Apologies, Busy Times and Hello Agains

Hi everyone,

It's been a while and I'm really sorry about that.

My summer was jam-packed and even when I did have a quiet day at home, I was either doing holiday work or just curling up on my sofa all day. I didn't have the time or the mood to write on here and soon I almost forget about it…

I've now been back at my boarding school for three weeks and have completely settled in to the early mornings and busy days. One change from last year is the work load, which is expected considering I'm doing my GCSE's in May. I'm not working myself to death because I still have a long while until I even need to think about seriously revising, but I do have a lot of notes to write and preps to do and my teachers are all concentrated on my year group.

However, last night my year in my boarding house were all sat on the stairs remembering funny memories from year 9. My friend then whips out her phone and finds a story I had written about us all two years ago. We all sat there listening, laughing our heads off at my story. I'd created a parallel universe where my friends and I were animals and travelled around in packs. I had only written four chapters of it, but it made me regret not sticking with it and finishing it. It got me thinking that if I gave up on this blog, I'd probably regret it to later on.

I still don't have lots of time but I want to keep up with my blog, because even though this only my sixth post, writing on here is something I really enjoy; I know that when I'm stressed out and everything gets to much,  I can just log in to Blogger and write.

So this is my 'hello again' post to say that a post should be expected weekly but I can't guarantee I'll be able to post all the time. Once my exams are over I'll have more time and freedom. So until then, I hope my semi-permanent blog is okay,

Maddy Bea x

Viennese Whirls Recipe

I am loving summer, even if it is raining today. But when the weather isn't as great as always, I like to bake - so that's exactly what I did. Meet my Viennese Whirls. Funnily enough, I don't actually like these but my brother and dad do so I decided to make them. They were so quick and easy to make, so I may be making them again!

Just follow these super easy recipe and you'll have (around) 16 beautiful and very British looking biscuits. 

Ingredients: 

(For the biscuits)

- 250g/9oz very soft butter

- 50g/2oz icing sugar

- 250g/9oz plain flour

- 50g/2oz cornflour (did you ever play with this when you were little, it is so much fun)

- ½ tsp vanilla extract 

(For the filling)

- 100g/3½oz soft butter

- 200g/7oz icing sugar

- ½ tsp vanilla extract

- strawberry or raspberry jam

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and line a baking tray (or maybe two) with greaseproof paper.

2. Put the soft butter, icing sugar, plain flour, cornflour and vanilla extract in a mixer and blend until smooth.

3. Spoon the dough into a piping bag and use a large star nozzle. Pipe  rosettes of the dough on to the baking trays, spacing well apart. I made 30 of these but it depends what size you make them. 

4. Put the baking trays in the oven for 13-15 minutes or until pale golden-brown and firm. Cool on the baking tray for five minutes then move them onto a cooling rack. 

5. For the filling, put the butter in a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla extract and beat with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until very light and smooth. Spoon into a clean piping bag, using a large star nozzle again. Put the jam in a bowl and stir until smooth if your jam is too chunky.

6. Put a little bit of jam onto the flat side of half of the biscuits and place jam-side up on the cooling rack. Pipe the buttercream icing onto the remaining biscuits and sandwich with the jam.

You could also sift icing sugar on the top for extra decoration.

This recipe makes about 16 complete whirls and look so pretty. I wasn't very good at making the rosettes but the biscuits still looked good once they came out of the oven. 

I really enjoyed making them, even though I don't like them! 

I hope you enjoy this recipe, it's a great and fast one but it is not the healthiest -350g butter overal! 

Lots of Love,

MaddyBea x

Birthday Present Idea

I struggle with birthday present ideas and normally just end up buying my friends makeup or bath stuff, which is nice but not very special. So, as my friend's birthday is a week on Saturday, two of my other friends and I decided to pull together for a present. Originally we were going to get one big present for the three of us, but as fifteen isn't a big birthday we decided to get lots of small things. So we did and I had the idea of putting the presents in a box smothered in photos of our friend and us.

I think this is a really meaningful and special present and I thought I'd share it with you all as present ideas can be sparse.

All you need is:

• a box - a shoebox is perfect

• scissors and glue 

• tons of photos

• patience!

It's quite self-explainitory really!

