Gingerbread biscuits

Hi guys!

I don't know about you but a big part of the christmas festivities includes eating and making food...and drink but I will cover that part next week! To get me into the festive feel of things today (I say today but i've been trying to put bake these and put this tutorial up all week!), I am going to making gingerbread biscuits. These are yummy warm and are the perfect accompaniment to a mug of piping hot chocolate. 

Ingredients Needed:
125g butter
100g dark brown muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325 plain flour plus some for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon & cloves
5 tbsp royal icing
2 tbsp water
decorating bits - silver balls

1) In a non stick pan melt the butter, sugar and syrup together. Stir together until combined.

2) In another bowl add all your dry ingredients; flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, nutmeg and cloves and stir together until combined.

3) Take the saucepan off the heat (make sure the liquids not boil) and add in the dry ingredients. Stir together until it forms a ball.

4) Let the dough cool down for a few minutes and roll it out onto a floured surface. Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut out shapes and place on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees and cook them for 9 -10 minutes.

5) Once cooked remove from the oven and whilst they are warm, poke a hole at the top in order for you to put a string through them and hang them up.

6) Mix together the water and royal icing and decorate the biscuits however you like.

Tip: Dust the cookie cutters with flour to prevent them form sticking to the dough

I hope you enjoy baking these as much as I did. Do you guys have any christmas food traditions or bake something special during the festive period? I know for me I always enjoy eating loads and loads of panettone (with lots and lots of butter). 

Like always If you don't already follow me on all the social media platforms, get following and I also wanted to add a quick little plug for myself because I have a online store where I sell handmade cards which are designed and produced by me! If you do have the time I would really appreciate if you could check it out,  curlyneedle.bigcartel.com :)

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Top Ten Christmas Movies!!

Hey, its Alex!

Looking over my top ten personal favourite christmas movies

The best thing to do on a cold winters night is to watch a film, there are always films that are on during the Christmas holidays that are my family's faves! i really don't understand how some adults disregard Christmas films because of their childish and gimmicky story lines but lets be honest, we all love them and if you don't...SCROOGE!! 

Secretly I think they all sit and watch them when their children are not around

Today I'm listing my personal favorite movies, so tell me your favorite christmas films, and potentially inspire a watch for someone :)

Counting down starting at number 10 with frozen

10)

Frozen

Okay, so technically, this is not a "Christmas movie" but it’s got snow! And it was released around the holidays for a reason. In any case, even though its now over a year old this film is never going to get old! I could watch it over and over, over and over again- It makes me reminisce my childhood time in the snow, building snowmen and having snowball fights!

"Let it go, Let it go.."

9)

Arthur Christmas

Okay keeping with the animated movie theme, Arthur Christmas actually ticked a lot of boxes for a film. It may look like a kids film and there is no doubt it kinda is, but for a 20 something girl like me on a dark night feeling sick, full with cold it was actually worth the watch! It had a lot of humour and has lots of famous voices. It was a feel good film!

8)

Christmas with the Kranks

Christmas with the Kranks, well if you haven't seen it SHAME. There are a lot of films that are Christmas related that have Tim Allen in. This film is slightly disappointing and slightly awful but in an odd way you sit through this film actually laughing and enjoying it. 
Total ironic appreciation for this film!

7)

ELF

Elf has to be the best Christmas film of all time! I love Will Ferrell as an actor he is just so funny and brings this film to life. Overall its just a nice film to gather around and watch on Christmas eve!

6)

The Grinch

Dr Seuss's The Grinch has to be on this list, there no doubt its one of the best Christmas films ever!

Jim Carrey is really talented and he brings the character so alive, 

Just a overall good film brilliant for all ages!

5)

Nativity

The Nativity! This film actually tickles me, it is a bit shocking with a poor storyline and some odd acting, but it has good humour and stars Martin Freeman! It is silly, fun and light hearted, just great movie to watch!

4)

Peter Pan Live

NBC Last year released Sound of music Live and to follow they have done Peter Pan Live! Now for anyone who isn't going to see a pantomime this year this kinda makes the magic for you on TV without the awkwardness etc. 

I know some people don't like them and I know this didn't get the best of reviews as its a musical and it has its gimmicks! But it was a good watch - Your about to think we can't watch it in the UK but don't worry! I found a Link just by typing it into google because NBC  streamed it on the Internet!

Here is a sneaky peak!

3)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

There is a lot of debate whether this film is Halloween or Christmas… hm well its both and I think you can watch this film at any time. 

Its a big favourite of mine I love Tim Burton's work! I practically know all the songs of by heart even if it has a slightly dark and twisted feeling to it. This Film is an all time fave and will definitely be on my TV!

