Apple, Carrot, Almond and Sultana Shortbread

Catchy eh? When I went on Tastespotting recently, almost every other photo was an apple recipe. Particularly apple pie. Apple Crumble Bars, Blackberry Apple Tarts, Mini Apple Hand Pies, Apple Cake with Salted Caramel Icing…it went on and on. I took this as a clear (and hunger-inducing) sign to get baking and I have been – baked apples, stewed apples, apple crumb bars have all been made and thoroughly enjoyed, but for one reason and another not blogged. So it was out to the garden to pick some final rosy red apples, then back to the kitchen to continue on this Autumn baking bandwagon and finally get something appley on the blog.The name sounds overwhelming for what is an normally a very simple biscuit, but for some reason it works. It started off as Apple and Carrot shortbread, a Tamasin Day-Lewis recipe. I chucked in a handful of sultanas as I love the texture they bring to anything, and they emulated the flavours of carrot cake. I could have left it there, but when I tasted it they actual biscuit dough tasted quite bland –  perhaps as a result of the savoury carrot and relatively small quantity of sugar – and we didn’t have any vanilla, so in went the almond.My parents were quite snooty about these when I told them (me: I’ve made apple and carrot shortbread. My Dad: …was that a mistake?) but don’t be like them! I couldn’t really taste the carrot, and I think the apple just added extra sweetness and texture. Plus I like to think that the added fruit and veg makes these cookies ‘healthy’, meaning you can eat more! Enjoy :)

Apple, Carrot, Almond and Sultana Shortbread, adapted from Tamasin Day-Lewis

200g wholemeal flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
100g light brown sugar
50g carrot, grated (about 2 small carrots)
1 small apple, grated
1/2 tsp. almond extract
75g sultanas

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C or 350F. Sift the semolina, flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl, and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in the carrot, apple, almond extract and sultanas.

3. Add the the flour mixture into the butter mixture and stir until a dough forms and brings everything together. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.

4. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to around 1cm thick. Stamp out shortbread biscuits, then place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown just a bit.

Makes about 20 cookies, depending on the size of your cutter.

Ruby Red Amaretti Crumble

Quite a fancy name for a crumble, but then it is a Nigella recipe and she is famed for her choices of phrase: chocolate digestives are crushed ‘until they look like dark Mexican mud’, chocolate cake is ‘a confection to exult in, not to regret’ and about peanut butter she says ‘Why, I feel the urge to just rub it all over my body!’ So in retrospect, she went pretty easy on this dish. Plus, this is so good it deserves a glamorous title. In essence, its a Plum, Orange and Amaretti Crumble but its probably the best crumble I’ve ever tried. Apple Crumble is good, the deep purple of Apple and Blackberry even better. Peach is nice in the summer and Pineapple for something a little bit different. But trust me, none are as good as this!The changes that make it stand out are small but effective. The plums are cooked lightly first in a bit of sugar, orange juice and zest to give it a little brightness, make the whole thing smell gorgeous and infuse it with orange. Crushed amaretti crumbs are sprinkled over the plums once they’re in the dish, and then a whole heap more are stirred into the crumble mixture. The combination works so well and smells absolutely intoxicating! We made another one for a friend shortly after ours was all gone, and it proved very tricky to give it away without diving in. With heaps of cream, a rainy evening and the finale of Downton Abbey this crumble made the perfect Sunday night. You can find the recipe here (as well as watch Nigella make it in her classic style) – try it and you might become like my family, planning to add amaretti to every single crumble in the future. Enjoy!

An Edible Mosaic's Virtual Book Launch Party

I’m so excited to be part of this online event, a virtual book launch for the wonderful Faith of the blog An Edible Mosaic and her new debut cook book, An Edible Mosaic: Middle Eastern Fare with Extraordinary Flair. Middle Eastern cuisine is one I have very much enjoyed eating, but am yet to do much cooking of, and so I’m sure the 100+ recipes (mainly from the Levant) in the book will be fascinating and keep me busy for a long time! I always enjoy reading Faith’s blog and learning about new recipes and flavours, so I’m sure the book would be great, and the photos I’ve seen show its a pretty stunning one too. Can’t wait to get it and start experimenting. The recipe Faith chose for us all to make for the virtual book launch event was Saffron Rice with Golden Sultanas and Pine Nuts which I thought was a clever idea as then everybody can twist it up to suit them and pair it with a million different dishes. I skipped the golden sultanas, simply because I didn’t have any in the house, and my family had the dish with Green Chicken Curry. I know blending these dishes is quite unusual, not exactly a traditional combination, but they still both tasted good! I don’t think my photos of the rice could really do it justice, a sit was a classic dark November evening and my hungry family ate super quickly, so I’ll use the lovely one from the book:As I expected, the rice was very tasty. I don’t often make interesting side dishes, sticking to plain rice and simple vegetables, so it was fun to make something a little bit different and more complex as an accompaniment.  I loved the deep nuttiness of the toasted pine nuts against the sweet onion and soft rice and this combination is definitely something I’ll remember in the future as it was so simple but effective. I definitely recommend heading over to the book launch to see what everybody did with recipe, and if you’d also like to learn more about Middle Eastern cooking the book is available on Amazon. I’ll leave you with the recipe…

