Cute Carrot Cake

No Birthday is complete without cake and a special birthday deserves a special cake. My Mum can't eat chocolate so I wanted to make something that looked pretty but also tasted amazing which is why I went for an ultimate carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and cake bunting! 

The cake bunting was made using paper straws, string, patterned card and letter stamps and was unbelievably easy to make. My friends and I cut out all of the flags and glued them to the string, we when tied the string to the paper straws and it was done! It was so simple to do but it made the cake the centre piece on the night.

For the cake you will need:

150g self-raising flour

100g wholemeal self-raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp mixed spice

zest 1 orange

400g caster sugar 

(this is A LOT of sugar and could easily be reduced or swapped for light brown sugar)

350 ml vegetable oil

4 eggs

350g grated carrots

This recipe will make a large two layered sponge. My original idea was to do four layers so I made two batches of mixture but when my first sponges came out of the oven they were so huge I ended up with three layers and a whole tray of cupcakes.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4 and grease/line your cake tins with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl stir together the flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, mixed spice and orange zest.

Mix in the eggs and oil until fully combined.

Stir in the grated carrot.

Spoon half of the mixture into each of your cake tins and place in the oven for up to 50 minutes until a skewer in the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

For the icing you will need:

170g icing sugar, sifted

60g unsalted butter, softened

240g full fat cream cheese (Waitrose full fat)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Whisk the butter and icing sugar together on a low speed until it forms a sandy consistency.

 Add a little cream cheese at at time while continuing to mix.

 Add the vanilla extract and then turn up the speed and beat until light and fluffy.

This is the best cream cheese frosting recipe I have come across so far. All of the other recipes I have used in the past used Philadelphia cream cheese and I found that as soon as I started to mix it it went runny and horrible. The Waitrose cream cheese didn't do this at all, it held it's shape and was really easy to spread on the cake.

To finish the cake off I crushed some walnuts and sprinkled them in a circle on top and obviously decorated it with birthday candles and the cake bunting.

I was so pleased with how this recipe turned out and I got nothing but good feedback on the night. The cake was so moist and delicious, I just wish I had got a picture of the inside but it was demolished so quickly I didn't get a chance!!

Christmas Table Centrepiece

Another Pinterest inspired Christmas DIY today. I put together the centrepiece for our Christmas Day table using candles, pine cones and sprigs of holly. 

To make this I wrapped some tea lights and pillar candles in different ribbons and secured them with super glue.  Then I arranged them on a cake stand with the pine cones and holly. It was very easy and I am really pleased with how it has come out. 

I can't wait to light all the candles on Christmas Day, I think it is going to look so pretty and festive!

How to: make your uni room feel like home

When you first move to uni it can sometimes be hard to make your room feel homely. It may have taken me three  years and copious amounts of blu-tac but I think I have finally done it! I love posts like this (mainly because I am massively nosey) but also because I like getting inspiration from other people, so maybe this will inspire one of you.

This is probably my favourite area of the room, mostly because I am always tired and love to sleep! The lights around my bed are stuck up with blu-tac, as are the photos and the little bird is hanging on a hook that was already in the wall.

 On my bedside table I have scented candles. The lavender helps me get to sleep which can often be very hard in a noisy student house, but I also think they look pretty. 

I also have a poster, a full length mirror and this cute bunting which my mum's friend made for me.This is stuck up with pins. Obviously some landlords wouldn't allow this but I have been quite lucky with mine.

This is my dressing table/chest of draws area. I did a DIY post on how to make the blue and cream drawers here

 This jewellery hanger is from Pia, I love it, and it is definitely better than the horrible plastic bag that my necklaces were in before.

Last but not least is my notice board, I basically stick any old bits and pieces in here but I think it has ended up looking quite cool. 

I obviously have a desk area as well, but I am in the midst of essay writing so it is a total mess. No one is going to want to see a picture of a bunch of law textbooks so I will leave that to your imagination!

Feel free to leave a comment, I would love to know what people think/if anyone even reads my posts. Haha.