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Showing posts with label Nom nom nom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nom nom nom. Show all posts

Monday, 2 November 2015

Vita Coco, Movember & Moga!

Today I bring you news of a pretty nifty initiative for this years Movember. Traditionally known as a time of year that men grow facial hair to raise awareness and funds for a global men's health charity (in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society), this year Vita Coco, the delicious Coconut Water folks, have joined forces with Movember for something us ladies can join in too (unless you want to grow some facial hair....you do you)! 

Moga is part of a new initiative; MOVE, a 30 day fitness challenge. Moga has been set up as a way to encourage men and women to get fit and healthy by joining a yoga course. The good news is that this month over 25 yoga studios around the country will be participating and donating 50% of the cost of each 8 week course directly to Movember. 


Vita Coco will be available at each of the 25 yoga studios to keep participants hydrated! Clever, eh? I think this is ideal for anyone who wants to take part in Movember but can't or doesn't want to grow a moustache. You can get fit and help out a good cause! Hurrah! I'll leave a list of participating yoga studios at the end. 


On a similar note, you'll probably be aware of Vita Coco Coconut Water by now but did you know they also make Extra Virgin, 100% Raw, Coconut Oil? Cause I didn't and I'm very happy about it! I've been using coconut oil for a while now and am always happy to have more brand choice. Obviously it's fantastic to use as a hair mask but I'm loving it for cooking and baking also. I now use it in most of my cooking; it's great for curries and Chinese dishes as well as roasting vegetables. 


You might also have spotted this apple, blackberry and maple crumble I popped up on Facebook the other day but it's well worth trying yourself. A healthy Autumnal dessert and using the aforementioned tasty Coconut oil! You can get the recipe from the Deliciously Ella website HERE.


Yoga studios taking part:

Dublin: Yoga Lounge Raheny, Yoga Hub Dublin, Elbow Room (Smithfield), Innit (Grand Canal Dock), The Yoga Room (Merrion Road), Hush Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga Blackrock, Bikram Yoga Dublin.
Clare: Ennis Yoga
Galway: Yoga Shala
Cork: Yoga Loft, Yoga Zone (Carrigalane), Himalayan Vallley Centre, Bikram Cork, Yoga Worx.
Limerick: Bikram Limerick, Satayoga.
Waterford: House of Yoga.
Meath: Yoga Boann (Duleek).
Wexford: Earthwise Yoga (Bree)
Laois: Blackhill Woods Retreat (Abbeyleix)
Westmeath: Bikram Yoga Athlone
Wicklow: Greystones Yoga, Wicklow Yoga, Yoga Sacred Space. 

You can find out more HERE.

Are you a Coconut Oil convert too? Will you be getting on your yoga pants for Movember?!
XX


*This post is not sponsored but does contain press samples. All opinions my own, as always.

Sunday, 3 November 2013

October Favourites

October was a lovely month, autumnal but surprisingly sunny and warm. Before the proper cold snap sets in over the next few months (which'll leave me clinging to a radiator and too cold to apply make up), here are my favourites from the last month:

October make up favourites
  1. I love Topshop polishes, they're great quality and come in some really cool shades. They apply easily and last well. This particular shade, Big Smoke (love that name) is a great Autumn/Winter staple; a "greige" that manages to look both elegant and stylish on the nails and nicely avoids that awful "mannequin nails dipped in cement" look.
  2. YSL Effet Faux Cils Shocking mascara in Deep. I've gone on at length about how this is my favourite mascara but I haven't had it for over six months now as I was trying out the Babydoll version (review HERE) and then another favourite from Bourjois after that. Himself was recently in the Duty Free and picked me up a double pack of this so I've been luxuriating in having big fluttery lashes again, akin to the likes of Twiggy.
  3. I did a full review of this illuminating powder from Bourjois HERE and I've been wearing it every day since. Love it!
  4. Another of my all time favourite polishes and perfect for this time of year is Lincoln Park After Dark from OPI. This is a black/purple mix in a creme formula. Again, super easy to apply and lasts me about a week without chips with a good top coat. Very pretty.
  5. I also did a full post on this colour boost from Bourjois HERE. This is an absolutely stunning berry shade and is the nicest of the crayon/lipstick/balm thingies I've come across.

