Birthday cake

Hello lovelies,

Hope your all well? Just a quick post today....I've been a bit busy lately working on a collaboration post with Adel from http://palettepale.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1 i created a blog post for her on how to make this yummy chocolate and caramel birthday cake in honour of her birthday!

If you would like to see a how to guide on how to make this then click this link http://palettepale.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/guest-post-birthday-special-tasty-treat.html?m=1 

Stay tuned as from monday i will be starting the one baking and one beauty post per week:)

Xxx

Happy new year & lush haul

Hey beauties,

Firstly Happy New year to you all, I hope that all your dreams come true! So as promised my blog will regain more beauty content....after all the purpose of this blog is for it to be filled with my two passions in life beauty and baking! Ive slacked a bit on the beauty content, but all those cosy winter days and nights we've had, the only place for me was the kitchen! 

Lets talk aims....this year i aim to put up at least one beauty and one baking blog per week.....starting now and kicking off the new year with a lush haul! 

Let me first begin by admitting my obsession with lush....and quite frankly all things to do with baths! I am very much a bath person, i love all things like bath bombs, bubble bars, bath oils, need i go on? I crave that spa feeling, lush provides that, not only do their products leave a silk like feel to your bath water but the smell, the colours, everything about lush products give that luxourious feeling without the price tag....so along with all the lovely bath products i got for Christmas i decided to complement them with a good few bath bombs/bubble bars and so headed to lush, this is what i got.....

  

Firstly Cinders...this is filled with orange, cinnamon and almond oil and smells delicious, to put into words if Christmas had a scent this would be it! It has popping candy at the top of it, which when you pop it in the bath makes it sound like a crackling fire! This is the cosiest, warming bath bomb out there in my opinion! It is only available at Christmas so i had to grab one before the feative season ended! 

This is sex bomb and one of my favourites, it has a strong floral smell to it, it contains ylang ylang, musk and jasmine! It leaves your bath water a lovely soft pink colour and the little rose on the top opens up and floats around you bath! Its a really nice girly bath bomb!

 

The next one i got is a bubble bar, this is candy mountain and you crumble it under your running tap and it gives lovely soft, fluffy bubbles. This is a very sweet scent, its main ingrediant is vanilla and it has a coating of lustre dust, leaving a nice sparkle to your skin! Again this is only available at Christmas and is part of the snow fairy line.

Next one is bombbardino, this isn't something i would usually go for but it has been recommended so many times so i had to see what the fuss was about.

This is filled with cardamon oil, citrus and cocoa butter! This is definately worth the hype, its so creamy and leaves your skin feeling and smelling amazing! 

Next bath bomb i got is think pink, this is so lovely, it contains Tonka and vanilla so another sweet scent, it leaves your bath a lovely pink colour and has a surprise centre of heart shape confetti which float around your bath. 

Last thing i got was a soap, this is snowcake and is scented with rose and marzipan, i love this its so creamy and leaves the skin feeling supersoft. 

So that is it, hope you all enjoyed reading this blog post! What are your favourite lush products?

Xxx

Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone,

Few days late but still within the 12 days of Christmas......so Merry Christmas i hope you all had a wonderful time and hope the new year brings you happiness and health and all that you dream of!

I hope you all enjoyed my Christmas series i didnt quite get as much up as i had origionally planned for personal reasons! However im back and will be uploading tons more recipes and all sorts of good stuff so keep posted and please send in your requests!

I am also planning on starting up a youtube channel so i can demonstrate my recipes in hope that you will all like that, my recipe itself will be up on here and the video / how to demonstration will be up on youtube, so they will work together hand in hand. More details to come when i get started which will hopefully be in the new year! 

I am also going to provide more blog posts and hopefully youtube videos on all things beauty related hence beautybakesandcakes the purpose of my blog and of my soon to be youtube channel its to provide both beauty and baking material.......recipes, reviews, how to guides such as decorating cakes which for obvious reasons will be a lot easier to show you via video on youtube! So please follow and let me know if you have any requests! 

All the best for 2014

Xxx  

Christmas Chocolate Bites

Hello guys! Hope your all well?

Today im going to show you how to make these mouth watering chocolate bites! A rich, moist, light chocolate sponge topped with creamy chocolate buttercream and edible decorations. Perfect for the holidays especially for those who aren't a fan of traditional christmas cakes and mince pies these are a great alternative and are bound to get your chololate loving guests coming back for more! 

  

You will need:

For the sponge:

6oz granulated sugar

6oz butter or margarine

3 eggs

4oz self raising flour

2oz cocoa powder

1tbsp hot water

For the frosting and edible decorations:

1tbsp butter or margarine

500g (aprox) icing sugar (you may need more or less depending on consistency)

2-4tbsp milk

1tbsp cocoa powder

Green fondant

Red fondant

Holly leaf cutter (or cut by hand)

Edible decorations of your choice im using christmas coloured sprinkles and edible silver pearls

 

Method:

For the sponge:

Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy

 

Beat in your eggs one at a time 

Add in your flour and cocoa powder and gently mix until combined

 

Add in your hot water and mix until combined! Dont over mix at this stage only mix until combined