Saffron Rice with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts

ROZ MLOW’WAN

Recipe courtesy of An Edible Mosaic: Middle Eastern Fare with Extraordinary Flair by Faith Gorsky (Tuttle Publishing; Nov. 2012); reprinted with permission.

Serves 4 to 6

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes, plus 15 minutes to let the rice sit after cooking

1½ cups (325 g) basmati rice, rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons sultanas (golden raisins)
1¾ cups (425 ml) boiling water
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon saffron threads (or ½ teaspoon turmeric)

1. Soak the rice in tepid water for 10 minutes; drain. While the rice is soaking, put half a kettle of water on to boil.

2. Add the oil to a medium, thick-bottomed lidded saucepan over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer the pine nuts to a small bowl and set aside.

3. Add the onion to the saucepan you cooked the pine nuts in, and cook until softened and just starting to brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the rice and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the sultanas, boiling water, salt, and saffron (or turmeric), turn the heat up to high, and bring it to a rolling boil.

4. Give the rice a stir, then cover the saucepan, turn the heat down to very low, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes (do not open the lid during this time). Turn the heat off and let the rice sit (covered) 15 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

5. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on top; serve.

Keeping it Simple

Sometimes, simple is just what the doctor cook ordered. Simple because you’re tired, simple because you’re ill, simple because the cupboards are bare. Maybe simple because that’s all you need to evoke a happy memory. This summer, my family went to Cornwall for a week. It rained pretty much the whole time – a bit of a shock just back from sunny Italy – but whilst it was exasperating I don’t think it mattered that much. It was a rare occasion for us all to be together: no friends, no parties or shopping. The whole week we were craving scones, but kept missing the opportunity to buy ingredients and the rain kept us out of teashops. On the penultimate day of the holiday we finally caved and bought some, and the wait was worth it. Thick layers of jam and cream – and a hearty debate about which should be spread on first – and the rain was all but forgotten.As a result of the Guild of Food writer’s competition, I recently spent a wonderful afternoon at delicious. magazine. The office is rammed with food, and they were kind enough to give me some samples for me to take home, including a big pot of clotted cream. I’m sure there are lots of adventurous recipes involving this sinfully rich product, but I was only ever planning scones. They’re a classic! I used this Ballymaloe White Sweet Scones recipe, but halved it as it makes a massive amount and I still managed a decent 12 and some of these were huge. Fittingly, it rained for the whole duration of making and baking these, but then again would I expect anything different in London in October? Enjoy!

Apricot Mascarpone Tart

I think it’s time to face up to the fact that summer is ending. It probably already ended a while ago to be fair. Looking back at my blog posts for the summer months, it may not massively look like I’ve been embracing the bounty of fruit summer offers. The truth is like I’ve said before, my family generally just eats the fruit really simply rather than baking with it. There’s also things I never got round to photographing and blogging, such as my first attempt at jam making with Apricot and Almond Jam: one little tester jar that was delicious (if very sweet) and eaten quickly, like all the best things are. But as the nights get darker, the final raspberries on the garden cane ripen and my final (!) school year is well underway, I get a little nostalgic about the summer that has just passed. So to celebrate the end of Summer 2012, I made a sunshine filled Apricot and Mascarpone Tart. My Mum is not the biggest fan of rich cheesecake type things, so I was looking forward to being able to use mascarpone for once in this tart. As expected, it gave the tart an extra creaminess and richness, but you couldn’t really taste it in a sense that you would be able to identify what it was if you didn’t know. The combination of apricots and almonds is a classic and so was delicious, and I particularly liked the slightly tart roasted apricots offsetting the sweetness of the rest of the dish. The pastry was a method I hadn't seen before – creaming the butter and sugar together before beating in the flour – and I think this resulted in a slightly different texture to normal sweet shortcrust but it was equally as tasty! The recipe came from Lucas Hollweg's recipe section in the Sunday Times Style magazine a few weeks back, which is behind the paywall currently but visible at the weekends. Enjoy :) Apologies for the photo quality – dark rainy nights aren’t the easiest conditions, especially with a hungry family waiting!

