I baked something and it was actually nice??!

So summer is upon us, and, for the moment at least - the warm weather looks like it's going to stay (fingers crossed).

Some of you may remember from my last post (which was actually only a few days ago...I'm so far successfully sticking to my plan of updating regularly - winwinwinwinwinwin) that I said I'm going to try to do a lot this summer - and one of the things which I've tried to get back into (as well as blogging...) is baking!!

(note where I say "tried to get back into", I really mean "try to learn how to again - I'm really not very good with cooking things which are actually EDIBLE or taste nice!!)

One of my all-time favourite blogs is Hummingbird High, where I used to spend hours staring at all of the delicious creations they post, until yesterday, I plucked up the courage and tried out one of their recipes myself, and the result was so tasty I decided to share the recipe with you lovely lot!!

 Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes

(recipe credit to Hummingbird High)

Ingredients

For the Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes:

(makes 18 cupcakes)

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup strawberry milk powder (I used Nesquik's) 

For the Strawberry Milkshake Buttercream Icing:

(makes enough for 18 cupcakes, plus a little extra)

• 3 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
• 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/3 cup strawberry milk powder (again, I used Nesquik's)

Recipe

For the Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 (F) and prepare your muffin tin by lining with paper muffin cases.


2. In a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or, use a handheld whisk), mix together 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt until they form a crumb-like, sandy consistency.


3. In a liquid measuring bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup whole milk, 2 eggs, and 1/4 cup strawberry milk powder. 


4. Turn your mixer to its slowest speed, and gradually pour half of the liquid mixture (from the third step) into the butter/flour/sugar mixture (from the second step) and mix until just combined. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the batter from the sides of the bowl have been incorporated, turn the mixer back on to its slowest speed and gradually pour in the remaining liquid, continuing to mix until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to give the batter a few more mixes by hand to ensure that the batter is smooth and combined. 


5. Use a 1 tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into the prepared cases (or, if you don't have a cookie scoop, fill the cases up to 2/3rd full) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes in the preheated oven or until the sponge bounces back when lightly touched. 


6. Allow the cakes to cool slightly on a cooling rack, before turning out on to the rack to cool completely. 

For the Strawberry Milkshake Buttercream Icing:

1. Using a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or, a handheld whisk), gradually beat together 3 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar with 11 tablespoons butter on a low speed until combined and there are no lumps of butter.


2. In a small liquid measuring bowl, whisk together 4 tablespoons whole milk and 1/3 cup strawberry milk powder. 


3. Gradually pour the milk mixture (from the second step) into the sugar and butter mixture (from the first step) and mix on a low speed until the liquid mixture has been combined into the sugar and butter. Then, turn up the mixer and beat the mixture for 5 minutes, until the icing is light and fluffy. Do not overbeat, or the mixture will be too liquidy and runny!


4. Use a 1 tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to spoon 2 tablespoons of icing on each cupcake. Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before you start icing — otherwise they'll be all soggy!!

~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

And that's that! I was so happy with the finished product - and pleasantly surprised with the lack of mess I managed to make!! They went down very well, and, to the amusement of my friends, I also decided to (attempt to) be artistic by sticking some decorations and a straw in the icing - and it didn't turn out too shabby to be honest!!

I made these cute little cupcakes for a picnic with friends (I felt I should clarify this due to the amount of cakes in the background of the photo!!) but I think these are cakes that can literally be made for any occasion - they're just so yummy and remind me of being a child again as they taste just like the pink mini milk ice lollies!!

Have you ever made these gorgeous cupcakes or anything like them? Or do you have any simple recipes for a hopeless baker like me? I'd love to know!!

❤

What Time is it? (Summertime)

(It's our vacation, What time is it? Party time - That's right, say it loud ) etc etc etc

That's riiiighhhtt.....It's the time of the year when I have had no other song stuck in my head but  the fabulous opening number to HSM2 - and embarrassingly enough I didn't even have to google those lyrics.

Oh yeah, and guess what else...I'm back!! (again).

After putting my blog on hiatus for exams, I'm attempting (again) to start blogging regularly again - let's see how long I last!

Like every year, I'm determined to make this summer the best one yet, and so I've borrowed 14 books from school (12 of which I have to read for my english literature a2 coursework, but they're all rather smashing so I don't mind), and I've made myself a promise to do something productive every day (and get a bit of a tan, but that seems the least unlikely).

I recently saw a video by Alfie Deyes entitled "25 Things To Do This Summer", and whilst I'm not sure I could commit do doing something like a book for my summer memories (you all know my commitment issues..), I was inspired, and I've decided that I'm going to post more regularly on this blog, especially things that I've done this summer. Like every year, I've got loads planned in my head and I'm honestly interested to see how many of them I actually do!!

Whilst I'm not going to turn this into a space where I document my everyday doings (- as you are probably aware my relationship with my blog is a bit on-off), if I do anything which I feel is interesting enough to share with you I'll whack it on here so some of you can acknowledge that I do have the teeniest tiniest of social life - and it may even act as an incentive for me to do something exciting and different!

