Making time for friends

This post is going to be quite short as I'm extremely tired from yesterday! We had a bit of late one, arriving home at 1:30 in the morning...
Yesterday we drove to Oxford as I had planned to meet up with my friends from University for Afternoon tea. My husband decided to spend his day having lunch in the pub with some of our other friends, who I was to see later. 

We had a scrummy afternoon tea at Malmaison in the Oxford Castle; an interesting location to visit afterwards since the castle, despite in ruins, is a Normal Medieval Castle with a lot of history attached.

The afternoon tea consisted of 4 finger sandwiches (I swapped my ham on white for another salmon as I forgot to say no white bread! I also gave my egg on white to my friend who gave me her other salmon - lucky me!)

- A miniture Victoria sponge (My fave!)

- Fruit scone & clotted cream

- small creme brûlée

- Some sort of cake which i didn't try! (I think it was carrot?)

My beautiful friends who I love very much! 

We had a great time catching up as we hadn't seen each other since my wedding last September. It's nice to make time for friends once in a while. Life can become like you're stuck in your own bubble, so it's a good idea to spare some time once a month to spend time with those you care about. 

After catching up we did a spot of shopping (bought a couple of tops in Primark) and then I headed back to a house full of people having a sushi making session. What great timing!

Above in the photo you'll notice my husband Fabio heading up the sushi scene (he's done a course you see), and relaxing around are our other lovely friends from Uni. 

Like I said above, sometimes it's hard to find time for friends. I mean, we only live an hour away from these guys, and this is the first time we've seen them in a while! So last night I decided that we have to make a date in our diary for the next time we can all meet. This way we won't all keep forgetting to arrange it and let life take over. 

How do you find time for your friends? Do you also find it hard sometimes to fit everybody into a busy schedule?

Also, please could you be so lovely and check out my friend Rachel's blog here. She's the one in the top photo on the far right :) She's pretty cool. You should follow her. She also has a beauty blog coming out soon, so check that out too when she announces it!

Hope you're having a super Sunday!

P.S if you would like to, please subscribe to me on BlogLovin and also like :) It would mean the world!

The life of our 3-legged cat named Tinker

Hello, this is Tinker. She is our 3-legged cat. 

In this post I want to share with you what it is like to live with an animal with a disability. I was actually thinking of making this into a series of posts following the life of Tinker. I may even do a video or three! 

Just because an animal has a disability, it doesn't mean you should think any different about adopting them. When Fabio and I went to the Animal centre in Cheltenham we had a choice between several cats, but despite her missing leg, Tinker came across so sweet and like any cat, just wanted to find her forever home. We didn't think twice and now she is one of the family. 

This is Tinker when we first met her at the lovely shelter

Tinker joined us this January 17th. And this is her hiding under our sofa when we first brought her home! I tried to create a treat trail but I soon found out she isn't a fan of healthy treats, only the 'junk food' style Dreamies! She eventually came out an hour later. 

Tinker's firsts

Our first cuddles on the sofa. 

Tinker's first play with Fabio and the string

Tinker's Faves

Chilling on the sofa, looking intelligent (obviously having just read that Farmhouse Cookery book just there)

Lying on her back on the floor with Fabio (she was SO posing for this one!)

Sleeping with her head in her paw (obviously had a hard day!)

Resting on our bed!

But she does also like her own bed! (Thankfully - although we do get woken up in the night with her little meows, announcing herself when she comes into our room).

Dinnertime (who doesn't?) Tinker likes to eat anything from Applaws. Yes, she's that kind of cat. 

Sticking her bum out at me!

Sleeping under blankets! She has claimed both of them!

Joining us at the table. She does look moody there doesn't she!

Chilling with me when i'm reading in bed.

Now this is the part of the blog where I hand you over to Tinker and she explains the week she has had so far. 

Tinker's week

Hello there. I'm so glad my owner has finally given me the reins to this laptop. So this week I helped my owner open a massive parcel that came all the way from America. Nothing for me i'm afraid!

Me and this bag haven't seen eye-to-eye since I arrived. Yesterday I finally gave in and went for the attack! (Video to follow)

A note to the above: I (Jess) have been trying to compile a video all day of different clips we have of Tinker, but my Mac is being silly and is saying my memory is full, which is somehow stopping me from putting audio over the video. Any who, so I'm having a massive photo sort out, transferring files onto my hardrive and once that's done, I hopefully will have the video!