Coffee Break Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for the people in my office on my last day of my internship at the start of August, as I had wanted to make something a little bit more special than muffins for my last bake. I had found these on the always perfect blog, raspberri cupcakes, a few weeks before and bookmarked them on the off chance I would find a situation where they would be suitable. With a few adaptations they became the perfect treat.Originally, I stayed pretty faithful to the recipe on raspberri cupcakes. I made both the condensed milk icing and the cookie dough…and used neither. The condensed milk icing was gorgeous, but insanely sweet. Properly sweet. I don’t normally find things too sweet, but even I could only manage a miniscule spoonful. It was probably as close to eating pure butter as you can get! It still tasted good, but I thought it would be pretty over powerful to pile it on top of a chocolate chip cupcake. Bearing this extreme sweetness in mind, I also chose not to stuff the middle with cookie dough and baked this into cookies another day instead. So in the end I had: coffee cupcakes with dark and milk chocolate chips, coffee buttercream, mini HobNobs and milk bottles. I couldn’t find mini chocolate chip cookies, and the HobNobs seemed appropriate after an embarrassing day at the office when the the rest of the team noticed how I ate a ridiculously large amount in one day… These are fun to personalise too: I swapped in cola bottle sweets on one cake for my boss with the Diet Coke habit, and added an extra shot of coffee to the cake of the boss who drank copious amounts of black coffee throughout the day. They went down a treat at the office – I hope you like them too :)

Chocolate Owl Cake

My Mum is really good at birthday cakes. When I was little I had an ice cream cake, treasure chest cake, my name written in Smarties, a teddy bear, a princess cake and more over the years. So for her birthday this year, it was time to return the favour! She requested this owl cake, purely for its cuteness, and my sister and I obliged.It took us a couple of read-through’s of the recipe to fully understand how the cake gets carved up into the adorable owl shape, and I may or may not have cut it wrong initially but that’s nothing a bit of chocolate buttercream gluing couldn’t save! It’s actually not too complicated to make, with a round sponge making the main body of the owl and then a square cake carved up for the rest.

It was really fun to do something different and it felt pretty indulgent – chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, marzipan, white chocolate buttons, milk chocolate buttons, Cadbury Flake’s and chocolate fingers all together, but hey, when better to indulge then a birthday? Especially when the result is this adorable. I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the cake as it felt a little morbid and also we didn’t use the original recipe. The suggested cake was made with melted chocolate and we wanted it to be a little bit lighter so used the chocolate version of this. The cake was huge when finished, and lasted a good few days, but happily it stayed moist even after being cut into lots of pieces. The link for the original instructions (with helpful step by step photos of the cake carving) is here – enjoy!!

Rhubarb and Custard Tart

In American cooking, rhubarb and strawberries seem to be a majorly popular flavour combination. Here in England, its rhubarb and custard. Sharp bright pink rhubarb and creamy yellow custard – it’s definitely a strong rival to rhubarb and strawberry. Whether in two bold stripes in a hard boiled sweet, hot custard poured over a rhubarb crumble or both flavours combined together in a huge luxurious tart like today, it’s always a winner.I’ve been wanting to make  a rhubarb and custard tart for a while now and had several different recipes saved in my ever expanding Sweet To Make file. I was reminded of this idea when I came across an amazing looking Custard Tart in the fabulous book Street Food Revolution but decided to save that for a special occasion due to the 12 (!) egg yolks it requires. I eventually chose a John Torode recipe, because surely the co-juduge of Masterchef will have trustworthy recipes (and also something in me always trusts BBC Food recipes). It also was not extravagant with eggs, seemed simple and intrigued me as to how the 300ml of double cream would ever set into a firm filling.But I needn’t have worried, it all turned out ok. More than ok! This tart was so good. I seem to be loving the mix of tart and creamy flavours at the moment, first the pannacotta, then this combination of the rich custard and vanilla poached rhubarb that still has a hint of its sharpness. I know it’s a bit past the rhubarb season now as I made this a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to let a whole year go by without posting this. You never know, some lucky people might still have some growing or have been clever and frozen some for the winter. If not, I’m sure the combination of raspberries or blackberries with custard would be just as delicious. Enjoy!

