The easiest Teddy Bear chocolate cake recipe

I am no cake baker and I certainly don't pretend to be any good in the kitchen but I do know for one thing, that this chocolate cake tastes really good and there is just no way to mess up a recipe with two steps.
They are as follows:

1. Mix 200g of self raising flour, 50g of cocoa powder, 125g of butter, 250g of caster sugar, 2 eggs and 160ml of water together until the mixture has changed from a darker to a lighter shade of brown (add some vanilla essence if you're feeling 'adventurous')

2. Pour into a pre greased cake pan and place in a Moderate temperature oven

Conversion: Moderate = 180 degrees celcius = 350-375 Fahrenheit = Gas mark 4-5

It takes about 30 minutes to cook, but keep checking on it to ensure it doesn't burn, the mixture is quite 'wet' so I find that one moment it looks of a mousse texture, and the next it's got a burnt top

I made an unsuccessful teddy bear shape the first time around due to not greasing the pan (from Morrisons, £4) well enough, so I was not taking any chances this time.

If I can give you one magic tip it would be to wait until your cake is stone cold before icing. Stone cold doesn't mean a bit warm, or just warm on the bottom, it means cold as though it has been left alone so that every single crumb can cool. It's the most painful part of baking I find, but then I remind myself that there is no point taking all that effort and love to make something, to ruin it at the last hurdle. Happy baking! Happy Bear!

Raw Vegan Chocolate Pudding Delight

Today I had three avocados going ripe and no clue what to do with them, until I suddenly remembered that I've been dying to try out an Avocado dessert because it sounds so strange!
So here's my little spin on it and it turned out a treat, I don't even like avocados but I simply could not get enough of this!

You will need a blender or food processor
An avocado, peeled and chopped
30 grams cocoa powder
85 grams of honey
60ml Almond milk

Presentation isn't my strongest point, I'm all new to this food photography malarky!

Blend blend blend until it's all smooth and delicious and creamy and there's no avocado lumps, and serve to unsuspecting individuals and ask them to guess what makes that wonderful creamy base!

Don't press on my stomach

So it's Friday and I'm about to share with you a food-based crime that has taken place tonight
Actual, real criminal activity.
I saw this gateau in the freezer at the supermarket and for the sweet ol' deal of £1-something-p it was off home with me.
The gateau probably says on the side that it serves 8, maybe 12 people.
Tonight, I'm ashamed to say this served 2

I can't even tell you that I had the smaller half, the halves were even and I gobbled it up!
The delicious creamy icing, the wonderful chocoalte mousse like filling
wah it was so good.
But now I'm paying the price and am about 10 seconds away from falling into a food-coma
(One of those naps that you just have to have when you're so god damn full and the only way to not feel so gross and like a lump is to sleep it off)

It's going to be fun fitting into christmas party dresses!

Mama's magic brownies

If ever I needed a little pick-me-up or a sugar hit

it would be my mums delicious chocolate brownies to do that job perfectly.

Theyre soft but hold their shape, but gooey and melt in your mouth!

They have chocolate chunks and no nuts, I don't like nuts in desserts, the chunks of white are white chocolate!

The best part is that they last for ages because one is delicious and two brownies are nearly too rich, so one a day will see you through!

They came in this super cute polka dot tin too!

The tin is heart shaped yayyy

-This would be the point where I share the recipe, but I don't know it!

Happy Halloween Home made brownies!

A day of sweetness

I was caught off guard with the heat and since I'm staying away from home at the moment I had to make the best of what I had with me which was...jeans

Here I did a little improvisation and rolles the jeans up to mid-calf to give them a fresh summery look. These jeans are my trusty pastel pair that I have blogged about before many times, I got them from the kids section in Next

I matched it with my well-loved 'chocolate box' tshirt, it reminds me of fancy chocolate boxes because of the fancy ribbons!

To sweeten it up a little more and add more colours I'm wearing my triple pastel belt from New Look and it has all the sweetest colours in it!

 The sweetness doesn't stop there, for dessert that night we had chocolate mousse with a deliciously chocolatey base that's all biscuity and crumbly

 ...and a little box of heart chocolates and an umbrella chocolate! I think the umbrella is the funniest, what a random shape to decide to make a chocolate!

