It has all been a bit quiet on the cupcake front recently, just not had the time to make any.
This weekend however I had a lot of free time and also a new cupcake book - The Primrose Bakery which I got for only £5 from WHSmiths.
The first one I chose from the book - raspberry cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream icing.
You put raspberry jam in the cake mixture so it looks like raspberry ripple and then take out the middle and fill in with jam.
The icing is made with double cream, melted white chocolate, icing sugar, butter and vanilla essence.
They are delicious and topped with a couple of raspberries.
Although I was born in the eighties I do consider myself to be a nineties child.
All my memories are from the nineties - films, TV and music all stem from this decade.
So following on from my poptastic post I thought I would go on about the TV shows from the nineties that were simply amazing.
As you know I was a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, still am I suppose, but I have declared my love for that one too many times on this blog.
Teen dramas: Before The OC, One Tree Hill and 90210 there was the teen drama Dawson's Creek, where 20 year olds played 16 year olds and they spoke in a way that you had no idea what they were talking about.
Dawson was a gentle soul and a film buff, his best friend Joey was pretty but didn't know it and was so shy but strong willed. Pacey was the loveable rouge and Jen was the new girl in town.
The show started the careers of James van der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams and had teenagers talking in a way no teenager spoke.
There was angst and a love triangle, first Jen, Joey and Dawson and then Dawson, Joey and Pacey. I always wanted Joey and Pacey together and was over the moon when they did. It was a great show and went on for nine series'.
It looks a little corny now but it is still good and has so many movie references, I love the homage to the Breakfast Club episode, sheer brilliance.
Another teen drama was My So Called Life starring Claire Danes as Angela, a 15-year-old teenager debating her way through school, friends, boys and family.
Really clever and if you were a bit of an odd ball you could relate and even if you weren't you could relate.
It was really clever and a bit off the wall, her best friend was a gay guy who liked to wear make-up. It was dark and brooding but quite true to a teenage girls life.
A short lived sci-fi series was Roswell High, about three aliens who were left after the crash landing. One of them falls in love with a local teenager but has to keep their secret, secret. Only on for three series it starred the now mega-famous Katherine Heigl as one of the aliens.
There were great comedies Fresh Prince of Bel Air starring a very young Will Smith, Boy Meets World and Even Stevens starring Shia LaBeouf.
A creepy offering from the 90s was Eerie Indiana, only one series and 19 episodes but it was fantastic. Stories included a cash machine that made friends by giving him money, a woman who kept herself and her sons young by keeping them in Tupperware and a lost place where things became lost so people would buy more.
I remember this being on over the Summer holidays on channel 4 and was creepy but funny. Just brilliant.
The 90s series were only one or two series in places but were brilliant and not like anything we have today.
I love my 90s TV, there were loads of cartoons I loved as well but I will keep them for another time.
I am feeling nostalgic so be prepared for more 90s nostalgia posts.
The thing that has sparked this longing for the past is one of my Christmas presents from my mum, the 3 CD album... Poptastic!
I was born in 1986 and grew up in the 90s so this CD has all the songs I can remember from my school disco days and I love it!
I remember when pop was cheesy and 'cool', when you used to cut out the lyrics to your favourite songs form Smash Hits magazine, and the only music channels were The Box and MTV.
You would learn all the dance moves to your fave songs and then perform them at the disco.
I remember when Victoria Beckham was known as Victoria Adams and Holly Valance was Flick in Neighbours.
This CD is three CDs of cheesy pop gold. Ok, so they aren't the coolest songs but you can sing along and dance to them. They just don't make pop songs like that anymore.
A lot of the bands on there I saw at Power in Portsmouth and Power in the Park held in Southampton, these were organised by Power FM (now Capital) and included all the best pop acts. I saw Billie, Honeyz, Steps, 5ive, A1 and Gary Barlow at these gigs. All of them (except Gary Barlow) are on the CD.
So to wet your appetite here are just some of the songs featured:
* Wannabe - Spice Girls - Classic!
* Never Ever - All Saints
* Pure and Simple - Hear'say
* Same old Brand new you - A1
* Life is a Rollercoaster - Ronan Keating
* Bye, Bye, Bye - N*Sync,
* C'est la Vie - B*Witched
* Cleopatra's Theme - Cleopatra
I know all are not particularly cool but classic 90s pop songs. It makes you realise how rubbish pop has become.
So if you were a child in the 90s early 00s you will love, love, love this CD.
You have probably heard of handmaid's knee, tennis elbow and policeman's heel all common complaints resulting from repetitive movements which result in a repetitive strain injury.