So, to start off with I've got some snaps from last weekend, when I went on an adventure with my beautiful friends Emma and Nat and managed to get some photos of the beautiful sunsets - I hope you like them.

What about you, have you got anything interesting or exciting planned this summer?

❤

Festival Fun

I live in the south coast of England, and I am very lucky with where I live, due to the fact that I live really close to the New Forest, and if I ever wanted to go to the beach, it's just a 20 minute drive away.

A little heart for all you lovely readers ❤ 

Last weekend was the annual Bournemouth Air Festival, which is a lovely weekend of planes, entertainment, attempting to get a tan and getting a lovely sunburn! I feel like I should give you a little warning here: this post is very picture heavy. 

Here are a few of the best pictures I took during the day time I thought I should share with you lovely readers. I've sorted them in an order which isn't chronological, but it sort of makes sense (I've basically grouped the planes together, you'll get the idea). I did this because over the four days, quite a lot of the planes flew more than once with different weather and lighting conditions etc, so I basically put all the pictures of the Eurofighter together, all the Red Arrow pictures together etc...

So, without further ado, here are some pictures I took of the aircraft at the air festival!

If any of you are wondering, from the top to the bottom, the planes are: the battle of britain memorial flight (including the lancaster and spitfires), then the sea vixen, then the eurofighter (which is incredibly loud!), and then the colourful one is Miss Demeanour. After that, of course, is my personal favourite, the red arrows! I've mainly used the pictures of the red arrows from their performance on the Saturday, due to the lovely clear blue sky (and so the pictures were better!), but they flew on the Thursday, Friday and the Saturday. The final picture is of a plane during the Night Air segment of the festival, and the night before (when my camera battery unfortunately died :( ), it actually had fireworks on it! I think that this plane is from O Brien's Flying Circus, but I'm not 100% sure).

Unfortunately, on the last day the Vulcan had a fuel leak so it couldn't fly, which I was super sad about because I'm a bit of a plane geek, and it's probably the last year it'll be flying due to funding issues :( But on the bright side, I also took some random pictures of the picturesque South Coast and random objects/animals for you!

 

I named the seagull on the right Marcel...because he got all the birds :')
If you don't understand don't worry, my jokes are never any good.

We spotted where Kodaline was staying before their concert so I quickly snapped these pictures whilst they were watching the planes, Vinny's (the drummer) face makes me smile every time I see it in the second picture, he was so excited when the planes came!

Last year, a local radio station decided to hold two concerts in the evening,with tickets priced at only £3.50 - a bloody bargain if you ask me! We didn't find out about it until the week before, and we managed to grab ourselves some tickets for the second concert, which was amazing! I saw Ben Montague, Ryan O'Shaughnessy, Matt Cardle, The Loveable Rogues, Lawson and Scouting For Girls! But the night before (which we couldn't grab any tickets for), we went down to the pub and because of how close it was to the open stage area, we could just about see the artists (nice one dad!), we also saw Amelia Lily, Honey Ryder, Newton Faulkner and Rizzle Kicks!

Although this year they doubled the ticket price (still good though!), the line up was just as super duper. On the Friday there was Diana Vickers, Stooshe, Lucy Spraggan, Shane Filan, The Feeling and Blue! On the Saturday night, I was really REALLY lucky because there were quite a few of my favourite singers/bands of ALL TIME! The line-up was Neon Jungle, Newton Faulkner, The Loveable Rogues, Lisa Stansfield, and Kodaline. Here are a few pictures of each of the acts. Unfortunately on the Friday night my camera battery died halfway through the concert and I had no spare, so I had to switch to my phone camera, so that's why there is a sudden decrease in quality. Sorry. Because of this, I put all the Friday night photos on one collage so that the quality doesn't appear as bad :) Enjoy!

Top Row L-R: Diana Vickers, Stooshe, Lucy Spraggan, Shane Filan
Middle Row: The Feeling
Bottom Row: Blue

Neon Jungle

Newton Faulkner

The Loveable Rogues

Lisa Stansfield

Kodaline

 I loved every minute of the Bournemouth Air Festival this year, and will definitely be going again next year (26th-31st August 2014!), you can find all the information about this here. The only advice I would give you that isn't given on this website is that it would be a better idea to go to a beach other than the stretch between Bournemouth and Boscombe pier, as this is absolutely PACKED. We went to a beach near a place called Southbourne, mainly because it's where my friend has a beach hut, but also because it was only a 30 minute walk from Boscombe pier, but also because the beach was nearly empty but you could still see all the planes!

Thank you for reading - apologies for how long it was, I didn't mean for it to be!

P.S. I'm feeling super snazzy & sophisticated blogging from the beach ;)

P.P.S. Happy September!

❤

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"United By Hope" - The 9/11 Memorial

Right guys, I'm afraid it's time to get all deep on you (I give you my most sincere apologies in advance).

