The English Mademoiselle Diaries: Cake

Showing posts with label Cake. Show all posts

I have been testing out more recipes from the book I mentioned in last week's baking post, this time was a carrot cake, I changed which spices I used to suit my own tastes, cinnamon is key in this cake.

What You Will Need For The Cake:
- 3 cups of grated carrot
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp cinnamon
- 1/2tsp ginger

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
2. Beat together the eggs and the sugar until thick and pale.
3. Mix in the oil then the grated carrot.
4. Sift the flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda until well combined and with no lumps of flour.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for and hour.

XO, Miriam

Besides reading a lot of books that will be shortly reviewed on this little space on the internet I have begun to bake again. Instead of trying something new I went back to a recipe book I was given as a child by my Aunt who just so happens to live in New Zealand (yes I want to go back to NZ), so most of the measurements are in cups. I am yet to find a recipe in this rather small book that doesn't either taste amazing or look amazing. This particular one has been used countless times for Birthday cakes as well as random baking days over the years and will continue to be used.

For the cake you will need:
- 125g of butter
- 2 cups of flour
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp baking powder
- 2tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line and grease a 20cm cake tin.
2. Melt the butter and milk together in a pan, then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in sugar.
4. Whisk essence and eggs into cooled butter mixture, and pout the mixture over the flour mix.
5. Mix the ingredients lightly until well combined and lump free.
6. Transfer the mixture to the tin. Bake for 45 minutes and leave to cool.

I then made some basic chocolate butter icing with butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla essence, and a little bit of milk. I don't know exact measurements.

XO, Miriam

The photo card says: "You're my cup of tea" and it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland so it has been added to my wall.

Lately I have be wondering about my blog, and what it is for now I have completed the CAS programme section of the IB. I considered whether it could go in new directions, or if it should be removed entirely. I came to the conclusion that it shall go in new directions, ones that suit me not the few people who read my blog. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them reading, but I believe that for me at least having a blog should be for me.

Now I have decided to get back into blogging for me more than I have over the past few months, and for that I need to be more comfortable with myself both internally and externally, which I hope I will be able to achieve more easily when I have finished my exams. I also want it to be a place to recorded my thoughts and internal monologues that I keep in a neat on the outside but scruffy on the inside journal. There is no time like the present to begin a new way of thinking and therefore typing.

So here goes nothing important to everyone but me:

I guess this is something I have always wanted to do, cover up "that" school logo, with it's obnoxious motto. But I also know that "that" school and it's logo shaped me to be who I am today, whether that be good or bad.

"This world is all so real and fake. Only what you experience is real, what you see with your eyes and believe in your heart, everything else fades into nothingness compared to those memories of what you have done." - mon journal intime

Blurred images and unrealistic ideas of what I should be to "fit in" hide under this bowler hat. All of those stupid, crazy, fansical (is that even a word?) dreams that spill out on to pages of paper filled with in and ideas of my own personal wonderland fill my head when I take myself away from people where I sit nervously, never knowing how to act or what to say.

//Tee - Zara//Blazer - School//Trousers - Fat Face// Hat - Topshop//

XO, Miriam

It has been such a long time since I last picked up a book to read for pleasure and not for studying purposes, so to ease my self back into my previous reading habits over the next month or so of exams I am sticking to relatively easy reads. Basically not Lolita or anything by Kahled Hosseini. Naturally I went for a John Green book, having read both the Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns seemed like a great place to start.

Despite loving John Green as both an author and as a human being, I was not anticipating this book to be as good as either of the ones I had read previously. But by the end of nearly 6 hours of reading that had all changed, this rivals Looking for Alaska for the top spot of my favourite John Green books. This is a gorgeous story about obsessions, society and hope. It made me dream of all the things I want to do, where I want to go and how I want to live my life. Are all the barriers that we perceive to be real actually there or can we just walk straight on through just like Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman?

For the test of a whether a book is good or not is if I keep thinking about the characters after I finish reading, or inbetween reading stints like they are real people that I know and have known for year. I am aware that I don't live in Florida but Quentin does and so did I for a week or so, all I could think about was what happened to them after the end of the book, so just like a good post-modernist play I left with more questions than I had answers. I like that in a book, something that makes you think and reconsider your own life choices. Paper Towns did that for me, along with taking me away from the daily grind of revision and work to somewhere else to explore someone else's life and mind.

So thank you John Green for this book, I am sure I will read it again this summer when I am sat inside on a rainy day with nothing else to do. Like Harry Potter this is book I will come back to again and again. Have a gold star, a virtual hug and a cup of tea or coffee depending on your preference.

XO, Miriam

I only bought a couple of these Macarons but they were to die for, I just wish I could have had more!

One does not simply watch Paul Hollywood bake with out promptly eating cake, oh and his eyes are as blue as they look on the Great British Bake Off! I also got to watch Kimberly off the last series bake and as it was in Exeter Glen Cosby was milling around!

So this had demonstrations and lots of stalls, I founds some really cute ones who made me want to buy lots and lots of mismatched crockery and decorate the house with too much bunting and eat cake and cake only... Shhh. I know that isn't possible but a girl can dream right?

Now this stall has to be my favourite, the milk bottles, the straws the cute vintage style signs were all so pretty, fortunately I know were to buy some of those straws in time to make 50's milkshakes and wear pastel skirts to match the era!

Never say no to freebies from a bakery. Ever.

I went to The Big Cake Show for Mothers Day, with my mum, sister and nan, it was a great day out and we really enjoyed watching people that we love on the Bake Off in real life!

XO, Miriam

How can it be that the world is both so very real to us, but society creates a plastic coated version. Go and live your small adventures, nothing it truly real until you believe it to be, when you experience it in vivid colour. Of course daydreams count as adventures, but I suffer from permanent Wanderlust so travelling to new places, and bringing back a thousand memories, of the sights, smells the books I read on the plane and the music that I sang with the people I met.

How is this relevent to an outfit, well I am am jetting off to India this year and I have finally created a list of things that I can and cannot wear while I am out there... but this scarf from Zara will be coming with me, along with the trousers both of which I invested in this week on payday ;)

Life is only in focus if you live the way you want to, and if the camera lets you capture it that way.

These photos were taken on the 22nd of March, following that I promptly watched 6 episodes of Downton Abbey with my best friend and my mum, I am not even a little bit sorry. There were sultana scones and copious amount of tea.

XO, Miriam