Little present ideas:

- A book

- Mascara

- Eyeliner pencil

- Bracelets

- A candle

- A mug

- Pencil case 

- Nail Varnish

- Bath Bomb

This did take a while, as I had to print off all the photos, cut them out and then stuck them on. But it was worth it, and I can't wait to give it to my friend.

I hope you're all having a lovely week,

Only three days till my summer holidays start, I can't wait

Lots of Love,

MaddyBea x

June Favourites

This June I've been loving a lot of things and I thought I'd share some of those things with you.

So I'll dive right in: 

Firstly, as a massive book addict, I've been loving two books this month. 

- Looking for Alaska by John Green

It's an very alternative story which I love. Personally, John Green isn't my favourite writer but I love this book so much, I could barely put it down. It has a great story line and very real characters. Love love loved it.

- Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover

This was a very very sweet love story with some incredibly different twists involved. It's not your regular love story which I like, it's not predictable. 

I defiently recommend this book.

Onto makeup, this month I've been loving a lot but two things I got new are some of my favourites.

- Rimmel stay matte powder. Honestly, I have no clue what I did before I got powder. If you have the issue of your foundation looking really oily, or your makeup coming off really quickly, get this. I got it in transparent and it sets my makeup really well. It's a must have!

- Real Techniques expert face brush. I've been looking for a good fondation brush for a long time, having used sponges for a long time. And now I've found one. This is a gorgeous brush, not much to say about it other than it's soft, a great shape and the bristles don't fall out.

Nail Varnish: I'm big on nail varnish, even though my finger nails are quite small. 

Kiko nail varnish is so lovely. I love it, and currently am wearing a purple on my toes!

Kind of related to make up but not really, Lip Care - I have really dry lips so am always looking for new things. 

- Blistex Intensive Moisturiser: this stuff is a life safer. It does what it says on the name, moisturises. It's so effective and I rarely have dry lips when I continue to use it regularly. Highly recommend to anyone who just doesn't find that Vaseline does the trick. 

Hair: my hair goes through a lot. I dye it, straighten it, curl it and don't get it cut very often. Recently I've been trying to limit my use of heat, but still continue to get highlights every 12 weeks or so. 

The shampoo and conditioner I use to keep my hair is good condition is:

- Aussie Colour Mate shampoo and conditioner in wild peach. It's amazing. It's keeps my colour intact for a long time and keeps my hair soft and smooth. It also smells divine. 

 Another thing I've been loving for hair - styling wise - is Schwarzkopf got2b beach matt texturising salt spray. My hair tends to be quite flat and I like texture and this works so well. I use and have used a lot of things on my hair, including hairspray and mousse. I've found this works really well with a bit of hair spray or mousse to keep the texture last for longer, but it's still great on its own. 

Now, for my fellow tea lovers, I present my absolute favourite tea. 

- Clipper's Pure Green tea with strawberry: yum yum yum. I love green tea, but the strawberry just makes it so much better. Not much I can say apart from its delicious and I also love the packaging!

Lastly, as exams have just been and my GCSE's are next year (terrified!) I've been loving the CGP revision guides. They explain everything really well and have good ways of remember things. Recommend these strongly!

So that's all the things I've been loving this month and I recommend them all strongly. 

What have you been loving this month? Tell me in the comments 

Thank you for reading,

I hope you all have a lovely weekend in the gorgeous weather England suprisingly seems to be throwing at us!

Maddy Bea x

Red Velvet Cupcakes Recipe

And so the first real post begins...

I made these cupcakes in February for a lunch with some family friends. I was allocated pudding making, and really did not know what to do.
As Valentine's Day had just been, and the fact that I'd never made them before but really wanted to try, I decided to make Red Velvet cupcakes.
Most recipes suggest to use cream cheese icing, but I thought 'yuck' and decided to use my favourite vanilla buttercream icing instead, and it tasted delicious.
Not to compliment myself too much, but they were really lovely and light, and I was very proud of them.
This recipe makes 12, so I doubled it and now had lots of yummy cupcakes left over for midnight snacks!
It is based on a HummingBird Bakery recipe, but I made a few changes to make them my own
So here it is:

(Oh and before I begin, incase anyone is a beginner, TSP = teaspoon, TBSP = tablespoon)

Ingredients 

Cupcake Mixture:

• 60g butter (if unsalted, add 1/2 tsp salt when adding vinegar and bicarbonate of soda)
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs 
• 10g cocoa powder
• Red food dye - about 20ml but you can choose how deep a red you want
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I like to add just a few big drops instead of measuring)
• 120ml buttermilk - Nigella was my saviour here as I had no idea what it was! http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/Buttermilk-subsitute/450
• 150g plain flour
• 1/2 bicarbonate of soda
• 1 and 1/2 white wine vinegar
• white chocolate (my twist)

Vanilla Icing:

• 250g sifted icing sugar
• 80g unsalted butter
• 25ml whole milk
• a couple of drops of vanilla extract

Method

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 170°c / 325°F / gas mark 3

2. Put the room temperature butter and sugar into a mixer with paddle attachment (or a hand-held whisk) and beat on medium speed until light, fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixture up to high speed and slowly add the eggs until everything is well mixed together.

3. In a seperate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to butter mixture and mix throughly until it is all evenly coloured. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk, beat until well mixed. Then slowly add half the flour and beat until well mixed. Repeat this with the other halves. Speed up mixer till you have a smooth, even mixture, but don't over beat and curdle (split) the mixture, otherwise you won't have lovely, light and fluffy cupcakes. Turn mixer down to slow and add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar (and salt if using unsalted butter), beat until well mixed. 

4. Spoon into cupcake cases, and add a small block of white chocolate into the middle. Put in oven for 20-25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when you touch it, or when a skewer is put in the middle and comes out clean with no crumbs on it. Leave to cool completely before adding icing.

Vanilla Icing:

You can easily make this whilst the cupcakes are baking, and then pipe or dollop on the top of the cooled cupcakes. You could add food colouring to this mixture to make it a bit more colourful, but I wanted to stick with red and white.

1. Put the icing sugar and room temperature butter into a mixer with the paddle or whisk attachment (or, again, a hand-held whisk) and beat on a medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together.

2. In a seperate bowl, add the milk and vanilla extract together. Turn the mixter down to a slow speed and add the vanilla-milk mixture to it a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk has been mixture in, turn the mixture up to a high speed.

3. Continue beating until the icing (or frosting is a more appropiate word for it) is light and fluffy, for at least 5 minutes. The longer it is beaten, the lighter it becomes. 

You can choose how to apply the 'frosting', I piped mine on using a piping bag and add red and white stars to keep them simple and classy, but of course you could go crazy and make them multi-coloured!

I'm not the best at piping but they turned out alright! 

I hope you all find this recipe useful, of course you will probably change it to suit you, I just liked having the chocolate hidden in there! 

MaddyBea x

Hola! Ola! Bonjour! and Hello! - First Post

Hello Internet,

(This is truly nerve racking, and all I'm doing is sitting in front of my computer!)

Hi Everybody! Welcome to my blog 'Maddy Bea' 

Firstly, a bit about me: My name is Maddy - my middle name is Beatrice unsurprisingly- and I'm a fifteen year old girl from Suffolk, England. My birthday is March 28th (same as Zoella woop) and I go to a boarding school in Kent, which I am at most of the time, but at home I live with my Mum, Dad and my two older brothers. 

Now you know a little bit about me let's move on to what my blog is all about.

I love to write. I always have and I probably always will. Be it serious stuff like stories, poems and even English essays (yes, I do enjoy these…), or silly things like poems about my friends and family. I have a ridicously huge imagination which is a curse and a blessing. 

I decided to start this blog today, but have been wanting to start one for a long time. I felt like I was too young to start; I still do but here I am! 

My blog posts will probably be about anything and everything. From school life to makeup or fashion, advice to recipes or even what I'm doing or a book/song/film I recommend. 

My main aim of this is just so I can write for a purpose. I've defiently been inspired by Zoella, Niomi Smart and FleurDeForce, having watched their youtube videos before discovering their blogs.

I just want this blog to be my little haven but to also (hopefully) inspire and help others.

So, if you can cope with some bad grammar and spelling (spelling is not my thing) then enjoy! 

MaddyBea x