Saturday 1 March 2014

The diamond of all Millionaires' Shortbread.

Hi Everyone,

So after baking this for the first time for a bake sale for work i have FALLEN IN LOVE. I mean who doesn't love millionaire shortbread. If rich chocolate, smooth sweet caramel and crumbly shortbread isn't for you then you can stop reading now... but if you are a regular person/ chocoholic like me then you NEED to make this. Its super easy, super quick (ish) and obscenely delicious.

So the shortbread part was stolen from one of my friends blogs, its easy to make and exceedingly good!
Visit www.leadwiththehips.co.uk/2014/01/11/easy-all-butter-shortbread-recipe/ for the recipe and say Hi to Kate from me! Follow the recipe, in my oven I bake it for a little bit longer (possibly because it's thicker than suggested)

Then comes the caramel there are 3 Ingredients:
  • 150g butter
  • 150g dark brown soft sugar
  • 397g Carnation Condensed Milk (one can)

  • Simply melt the butter and sugar on a low heat until its dissolved and melted. Then add the condensed milk and turn the heat up high until its thickened. Pour it over the shortbread and leave it until completely cool. This is the hardest part for me because i'm soooooo impatient.

    2 out of 3 done. Finally, melt 200g of milk or dark and 50g of white chocolate. These measurements are completely up to you (and i always add more- naughty me). 

    picture stolen from the carnation website

    Spread the milk chocolate evenly and then a spoonful at a time make dots of white chocolate and swirl them about with a fork. It sounds difficult but its really not!

    Finally chill for one last time, slice into squares and TADAH! you have yourself the most scrumptious shortbread ever! The recipe makes about 8-12 pieces all dependent on how big you want your pieces to be.


    This was the first time i made them so the shortbread needed a few more minutes cooking.



    Note: if you don't like sweet things this definitely isn't for you but if you do and your anything like me then if you succeed in not eating the entire tray WELL DONE YOU.

    "Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun" - Julia Child.

    Enjoy,
    Victoria x

    Monday 24 February 2014

    Going to London... to (not) buy a Heat magazine

    Hi again everybodyyy,

    This weekend just gone I went to London with my wonderful mumma! Since i'm living in Nottingham at the moment (away from my mum) we decided to spend a lovely weekend/ two days in London. I've been excited for AGES, and when i say ages i mean AGESSSSSSSS!!!
    So, the day came and we left my home town at 8:30, which meant I had to get up at 7 YES SEVEN, on my day off. Naturally like every other "beauty" blogger in the world i decided to do my make-up on the train (purely because im uber uber lazy and that meant an extra 20 minutes in bed!)
    pleaseeeee, dont judge the complete STATE of my make-up, its all very.... loved!
    Skinny Caramel Latte - YUMMY YUMMY IN MY TUMMY!
    So we arrived in London at 9:30 ish and had breakfast, took our stuff back to the LOVELY hotel we were staying at then went off to do my favourite thing..... SHOPPING. We strolled down oxford street and I was dragged out of Micheal Kors (BIG SAD FACE)  then we strolled around Harrods and Hamleys and everywhere else amazing in London. I had an amazinngggg sunny day with my wonderful mummy and we ended it with a trip to the spa! PERFECT!
    L-R Me and Mumma in our dressing gowns, Smiling before shopping, the BE-A-U-TIFUL pool, my dirty make-up again, Libertys, a cake in chockywockydoodahh, cakes in Harrods, BUBBLE TEA (first time ever), Mum being hilarious in the hotel, Me (loving life) in First Class, Granola, Fruit and Yoghurt for breakfast and me laughing at mum telling me to pose. LONGEST SENTENCE EVER.

    The next day we woke up and went to the gym (crazy I know), then went to see Dirty Dancing, IT WAS AMAZING apart from the Johnny was defo NOT sexy enough for my liking! At the end everyone stood up dancing and singing, it was pure brilliance! Mum and I did a few touristy things and then went for dinner, I had a Bella Italia 600 Calorie pizza and it was AMAZING.

    yummiest pizza EVER
    We wandered down to Covent Garden and browsed in all the cute shops and market stalls which i love doing, theres something so comforting about Covent Garden at night even when its crowded and packed, its still such a nice place to be! Finally we went back to the station and home :( :(

    L-R: Me and Mumma at Trafalgar Square, Me in the Spa, Dirty Dancing in the theater, cutest little handmade soaps at Covent Garden, Our posh hotel, Me messing about in the Spa, Buttermilk and blueberry pancakes for breakfast, Baileys hot chocolate in Covent Garden and finally me being a poser!

    So that was my weekend in London, this wasn't to brag because i rarely have weekends like this, It was a real treat and i wanted to share it with everyone! I had an amazing time and it really made me appreciate how lucky i am! Positive vibes everywhere, back to work today and not loving life so much.

    Anyway that was my weekend, how was yours? let me know something fun that you did? or tell me one positive thing about your weekend! spread the love....

    Victoria
    x

    Sunday 16 February 2014

    One small step for a blogger....one giant step for Victoria.

    Hi,

    (Hello, Aloha, Howdy, Dear)
    Who knows how to start these things.
    So this is it. my first EVER blog post. Scary.

    Lets start with some background about me, I'm Victoria, a 20 year old student studying Information and Communication Technology at the University of Huddersfield. Currently i'm on a sandwich course which means i'm working for a year at wait for it ..... Boots every UK girls dream job and jokes aside i really love it! I'm now a dab hand at moving, Northampton-Huddersfield-Northampton-Nottingham and shorty back to Huddersfield (more than happy to talk about that more, if you'd like?) and along the way I've picked up lots of tips, tricks and general life chocolates (bits of life that are yummy just like chocolate) that just NEED sharing.

    This is me, excuse the leopard print dressing gown and the corny instagram selfie.
    Anything is better than nothing right?


    There are 3 main things i am completely and utterly obsessed with:
    Baking/ Food in general
    Shopping, in all its glorious forms
    andd MAKE UP, as every living girl over the age of 10 is nowadays.

    Short and sweetly put this is what i'm hoping to blog about, however i do have all number of other loves that will appear time to time to:

    • FAMILY AND FRIENDS, very very very important to me
    • walking
    • all things beauty
    • interior design (cute things i like/ wish i could own)
    • weight: now before you all think i'm a size 0 who is going to bang on about how to loose all your fat by eating a pea every now and then, i'm really not. In fact i really want to loose weight and figure this blog could be a nice way of putting all of the up and downs out there for everyone to share/comment on. (why am i doing this again?!)
    • BLOGS AND YOUTUBE, again like everyone else my age i looooooveee reading blogs and watching youtube, my obsession with beauty gurus has diminished although is still definitely there however my main time wasting technique  favorite thing to watch is daily vlogs/ day in the life vlogs. Which brings me on to the next point...
    • days in the life, only if i'm doing something interesting, a trip to London is on the cards next weekend so maybe that could be on here?
    • acne, not opening that can of worms right now
    • everything and anything else I feel like
    • lists, can you tell yet?

    I could ramble on forever about me and my life. I've been wanting to start a blog for ages, so that's what i'm doing. Please be lovely people and assuming if anyone ever reads this *crossed fingers* leave a nice comment or answer some of the questions so I don't feel like a complete twerp talking/ typing to myself. Feel free to ask me any questions as well. All feedback is welcome.

    Bye for now,

    Victoria x