Raspberry Panna cotta

Note to self: don’t try and transport panna cottas. It proves rather stressful. I had to transport these, precious glasses and all, on a car journey to my Granny’s as I was providing the dessert at lunch. They were placed in a shoebox, wrapped in tissue paper, padded with tea towels and strapped in to the car with a seatbelt. Probably unsurprisingly, they and the precious glasses got there unharmed but perhaps next time I’ll stick to cake!I was inspired to make these after having these from M&S and loving the combination of rich creamy panna cotta and bright raspberries. I’ve made a vanilla pannacotta before, so I chose to combine the two layers of the supermarket version into one delicious raspberry panna cotta. I was nervous this would be too bouncy and jelly-like in texture because of the two sheets of gelatine, but I needn’t have worried as they set nicely but still stayed delightfully creamy and rich. The results were summery, absolutely chock full of raspberry flavour and a really pretty shade of pink. The recipe is from Nigel Slater’s fruit volume of Tender, but it can also be found here. You don’t taste the rosewater, it’s just there to stop the raspberries being too tart, although I suppose you could up the amount to make it a key flavour but I wanted to let the raspberries shine on their own. Enjoy!

Triple Chocolate Cookies

My friends always complain that I hardly ever bake for them. If they come round to my house they know I’ll definitely bake something for them, but I hardly ever take bakes into school. Even on birthdays it tends to be someone else who brings the cake in. I’m not sure why – I think it’s the pressure? And all the different tastes, likes and allergies to bear in mind! With my four week internship this summer, I wanted this to be different and so every Friday I’ve taken something in for the office. Blueberry and lemon cupcakes one week, nectarine and coconut muffins last week, and these triple chocolate cookies the week in between. There is definitely less pressure and fear that people won’t like something when it involves chocolate!The original recipe is from Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet book, a fabulous book and one where my list of ‘To Make’ recipes is pretty much the whole book. I feel like I can trust Dan Lepard’s recipes too – I’ve made many of his ones from the Guardian and they’ve always gone down well. I did make a slight change to this recipe – just making half the chocolate chunks white chocolate rather than all dark as I simply love white chocolate and thought it made more interesting. And triple rather than double chocolate can never be a bad thing!I loved how these turned out – they were so perfectly round! They had those moreish crispy edges, a soft middle, plenty of cocoa flavour and a generous helping of chocolate. I overuse this word so much but seriously – these really are addictive. I may or may not have eaten one for breakfast. Or even more than one…Anyhow! The office liked them, I liked them, my family liked them. The only people still waiting are my friends! You can find pretty much the same recipe here – the only difference is the book had 300g of chocolate and I didn’t freeze them. Enjoy!

Gooseberry Flapjacks

I've had this bake and news ready for a while now, I just haven't blogged because I didn't know how to say it. Which is silly really, because its good and exciting news. To cut the waffle: I've won a competition! It was the Guild of Food Writers WriteIt! Competition, a food writing competition with a fab prize of 14 amazing cookbooks, publication on delicious magazine's website and a trip to delicious magazine HQ! I'm super excited and honoured to have won - you can read my piece here if you like. Now for cheesy photo alert...Look at my prize books! I won a copy of each book shortlisted for the Guild of Food Writers Awards which I’ve been working my way through and they’re all so interesting and varied – my favourites so far have been Street Food Revolution for being inspiring and making me want to start up my own food company, and Peyton & Byrne British Baking for being full of delicious classic bakes with little twists. Rest assured my baking in the near future will be heavily influenced by these and all the others. The President of the Guild of Food Writers came for brunch to bring that massive pile of books you see there and I made these gooseberry flapjacks for us to munch as we chatted. I love flapjacks for the way a good one can taste so caramelly and delightfully chewy, yet you can still claim some element of health due to the oats… although I'm pretty sure the golden syrup goodness cancels any nutritional value out...which is why you add fruit! The gooseberries keep the flapjacks moist for longer than they may last otherwise, and also add a sharp element to stop the treat becoming too sickly. The recipe comes from the British Larder, a great restaurant in Suffolk which has had a blog long before the restaurant opened in August 2010. I tweaked the recipe only by taking out the seeds and nuts – a virtuous addition I’m sure but I’m still yet to develop a liking for seeds of any kind other than poppy. Gooseberries have such a short season we need to take advantage of them while you can and this recipe appealed because to me it was original - previously it has always been so easy to simply pair the fruit with some elderflower in a crumble or pie and have a winner so I was interested to try something new. The end result was crumbly and delicious, perfect for afternoon tea or elevenses. Enjoy!

