Peanut Butter Cupcake Time

Yes. You read that title right. Peanut Butter + Cupcakes + wait for it...CHOCOLATE.
You know how I feel about my chocolate guys. This recipe from tramplingrose.com is delicious and was fun to make! Fun fact about these cupcakes: I was in a bad mood which is why I decided to bake them ha!

I don't live in the US so my access to variations of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup candies was limited if not non-existent, so I had to settle for the real deal!

Also sorry for the bad quality pictures, I had to take these in the fridge with very little time because for some reason the consistency of  the icing was quite literally wigging out on me and the pattern the piping had made wasn't staying all that well! But the one below is one of my favourites!

YUMMMYYYY! One of my housemates text me when I was out of the house and said "literally the best cupcakes I've ever had, marry me?" I think that is quite possibly one of the best text messages I have ever received.  Also I think I broke my mixer :( Making a cake on Christmas day is going to be so much muscle building fun! -_-

For a quick second can we just discuss the new Beyonce album? Umm...well, anyway. Listen to it, watch it, enjoy it! I do! Until the whole album hits Spotify, I can't really help you in terms of listening to it, but in the meantime, here's one of my favourites, dedicated to my mixer.

Next up, a showstopper from my House Christmas at Uni! Stay tuned!

Face Time

I'd like to think that I love my skin. I try (often not successfully) to drink a lot of water each day, to make sure that even when I'm very tired after a night out, that I take my make-up off and use my toner and moisturiser afterwards. My skin is fairly sensitive so I need to be even more careful than most, not only about what I put on my skin, but also about what I eat. Here's what I use on a daily/weekly basis to keep it in tip top shape:

On a daily basis I use my toner, face wash, and two moisturisers, one for my body, one for my face. Twice or thrice a week I use my St Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub. First of all its obviously, invigorating so its created to really scrub your skin and get rid of all the dead skin and dirt, and I really don't want to overwork my skin or make it too thin by scrubbing it too hard too often. Secondly, the instructions of the back of the bottle say so! Now, the Johnson's wipes are very good, but its extortion. Queue my rant: essentially they used to be around £2.50 for 35 wipes. Now they are £3.05 for 25 wipes and slightly altered, but no more appealing packaging. Why greedy Johnson's people why?

I won't pretend, I do love wearing make-up, although most days I only wear eyeliner and brow pencil because wearing a full face of make up isn't good for anyone's skin and believe or not letting your skin breathe and having some fresh air hit it, is also good for it! Below are a some of my essentials.

I love a nice red lip on a night out and Maybelline's colour is a nice alternative to MAC's Ruby Woo which is worth more than a Nandos! I also love Miss Sporty's nail varnish because the colour's are so rich and they look amazing. They don't necessarily last long but they're not expensive you can buy a lot of them and keep on painting! The red and the cobalt blue are my current favourites! Foundation is a tricky one because I'm not usually the best at matching myself and a lot of my foundation comes out slightly grey, so test it on your face before you buy!

Life is good, its almost Christmas, which means I get to bake incessantly and no one can judge me, plussssss I get to spend time with my family who I love more than anything! Happy times! Cue a good song:

Ps. My new post is up on HerUni.com so check it out here!

5 a day

I know I always give you guys a million and one excuses about how busy I've been but I have good news, things have finally slowed down! The last couple weeks I have almost non-stop rehearsals on top of assignments and that's why I've been a blog hermit (not sure if that analogy actually makes sense)! The thing I had rehearsals for is done (sniff sniff) and now I have a lot more time on my hands (well technically I should be doing a lot of reading but I consider blagging it in seminars a talent that should be regularly practised).

Anyway, excuses and apologies aside, I whipped up (quite literally) something very tasty and in what some circles is considering healthy for you...Carrot Cake!

Considering that this was the first time I'd made carrot cake, and my housemates were very very excited to eat it, I was under a little pressure. Personally, I think as a first try, this cake came out absolutely delicious and so perfectly moist and just perfect in every possible way and the cream cheese frosting came out so nice and light and just...sorry. I am so proud of this cake and how delicious it was!

Queue the excessive number of mouth watering pictures...

Can we just pause for a minute and discuss the perfect golden brown colour of the cake. Also my housemate helped me line my cake tins and she always does it perfectly and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive without her at Christmas :(

Yeah so the cake. That was real good. Recipe was taken from Robin Hood. Not the actual Robin Hood...DUH. Only change I would make to the cake would be to put more icing in the middle. Other than that I am pretty darn proud of my first attempt.

So the cookies below...I've done a second post for HerUni.com! Its not up on the website yet, but it should be soon so keep an eye out!

I'm thinking of doing a post on my budget health & beauty products...how d'you guys feel about that?

Ahh heck, I'll probably do it anyway...and I think I might go and bake another carrot cake too :O

The song below is awesome and I still need to see Despicable Me 2!

White Noise

You know what I really love? CAKE. I know, obvious enough, but you all know exactly which cake I absolutely adore, that chocolate cake! Recently though, as a student, with a rather slender budget, buying all the ingredients to make that cake isn't exactly smart.

So instead I decided to make something different; but not too different, it still had to be chocolate cake...

...with a twist!

