Black Roses - Sophie Lancaster - S.O.P.H.I.E

I sat here for a while thinking how I should start this off....

I've just finished watching Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster

I'm a flood of emotions. Angry, Sad, Happy, Thoughtful, Thankful, Bewildered....

Since I was a young teen I've been different....I've always been a mixture of "things" never settling for one particular style or music, or food....It's who I am. I'm too curious, inquisitive, intrigued, interested in the world to just pick one style of anything.

When I was younger, as defiant as I was, that this is who I am. It was seen that, that made me a "faker" because I didn't conform to just one thing. Now I'm older that is seem to be the norm, though not everyone like the same things, its ok to like a lot of different things. How I wish this had always been the case.

I've always been true to who I am, what I feel like at that time in my life, and yes its changed slightly over the years, I wear more colour than I used to (Red and Black was all I ever wore for a lot of years) I still have that side of me, I still have days where I want to just wear 2 colours. As well as the days where I wear 5 colours.

I've known about Sophie Lancaster since the day it came out in the news, it boiled my blood then, and it still does now! We live in a world so amazing and full of so many amazing people, places, cultures, that I never understood what drives someone to do that to a person just because they look different to them.

Through my early teens and college years I had names thrown at me, rocks thrown at me, I had people push and pull at me all because I looked different.

They looked different to me, but I didn't go around pushing and pulling them, throwing rocks at them or calling them names! That's just not a nice thing to do!
Even at my ripe age of 27 I still come across people, older, younger, the same age, who still want to call me names for looking different.

I am defiant, stubborn, I am my fathers daughter. I will not let what anyone says or does to me affect who I am! I am me, pure and simple, always have been always will be.

I don't just have friends who are only into the same things as me, they are all different from each other and that, to me, is the best way to be. It opens everyone's eyes to the oh so many different things in this world!

If you don't know about S.O.P.H.I.E please go check it out and see the amazing work her mum has been doing.

S.O.P.H.I.E is the main reason I found Illamasqua Make Up they support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation and I love that!!

If I could say one thing to anyone struggling out there with the fact that someone is different from you, ask them, go with an open mind and an open heart and find out about what they like, its doesn't mean you then have to like it, just understand it. Hate is born out of ignorance.

To the people who have been affected by name calling, abuse for being different, don't let go of who you are. You are AWESOME!!!

My only hope is that no Mother, Father, Sister, Brother, Cousin, Friend, has to lose another person from their life due to an attack from someone just for being different.

Remember, someone out there loves you.

Keep it Positive

Nessa
xx

Salted Caramel for the win!!

Another set of Birthday Cupcakes had been requested by my friend at work....so of course i said yes! (New recipe, yes please!)

Consulted my Cupcake book....

and settled on the recipe in there. Though it said to add coffee essence, and i knew the girl i was baking them for isn't a massive coffee fan, so i tweaked it slightly and left it out.

6oz Plain Flour

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

3 1/2 oz Caster Sugar

3 3/4 oz Soft Dark Brown Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Medium Eggs

125ml Milk

I decided on brown muffin cases for the base. Filled them half way and popped them in the oven. They rose to about 3/4's full which i was expecting. 

I then used Dr Oetker's cupcake center in salted caramel which i had gotten in my goodie bag from The Cake and Bake Show the week before (see previous post) 

Then lavished them in vanilla buttercream with just enough salted caramel left to drizzle on top.

I was SUPER happy with how they turned out!

I shall be making more new things soon....got an amazing idea up my sleeve, just need a reason to make them.

Mondays a good enough reason, right?!?

Keep it positive

Nessa

xx

Blue Birthday Cupcakes

My friend asked me to make her blue cupcakes for her birthday....

And of course i said yes!!

She loved my Halloween Cupcakes so she'd asked for vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting! Easy!! Hmmm....

I wasn't too happy with how they turned out.... (being too hard on myself maybe!!)

I had visions of baby blue and white swirls...i soon realised i was never going to make cream butter (proper butter) white! And what do you get when you add blue to almost yellow?? Green!! You get green!!

But i carried on i used the same recipe as the Halloween cupcakes (see previous post) as she loved the taste of them so much...

So off i went with 12 blue sparkly cupcakes to work (i met her after work for dinner with her family)

They were taunting me all day! "We're not good enough" i could hear them say. Everyone at work said they looked amazing.

I'd used a new muffin tray to bake them in and i was worried they were under done...

Met her and her family at the restaurant and they asked me where I'd bought them from!! Bought!! I was so happy!! Her boyfriend said i should open a shop (how does he know my dreams?!)

After dinner her sister and uncle had room for desert so they grabbed a cupcake....

I waited with baited breath as they peeled back the wrapper (had a sneaky look (^_-) and they were perfectly plump inside!!)

 "Phew!"

The both took a bite and savored it before telling me, after which felt like an age, now i know how the bake off contestants feel!! I got huge thumbs up from both of them!! Yay!!

Birthday Cupcake Win!!

More to come

Keep it Positive

Nessa

xx

Sober October - Macmillan Support

Booze. 

I can take or leave it.

Don't get me wrong, i love a night out getting tipsy (sometimes a little more than tipsy, but that's about once a year, and I've never been arrested!)

