Strawberry Cheesecake Icing and Strawberry Reduction

Well, what do you know - it's Sunday, and here's a recipe! But it's sort-of only half a recipe ... It's just  icing. And a strawberry reduction. So actually, its a recipe and a half. Bonus!

You can use the strawberry reduction on its own in or over cheesecake,  ice-cream, or any number of deserts.
Mixed into the icing (recipe below) pair it with vanilla or chocolate cupcakes (or vanilla/ chocolate marbled cupcakes) or even use it as their hidden centre; or as a fill for macarons...
 Too many choices for my end-of-term brain, so you choose, ok?!

I'm calling it Strawberry Cheesecake Icing even though it isn't, strictly speaking, cheesecake, but that just sounds better than "cream cheese icing with strawberry reduction", doesn't it?

Strawberry Cheesecake Icing:

Strawberry Reduction:
250g ripe strawberries (approx 12-15 strawberries)
(2 tbs white sugar*)

*Omit the sugar if using the reduction in the icing as below, but include it if you're going  to use the reduction on its own.

Puree the strawberries using a blender or food processor.
Simmer in a saucepan until reduced to the consistency of tomato paste.
Refrigerate to cool it before using in the icing.
(May also be frozen for longer storage).

Icing: 
100g butter
85-100g icing sugar (depending on how sweet you like it).
250g cream cheese (use the dense kind, like Lancewood / Philadelphia/ Woolworths low fat cream cheese) 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry reduction


Beat the butter until soft and creamy. Sift in the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla - don't over-beat.
Fold in the strawberry reduction.
Pipe onto, or into cooled cupcakes or between macaron shells.

Have a sweet week : )

xxM

A Weekend of Revelry!

On Friday I headed to the train station to meet up with Sammi, Luna and James. Our destination? London!

We stayed in the Premier Inn in Holborn (which I can tell you now was a really lovely hotel! I quite miss being there!) which was just a short walk away from the venue of the Tea Party Club's 7th Anniversary event, Revelry. 

We spent our first day in London visiting various shops on our itinerary, such as Treadwell's, an occult bookshop. We also checked out vintage shops but left feeling pretty disappointed by their selection of clothing. I was tempted by a jumper which was kinda terrible in a good way but I sensibly put it back!

The next morning, Sammi and I got up around quarter past seven and got ourselves some breakfast from the McDonald's which was very close to the hotel. It was pretty tranquil in there at this time, and we didn't need to rush ourselves. Back in our room, we did our makeup and got dressed in our coordinates for the event whilst watching TNA Wrestling! One wrestler named "Crazzy Steve" (no, that is not a typo) particularly amused us! His tactic seemed to be to irritate his opponent as much as possible. Very strange.

Here's Sammi's coordinate! She looked so beautiful, and I loved the fact she used her actual wedding veil!

Luna had already gone ahead as she had modelling rehearsals to do, so Sammi, James and I walked to the venue together to meet up with her there. There weren't nearly as many people there yet as I'd expected. We had to wait around for a little while as some last minute preparations were being made inside.

Once finally in the venue, we were greeted with event totes (black this time, which I really liked) and a handful of free items. Then we were able to explore. The first thing we did was check out the Bring and Buy room. It became cramped in there pretty quickly as the space was a bit awkward, but I was still able to browse the rails. I decided against a pink tartan dress, and we moved on to the main vendor's room. 

There were a lot of brands in attendance, mainly indies, with Meta, G.L.B, Syrup, and Grimoire towards the back of the room. Sammi was able to bag herself a Princess Wardrobe dress set from Meta, the exact one that I have so maybe we will twin in future!

Throughout the day, we were able to attend various attractions. One was a Q & A session with the Japanese guests. I actually found it quite interesting, and I love hearing about the creative process behind coming up with clothing and prints. I found it funny when someone asked about the possibility of there being an English Gothic and Lolita Bible. I guess people have forgotten/simply don't know that there used to be one! 

