Musical musings for July

Today is the last day of July and as such I had to get my musical musings in before the clock struck midnight. I cannot believe another month is drawing to a close. Although the upside to it is that this weekend I am going to Vegas, how exciting. So music hasn't been as dominant in my life of late thanks to the London Olympics, which I love watching, and the sunshine of course. However, I always manage to find time for some tunes. A few of my latest purchases from iTunes had been trying to worm their way into my head and library for ages so I finally gave in. I really cannot escape the Canadian influence, as you will see for yourself below:

1. Got Me Good - Cody Simpson
2. Some Nights - Fun
3. Both Of Us (feat. Taylor Swift) - B.o.B
4. Whistle - Flo Rida
5. Die In Your Arms - Justin Bieber
6. Boyfriend - Justin Bieber
7. Kiss You Inside Out - Hedley
8. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
9. Desperate Measures - Marianas Trench

July's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Vanilla cupcakes...again

I appreciate simple and for me this is embodied by vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting. However, I also appreciate the need to give simple a bit of a twist, which brings me to my Sunday afternoon baking. Baking makes me happy and gives me a real sense of accomplishment when I cast my eyes on the finished product, even if these eyes are a bit critical. I tried a different vanilla cupcake recipe this time around, one that can be found here on a blog that I read on a weekly basis. As you can see I once again put some dulce de leche sauce into the cupcake as done here with some chocolate cupcakes. For the vanilla butter cream frosting I used:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 & 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tbsp meringue powder
• 1 tsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• blue colouring to tint

My method for making frosting doesn't really deviate much these days. I start by quickly whipping the butter on a low speed before adding the icing sugar gradually until combined. Next I added the vanilla essence followed by the meringue powder (I probably didn't need quite as much as I used) and then the milk to thin it out a bit. Lastly, I added in a few drops of Wilton cornflower blue icing colour to tint the frosting lightly. I used my trusty Wilton 1M decorating tip to give the cupcakes a polished finish. Cupcakes aren't the same without some sort of fun sprinkles adorning them so I cracked open a new batch of confetti ones. The confetti sprinkles may possibly be my favourite kind as they come in lots of different varieties i.e. Spring, Halloween, Christmas, and I should know because I have all three. I love sprinkles!

Tickled Pink

It is not very often that I am swayed by one of the emails I receive as part of being on numerous mailing lists. However, it does happen and my Friday night shopping expedition is prime proof of this. Recently I received an email from Gap showcasing the 7 Summer Musts, of which I was immediately drawn to the maxi dress. I checked their website, but I couldn't find it so didn't give it much more thought. I wasn't in the market for a maxi dress no matter how gorgeous I thought it was anyway. Fast forward to Friday night and out of curiosity I went into a Gap store to see if they had it so I could try it on and put the matter to rest. They did have it, but I thought I best check out some other stores and see what played out. My curiosity got the better of me and as such five minutes before closing time I was in the change room trying on said dress, further motivated by the thirty percent discount in place for dresses. It was too cute to resist and I loved the fit and the colour so I made the purchase. 

My newest purchase (images courtesy of Gap)

I think the dress would look great with my latest Essie nail polish addition, cute as a button. Now I just need to find somewhere to wear it!

This doesn't quite do the colour justice (image courtesy of Essie)

Oreo cheesecake

Moving forward, I have decided to blog when I feel inspired or have something I want to share so that this creative outlet doesn't begin to feel like a chore. With that in mind, I thought I would share my latest baking project. I am pretty sure in my lifetime I have attempted to make a cheesecake, but of the non-baked variety. However, for a work colleague's birthday celebration tomorrow I thought I would try to make an Oreo cheesecake using the recipe I found here. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out especially when I hit the first hurdle of the cookie crumb base not spreading far enough up the side of the tin. I tried to get past this by just hoping for the best because I was already committed to the cause, but then I hit my next hurdle. As the cheesecake began to bake, the butter from the base seemed to seep out of the tin into the oven. I assume maybe I didn't close the spring form tin properly. My final issue, as shown below, is the significant cracks on the top of the cheesecake, which began to develop in the last ten minutes of baking and seemed more pronounced once it had been sitting for a little while. I did also experience some breakage around the edge of the cheesecake as I tried to separate it from the rim with a knife. When it comes to this baking experience, I have witnesses who can attest to my fraught state of mind at various moments throughout. So now all I can hope is that it tastes great and maybe next time I will try a non-baked variety.  

