Soph Lou's: lifestyle

Bedroom Revamp

Friday, May 20, 2016

VANILLA OREO SURPRISE CUPCAKES

Saturday, December 05, 2015

Its been ages since I wrote a blog post as its been manic here with work and getting prepared for our first Craft / Christmas fair this Sunday! I haven't had time to sit and write a blog post but I did manage to take an hour out to bake some cupcakes. I had fantastic feedback from you all on my last baking post which where my first ever cupcakes so I decided to blog all about these beauties also as they tasted soooo much better than my first batch. I used Carina Stewart's Recipe and YouTube video for my vanilla cupcakes and butter cream, but switched it up a little by adding a surprise Oreo Layer and Oreo Butter cream. If you haven't subscribed to Carina's Channel, I highly recommend you do as she posts the most amazing recipe's on there!

Carina's RECIPE

125g / 1/2 Cup Butter

170g / 3/4 Cup Caster Sugar

5ml / 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

2 Eggs

190g / 1 1/2 Cups Standard Flour

5ml / 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

2ml / 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

125ml / 1/2 Cup Milk

First thing I did was mix all my dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl with my electric hand mixer and then added in my 2 eggs and vanilla extract.

I didn't want to over mix my cake batter as I think this is what I did on my first cupcakes a few weeks ago and it makes them very thick and stodgy. I kept this batter light fluffy and airy.

I then placed an Oreo at the bottom of my cake cases and then added around 2 heaped table spoons each of my cake mix on top of the Oreo's so that they where covered. Once the cupcakes are baked this will create the hidden surprise Oreo at the bottom.

Carina's Buttercream Recipe

250g / 1 Cup Butter ( I only uses 125g Butter)

375g 3 Cups Icing Sugar

30ml / 2 Tablespoons Milk

The last time(my first time) I made butter cream icing it was lovely but tasted a overly buttery so not what butter cream was supposed to taste like so this time I halved my butter grams from 250g to 125g and it tasted much more like actual butter cream. Last time I also didnt beat my butter before adding the icing sugar which takes a lot of the yellow colour out of the butter so I made sure I didn't miss this step this time.

I then added my 3 cups of Icing super to my butter and mixed until creamy and light in colour. I also mixed in 2 tbs of milk just to make the consistency a little less thick so that it would be perfect for icing. It tasted amazing as I couldn't resist having a taste and I was much more impressed with this butter cream than my on last cupcakes.

I then crushed up around 5-6 Oreo's into my Butter cream mix with a fork and then mixed it a little with my electric hand mixer. I didn't want to over crush or mix the Oreo's as I wanted some quite chunky Oreo pieces in my icing.

The cupcakes baked really well at 180 degrees for 18 minutes, They were a little over brown on the tops as my halogen oven is a little dodge when it comes to baking and I haven't quite figured out yet if I should bake them at a lower temp for longer to avoid burning them.

And then...My Tala professional Icing bag split on me which was so frustrating as I had so many plans for my Icing on these Oreo Cupcakes. I had to then just spoon on my icing and make them look semi ok with a knife but I think they looked OK! Not brilliant but next time I will Ice them properly as I now have a new and improved replacement Tala Icing bag.

I placed half an Oreo in the top of each of my cupcakes which I thought just finished them off nicely and tied in all the Oreo'ness in these cupcakes. I couldn't wait to present them to Craig who was eagerly waiting for them in the living room :)

They tasted amazing and I was so pleased when I cut them in half to find the hidden Oreo at the bottom of the cupcakes perfectly baked into each cupcake.

I absolutely loved making these Cupcakes and even though my icing bag spit and made things very awkward, they really didn't take me very long to make at all. I think this is a super quick delicious recipe for everyone to enjoy making and eating.

Let me know in the comments below what you think of my 2nd attempt at baking cupcakes and also what your favourite cupcake flavours are as Id love to experiment some more with flavours...

beauty

OLE HENRIKSEN 3 LITTLE WONDERS SKINCARE

Saturday, December 05, 2015

This time of year my skin starts to get so dry and flaky which is so annoying. I was sent this fab little set by Ole Henrikson called the 3 little wonders mini collection which is supposed to be used for 7 days to transform your skin! I review a lot of skincare so I didn't think my skin would be 'transformed' but it literally has never looked better since using these products! I hadn't heard of Ole Henriksen before I received this set so I researched it straight away and it has rave reviews online but it doesn't come cheap!

More about Ole Henriksen

''Danish born Ole Henriksen developed his retail line expanding on his successful spa business which has been servicing the LA skin care scene for 3 decades, with clients such as Renee Zellweger, Jessica Alba, Kylie Minogue & Hugh Jackman.

Ole Henriksen products are designed to be simple, effective and safe for all skin types. Nature's most active extracts are infused into every Ole Henriksen formulation, impacting skin's renewing powers in a most positive manner, and finding a solution for those with difficult skin conditions, or for those who just want to treat their skin to nature's helping hand!