A very useful area we discovered during the day was a balcony which overlooked the main event room. We set our things down there with James to look after, but it also served as the perfect spot to take pictures from during the fashion show. Nobody's heads were in our way and we could see the models for the entire length of their catwalk.

I was so excited when Luna emerged in a beautiful lavender jumperskirt, and took photos like crazy to make sure I got at least one decent one of her. Sammi and I were like proud parents!

All of the models together! The girl in white looked particularly angelic in her old school coordinate.
I really loved the navy blue Grimoire dress but decided against buying it from Hitomi in the end as it looked too small for me. 

On returning to the bring and buy after the first time, I managed to snag myself a super old school Baby dress in black, with white lace! How wonderful! I've wanted to add more old school elements to my wardrobe for a while so I was pretty excited about this.

The next event to happen was a talk with the Gothic&Lolita&Punk no Kai founder. I missed this as I wasn't in the room when it started and couldn't find a way to get back in without interrupting or seeming rude. 

Throughout the day there was a treasure hunt and quiz, but we didn't bother committing to it as we were all over the place and too busy. It was fun seeing everyone else participate, though, and we kept seeing groups of people peering into corners for the scrabble piece clues.

Happenings of note: Luna and I got photographed by the G.L.B! I don't imagine they will use our photo, though, as we were squashed into a corner by someone else who refused to make space for us, so I'm sure we look flustered. Oh well-- it was nice that they wanted our photo at all!

 I was also able to get a photo with Chinatsu Taira, the Meta designer! Note our gold shoes, haha!

At the end of the event was a raffle as usual, in which I won a squidgy macaron phone charm which had been made by Sammi! I was pleased I'd inadvertently chosen one of her donations. After this was the obligatory group photo. It must have been third time lucky because I actually managed to be properly visible unlike at Frock On and Enchanted! Yay!

The next day, we decided to hit up Chinatown, and ended up doing purikura at the Photo Sticker Club.

I still have the weird music that was on a loop in my head: "mehmehmehmeh meh meh mehhhhhhhh!!!" It was my first time doing purikura and I had a lot of fun. I ended up wearing my new Baby dress so that I wouldn't have to attempt to pack my petticoat in my already bulging suitcase!

We made a trip to Japan Centre, where I was able to get myself some matcha biscuits. Soon after that, it was time to head home!

My only other purchase from the Saturday was this tote bag by Syrup. I thought the ribbon straps were adorable, as well as the cute cat! Plus I have a major thing for tote bags and have way more than any person should! I really liked that it came with a mook.

I had an absolutely amazing weekend. I have never holidayed in London before and it was a really positive experience, and I felt blessed to be able to share it with my best friends. I can't imagine any event will ever reach the highs of Frock On (which is my all time favourite so far) but Revelry was pretty good and I'm glad I went. I am really looking forward to whatever our next trip will be.

To finish off with, nice pictures of my coordinate for the day!
I went for Infanta's Snow White jumperskirt, an Anna House blouse, Bodyline wristcuffs, Baby bag, and Bodyline shoes. The ribbons and pearls clipped to my bodice are handmade, as is the feather headdress which I'm pretty proud of! 

If you managed to read until the end then you are awesome-- thank you very much! I hope you enjoyed this post and I would love to see your comments. See you next time! ❤

Flower Tree Centrepiece

I'm helping a few friends with their wedding stationery and decor at the moment and this is the result of an experiment to see how easily we could create floral centrepieces for the wedding breakfast tables.

Turns out - fairly easily.  So if you're getting married, throwing a party or fancy having a pretty, floral centrepiece for your home, here is a simple DIY to create your own.

What I Used:

Foam Ball

Foam Flower Roses

Candle stones

Tall Glass

I picked up my materials from Hobbycraft [of course, I practically live there] and found these foam flowers in the Wedding section of the Sale.  Whoop.  A bunch of 6 roses cost £1 and in total I picked up 8 bunches [48 rose heads, but only used 44], but you can find a range of similar fabric flowers [or make your own?] online, depending on your style and colour theme.

