'BLOODY' GOOD TOFFEE CREAM PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

Happy Halloween readers! I baked some delicious pumpkin cakes today and I thought I'd upload a post about them. Every year I buy a pumpkin and display it proudly in my home but I never get round to doing anything with the slimy contents I've just broke several nails scraping out of it! Not this year, I made these yummy 'Bloody' Toffee cream Pumpkin Cupcakes! Perfect Halloween treats!

 Here's what I did!

You will need:
Pumpkin flesh- minus the seeds!
3 tablespoonfuls of rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
3 large eggs
3 teaspoons of mixed spices
300g of light brown sugar
225g of self raising flour
Toffee cream
Red food dye
Cupcake cases

How to make them:

First of all you will need to open up your pumpkin and de-seed the pumpkin flesh. It then needs to go in a microwaveable bowl with one tablespoon of water, cover with pierced piece of cling film. Then pop in the microwave for 8 minutes. Once it has steamed nicely, carefully take off the cling film and use a knife to cut through the pumpkin to ensure it's nice and soft  and leave to one side to cool.

Next mix the sugar, eggs, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spices together in a large bowl. Sieve and add the flour and stir until nice and golden in colour. Pour the softened pumpkin through a sieve to get rid of excess water and then gradually add the pumpkin to the mixture and stir well.

Once it's all nicely mixed, put two spoonfuls of mixture into each cake case and place in the oven at 180 degrees for 18 minutes until they are a light golden colour.

Once cooled I used some toffee cream and smoothed this over the top of the cakes and then put drops of red food dye on the top to look like blood for Halloween!


 



These cakes were really yummy and a great way to use the pumpkin too! Plus whilst the cakes were cooking I carved my pumpkins face!

If you have any other great recipes let me know or even better if you make these cakes let me know too! Twitter and Instagram links on the blog!



Have a happy, safe Halloween everyone!

Steph x




Here's the original recipe 



This is not a paid for or sponsored post.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: PHILIPS LUMEA IPL

Time to update you on my Philips Lumea IPL experience! To read my first impressions scroll down, and to read my two week update, see below!

TWO WEEK UPDATE: Sunday 1st November
So this morning was two weeks since I did my first IPL zapping and it was time to go over the areas again. I have to say two weeks felt like an awful long time between treatments and I did start to think 'how can this be working if it's so long between using it?' but following the instructions I'm trusting the guidance! I haven't noticed a great change, nor do I expect it this early on, but I do think my underarm hair is not growing as quickly. When I have been going to shave them there hasn't been the usual growth I've come to expect which is quite exciting! This time round I used my IPL on my legs, underarms, lip and chin and this time I did my bikini line too. As a beauty therapist, I usually do my own bikini waxing but the IPL treatment would be so great if it works! I'm fed up of self inflicting pain with a wax strip! The model I have comes with the face and body attachment and I used the body attachment to do my bikini line and just reduced the light intensity to 3. Again as I found with last time, you do have to contort slightly to reach tricky areas but the whole process took no more than ten minutes for everywhere which I'd say it pretty darn good! It's another two weeks until I have to retreat again, so be sure to check the blog for the next installment!

19.10.15 First Impressions
I wasn't going to write this post yet but I thought I'd gather my first impressions whilst there are still fresh and update you in due course!

I recently invested in the Philips Lumea Advanced SC1997 IPL (intense pulse light) hair removal system after a few months of contemplation. This type of system of hair removal can carry a price tag ranging from £200 to £500 hence why I've been in two mind about getting one! However, since my doctors changed some of my medication I've started noticing more hairs around the lip and chin area and it's started to affect my confidence and although I am a trained beauty therapist, I don't really want to get into the habit of waxing so IPL seemed like a good option. Plus I quite like the idea of not having to shave my underarms and legs and there is no chore I hate more than waxing my own bikini line! There's something not right about inflicting pain on yourself! So I thought I can use this everywhere!

IPL systems use light pulse technology to put the bulb of a strand of hair into a resting phase so that the hairs don't grow and come up through the skin. IPL is not permanent and requires an initial 2 week treatment followed by a touch up phase which varies between 4 to 8 weeks between treatment. If you were to stop using the device in this stipulated schedule, your body would naturally kick in and hair would come out of the resting phase and grow normally.

Body head (left) facial (right)

 I've literally just given my new beauty gadget a go so I thought I'd give you my initial thoughts.

What's in the box:
The model I went for is corded so you need to use it near a plug socket. There are some that come cordless however when I spoke to an adviser she said that the cable is long (which I can confirm!) and you are not having to rush against the battery if you are doing a big session and going for the 'smooth as a seal look!' The model I chose comes with a large attachment to use on the body as well as a smaller facial attachment. I spoke to to Philips via there online web chat and I asked them if it is possible to use the body attachment on the bikini line or would I only be able to use the specific bikini head that is found in other models. They said that I could use the body one but they would recommend to use a lower intensity light setting. I was really pleased that I had asked them this question before buying because you could pay a further £40+ for this extra head that apparently you don't need! My model also came with a fabric storage bag and a lens silk wipe.

