The Blonde Rose: 2013

Thursday, 21 March 2013

mini egg cornflake cakes

So yesterday I decided to get my baking head on and make these super quick and simple cornflake cakes. As most of you probably know, I'm an Erasmus student in Germany and yesterday there was a welcome meeting for all of the new people starting here for the summer term. The only request was to make something.. and seeing as I'm no Nigella, these seemed to be the perfect solution!

They are so quick and easy to make, and I'm pretty sure most people will know this recipe from childhood!

You will need:

50g butter

100g chocolate

3tbsp golden syrup

100g cornflakes

mini eggs optional

(I used triple the amount of ingredients as I wasn't sure how many cakes the original recipe would make and I knew I needed a lot. With trebled ingredients it made around 20 cakes.. and I may have accidentally eaten 3 or 4 before actually taking them to the meeting)

Melt the butter, chocolate and syrup in a saucepan on a very low heat (careful not to burn the chocolate) and then simply tip the cornflakes in and stir. When all the cornflakes are covered, place the mixture into cake cases, add the mini eggs and leave in the fridge for a few hours to set and voila.. the perfect easter treat!

I actually couldn't find golden syrup here in Germany so I settled for the next best thing I could find which was some kind of caramel syrup and it worked perfectly. A yummy bundle of chocolatey, caramel, deliciousness!

They went down an absolute storm and I was getting praise left, right and center! *winning*

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

the big apple: 21st birthday celebrations and mini haul

I've been majorly slacking on the blogging front recently, in fact I haven't posted for 4 months because everything has been a bit crazy! But anyway, I'm back on the scene for the moment and I wanted to share my completely crazy and amazing trip to New York. I turned 21 last month and as it was the big 2.1 and all that jazz I decided there wasn't really a better way to celebrate than being completely outrageous and going to New York for 5 days.

Most of the time was spent shopping and partying, but we still managed to fit in some 'touristy' things too! Considering we were only there for 5 days we managed to fit in a hell of a lot including: a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, Lion King on Broadway (UH-MAZING and made me cry within the first 5 minutes), an amazing Thai restaurant in Brooklyn, Jay Z's sports bar, a rooftop bar with a view of the empire state on my actual birthday, and meeting Beyonce's stylist in Louis Vuitton - yes you read that right! Oh, and a Barney's sample sale! And of course, the mandatory visiting America breakfast of waffles with maple syrup and bacon, not to mention the daily (sometimes twice daily) visit to Starbucks.

Anyway, I thought I would share with you some of my latest additions as I did go a littttle bit wild. I mainly got cosmetics, I can't believe how cheap Origins and Clinique is in the states?! I got some bits from Victoria's Secret, some disco and riding pants in American Apparel and some Nike free run indoor training shoes (comfiest things ever!!) I also managed to get my little brother a Marc Jacobs iPad case in the Barneys sample sale! And not forgetting my Michael Kors purse which I love!

God Created the Woman Eyeshadow and Orgasm Illuminator

I was so happy that I came across this Caudalie set in Sephora, it retails at $35, with a $75 dollar value. Bargaaain! These are all products which I've wanted to try and I can safely say the exfoliator is one of the best things I've ever come across!