Saturday 30 March 2013

Bakingmad.com #2

Hello Lovelies!
Happy Easter, hope you're all eating as much chocolate as you can. I've got my Easter egg waiting for me to demolish.
We have some exciting news, our FIRST GIVEAWAY will soon be published to win a Baking Mad Cook Book for all you food and baking fanatics! We haven't received the Cook Book yet, so as soon as we do we'll post more information about the competition, hopefully will be next week!

Anyway in the spirit of Easter, we've been doing a lot of Easter baking! First of all me and Tori made some cute cupcakes, cornflake cakes and shortbreads which all turned out fabulous check out the post here. Then bakingmad.com sent me some decoration ingredients to use so me (Charlotte) and David have baked possibly the most extravagant Victoria sponge I've ever made.
Be sure to check out bakingmad.com if you've not already as they have so many amazing easy recipes for you to follow like these Cake Pops, each recipe have a step by step guide of how to make it and they have loads of inspirational ideas to make your cooking better and more fun!

This is what we got sent. I've never used roll on icing before, so it was a challenge when we finally started decorating the cake.

We decided on a Victoria Sponge with a jam centre, following this recipe but changing the additional ingredients

Here's how to make a brilliant Victoria Sponge
As this was the first time that either me or David had used Roll on Icing I'm afraid I can't give you any advice or tips to perfecting it as we just improvised on our cake, all I can say is that you need a lot of patiences. Check out bakingmad.com here for more information on how to dye the icing.

Here it is! This took us all day long and after lots of stressing trying to get my chick and eggs to look life like, I was very pleased of the final outcome!
Massive thanks to David for helping me, and doing all the banner and the icing letters and for the morale boost!
After trying the cake, it was totally worth it, the Sponge tastes amazing and the icing is just the right amount, I wish I could give you all a piece to try.

We will let you know as soon as we get the competition sort and hopefully you will be a lucky winner of a new Cook Book!

Have you made an Easter Cake? What do you think of our cake?

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Monday 25 March 2013

Passion for Fashion?

Hey lovelies!

Moneysupermarket.com are holding a 'Passion for Fashion' competition and to enter all you need to do is write a blog post and show them how you would find an outfit for under £200 for each of these categories; Casual wear, Party wear and Holiday wear! Obviously I had to this, I love a good challenge and creating my own outfits even if it makes me really upset that I can't buy all the nice things I want. The closing date of the competition is 8th April 2013, so you have loads of time and for more information check it out here.

So here are my outfits!
1/2/3/4/5/6/7
TOTAL: £152.58

This outfit took me so long, I'm not quite sure why, but it was definitely time well spent. I saw this Miss Selfridge dress in the store not so long ago and it's been on my wishlist since, I love it, it's so adorable and I have such a weakness for an embellished collar.
Originally I was going to use the Mini Sienna Padlock Bag from Topshop as the colour matched so well with the brogues and the belts however with the price tag of £75 I thought that I could find a bag just as good for cheaper, after all we all love a good bargain, and I think this bag looks just as good if not better.
The socks actually come part as a 3 pack, therefore for £8 I didn't think was so bad because then you can mix and match the socks with other shoes to create a whole new look and the belts also come as a 2 Pack for £4.99 which is brilliant as both belts would really go with the whole outfit.

1/2/3/4/5/6
TOTAL: £112.48

I love the neon trend at the moment. My original plan was just to have a neon clutch, however I've wanted a bow clip from AA for ages now, and when I saw they did it in orange, it just would look so cute at the back of my hair and I also thought that the dress would look great with a chunky statement necklace and when I came across this chain one from Topshop, it was like it was meant to be.
I really want these flatforms from Riverisland, I don't like wearing heels because I just tower above everyone else so I normally wear flatforms and I think that these shoes will last a good while as the tread is pretty big!

1/2/3/4/5/6
TOTAL: £114

If you've not already guessed already, Coral/Pink is my favourite colour, I have so many Coral items in my wardrobe, and this summer I will probably buy a whole lot more, I hope. Coral looks great with a tan and when I found this Topshop Cover up I was in love, no matter what swim suit you pick, you could probably pair it with this cover up. The Sandals are just made for the sun, apparently as they are called 'easy tan summer sandal' and there is nothing worse than tan lines, especially embarrassing ones.
This AA bag will be perfect hold all for the beach, you definitely will be able to fit everything in like a towel, dry clothes, books and camera, everything you need!
I love River Island Sunglasses, they suit me a lot better than most sunglasses and for £13 they are a little price to pay. Unfortunately I lost my last pair when I was in Turkey in this beautiful flowing river, nearly cried when it happened and was hunting for ages to find them but as soon as they fell off my head, they were gone *sigh*. If we ever get a summer again this year, they are definitely the first purchase!

For more information on the competition  and how to enter check here and make sure you send me the link to your outfits collages!

Do you like my outfit collages? Which is your favourite outfit?

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Sunday 24 March 2013

Bakingmad.com #1

Evening!
Hope your all enjoying Easter, we thought that we'd carry on with our Easter theme. Like Charlotte said in Bakingmad #2 post we did some baking together before we was given the Bakingmad set and it's too good not too post cause they all turned out so tasty.