Price:
Like I mentioned at the start, the price tags for these machines can be quite an outlay. The model I went for is a brand new model and it was on offer at the time which is why I thought I'd get one when I did this week! However this particular model has 250,000 flashes built in ready to use which is approximately 5 years worth of hair removal in flashes. If your a regular 6 or 8 week waxing client at a salon and you added the cost and times it by 5 years worth of treatments, what works out cheaper?

First go:
When I unpacked the box I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get going. I simply had to attach the cord and plug it in. The body and facial heads are really easy to clip off and change at any point and the guide that comes with it gives you an idea of the number you should set the device to depending on hair and skin colour and location of use. 1 is a low intensity pulse and 5 is high.
They recommend that you shave before using the Lumea but for my lip and chin I really didn't like the sound of that and obviously I had bought the device to avoid waxing so I left that area as it was but had shaved my legs and underarms the day before. The reason they say to shave rather than wax is that you need the bulb to still be intact under the skin so the pulse can affect it. If you wax or epilate,it pulls the bulb out and the pulses have further to try and travel down. After the initial phase of every 2 weeks for 8 weeks of treatment, the hair should shed away. I have visions of waking up one morning with a bed full of hair but I think I'm be a touch dramatic!
I had a read through the guide that comes with it and did a few patch test pulses on different parts of my leg first to get use to how to lay the scanner flush to the skin and what would happen. I was a touch nervous about pulling the trigger but once I'd had a few goes I got the hang of it. I worked over my legs and underarms first and then changed the heads over and did my lip and chin.
Firstly it does not hurt! It feels warm but it is definitely not a pain and there is a slight smell of burning hair but I guess that's it doing its thing! It is so quick to use as well. I was a little worried to start as the light flashes can be seen despite it being firmly pressed flush and I did have a moment where I thought am I going to need to wear my sunglasses whilst I do this?' but luckily the guide says there is no damage to the eyes caused by an escaping light. Thank goodness! What a sight that would have been!

First thoughts:
Its been really simple to set up and get going it was quiet its easy to use if you don't mind some moving around to reach tricky spots like the backs of the legs and it wasn't painful either. Obviously I can't tell you today if it's been effective as I will need to go over the same areas again every two weeks for 8 weeks but I thought I'd pop my first thoughts on the blog and update you as I go.

Overall though, it's a strong start so I have fingers firmly crossed it will help with a harassing hairs!

I will update in due course!

Take care, Steph xx


This is not a paid for or sponsored post, just my own thoughts and opinions.

MISS TO MRS: FRIENDS TO BRIDESMAIDS

In today's Miss to Mrs post, I wanted to share something I did recently which was asking my best friends if they would be my bridesmaids! I know that my friends have waited a long time for me to say I'm getting married and they have all been so excited about it all so I was really excited and slightly nervous asking asking them all.

I have four best friends and I really want them all to be involved in our big day and the lead up, to help calm me down when I'm stressing out and to help me make some important decisions too. I decided not to have a 'Maid of Honour' more 'Maid's of Honour' as I really can't choose between them and I don't want any hard feelings amongst my little group.

This group of gals of mine aren't from the same friendship group which I thought could be a little tricky as although I've gathered this bunch before we're not all of the same circle but I organised us all to meet for a meal so we could giggle and squeal and clap excitedly at my engagement together and, unbeknown to them, I could mass propose to my future maids.

I decided I wanted to have invitations for each of my friends and after a shopping trip to Lush I thought it would be really cute to make a little gift bag with a bath bomb to go along with it.

I picked up these Christmas gift bags from Home Bargains which were only 49p and I really liked the cream and gold pattern on the bags and the gold ribbon handles. I also bought some wedding confetti as I though this would be great as a bag filler instead of using tissue paper.

I cut the snowflake part off the tag attached and just left a narrow tag so that I could write each of the girls names on so that I didn't get the personalised invitations mixed up and i just had wrote the names on each one.

The products I chose from Lush were the Think Pink bath bombs these are so cute but unfortunately I couldn't open the bags to take a photo as I didn't want to rip the bags so click the link to take a look! But the reason I chose these particular ones is because when they are dissolving in the bath water they release heart shaped confetti! Amazing and perfect for a wedding related gift, plus they smell so good. I popped one into each bags and then sprinkled the loose confetti into the bags to cover them.

I had the bridesmaids invitations made for me and I am so pleased with them. I chose the design, the card used and exactly how I wanted them to be set out. You definitely could get creative and take a trip to a craft shop and make them yourself if your a creative type but I knew someone who makes things like this for a living so I asked them to do them for me.

I don't yet know what colour scheme I'm having for the wedding but I do love gold so I chose a gold card for the back and then layered a blush pink and cream card so that they looked really classy and girly. I love them! And I think it's so nice that they are personalised and they are the size of a 5x7 photograph so if they wanted to frame them then they can!

And on the back I added a little message for them all! I asked for the word 'bridesmaid' to be in gold lettering as I knew I would be asking them to open their cards at the same time and I really wanted that to stand out.

