Birthday Cupcakes

Hey Guys!!

As you can see from the above picture I turned into a bit of a baking machine last week, baking in total 48 cupcakes!! Yes, 48!! I made 12 of each different flavour which was Chocolate, Vanilla, Red Velvet and Carrot Cake. Luckily I had some helping hands from Llewellyn to get them all done.

First up I made the Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes

90ml Vegetable Oil (6 tbsp)

180ml Water

3 Medium Eggs

Chocolate Cupcakes

125ml Vegetable Oil (8 tbsp + 1 tsp)

230ml Water

3 Medium Eggs

Then I made the Red Velvet and Carrot cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

105ml Vegetable Oil (7 tbsp)

200ml Water

3 Medium Eggs

Carrot Cupcakes

105ml Vegetable Oil (7 tbsp)

200ml Water

3 Medium Eggs

The oven was pre-heated to Gas Mark 4 and took 30-40 minutes to bake.

Once they had then all cooled down I iced them with Chocolate Icing and then Llewellyn put the buttons on.

These looked so good and everyone enjoyed them at Chloes' party. The kitchen while baking them smelt absolutely amazing!!

Hope you enjoyed this little baking post!!

See You Soon!!

Planet Vikki Recommends: The Ship, Barry

Hey Guys!!

I haven't done a Planet Vikki Recommends in such a while so thought I would do one for you today. I must admit I haven't really gone anywhere new for a while either so was nice trying somewhere new.

A few Sundays back me and the husband decided to go for a little walk and to have some food, trying to think of somewhere to go we decided Barry as we haven't been in ages and its somewhere different. Llewellyn knew of a restaurant called The Ship and we decided to eat in there.

It was so cosy in there and was pretty busy as there was a Birthday gathering in there when we went. It's quite spacious when it comes to the way the tables are set up so you're not on top of everyone else eating which is nice. The booth we sat in also had a little tv, which you can see in the picture above, not that there was any volume and that we wanted to watch it.

To be honest it took me ages to decide on what to eat as I can be quite fussy and I wanted to try something different, usually I say that then have the same. I did know what dessert I was going to have though!!

I ended up having a Korma as I absolutely love it and haven't had a curry in ages. It was beautiful, I didn't eat it all as it came with chips, onion bahjis, naan bread, poppadoms, mint dip and mango chutney. What was really good was that the curry had actually a decent amount of chicken in as a few places I have been to haven't really had a lot of chicken in them.

I then had for a dessert a Salted Caramel Chocolate cake, now I am obsessed with salted caramel and if it's on the menu I will eat it. To be honest though I wasn't to impressed, for me I didn't think the caramel had a strong enough taste compared to the chocolate. I know you have to have the right balance as you don't want the caramel to overwhelm the rest of the dessert, I just like a strong caramel.

After our food then we took a lovely little stroll along the beach and watched the gorgeous sunset. We can be a romantic couple sometimes!

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Let me know in the comments if there are any restaurants you love that I could try!!

See You Soon!!

Jammie Dodger Cupcakes

Hey Guys!!

As I had a week off work I thought I would take advantage of that and actually done some baking. I love baking and can't get enough of it but I really don't bake enough, I would like to change that.

This week I decided to do cupcakes but do them a little differently instead of doing my usual cupcakes with icing on top. I actually seen this recipe on another blog called Forever Baking and wanted to make my own. I did mine a little differently though as I done Red Velvet instead of Vanilla, you would never guess that I love Red Velvet.

So the ingredients you need are:

105ml Vegetable Oil

200ml Water

3 Eggs

Betty Crocker Red Velvet Mix

I put all of these ingredients in to a mixing bowl, as you do, and mixed it altogether.

While they baked I got everything ready to decorate the cakes. I used 175g Icing Sugar, 75g Butter, 3 tbsp Water, a few drops of Vanilla Essence, Strawberry Jam and Mini Jammie Dodgers.