Tomato and Pesto Tart

Recently I’ve been getting more into savoury cooking. As this blog quite clearly shows, I’m always more of a sweet than savoury girl. I don’t like popcorn but I know if I did I’d be sweet or toffee rather than salt. I’m one of those people who never finds anything too sweet and always makes room for dessert no matter how big the main course. Case in point: in France recently, after ordering the very innocent-sounding ‘steak’ from the menu, what arrived was one of the best but biggest meals of all time: a humongous steak, an onion tart tatin, a pile of garlicky gratin dauphinoise, three different types of vegetable and fries – all on one plate! It was incredible and I severely regret not taking any photos but I still ordered a tiramisu for afterwards…which also turned out to be on the large side. It came in one of those kilner jars, but whereas often desserts are served in mini versions of these, this restaurant served it in full size ones. Full to the brim. Needless to say, it had been a case of eyes larger than stomach and I couldn’t finish it all but I think it proves my dedication to my sweet tooth. However, like I say, I’ve recently become more into savoury cooking.This tart has been a summer staple in my family for a long time and so was a perfect way to begin my savoury journey. When I was younger, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this but now I totally cannot understand why – it is so simple, so addictive and so perfect for summer! Ok, so the weather here at the moment is still a little resistant to admit that it is summer now (it’s July!) but even in the rain this combination is delicious. This recipe was one of those family ones that I’ve always seen my Mum make but never a recipe and as I was home alone I just made it up using a combination of recipes. To be honest, this is so simple it hardly needs a recipe – if you were to use ready made pastry it would just be an assembly job but homemade is often so much nicer.

Tomato and Pesto Tart

Ingredients: 125g butter

190g plain flour

40g grated Parmesan

50ml water

150g pesto

6 plum tomatoes, sliced

1. In a food processor blend the butter, flour and parmesan until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add the water until it forms a smooth dough. Shape into a disc and chill for at least an hour until firm.

2. Preheat the oven to 180’C. Roll the dough on a floured surface to fit a 20-cm buttered fluted loose bottomed tart tin and place in the tin. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans or dry rice. Bake for 15minutes, remove the paper and beans and bake for 5-10minutes more until golden. 3. Spread the pesto over the base of the tart case in an even layer. Arrange the sliced tomatoes in rings on top of the pesto, and bake for a further 15minutes until the tomatoes are cooked slightly – keeping an eye on the edges of the pastry so it does not burn. Enjoy!

Raspberry Almond Cake

I’m back! Schoolwork and weeks of important exams, followed by a much needed holiday to France and then a computer switchover have meant I’ve been away from not just my blog but reading others too, so I’m looking forward to catching up on all the delicious things I have missed. May was clearly quiet on my blog, but I’m back with a delicious summery cake to resume my June blogging.One of the best things about summer is the fruit – strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blueberries and peaches and more. So much of this is perfect just eaten as is, or only manipulated lightly – such as marinated strawberries in an (always rich but addictive) Eton Mess. If I do bake with it, the flavour of the fruit still needs to be the main star and this cake does exactly that with its thick layer of jammy raspberries in the centre.The original recipe is called Bakewell Cake, just as anything with almonds and fruit is so often labelled Bakewell Tart style. Regardless, it’s really simple to make as all the ingredients other than the raspberries are whizzed together at once – which means it is dangerously easy to have an addictive cake in record time! The cake also works well with frozen raspberries, so it can be a staple right all year round – even when warm summer days can feel a long way away. Enjoy!

Review on Sephora

In my last and final blog post, I will be doing a review on Sephora. Sephora is store that you will find in most malls and shopping centers all over the country. They mostly sell make-up, but they also sell other beauty products that can help better your skin and beauty. Most people have good reviews about Sephora but there is  always a small amount of people who have something negative to say. Here are a few reviews on some of Sephora's products:

Philosophy The Cocktail Party Set

This set has the highest rates in the Sephora store. It was rated five out of five stars and happens to be one of the top sellers. Everyone had something good to say about this product. It makes a great gift and customers say it has a nice scent to it.Customers also said the shower gel had a perfect, soothing smell and the lip gloss wasn't too bright. It was more of a baby pink and that really was a plus is selling this product. (Photo Courtesy and Information came from the same website: http://goo.gl/AM7fX)

Sultra Hair Extensions 

These are out of the box hair extensions that are a great sell for customers. This specific product got a 4.9 out of 5 star rating. There are a variety of colors that the extensions come in and that makes it better for the customers. All of the customers said they never had a problem matching the extensions with their hair color. That is how convenient these extensions are. One customer said they were a little pricey, but the rest of the reviews were great!

(Photo Courtesy and Information came from the same website: http://goo.gl/ZTHv4 )

Luminaze Catalytic Skin Tone Illuminator And Dark Spot Corrector

This product is known to get rid of dark spots and to make the skin visibly brighter and more shiny. But, the ratings and reviews were not that good. This product got 2.2 our of 5 stars. The first couple of weeks customers started to see results, but not very many. But after about the third week, everything just went downhill. A lot of customers had high hopes for this product and they were let down and very disappointed. It was also said as over priced and not held to its value. (Picture Courtesy and Information came from the same website: http://goo.gl/D4zlZ)

Sephora Collection Doe Eyed 2 in 1 Felt Eyeliner

This eyeliner is made to draw thick or thin lines on your eyes. It is a felt tip and supposed to work great. But, it is not as great as it seems. It got a 1.9 out of 5 star rating. The reviews were not that great either. Customers said they had to push down on the eyeliner to make it work and it still did not work great after that. The colors of the eyeliner were faded and it did not even last the whole day. (Picture Courtesy and Information came from the same website: http://goo.gl/J4siE)

Compare and Contrast

In this blog post, I will be comparing and contrasting rompers and dresses from Forever 21. They are a popular seller and customers tend to usually have a favorite between the two.

