Weekly Highlights. #19

L-R: Shameless Selfie, My Roberts radio ♥, Les Mis at the Oliviers, Shameless Selfie #2, Carving the Butt Chicken, Birthday Cake No.1 from Mum, Birthday Pie lunch, Birthday Cake No.2 from Craig, Birthday Cards, Chocolate & Macadamia Pie, Tea Cosy made by Amy, Me and the best girl. 

This week has been a super fun one ending in a lovely long bank holiday weekend! I turned 23, had two cakes made for me (and I have another on the way - I'm being spoilt!) and briefly appeared on tv! And when I say briefly I mean literal seconds - but it still counts as a claim to fame!! Right??

Narrowing it all down is pretty tricky, but here are my three highlights:

1. Last Sunday Craig and myself hot-footed it down to Covent Garden to watch the live streaming of the Olivier Awards. We did feel slightly like the poor commoners who weren't actually allowed in the party, but it was fun regardless! They had a stage set up and had some live performances before the actual awards ceremony took place which were really good. Les Miserables and Wicked being a particular highlight! Mylene Klass and Micheal Xavier were hosting the stage, and then did some live 'links' to the awards show about three people away from us in the crowd! Mylene really did look as pretty in real life, but she also looked a lot older! It was super exciting to be on TV though, even if it was for a matter of about 5 seconds!

2. On Thursday I turned 23 and although I spent the day at work I still had a really good day! Craig bought me a Roberts Radio in my favourite colour which I've been lusting over for FOREVER. It was literally so so lovely of him, so thank youuuu again if you're reading which I doubt you areee. haha My work colleagues bought some lovely treats for us all to share, and I got home to find mum had made me a super tasty ginger cake! 

3. Finally, last night my lovely best friend Amy came with me to the boys flat and Joe made us Butt Chicken - which if you've never heard of before sounds BEYOND odd. But, its essentially a way of roasting a chicken on a beer can. Yep, still sounds odd right? Google it and you'll know what I mean! It was superr yum anyway and we then enjoyed copious amounts of alcohol and a Lemon Drizzle cake made by Craig which was soo good. I also need to mention that one of my presents from Amy was an amazing tea cosy that she MADE herself!!! Like actually knitted it! I will literally treasure it for ever. :) A lovely night all in all <3 p="">
I still have more birthday celebrations to go this weekend! But you'll have to wait for next weeks highlights to hear about them ;)

I hope you're all having a delightful long weekend!

Aimée
Xxxx

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Happy Blog Birthday To Me!

As you may have guessed, its exactly a year today since I created this little space on the internet. Wahoo! I've come a long way since my first rather awkward post and I've become rather proud of my little space on the internet. :)

One very boring day working as a Receptionist last summer I found a youtube video by Zoella of her July Favourites and the world of Beauty Blogging was opened to me. I literally became obsessed with reading and finding new blogs after that! To be honest I'm still impressed that I'd never found the blogging world before then! When I moved home from Uni for good in October of last year I finally decided to create a blog of my own. I didn't particularly think I'd carry it on that long as I can't say I'm the best at sticking to projects. I still have a scrapbook full of pictures to finish from 2011 and a not even started quilt to finish from 2010! But, this little blog seems to have stuck with me and I really love updating it now!

All parts of blogging appeal to me; the writing side, photography and of course the shopping ;). So thank you SO much if you're an old or new follower, it honestly brightens my day every time I see a new comment or gain a new follower! <3

I've finally gotten myself into a proper blogging schedule now, so please do pop back on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays for new posts :) Here's a few of my favourite posts from the last year, if you wanted a quick gander :)

A MAC Confession (My first MAC purchase! Eeek!)

One Stone Down, One To Go 

My Signature Scent?

New York, New Yorkkk.

FOTN | Cocktail Night with the Girls

Sunday Bake: Viennese Whirls

Here's to another blogging year which I hope you'll join me on! :)

Aimée 

Xxxx

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Recipe | Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

 Way back in January, I posted about a handmade birthday box I made for my best friend, (check it out HERE) and I included some home-made Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. I promised to post the recipe on here, and its taken me till April to do so! I'm such a good blogger, clearly. But, seeing as its still hardly summer weather I think hot chocolate is still called for. :)

Firstly ingredients wise you need -

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1/3 tablespoons sea salt
1 cup dry milk powder
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I realise I used dark - I can't read okay..)
10oz dark chocolate

The recipe I used is American, hence the measurements being in cups but there are lots of conversion tables on the interweb. Or if you're lucky enough to have measuring cups like me, you're winning!

