Banoffee and Marshmallow Cake!

Hey everyone,

Last week was one of my bestest ever friend's birthday and she had a special request for me. For ages I'd been raving on to her about this banoffee and marshmallow cake that my family always made for birthdays and she thought it sounded fabulous, so she insisted this was what she wanted. The cake ended up tasting very delicious but it did look a bit of a mess as all the filling insisted on oozing out! But being a vegetarian this did not matter to me as I couldn't eat the marshmallows in the filling anyway, and it made it easier for me to just get at the cake.

So on Tuesday night I put a bit of Lana on in the background and got baking!

To make the recipe easier for you before you start I have come up with some top tips to help you out:

• The recipe says to bake the cake all together in one tin and then cut it into three. If you have access to 3 shallower tins, I recommend using these instead as it means you don't have the challenge of cutting the cake proportionally and straight, and you lose the risk of the cake falling apart.
• When whipping the cream for the filling use an electric whisk as otherwise it takes FOREVER, as I found out, and also make sure you whisk it until it is very thick, as this will stop it falling out of the sides when you assemble the cake. 
• Don't put too much dulche de leche between the layers, save more for the top. This will also help the cake keep it's shape.
• Make sure the cake is fully cooled before assembling the layers together with the filling or the cream will turn runny again.

The cake should serve about 10 people, take 30 minutes to prepare and take around 50 minutes to bake.

Ingredients:

165g butter, plus extra for greasing

165g soft light brown, or light brown muscovado sugar

325g self-raising flour

1 rounded tsp baking powder

1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

2 large ripe bananas

(for the filling):

300ml double cream

1 banana

50g marshmallows chopped for the filling, whole for decoration (I just bought small and large because I'm lazy)

450g jar dulche de leche (I simply bought caramel)

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius or 170 if you have a fan oven. Grease and line the bottom of a round 21cm tin. Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and a pale, creamy colour. 

2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon (I always think sifting makes the cake less dense in the end, although it is such a bore). One at a time beat each egg into the butter mixture along with a tablespoon of the flour mixture, and then beat in the milk. Fold in the rest of the flour mixture until well combined.

3. Mash the bananas until smooth and lump free- the best way to do this is using an electric whisk- then fold into the rest of the mixture until well combined. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth over the surface.

4. Bake for 50 mins. Put a skewer into the cake and see if it comes out clean, this indicates that the cake has baked fully. Leave to cool for 5 mins in the tin, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack.

5. Cut the cake horizontally into 3 equal layers. Whip the cream until it is tick and forms stiff peaks, the chop the bananas and marshmallows into small pieces and fold into the cream. On the first layer spread some dulche de leche until it covers, followed by half of the cream mixture. Sandwich the second layer on top and repeat. Spread the dulche de leche over the top of the cake, and arrange the marshmallows on top to please.

 

 This is how mine tuned out (sorry for the bad photo), messy I know, and trust me it looked worse after it had been in a tin all morning and transported to sixth form! This is definitely my favourite cake though and it is very satisfying, do you only need a small slice. 

So what do you you think? Recon you'll have a go at making this for you or one of your friends? If you do let me know in the comments, or if you have any good recipe ideas I'm looking for something new to try:) 

Love Katie xo

Super Summer Haul

Hey everyone,

It's one week tomorrow until I head off on my summer holidays (yaaaay), so I've been starting to think what outfits I want to take with me. Recently, whilst I've been out and about, I've been looking for cheap items to buy that would be great for the sunny weather. Obviously a lot of the stuff I'm going to take with me I have had for a while (I'm not made of money), but I have also found a few little gems which I'm going to share with you now. I'll be honest though, practically everything I've bought has come from Primark, so if you're not a fan I'm sorry!

ahhhhh, as soon as I saw this dress I fell in love. I just loved the colour and the pattern made me feel really girly. I don't usually wear light coloured clothes (boring right?) because I don't really like standing out too much, but it's summer so everyone else will be anyway. The elasticated waist makes the dress really slimming, and I liked the and the triangle cut outs at the top as they reduce the need for a necklace in my opinion, which really helps me as I'm never brave enough to use half the necklaces I own aha. I also thought the dress would be good for cooler days as well as you can just throw on a denim jacket and some tights to keep warm whilst still looking good. This dress cost me £8 from Primark.

 These shorts are definitely my style, and the more I look at them the more I love them. They weren't my original choice, as I preferred another pair which has a white, lacy, flower pattern totally across one half, however this pair just fitted so much better. I love the lace trim and the acid wash (which is more noticeable in person) however they are quite short, so maybe not sixth form appropriate, but definitely holiday appropriate! These were yet again from Primark, for the slightly more expensive price of £12.

Now I was slightly disappointed in Primark's choice of crop tops, however I fell in love with this and thought it would go wonderfully with my new shorts above ^^ I am usually more of a dog person, but the top with a puppy on was no where near as cute, and it had a blue background, which I thought made it look a bit more tackier so I decided the kitten was the way forward, and at £5 I couldn't say no.

 Woooo, finally something that isn't from Primark! I bought this Denim Jacket from New Look online a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. I decided to put it into the summer haul, as here in the UK summer doesn't always mean sunshine, yet the jacket goes perfectly with summer dresses, meaning you can stay summery even when the sun goes in. So far I've mainly worn the jacket for a more 'grungy' look, so I think it is great for all styles. It is also slightly acid wash and over-sized, which I love love love as it means it's really comfy and easy to move around in (I HATE tight things, I buy all my clothes at least one size too big as I can't stand anything that clings). The jacket cost £22.99 plus £5 delivery if you buy online, unless you get it delivered into store, but it is definitely one of my favourite buys recently, even if I am very late to jump on the denim jacket band-wagon!