It's been a while

I've been on a little bit of a blog hiatus of late for various reasons including the glorious sunshine that has been adorning my doorstep these last few weeks. Whilst I haven't really gotten that far with my 2012 summer to do list as mentioned here, I have generally appreciated the fact that sunshine makes me happy. However, I also realised that I have been missing one of my favourite creative outlets and I really wanted to get back on here. I didn't bake this past weekend, to be honest I haven't baked these last few weekends, but I did something just as fun. I made fresh raspberry jam with one of my favourite people and her mum using the recipe found here. Next time, and there will be a next time, I intend to take photos of the cute berry farm we got our fresh raspberries from and even the process itself. For now I just wanted to reconnect with the writing canvas that is this blog and show you a photo of the finished product complete with cute labels courtesy of Michaels. 

My inner boho

Canada day means a long weekend, hence blogging in the middle of the day. I wasn't feeling inspired enough on Friday to write something, but I seemed to have found double the inspiration today. I quite often have those days where I dislike almost everything in my wardrobe, but today was different as I conjured up an outfit in my head from existing items. If you are interested to know where I got the items from see below:

1. Denim jacket - Just Jeans
2. Top - H&M
3. Maxi skirt - Sirens
4. Fedora hat - Forever 21
5. Shoes - Primark
6. Bag - Gift
7. Bangle - Gift
8. Necklace - Diva
9. Earrings - I've had them so long I honestly cannot remember 

Now I just need somewhere to wear it!

Birthday cake in pastels

I do relish the opportunity to bake for a reason, not just because I want to. I am pretty sure I haven't baked an actual cake since the decorating classes I did last year as mentioned here. So it was really fun to bake a cake last week for a colleague's birthday. I was able to discover somewhat stealthily that a vanilla cake would be happily received. I didn't want anything complicated when it came to the cake recipe because I am sure it wouldn't have been fun having to scramble for more ingredients and a plan B. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about this as the recipe I chose here turned out perfectly. However, I wasn't happy with the height of the cake and I had enough ingredients still so I decided to make a second one. It really helped that the recipe was quick and easy to churn out. Just as an FYI I think I have the cake pan prep down pat when baking cakes. Firstly, I grease the whole pan with margarine followed by a coat of flour. Lastly, I cut out a circle from baking paper the size of the base and place it in the pan. I don't want to jinx myself, but it hasn't failed so far. Anyway back to this particular project, I was going to incorporate chocolate shards around the edge of the cake, but the apartment was too warm so it didn't work out. However, I had already melted the semi-sweet chocolate chips. I melted them in a bowl sat on top of a small water-filled saucepan over low heat. I put a small amount of this melted chocolate between the two cakes. On top of this I placed some store bought frosting that I had had in the cupboard for a while and wanted to use up. Once the cakes were sandwiched together I whipped up a batch of butter cream frosting using:

• 1 & 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tsp meringue powder

Firstly, I chopped up the butter and whipped it on a low speed for a few seconds, as it was already pretty soft. I added one cup of icing sugar at a time increasing the speed of the mixer as the frosting got thicker. I added the water at this point because the frosting needed to be thinned out a bit. Lastly, I added the meringue powder to ensure the frosting set. I used an angled spatula to apply the frosting to the cake and I probably could have smoothed it over better, but I do think practice will make perfect. This next part is where the chocolate shards were supposed to come into it and look fabulous. I created them by lining a cookie sheet with baking paper and spreading some chocolate on it then putting it in the freezer for a few minutes to set. It was a bit of a train wreck with the chocolate as I mentioned above so I took a deep breath, removed it and went with the end result courtesy of pretty pastel marshmallows. I had originally bought the marshmallows with this project in mind in the first place. I think the cake was a success and a big thanks to my sous chef for the marshmallow colour separating, dishwashing and general calming effect.