This mini set is available on Escentual.com and is £18 for just the mini sets so more of a high end budget than drug store but I certainly think the products are worth that for a trial run as my skin hasnt felt this fantastic in ages! Its so clear and glowing and its definitely brightened and evened out my skin tone significantly in only one week.

The gift set includes:

truth serum collagen booster 9.76ml: the vitamin C rich serum boosts collagen production and restores radiance back to the complexion.This product smells amazing for a start which I love as it makes application so much more luxurious with such a sweet citrus scent. It sinks into my skin really quickly and doesn't leave my skin feeling tacky at all. Its a really fresh product to use after cleansing!

Invigorating Night Treatment 7g: the overnight resurfacing gel dramatically improves the texture of your skin, helping to reduce the appearance of dark spots and smooth fine lines and wrinkles. This stuff is so nice! It feels like such a nice consistency when your applying it to your skin and after around 5 minutes you can feel it tightening your skin and under eye area which I love as I've been getting so little sleep lately that my under eyes need that little extra boost.

sheer transformation 7g: an everyday oil-free moisturiser that works to improve the skin’s tone and texture whilst helping to reduce the appearance of dark spots. This light moisturiser is perfect for my skin and for under my makeup. I apply this after the serum in the mornings and as its oil free it feels amazing as a base for my foundation.

After using these products for around 2 weeks now I couldn't even say I had Normal/Dry skin type at the moment as its more on the hydrated/normal type which is lovely going into Winter without my usual dry skin around my nose and forehead.

Its so annoying that I LOVE these products as they are expensive to repurchase the full size but I think I may have to treat myself at Christmas to them as they have impressed me that much!!

Have you tried any Ole Henriksen Products? Let me know in the comments below...

Cat

PURRFECT BOX REVIEW | SEPTEMBER 2015

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Last months Purrfect box was jam packed with amazing products and treats for out cats to enjoy and I think they would say that it was their best one yet! With gorgeous treats to fun cat toys, they have loved every inch of the purrfectbox literally, even the box was super fun!

This box contained chew sticks, salmon bites, catnip pillow, water bowl,catnip mice treat toys, and a super fun motored snake which they love to chase around the living room!

This Purrfect box couldn't have arrived at a better time, we had noticed that our water bowls for our cats needed refilling a lot more frequently this past few months and this clever water bowl was just what we all needed! It's basically a large water container attached to your water bowl so that the cats water lasts a lot longer than a regular sized water bowl. We fill it up to the maximum and the it lasts around 2-3 days perhaps longer but we change it regularly so its fresher for the cats. It would be perfect if you were away for the weekend and didn't want your cats to run out of water or dry cat food as it can be used for food also! We couldn't use it for food as our cats would just sit at the bowl all day and night until it was empty!

Catnip toys are always so much fun as our cats especially go wild got the scent! This little orange mouse print cushion is so well made and filled with catnip so as you can image it was getting thrown around like crazy by our two maniac cats!

Jodie of course fell TOTALLY in love with the cardboard box and decided to curl up inside it as that's what she loves most about the purrfectbox, after a nice treat and a run about it was time for a chill!

What I loved most about this box is that the inside was illustrated with all lovely pet drawings and fun words! I love Illustration anyway as you may know but this was just a cool added feature to this box which we have kept as the cats love sitting in it and I love the drawings!

Purrfect box's are a fantastic way of treating your pets and our cats for sure can recognise when the post man delivers these boxes. They get so exited to open them and always adore whatever is inside.

You can subscribe to Purrfect box here and this is not an affiliate link! I'm not being paid of sponsored by purrfectbox to feature their boxes, they simply send them to me for review and because they are so amazing I always have to share with my readers!!

Treat your cat or dog this winter to a purrfect box or pawsome box subscription!

*This post contains items sent for consideration of review.

baking

FERRERO ROCHER VANILLA CUPCAKES

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Okay so a completely different style of post from me today but I've recently started baking and thought I'd do a blog post all about my first cupcakes. I wasn't sure whether to put this post live or not as they don't look great but i figured in a few months time when I'm hopefully better at cupcake making i can look back and be proud of how far Ive come from these and probs LOL at them!

Ingredients to make 12 large cupcakes-

190g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

115g butter softened

200g caster sugar

2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 large eggs , lightly beaten

125ml milk

Pink food colouring

These cupcakes are super easy to make and it really is a case of mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl to create the cake mix and deciding the mixture into paper cake cases. I made 12 with this recipe and they where pretty big cupcakes!

Once my eggs,flour,baking powder,salt,butter,Vanilla extract and caster sugar where all mixed together using my hand mixer, I then added the food colouring to make the cake mix pink. I think I would skip this step next time as it didn't really go that pink so it was a little pointless unless I perhaps use a paste food colouring as the liquid ones aren't as pigmented.