OPI Lincoln Park After dark, Topshop big smoke
Lincoln Park After Dark (L), Big Smoke (R)

Starbucks pumpkin spice latte

And...lastly, I got far too excited about the return of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte this month. Dear god, these things are amazing. Sweet and cinnamon-y and delicious. I got into a terrible habit of getting one of these when I'd go for a long walk to "warm up", which is clearly a terrible excuse for unnecessary calories. Anyway, I'm now looking forward to the Christmas coffees that'll be out soon. And so the cycle continues.

Anyone else tried any of this lot?
XX

Thursday, 5 September 2013

SBBC Day 5: A Recipe To Love: Melanzane Parmigiana

SBBC day 5 calls for a recipe you love, would like to learn or one that is a family tradition.This one is kind of all three. When my sister was in college she spent her Erasmus year in Italy and came back with all sorts of lovely recipes, including Melanzane Parmigiana, which we all grew to love but until recently, I had never actually attempted to make myself. I would describe it as a vegetarian, pasta free lasagne. This is a hearty and warming dish, so is perfect for Autumn/Winter, but is equally lovely in warmer weather, served with a Summery salad and crispy bread. I actually wanted to try making Bruschetta with this too, so the recipe for that is at the end.


Ingredients:
2-3 Aubergines
Salt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 Cloves of Garlic, crushed
800g Tinned Tomatoes
150ml Red wine
Pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Oil, to fry
200g Mozzarella, thinly sliced
125g Parmesan, finely grated
Basil Leaves

Method
1) Slice Aubergines (most recipes suggest lengthways, but I'm not sure it matters really), lay them out and sprinkle generously with salt. This sounds odd, but aubergines can be bitter and salting them helps improve the flavour and the absorption of oil later on. Leave them to salt for 30 mins, then rinse the salt off under cold water.
2) I then drizzle olive oil over the aubergines and pop them in the oven on a baking tray at about 180 degrees until they're soft and have a golden colour. Others suggest chargrilling or frying them but I actually really like the way the baked slices taste- plus they tend to be less oily than they would be fried and less dry than they would be chargrilled.
3) While your aubergines are baking, heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic until softened, then throw in your tinned tomatoes and the wine. Bring to the boil, stir well, then turn down the heat slightly and add your oregano, the pinch of sugar and some salt and pepper. Simmer gently for 30-45 minutes.
4) Now, layer up your baking dish with tomato sauce, then aubergine, then mozzarella, a light sprinkling of parmesan and then back to the tomato sauce again. Keep going as you would with a lasagne, finishing with a generous amount of parmesan on top.
5) Pop it in the oven at 180 degrees C until bubbling and browned, then serve with some basil on top.
6) I served mine with bruschetta- toasted slices of bread, topped with fresh pesto, then chopped fresh tomatoes, red onion and basil, marinated in extra virgin olive oil (when I say marinated, I mean the ingredients are tossed together with the oil, then covered and left in the fridge for a good 45 minutes to allow the flavours to mix and until you're ready to make your toast).


Enjoy!
XX

Friday, 30 August 2013

Toblerone & Crunchie Cheesecake

Some of you may remember me recently waffling on on Twitter about the wonderousness that is my lovely sister in law's cheesecake. I promised then that the next time she made it, I would photograph it (before it would undoubtedly be demolished), get the recipe and reproduce it here for you. So, to reiterate, I had nothing to do with the making of this yumminess, merely the eating of two large slices whilst extolling the virtues of Philadelphia and Toblerones (not easy to do with a mouthful of cheesecake going on).


Ingredients:
180g Digestives
75g Butter
300g Cream Cheese (Philadelphia, but you can use any one really)
200ml Double Cream
75g Sugar
250g filling (you can pick whatever you want for this, Ailbhe uses raspberries and white chocolate a lot of the time but blueberries or a more citrus slant with orange zest and dark chocolate would be equally delicious..ooh)

Method:
1) Crumble biscuits. Melt the butter and mix together with the biscuits, place into your dish to form the base, spreading out evenly.
2) Next, mix the cream cheese, cream and sugar until smooth.
3) Add in your chocolate filling (in this case, delicious chucks of Toblerone and Crunchie...nom nom nom)
4) Spread over top of biscuit base, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least two and a half hours.
5) Eat with a large, warming mug of tea or coffee with the fire and woolly socks on (very Autumn appropriate, this).
6) Lastly, make a holy show of yourself as you try and scrape up what tiny amounts remain on your own plate.