Rompers:

The customers who shop at Forever 21 say the rompers are cute, comfortable, and affordable. At first, some customers are not sure if the romper is the right look for them. But, after they buy it, the customer is always happy. The customers said that they rompers fit to the body and the elastic band on the inside helps the romper stay in place. This romper is rated five out of five stars and all the customer feedback is positive. But, it is not best to buy the romper online because you might need to try it on and see how it looks. People prefer rompers over dresses because the rompers have the built in shorts and it breaks up the outfit. The romper is not the look for everyone. It is one of those pieces of clothing that has to just fit perfectly to your body.

Photo Courtesy: http://goo.gl/NydQF

Dresses:
Another big, but not as popular, of a seller at Forever 21 is dresses. Some customers complain the dresses are too short, but that the rompers fit perfectly. With the dresses, you have to break the outfit up with a belt or some form of accessory. But, that can be a good thing if you like to accessorize your outfits. The customer ratings for the dresses are no where near as high as for the rompers. Most people prefer the rompers. But, most people start out with the dresses first and then move to the rompers. The dresses are cheaper, but the material will not hold up as well as the material of the romper.

Photo Courtesy: http://goo.gl/XlESe

Fashion Interview With My Mom

I chose to interview Donna, my mom, because she is the one person who knows the best about fashion. Ever since she was a little girl, she was always getting into her mom's clothes and jewelry and dressing up. She is always up to date on what is in style and what to wear. She is the one who inspired me to be such a fashion diva. Hopefully with this interview, it will help others choose to love fashion just as much as my mom does!

Me: I am going to ask you a few questions about fashion, your views on it, and some personal favorites are you ready?                                                        

Donna: Yes.

Me: What is it about fashion that you love so much?

Donna: You can create your own identity. It's a way to express yourself. It's the way you can set yourself apart from everyone else. I would say that's the one thing I like about fashion.

Me: Where are some of your favorite places to shop?

Donna: Nordstroms, Cache, White House Black Market, and Ralph Lauren.

Me: What would be considered your definition of fashion?

Donna: Ever changing. Something is always changing. That definition sums it up in two words.

Me: How does fashion affect your life?

Donna: It's given me a very overcrowded closet. It makes me want to go shopping and buy the latest and greatest clothing and jewelry.

Me: What are some of your favorite clothing/jewelry pieces that you own?

Donna: My wedding ring, a couple pieces from Ectera, and my hats.

Me: How has you fashion changed since you were a kid?

Donna: Some fashion comes in and out of style. Things that were popular in the '70s are now popular in the '90s and today. It has never really drastically changed, it just seems to keep revolving.

Me: How picky are you with what you buy and wear?

Donna: I'm not very picky as long as it fits well. I'm pretty open to any styles and I'll try on anything. The main thing is is that it fits.

Me: If you could give any fashion advice to anyone, what would it be?

Donna: Don't overdo accessories. Keep the bulk to a minimum. Only accent one certain piece. Also, find a style that fits you and then get creative with it. You may never know what you'll come up with.

Me: Alright, that concludes my fashion interview with my mom. Thank you for your time!

Donna: You're welcome!

That concludes my interview with my mom. She had very good answers and was on top of answering the questions. She enjoyed me interviewing her because it was on a topic she loves to talk about!

 




Photo Courtesy: http://goo.gl/CKOKs

Top Ten Teen Clothing Stores To Shop At

Top Ten Teen Clothing Stores To $hop At:

Photo Courtesy: http://goo.gl/WwOzP 

* I made my own list of what I thought was the top ten places for teens to shop at.*