2)

Home Alone

" I feel like were forgetting something…. ahhhh KEVIN!!" 

Ahh I bet you guys were worried there, ahh but of course Home Alone!

 No one will ever forget this film and I think as it gets older it gets even better! I mean it definitely teaches you to never trust your parents and that people/persons are probably going to rob houses around Christmas- it happens! 

But this film is one of the best Christmas films with its slapstick esque comedy and overall makes Christmas better!

1)

The Muppets Christmas Carol

There are many interpretations of the Christmas Carol, but it definitely feels like Christmas once you have seen The Muppet's Christmas Carol! It is a family fave, I loved the Muppet's when I was a kid and this film just summarises my childhood. Overall my favourite film to watch over the Christmas in fact… I may just get out the videotape- yes I said Videotape- I still own a video player ! 

Anyway I hope you enjoyed my Top Ten Movies! 

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"December-spiration"

Hey Internet, its April

I can't believe that it is actually December!

ITS CHRISTMAS MONTH!

I should really stop getting so overly excited.. its only the 4rd!

Its officially the countdown to Christmas, WAAHHHOO  its the time where everyone turns totally bonkers and slightly scary whilst shopping, (who else saw the black Friday madness?) just an FYI, its not socially acceptable to snatch products out of someones hands.. just wanted to put that out there...I'm speaking from an experience that i don't ever want to re live again...

Besides Christmas itself, advent calendars are one of the bests part of the month, having nibbles of choccy everyday day, THE BEST, this year i've treated myself, i may have purchased the Dan and Phil advent calendar... not gonna lie, I'm totally in love with it! not only do i get my daily Dan and Phil fix with their super cute/disturbing selfies behind each door but the chocolate is on par with Cadburys! I'm not even sorry that i have the calendar rather than a super dedicated 'fan' i also feel a small sense of achievement knowing i beat all the super speedy teens, which justifies the chocolate eating some more.

However we do need to face the fact that over this month, weight will be gained but its ok, a few pounds here and there from all the justified limited edition coffee shop Christmas drinks is worth it, lets all join hands and take full advantage of the gingerbread lattes and yule log bakes, because... lets face it, when the snow hits, we need them extra pounds to keep us functioning when were freezing to death and the whole country has ground to a halt from 3 inches of snow...YAY England!

December is THE lazy month, where its actually socially acceptable to snuggle next to the fire with fleecy thick blankets without judgement or guilt and maybe a bottle of wine or a slice of cake... or both... rather than going out side facing the perral of englands unpredictable winter weather.

In addition to the mental Christmas present shopping, now is the time to raid Primark for their amazing Christmas jumpers. Funny story; my sister bought a flashing penguin jumper 2 years ago, my mum washed it not knowing that it flashed, and since then its never bloody stopped flashing, at least we know the batteries are good in it!

I hope you have enjoyed this post, next week I'm bring some super exciting food DIY Christmas decorations! so stay tuned for that! in the meantime feel sorry for me, i currently have a little job in a restaurant dealing with customers that suck all the Christmas joy out of life!

Toodlepip xx

Too find more of my social media ramblings, check me out!

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Top 10 Christmas Songs

Can you believe its already December! This year has flown by so quickly and to be honest i'm quite glad its nearly over, this year has been full of highs and quite a few lows (especially for me). But anyways enough of the negativity! 

Its December and that can only mean one thing...its officially the start of the christmas month. This month our blog will be dedicated to everything christmasy and festive in order to bring some christmas cheer to everyone who reads our blog :) 

Today I shall be kicking things off with my top 10 christmas songs. I loveeeeeeee christmas songs, they just fill you up with happiness, warmth and christmas cheer.  So here is my perfect soundtrack to get you in the christmas spirit hope you enjoy :)

10. Kicking things of at number 10 is jingle bell rock- mean girls style! 

So there is a story behind this, It was christmas 2012, and we were going to a christmas bar crawl or something like that and my flat mates at the time were like right Amreeta, we're dressing up like these four. So that night we went out with our hats on and knee high socks and to be honest I don't remember the rest of the night but it must of been a good one ;) 

9. winter wonderland - Tony Bennett 

This makes me want to snuggle up on the sofa with a warm blanket and watch home alone. 

8. Sleigh ride - The Ronettes 

7. Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby

I love her voice, I love her. There's something so Hollywood-esque about this song. 

6. Dean Martin - Let it Snow

This always reminds me end of the year school assembly's, This was the song they always playing (without fail every year!) when you left the hall. Anyone else that agrees?