Firstly line a rimmed (very important!) baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Then you need to make the caramel, prepare for really pretty swirly colours and an amazing smell! Heat the sugar in a large pan over a medium heat, without stirring. Be patient with it and when the sugar begins to melt, slowly swirl the pan around to melt it without burning. Keep your eye on the pan, as it can burn in an instant! As soon as its melted to a deep amber colour remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the vanilla. It will spit, so wear an apron just in case! Whisk the caramel until smooth again and immediately pour onto the lined baking tray. You then leave it  to cool for around an hour and the hard part is over!

If you find that some caramel gets stuck to your pan, pour in some water and put it over a gentle heat. Once its warmed a little, the caramel should come off easily and melt in to the water meaning you can just pour it away and be left with a shiny pan. :)

Once its completely cooled, you need to snap it all into tiny pieces. I found the best way to do it was to jab at it with a knife - its quite a good stress reliever actually! You then need to turn a food processor on, and while running feed the caramel pieces in so they are ground into a fine powder. The food processor starts to ooze a caramel smoke at this point and makes a god awful racket, so you might want to warn anyone in the vicinity beforehand. Once its completely pulverised, it should look a bit like this:

You then need to add the rest of the ingredients, aside from the chocolate, to the food processor and whizz until smooth. Finally, add the chocolate to the mix and process until the mixture is a fine powder.

And, voila! You've made your own salted caramel hot chocolate powder! Which sounds mega impressive, but as you've just witnessed, is ridiculously easy! I hope you enjoy it :) The original recipe states to use three tablespoons mixed with milk - but I find that wayyy too much. So, I'd say its just up to personal preference. Also, side note - this recipe makes LOADS. Like LOADS. So make sure you have enough jars :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Source: Adapted from Seeded At The Table.

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Afternoon Tea at The Ritz!

For my birthday last week, my sister gave me the ultimate surprise day! Afternoon Tea at The Ritz!!! I was beyond excited, and when I finally found out where we going I exclaimed so loudly in the street that I think a passing girl may have lost a few lives. Oops.

We were booked into the 11:30 session and had a blissful hour and a half to eat and drink to our hearts content. Walking up the steps and through the revolving doors, I suddenly felt really nervous. Like they were going to figure out that I was actually just a commoner and would condemn me to the streets. But, I have to say everyone was really lovely and made me feel completely at ease. We were shown to our table in The Palm Court, which was beautifully decorated. The court was already quite full when we arrived and was soon completely filled. It was a lovely atmosphere, with resident pianist Ian Gomes playing delightful tunes on the piano.

We were first asked what tea we’d like to drink, I chose Earl Grey and my sister Katie chose Jasmine. The Silver tea pots were ginormous! We were practically swimming with tea by the time we left, and it really was the nicest Earl Grey I’ve ever had. I’m not sure anything else will compare now. Also, check out the swanky tea strainer!! Really want one of those now. Our cake stand was then filled with an amazing array of goodies. About 12 perfectly sized finger sandwiches, with amazing fillings (best salmon I’ve ever had!) and a selection of cakes. We had two Millefeuille’s (which I’ve wanted to try forever and were incredible), an amazing chocolate cake/slice/pastry/goodness and a macaroon topped with an amazing cream. The middle plate of our cake stand was empty, and we were informed that it would be filled with warm scones. Oh my.

I feel like the first half an hour of our time there consisted of us stuffing our faces, but the food really was incredible. By the time our scones were brought out (two plain, two sultana) I was so full but still couldn’t stop eating! There was an amazing strawberry jam and clotted cream to go with the scones – they really melted in the mouth.

I have to say also, The Ritz are definitely not stingy! They refill the sandwiches the entire time you’re there – seriously a winner!

Finally, after we felt it couldn’t get any better. A trolley came around with ‘pudding’. So we were having pudding, for our pudding. Why have I not done this before?! Pudding Pudding consisted of an amazing banana, passion fruit and coffee crème pot topped with chocolatey crunchy biscuity bits. We were also given a choice of either a slice of lemon or blackforest cake. I chose the lemon and it was divine!

It literally was such a wonderful experience – food aside, the atmosphere is great and its definitely fun to pretend to be posh for the day! As we left we popped in to the toilets to check them out, and we were given an individual hand towel to dry our hands! It was rather lovely! Haha Obviously taking pictures inside had to be done discretely - no getting out my Nikon sadly! But, I hope you like the snaps I took on my iPhone J

After this, we needed to walk off the excessive amount of food we’d eaten, so we had a lovely mooch inside Kensington Palace and gardens. We then wandered through the entire Kensington area, choosing all our future houses ;) Finally our last stop of the day was the Hummingbird Bakery – because we clearly hadn’t eaten enough cake. We sat outside as it was still such a gorgeous day and it was scrummy!

If you ever get the chance to go to The Ritz or are thinking of an extravagant place to go as a present, I’d seriously recommend checking out The Ritz. It was such a lovely day, so thank you Katie!! J Here’s the website to have a look; http://www.theritzlondon.com/tea/london-,default-en.html

Aimee

Xxxx

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