30 Days of Pinterest: Day 17

‘I’m off to bake a cake!’ I said to my boyfriend. ‘A cake in a mug?!’ he eagerly asked. ‘No,s orry not today, I’m baking an orange vanilla yoghurt cake’ I replied. This one to be precise, from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I’ve had yoghurt sitting in the fridge, waiting to be used up so I thought this would be the perfect chance to use it up.

Vanilla Yoghurt Cake with Orange Glaze
Ingredients
1 2/3 cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g vanilla yogurt
½ cup vegetable oil
4 tbsp orange juice
For glaze:
1 cup icing sugar
2-3 tsp orange juice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line a loaf pan (though honestly,if I was to do this again I’d used a round tin). Whisk the sugar, egg and egg yolk together in a bowl for about 3 minutes until it turns a pale yellow.
2. Add vanilla extract and oil and beat until fully incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
4. Add half the dry ingredients on a slow setting. Then add half the yoghurt and 2 tbsp of orange juice and mix. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix. Finally add the remaining yoghurt and mix by hand using a spatula until it is all smooth.
5. Pour into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Allow to cool completely before pouring glaze on top.
7. To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the orange juice and mix until smooth. I’d suggest add two tbsp of orange juice if you want a thicker glaze, I used 3 and it ended up quite runny.
8. Pour the glaze of the cake and enjoy!
I don’t think I’d be wanting to try this recipe again in a hurry. Maybe I did something wrong but the cake collapsed a bit for me after I was waiting for it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Insert sad trombone noise

Also, it was a very moist cake after I added the glaze, verging on being a bit soggy. And I had halved the glaze in the first place!! It did taste nice but then again, I’m not one to waste cake! To be fair, the person who wrote the recipe likes to use small loaf tins for this and I think it would work better in small tins.
I do have half a pot of yoghurt to use up though, I might make some yoghurt pancakes tomorrow.

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 16

Another day, another hairdo! My 3rd one for this challenge and probably not the last. I’m very boring when it comes to my hair, it’s either down or else in a ponytail. Or if I can’t be bothered to wash it, a plait as it helps to disguise greasy hair!

I’ve tried to do a fish tail before but failed because I just couldn’t get what to do in my head. Until I saw this video from The Beauty Department. And soon it began to make sense! And this photo series from Hair Brained Beauty also helped too. Here’s the results!

A close up.

I’m pretty happy with the results. It looks better at the bottom than at the top. Probably because I have layers, bits and pieces started falling out of my hair. But I think I’d try it again.

Make up info in case anyone wants to know!

No. 7 BB Cream for Normal/Oil skin in Light

Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in Light

Bourjois Eyeshadow in 05

Essence ‘All eyes on me’ mascara in brown

Maybelline Dream Touch Blush Peach

Smashbox Blush Rush in Paradise

Essence Bronzing Powder Matt in 02 Love to be Matt

Bourjois Rose Exclusif in 01

 

T-Shirt is from New Look

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 15

I had great plans for today, crafty plans. Which all fell apart when I found myself awake into the early hours, just as the sun was rising. So I decided to get up myself, meaning hours later in the middle of the day I fell asleep. So here’s day 15, 3 hours too late but complete with cute animals to make up for it (you can’t be mad when there’s cute animals). Cause some days all you need is to look at some cute animal pictures and feel all squishy inside!

Not sure where the picture is from,it just links to Pinterest. It is from this video though.

Holding hands!! Too cute for words! (via CuteOverload)

I can’t see you!! (via Srslycute.com)

I seriously want to catnap this cat! Frank is beautiful! (via Everybody Loves Frank)

I love the happiness and joy in this picture! (no idea where it’s originally from, here’s a link to my pin).

(via Julie Persons Flikr)

How EWE doing?! (pin here)

Holding hands part 2!! (can you tell I like the holding of hands?). (via fuckyeahkitties)

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 14

Today was mainly spent lazing around, watching TV and surfing the net. I wasn’t up for doing much else really! I decided I’d give some more nail art ago. I chose cupcake nails from Cupcake Clothes, they are so cute, you should check them out!

Here’s how mine turned out

Not too bad! And here’s how I did it.

1. First off, paint the lower part of the nail in the light pink. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly straight, you can smooth it out with a small brush dipped in nail varnish remover.

2. Once the pink is dried, paint in the darker pink stripes.

3. Paint the top half in white.

4. Once the white is dried, add the yellow stripe above the pink.

5. Paint on the cherry at the tip of the nail and add the ‘sprinkles’.

6. Finish with a top coat.

Here’s what I used.