But i also love a sober night out, I am queen of the dance floor with or without alcohol.

I have a lot of friends who would need a drink before getting up for a boogie, a lot of them tell me they don't know how i can manage a full night out without touching a drop of alcohol. 

I think i get that from my Mum and my Auntie, they never need a reason to get up on the dance floor!

So i decided that for October I would give up drinking all together for the whole Month.

I have set up a just giving page if any of you lovely lot would like to sponsor me :) 

Vanessa-Drink-Hic

I think the challenge will be this Sunday, I'm going to The Warped Tour A whole day not drinking, watching some of my fave bands.
Easy.....
But when everyone else is slowly getting a low level buzz, i'll be drinking water and still having an awesome time, just wishing i was drinking a crisp Cider!

I even set up my own Hashtag for the month #SoberKawaiiNessa you can check it out on Twitter and on Instagram.

Keep it positive (and wish me luck!)

Nessa

xx

Cake and Bake Show - London Excel

About a month ago my friend told me about this Cake and Bake show, The Money Saving Expert people were giving away some tickets for free.

So I grabbed a pair for the Sunday of the event, just like they said, totally free. Invited Mama Ward down and we had a girly weekend doing all things bake related.

My mum LOVEs baking, she's all about taste and less about presentation. My bag are Cupcakes, I LOVE them.

I love making them, but I agree not only should they look amazing (so good you almost don't want to eat them) they should taste amazing too.

I've dabbled in baking all of my life, my favourite childhood past time is licking the bowel and spoon out after baking! But I want to get into it, maybe even make some money from it.

I have a baking cupboard, living in a shared house doesn't provide me with much more space than that. But I knew there were a few things missing from my collection that would take my baking to the next level. 

You should have seen my face when we walked into the Cake and Bake show!!! Like a kid in a sweet shop! Here's a look at my haul!

As we walked in they offered us a Program with Class Time Table and a goodie bag....Well they had me at goodie bag, so for £5 we got one.

The goodie bag was awesome! I got a Sample of Dr Oetker Cupcake Centres, Salted Caramel Flavour. a sample of Ariel 3 in 1, some Menier Chocolate and Nestle Carnation Chocolate Filling and Topping. All of which I shall be using soon!

There were stalls and stalls of baking goodies, if I had my own house or shop for that matter I would have bought everything!!

The second stop we made was at the Bake Club Stand, and it being the last day of the show, lots of the stalls had some amazing deals.
I managed to get 2 silicone bake sets for £15!! They should be that each on the website! Even at £15 each, totally worth it!
Bake Club Shop

 

 

The Icing set is my fave, I've needed some bigger nozzles for a while now, and In the set I got 5 medium and 5 large, so my cupcakes are gonna be awesome!!

There was so much to look at, lots of stalls selling gadgets for the kitchen, so hard not to buy everything, there a few things I wish I'd got but didn't, but I would have spent a fortune if I'd got everything!

I did purchase a cheese mill, which seems to be awesome for grating everything!

Mama Ward got me a subscription (as an early Christmas present) to Baking Heaven and Cake Decoration Heaven, Food Heaven Magazines, to which I also got a free tote bag and the Official Bake off Cook Book!

I shall be updating everything I make on here from now on, and I'll no doubt be mentioning all the awesome things I got at the Cake and Bake Show.

Here's the website for the Show its self: The Cake and Bake Show
There are ones in Manchester and Edinburgh coming up!

Cant wait to share more of my baking with you.

Keep it Positive

Nessa

xx

Halloween - Cupcakes

Post to follow about my AMAZING time at the Cake and Bake show (apologies again for not keeping up with this, promise to be better)

So as the title suggests, I made Halloween cupcakes.

 

Trying to bake more often these days, have a gander at my Instagram for quick updates. @Endless_Night07

 

So here's how I did it!!

 

they are Orange and Black Vanilla Flavour Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting also coloured Orange and Black.

 

 

Makes 12 Cupcakes:

 

140g Softened Butter

140g golden Caster Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Medium Eggs

140g Self-Raising Flour

 

 

Cream butter and sugar together, gradually add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour and fold with a spatula.

 

I then halved the mixture and coloured 1 orange and 1 black. I use Wilton Gel colours, they are the BEST colours out there, they have just come out with a new colour system which allows you to mix colours together to create other colours. That may be my next baking purchase!

 

I then added the mixture to the cases black on the bottom and orange on the top.

 

 

Cooked on 180 for about 15 minutes, until they spring back when i pressed on them.

 

Woo they rose more than I was expecting! 





I let them cool while I was making the frosting! (My fave bit!!)

So I got a new gadget (post about this to come) the Wilton Colour Swirl System! How to easily pipe upto 3 colours!!

I LOVE THIS THING!!!

So as I was only using 2 colours I didn't fill the 3rd space. then you just pipe as normal. and Hey Presto!!

Perfect duel Colour Piping!!

Then I added Sprinkles (cupcakes aren't complete without SPRINKLES!!!) I should have used more, but...there's always next time!

I was really happy with how the duel colours turned out!!



 

Let me know what you all think!!

 

Keep it Positive

 

Nessa

 

xx