Made anything delicious yourself recently? I need inspiration! Let me know in the comments if you have or if you're going to try your hand at this most fantastic creation!
XX

Thursday, 25 July 2013

Home-made Granola

This recipe is courtesy of my sister but you could pretty much put whatever you like into it to make it your own- different nuts and spices, raisins or seeds as preferred. What I like about this is that it doesn't have that extremely sugary taste you get from a lot of supermarket granolas (that leave you feeling like your teeth are about to fall out) but it still has a good crunch and sweetness to it, thanks to the honey. I made this the other day and it was super easy- pretty much foolproof I would say!

You will need..
...Lots of good stuff!
  • 200g Jumbo Rolled Oats
  • 50g Flaked Almonds (my local supermarket only had whole ones so I used them instead but you could also use chopped almonds).
  • 50g Pumpkin Seeds
  • 50g Sunflower Seeds
  • 1 Tsp Ground Ginger
  • A Pinch of Salt
  • 50g Butter
  • 5-6 Tbsp Honey
  • Zest of one large Orange

Method:
  1. Heat oven to 180 Degrees C, Gas Mark 4.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ground ginger and salt.
  3. Melt the butter and honey together, add the orange zest and pour over the dry mixture, stirring well. 
  4. Spread on a wide baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, giving it a stir every 5 minutes to ensure it colours evenly.
  5. Allow to cool and crisp up, then stir in 100g dried cranberries.
  6. Store in airtight container. Serves 4-5. I eat mine with Greek yoghurt but it's also lovely with low fat natural yoghurt and fresh berries.
  7. Bask in the glory of having created something healthy for a change, contemplate buying dungarees & wellies and living off of the "produce of the land" 'til you remember that you live in an inner city apartment and can't raise chickens or keep bees. Boo.
Enjoy!
XX

Saturday, 6 July 2013

The 31 Day Snap #6

Today's Daily Snap (read about it HERE) is this rather lovely egg timer we picked up in Arnotts ages ago with a voucher we had (Their baking/ kitchenware section is heavenly).


I love a polka dot so this was pretty much a necessity for me, especially as it assisted us (I say 'us' but really I mean himself) in making these delicious white chocolate and raspberry buns yesterday:


We've made these before (you can check out the recipe HERE).
Nom Nom Nom.
XX

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

The 31 Day Snap #2

Today's 31 Day Snap is of my new favourite breakfast. It's a Belgian waffle with ice cream, mixed berry compote and maple syrup and may well be full of at least a gazillion calories but by God, it's worth it. 


It can be found in Farmer Brown's Market and Eatery on Bath Avenue in Dublin 4 and is well worth a visit for the lovely atmosphere, pretty decor and delicious menu. I usually swallow all this down with a massive coffee and some sneaky sweet potato fries and that's my morning made.
If you're interested in taking part in the 31 Day Snap, you can read the original post HERE.
XX

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Birthday Highlights 2013!

I had another fantastic birthday this year and although I shared most of these pictures on Twitter and Instagram, I thought I'd pop some up here too.


Woken up to Cake, presents, a huge card and most excitingly- a balloon. It really is the little things with me.
Definitely a running theme of 'birthday drinks'- Breakfast Mimosa, Prosecco & Strawberries, Bellini and best of all- tea in my birthday mug.

Outfit of the Day for Birthday Dinner- Closet dress, Dolce & Gabana shoes and Ted Baker Clutch- one of my lovely birthday presents. 

I really had the best day, from start to finish. I won't go into too much detail but this birthday was particularly special, as the last year has been quite tough so I just want to say a huge thanks to everyone for your support and kind messages and for everyone who made it such a fantastic day- I'm extremely grateful and believe me, I know how lucky I am!
XX

Friday, 21 June 2013

Lemon Butter Cookies

It's been a while since I revved up the old KitchenAid but a beloved sibling's birthday is as good a reason as any. My sister is not a huge fan of chocolate so I thought these lemon butter cookies would be a nice light, post dinner alternative. I found the recipe in the Lilly Higgins baking book "Make, Bake, Love", one of my absolute favourites as it's packed full of beautiful, easy to follow recipes. I "adapted" this one (I say adapted cause basically I made them incorrectly- if the recipe says use TWO TRAYS it's because the biscuits expand so don't skimp and use just the one. Lesson learnt. Actually, Lilly calls these "lemon drops" but mine resembled nothing like drops after baking so I'm calling them Lemon Butter cookies instead.) but you could add whatever you want to these if you don't particularly like lemon. Himself and I are thinking of making them with ground almonds and cherry pieces or orange zest and ginger for Christmas.
What you''ll need..

