Chocolate Marble Cupcakes

I made these a wee while ago but thought I'd share the recipe since they are soo damn good! :)

Enjoy and let me know how you get on if you try them :)


Mine don't look half as good as this one as you can tell but I adore my little red and white spotted cupcake cases.. Think I got them from Dunelm!

For the cakes:

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

150g self-raising flour

60g good quality white chocolate

60g good quality dark chocolate

1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the icing:

110g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

75g good quality white chocolate

75g good quality dark chocolate

Milk, to loosen icing if necessary

1 For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line 14 tin holes with cupcakes cases. Cream the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg to the mix a little at a time, alternating with a spoon of flour to prevent the mix from curdling. Add any remaining flour before mixing thoroughly and dividing the better into two bowls. 

2 Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the water beneath doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Once melted, combine with the batter in one of the bowls. Repeat with the dark chocolate and combine with the batter in the other bowl. 

3 Spoon a small amount of dark chocolate batter into each cupcake case. Add a small amount of white chocolate batter to each case. Repeat like this until all the batter has been used. Using a skewer, swirl the batter in each cupcake case to create the marbled effect. Bake for 30 minutes, or until risen and a skewer comes away clean when inserted. Leave to cool. 

4 For the icing: Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Divide the buttercream into two bowls. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the water beneath doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Once melted, combine with the buttercream in one of the bowls. Repeat with the dark chocolate and combine with the buttercream in the other bowl. Add the cocoa powder to the dark chocolate buttercream and mix thoroughly. If the either of the buttercream mixes feels too thick, loosen with a splash of milk or cream. 

5 With a piping bag laid flat on a work surface, fill the bottom half with the white chocolate buttercream and the top half with the dark chocolate buttercream before piping a marbled swirled top to your cool cupcakes.

Love Becci xx

[Source: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/655190]

Winter is Coming!

As the title suggests, it's getting fricken cold!

Summer is well and truely over.. It went quicker than cake at a birthday party - which if I'm there will go pretty damn fast! 

Yum Yum :P

Anyway I thought I'd write a wee blog about my favourite winter coats and jackets which I really need so if you have any other suggestions let me know! :S

There are like a gazillion that I want but these are my top picks:

New Look

Boohoo.com

Missguided

Next

Topshop

Think I'm gonna stop there.. Just depressing myself that I will probs be only able to afford one or maybe two of these #studentproblems :( so sad!

As you can see, I'm obsessing over duster coats.. need on asap! 

Love these patterned (mostly check/plaid) and colourful coats.. Who said winter had to be boring and dull?!

Love Becci xx

Camping on Rathlin Island

Recently, I went camping with my boyfriend and a few of our friends to a place called Rathlin Island which is like a 30 minute drive from where I live and then another 25 minutes on a ferry (that's the quick one too!) on top of that! It was quite a wee distance just to go camping I thought.

As I have previously never visited the island, I had made an assumption based on other people's view of it.. 

i.e. it was wet, cold and there wasn't much to do :S

Not ideal for me!

I really wasn't looking forward to this especially as the weather had been terrible at home :( However I powered on and decided to go..

Well everyone was right.. It was cold and it was wet (only once though) and there was nothing to do but oh my goodness the craic was amazing and the scenery even better! :)

We got the campfire going and the tents up.. it was a lovely change - peaceful and beautiful. Not great signal for mobiles so everyone was actually being social which nowadays makes such a change. 

There was a chippy called Emma's Chip Ahoy which was delish.. so if you ever go, head there for some yummy goujons! Also a bar/restaurant, plenty of hostels and b&b's to stay in, an outdoor gym and playground and beautiful walks along the pebble beach coastline.

While we were there we went rock climbing which was a bit scary at times but really good fun.. Got to see the seals up close and personal! ;) But our main activity was just sitting looking out at the beautiful views with great company and a wee sneaky drink too!

I took so many photos while we were there (all of the pictures on this blog are my own!) I had to hike to the toilets a lot on my own so it passed the time on the long walk but also made it 10 times longer haha.

I'm actually quite proud of them since they were only taken with my Galaxy S3 :) no snazzy cameras!

Some of the clouds are amazing!

Let me know whatcha think of my photos :)

Love Becci xx