DIY HOT CHOCOLATE

Hello!

I know the hype of making hot chocolate's is sort of over, however I've only just really started to make homemade hot chocolate and honestly it's the best thing ever. I thought this DIY might be helpful to some people on how to make it because I was unsure at first, but ended up mixing things together that looked right, and made something super yummy.

Ingredients:

1tsp vanilla essence

50g of chocolate

Milk (Measure this by pouring milk into a mug in which you will drink the hot chocolate from as you will get a perfect amount of hot chocolate)

Hot water 

Other Flavours:

 A pinch of cinnamon for spicy taste.

A little salt, and caramel syrup for a salted caramel hot chocolate.
Orange essence for a chocolate orange.

Utensils:

Glass mixing bowl

Wooden spoon

Tea spoon

Mug

Saucepan

Method:

 1. Pour hot water into the saucepan-make sure the saucepan is quite full up, and put the saucepan on the hob.

2. Place the glass bowl ontop of the saucepan, but check the bowl isn't too small and sinks into the pan.

3. Turn the hob onto a low-medium heat, then add in the milk.

4. Once the milk feels luke warm, add in the chocolate and keep stirring until the chocolate is fully melted. If the chocolate takes quite a long time to melt, turn the hob up.

5. Once everything is blended well, add 1tsp of vanilla essence or your own flavouring of choice and mix together.
 
6. Pour the contents into your mug and decorate with cream, marshmallows, chocolate curls. (The glass bowl may be quite hot so either wait for it to cool down, or use oven gloves if the bowl is too hot to handle.)

The Final Result:

I know this doesn't look anything special, but the taste is outstanding. I'm really pleased with how my drink turned out, especially as I randomly put it together and just used my instincts to decide how it should be made. What I love about home-made hot chocolate is that you can control what you put in, and how much. If you were on a diet then you can use a lower fat, dark chocolate and maybe use less chocolate and more milk, or only make a small amount.

Also, you can make a powdered mix of hot chocolate, which would last a very long time, and only cost a minimal amount. Find the recipe for powdered hot chocolate mix here.

3 CHRISTMAS DESIGN IDEAS

Hello!

Last Christmas, I didn't really put much effort into decorating and making my friend's presents something special, but this year I've broken that uncreative banner and stepped out of the box. Nearly every present i've wrapped has had some sort of decoration around it, but these design ideas I'm going to show, and explain to you today may help you step out of the box when it comes to wrapping.

The 3 design ideas will consist of a wrapping, card, and present idea, which look like this:

The first idea I will be explaining to you about is the Fabric wrapping with bows and glitter:

I came up with this idea when I was looking around in my fabric box for some ribbon to tie around things, and I thought I should try and do something creative with the fabric for wrapping up my bestfriend's presents considering she put lots of effort into my birthday gift. Anyway, I then came up with a solution and made a very easy fabric wrapping paper, which looks very sweet and rustic.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of fabric bigger than the present you're giving away, place the gift in the middle of the fabric and collect the fabric at the top of the gift, but make sure you leave enough material at the top to tie something around it.

2. Try your best to bunch up the material at the top of the present making the bottom bit as tight as possible so there aren't too many gaping holes.

3. Get a piece of ribbon or wool of your choice and tie it tightly around the scrunch at the top. I chose to do colours that match the present inside just for a sweet touch.

4. (optional) Dip the top of the scrunch in some glue and sprinkle glitter on for a more festive look and effect.

  Handmade personalised christmas card:

 This card is also for my bestfriend in returns of the adorable card she made me for my birthday with her creative talent. I had seen quite a few of the bauble designs online but instead of photos as the baubles, buttons were used, however I wanted to add a personal spin and use photos instead.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of card and fold it in half, draw 3 lines from the top downwards ,and make sure they stop and different lengths.

2. Print off the photos you want to be at the end of the lines, and cut them up into circular shapes to represent a bauble.