The cupcakes took 20 minutes to bake at Gas Mark 4 and while they cooled I got the buttercream icing ready.

Once they had cooled I used a knife to cut little circles in the cakes so that I could add Jam to the middle, then added the icing.

Then for the finishing touch of the cupcakes I added a Mini Jammie Dodger to the top of each cake.

They turned out so well and so far all my family have really liked them and said they are delicious. I would make these again in a heart beat and I think they would be perfect for Valentines Day or a birthday party.

What do you think of these cupcakes?

See You Soon!!

Baking: Chocolate Cakes

Hey Guys!!

The other week I decided to have an afternoon of baking, when I say afternoon it literally took me 3 hours to do these. The only thing was with these, was that they didn't turn out exactly how I thought in my head. I also cheated and used a mix rather than bake from scratch like I usually do.

These were the ingredients I needed, plus water.

The first thing I did was pour the mix into the little mixer, add 2 eggs and 8tbsp of water. Then mixed it altogether on speed 2 for 2 minutes, I did this twice as I made 2 sponges.

I then poured the mix into a silicone mould and baked it for 20/25 minutes.

Once the 2 sponges had baked I waited for them to cool and then cut out circles, first using a glass, then used a knife as it was easier.

I then weighed out 170g of icing, well I went over a bit and 80g of butter to make the butter icing. Then mixed it together, which is hard work if you don't use an electric mixer.

Then came the first messy part, icing the circle sponges and putting them together.

I then melted the chocolate, at first in a plastic jug but thought it was going to melt the jug so changed to a pyrex jug. Then came the second messy part of covering the cakes with the chocolate.

I made 7 and out of them all one came out decently.

I enjoyed making these but they really did not come out how I seen them in my head. I will try them again though but maybe do them a different way so they get covered by the chocolate. They did taste very nice, very chocolate-y ha ha, and the mix was very crumbly, so I wouldn't use those mixes again.

Overall I liked them but they did go quite wrong, a 5/10 from me!!

What do you think?

See You Soon!!

Planet Vikki Recommends: Maenllwyd Inn

Hey Guys!!

I love food, and we have decided to try somewhere new every month if we can. Other than that I like writing posts on places I've been and who doesn't love reading about food?

This pub was actually recommended to Llewellyn by someone he works with and I'm so glad we went. It's about 20 minutes from where we live so it's relatively easy to get to, we live in Newport. It is situated in such a lovely place as the views were gorgeous and you can go on a little woodland walk as well.

The name of the pub is the Maenllwyd Inn and this was the food we had.

Isn't the plate gorgeous? I wanted to take it home. Anyway I had the Chicken, Pancetta and White Wine Pie and it was gorgeous. The pastry was so soft and the chicken was delicious. Llewellyn tried getting me to try the Leeks but I don't like them. Even Llewellyn tried a bit of the pie and he thought it was nice to. I didn't finish it though as it is quite filling.

Of course I couldn't not have a dessert and I chose to have the Millionaire's Cheesecake. It looks amazing doesn't it? I never used to like cheesecake but I tried it a while ago and found I liked it. It was so creamy and the ice cream was so nice. I definitely recommend this if you go.

This was Llewellyn's dessert of Vanilla & Mint Choc Chip ice cream and Mango Sorbet with a Mint Leaf on top. He really enjoyed it and I must say the Mango Sorbet was delicious.

The three pictures above is the way some of the pub is decorated, it seriously gave me such pinterest feels, gave me ideas for my home. We were sat in the conservatory part of the pub and it was so nice. It did get a bit warm in there and a wasp decided to fly around and drink my wine!! 

Now I will share with you pictures from our walk, there's not many as it was nice to just go for a walk. Also please ignore the way I stand in the outfit post, I seriously need to work on my posture. Do you look at photos and hate the way you stand sometimes?

Hope You Enjoyed This Post!!

See You Soon!!