Now as you can imagine I'm bouncing off the walls in this sticky heat on a suagr rush!

Visiting Cadbury World!

Today sempt like the perfect day to visit Cadbury World which was just nearby where I was staying, we booked a time slot online for 11:40am but due to a whole host of reasons we showed up about an hour late but the kind people at the desk acted like it was no problem that we missed our time slot and let us go through straight away anyway because it is a self guided tour! So my top tip is book over the phone and if you're late- it probably doesnt even matter!
On the walk to the Cadbury World you have to walk past the factories and the scent of melted chocolate gets your mouth salivating which is convenient as the first sight when you walk in is a HUGE Cadbury sweet shop!

Here's a little looky at what was inside...

Here's where you start, in a walk-through museum jungle where you learn a little bit about cocoa beans and where they came from

The educational stuff is then broken up by a little trip in a car at giant story books and cute cocoa beans dancing and fishing...

Then there's a few other educational-type bits before you finish up in the 'Advertising Avenue' where you see how Cadbury advertising has dated and changed

Then you're faced with displays of lots of fun things made out of chocolate like the Olympic stadium and a chocolate crown!

It was a combination of museumy type things, lots of education via videos, lots of walking, reading, and smelling chocolate and watching machinary in action.
There's lots of different 'zones' where you look at the advertising part of Cadbury, the manufacturing, the packagaing etc

As for free stuff- everyone each got 1 Crunchie Bar, 1 Dairy Milk, 1 Curly Wurly, 1 mini pot of melted chocolate, 1 bigger (egg cup sized) of melted chocoalte with other bits mixed in like marshmallows or biscuit pieces.

The best part was... the ride! It's a little like 'it's a small word' from Disneyland

Despite the fact that it is marketed so heavily at children I think is a little bit misleading, so here I'll give you some of the practical stuff that means I'm glad I didn't go until I was well above and beyond the so-called 'target age'

Alexia's Practical Cadbury World tips:
-We luckily brought with us a few bottles of water which was a relief as with all the chocolate and walking you do get really thirsty, and they strategically place drinks machines everywhere- at hefty prices, over £1 for 500ml of water which will get expensive if you're in a group!

-There is a lot of walking involved, if kids are still in pram age bring them, if not be prepared for potentially weary kids, there were times where you are sent to walk this way and that with really nothing to look at except for modern Cadbury advertisment posters on the walls, I can only presume this is to somehow 'ease' the queues to send the visitors on a bit of a wild goose chase which is fine if you're two adults who can chit-chat the whole time, not so fun for kids with little legs

-Everywhere is busy, we went before school summer holidays even began and you still end up with about 40/50 other people at any one time which means lots of queing which is why they like to stick in lots of educational videos to stagger the amount of people nice and evenly (doesn't always work though)

-The Cadbury gift shop sells some exclusive Cadbury World stuff but the sweeties that you can buy in regular shops are the same price as a supermarket, there is a small 'factory outlet' part where you can buy stuff a little cheaper if you buy it in bulk (I don't even think you need a ticket to go in the gift shop)

-The illusion is that you'll be stepping into some sort of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' replica- this is not true, there is no flowing chocolate rivers but actually it's rather industrial and much of the educational content seems very 'school trip-ish' and somewhat old school kids at that, maybe 10 years or older to fully understand and enjoy it.

-Keep in mind it is more museum than 'candy land'

We had done our homework beforehand and so I loved every minute of it and I did know what to expect, but I was very aware of lots of kids and adults around us that were maybe even a little dissapointed by what they were experiencing, so hopefully reading this stops that dissapointment for you too!

I left without even eating my free chocolate and couldn't finish the last chocolate pot, and the sweet chocolate scent that had led us to the entrance was making me feel nauseated on the way out.

Let me know if you visited, and what your experience was. Were you dissapointed? Or had you read up beforehand and had a good grasp of what it would be like?

Espresso Eyes

Chocolatey browns and Golden creams- the makeup look inspired by a Starbucks!

If you like this look then today is your lucky day because here is all nine steps that I did this morning!

