Sweet As Pi

Yesterday I did some more baking, but this time I had to pop to the shop to pick up 2 lemons. I baked a lovely lemon drizzle cake. It’s my first attempt at this cake and I was happy with the result – although I think there was a bit too much mix in my loaf tin as it went HUGE, so next time I’ll either scale down the ingredients or do the loaf as well as some little cupcakes.

Here’s how it was made..

225g unsalted butter//310g caster sugar//4 eggs//2 lemons//225g self-raising flour

Here is the recipe I followed via BBC Good Food (my changes in bold):

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Beat together 225g softened unsalted butter and 225g caster sugar until pale and creamy, then add 4 eggs, one at a time, slowly mixing through. Sift in 225g flour, then add the finely grated zest of 1.5 lemons and mix until well combined. Line a loaf tin (8 x 21cm) with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top with a spoon.

Bake for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the juice of 2 lemons and 85g caster sugar to make the drizzle. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle – the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve. Will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.

The cake was lovely and moist, but the top was definitely the best part ;)

S. xo

So I’ve had a blank canvas hanging around that I’ve been struggling to decide what to do with. I’ve been looking around the internet for ideas and have decided I want to do something motivational and bright.

Here’s some prints I’ve gathered as inspiration, they’re all so pretty!

Source: etsy (ParadaCreations)

Source: etsy (LuciusArt)

Source: etsy (purpleteadesigns)

Source: etsy (ParadaCreations)

Source: etsy (AeropagitaPrints)

Source: etsy (smalltalkstudio)

S. xo

I am eagerly awaiting a package, and here’s why..

Woo!! I treated myself to some lovely washi tape from Freckled Fawn. I couldn’t resist since it’s just been my first payday, and also because readers of Ali Edwards’ blog were offered free shipping. Perfect timing!

I’ve browsed Freckled Fawn many times, thinking as it’s American and priced in $ the shipping would be expensive. So I went ahead and chose the above three products, coming to $10.05 – paypal charging me £6.66, a great price for these items especially since they are coming all the way from the US. I later found that the shipping would have only cost me $2.30, very reasonable so this would no longer discourage me from buying from over there.

I have wanted to purchase washi tape for a while now, it’s so pretty with lots of uses. Here are (some of) my top picks from Freckled Fawn.

Airmail Grey&White // Polka Dots Teal // Heart 2Styles // Vintage Classroom Set // Grid Green&White // Airmail Aqua&White

I am so excited for it to arrive, I have a feeling I will become addicted though; there are so many cute patterns and colours!!

Do you own any washi tape? What sort of things do you use it for?

S. xo

13 of my favourite photos from our US road trip this time last year, great memories!

Our Hire Car//San Diego//Near Joshua Tree//Grand Canyon//Resting Our Feet//Monument Valley//Bryce Canyon Chipmunk//Death Valley//Yosemite//San Francisco//Pacific Coast//Los Angeles//Universal Studios

S. xo

Over the weekend I wanted to do some baking with ingredients I still had in my cupboard. And here’s what I ended up with…

…chocolate soufflés!

I followed this recipe from BBC GoodFood, but used 1/3 of the ingredients to serve 2. I used Green & Black’s Cherry chocolate (still leftover from Christmas!). The mixture filled both of my ramekins right to the top, and so I filled a silicone cupcake case up with the leftovers.

After cooking for around 15mins, they were nice and firm on top but lovely and gooey in the middle! They tasted really good, and it was nice with the pieces of cherries from the chocolate. I think the ones in the ramekins were a bit too much, but the cupcake size was just right!

S. xo

Some tickets for free screenings of the movie Sound of My Voice have been released across the UK. Here’s the links so get them whilst you can!

• Free Tickets Here! - 25/6/12 @ 18:30 (Cineworld)
• Free Tickets Here! - 25/6/12 @ 18:30 (Cineworld)
• Free Tickets Here! - 25/6/12 @ 18:30 (Cineworld)
• Free Tickets Here! - 25/6/12 @ 18:30 (Cineworld)

S. xo

Still enjoying this project and have become quite addicted to it over the past couple of days…

I’ve finished San Francisco and I’m now on to the coast. Just Los Angeles to go after that. I’ve started to go back to the beginning and add some things to my first few pages which were pretty plain as I didn’t have many supplies back when I began the scrapbook. It’s good to see the progress in how much I’ve improved since I started!

S. xo

{Scrapbook peeks are little glimpses of the scrapbook I’ve been putting together of a road trip in the US from last summer. Here are my previous peeks: #1, #2, #3, #4, #4.5, #5}

The weather hasn’t been too great recently. It’s hard to feel like yesterday was the beginning of summer. I’m not enjoying spending so much time in the flat, especially as I made some calculations and figured we couldn’t spend any money until the end of July (next payday) for us to afford rent over summer. So we shall have to start making money other ways and doing as much free stuff to keep us entertained!

Today we went to Union Canal in Fountainbridge with some leftover crusts of bread. We were soaked by the time we returned home but it feels good once in a while to get out in the rain and not care about being wet.

Funny moment when Jon threw some bread, we heard a thump and a pigeon fly right across us, he accidentally hit the poor thing! We felt like kids feeding the ducks, and think we shall go and feed them each time we have old stale bread instead of throwing it in the bin.

What have you been doing with all these rainy days?

S. xo