Japlanning - So it Happened!! - First Update

As i type this i am currently sat in my second hostel of the trip, in Kyoto....


A little over a year ago i started thinking about the money i had in my savings account and what i wanted to do with it, i dont want a car in London so my next natural thought was, why not go traveling, at 28 i`m a little old to be starting....if you go by the whole "gap year thing" but you`re never too old to start anything!! Mental note to myself, please remember this!!

Being me, i procrastinated about it for months, and months till one morning i woke up at home in Yorkshire (I was back for easter to see my mum and Northern friends!) and i just booked the flights, done, dusted. that was it, no going back....  

Dont get me wrong, i wasn't scared of coming here, i wasn't scared of the flight, i wasn't scared of being on my own for 3 weeks, i can take all that in my stride. But I was terrified of spending this nice cushion of money i had saved and saved.... i was terrified of not having any savings after my trip! But the more i thought about it, the more i realised that i would miss out on so much if i sat on this money, as my Dad always said, you can't take it with you when you die!

So once i booked the flights, i had to figure out where i was going, i knew i wanted to go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima and somewhere in there i wanted to go on a Bullet train!

Simple plan but it worked!!

So i booked 5 hostels, one in each place i visit. I`m hitting Tokyo twice, once on the way in and once on the way out.

I`ll do another post with my itinerary once i`ve completed my trip and where i actually visited...but so far 8 days into my trip, i`ve seen everything i wanted, and more!!

For now this is me saying, if you want it, go for it!! Life is too short, many of us have learned this the hard way, so if it makes you happy do it, dont worry about what anyone else thinks, or says, this is your life! and you are big enough and strong enough to go do anything if you put your mind to it!!

Keep it Positive

Nessa
xx

Late Halloween Cupcakes - Ready for the Party!!

My friend is having a  late Halloween party this weekend as she lives close to Twickenham so with the Rugby World Cup Final on Halloween no one was able to get to her house. 

So that meant I had time to make some awesome Halloween Cupcakes for her (ohh and its also her Birthday!)

My previous attempt at Orange and Black ones turned out really well using the Wilton ColurSwirl Piping device. (of which i LOVE so much!!)

So as i did the Orange and Black ones last time, i decided to do 12 of those and 12 Green and Purple.

I used the same Vanilla recipe and doubled all the ingredients. 

I split the Mixture into 4 and coloured each one. I also did the same with the Icing.

Orange and Black, Purple and Green

I was worried about how the Purple was going to turn out as i has used Violet, but as the mixture wasn't white it gave it a deeper, spookier colour!

My fave colour Gels are always Wilton!

I Mixed the cake mixture so when they are cut in half (or bitten into) you will see 2 colours. On top of the green i put the purple mixture (forgot to take a picture of that) I did the same with the Orange and black ones.

Using the ColourSwirl icing kit, i made these!! I love the way the colours sit together! Really Halloweeny!!

No cupcakes are complete without sprinkles! I had a pot of Halloween theme sprinkles which would go out of date before next years Halloween. so I went to town!

Hopefully they will taste as amazing as they look!!

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

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

#Japlanning

Kawaii is my middle name (well if you asked my friends, they'd tell you that, and that mostly because I taught them that word (on the whole))

I want to go to Japan!!

So here is my start of research and planning, hence the title #Japlanning (Japan Planning)

I have a friend who I went to high school with, she's one of those people though we don't talk much anymore, we'll always be friends. We've all got them.

Her sister had just come back from a trip to Japan and she's written about it on her blog and I'm super glad she did!!

She mentioned how she booked her flights and thought they'd have ages to plan the rest, and how she was really wrong.

I want to go next March (which seems like ageees away) so I'm going to start by researching where I want to visit, the flights can come later.

Two websites I'm gong to start off with, I've listed below.

I'll post another when I've narrowed down all the places I want to visit.

Japan Guide - This is where I'm going to narrow down the activities and places I want to see.

Lonely Planet - Also going to use Lonely Planet to help with the geography so I can travel around easily.

Keep it positive

Nessa