 I also found my foam balls in the sale and picked up 2 for £2, opting for the medium size.

To create your centrepiece, cut the heads of the flowers from the stems, leaving at least a 3cm stem:

 ..the stems can then be pushed into the foam, securely in place.  I started at the top centre, to try and create a colour pattern of alternating roses around it:

 Build up the placement of the roses, keeping the structure tight to hide the foam underneath - I left the leaves on my flowers to also help with this and break up the roses heads with a complimentary colour.  If you change your mind or don't like the placement, you can easily remove and replace the flowers as you go.  However; be careful not to keep placing and replacing the stems in and around an impression as this can wear away the foam - if this does happen, cut your flower head with a longer stem to securely fix in place further into the foam ball.

Continue until the foam ball is completely covered:

 Finally, fix a skewer in place at the base of the floral centrepiece:

 ...and I used decorative stones [I picked mine up from Sainsburys and have used this kind of technique before for displaying Cake Pops, Marshmallow Pops and Party Decorations] to hold the centrepiece securely in place:

 The stones can hold the weight as well as be decorative and a fairly cheap option:

In total, the centrepiece cost worked out at £12.  If we were to create in bulk, for around 12 tables, this would lower the price to £10 a table [even cheaper if we made bulk purchases online].  

A brilliant alternative to hiring or paying for fresh flower decor and the finished products can be given to family members as gifts at the end, or taken apart and the flowers used as embellishments afterwards.

see you next time x

P.S - Time is running out! If you've not yet entered TTSM giveaway [to win the materials to make any TTSM craft DIY you like!] - do it now! Enter here and Good Luck!

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Frangipani Cake

Can we just ignore the fact that as far as these pages go, last week didn't happen?
It was such a bleucgh week for me. (You won't find a definition for that word in any dictionary, but it describes the paler shade of green that I was feeling). Some inconsiderate virus didn't give any due to the fact that I HAD THINGS TO DO! and made me want to curl up under my duvet instead.
But I plodded through the week, and managed to get through everything that needed to be done - except post anything here... oops!

One of the challenges was this 21st cake:
What was I thinking?! Stripes in 40'C heat and with a zombie-brain.

And I had the idea of doing a frangipani ball for the top of the cake.
Well, frangipani's are easy enough to make. But I needed to wire them to attach to the central ball of polystyrene. They're not the easiest flowers to wire.
This is what I did: Made the flower, snipped off the twist at the base and stuck in the wire. Easy. Yeah, right. And then there's the matter of arranging them in a ball.
What was I thinking?!

It all kind-of came together in the end. And now, a few days later, I can say "It was a good learning experience"! I'll do things a little differently next time; but that's what experience is for. And to give you grey hairs! 

Here's a link to a frangipani tutorial: 

http://bakingdom.com/2010/02/tutorial-tuesday-frangipani-flowers.html

Happy creating!

xxM 

A Casual Tea Party Meetup!

Last Sunday I had a lovely day out in London with two friends, Wing and Reina, who I hadn't had a chance to have a proper catch up with in so long (literally years... I am terrible).

We decided to go to BB Bakery in Covent Garden. I had never been here before and had no idea what to expect. When I got inside I was really excited because they sold adorable desserts, and all the food and tea came served in the most amazing crockery.

I was rather in awe when all our orders were placed on the table!

Everything was so flowery and gorgeous! I have never been somewhere like this before and would really love to again. Somehow, eating and drinking from such special plates and cups made everything so much more magical.

The tea was loose leaf, and it tasted amazing. I don't normally drink tea or find it appealing, but I couldn't get enough of it here! 

For dessert, I decided to try their fruit tart as it looked most enticing, and I was not disappointed! Lovely rich raspberries and blueberries on top of yummy custard and a crumbly base... I was in heaven!