Ingredients:
200g softened Butter
50g Icing Sugar, sieved, with a bit extra to dust the biscuits with afterwards, for decorative purposes.
Zest of one Lemon (I used two cause they were small)
200g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder.


Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease your all-important two trays.
  2. I creamed the butter and icing sugar together in my KitchenAid but you could easily do it by hand, as long as the result is that it's light and mixed well. Add lemon zest, flour and baking powder, beat quickly until all combined.
  3. Roll mixture into small balls in your hands (no non-creepy way of saying that, unfortunately), place on baking trays and press down lightly with the back of a teaspoon to create the indentation you can see in the photo.
  4. Bake for 10-15 mins, remove from tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.
  5. When cool, dust with icing sugar.
  6. Scoff noisily with a large mug of tea and pretend it's somehow healthier than the chocolate cake you would've made, cause, you know, LEMONS.
All boxed up and ready to go!

Monday, 17 June 2013

Pimms and er, Croquet on the Lawn..

OK, so there was no croquet, I may be fancy but I'm not quite that fancy. Pimms though- what a delightfully refreshing, Summery drink. Obviously this is an alcoholic cocktail (about 25% vol..eep) so drink responsibly and only if you're over 18 (Unfortunately for me, it's been a good decade since I last had a surly bouncer check my i.d. Oh, those were the days).
Anyways, you'll need:

Pimms No.1, 50mls if you're only making one glass (but that'd be crazy cause it's delicious and you'll undoubtedly want more), or 200mls for a jug.
Lemonade (we went for the cloudy variety, just for added interest..very exciting lives we lead altogether)
Mint (about half a packet)
Oranges (I used two)
A punnet of Strawberries
Half a cucumber, peeled
A lemon.
You can also add in other fruit if you like- I made this with apples before too and it was lovely.


Slice all the fruit, throw into your jug with a load of ice.
Pour over one part Pimms to three parts Lemonade.
Give it a good old stir!

Add your mint on top to garnish..


..and enjoy!
xx

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Dublin in a Week Part 4: Afternoon Tea at the Conrad Hotel

In Part 1, 2 & 3 I showed you Trinity College, Guinness Storehouse and The Japanese Gardens and no week of fun touristy things would be complete without going for Afternoon Tea somewhere. Seriously, it's just one of my favourite things to do ever. Maybe it's the combination of tiny sandwiches and champagne or perhaps it's briefly getting to act like a fancy-schmansy lady..who knows?! We went to the Conrad Hotel on Earlsford Terrace, across from the National Concert Hall. The staff were very friendly and attentive and it was a lovely experience overall.
Anyway, prepare to salivate:

Champagne! We also had Earl Grey & Mint Tea
The Layers of deliciousness!
Mini Cupcakes, Chocolate & Pistachio dipped Straberries, Berry Macaroons, Yummy Sandwiches, Scones.
Scones with strawberry jam, clotted cream and fresh strawberries (and the sign of a good afternoon tea- scones with and more importantly, without raisins. Raisins, the work of the devil), pretty tower of macaroons.

Om nom nom nom.
XX

Monday, 10 December 2012

The G Hotel, Galway and Lush bath treats!

We recently headed off for a break to the G hotel, Galway, a rather lovely wedding present as the G is one of our favourite places to go. The decor of the hotel was designed by non other than Irish miliner Philip Treacy himself- apparently a fan of supermodels, seashells and large silver orbs- which lends an air of the delightfully surreal to most of the rooms. It's recently been upgraded to a five star and really is a lovely break away- good food, an amazing spa and beautiful surroundings.