Grease a 7inch square cake tin with butter, spinkle a tablespoon of cocoa powder into the tin and shake the tin until there is an even layer of cocoa powder covering the tin

Place in your batter and bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 4 for aprox 25-30mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, once cooked leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin, turn it out and leave to cool for a further 30 mins

 

For the frosting:

Mix together your butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of milk, your looking for a smooth thick consistency, you may need more milk to thin it out or more icing sugar to thicken it

Next roll out your green fondant, using the holly cutter cut 16 holly leaves and roll small balls of red for the centre of each leaf

Once your cake has cooled, spread on the top a thin layer of the buttercream 

Cut the cake into 16 small squares, TIP everytime you run yoir knife through the cake wipe it clean that way crumbs dont end up stuck to the buttercream

Using a piping nozzle create a swirl in the centre of each cake! No piping nozzle no problem.....spoon a small amount of buttercream in the centre of each cake and use a fork to give it swirl effect

Stick on your holly leaves into the centre of the swirl (you dont have to use holly leaves you can use sweets, mini candy canes, chocolate buttons, whatever you have on hand)

Finish with some edible sprinkles and decorations, top with icing sugar to give a snow effect

What i love about this recipe is you can really decorate it with whatever you like, you dont even have to decorate it, sprinkle some icing sugar on the top and they will look amazing and taste even better!

Hope you are all enjoying my festive recipes! Have you tried any? Any recommendations? Let me know in the comments or follow me on twitter @BeautyandBakes thanks for stopping by :) 

Happy baking

Xxx

 

Cupcake Wreath

Hello everyone,

Hope your all well? Todays a quick post  to show you how to create this simple but show stopping cupcake wreath.....perfect for your holiday table, even better instead of having to slice one cake into individual portions, your guests can simply just pull a cupcake from the wreath!

You will need:

18 cupcakes (see my vanilla cupcake recipe) 

Green frosting

10inch cake board

Mini candy canes 

White fondant

Red fondant

Christmas sprinkles

Firstly arrange your cupcakes onto the board as shown above

Pipe a green swirl or spread the frosting onto each cupcake, joining the cupcakes together, any gaps fill with the frosting

Cut out snowflakes using the white fondant and either use a snowflake cutter or a knife 

Place the snowflakes, candy canes and sprinkles onto the cupcakes

Finish with a red bow, using the red fondant cut out a bow shape, their will be a detailed tutorial soon on how to create a 3d fondant bow so stay tuned for that

Hope you guys enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial, any recommendations please let me know:)

Happy baking

Xxx

Non alcoholic eggnog

Hello everyone, hope your all well?

Today im going to share my recipe for eggnog:) 

You will need:

1pint of full fat milk

3 large eggs

1oz sugar

1tsp cinnamon or nutmeg 

A few pinches of cocoa powder (for sprinkling)

Place your milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon into a saucepan and whisk together 

 

Place your sausepan on the hob on very low, stir consistently for aprox 10 mins until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, dont let it boil

  

Once thick run your mixture through a sieve

Finally you can at this point pop it in the fridge and either drink it chilled or reheat it later on, or you can have it now while its nice and warm, when you serve it spinkle some cocoa powder on the top and your done! 

Of course you can omit the cinnamon if you like and add your favourite spice like nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and so on , and if you wish to spice it up a bit add a splash of rum or your favourite alcoholic beverage!

Hope you guys enjoyed this recipe, any recommendations? Have you tried this?

Happy baking

Xxx

 

Cinnamon and raisin bread

Hello everyone,

Hope your well? Well its here....December that is and im so excited to start the festivities! Yesterday i opened the first window to my advent calendar (i maybe 23 but its not Christmas to me without an advent calendar hehe), we put up some decorations and the tree and wrapped some presents and to top the day off my family and I even had a turkey dinner! But the most festive and homely part of my day was making this incredible bread! 

To create the festive bread you will need:

500grams strong white bread flour

40grams unsalted butter

1tbsp olive oil

12grams dry active yeast 

1.5tsp salt

300ml warm water

2tsp ground cinnamon

A good handful of raisins ( you could use currents or sultanas too or a mixture)

First add in your flour, butter, salt, cinnamon and yeast to a mixing bowl and stir until combined (when adding the salt and yeast, place the salt at one end of the bowl and yeast at the other, direct contact of the salt and yeast will kill the yeast) 

Next gradullay add your water until a smooth dough is formed, you may not need all of the water, fold in your raisins

Take some of the oil and lightly grease your work surface, take out your dough and knead for aprox 10 mins until the dough is smooth and elastic, your raisins may fall out just keep popping them back in

Use the remaining oil to lightly grease a mixing bowl, place your dough into the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size

Once doubled, punch out the air and shape the dough however you like here is an example of a few shapes

If you would like detailed tutorials on ways to shape bread please let me know,

For this recipe i find it best to place the dough into a greased loaf tin, if you dont have a loaf tin mould a ball shape and place the dough onto a greased baking tray

Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size 

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 7

Once doubled in size if you like you can slice small slits in the dough to create a diamond or cross pattern then place the dough in the oven for aprox 30 mins or until golden or when turned upside down and knocked it sounds hollow 

Hope your guys enjoyed this blog post, let me know if you have tried this or have any requests!

Happy baking

Xxx