We had a cosy nook in the basement of the café to ourselves, so we were able to just sit comfortably for hours talking about anything and everything. We even refilled our tea pots and continued to drink very weak tea, but none of us minded. 

I dressed pretty casual for the occasion. I was happy with my coordinate, even if I always seem to wear Alice's Ribbon Kingdom! It really is my go-to jumperskirt.

After our meal (which was really reasonably priced due to a special lunchtime offer), we got someone in the café to take a group picture of us. They had a really great sense of humour and even took a selfie after obliging us with photos on all of our cameras!

The three of us! Wing wore JetJ, Reina went for Emily Temple Cute, and I wore Baby. 

We then decided to have a wander around Covent Garden, which I really enjoyed as I don't get to have a good tour of London very often (if ever). We went to Art Box, where I bought myself a cute pink chocolate bar pencil case, and a chocolate themed pen to match. 

Sadly, when we went to the purikura, the machine wasn't working, but I saw pictures of my friend Sammi on the front desk which was pretty unexpected!

We headed to Japan Centre and ended up crowding around a copy of Kera magazine, whilst a middle aged French couple bitched about us (yes you two, I did understand what you were saying!) There were some really lovely pictures in it but I simply couldn't justify the £10+ price after basically having experienced all there was to experience, seeing as I don't know any Japanese. Still, it was fun actually looking at a copy in the flesh!

Before we left, I got myself an apple and almond bread for the journey home, and soon, it was time to say goodbye!

I had a really amazing day and I can't wait to hang out with them again! ❤

Relief Chalk Art Poster

Creating my own art for my home is something that gives me the perfect excuse to experiment with different techniques and today I am sharing my masking glue experiment, which also gave me an excuse to get out the art materials from the days of GCSE project work!

What I Used:

Art Paper
Masking Fluid
Chalk Pastels
Sharpie/Pencil/Fine Paintbrush

I started with the phrase/wording that I wanted to be predominant on the paper - I'd overheard this on TV the other day and thought it would be perfect, so sketched a handwriting style, traced with Sharpie to use as my template, but you can easily use a print-out or photocopy of text, patterns or drawings that you would like to use:

Next, straight on to creating the relief on your print paper.  

I picked up this bottle of masking fluid in HobbyCraft:

Before heading straight into using the glue to trace the handwriting, I wanted to get a quick feel

 for how easily the glue was to use with a paintbrush and what to expect in terms of coats and 

drying time, so made a quick star pattern on paper:

A healthy coating was required - if your text/pattern is fine, I'd recommend layering,
rather than loading your paintbrush - it took only 5 minutes to dry, into a sheen:

I then added a stripe of blue paint to the top and then used water to graduate in an ombre effect
 to the bottom:

The masking glue stops the paint transferring:

....and once the paint is dry, the masking glue can be removed.
It peels away easily and leaves a relief effect:

Time to start the print.  Using the pen template underneath, I traced the text:

I went one word at a time, layering the masking glue as I went and left to dry completely:

...and the Sun made an appearance to help!

Next, on to the background colour.  Or colours.  I couldn't decide, so went all out for a rainbow effect, using artists pastels as they are easy to blend, but highly pigmented to create a high impact of colour:

As using pastels is different to the fluidity of paint, when hitting areas of the masking glue, 

I was careful not to use the pastel directly over the top [this could remove it], instead using 

my finger to smudge the colour around the glue:

...or enlisting the help of cotton buds to help create an even distribution of colour:

Once complete, the masking glue can be removed:

For this, I used tweezers to help, slowly peeling from one end of text to the other:

....until completely removed, revealing a relief text print:

Ready to hang:

[with my favourite, washi tape]:

 

I'm going to be using this technique to create some more subtle and larger prints - I'm thinking graduated pastel backgrounds with flocks of birds made from the masking fluid - I'll let you know how it goes.  If you've ever fancied having an experiment with this technique, do try it - I used such a small amount of the masking fluid, it's going to last for many a DIY!

P.S - Dont forget to enter the TTSM giveaway if you haven't already!

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