Recipe: Foolproof Nutella and Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

In a moment of pure gluttony, I decided to combine my two favourite things: Nutella and cake. This is literally something I have thrown together using very simple baking skills taught by my late grandmother. The recipe is foolproof meaning that any skilled baker can have a whack at it and get a very good result!

The ingredients are to make 12 cupcakes:

• 4 free range medium eggs 
• 7 ounces of self-raising flour
• 1 ounce of good quality cocoa
• 8 ounces of caster sugar
• 8 ounces of butter (softened) 
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

For the Nutella butter cream:

• Half or three-quarters of a 400g tub of Nutella
• 5 ounces of softened butter
• 10 ounces of icing sugar
• A splash of milk
• Ferrero Rocher

You also will need: 

• 12 cute cupcake cases
• Spotify (for motivational music)

1. Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and put your cupcake cases into a cake tray
2. Next, cream the sugar and butter together until creamy. I'm incredibly lazy and have a Kenwood mixer that does all the work for me. 
3. Now add your 4 eggs one by one to the mixture whilst still mixing. Eggs usually are better at room temperature. 
4. Whilst the mixture is still quite liquidy, add the vanilla extract into the bowl. I use quite a lot as I am mad on anything vanilla. 
5. Following that, sieve the self-raising flour and cocoa into the mixture until the batter becomes quite thick. 
6. Make sure every ounce of the batter is included in the mixture - the least lumpy the better. 
7. Whack the mixture in the oven and leave for around 20-25 minutes. Sometimes it needs a little longer, but only around 5 or 10 minutes. A great way to check for rawness is to prick the cake and check to see whether any of the batter is still raw inside the cake. 

Whilst the cakes are cooling, grab the ingredients to make the best part - Nutella buttercream

1. Beat the butter in a bowl until it is fairly smooth and then add half of the sieved icing sugar (don't add it quickly as your whole kitchen will end up lathered in icing sugar!)
2. Keep adding the icing sugar until the mixture is smooth. Add milk if necessary to loosen the mixture. 
3. Depending on how Nutella-y you want your icing sugar, add the Nutella in small quantities to your mixture while repeatedly mixing. I used around three quarters of a tub and this was enough. 
4. Chill the icing mixture in the fridge for around 20 minutes. Once the cakes are completely cooled, you can use a piping back to add the icing or simply use a knife. 
5. Add a Ferrero Rocher on top if you want to be jazzy. 

Hoorah you've finished! These little beauties are worth the wait. I enjoy eating my Nutella Cupcakes in triplets with a good cuppa. 

Review: Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding

If I could define myself with any quality, I would definitely preach that I am an expert at Sticky Toffee Pudding tasting. I pondered across Cartmel Village Shop's Sticky Toffee Pudding last week and my life has truly been revolutionised.

The thing I love about Cartmel Village Shop is it masters the essence of quality and if you're going to invest in a pudding, you may as well do it right. I spend a lot of my time wasting money on rubbish puddings from supermarkets so buying this unique number from Cartmel made me feel incredibly satisfied - mainly because I love to help out the local businesses in the UK. The company pride themselves on being "the home of Sticky Toffee Pudding" and they definitely have mastered it. 

The absolutely amazing news is that Cartmel do online orders (yay!) with a number of other puddings to try. So, you don't have to live in the North of England to experience their brilliance after all. The next time you're having a gathering with friends or just simply want to dive into a bowl of pudding, then have a look at Cartmel Village Shop online as they do a massive selection of puddings in a range of different quantities (including a very tempting individual portion). 

...and here's the link to buy their AMAZING food 

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Three ways to transform your university room

One thing I've learnt from living in halls of residence is that you simply cannot make rooms look nice no matter how much you pay for your room. I'm now in my second year at the University of York which means that my friends and I have got our own house which is ridiculously exciting for me as I can finally customise everything (and I mean everything).

One thing I think is very important is to not get everything that matches as it will work out really expensive. The great thing about vintage patterns is the purpose is not meant to be stereotypically stylish; thrown together patterns defines vintage.

It may sound very cliché, but flowers really do brighten up your day. You can buy plain vases (or use an old Fentiman's lemonade glass bottle as vase like I did) really cheap so it is a very minor set back money-wise. Or if you're really frugal, you can always grow your own flowers if you have a decent garden at university.

One word: fairy lights. Whenever I have my fairy lights on, I can pretend that my room is a million miles away from endless research papers to read. Mine are from Ikea and cost only £14. Anything is possible with fairy lights.

And here's what I've got in my room...
Bedding Set
Owl Cushion
Vase
Fairy Lights