3. Stick something between the joining of the "bauble" and "string" to neaten it off-I made little bows out of wool.

4. Decorate the rest of the card how you wish. I used sequins to represent snow, and stuck a long line of sequin fabric at the top in which the "snow" would fall off of.

For the inside of the card I wrote in my own message, but made a red woolen bow to stick in, aswell as adding an extra photo of us in the top sector and neatening the edges off with white wool wrapped round a few times! You don't have to add all of these touches, but I did to make it a more personal card.

Rainbow Sweets Jar:

 Sticking with the homemade theme, I made this really cute sweet jar full of M&Ms' for my friend Bee who happens to be into handmade gifts, and sweets. Anyway, I was unsure on what to get her and saw this really cute jar in Wilkinsons which only cost me £1, and I had seen a few other people fill jars with sweets and things but I took it to the extreme ocd, and made each layer a different colour.

How To make:
1. Get your jar and make sure it's big enough to fit in a good amount of sweets, then open up the coloured sweets you're using and organise them into colour groups. (Make sure you wash your hands before fiddling around with the sweets because the person you're giving them too won't want dirty sweets.)
2. Go round the bottom edge of your jar with one colour then fill in the middle with the rest of that colour.
3. Repeat step 2 until you fill up to the top, and the jar is really compacted. Beware this gets quite tricky as you go up because the sweets want to intertwine, so don't move the jar/sweets around too much.
4. Close the lid and tie a ribbon around the jar.

What you could also do to add something extra is attach 2 candy canes either side to make a little sleigh like this:

 OR tie the candy canes in the back of the ribbon so they just poke out the top of the jar as this also looks really sweet.

As I only post on Sundays I won't have anything up on Christmas to say Merry Christmas, so Merry Christmas and I hope you have a lovely day!

REINDEER CUPCAKES

Hello!

Today I thought I'd change things up and do a baking post, so today you will learn how to make Reindeer Cupcakes. I'm no where near as good as a chef when it comes to cooking or baking, but I enjoy doing it in my spare time and thought these cupcakes were cute, and tasty enough to share with you!

 

Ingredients

- 125g/4½oz butter, softened 

- 175g/6oz caster sugar 

- 2 free-range eggs

- 200g/7oz self raising flour

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

- 100ml/3½fl oz milk 

- 100g/3½oz dark 70% cocoa solids chocolate, melted

- 2 tbsp Irish cream liqueur (optional)

For the chocolate icing:

- 50g dark chocolate (chopped)

 - 3 tbsp double cream 

 

Decoration:   

- giant chocolate buttons 

- crisp-coated chocolates (such as Smarties or M&Ms) 

- mini pretzels (preferably plain)

- black or dark chocolate writing icing

- mini marshmallows (sliced)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs until well combined, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Fold in the milk, melted chocolate and Irish cream liqueur-if using.

3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until well risen and lightly firm to a touch. Remove the cakes from the tin and set aside to cool on a cooling rack.

4. For the icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Whisk the mixture until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

*Decoration Time*

1. Spread the icing over the top of the cupcakes until well covered.

2. Press a chocolate button onto the cake as a nose.

3. Stick a crisp-coated chocolate on top using a little icing to hold the sugar coated sweet on the button.

4.  Stick on two slices of marshmallows as the eyes, and use the black writing icing, or dark chocolate for the pupils.

5. Cut 2 little slits near the top of the cupcake big enough to fit in the pretzels.

6. Firmly slot the pretzels into the slits, don't apply too much pressure otherwise the cake will split.

The finished result:

If you made these cupcakes then I'd love to know how they turned out, I hope you enjoyed this baking post and enjoyed the cupcakes if you made them!

FESTIVE BEAUTY PICKS

Hello!

As we are now officially in the festive period, I think it's time to be doing some Christmassy posts, so this 1st one will be my Festive Beauty Picks. Today I will be explaining the products that I think are most suited to the Festive Season.

I don't use all these products everyday, and do have other Festive products in the same category as some of these, these are just a few examples of what can be used during this season.

