MA Fashion Exhibition

So after really neglecting everything that isn't my MA for the last year I have finally finished. Hopefully this means I can settle into a nice job in a marketing agency or with an in house team that will let me be creative and, most of all, will help me to learn more and hone my craft. Fingers crossed.

To celebrate the MA Fashion Department is hosting a private view of our exhibition tomorrow from 5-7pm in the PR1 gallery on the ground floor of UCLan's Victoria Building. As I now live 100 miles away I have sadly had nothing to do with the organisation but I am hoping for drinks, nibbles and lots of banter with our guests. If anyone is in Preston you should nip and and say hello, the more the merrier. Here's what you'll see if you do...

Open publication - Free publishing

Malteaser Cupcake Recipe

My 'little' sister has just turned 13 and last week she started high school...we have a middle school here hence her not having gone at 11. It seems like she is growing up really quickly but despite the stroppiess and constant texting that comes with being a teenager she still wanted specially made cakes for her birthday. Malteaser cupcakes to be specific, so I enlisted a recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book and got to work.

I got the book a few months ago and I really like it. The recipes are accessible, different and look amazing. The photographs in the book are fabulous and I love that it is set into occasions working from Valentines Day right through to Christmas, incorporating fruits such as raspberries and blood oranges according to season. I tried their basic vanilla cupcakes first and the cakes were beautifully light but I used my own buttercream recipe as 500g of icing sugar seemed a bit excessive. I plan on trying many more and will let you know how my first whoopie pies go when I finally get round to it. In the meantime, you should definitely try these... and let me know how it goes if you do!

Malted Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12-16

Ingredients for the sponge:

• 150ml sunflower oil
• 75ml whole milk
• 75ml buttermilk (I actually couldn't find buttermilk in my local supermarket so I followed these instructions and mixed up a substitute using lemon juice.)
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 240g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 330g caster sugar
• 150ml boiling water

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 200g dark chocolate chips - minimum 70% cocoa solids (I chopped up a bar of Green and Blacks)
• 240ml double cream
• 115g malted-milk powder (When I opened our Horlicks it had set rock solid so I used Ovaltine instead, which had some cocoa powder in it too.)
• 50g full fat cream cheese
• 35g caster sugar
• 36-48 Malteasers to decorate (I brought a sharing bag and had some spare too. I normally gobble up Malteasers so fast I have no clue how many is in a bag.)

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C/gas mark 5, and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Using an electric whisk beat together the oil with the milk, buttermilk, egg and vanilla essence on low speed until well blended. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, then stir in the sugar. Add a third of the boiling water, followed by another third of dry ingredients to the oil and milk mixture and beat slowly until evenly incorporated.

3. Beat in a third of the boiling water, followed by another third of the dry ingredients then repeat with the remaining ingredients, mixing together until they are all combined. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition, to ensure well-mixed batter. (I didn't read this properly, their instructions can be a bit lengthy - I like short and snappy - so I ended up pouring the boiling water in after all the dry ingredients. Still tasted good though.)

4. Divide the mixture between the paper cases, filling each by two thirds. Any remaining batter can be used to fill one to four more cases in a separate tin. Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until springy to the touch. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, place the chocolate chips in a bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water to melt, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

6. Meanwhile, using the electric whisk, whip the cream with the malted milk powder until it forms soft peaks. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese with the caster sugar until combined, then add the cooled chocolate and mix again.

7. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, adding half the whipped cream at a time. Divide the frosting between the cupcakes, smoothing and swirling with a palette knife, then decorate each cupcake with 3 Malteasers. (I almost wished I'd crushed them and sprinkled to add to the Malteaser taste overall but they were divine none the less and looked pretty all arranged on top.)

Voila.

Autumn/Winter Style in Fused Student Guide 2011

For the second year on the trot (which is nice because it gives the impression it went down well last time) I have compiled the autumn/winter style pages for Fused's annual Student Guide, which has been transferred to their pocket sized Area format.  So, I suppose, it's now Area's Student Guide but it is as awesome as always.

You can find it here or embedded below (p14 - 19) but you should read the rest as well.  I particularly like 'How to Get Laid on the Cheap' (p34) and 'The Carpels' Guide to Birmingham Music' (p58).

Open publication - Free publishing - More fused

The End of Summer

I think it's fair to say that summer is officially on the way out, which is a shame as it always seems to be when I'm happiest and I feel like I've spent most of it doing work for my MA.  However, I have also done other things...I've been to Portugal, I've been to Wales where the boy tour me on a tour of many many castles (my favourite was Pehrhyn), I've baked A LOT, drank copious amounts of red wine, I've done some writing for Fused, prepared their AW Fashion Guide, wrote a short story for Cellardoor's wonderful End of Summer Issue (p84), got my little sister prepared for high school and waved the boy off to live bloody miles away.  Oh and I've more or less finished my MA.  It's been a busy one.

Barmouth Beach

View from the Caravan

We may complain about British summers but even when it's pouring it down a 99 from the ice-cream man and chips on the beach front make me reminiscent of summers when I was younger.  As a young girl I spent many summers in a caravan/apartment/posh hotel depending on our finances at the time but to me it didn't matter where we were.  I once adopted a seagull who I called Sammy, I fed him every day whilst we were away with my aunties and cousins and every one.  I only realised this year whilst telling the boy that story that Sammy was probably multiple seagulls.  Naive I know, but it shows how much I believed in the magic of summer - as a tiny girl I had a pet seagull.  So don't give up on British summers - they may be shorter, come at strange times of the year and be largely interspersed by rain but they're our summers.  Make sure you make the most of them.

My mother and I, Newquay, aged 2. 

