Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts

Saturday, 15 August 2015

HOW TO: Make Cake Pops!

It looks like August is the month for birthdays (in my family anyway) which means lots of birthday cake! For my sister's 30th, she threw a big birthday bash earlier in the month, and I made these sponge pop cakes for everybody to tuck into! I'm not 100% sure if this counts as a 'recipe', as the majority of ingredients are the same as any other cake! I guess I could just a call this a list of instructions? Enjoy, x 
First step, bake a sponge cake - you can use a plain sponge recipe (4oz casting sugar, butter, flour, 2 eggs and some baking powder), but I used a basic sponge mix from the supermarket which needed just 1x egg and 1 or 2 spoonfuls of water - a lot easier & probably a lot cheaper if you do not have the ingredients at home already (which I didn't)! Once the mixture has been made, spoon it into a greased container and cook into the sponge is bouncy and golden!

Step 2 - Once cooled, break up the cake with your hands until it looks like crumble; then add in a couple of tablespoons of ready-made icing mixture (enough to make the sponge stick together, without it being too wet). Grab a small handful of the mixture and roll it into 10-12 suitably small 'cake ball' sizes.

Step 3 - Poke a cake pop stick into the ready-made icing and then into each individual 'cake ball'. Once completed, freeze all cake pops for 15 minutes. This is just to ensure that all sticks are firmly set in the cake pops!

Step 4 - As the pop-sticks are freezing, melt the cooking chocolate for icing. I melted the chocolate in a glass bowl over some very warm water (not boiling) but you can also microwave it! DO NOT ADD WATER TO YOUR CHOCOLATE AS IT MELTS... (I learnt the hard way) This will make the chocolate separate and unusable. 

Step 5 - Once your chocolate has melted, dip each cake pop into a glass of melted chocolate - be careful when moving the stick around - too much swirling cake make the stick become loose. Now apply any sprinkles / decorative extras that you have on top of the melted chocolate. 

Step 6 - leave to dry by placing the sticks into a cake pop stand, and if you don't have one of these then a colander should be just as good. Once set, place the pops in a clear wrapper and tie up with ribbon to make the treats look extra special!
Wa la, you're done!! You should have 10-12 identical and tasty cake pops that have a moist sponge and are covered in chocolate :) Would I make these again? I received a lot of compliments after my first batch, which is always nice, and yes my cake pops looked very cool! I made a coffee, and double chocolate flavour, so you can mess around with the ingredients, but I probably wouldn't make these again as its A LOT of work & money!! Fairy cakes are just as cool & probably go further! 

Have you made cake pops before? Maybe you have a different recipe that you'd like to share? If so please feel free to add a comment. Alternatively, if you have an idea for another blog post id love to hear about it below.

Thanks for reading,

Yvette Marie xo
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Thursday, 19 March 2015

Cosmetics on a budget - Pros & Cons!!

Cosmetics on a budget! All products featured in this post came to £4 or under, and were bought in person. Enjoy!


FACE - Essence now sell what appears to be a Maybelline Dream Matt Mousse dupe, but for £3.80 it (unexpectedly) delivers some awesome results! It's a full coverage foundation; however a generous is needed to achieve this! I would also advise that a large amount of moisturiser is required before and after use (if you don't already). I found that, although it is a smooth & mousse like texture, the product really dried my skin out.
LIPS - Spring/Summer 2015 is all about nudes and pastels, so i bought this lipstick from Essence and I love love love everything about it! I paid just £2.30, which is a great buy because this product can be ued both day & night! The texture feel great; A lipstick that doesn't dry out your lips, manages to add moisture and lasts more than 10 minutes!! If you're looking for something that's fairly pastel, but want to add a little bit of shine, then this Lip Butter Pencil from Collection 2000 is for you! Currently available in 4 different colours, and retailing at £2.99, which makes it an awesome buy!

EYES - I love this dupe of Benefit's 'Gimme Brow' Eyebrow Mascara from Essence, and at a RRP price of £2.49 what's not to love! I've not actually used Benefit's eyebrow mascara before, because it's such an expensive buy! But that doesn't mean I didn't spot some obvious differences. For one, the price in comparison to the real thing, the size of the bristles, and lastly the amount of liquid in one tube! After conducting a little bit of research, and testing this item from Essence, I don't think I'll need to buy Benefit's version! See the results below for yourself :) 
I managed to nab this eye shadow pallet in the sale for just £1 (originally £2), which means I paid just under 13p for 8 different colours!! Can you guess where from?...Primark! To make a smokey eye effect I used 3 different colours, and the back of my hand. By using a brush and applying the colours in a small circular motion, I was easily able to create this effect. If you don't want to break the bank trialling what brushes work best for you, then have a look online at different product providers & read reviews 
before actually hitting the shops.             










My favourite purchase from this budget post is a mascara from Primark (see below). I bought this black tube (top left) for just £1, which made my eyelashes very flat and clump together! BUT my trip wasn't a total disappointment; I bought this 'Lash Defining' Mascara from Primark for £2, which I would recommend to everybody! My eyes looked really bright and open, my eyelashes looked amazing & extra-long, and lastly, they didn't clump together. The perfect consistency. 
 Please feel free to comment if you found this review helpful, or if you have any suggestions for future blog posts!
Thanks for reading,

Yvette Marie xo
 
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Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Review: Glitter Lips by Beauty Boulevard








Glitter lips is a (fairly) new semi-permanent lip glitter which is said to last (up to) 8 hours! It's one of the most sparkly products I've ever seen, and is a must have for any glitter lover. I bought Ruby Slippers because I thought colour would suit a lot of the clothes I wear. It's bright red (as you can probably guess by the name).
The instructions are very easy to follow; I applied the gloss/glue to my lips, paying attention to my lip line to make sure I stayed in-between the lines! (I have tiny tiny lips so this was quite the challenge). Keeping lips parted, I waited for the gloss to turn from white to clear, which took approx. 15 seconds. I carefully patted the glitter over my lips using the small applicator brush provided, and WALA! Fabulous Glitter Lips! 

Whilst I loved wearing this product, I'm not 100% that the colour that the colour really suited me (especially because my lips are SOOO small) which made me very self-aware. At a RRP OF £12.50, I also didn't want to spend that amount purchasing a colour that wouldn't suit me. After showing off my glitter lips during a night out, I began to feel a lot more confident because I was paid so many compliments!! The lips looked great, were fun to use, and actually stayed on for a good 6 hours (I don't think I've had a night out that lasted 8+ hours)... This stuff really doesn't budge, I ate, drank and kissed (as the product promises) an my lips were still intact.

Earlier this week, Beauty Boulevard launched some new products. Including; The unique lip formula bond is now available as an individual item- which is a great idea!! Glitter Lips have also released 'Glitter Eyes' which sounds just as fun! This would not be an everyday product, but for an evening out or a part event it's absolutely perfect.
Glitter Lips is available from www.beautyboulevard.co.uk

Please feel free to comment if you found this review helpful, or if you have any suggestions for future blog posts!
Thanks for reading,

Yvette Marie xo
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