I then spooned out a little cake mix in each cake case and then placed a Ferrero Richer in the centre of the cupcake mix. Id seen this on Pinterest and just knew i had to try it in my first cupcakes.

I then continued to spoon into the cases the rest of the cake mix and Baked them in my halogen oven for 15 minutes at 180°C. I think next time i will bake them at a lower heat for longer as the halogen oven very nearly burnt the top of the cupcakes but the inside was light and fluffy!

Ingredients to make Butter cream frosting-

115g butter ,softened

250g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Blue food colouring

The butter cream icing again was really easy to make, just combine all the ingredients again in a bowl with my hand mixer and once it's well combined and smooth its ready to out into the piping bag. I found that 250g of icing sugar wasn't enough to balance out the buttery taste so I added around 120g extra icing sugar to my mix to achieve the perfect butter cream icing.

I used my Tala piping bag with my large star nozzle and attempted a standard cupcake swirl in a few and a rose effect on the others which didn't turn out perfect but its all good practise and I didn't expect to be pro icer first time.

The inside of the cupcakes was so tasty with the Ferrero Rocker melting in the middle and the fluffy cupcake middle. The icing was rich and buttery but as I said I will probably cut down the 115g butter to 90g butter to 250g icing sugar next time as it was far too buttery tasting before I added more icing sugar.

These cupcakes tasted loads better than they look but I don't mind too much as they where my first ones and I'm hoping to get 100% better with some more practise.

They only took me around an hour and 20 mins but this time could have been halved if I could fit more cupcakes into my halogen oven. I enjoyed making them and have learnt so much from watching YouTube videos on icing and cake making so I can't wait to share my baking progress with you all!

I hope you all enjoyed my first cupcake baking post, let me know in the comments what your favourite cupcake flavours are or your favourite baking recipes?

beauty

MR.BLANC TEETH WHITENING STRIPS REVIEW

Thursday, October 08, 2015

I'm sure you have all heard of and seen all the hype around the Mr.Blanc Professional Teeth Whitening strips which are constantly being endorsed by celebrities all over Instagram, so I bet your all wondering if they are worth the hype?

HELL YES! They are amazing! Ive used a load of teeth whitening products over the years and nothing has been as quick and easy to use with the phenomenal results as these Mr.Blanc Strips.

They come in a little box containing either a 2,4 or 6 week supply of teeth whitening strips which are all individually packaged. I was sent the 2 week supply but I haven't used them on a daily basis. I tried them out a few weeks ago as a one off for 30 minutes and I was so pleased with the results that I didn't follow up the with the daily strips. Ive left it a few weeks and used another set of strips and I just need to tell you all about these AMAZING teeth whitening strips.

They are so easy to apply, you just peel the top and bottom strips off of the backing paper and place them on your teeth. Sit and watch an episode of your favourite 30 minute TV show then simply remove the strips, brush your teeth and your done! My teeth and my fiance's look instantly and noticeably whiter with one application. I just do not know how they work so well!

As the Mr.Blanc strips don't have any peroxide in them they are enamel safe and don't make my teeth sensitive which is a plus as my teeth are super sensitive most of the time and with these they are fine!

In the last 2 months, My fiance and I have only used 2 strips each and the results are just fantastic! I cannot imagine how white they would be if we did use them on a daily basis for a whole 2 weeks, they really would look like we had spent hundreds to achieve the Hollywood smile at the dentist! We saw our families over the weekend for my Birthday and everyone noticed how white our teeth where! My mum commented straight away on how white they where and I hadn't even mentioned that I had whitened my teeth so that was nice to hear a compliment on them AND Craig's sister commented and asked us what we where using as they looked so much whiter than normal.

The images below aren't the best representation of just how much whiter my teeth are after just once strip as flash on the camera always makes everything look worse but take my word for it, in real life they are much much whiter! You can tell better from the bottom right image without flash on the camera after just one strip that the stains in between my teeth are less yellow and my teeth as a whole are much brighter. And my teeth also look a lot whiter on my latest YouTube video which you can check out here.

I did think that all the hype was due to people being sponsored to talk about them and being sent them for free but they really are and I'm being 100% when I say they are a fantastic product which I highly recommend to everyone. I was sent these to review but If I don't think a product is amazing, I either don't waste my time reviewing it or I state how rubbish it is and these are far from it! I'm also a avid tea and coffee drinker as my readers will know from all my previous reviews and these strips totally brightened my teeth and removed any stains I had on my teeth.

If your feeling less confident with your smile and would like an instantly whiter smile without braking the bank, I think for £19.99 for a 2 week supply ( mine has lasted me longer as stated above ) these are fantastic and the best teeth whitening product I've ever used by far!

Let me know if you have tried these Mr.Blanc Strips and what your thoughts are on them in the comments below...