Base pink- Angelica Sweetie Pie

Darker pink stripes- No. 7 Stay Perfect Me Me Me

White top- Wild and Crazy White

Yellow Stripe - Angelica Lemoncello

Blue for dots- Angelica Skylar

Purple for dots- Angelica Palma Violet

Red cherry- Mavala London

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 13

Today was mainly spent being fascinated by the colour of my phlegm (Bordering TMI, I decided I’d spare you the horrible details). Anyway, the rest of my day was spent dreaming that I had a Wagamamas near by so I could have some yaki soba. The nearest one is about 2 and half hours away so I had to do with 2nd best- make it myself. I’m waiting on getting the recipe book from the library but luckily I pinned the recipe from Big Spud blog last week.
The recipe has two main steps. One, the making and use of the marinade sauce (the yakitori sauce) and two, the stir frying of the veg and other ingredients.

Wagamama Yaki Soba Recipe
Adapted from Big Spud
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts, already cooked and chopped up (I just used George Foreman)
2 portions soba (medium) or udon noodles
1 onion, chopped
1 red and green pepper , diced
2 eggs, beaten
For the yakitori sauce:
250 ml light soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce (I didn’t have this so I added some hoisin sauce instead)
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt
Method
1. First off, make the yakitori sauce. Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and boil gently for about ten minutes (until the back of a spoon is coated).
2. While the sauce is cooking, bring a pan of water to the boil and cook your noodles (if not already precooked).
3. Once the noodles and sauce are done, combine in a bowl along with the chicken and keep near pan.
4. Heat your wok or frying pan as hot as it can get. Add a tablespoon of oil and fry the peppers and onion for about 3-4 minutes until slightly tender. It’s important to keep the pan moving to prevent burning so do not walk away.
5. Add the noodles and chicken and stir fry until the noodles have lost their rubberiness.
6. Add the eggs and cook for another 45 seconds until egg has disappeared. I kept the pan moving so the egg would coat the noodles.
7. Take off the heat and serve!
The link above has more ingredients, like spring onions, bean sprouts and sesame seeds but I didn’t have them with me. I was really impressed with how it turned out, the plate above really filled me up. The amount I made was enough for two of us and we’ll definitely have enough for lunch tomorrow too. I’m quite looking forward to it to!

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 12

I was still feeling a bit blah, so I decided to take a bath. My skin has hit a rough patch so I turned to Pinterest to see what beauty DIY ideas I previously pinned. The one that caught me was Baking Soda Scrub. Or as the pin had described it ‘DIY Microdermabrasion’. The pin came from this website. So I went to my cupboard and dug out my baking soda.

Mix 3 teaspoons of baking soda with 1 teaspoon of water into a thick paste. Apply to face in a gentle circular motion for at least a minute. Rinse and pat face dry.

It was quite impressed with the results, my skin felt soft and exfoliated after. Because it dissolves into a paste, the particles are not big enough to be scratchy on the face. The only thing I would add is my nose is a bit sore and cracked from having a cold and it stung a small bit there, so I would avoid using it on cracked or broken skin.

My boyfriend had seen me mixing the paste before hand and after my bath asked had I used it on my face. I replied yes and asked why, thinking he was going to say my skin looked a bit more radiant after the treatment. Instead, he laughed and said that’s what they use to clean tiles where he works! Baking soda and it’s many uses!

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 11

I was feeling a bit crafty so I turned to my DIY board for inspiration. There I saw a pin leading to a tutorial for turning a t-shirt into a cardigan. I rummaged through my wardrobe, found a suitable shirt and got to work!

Before

I was feeling so, uh, inspired that I didn’t bother to iron it before (even though number one tip is to always iron your material!).

After

I decided to go for simple for the first time, hence why I didn’t add the ruffles like in the tutorial. Here’s how I did it.

1. Measure out where you want to cut (I went for the middle) and mark using tailor’s chalk.

2. Cut up the middle, I used a pinking shears so my fabric wouldn’t ravel, but you could just use a scissors if that’s what you have.

3. Fold the edge material so the raw edge is touching the inside of the fabric, about 1/4 inch. Then fold in again another 1/4 inch or so, so that you can no longer see the raw edge, it’s now hidden by the second fold. Pin into place.

4. Sew a straight line down the middle of the fold, when you turn it around and look at it the ‘right’ away, it’ll look like this

The further from the edge you sew, the larger the effect from the seam will look. If you prefer you can sew closer to the edge and it will look like this

Sewing closer to the edge will cause it to ‘ripple’ slightly, which is good if you like this effect. If not, sew further in. (Since I’m a sewing novice, that happened to me by accident!).

I liked how it turned out, however my t-shirt is stretch, which I didn’t like wearing after. Next time I try this, I probably will add the ruffles and use a material that doesn’t stretch.