I would like to add another to the boil which both myself and my sister suffer from on occasion - handbag arm.
Common complaints are pains in you forearms and upper arm, pains in your elbows and wrists.
These result from either handbags or shopping bags.
Now we all have that bag that we love, maybe a bowling style bag quite big but not massive with very short handles, which means it cannot be put across the body or on your shoulder.
So you have two options - hold it with your hand down the side of you body or carry it in the nook of your elbow with your elbow at a bend.
Both of which will probably result in pain in your arm especially, if like me, you put your whole life in your bag.
Holding it down the side means the blood doesn't flow back up giving you sometimes pins and needles or just a dull ache. Holding it in the nook of your elbow means you have to bend your arm the whole time so you pull muscles either side and means the next day it hurts when you straighten it.
On a recent trip to Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model Live my sister had a bowling bag which she carried at her elbow, but with all the shopping bags we had collected she had serious handbag arm, so did I just with the shopping bags.
Surely this is a common complaint of the modern woman? or even any man with a man bag or suitcase? And yet no Google search brings it up.
The pain does fade eventually, and you always don't remember why you haven't used that bag with the short handle in a while until a couple of hours into your trip out and you have to keep swapping arms for fear of getting a dead arm again.
The things we suffer for love of a pretty thing.
For Christmas I was given the Great British Bake Off cook book from the series on the BBC, in a hope to help me with my domestic goddess quest.
So first off the bat for me to try was the cherry bakewell cupcakes - using ground almonds, cherries and strawberry jam.
The recipe uses raspberry jam but I bought strawberry. You cut out the middle and fill it with the jam, very yummy.
You couldn't really taste the almonds that much, but the strawberry, sponge and icing made it delicious.
However, I do think I put in too much lemon juice in the icing but I'm still learning.
Really nice and light cupcakes, also really tasty.
Now I just have to decide what to do next, do I dare move on to pastries and breads?
I have two sisters, one is 20, the other 21. I get on quite well with them, a lot better now we are older. You do see in films that people's sisters are either their best friends or they are constantly in competition with each other, I have experienced both not one or the other.
Your sisters know things about you that even your friends probably don't know and that level of trust can be on very thin ice.
I would love for my sisters to be my best friends. I know that they are there for me in times of need, a shoulder to cry on but I cannot imagine revealing my deepest secrets to them. Mainly because they will use it against me, even if they don't mean to, in a heated arguement it gets thrown in your face just for it to be instantly regretted.
Due to their similar ages my sisters are pretty much constantly in competition with each other. Be it hair straighteners, jobs or bags, if one gets a better one you can guarantee the other will get the same. It can be frustrating to watch but to be honest I just glad I am not involved.
You do have to wonder though if you were not sisters would you be friends? It is almost when you are at school some friends you only have really because you are at school and once you leave you lose contact, and it is quite similar with sisters, you are thrown together with your siblings as you kind of have to get on.
I love my sisters, but I do think having two similar in age is not ideal, especially when they decide that you are the weaker one in the pack and descend on picking on you, not fun. It is nice having two friends that I can do stuff with, but sometimes I can't help but think if they weren't my sisters I don't they would be my friends. It may sound like an awful thing to say and I wouldn't change them for the world. But we only have some things in common.
Your sister can be your harshest critic but also your saviour in times of need, I just know that as much as I can't stand to be around them I love them and wouldn't be without them.
It is January 1st and usually I shy away from news years resolutions.
I don't see the point of setting yourself up for a fall on the first day of a new year, however, this year I have changed my mind.
For some unknown reason I have agreed to do a marathon this year...I know! I really don't know what came over me.
This year my boyfriend will be doing his fourth marathon, his first in Paris (the other three were in Stockholm). His fifth will be the Portsmouth Coastal waterside marathon, along the Eastern Road:
'Start time 9am from South Parade Pier Speakers Corner, turn at the end of the Hayling Billy Line theatre.'
I am beyond nervous, although I do have a year to train but I am worried that it will kill me! But then I suppose as long as I finish it in six hours I would be very happy.
26.2 miles! What was I thinking!
The thing is once I set my mind to it I am pretty determined but I know many people won't think I will be able to do it, which makes me want to do it more.
I'm just being stubborn.
As well I am not going to the gym any more as it has got too expensive so I will need something to keep the weight off and my boyfriend lost loads of weight when he started running.
So alongside my quest to be a domestic goddess this blog will also track my marathon training. I am mental!!
To add to my new years resolution obviously baking queen quest is still ongoing.
I guess what I am trying to say is I will be making cakes and running them off.
Wish me luck I think I am going to need it.
