Simple Chocolate Cake!

Simple Chocolate Cake!

As it's my dad's birthday, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a cake and blog about it. So, instead of making it by hand like usual, I decided to use a Betty Crocker boxed "Devil's Food" cake for quickness. Also, they never seem to go wrong!! Here's how it was made;

Here are my ingredients that I used. For the chocolate box, you need sunflower oil/vegetable oil, water and 3 eggs. To decorate, I have picked the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Icing, some popping candy sprinkles and triple chocolate curls.

First, you combine the oil, eggs, water and the packet chocolate mix into a bowl and combine for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer (you can mix by hand, but I found this quicker!

I then placed the mixture, once creamy and combined, into two separate tins. I greased the sides with butter and layered with greaseproof paper before hand to ensure that the cakes didn't stick.

Once baked for 23-28 minutes, I took both cakes out of the oven to cool. Once they had cooled, I removed them easily from their tins, turning them out onto a clean, large plate. Once stone-cold, I filled the middle with half the tub of icing, and place the other cake on-top. I used the rest of the icing on the top of the cake, and then decorated with popping candle and chocolate curls. I then wrapped around a ribbon band to hold the cake nicely and make it more of a celebration cake, than a normal chocolate cake. Here is the finished product;

Love, Hannah

BIRTHDAY CAKE, YUM!

Birthday Cake!

It's my mother's birthday and I decided that instead of purchasing a cake, I would use some of the ingredients in the kitchen up and make her one. I used a recipe from the BBC Good Food's website, which was simple and easy, then I decorated the cake to make it more impressive!

First, I weighed all the dry ingredients and put them into a mixing bowl. I then weighed the wet ingredients (egg, milk, butter) and combined everything with a electric mixer until the mixture was soft and smooth.

Next, I greased two cake tins with butter and then cut out some grease-proof paper to coat the inside, to ensure the cake wouldn't stick to the tin and would be easy to remove. Next, I separated the mixture into both of the cake tins and popped it into the over for 20 minutes.

Whilst my cake was in the oven, I began to organise the decorations for the top of the birthday cake. My mum loves flowers, so I chose wafer flowers to put on the top of the cake. I also used

silver balls, butterfly candy and a mixture of vanilla and cream cheese buttercream icing.

I removed the cakes from the oven and waited until they cooled before removing them from their tins and getting ready to decorate. Then the fun part began!! Decorating and eating!!

Love, Hannah

Motivation Week!

Motivation Week

Those who know me, know I've suffered with anxiety for the past 6 years. In this time I have read multiple self-help and mindfulness books in order to keep control of it. And I want to share with you several of the ones I feel are best..

The Mindfulness Journal by Corinne Sweet.
The Little Book of Mindfulness by Dr Patrizia Collard.
Walking on Sunshine by Rachel Kelly.

Calm by Michael Acton Smith.

I feel I've read these books and not properly "read" them, so for your benefit and mine, every week I'll be posting weekly objects from these four books to live your life, and mine, by for the following week.

This weeks tips go as followed..

1. The Sky is Low; Take note of Emily Dickinson's poem about the Winter period.

"The sky is low, the clouds are mean,

A travelling flake of snow

Across a barn or through a rut

Debates if it will go.

A narrow wind complains all day

How some one treated him;

Nature, like us, is sometimes caught

Without her diadem".

This poem express the close relationship between our internal weather and the weather outside. It helps us realise that even in the worst of times, there are often opportunities to laugh and lighten the mood when we bother to find them.

TIP 1- Find something to laugh and smile about, whatever you face this week.

2. Look Around you and Live Longer; Focus on every aspect of life, increase your perception of the world around you instead of focusing on the difficulties in your life. It will broaden your mind and act as a form of meditation through a difficult period.

"With a sense of adventure and curiosity, we can learn and experience more, moment by moment"

TIP 2 - Realise the world around you, not just the world inside your head.

3. Start the day RIGHT; Many people are usually in such a rush in the mornings, they forget to slow down and take a second to think. And this moment of thinking and reflection, can create a sense of calm before you brace yourself for the day. Give yourself extra time to get ready, have a cool shower where you actually take notice of the water rather than the thoughts inside your head, eat breakfast without the TV or a phone, and appreciate the solidarity for the moment before your whirlwind of a day begins. Check you have everything you need before you leave the house and use the few minutes before hand to breathe and not rush.

TIP 3 - Don't rush, appreciate solidarity and calmness when you can find moments of it.

4. Spend time in nature; Take time out of your busy day this week to use those legs of yours and walk. Whether its through nature or through your city, walking is an instant reliever of stress when you have been couped up in an office environment or a busy environment. I think with our busy lives we all forget how important a simple walk away from our problems can affect us and create a sense of calmness for when we go back. It gives us the strength to carry on with our day.

TIP 4- Find your Arcadia. Walk away from your problems to create the strength in yourself to go back and deal with them.