Chunky Chocolate, Banana and PB Muffins

This was bit of an experiment that I hoped would turn out fluffy little cupcakes - but the ripe banana, thick peanut butter, plus a generous helping of chocolate pieces weighed down the cake-mix, and they ended up being gorgeously chunky little muffins. 

Because of their moist muffin-osity, packed with all the 'good-for-you' deliciousness of banana and peanut butter, I think you could just about get away (as I did!) with serving these up for brunch on a lazy weekend.

I couldn't resist topping a few of mine with peanut butter and chocolate frosting and banana chips - possibly a bit too rich for breakfast, but they were (as Mary Berry might say) absolutely scrummy! 

Spiced Chocolate Brownies

I was craving something pretty specific yesterday - I needed to reward myself with something sweet and naughty to break up the monotony of revision, but it really had to be something rich and with a bit of bite, rather than the usual light, spongy goodness I tend to go for. And of course, because of my impending deadlines and impatient nature, it had to be relatively quick and easy to make... Brownies were the obvious solution!

Coconut Cupcakes

I've just started exam revision properly, and all I can think about is cooking lovely things! Food is such a distraction for me! I recently made some pretty good gluten- and dairy-free coconut cupcakes, so I thought I'd post the recipe on here, as a little break from my hard work...

Clinique Foundation Review

Following my earlier post about the Clinique 5-day foundation trial, I have given my 3 sample pots of foundation a whirl, and written a little review on them! 

I tried each foundation for 3 consecutive days, no powder, using the same skin-care products - Clinique's foaming cleanser, no. 4 Clarifying Lotion and an oil-free moisturiser - on each day, for an unbiased result (well, you can take a girl out of Biosciences...) These are my thoughts on them:

Gluten & Lactose-free ‘Pizza’

I had a go at making the Nouvelle Daily gluten-free ‘pizza’ - with great success! I was a bit sceptical about the cauliflower base, but actually it was really nice and didn’t taste over-poweringly of cauliflower. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly or precisely measure anything out (I’m not great at doing that!) but it turned out just fine. And pretty healthy too!

Pictured: Nouvelle Daily's delicious gluten-free pizza

Clinique Foundation - Free 5-Day Trial

My skin is far from perfect - I'm prone to oiliness and occasional breakouts (especially when I'm stressed!) as well as suffering from dehydration, (I sound so attractive...) and I've never quite managed to discover the perfect skincare regime or makeup for me. When I discovered Clinique was offering a free 5-day trial of their foundations I decided to give it a go, and use the opportunity to attempt my first beauty post!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Latte Frosting

It was my mums birthday back in February but I had a few scarily close deadlines for training contract applications and coursework, so I made and iced these cakes in advance, and froze them so they kept - they freeze absolutely fine, and my mum loved them - apparently my best baking so far!

I adapted Nigella Lawson's gluten-free vanilla cupcake recipe.

She specified using 110g Dove Farm Gluten free self raising flour, however I realised after setting up and weighing out part of the ingredients, that I had barely any gluten free flour mix left… so after success with using ground almonds in cake mixtures previously, I decided to improvise with the ingredients in my baking cupboard. the cakes turned out fantastically well, with a deliciously rich vanilla flavour, and a moist, open crumb texture.