1. Abercrombie and Fitch: A popular clothing store in the mall. They are always getting the latest clothes in their store. Although, it is not the cheapest place to shop. The cheapest thing in there is probably $20. Sometimes, they have models that stand outside their store and show off their clothes.
2. Aeropostale: This is also a popular store in the mall. They mostly sell slim fitted shirts and pants/shorts/capris. Aeropostale's clothes are much cheaper than some of the other popular stores. Most people shop there because of that reason. The best time to shop there is in the spring and summer.                                                                                
3. American Eagle: The clothes that American Eagle sells are more casual and modern. Personally, it is one of my favorite stores to shop. It is not as cheap as Aeropostale, but it is not as expensive as Abercrombie and Fitch. That is the best place to get jeans in the fall/winter time.
4. Charlotte Russe: This store is for teens that like to express themselves more in clothing. There are not many "normal" clothes in this store. They are all eye catching and exotic. Their clothes are very reasonable at pricing. 
5. dELiA's: Unlike the other stores, there is not many dELiA's around. It is kind of a mixture between American Eagle and Aeropostale. dELiA's mostly sells modern slim fitted shirts and different colored pants. They are somewhat expensive.
6. Forever 21: This is my all time favorite store! This store has any piece of clothing you can possibly think of. They sell modern and vintage clothing. The prices are very reasonable and they have more jewelry than any other clothing store I know!
7. Hollister: This store is similar to Abercrombie and Fitch. They sell pretty much the same kind of clothes. Hollister is always updated on the latest fashion sense. Pricing at Hollister is a tad bit cheaper than Abercrombie & Fitch, but not too much cheaper.
8. Pac Sun: Pac Sun is the type of store that sells clothes you would see being worn in the beachy parts of California. It is kind of like surfing clothes. I never seem to find anything I like in there, but it still seems to be popular to other people. Some of their clothing is expensive and some of it is cheaper.
9. Urban Outfitters: The only clothing Urban Outfitters sells is vintage clothing. Everything in that store looks like something you'd wear 20 years ago. But, the vintage look is very popular today and you see a lot of that type of clothing in magazines. It is a very expensive store.
10. Victoria Secret PINK: The Victoria Secret PINK collection is made up of sweat pants, hoodies, and t-shirts. Also, yoga pants are part of the collection as well. This is the place where teens and most college students shop at. They are very pricey, but it's worth it.

How to curl your hair with a flat iron

How to curl your hair with a flat iron:

Before you do this hair style, make sure these apply to you:

• You have shoulder length hair
• Make sure you haven’t washed your hair, the more dirty the hair, the better it will curl.
• Do not straighten your hair before you curl it.

Step one: Make sure you have the following materials: flat iron, blow dryer, hair brush, hair ties/clips, mirror, heat protecting serum (optional), and hair spray.

Step two: Plug in the flat iron and heat it to a desirable temperature (approx. 380-430 degrees). Make sure there are NO wet spots in your hair. Flat ironing your hair while wet or damp can cause damage and frying to hair. If you choose to use heat protecting serum, put a quarter size in your palm, and work it into your hair from root to tip.

Step three: Part your hair down the middle and clip back any extra parts if needed. It is best to curl your hair in sections. That way the curls will be more effective and more volume will be there.

Step four: Start at the base of your neck and take a small handful of hair and bring the flat iron to the top of your hair, near the roots. But, don’t let it touch your scalp, because you will burn yourself.

Step five: Now that you have your hair clamped, grab the hair that isn’t clamped and wrap it around the flat iron one time. The rest of your hair should be hanging straight.

Step six: Rotate the flat iron, while your hair is still clamped in between the two plates. Make the flat iron do a full 360° turn and stop when your hair is hanging straight down again.

Step seven: After the flat iron has been turned all the way in a full circle, slowly pull the hair through the flat iron. The slower you pull, the more defined your curls will be.

Step eight: Wrap your finger around the curl and spray it with hair spray. Only spray each section for about three seconds.

Repeat all these steps until you have curled your whole head and enjoy!!

Photo at: http://goo.gl/vmImq

Mini Marble Cakes

Once I realise what I want to bake, I tend to become quite stubbornly specific about that idea. I have to hunt through the indexes of cookbooks, trying to see if they have the recipe I have in mind. Unsurprisingly, today I didn’t find a specific recipe for mini marble loaf cakes that I wanted. Guess I'll just have to write my own book one day! The inspiration came from a link I’d bookmarked, but on closer inspection that used 3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks and I didn’t want the faff of using up the egg whites. Many of the marble cakes I saw seemed quite dry or difficult to downsize to my little batch. In the end, I heavily adapted a Mary Berry recipe (how can you go wrong?) and ended up with exactly what I’d wanted.I’ve wanted to make a marble cake for a long time and it seemed the perfect way to use up odds and ends of chocolate. Using mini loaf pans made the marbling process a little bit more fiddly, but it was worth it in the end. The chocolate cake part is made using cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips, which means it isn’t too sweet against the light vanilla cake. The cakes are probably a little bit bigger than a cupcake (although some shop-bought cupcakes can be huge!) but seeing as they don’t have any icing they are not too rich and are the perfect teatime treat! I’d definitely like to experiment further with marble cakes when I have more ingredients in the house – a chocolate orange version, a coffee version, a version with dried fruit…so many ideas!

