Wednesday 29 October 2014

Pumkin Spiced Cupcakes

With Halloween creeping its way towards us, you would be hard pressed to walk into a shop and not see a pile of pumpkins stacked high. But how few of these pumpkins actually get eaten?! Well I decided that this year not only am I NOT going to buy lots of sweets for the little trick or treaters, and then sit in with all the lights out pretending not to be home...(oh dear no visitors, guess I will have to eat all of these! hehe) but I was also going to find a delicious pumpkin recipe and here is the beauty, yes it may be a little bit inspired by the much loved Starbucks autumnal latte, and its just as delicious too!  
Step 1. Purchase Your Pumpkin - not gonna lie, only added this step because, how cute is this kids stall!
Cupcake Ingredients
280g Plain Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Allspice 
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbs Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate Soda
110g Butter
200g Light Brown Sugar
2 Eggs (room temperature)
180ml Milk
250g Pumpkin, cooked & pureed
 
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
200g Cream Cheese
50g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
Method - Cupcakes
1. Preheat your oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Prep your tray with 24 cupcake cups.
2. peel and cube your pumpkin, place in a pan of water and simmer until soft.
3. In a bowl cream together your softened butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar.
4. Add the eggs (very VERY slowly!) to your mixture and mix in, be careful this mixture is on the verge of curdling constantly! (however my first batch curdled and they tasted fine!)
5. Drain your pumpkin and add to a blender with your milk, and blend till smooth.
6. Add your dry ingredients; flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, ground allspice, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, and mix all together.
7.  Pop the mixture into your prepped cupcake cups and pop in the oven for 25 mins, or until a skewer can be placed into the cupcake and comes out clean.
 
Method - Icing*
1. Beat the cream cheese and the butter together until all blended and smooth.
2. Add the vanilla extract, cinnamon, a little icing sugar, and stir until smooth again.
3. Repeat adding a little icing sugar at a time, and stirring until you reach the consistency you desire. *I had to use all my icing sugar AND a good splodge of corn flour to get my icing stiff enough, even then it wasn't perfect, so if you really want that cupcake perfect icing I would suggest using less cream cheese & butter to reach the consistency a lot quicker.
4. Once your cupcakes are cool, spoon your icing into a piping bag and go crazy!
 
Packed full of spice, these pumpkin cupcakes are a perfect way to use up any left over pumpkin you may have - give them ago, they are moist, tasty and...who needs a third reason its cake!!
 
Carla
 
 
 
 


Sunday 26 October 2014

OOTD | Fall Fitness

Second in the series of my Autumn inspired OOTD's, this ones for the fitness bunnies out there. My gym clothes are the clothes I honestly feel the most confident in, maybe its because when I'm wearing them when I'm working out which releases all those positive endorphins, maybe its because they can be so colourful and badass...I'm not sure, but I know that 8 months ago you would never have caught me leaving the gym in my skin tight leggings and a high cut muscle tank top, but now that me. Since developing a love for work out wear, I've created quite a collection.  Below are a few recent purchases for my latest goal, tackling my nemesis... running! So this outfit is for those outdoor runs I'm going to be taking myself on soon! Obviously a new goal requires a whole new outfit before I can even consider taking it on.... 
 
Trainers, Leggins both Nike. Sweater, Gloves & Ear Muffs all Primark.

Carla

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Fitness | Goals

 
So with the colder weather creeping in, its far too easy to succumb to those cosy evenings on the couch, with a bar of galaxy and before we know it its Christmas! We are stuffing our facers with all sorts of delicious feasts, and our gym trainers are in the corner making a lovely home for the spiders. Well this year I have made some big changes with my fitness and I am determined to not let the colder weather draw me in with the cravings for comfort food and early nights. So I have set myself some goals to help motivate me and keep me on track.
 
Goals are a great way of tracking progress, and as you do progress your goals change and help you realise how far you have come, they also help you determine what you are actually working towards. When my personal Trainer asked me to set myself some goals, I was like yep no worries, what will that take me 3 minutes? Well its turns out I had no idea where to start, I had no idea what I actually want to achieve! and to be fair I'm still not sure,
 
So to help myself I decided to stop focusing on what I want to be great at, look like ect and thought about what I currently need to improve on, turns out I have loads of these so it made the task of setting myself some goals a lot easier on myself.
 
 
I'm giving myself 1 month of working on these goals, the 3rd maybe a little optimistic, however I'm still leaving it at 1 month it gives me something to work towards.
 
I hope these might give you a little inspiration if you are struggling to come up with working out some goals.
 
Also I'm hoping that by posting them for people to see, that it may give me a little motivation on the  days when I'm slacking, ill report back my progress in 1 months time.
 
Wish me luck!
 
Carla

Sunday 19 October 2014

OOTD | Autumn Has Fallen

So we are finally in the grasp of Autumn, crisp bright sunny days, scented candles, chai tea, wood burners, rosy cheeks and the season that I think all fashion lovers long for! As Autumn is my favourite season I have decided to kick start a series of outfit of the day posts. So myself and TheGirlInspired (click here to find her on YouTube for all things beauty! ps I helped filmed her latest look book, go tell her I said hi!) grabbed a camera and took off to take photos in the great outdoors. Below is the first look of the season titled "Autumn Has Fallen" 




 


 Beanie, Jeans & Handbag are this season Primark, Boots and Jacket are last year H&M.

Carla

Thursday 9 October 2014

Biyadhoo, Maldives Holiday Snaps


As you may, or may not have noticed I have been absent for the last few weeks. I have been on the other side of our little planet sunning myself on the beautiful island of Biyadhoo in the Maldives, and let me tell you, it was just what the doctor ordered!

I don't have much to say on the matter as the pictures do most the talking for the Maldives, but I will add that this little island was a complete steal compared to what you can pay to visit the Maldives and I would highly recommend everyone visits at least once in their lives.

Here's a few pictures from our time away. 















Carla