1.Primed my eyes using Bare Escentuals eye primer
2.Coated the whole eyelid in a creamy white shadow 'Shroom' by MAC
3.From the outer corner I dolloped my versatile dark brown 'Folie' by MAC and swished it back and fourth in the crease
4.I used a taupey-grey colour, I can't remember what one! and blended that back and fourth over Folie, only use a little amount, we want to look to be mostly that lovely warm brown rather than a cool grey
5. Using the Folie eyeshadow and taking a thin eyeliner brush i run that along the upper lash line and half way along the lower- this way it's not as harsh as liquid liner and fits in with a 'smokey' look.
6. On the browbone to make a crisp contrast I uses Loreal Color Infaillable in shade 001 Time Resist White
7. Using a brow brush and and an eyeshadow in shade 'Folie' from Mac I run the colour through my brows lightly, and slowly builing up the shape and thickness I'd like
8. I used a white eyeliner pencil on my waterline to my my eyes look bigger, I used 'Fascinating' from MAC
9. I finished off with a few layers of Bare Escentuals black mascara

Done and done!
Espresso, daytime look deliciousness!

Uh Oh silly-O!

This post seems like it should be an April Fools post, whereas actually- it's just my embaressing real life!

For Easter I got what looked like a box of eggs- I actually said 'are they real?' 'They look like real eggs!' But after being convinced that they are not real and just amazing sugar art I kept them for a while to look at.

Today (or what felt like today but was actually yesterday since it's gone midnight) around half 4 I thought, well maybe I'll have one.
So I smell the shell and think 'is this really all sugary?' and it sure smelt like it was! It smelt of chocolate.
I bite into the shell and think oo.. this isn't chocolate, it must be solid sugar, like on those mini eggs that Cadbury sell...

The funny thing is it tasted good, because the chocoalate inside was so amazingly delicious.

About twenty minutes after having pigged out I start to feel like a cactus is doing cartwheels in my belly- it just felt so dang spikey, pretty much as soon as the pain came on, I knew I'd made a horrible, horrible mistake.

I checked the internet but it wasn't much good as it only referred to eating little bits in your scrambled egg, I'd eaten almost an entire shell!

After 2 and a half hours of a persistant and spikey stomach ache I call my friend who's a nurse who told me to call the NHS helpline- the first nurse I had was not very kind and sort of spoke to me like I was stupid (which I suppose I kind of am)

The second nurse was much nicer and very sympathetic, but told me that I would be fine and that it will just give me a stomach ache as my stomach doesn't like digesting it very much (I don't blame it!)

And that was the story of me and my unhappy egg.
I know I should have known, but I've never in my life seen real eggs filled with chocolate before- but they came from France, so maybe it's a french tradition. On closer inspection I see there's a hole in the bottom of the egg where I guess the actual egg was poured out and chocolate poured in; but I didn't think of any of this at the time!

Oh-well! Better luck next time for me!

Stressed spelled backwards...

Is desserts!
So that's it- your first port of call when you're feeling stressed is to eat a brownie, a slice of cake, some pudding, a sponge, even a little tiny biscuit to make that bitter situation a little bit sweeter.

Of course- I'm not suggesting over indulgence on a long term basis, but I do think sweet treats and a warm bath are sometimes the best thing a person can do!

And if you can't get hold of any desserts- enjoy drooling over these with me!



Sunny Shopping for Charity!

Here's what I looked like a little earlier today:

Sunglasses on my head, you best believe it's going to be a good day! Who doesn't love sunshine to put a little extra spring in your step!
Here's a closer look at my 'Queen of Aces' fancy shirt!

This is a little look at the treasures I picked up!
A black evening top from Warehouse (but actually from Demelza House)
A floral shirt from New look ( but actually from the red cross)
A black shoulder pad cropped jacked from H&M (but actually from Demelza House)
A fun print tassle scarf with no brand on it but came from good ol' Demelza house too!

Finally, I treated myself to a chocolate orange candle because it smelt exactly like chocolate! And usually i hate the scent of aritificial chocolate because it smells like sugary plastic. But this smelt like the REAL DEAL! And I sure love them chocolate oranges, so I'm not sure if this candle will do more harm than good and make me crave chocolate oranges!

That's a little bit of the fun we had today, Saturday shopping is great! especially when it does good things for charities and costs a fraction of what it does when you shop in the high street stores!

I'll upload a video soon that goes into a little more depth about our day!