 This is a denim camisole top and when I saw it I thought it looked very cute and it only cost £6, so I thought why not? I think it would go great with a pair of shorts and sandals on really hot days as it is very light and loose. I saw the perfect pair of creamy, lacy shorts in the Urban Outfitters sale last week when I was in Liverpool for only £20 (and I say only because if you've been in  UO you will know that is very good for them.) However, it was right at the beginning of the trip and I decided to leave them in case I saw anything else I preferred throughout the day. Needless to say I didn't, and we never got round to going back *cries*, biggest regret EVER! 

It really annoys me how you have to buy bikini parts separately because I find it hard enough to find one that I like, and then you have the added issue of finding both top and bottom in your size. Anyway, I'm really picky when it comes to bikinis, so I always end up just settling for one which will do as I grow bored of looking. I was a bit weary of this as I'm not really a pink person, but it is definitely growing on me.I bought this from Next, the bottoms were £8 and the top was £12, which believe it or not was the one of the cheapest bikinis I could find.

For the past month I haven't worn earrings as I literally have no pairs. I seem to go to parties and when I wake the morning after I have always lost an earring, and it got to a point where this had happened with ever pair I owned. So I bought this pair from Primark for £1.50 (sorry for the shoddy picture) as I thought they were really summery and big, and I looovvvveee BIG studs.

This pair of sunglasses were sort of an impulse buy as I already own 4 pairs, but when I saw them for £2 in Primark I didn't even contemplate not buying them. I just thought they were really chic, and unlike any of the other pairs I have, and I know I will definitely wear them so I have no regrets! 

I don't really know why I'm showing you my bobbles, but 50 for £1 is a pretty good deal. I know after a few months I will have lost them all and will be down to just one that is about to snap but will hang on for a few moths until I end up buying more, but at that price who can complain?

This dress was £8 from Primark and I have just fallen in love. The patterns and colours are just beautiful and it goes great with tights and a bowler hat for more cooler weather, or with bare legs and sandals in the heat, and because it's so patterned it is really easy to style as you don't need anything else bold to go with it. The dress was quite long when I bought it so I had to use my fabulous sewing skills (ahahah, I kid) to shorten it so it looked a normal length on me as I am really really short!!

This cost me £5 from Primark and soon became my new favourite dress! It's plain and simple, which is sometimes all you need. I like to pair it with a simple gold chain necklace, little blue socks,a pair of brown brogues and of course a pair of sunglasses, which if i'm honest I mainly use to keep my hair out of my face as my hair is very long. There were loads of other colours as well which I'm tempted to go back and get as I literally don't think I can over-sell this dress.

I haven't bought any new shoes at all this year as I still have many that are in good condition, including my favourite ever pair of shoes- my black and white deck shoes <3 I did really want a pair of black jellies, and I was tempted to get a Juju pair for £20 from Schuh, but I was feeling a bit frugal at the time aha. 

I hoped you liked this type of blog, I'm tempted next time to take the photos of me wearing the clothes to show you how I would style them as I feel it would look better, so let me know what you think. (I had already spent too much time taking photos of all my clothes by time I had this idea to actually do it) :3 

Stay tuned because I have soooooo many book reviews to do that I want to share with you, and a few events coming up that I think will be interesting to show you. Leave a comment with anything you've bought for the summer.

Love Katie xoxo

Super Healthy Blueberry and Banana Muffins

Hey everyone,

I always find myself constantly having to choose between being good and staying healthy or treating myself and eating something I shouldn't. Unfortunately I tend to choose the latter, and once I've started I assure you I cannot stop. It'll start off as one cheeky chocolate raisin, and then I find myself thinking 'oh one brownie can't hurt', and before you know it I've got my fingers in the peanut butter and nutella jars and mum is asking me why there is none left for her morning toast. 

SO, a few weeks ago, when I was in a big baking mood, I decided why not combine the two? All I needed to do was bake something that wouldn't pack on the pounds but was still enjoyable, hence making my treats a little less naughty. And that's when I found the Healthy Blueberry and Banana Muffins recipe...

(my lovely feet in the background xD)

To make 12 muffins you will need:

300g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

100g light muscovado sugar

50g porridge oats, plus 1 tbsp for topping

2 medium bananas (preferably very ripe)

284ml buttermilk

5tbsp light olive oil

2 egg whites

150g blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ gas 4 (this is the bit I ALWAYS forget to do) and line your muffin tin with your cases. Put the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Hold back 1 tbsp of sugar as you will need this as a topping at the end, and then pour the remainder into the bowl along with 50g of oats. 

2.  In a separate bowl mash the bananas until smooth. This bit took a lot of effort, probably because my bananas weren't as ripe as they could have been, but I left a few little lumps in there and they still tasted FAB! Add the buttermilk oil and egg whites to the banana and mix until evenly combined. 

3. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the banana mixture in, stirring quickly, but be sure not to over mix even if there are lumps- these lumps are normal and not panic worthy. Combine the blueberries into the mixture and bam you're ready to add it to the cases. 

4. Once you've filled all the cases - the recipe should probably make twelve but if you like your muffins big like I do you're looking at more like 10- add the spare oats and sugar on top. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden (mine took slightly longer) and leave to cool completely. 

I found the longer you left them after baking the easier they were to get out of the cases, as if you tried to eat them right away they got stuck and I found myself nibbling at the cases trying to get every last crumb, but once they'd fully cooled there was no problem!

And there we go, quick; easy; healthy and tasty, what more could you want!? Let me know how they turn out if you have a go at making them, or if you have any other tasty recipes you think I should try:)

Love Katie xo