Recently I went with my family on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to New York. It was such an amazing experience, and even though we did loads of amazing things, one thing has affected me the most and I keep thinking about it. This thing was when I went and visited the 9/11 memorial.

Going to the memorial wasn't really something we planned on going in at first, we just thought that we would walk past it so we could say we saw where it took place, but when we got there, we decided it would be both silly and disrespectful not to donate some money, and we found out that this was how you gained entry to the memorial. I think that because I wasn't expecting to go in, I hadn't prepared myself both mentally and emotionally to see where so many people lost their lives. I was utterly speechless as I realised the sheer size of the two world trade centres, and the number of people who lost their lives that day. I know some of you might be thinking "you're so stupid, the facts and figures are known, and everyone knows that just over 3000 people died that day", but honestly, when you see the size of the area where the buildings used to be, and you look at the height of the skyscrapers around it, it takes your breath away.

I didn't take that many photos whilst at the memorial, because it felt almost disrespectful to be taking pictures where so many people lost their lives and thousands of people lost someone important to them. I managed to hold myself together until I saw someone had placed 4 red roses on some names on the memorial - one for each family member she had lost on that day.

When you speak to people in New York, you soon realise that almost everyone there has been affected in some way. I met a mounted policeman, who originates from Yorkshire (England), and my parents started to chat to him (Our family all come from Yorkshire). I noticed that on his horse, he wore a brooch on his harness, which the policeman had designed himself to commemorate the friends he had lost on that day. He was also there, and he told us that he still suffers with survivors guilt, and would do anything to have died there instead of his younger brother, who was a fire-fighter who died in an attempt to free the people still trapped inside the World Trade Centres. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the brooch, as I didn't want to use my flash and scare the horse. (I realise now that this might sound a bit silly, because we were standing in Times Square and there were hundreds of flashing lights around us, but ah well.) He also told me things about the attacks that I didn't know, like the fires produced on that day from the crash burned until December - 3 Months.

I've been back home from New York for almost a week now, and I keep thinking about 9/11 and the people left behind (hence why I decided to write this blog post.) I can't help thinking things like "What if it had never happened?" "How different would New York, and the world be?" "What would have happened if the brave people on one of the other hijacked planes hadn't decided to sacrifice their lives, and the plane had met their desired locations and killed thousands more people, and possibly the president?" These thoughts keep on going round and round in my head, and I've realised that just one day in history can change the world forever. A small group of individuals can make history and make sure that the world is never the same again.

If the hijackers had never decided to target the four places in America, would we have the same amount of terrorism worries? No. When I was in New York, there was a high-alert terrorist threat, that apparently only people in America knew about. On my flight home, it was half empty, as people were too scared to fly in case people had tried to copy the September 11 2001 attacks. If the people on one of the hijacked planes hadn't launched a counter-attack, there would be a lot more deaths, so they also have helped stop loss of life, even though they sacrificed their own lives. If the plane had met their desired location of the White House, would a world war have started? Thankfully we will never know, all because of those brave people who helped change the world forever.

The Freedom Tower, New York. This is the new One World Trade Center, and stands in the place of the 6 World Trade Center, and it is currently the 3rd tallest building in the World, and the tallest in the western hemisphere (thanks Wikipedia!)

The Surviving Tree. This tree was found still intact, but very badly damaged between the two collapsing towers. It is considered one of the most delicate and protected landmarks in the memorial, and when I visited it had policeman in front of it in case anyone tried to damage the tree (It's own personal bodyguards!)

The main things that I have learnt from my visit to the 9/11 Memorial in New York are:

1. Appreciate your life and everything you have, you never know when it could be taken away from you.

2. YOU are never "a nobody". The people who launched a counter-attack on the terrorist planes were ordinary civilians, just like you and me, and they helped to change the world, and they helped save thousands of lives.

3. A couple of minutes can change the world, so make the most of your life.

MY MAIN MESSAGE TO YOU:

Appreciate the value of your life and what you've got - YOU can make something of your life, and YOU are special and important.

The motto printed on all of the merchandise available at the memorial is "United By Hope", and this is what we all are. We are all linked to one another and united, and my visit to the 9/11 memorial really enlightened me as to how a nation pulls together in a time of need, and how they join each other in the most horrible and desperate of times - so it may sound like a weird message to you, but if people can join together in times like this, then you should be able to do it in your everyday life. So go and unite people!

[Edit: - Just realised that the paragraph above makes absolutely no sense - but I'll leave it in here to you can laugh at how I try to waffle on and create a completely random life lesson]

If you want to find out more about the 9/11 Memorial, the design and how you can get involved, head on over to their website by clicking here.

P.S. Sorry for waffling

P.P.S. If I offended anyone with anything that I said in this blog post, I apologise with all my heart as it wasn't intended, I know how much this topic means to some people, and I honestly didn't mean to upset anyone (sorry again if this applies to you).

❤

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