Champagne Afternoon Tea, Baileys hot chocolate by the fire, delicious dinners, a trip to Salthill, the Galway Christmas Market and general lovely relaxation. Fabulous.
Knowing that I had a lovely big bath to look forward to in the G, I popped into Lush before we left Dublin and picked up a So White bath ballistic (4.20 euro), a Big Blue bath ballistic (3.90 euro) and a Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar (8.90 euro).
Good news is that all of Lush's bath ballistics contain sea salt, which helps to improve circulation- so, definitely a good idea if, like me, your fingers and toes are always cold.
So White smells divine- like fresh apples:


While I liked this, I wasn't sure whether or not it was the bath ballistic or the hot water that relaxed my muscles..I didn't really feel like So White made a huge difference to my bath.
I did feel better after using Big Blue though- it contains lavender and seaweed and turns the water a delightfully tropical shade of blue, which helps if you're trying to pretend you're in Miami. Check it out:


I would definitely repurchase that one.
Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar is for sore and stiff muscles and contains cinnamon, cocoa butter, Shea butter, organic jojoba oil, coconut oil, peppermint oil and Aduki beans.


It smells lovely and does indeed soothe sore muscles. Unfortunately, the sales assistant in Lush advised me that it can be used in the bath, as a massage bath bar. He was wrong. So very wrong. As it turns out this is because once in the bath it a) melts, causing the bath to fill with massage oil, which not only renders the massage bar useless as it starts to disintegrate but also means that the bath water becomes a bit slimy and unpleasant and b) the aduki beads come away from the bar and fill up the bath meaning you then have to clean them out afterwards or risk causing a drain blockage. So thanks for that, Lush assistant. Maybe a rudimentary knowledge of your products might be a good idea in future. Since then, I have used the remains of the bar for a regular, non bath massage, which was very nice and much less uncomfortable all round.
Lastly, here's a photo from our spin out to Barna:



Beautiful.

Friday, 7 December 2012

Christmas Cookies!

As is traditional at this time of year, I feel it incumbent upon me to pretend to be a 1950's housewife again and make baked goods. Delicious baked goods, at that. Here are my Christmas Butter cookies, the recipe for which can be found on the BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients:

  • 200g Softened Butter
  • 140g Caster Sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 300g Plain Flour 
(you could obviously make these more festive by adding in cinnamon, almond extract or whatever else you fancy, I just kept it simple and made them seasonally appropriate with the moulds I used).



Method:
  1. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon (or, if you're me and have a fancy KitchenAid mixer, use that on a low setting).
  2. Then add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and briefly beat to combine.
  3. Sift over 300g Plain Flour and stir until mixture is well combined- you may need to get your hands in there to bring the dough together.
  4. Some recipes for butter cookies suggest wrapping the dough in cling film and letting it cool in the fridge for 20mins..I didn't do that but each to their own. Mostly I was just impatient to eat some Christmas shaped cookies while decorating our tree.
  5. Roll out the dough and cut out into your preferred shapes- I used dough cutters in a tree and angel mould but a star shape would be lovely too.
  6. Pop onto a non stick baking tray or grease a regular tray, into the oven at 180C/fan 160C/gas mark 4 for 15 mins or until golden brown, remove from the tray and place on a wire rack to cool.
  7. Decorate as you wish. I made these for a girly Christmas get together so I decorated each cookie with each lovely lady's name, as you can see below. I used the Dr Oetker icing pen decorating kit, which is really handy. Be warned though- the icing pens will only work if they've been well heated up- I had to put mine in a bowl of just boiled hot water before I could use them, otherwise they won't flow properly and will result in you shaking your fist at the sky and cursing Dr Oetker, whoever he or she may be. 

Mmm. Cookies.

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Cherry Scones

So we did our groceries at the weekend (an exciting start to any blog post, I'm sure you'll agree) and somehow we ended up with a bag of cherries that cost SEVEN EURO. Yes, shouty capitals are necessary here. We obviously didn't realise until we'd paid for them amongst all the other shopping. It's important to note that these weren't magical cherries or anything, so I'm unsure where the 7 euro price came in. Good old M & S. Anyways, as it turns out they are in fact delicious and as we paid such a princely sum for them I thought I'd take the opportunity to use my amazing mixer again. Oh the joys of the KitchenAid. I got the recipe for these from www.goodtoknow.co.uk



Ingredients:

  • 125mls Milk
  • 1 Medium Egg
  • 250g Plain Flour
  • 3 tsp Baking Powder
  • 60g Butter
  • 60g Caster Sugar
  • 100g Glace Cherries (I used fresh instead, obviously)
  • 5-6CM Fluted Round Cutter ( I also didn't have a cutter, so I just shaped them myself)
  • Baking Sheet, Buttered.