Tom Hussey: Reflections

Lately my wonderful mother has started reflecting on her age.  At 46 and with 4 children she obviously doesn't look how she did when she was 18 but she has always been an inspiration to me.  At 18 she was a size 8, now she's a size 18 and she is still confident about her body.  In fact, she affectionately refers to her stomach as jelly belly, giving it a little wobble and laughing.  After all, it's from their that her wonderful children came.  (Yep, that includes me.)

Recently her aunt died and she admitted she was glad her mother had died in her early 70's.  My nan's sisters have suffered from dementia and the thought of seeing her own mother like that worried her.  Well of course now it's worrying me, genetic factors only cause the disease in a very small number of families but what if mine is one of them?

Tom Hussey's award 'Reflections' is an advertising campaign for Novartis' Exelon Patch, a prescription medicine for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s dementia.  The images depict an older person looking at the reflection of their younger self in a mirror.  The campaign is innovative, eye-catching and really reminds you that we all go through the same thing and deserve just as much care and consideration, no matter our age and condition.  See all the images from the campaign here.

Raspberry and Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

The raspberry portion of the Graduation Cakes went down best with everyone but my little siblings...but I expected that and it's exactly why I made some chocolate fudge cakes too.  The recipe was an adaptation of the Bling and Buy recipe found in the Cupcakes and Muffins book.  Not surprisingly, I didn't think the boy would appreciate cupcakes decorated with jelly rings and icing handbags. In fact, I'd have completely skipped over the recipe for myself if I hadn't noticed the use of raspberries.  They were light, moist and really really easy.

Raspberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 175 g/6 oz softened butter or margarine
• 200 g/7 oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 150 g/5 1/2 oz raspberries
• 225 g/8 oz self-raising flour
• To decorate I used one quantity of buttercream, for which you can find various recipes online and in basically every baking book there is, and added 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4.

2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with 10 paper cases. (I actually got 14 cakes from this recipe and used 12 silicone cases and 2 paper cases.)

3. Place the butter an sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. (I'll be honest, I forgot to add vanilla extract to the cake mix but the flavouring in the buttercream and the raspberry flavour in the cake meant you didn't really notice.)

4. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold the raspberries and flour into the mixture. (The raspberries will break up slightly but that's ok, just be careful to ensure some raspberries remain whole as they taste great when you discover them in the middle of the cupcakes.)

5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases. (I tried to make sure the raspberries weren't all at the bottom but spooning the mixture into the cases in various stages.)

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.

7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

8. To decorate, mix up a batch of vanilla buttercream and pipe onto the cupcakes using a star nozzle.  Add sweets/other decorative aspects as required.  Whilst the recipe suggests handbags, shoes and jelly rings, accessorised with those little silver decorating balls, I opted to use the extra raspberries and giant chocolate buttons.

Some Day, But Not Today...

I talk a lot about becoming old, which I am aware may seem crazy as I am only 23, but I'm beginning to think it's not my fault.  It's not some mad insecurity of mine it is the pressures of society dammit.  Or something like that anyway. It's definitely people trying to rush me.  They keep asking me questions about me, about my life, what I want to do with it, who I want to do it with.  And when.  I don't know.

It all started back at university when someone asked what I wanted to do as a career.  I didn't know.  Three years later I still don't know because I want to do everything: PR, marketing, journalism, art direction, social media consultancy.... all of those would be great.  What I dream of though is being a novelist.  I want to write.  More than anything I want to huddle down in a house in the middle of the woods, next to a lake and not too far from the beach and I want to write a story.

It will be one of those epic stories that will be so amazing it will never win awards, people won't understand it, but it will lead to the odd fan letter telling me I am a genius and that I summed up their entire being within the pages, albeit probably virtual pages as by the time I finish it print will have almost died and nobody will want my book enough to get it printed on demand.  (And yes, on demand printing is a thing.  Blackwells have a massive vending machine for it and everything.)

That or it will be a really girly, chick lit type novel that will over exaggerate my love life into one amusing tale.  Not quite genius but it'll be a novel and it will be mine.  Either way, this is apparently not an appropriate career choice if I want to eat and actually able to afford to live in that house in the middle of the woods.

Lately however, the questions my family like to pose to me have upped their ante.  At the last family party my idiot uncle said "isn't it about time you pop out a few kids?" Erm, no.  No it isn't.  Then whilst baking chocolate fudge cupcakes together my little sister (age six) mumbles "when are you getting married?"  She was awfully quiet and shy, very unlike her, and didn't even raise her head to look at me instead choosing to maintain eye contact with the chocolate and butter mixture that was melting in the pan as she stirred it.  This is all down to my mothers previous comment:  "We thought you and the boy might get engaged in Portugal."

I've assured my mother she is crazy.  Sadly, my poor sister had taken this to mean that some time soon she would get to be bridesmaid, hence the shyness.  I assured her that of course she could be a bridesmaid but she would probably more like 16 than six when that happened.  She'll be even older when she becomes an aunt.  In fact, that may never happen.  Channel 4 has managed to scare the crap out of me with shows like Emergency in the Womb and One Born Every Minute.

So forgive me as I freak out a little at the thought of my other sister going to high school in September, of two best friends buying a house together and talking about having kids there, or the fact people keep telling myself that if you can't see the rest of your life with someone what's the point in being with them at all.

I know I don't need to feel rushed.  Fingers crossed I have plenty of time.  Sometimes it just gets a bit much so, throw me a stick and remind me I'm not the only one that has their feet firmly planted in the 'some day, but not today' field of thinking.  Oh, and remind me to actually sit down and finish writing that novel in the not too distant.  Even if it is chick lit and is written in my teenage bedroom at my fathers house rather than that beautiful house in the woods.  I will do it.  Some day.