The recipe we picked could have been anything from Cupcakes, Flapjacks or even something Easter related like Easter Bunny Cake Pops. There was just too much choice and we decided to make 3 things; Homemade Shortbread, Chocolate Corflake Cakes and Easter Cupcakes
And they all turned out pretty good!


Round 1: Easter Cupcakes


The finished product of all our cakes is at the bottom of this post :) 




The finished product of all our cakes is at the bottom of this post :) 


We couldn't find a proper Cornflake Cake Recipe on bakingmad.com however they do have Chocolate Crispy Cakes which is practically the same, just with different cereal and we've made ours Easter related too!

Well we had TONES of fun making all these treats, had a proper full afternoon of baking and finished the day off eating them while having a Harry Potter marathon! Bliss.



As we've said, we are still waiting on a Bakingmad Cook Book to arrive for us to give away, and as soon as we get it I'm sure we'll get our hands messy, bake some more and tell you more about the giveaway!

Be sure to check out bakingmad.com as they have so many amazing easy recipes for you to follow and they have loads of inspirational ideas to make your cooking better and more fun! 

Have you been on bakingmad.com before? What's your favourite recipe on the website?
Make sure you link us to your bakingmad recipes or baking blog posts!


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MODS

Taking a tip or two from the MODS and heading back to the 60's with this weeks wish list..
        

Loafers are great with...
1. Rolled up jeans, a stripy top and a leather jacket in the day.
2. They add a quirky, cute touch to tights and a little dress, especially the pinafore dresses which are in many shops at the moment!.
3.Try pairing them with a leather skirt, white shirt, neon jumper and statement necklace
4. Short suit and shirt/ stripy top...trends taken straight from the catwalk for spring 2013.
1/2/3/4/5/6/7
Mix and match these to create the perfect outfit with your loafers!

Our Favourites:
Mine are a little pricey for my student budget at £125 from ASOS (check them out here) but they are lush! however ASOS are always doing good offers and 10% discount as always!

Charlottes are priced at £65 from OFFICE (check them out here) and they also do great offers and 10% student discount! and would look especially lovely in summer. They even have 20% off everything at the moment too!


What do you think of the MOD styles coming back?
Have you got yourself a pair of must have loafers?
What do you wear with your loafers?


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Friday 22 March 2013

MADE IN LEEDS!

Hello Lovelies!
First of all, apologies for the mess of the blog, David has been doing some revamping however nothing at the moment is set and staying yet, just trying bit and bobs out, so that should be sorted soon, which is very exciting.

Anyway back to shopping...
Yesterday was the big opening of the Leeds Trinity Shopping Centre, wahooo! 
Both of us sadly missed the opening launch of the shopping centre which was curated by Fashion Designer Henry Holland, and people witnessed the spectacular opening ceremony which revealed the world's longest designer dress which was also designed by Holland.
(Photograph from here)
Unfortunately it was just window shopping for us this time but we Charlotte took snaps to give you a general feel of what the centre looks like and a couple of features and shops we went too. Obviously it was very very busy and there was people broadcasting, photographing, talking about it, everywhere! 
Even though we loved all the new shops and restaurants, we have to say that it is freezing in there as there is no doored entrance and the roof is partly open, so when we went back today we were shopping in the snow! Bring on the summer!
The shopping centre even has these amazing EGG SWIRLY CHAIRS!

Everyone who entered the Apple store got clapped, woo'ed, cheered, high fived and screamed at when walking through the door which was absolutely hilarious, I couldn't help but think how they went home and explained how their first day was consumed with so much enthusiasm and clapping. Charlotte: Also I was pretty amazed at how every product had an iPad next to it to show the details of that product... they've probably had these in their stores for years now but it was all new to me and I thought it was all super cool.
 We lost our sight, overdosed on perfumes and left feeling ugly in Hollister 
^ Hey there Tori!
2 Storey Urban Outfitters? Literally couldn't cope... we had a look around, enquired about Charlotte's broken coat (which they can only offer a refund or credit note and they have no others to exchange it with booo!) but then we had to leave, it was too cruel that we couldn't buy anything.

And finally, what Tori was most excited for... 
The opening of Candy Kittens!
That's right, Jamie Laing from Made in Chelsea opened his Candy Kittens pop up store in the centre of Trinity, which will be there for 3 weeks. Jamie did two openings, one in the morning and one in the afternoon and we was there to see the second opening and had the pleasure of meeting him and getting a picture with him (below) he was lovely but he seemed to be doing the 'fake smile' which you can't blame him having to take pictures all day.
 Cheeky Tori waiting in the queue
 Charlotte sporting the 'Pardy' beanie
I loved the layout of the store, the furniture and I enjoyed the colour scheme, the walls had scattered neon stripes down (bang on trend) however it was very simplistic and looked pretty empty but saying that they don't have a big product selection so I don't think that that could have really been helped.
And here we all are, new best pals... we really liked his shoes!
What we found hilarious was a lot of people were walking past asking who he was and why they taking photographs and why and what we were queueing for, a policeman even came up to us and asked why no one was taking any pictures of him instead.

Overall we had a fabby morning checking out the new Trinity Shopping Centre, we can't wait till we have some more pennies and go on a mad shopping spree, it's definitely in order. 


Have you been to Trinity yet? What do you think of the new shopping centre?


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