1. Bourjois Blush/Bronze in Sienne-85.

 The first item on my beauty picks for this season is a bronzer from Bourjois in the shade 85 Sienne. You may think it's quite odd to be wearing bronzer in Winter, but for me I think it's an essential. I have a very pale complexion all the time, but in Winter I just look way too pale for my liking, so wearing a bit of bronzer all round my face tans me up ever-so slightly, and helps to vanish my pasty skin. I switch between this bronzer, and Seventeen Instant glow bronzer during the week, the Bourjois bronzer is a little over-priced for my liking at £7.99 for the amount of bronzer you get, but the little brush does add more value to it. However, my Seventeen bronzer is £4.59 for a larger pot, and just as good but without a brush.

2. Revlon Top Speed Nail Varnish in Ignite.

 A red nail varnish is a must have in Winter, especially near Christmas time. My nail varnish is called Ignite and is from the Revlon Top Speed range, it's a very pretty red with some shimmer in which makes it even more perfect for this season. I think any sort of red/gold/neutral colour looks so pretty near Christmas time, obviously other colours do aswell, but these are the main ones that I love the best. I got this nail varnish from Fragrance Direct for 99p, and it was a great buy for such a minimal price, I highly recommend you check out the website and purchase a Revlon nail varnish from there.

3. Soap&Glory Handfood and Vanilla Sugar Foot Lotion.

I'm pretty sure nearly everyone suffers with dry hands during Winter-well I certainly do, but I also get quite dry feet as well which is a little odd, however I have a foot lotion called Vanilla Sugar from BHS, and it's an absolute darling for my feet. I like to apply this to my feet at night-time so that it sinks in throughout the night leaving me with moisturized, and lovely smelling feet in the morning. The hand cream I currently use is Hand Food by Soap&Glory, this also works wonders for me and sinks in very quickly, without leaving my hands feeling greasy or sticky afterwards. Unfortunately, I got the foot lotion ages ago and it's now not on sale any more, but another good foot lotion is Sanctuary Foot polish.

4. Collection 2000 Lasting Colour lipstick in Valentine.

Red lipsticks are worn throughout the whole year-not throughout a particular month, but my favourite time to wear red lipstick is Winter. There are lots of different shades of red worn this season, you have the dark reds to bright red and admittedly I'm more of a bright red girl, but I think any shade looks lovely on anyone. As you may know, Collection 2000 is a rather cheap and cheerful make-up brand than a Mac sort of brand, but their lipsticks are surprisingly good. I got this one for Halloween, and have worn it ever since, because I think it's very good at a very cheap price of £2.99.

5. Calvin Klein blusher in Heather Silk

Not only do I wear bronzer more in Winter, I also sometimes like to change up the bronzer for a deep pink/berry blusher, and this Calvin Klein blusher in Heather Silk meets my expectations dearly. With one very faint sweep of my brush over this blusher, I get a lot of product on my brush-this is quite annoying because I don't always want a full on pink look, but it doesn't bother me too much. I also got this from Fragrance Direct for £2.99 which is great value, and I saved £10 buying it from Fragrance Direct then a Calvin Klein retailer.

6. Urban Decay Naked Palette

 My last and final beauty pick for Winter is my Urban Decay Naked Palette. I think all of these colours in the palette suit Winter SO much, all the different tones of browns suit that bronzed/gold look, and the deep black/greys suit the musky, smokey look. I wear the brown tones more because they suit me more in my opinion, and go with my usual makeup for Winter at the moment; red lipstick, bronzed cheeks, winged eyeliner, however it's very easy to create a very pretty Winter look with this palette, because all shades in the same colour range suit eachother. This palette goes out of stock a lot throughout the whole year because it's that popular, but I was lucky enough to get one, full priced, at £37.00-pretty pricey, but worth it.

The colours close up and on skin:

So those were my favourite beauty picks for the Christmas/Winter season, I hope to find more seasonal makeup items, and share them with you!