This was a delicious and moist (is that a weird word? I keep being told it is...dirty minded friends) cake and the white icing was just, perfection. I took it to one of my rehearsals and everyone loved it, as did my housemates! I received a text from one of my housemates the day after I'd made the cake saying "Omg where did all the cake go!", clearly exasperated at the fact that there was the tiniest slither of cake left on a large plate in the fridge. That people, is the sign of a good cake!

Then...yesterday I went to see some fireworks with my housemates and they were beautiful! Pretend you were there by looking at some pictures haha

I personally really like the way I edited the last picture, I feel super professional now...

Anyway, a cliché song that describes what I've just written about...

Hope you all had fun this weekend!

Happiness

Is it possible to be a what is very close to a perfect state of being? Cause I think I'm pretty much there.
Everything in my life right now isn't necessarily perfect, but I'm the happiest I've been in a long time and I'm pretty happy with that!

I think the busier I get, the happier I get! I've joined a new society, actually started reading the books for my course this year and enjoying two out of three of my modules, and I've started writing for a website...but more about that later!

Here's a snippet of what I've been up to recently...

Just an FYI I do more than just party at uni, I just don't really take pictures when I'm at my society or when I'm working. I find that a wee bit sad...


Anyway so about that website I've started writing for...

I am SO excited about this! As someone who loves writing and has never necessarily had the right platform to showcase it, this is an incredibly opportunity that I am so so grateful for. I've just had my first post published so you can see it here. For now here's sneak preview of what it entails...

Apologies for the lack of regular posting but as I said I've been pretty busy as of late and I don't want to just bung any old thing on here, I want to make sure that I put time and effort into what I post here. So know that even if it takes time, whatever I put up here has had a lot of thought put into it!

I was going to try and think of something philosophical to say about happiness but to be honest its different for every person. Find something you love, do it, be happy! (See what I did there???)

Cue the cliché happy music... 

Currently sitting in bed, watching Blue Bloods, then going to sleep cause I getting up crazy early to go to the library and whack out an essay. Late night blogging is nice and relaxing although the torrential rain outside my window should make for an interesting attempt to get to sleep! Ah well, some William Fitzsimmons should put me to sleep!
Goodnight!

Home...again

Finally, finally finally finally showing you were I live - kind of. My room anyway. Absolutely love my uni house, not completely in love with its placement (its down the side of another building) but its definitely really clean and very cosy. Ignore my bin in the corner, I hadn't been bothered to empty it when I took these pictures and wasn't too bothered to empty it and take it again afterwards. Laziness not a virtue, I know, don't judge me K?

So my room is number 3, which is quite apt and genuinely a coincidence (because we drew numbers out of a hat), because 3 is my favourite number! 

FYI I have much nicer bed covers but I had literally just changed them and tidied my room (particularly after Freshers' week) but when the nicer cover is on I'll show you guys what that looks like cause its super cute, and only from Tesco too! 

Also can we momentarily discuss the cuteness of my light? £2 from Ikea, now that is a bargain if I ever saw one! Took about 4 people to figure out how to put it on but now its on and it looks 'awsummmm'. 

...and now for the obligatory panoramic shot of my room just cause:

Uni life has become cray cray. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Its good because it means I'm constantly doing something and I'm actually enjoying 2/3 of my modules, but its a bad thing because at the moment I am seriously struggling to keep up with the core reading let alone any secondary or private research reading :/ Ahh well, I suppose I'll get in the swing of it soon! Life is all about learning I guess, learning to be all adult and responsible and all the scary stuff o_O

Anywhoo...here is a truly cliche but awesome song

I should really be asleep right now, but I'm hanging out with my friend (by hanging out I mean we're doing two separate things but in the same room haha), but I suppose I can always nap tomorrow. I do love my naps! Peace!

Here's some cake...forgive me!

Firstly I am sooooooooo sorry for the lack of posting over the past few weeks! I have been busy busy busy with uni and getting back into the swing of things as well as not once having had a completely tidy room to take a picture of and show you! I haven't even been instagramming that much, and that is crazy! Cause I love me some instagram!

Forgive me pleaseeeeeeeee.


Moving on swiftly! This time last week I went to Sainsbury's and bought a whole load of baking ingredients to last me for a while. Unfortunately I used all the buttercream I bought and the cocoa power was just about enough to make that chocolate cake. Needless to say, I'll make the trip down to Asda next time I need some cocoa powder or buttercream! Anyway I made that chocolate cake, and my housemates, well, lets just leave it at that shall we ;)

Prepare yourself for some major foodgasming if I may say so myself! (and yes I am aware that foodgasming is not an actual verb but for this moment and in this blog today, it is!)

Can we just YUM at all that chocolatey icing goodness. I have to say, that is possibly the best tasting icing I have ever made. Also other than a fraction of a side, the cakes themselves came out of their tins almost perfectly! I think I might enjoy baking in this house a lot more than I thought!

I will try and post more but its likely to be one post every two weeks rather than once a week as my workload starts to increase and the library becomes by best friend. That being said, I will do my very very best to post at least once a week and keep you guys updated on what's going on with me, even if it doesn't include mouth-watering pictures like these!

Also if you haven't heard John Legend's new album 'Love In The Future' yet I suggest you give it a listen! Here's one of my favourite songs from it: