b r a i d s

I'm always looking for hairstyles especially ones with braids. My latest discovery is the waterfall braid. It looks amazing and actually isn't that hard to do...

Red! Velvet! Cupcakes!

So here are the red velvet cupcakes I made today. I got the recipe from the food network, and it is amazing. The icing is obviously cream cheese and the recipes from my sisters friend, Anna.


People go wild over this icing. Wild.

Here is the cupcake recipe:

• 440g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 370g white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring (i use a powdered colour) 
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/8 cup water

And the icing recipe:


450g icing sugar


1 pack cold Philadelphia cream cheese


2 tablespoons sour cream


2 teaspoons vanilla essence


57g cold butter


*cold ingredients are better as they make the icing thicker


Method:

• Heat oven to 180*C
• Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder together in a bowl and set aside.
• In a new bowl, using an electric mixer, mix the oil, sugar and buttermilk together.
• Once those wet ingredients are well combined, add the 3 eggs. And mix again.
• Now, into your wet ingredients bowl, add the vinegar, water and colorant.
• Mix quickly and add more colorant if you need.
• Now pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and QUICKLY mix until combined.
• Be careful to not over mix as this will make your cupcakes come out dry and dense.
• Lay your cupcake holders into the baking tray and fill with the mixture.
• They take about 10-15 minutes to bake.
• You know when they are done when you stick a piece of uncooked spaghetti through one and it comes out dry
• Don't open the oven too often though! The cupcakes will flop

Icing:

• In a bowl, cream the butter, sour cream, vanilla essence and cream cheese together until they are well combined. 
• These ingredients should be cold so don't worry if it is hard to mix! Its advisable to use an electric mixer.
• Add the icing sugar in bit by bit - about 100g at a time. Mixing well after each time you add.
• Super quick, super easy :)

But mom. What are they??

Street Art

On the theme of London, while I was there, I was so inspired by the street art. I loved walking around and finding all the art hidden in London. Here are some I found!

I.
LOVE.
LONDON.

Photography..

Last year I went on a little modelling trip to London. While I was there I did shoots with some amazing photographers. My favourite by far was a photographer called Lucy. We did she shoot in about 30 minutes but I love how the pictures came out and I like the whole feel of the pictures. Heres one:

Thats me :)

Anyway, heres the link to her blog. Check out her pictures. They are amazing.
http://lucycarrellison.tumblr.com/

Easter Treats. Oh Yeah.

I bake. I bake lots of things.
Today - being Easter - I made an easter cake. The recipe is so simple and takes about 4 minutes to mix up. Yes its predictable but the recipe came from my grandmother. The cake is lifted from being a usual chocolate cake to being something rich and moist, by simply adding a sachet of chocolate pudding.
I use:
1 pack Moirs chocolate cake mix
1 pack chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1 cup of oil
1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water
Bake at 180* for about 40 minutes. Boom done.

I used a ganache icing which is really simple to make.
200g chopped dark chocolate - use a really good one, else it is bad. Probs Lindt 70%.
200ml cream.
Heat the cream in a pot until its boiling.
Take off the heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is melted - the heat of the cream will melt the chocolate.
Put this in the fridge for about an hour and stir every 20 minutes. The longer you leave it in the fridge, the thicker it will get.

So its up to you!

Nails

On Thursday My friend Natalie and I went to this new salon in Sandton City called SOHO (http://www.sohonycsalon.com/). I lift Nat to varsity everyday and her way of paying me back/ bribing me was to take me to have my nails done. The salon seems big in the pictures but when you get there it is actually quite small. The staff are nice and it does feel very 'new yorkish' - or what i can imagine NY to be like. I had my nails done in Essie Loophole, which looks awesome. I've put some pictures so you can see. We thought it might be cool have some nail art done. This was kind of a bad idea. The manicurists weren't too experienced and sort of made a mess of it! Anyway, my nails look cool despite my thumbs looking like a 3 year old had a decorating game them.

messy bun

I used to do ballet seriously and although I have let go of almost everything ballet related, I still hang onto the ballet bun. I love doing a high bun but I like it a little messier than the traditional bun. I found this 'how to' on another blog (http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2009/11/messy-french-bun.html) and i love it. Its so easy and gives a great result. Give it a try!!