It's quite late now so I'm finally going to upload this! Sorry it couldn't have been up earlier! Also hope you enjoyed reading something a bit different!

Goodnight! 

The ULTIMATE Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Feeling a bit eager for the Easter holidays, I decided yesterday to make the cupcake prelude to Easter - the Ultimate Chocolate Caramel Cupcake! And omg it was good. The sponge is SO moist with actually quite an odd texture and the chocolate buttercream is light, fluffy and not too rich - just right in my eyes! It's not one of those buttercreams that are too sickly to eat. And lastly the caramel, which I did slightly cheat with by using the Waitress Caramel Dipping Sauce (I was glad for it by the end of it though, since I didn't finish baking until 9pm!), but it was so worth it. The gooey caramel sauces works really nice with the sponge as since the cake doesn't have a very crumbly texture, the sauce simply sits there inside, waiting to ooze out. I topped it all off with half of the cakes with crushed Milky Bar Mini Eggs and half with Cadbury Mini Eggs.

I owe this sponge and buttercream recipe to the yummy blog Pretty. Simple. Sweet. I adapted it by adding the caramel and toppings. 

Also as you will notice, I decide to have a play around with the styling of my photos. I'm trying to get a bit better at this. You will also notice though that by the time I got to making the buttercream, I couldn't be bothered to lay my ingredients out all fancy! (Ain't nobody got time for that!) It was about 8pm though, as I had to wait for my husband to get home from work with a crucial ingredient, and then made our dinner, so by the time I started the buttercream I was exhausted! Let me know if you think these photos make a difference, and if you have any tips, they would be much  appreciated.

Ingredients for cupcake mix

200g granulated sugar
185g plain flour
120ml whole milk
120ml hot water
113g unsalted butter at room temp
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large free-range eggs eggs
Waitrose Caramel Dipping Sauce

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees/170 fan.

2. Line your cupcake tin with liners of your choice. I opted for yellow as I was thinking of spring and Easter...

3. Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. I used a mixer with the paddle attachment which took about 5 minutes as the granulated sugar was obviously really grainy. Would be interesting to try caster next time.

4. Next beat in your eggs one at a time. Make sure the mix is well combined after each egg.

5. Beat in the vanilla extract.

6. Sieve the flour and cocoa powder together.

7. Add half flour and cocoa into the mixture and beat until combined. 

8. Add the milk and combine. 

9. Add other half of flour and cocoa and combine. Make sure you beat slowly. 

Science - The more you mix, the more the gluten is created which gives you a heavier cake.

10. Add hot water and combine. Don't worry if the batter is very liquid-y, it's meant to be like this.

11. Fill your cupcake tray with batter, about 3/4 full and bake for 15-20 minutes. They will be ready when a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave in tray for 10 mins and then cool on a wire rack.

12. Once cool you will need to cut out lid from the cupcakes. I decided to use a mini circular mould I have. You could just use a knife to cut a circle and then a spoon to remove it. Make sure you keep the lids - don't eat them even if it is tempting!

13. Next fill the centre with a spoonful of the Waitrose caramel dipping sauce and put the lids back on.

Ingredients for Chocolate Buttercream + Topping

160g icing sugar, sifted

150g unsalted butter and room temp

115g melted dark chocolate

25g cocoa powder, sifted

2 tbsp double cream

Milky bar eggs (optional)

Cadbury's mini eggs (optional)

Method

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. I used a mixer with the paddle attachment again which took about 4 minutes.

2. Add half of the sifted icing sugar, beat in well, and then add the other half and combine.

3. Add the sifted cocoa powder and beat until smooth and fluffy.

4. Beat in vanilla extract, melted chocolate and double cream until well combined.

5. Using a star nozzle and a piping bag, pipe onto your cupcakes using a circular motion staring from the outside. I can't think of any other way to describe this! You know what I mean though!

6. Fill a plastic sandwich bag with the mini eggs of your choice and bash them with a wooden rolling pin (or also the weapon of your choice!!) Sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes. 

7. Enjoy the chocolatey goodness that is coming your way!

Shaking it up in Stratford-upon-Avon

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now as it was last year, before Christmas, that we visited Stratford. Yesterday however I got myself organised and managed to write up a plan of blog posts, so expect to see many more regular posts coming your way, hopefully! 

Shakespeare's Birthplace

To us Stratford is about an hours drive away from Cheltenham, so not too far. We decided to go via Chipping Campden which I wrote about in an earlier post. 