5. Brenda Lee - Rockin Around the christmas tree

4. Destiny's Child - 8 days of christmas

Hand's down I thought destiny's child's were sooooooo cool! I loved watching the video as a kid. Can I just add this song came out 14 years ago!!!! 

3. Mariah carey - all I want for christmas is you

2. Wham - last christmas 

1. Frozen Let it go 

All hail the new cool christmas song for 2014! You know I had to put this one at number 1! 

I also wanted to add another song, this year band aid created this song to help with the Ebola crisis, so please go check it out and buy the original single. 

I hope you liked my top 10, please leave in the comments below which one is your favourite and if i've missed any out, until next week have a nice week guys. Ohh and we just hit 400 followers on bloglovin, so thank you so much! We really appreciate every single one of you that takes the time out to read our little blog :) 

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Alex's Bad Idea To Bake Birthday Cake!

Hey Guys, Alex here, 

TW: im talking about cake... run away if you're on a diet!

So Its was my 22nd birthday :( i'm getting old! 

Usually I would leave the baking antics up to someone else but today i decided i wanted to make my own cake.. and without blowing my own trumpet, i'm actually not that bad at baking.

Here are a few examples of my previous baking extravaganzas;

Easter Surprise-birthday cake

Friends birthday:- The Killer Bunny form The Monty Python and The Holy Grail

So as you can tell, things don't usually go to plan, At least i try? Amirite?

This is what I plan my cake to look like:-

Cue Baking time with alex

What you will need;-

For the Cake mix-

• Self Raising Flour 
• Caster Sugar 
• Eggs x4 
• Hot choc powder 
• Butter 
• Baking Powder 
• Mixing Bowl 
• Whisk or Electric mixer 
• Baking tins 
• spatula 
• baking parchment 
• Spoons- table and teaspoon and normal spoon 

For the Icing and Decor-

• Mixing Bowl 
• Knife 
• Mixer whisk 
• Marshmallows 
• white chocolate buttons 
• hundred and thousands 
• rainbow belts 
• Blue food colouring

Bish, Bash, Bosh

my way of baking is really simple, haha bet you couldn't tell, i just like to bang it all in at once and hope for the best.

So first things first ( am a realist- im sorry i will let my self out)

- Set Your oven to 180 degrees please!!

- Then weigh all your 4 eggs together this can vary and is important. Mine weighed around 250 grams, this is now going to be the measurement for your Butter, Caster sugar and your flour.

- Bash all them in together, for chocolate cake, take out 2/3 tbs of flour and replace it with about 2/3 Tablespoons of Chocolate Powder.

-I then put all of the ingredients into the mixer along with the eggs

- Make sure there are no egg shell :P

- Also a teaspoon of baking powder is needed at this moment!

Next up in simple baking with alex you need too;

- Mix until the batter is an even colour and consistency,3-4 mins for everyone with an electric mixer, for all you man powered mixers just keep whisking away till your arm is going to drop off :) about 10mins

- Once the batter is not too thick and gloopy but smooth and silky, evenly distributed between 2 lined/ greased baking trays

Put the cake mixtures into the oven set the timer around 35/45 minutes, mine took 1hour and 20mins! dunno where i went wrong on that one... :s its best to test by sticking a probe/kebab sick into the cake if it comes out clean its probably done, another way to test is to press on the cake slightly if it bounces back its done!

Once baked leave the cakes in the tins to cool for 5 mins! then gently remove t leave on a wire rack to cool for a further 10-20 mins.

Ice Ice icing it!

I chose to use Buttercream Icing. This link will show you how to make the perfect buttercream..
after following these instructions i popped a dap of blue food colouring into the icing for the 'sky effect'

Final Touches

The next bits the best, smother the cake in the blue icing- smooth with a knife- add a dash of water onto the knife creates a glossy effect. Leave this to dry/set, for a quick setting times i recommend you  put the iced cake in the freezer, not only will the cake set fast, but when slightly frozen the cake is much easier to decorate.


While this is going on I separated my marshmallows white and pink. The pink well they got eaten! The White need placing in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 40 seconds on 600wt. Mix with a spoon this makes the marshmallows loose their shape and become sticky and gooey. Then dust a part of table/chopping board with icing sugar and cover your hands in it take clumps of the marshmallow and form cloud like shapes and place on the cake for desired shape/style.

Dust the cake in hundreds and thousands do this at your own risk they go everywhere!!

Now the Rainbow belts need forming into semi circles- place in the freezer to set- I did a few for experiment sake this method worked the best
Leave for 5-10 mins


Once they have set slightly take one and form a rainbow on the marshmallow clouds I used some icing sugar and water and wedged it into the clouds held it for a few seconds for it to set in place and well….