Mini Marble Cakes, adapted from a Marble Traybake recipe from Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book

Ingredients: 110g butter
110g caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1tbsp cocoa powder
1tbsp hot water
50g dark chocolate, chopped
50g white chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C. Line 6 mini loaf tins with a strip of greaseproof paper.

2. Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs and milk in a food processor and beat until everything is well blended together.

3. Measure out half the cake mixture into another bowl. Add the vanilla essence and white chocolate chunks to the remaining mix in the food processor and stir to incorporate.

4. Mix the cocoa powder and hot water to a paste in a small bowl, then add to the other half of cake mixture along with the dark chocolate chunks.

5. Place a small teaspoonful of vanilla mixture into the bottom of each loaf tin, with a spoonful of chocolate mixture next to it. Layer up the two mixes in the tins, with alternating mixes on top of each other. Briefly marble with a thin cake skewer.

6. Bake for around 15-20minutes, until risen and set in the centre. Leave to cool before running round the edges of each tin with a knife and turning out.

Pocketbooks for Spring/Summer

Jesse Livermore once said:

A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong - not taking the loss - that is what does damage to the pocketbook and soul. 

A pocketbook can say a lot about a person. It can describe their mood and their style, just like clothes can. People change pocketbooks like that change clothes, all the time. Most pocketbooks usually match the clothes you are wearing. They are a fun accessory to have and they are handy for holding anything you might need to take with you. The pocketbooks that I will be giving some information on are the most popular for spring and summer. It is the hottest trend in today's fashion.

A very popular and demanding pocketbook for the spring and summer time is the Coach purses. They might be a little expensive, depending on the style, but they are the hottest pocketbook to be carrying around. There are many different kinds of styles to choose from. The pocketbooks range from about $175 to up too $545. The quality of the purses are excellent and they never seem to rip or damage. They are very cute and it's perfect to carry for the spring or summer. They are a great gift to ask for!

Another popular pocketbook, especially for teenagers and college students are the Vera Bradley purses. These pocketbooks come in all different colors and designs. The most popular Vera Bradley purses are the bowler and hipster. The bowler pocketbook literally looks like a pocketbook you would carry a bowling ball in. It is one of their most popular sellers and it can hold a lot of stuff. The second popular is the hipster. This is good for going on vacations, amusement parks, and shopping. It goes over your shoulder and falls on your hip. It's not that much to keep up with and it keeps you from carrying a lot of stuff around in your pocketbook. Vera Bradley pocketbooks range from about $45 to $90. They are much cheaper than the Coach pocketbooks, and the quality is just as good!

Photo can be found at: http://goo.gl/84Ddz

Photo can be found at: http://goo.gl/9xqHE

The Hottest Shoes! Did you know?

Famous artist and R&B rapper, Usher, said that is somebody steps on your shoes and ruins them, don't freak out..get a new pair of shoes. If you miss something, don't freak out.. there's nothing you can do to change it, move on. There are a lot of shoes that seem to be in style here lately. The most popular shoes are Toms, Rainbows, Sperry’s, and Uggs. 


Toms are the most popular because every time someone buys a pair of Toms, another pair of Toms is donated to a kid in need of a pair of shoes. Toms can range from $45 to $85. 


Rainbows are the hottest flip flop out there. They come in colors of black, brown, white, pink, red, navy blue, and green. They are pretty expensive for a pair of flip flops. But, that hasn’t stopped the population on teenagers and young people buying them. Some of them also have diamonds on the band. The price ranges for Rainbows are around $40 to $60. 


Sperry’s are another demanding shoe everyone wants to wear. They are a comfortable slide on shoe and are made for people all ages. The good thing about Sperry’s is that they are waterproof and aren’t that expensive. They range from about $57 to $87. Sperry’s are made for everyone of all ages and that is another reason why they are so popular. 


The Uggs are a big demand in the winter time, but yet, most people still continue to wear them year round, mostly celebrities. Uggs are a type of boot made in Australia. They are usually brown or black on the outside, and the inside if filled with warm and soft fur. Most people wear Ugg boots with skinny jeans tucked inside the boot. The latest version of Uggs has sequences covered on the outside. They are a must buy for winter! Uggs usually have a price range at $89 to $160 dollars. They are the most expensive popular shoe, but they are definitely worth the money. 


If you don’t have a pair of Toms, Rainbows, Sperry’s, or Uggs, I’d advise you to go to your local shoe store and check them out!

Picture found at: http://goo.gl/kdWGf  

                   

Picture found at: http://goo.gl/AUvUc

Picture found at: http://goo.gl/kkbpg

Picture found at: http://goo.gl/pyJ3E