of dried cranberries. I used them to fill the cake instead, along with a handful of toasted almonds that I coarsely crushed up.

Thank goodness for my determination to bake this cake, as the crumb of it was surprisingly loose and I really like the hint of cranberries which makes it seem a whole lot healthier as well! For now, it'll be a break from baking as I head on for another few more weeks of school before the easter holidays :)

Nutella Cupcakes

There's something about nutella that always makes me feel excited for breakfast. Maybe not the most healthiest of breakfasts if I were to smother Nutella all over my toast every morning, but chocolate before school always gives a healthy smile :)

These cupcakes were a must-do as soon as I saw it in the recipe book. They were literally a moist, chocolate cake with a nutella filling and crammed with chocolate.

Every once in a while, I like to go back to baking cupcakes because they were the roots of my baking history. When I was around four, I would help my mum stir the cake batter or pour the sugar in. When the cakes were smelling delightful and cooked, I would help with the decorating - a simple glacé icing and sprinkles.

I find that these silicon moulds are becoming my new favourite for baking up cupcakes. They are eco-friendly as they can be used many times and also saves the hassle of stocking up paper cases, which means cramming more junk into the baking cupboard. Win-win!

Nutella Cupcakes

Ingredients:

375g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
25g cocoa powder
100g brown sugar
125g melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250ml buttermilk
250ml nutella
handful of chocolate chips (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan. Grease 12-hole muffin pan
2. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl, stir in butter, eggs, buttermilk and choc chips if using.
3. Divide 1/3 of mixture among holes of muffin pan, top each with 1 tbsp nutella, top with remaining muffin mixture.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes, turn top-side up onto wire rack to cool.

Love.

For valentines day, I decided to share a few things that I love. The most obvious ones are probably my friends and family, food, my love for photography and just enjoying life overall. But I'm going to think on a deeper level.....

source

I love food because it brings everyone around the table and food generally makes people feel happy. I love to see everyone happy.

I love photography because it lets my creative mind flow. But on top of that, it allows me to freeze many memories that could be forgotten if I didn't press that button on my camera. I'm not a pro at all, or have the fanciest of cameras. I don't mind though, I could be snapping pictures off my phone and see it as another favourite memory from my life.

I love my friends and family. This sounds cliché, but they're always there for me, always there for laughs and always love me so much. Oh, and life wouldn't be the same without them.

say hi to kelly over here!

I love to enjoy life, the life given by my heavenly father. I really enjoy travelling: if only I was rich enough, had plenty of time and had no exams. But this is life. Life is this. And you know what? I love it!
I have a lot of homework to do, but I'm also eating mum's pudding at the same time.... I'm going to school, but I'm being surrounded by friends who I absolutely love.... I'm not lucky enough to be able to travel the world, but I'm ever so lucky to have a warm, cosy home.... I'm not rich, or am I the smartest on the universe, but I am loved by God.

I love being Chinese. It must be the food.... And the bonuses that come with it....celebrations, festivals, culture... Did I mention the great invention of noodles?

I love DIY-ing. It's a favourite past time....along with baking...and photography. As a girl born to hoard rubbish and make new things out of it, you'll constantly see me on pinterest, scouring for ideas to pin to my rather large DIY board. I love it because it makes the old become new, the torn become beautiful. And it makes me and everyone around me happy.

I love God. God is love. I can turn to him when I'm sad, worried, happy, angry, scared, joyful, confused.....whenever. I feel so so blessed to have a father who is so loving.

Who or what do YOU love?

Happy Valentines! X

Insta-Thursty: week 8

Living in the UK doesn't necessarily mean there's no lions at the dinner table or red everywhere. I have had plenty of food, plenty of fun this Chinese New Year and on some occasions, even got red packets! Celebrations lasts up to around 7 days, so I am safe to say "Happy Chinese New Year!"

a red lion at a chinese buffet

part of my 365 photo challenge

cookieeeee

painting for 5 hours and still a bit to go!

pancake day - check out my 2-ingredient pancake post!

pink walls<3

a spot of nail painting

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Pancake Day!

 The last time I posted about pancake day was quite a while ago...times when I...wasn't that into blogging. This year's pancake day didn't go much as planned - the fridge was leaning towards empty and the amount of work I had meant I had literally forgot about pancake day until yesterday *thank you facebook*. What I was lucky to do though, was scour pinterest for some last minute pancake ideas. Happy was I when I discovered the two-ingredient-pancake-recipe. Life = saved.

According to the recipe, all you needed was an egg and a banana (if you were to halve the recipe for just a few pancakes). I didn't really believe it to be honest. But I decided to give it a go since I'll be going without pancakes otherwise. I pimped it up with some chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chips, a dash of cinnamon, a tablespoon of ground almonds and a pinch of baking powder.

It turned out alright. More pancake-y than expected. I did have a bit of trouble flipping them over as the banana and choc chips weren't that much of a friend with the pan. Nonetheless, I made enough pancakes for myself!
They tasted a bit like pancakes with mashed banana in it, DUH - bananas are the main ingredient. But who would have ever thought you could flip up a few pancakes with just an egg and a banana? Well yeah, someone obviously did.

 Happy Pancake Day!

Insta-Thursty: week 7

This week has been an extremely chilly one - the snow has dusted over London! And with that, many plans had to be changed including late starts and early finishes for school woohooo!

I have not been instagram-ing much this week except brave the cold, but will share a few photos of the snowy landscape from our little Sunday walk and a quick snap for the 365 photo challenge :)

We took the bunnies out, just for a quick photo, nothing cruel ;) I'm sure they would have preferred it to be snowing carrots rather than snowflakes though!

I love this picture - a classic snow-day-fun

Beautiful.

Love the white specks against her dark coat :)

a snap from our little walk

My Smarties hand.

365 photo challenge - nuts

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Hot choc spoons.

I promised to share a quick fudge recipe in this post. Oh, and did I tell you that these fudges are magical? You place them in hot milk and it magically melts to make hot chocolate. Lush for the bitter coldness and the snow that has just arrived.

I had planned to make hot choc spoons early before Christmas but never got round to it until about a week before. With no double cream left to make the original fudges I hoped to, I somehow landed on the back of a condensed milk tin. *BOOM* I see a future for the chocolate spoons.

And there is no catch to these delightful treats. They only consist of 4 ingredients that you would have on hand already and involves no baking whatsoever. I don't see an excuse in these to be honest...

It has become part of my routine to come home from walks in the snow, and just pop a choc spoon into my mug. perfect.

For the Christmas spoons, I had varied different toppings to make each piece a unique one. I had a mix of sprinkles, marshmallow, choc chips and cookie crumble. Oh the excitement of sugar.

Hot Choc Spoons - fudge recipe from Carnation

Ingredients:

374g condensed milk

25g butter

400g chocolate - milk or dark

100g icing sugar

Method: (pictures going from left to right)

1. Break up the chocolate pieces

2. Place condensed milk, butter and chocolate into a medium sized saucepan

3. Stir and melt on the hob until melted 

4. Add the icing sugar

5. Stir until combined

6. Place into a 20cm square tin lined with foil or baking parchment

7. Cut up marshmallows if using or prepare your toppings

8. Arrange onto fudge and chill for 1 hour in the fridge

9. Stick wooden spoons in. Alternatively, you could use wooden sticks/stirrers

10. Remove from tin and cut into desired sizes

Will be enjoying a few more of these every evening!