Daadaaa…

Add candles for finished look…

I hope this has tickled your tastebuds for cake! 

Please find me on social media and look at all my other crazy Ideas!

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"November-spiration"

Hey Internet! April here,

Yes, sorry, if you haven't already noticed from the title of the post,

 I said the 'C' word!! dun dun durr! 

Its ok though, the heart throbbing John Lewis & Coca Cola adverts have been on! so its time to stop procrastinating from gift buying, grab the mulled wine & be ready for the next month and a half of your life, flash before your very eyes! 

Or give it another 2 weeks before starting if you like, no ones judging! I'm not, i don't start shopping till the very last minute.... oops

    

Its mid-week, and for me, that means a whole lot of pinning has been done! So i would like to roundup this weeks most inspirational interior Christmas pins i have come across, so get those imagination juices flowing and have the Christmas boards ready for some re-pinning!...

~Its these types of pictures that make me so excited that one day i will have my own place, somewhere i have the freedom to be as creative as i like, without restrictions, like parents or money. Its so hard to get use to the lack of freedom you have when you move back home from university.

I feel this has gone off on a bit of a tangent... CHRISTMAS!

~When I think about Christmas, I think glitter, warmth, mulled wine, the fresh smell of Christmas trees and best of all, decorations! One of my favourite things to do is blitz through the Christmas baubles in shops like John Lewis. I turn in to an absolute crazy person, when i find myself getting overly excited, i call it bauble fever ~ does anyone else get like this... i hope so, otherwise, i probably need to see someone...

~VODKA~

A new thing this year I'm going to try, will do, is create flavoured vodkas. Every year my little old nanna creates the most amazing cranberry/raspberry infused vodka, that fuels the whole Christmas period, so my tasks is to get her to impart her wisdom/witchcraft in creating successful berry infused Christmas vodkas, i will let you know how i get on :P

                      

~Some example flavours that i want to try out!~

~DIY

Before the year is out, i have a few DIY projects in mind, including spiced fruit centre pieces, Cinnamon and vanilla candle decorations and mason jar snow globes!

                   

how cute are these DIYS! if you want to see blog posts of me attempting any of these, let me know, because such cuteness needs to be shared with the world!

~lastly! dun dun durrr!
Has everyone seen the awesome advent calendars this year! granted they are super expensive but i kinda want to splash out and just go for it? is that bad? Ive had my eye on getting the benefit advent calendar for the past few years and i think its time that i just go for it.

        

So yeah, this is basically a condensed version of my Christmas Pinterest odyssey from the other night, i hope i have got some creative juices flowing and inspired some christmasy purchases and DIYS! 

Little FWI; the images i will be including are not mine, if you want to find the original makers of the images i made a bored on Pinterest for you, check it out below xx

Toodlepip xx

Too find more of my social media ramblings, check me out!

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DIY Vanilla Body Cream

Winter is definitely creeping its way in and that means one thing...dry skin! I suffer from this a lot, especially now that i'm living back home in London my skin gets super dry with the hard water. Over the years i've tried many well known body creams but nothing seems to work as well as this! I can't even tell you how good this stuff is! It really moisturises like nothing i've ever used before. I would recommend using it at night and sparingly for that matter as it can tend to get a bit greasy.
As this is a all natural body cream I had to list just a couple of benefits of the ingredients :)

Coconut Oil

• Moisturisers
• Has anti ageing proporties  
• It can help treat skin infections such as eczema   

Almond Oil

• Moisturises
• Lightens dark circles 
• Can reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines

Vitamin E

• Moisturises
• Protects skin from UV rays
• Helps fade blemishes and marks 

You Will Need:

• 3/4 Cup Organic Coconut Oil
• 1/4 Cup Pure Almond Oil 
• 1 Tablespoon Organic Pure Vitamin E Oil
• 10 drops of Vanilla extract 
• Optional- 2 drops Pink food dye 

1) Combine the coconut oil and almond oil in a bowl using a hand blender or a mixer. Chill in the fridge until it has a creamy consistency. Then using the hand blender mix for 4 minutes. 

2) Add in the Vitamin E oil, Vanilla extract and food dye. 

3) Mix together until it becomes the consistency of angel delight or custard (yum angel delight!!) 

4) Transfer the cream into a air tight container and your done!

Disclaimer: Keep out of sunlight store in a dark place. This is my own home remedy perfect for dry skin but if you are allergic to any ingredients do not try this.  If you have any questions or queries please feel free to ask me. A little does go a long way, so its best to use small amounts at a time.

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