Gingerbread men

Hi!

As I'm sure you're all well aware by now one of my favourite things to do is bake, I made some Gingerbread Men. I find they're a nice little treat to enjoy with a cup of tea or just a on its own and they always go down nicely with family and friends too.

I use the Be-ro book recipe:

10oz (300g) Self raising Flour
A pinch of salt
3tsp Ground Ginger (I often use more than this!)
4oz (100g) Caster sugar
2oz (50g) margarine
3tbsp Golden syrup
4tbsp Milk

you will need to warm the sugar, syrup and margarine together (usually 20 seconds in the microwave) then add this to the dry ingredients and mix well, then add the milk and knead the mixture together until you get a nice dough.
Roll out your dough and cut into whatever shapes you wish. Place on baking tray with baking parchment and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
Decorate with smarties, icing or fruit and your good to go.

  Kerry xo

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Hi!

As you can probably tell from some of my previous posts I really enjoy baking, I find it quite therapeutic and lets face it everyone likes a sweet treat! 

I recently baked some Salted Caramel cupcakes. the actual sponge is pain with a salted caramel frosting, drizzled with salted caramel and plain chocolate chips.

 I started off with a very simple sponge recipe, you would need:

6oz Self Raising flour

6oz Caster sugar

6oz Margarine

3 Eggs 

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees

Cream together the Margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, add the flour and eggs and mix well.

Place the mix in individual cupcake cases in a cupcake/muffin tin

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the cake bounces back when gently pressed 

Place on Cooling tray 

 For the frosting you will need:

80g unsalted butter

250g Icing sugar sifted 

25ml Whole milk

3 tablespoons salted caramel

Mix together the butter and icing sugar until creamed together

Add the milk and blend together

Add Salted caramel and mix well

For decoration I swirled salted caramel on top of the frosting and added some plain chocolate chips. If you make these yourself lt me know, tag me in on Instagram (kerryn86) 

Kerry xo 

My favourite make up brushes

Hi!

I thought it was probably about time I did another make up related post as its been a little while since my last one,  so I thought I would share my favourite make up brushes with you. 

MAC 187 duo fibre brush-(£34.50) I love using this brush to apply my foundation, I use circular motions and find it blends the product into my skin well. Its great for building coverage too for events, nights out or those days you just need a little extra something.

MAC 217 blending brush- (£20) I like to use this brush to apply the darker shades to the  outer edge of my eye and the crease, I find it perfect for this and for my eye shape. 

Zoeva 228 luxe crease brush- (£6.95)  I feel this brush is fantastic at blending my eye shadows and helping me achieve the look I want. It allows you to define your eye and fits into the crease perfectly.

Zoeva 222 luxe all over shade- (£6.95) this is the all round eye brush, I use it to apply my base layer or all over eye shade. You can also blend and shape your shadows with this brush. 

Zoeva 316 classic liner brush- (£5.95) this brush is pointed and  very flexible, I find it great to use with gel eye liner. It allows me to get close to my lash line and have a fine line or build a strong think line. The brush is also fine enough to do a flick.

322 brow line brush- (£5.95) I feel this is the perfect brow line brush, it holds the right amount of product and with a light hand you can fill you brows, I like mine to look natural just a little fuller than they are. 

321 brow comb- (£5.95) I like to use this before and after applying my brow product, before help smooth out the brow hairs and after it will help even out the product and remove any unneeded product. 

My brushes vary in price as you can see, there are so many amazing brushes available on the market now. I find the Zoeva brushes are fantastic quality and are very affordable. I purchased mine on beauty bay and if you spend £15 or over delivery is free. I also use some real techniques brushes as well as the real techniques beauty blender. 
It is also so important that you wash you brushes regularly, there is no need to buy expensive brush cleaner I find Baby shampoo works just as well and is much cheaper. 

Kerry xo

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Hi!

I recently baked some chocolate chunk cookies, they are extremely chocolatey and calorific but are definitely a lovely treat!

I used the Recipe from Love Tanya by Tanya Burr:

200g Butter
300g Caster sugar
1 Large Egg
275g Self raising floor
75g Cocoa powder
A little dash of milk optionally (I usually have to)

A large bar of milk and daily milk chocolate- I leave them pretty big, the chunkier the better!!

Pre-heat the oven to 200*c

Mix the butter and sugar until smooth, crack in the egg and add the dry ingredients. Knead together and then I usually add the chocolate chunks and then knead them in. Tear off chunks of the mixture and place on baking trays with parchment paper.
As advice in the recipe bake for 11 minutes and then remove to cool.

I can not wait for Tanya's baking book!

Kerry xo

Happy New Year

Hi!

My new Year in pics!!! 

New Years eve fireworks and a New Years day walk along the beach..........

Kerry xo