We didn't really stop and do any of the touristy attractions, but I managed to snap a pic of where Shakespeare was born (above) whilst having a little stroll along the high street. We did pop into one very interesting shop...

The Nutcracker Christmas shop! Obviously now not season appropriate, but who doesn't love Christmas anytime of year?! Just me? Okay moving swiftly on...

We did also go into the Shakespeare gift shop which is located in this beautiful cottage. Serious house goals much?!

Inside they stock basically all things Shakespeare, so definitely great if you want to open yourself up to the world of Shakespeare; or for the literary buffs, buy a manga edition copy of your favourite play. (They sell those here). Maybe not? Okay! 

At the beginning of Henley Street (the main st) we came across this interesting statue of a jester. As you can see above, it was gifted to the town by Anthony P. Bird as a token of his esteem for the town in which he worked and lived. The statue is made from bronze and was created by James Butler R.A. who also made the Jubilee coin! What an interesting thing to donate to a town! Do you think nowadays in modern times we should continue with this tradition? Would you donate a statue to your town? And what would it be?

An impressive building for a public library! This grade II listed building was almost destroyed years ago to be replaced with a Carnegie library, but thankfully was saved by novelist Marie Corelli. 

To end our little whistle stop tour of Stratford-upon-Avon we end up stopping at probably one of my most fave Thai restaurants: Giggling Squid.

This was the first and only time I have visited the Giggling Squid, but if we lived closer, you can guarantee I would be there all the time. 

First things first, it is located in another historical tudor-style building; the service was excellent and the food divine. 

I had the chicken satay to start with which I wish I had photographed now as the presentation was amazing! For my main (above, left) I had Chicken Massamam curry and a portion of sticky rice (always a bonus if they serve this!), and my husband Fabio had (above, right) his favourite Thom Kha chicken soup with sticky rice to soak up all the coconut-y juices... yum! 

This is making me so hungry right now, so i'm off to make my lunch, however I hope you enjoyed another travel type post. I know this is technically a food blog, hence the name, but I love travel and sharing with you guys, so expect more to come!

Let me know if you visit or have visited Stratford, or if you have any places you'd like me to visit which I can write about - always happy to! :D

How did I fare with my fairings?

You may or may not know this but I am in fact Cornish. A lot of people don't usually assume this about me as I don't really have a strong Cornish accent, or one at all really! I do however love a good Cornish pasty; a stroll along a blustery harbour (got to love the wind-swept look!); the miles of golden sandy beaches, Cornish ice cream..the list goes on! So this week, in aid of my Cornish heritage, I made some traditional Cornish Fairings. These biscuits are ginger-y in flavour, usually crunchy and very very more-ish! In Cornwall, the company Furniss are the only ones who hold the trademark for the original traditional fairings recipe.
Apparently they were used to be given as a treat to children or by men to their sweethearts! Well, I wouldn't mind being given a fairing or two if they're on offer! 

The funny thing about this recipe is.. please don't be too disappointed, but it's actually a local recipe from the Tuffley and Whaddon WI, about only 8 miles down the road from me in Cheltenham! I found the recipe in a book I bought not so long ago in Stroud, called Gleanings from Gloucestershire Housewives, which is compiled with recipes donated by women from WI groups in the Gloucestershire area. The book I believe was published in 1948, so some of the recipe inside are pretty vintage, but you know, recipes don't usually change a lot; they usually only get tweaked to our liking!

A little bit of science  

The recipes uses melted margarine instead of creaming it, which gives the biscuits a chewier, denser texture whilst still remaining crunchy. 

Anywho, enough chit-chatting - Happy Baking Cornish/Gloucestershire style! 

Ingredients

113g/4oz plain flour 

56g/2 oz caster sugar

56g/2 oz margarine

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees/180 fan. Sieve all your dry ingredients.

2. Melt the margarine and syrup in a pan on a medium heat. 

3. Add to your dry ingredients and mix together until a dough has formed.

4. Roll into tiny littles balls and place on a greased baking tray nicely spaced out. 

Side note - please excuse my baking tray!! I do have a nicer one but I realised it was in the dishwasher! That is my tray from my uni days...! Oh well, it's the rustic look, you know..

5. Bake on the top shelf for 6 minutes. Move to a lower shelf after and bake for 3 minutes more, until they begin to flop and crack. They'll appear flat and golden brown when done. Take out of the oven and leave to harden for a few minutes and then cool in a wire rack.

Serve with a nice cuppa!