  1. Add milk to the egg to make 150mls. Reserve a tbsp of the mixture for the glaze. Tip all the ingredients into the mixer and whizz in bursts until the ingredients bind together. Take care not to over-mix it or the cherries will be too finely chopped. Alternatively, tip the flour and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter. Roughly chop the cherries and add them with the other ingredients, mixing with a round-bladed knife until a dough is formed.
  2. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 2cm thick and use cutter to stamp out scones. Re-roll trimmings and cut out more scones until dough is used up. Place them on the baking sheet.
  3. Brush the glaze over the top of the scones, then bake them in the centre of the oven at 220 degrees Celsius (239 degrees F, gas mark 7) for about 15-18 mins, or until they have risen and are a light golden brown colour.
  4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or cold with butter (and raspberry jam!)
  5. Enjoy!


These turned out a little bit cracked but were delicious nonetheless. Yay!

Monday, 27 August 2012

My First Attempt at becoming a Domestic Goddess..

One of our amazing wedding presents was a KitchenAid mixer. That's right, KitchenAid. I've been desperate for one of these for years, my mum and sisters remembered that and very generously bought one for us in (squeee!!) baby pink. I LOVE it so.


Hubster and I had one of our dearest friend's baby's Christening party coming up so we thought it'd be nice to make our own cupcakes to bring instead of buying them in M & S, as is our usual MO (we've been watching a lot of Criminal Minds). Also, I bought "Saved by Cake" by Marian Keyes at the weekend and it gave me a serious urge to bake.


If you haven't checked out this book yet, I can seriously recommend it. The recipes are mouth watering but simple to make and the book is peppered throughout with Marian's trademark wit. Love it.
Anyways, we decided upon Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes, which we made twice about a year ago and even though they were a huge success, we didn't make them again for some reason.
I don't recall where I got this recipe from but I know I googled it at the time and I think it could have come from the BBC Food site. Sorry if that's not hugely helpful but such is life!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

  • 200g Self Raising Flour, sieved.
  • 200g Caster Sugar
  • 200g Butter, at room temperature
  • 4 Eggs, at room temperature
  • Half a teaspoon Baking Powder
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Half a teaspoon Vanilla Essence
  • 150g Raspberries
  • 100g White Chocolate
For the Butter Icing, you'll need:
  • 150g Icing Sugar
  • 75g Soft Butter, soft at room temperature
  • 50g Raspberries
  • Chocolate shaving/Raspberries to decorate

    .
  1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius and line bun tin with cupcake cases.
  2. Chop the chocolate into very small cubes and coat in a little flour (they hold onto their shape a little better this way when in the mixture and baked). 
  3. Put all the cupcake ingredients except the chocolate and the raspberries into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk (Woop, Woop!! KitchenAid! Woop!) until you reach a thick, creamy consistency.
  4. Now, with a spoon, gently mix in chocolate and raspberries- try not to break up the raspberries too much. 
  5. Using two spoons or a spoon and a knife, spoon mixture into cases, put into the middle of the oven and bake for 20 mins. Lick the spoon and/or bowl in the manner of a small child. Then, conveniently find something really important to do while your other half starts the clean up.
  6. When cooked, remove from the tin and allow to cool (they should be golden brown, but if you're unsure if they're done or not, you can test them with a skewer or a knife- it should come out clean. If the skewer is wet it means they're not fully done yet..that rhymes, huzzah!)
  7. To make the icing for these, you mix the soft butter and icing sugar until blended together, add the raspberries and stir gently until the icing turns pink (we used the KitchenAid for this part too, so basically not gently at all but it got the job done super fast!).
  8. Spoon onto the cupcakes with the back of a dessert spoon (if, like us, you have failed to invest in an icing piper). You can add chocolate shavings, raspberries, sprinkles or any other decoration you'd like.
  9. Store in an airtight container or cover with cling film to keep fresh for longer.
  10. Sit back smugly and enjoy as the compliments flood in.


Mmm. Cakey goodness. For some reason I completely neglected to take a photo of these post decoration, so you'll just have to trust me that they looked great but more importantly, were completely delish. I realised today when I was writing this that we had a couple left over that didn't make it to the Christening, (as we ran out of raspberries for the tops of them) so here they are, with the addition of some percy pigs on top:




                                                                       Nom nom nom.