Once the bath bombs were in place I simply tied the ribbon handles and then I discreetly taped each invitation card to the front of the bag to make it easier handing them out to each girl.

Ta dah!!!

I have to say the girls absolutely loved their little gift and it made it so exciting and a unique way of asking them. They all they all squealed when they opened them and ran round the table to hug me! I had a really fun time planning and putting them all together and as this was the first little slice of the wedding, I thought they were great idea! 

What do you think to them? I really hope that this post inspires you to think about elements of your wedding and maybe you might even fancy doing a similar thing.

Be sure to leave me a comment let me know!

Take care, Steph  xx

Oh and they all said yes by the way!

MISS TO MRS: MY NEW SERIES!

Hey lovely reader! Today I want to kick start my new blogging series! Woohoo! If you read my 'Another Greek Adventure' post, you will know that I recently got engaged!! You may be able to gather from the title, I am now starting my 'Miss to Mrs' posts documenting the process of planning my wedding. I thought this would be such a great project to have on my blog as it may help future bride-to-be's and also it will be amazing to have an online diary so I can look back on how I felt and the different stages of it all. Hopefully it may help or inspire some of you and maybe you'll enjoy joining me on this journey. Have no fear, I will still post reviews on the things I've been loving or what I've been up too but I thought it would be pretty cool to drop these in the mix! So after taking some unintentional time off from blogging I'm looking forward to these dairy style entries!

I am happy to share ideas and tips but I probably won't get too personal as this stage but a little bit of background might just help you context my little life! So I've been with my now fiancé (eek!!) For 10 years since I was 17 years old! I know right, I totally deserved my ring! Ha ha! I had no idea he was going to propose when he did, we spoke about things like that as though it had already happened if that makes sense. Like 'when we get married' or 'when we have kids we should definitely....' just dropping it onto casual conversations so now that it has become a reality it still feels so surreal! We have had so many lovely cards and presents we really have been so spoilt and it's so lovely to see how happy others are for us. I have had a really helpful wedding planner file and some personalised note books from my friends which are so handy and I love a bit of stationary and I'm a bit list maker! So these are going to help my be a organised wedding planner and hopefully avoid becoming a bridezilla. Although I make no promises!

Love this monthly breakdown

I've come to realise that I'm not one of those girls who has had her wedding planned out in her mind since she was 12 years old. I literally have no clue what type of dress I want, the colour scheme, how I want my hair. Nothing! This did slightly panic me initially as when people started to ask me these type of questions, I felt slightly embarrassed that I didn't have an answer. I could see their faces going, you've been with this guy for 10 years how do you not know? But I guess I never really thought a out the wedding itself, more the life we were going to have together, places we'll explore, holidays we will take and the type of home we will live in.

Thankfully, the internet is your best friend or sometimes it's the enemy. When your tired eyes look up from the screen and realise you've been scrolling the pages for an hour and a half! True story. I didn't have Pintrest until I got engaged. I kind of didn't see the need for it but I have to say if your looking for ideas and inspiration it has tonnes of wedding related ideas and is so simple to use. I am constantly pinning!

Another thing I have found really fun and useful is the bridal magazine's. I bought a couple of then to start with and I picked up a blank A4 note book so I can make a wedding scrap book of the things I like. A bit like a real life Pintrest board. Also I think it's a good idea to make a scrapbook from the magazines as my wedding is two years away and I don't have the room to stock pile magazines!

The only part of my wedding that I definitely did know I wanted was the venue itself. My partner and I found our perfect venue a few years ago and we always said it would be the places we wanted to get married. It's a beautiful hotel on the beach with a marquee for the evening celebrations and they are so busy with weddings there is a two year waiting list! So needless to say when we got home from our Greek trip I was straight on the emails and we have booked our wedding for September 2017! I'm so happy we've secured our dream venue. It's so important to get married where you feel connected to. This venue is in a very special area for us aa a couple and we went a few weeks ago to meet with the wedding planning team and to be shown around the areas we hadn't seen. The venue we have chosen means we can get married and have the night do at the same place which I really like so our guests don't have to travel in between. I went armed with my wedding g planner file and a list of questions.

These are the questions I asked when we visited:
1) Can you go through the breakdown of our wedding package and what is included.
2) Is wedding insurance part of the package?
3) Do you have liability insurance? (If they say no, ask why. A public venue absolutely should have this and if they don't be cautious before proceeding)
4) Do you hold one wedding a day?
5) Do you have a wet weather/ power cut contingency plan? (This was important for us with having a marquee for the evening)
6) Will we have our own wedding coordinates throughout the process?
7) Are the table linen, cutlery,glasses etc all built into the package price or are these charged at extra?
8) Are there any restrictions as to how early the ceremony can be held?
9) When would we be able to decorate the marquee?
10) Is there a payment plan available?

This gives you an idea of the types of things to consider and maybe it might spark something you think you might need to check with your vendor.

I hope this first edition of 'Miss to Mrs' have been useful and interesting and I can't wait to tell you more next time!

Take care, Steph xx