Nailzzzzz

I haven't posted for a looooooong time and so this is just to fill the gap a little.

It is simply photos of my nail art, a lot of which is inspired by WAH Nails, my nail heroes. I have only been to their salon a couple of times, their is only so much nail pampering a jobless 24 year old can afford. So I follow the updates on their website closely and attempt to re-create my favourite designs and gather inspiration for new ones!

So here are a few examples...

Hearts and polka dots for my 4 year old niece Niamh.

Fruity fimo.

Mint and pink fimo bows.

Nudey diamonds.

Skull Hate.

Heart Love.

Stripy diamonds.

Tropical camoflague, for all your Copacabana covert operations.

Drippy Drop.

Lemon and pastel Union Jack, for a right royal wedding.

Banana-rama, to suit my yellow obsession.

Mint and peach, delicious.

Bisous bisous xxx

Daring Bakers Interesting Loaf

Late again!

So I've missed the release date by 4 days and they'll have probably kicked me out by now. But here is my effort at this month's Daring Bakers Challenge.

This month's challenge was set by Jamie of Life’s a Feast and Ria of Ria’s Collection and it was to bake a Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. Tricky for a vegan baker!

I would have normally just used a basic sweet bread dough recipe, but I found in the Daring Kitchen forums a post from a fellow vegan baker with their recipe for this month's challenge. The dough used tofu in it's recipe and as I'd never tried this before I thought I'd give it a go. You'll have to wait until the end to see the results...but I wasn't too keen!

This is the recipe and instructions for the tofu dough…

1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 TBS 110-115˚ water
2 c. + 3 TBS unbleached flour
1/4 c. almond meal
2 TBS cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 c. non-dairy milk
1/4 c. vegan butter, melted
1/4 c. + 2 TBS silken tofu (Mori-Nu brand only)

Lightly oil a medium-sized bowl; set aside. Combine yeast and water; let sit for 15 minutes (or until foamy). In a large bowl, combine flour, almond meal, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Create a well in the center and pour in milk, butter, tofu and yeast; mix thoroughly. Once combined, knead for 2-3 minutes. Place dough in prepared bowl and cover with a damp towel; keep in a warm place for 60 minutes to rise.

*

What struck me first about this recipe was the very small amount of water that was called for to activate the yeast in. But I thought "Hey, if it worked for her I'll give it a go!"

It didn't work for me.

Mix that dough, tofu dough.

Yummy vegan ingredients ;)

For this challenge I also attempted to make a marshmallow fluff to use inside the cake. For this I got out my giant tube of VersaWhip and put to use a recipe I had found here. Yummy!

The hand whisk was out, the marshmallow was fluffing and everything was as it should be.

But my dough didn't rise.

Fluff!

My (unrisen) dough is rolled out into a rectangle ready to receive upon it yummy

vegan delights.

Marshmallow Fluff…

…chocolate chips, chopped pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and vanilla sugar!

It's then all rolled up into a delicious vegan log...

…made into a ring and snip snip snipped.

The ring was then left for an hour in the hope that it would rise again. But all the waiting was in vain, nothing rose!

So in the oven it went at 175℃ for 25 minutes, and there was no rising to be had.

A squashed snipped tyre that I found.

So in conclusion…

• the dough did not rise, not one little bit
• the marshmallow fluff was tasty pre-cooking but seemed to melt away in the oven
• the cake was compact and had a texture similar to that of a cake that had been flattened and then cooked again

(I made a jammy fruity version too which tasted a lot nicer but still had the squashed texture!)

Do try the marshmallow fluff, don't try the dough ☠

Bisous bisous xxx

Lu Flux Final Images

This week I got out my mega tub of VersaWhip and had a go at some recipes I'd found online. I also managed to complete the Daring Bakers challenge way ahead of time, so it's just fingers crossed that I remember to post it on the right day!

I'm just sorting out the VersaWhip photos, so here are the final images from the Lu Flux shoot that I worked on a few months ago.

I really love them, they are so pretty and Harriet (the model) looks beautiful. It was such a nice relaxed day, despite the freezing cold weather and everyone worked really well together. Enjoy :)

Styling, Concept and Direction: Sophie Surridge

Photography: Melodie Roulaud

Make Up: Me

Hair: Su Jin Jung

Model: Harriet Tebbutt

Bisous bisous xxx

Mixed Up Tart

A while back The Daring Bakers challenge was to bake a crostata. At the time I made two with different fillings but only posted one with an apple filling on my blog.

I also made a crostata with couscous cream, bananas and chocolate, this is it's story…

The pastafrolla recipe and directions are exactly the same as those for the apple crostata, but the fillings were an experiment.

I had read somewhere that if you cook couscous and make it into a creamy custard paste then the texture is very similar to the set custard that you would find in a sweet tart. And with couscous being one of my favourite foods I thought I'd give it a go.

So I set my couscous to boil. I sweetened the water slightly and dropped in some lemon rind in the hope of infusing the couscous with a sweeter, dessert appropriate taste.

The best way to get a sticky soft couscous is simply to overcook it, this will

help to make a smooth and silky 'custard'.

Next I pushed and poked and pressed the cooked couscous through a fine sieve. I did

this a couple of times to make sure that the mixture was smooth and lump free.

This sticky mess then went into a saucepan with half a carton of Oatly cream, vanilla seeds and sugar

and then slowly heated until the 'custard' reduced down and became a nice thick creamy texture.

And then into the pastfrolla cases…

Slices of fresh banana on top…

Then lots of melted chocolate and a pecan, just for the look of it!

Conclusion:

A rather strange mix of flavours since I didn't think it through and just made it up as I went along, a dangerous past time. The dark chocolate and lemon flavour in the pastafrolla and couscous didn't really blend together very well, I had hoped that the freshness of the lemon would nicely cut through the rich chocolate. This was not so, it resulted in a strange strange taste.

The couscous cream had a very good set custard texture, squishy and thick. I think that coconut cream would probably be a better substitute for the Oatly, it has a richer and fattier texture, and next time I'll leave out the lemon!

I wouldn't make a tart with the same flavour combinations again (who would?!), but I will definitely take the couscous cream idea and run with it, I think it would probably work well sandwiched between two perfect macaron shells, *sigh*.

Something I just found out, dolphins sleep by resting half of their brain at a time. This allows them to keep one eye open and surface for air! Well I never!

Bisous bisous xxx

Pug Love

I recently returned from a month in Thailand (hence the lack of posts) and firstly, I'm amazed that I haven't been kicked out of The Daring Kitchen for missing the challenges while I was away, and secondly, looking forward to me and my boyfriend getting own own place this year and filling it with rescue doggies.

I'm a fan of the smaller, baby size, can fit in a pram, cuddle in bed breeds, while my boyfriend's ideal dog would be a giant bear pretending to be a dog.

Being both vegetarian/vegan and very concerned about animal rights we decided long ago that we would never pay a breeder for a pup. Pure bred dogs are rented out (like little male escorts) for studding and both the bitch and dog are selected for certain traits that HUMANS like, but the genes that produce aesthetically pleasing little pure breed puppies, more often than not, carry mutilating, disabling conditions too. For example, the gene that creates the perfect spotting on a Dalmatian also causes deafness.

And those gorgeous snuffling little pugs that frolic in my dreams suffer from dislocating knees, collapsed nostrils, breathing problems and blindness.

So since I will never buy a dog from a breeder I am looking to rescue one and am just hoping that a little Pug called Gary will come my way.

And in the meantime, I entertain myself with Pug paraphernalia…

Vegan Pug Cupcakes

Design idea taken from Hello Cupcake and 'veganised' accordingly :)

To decorate my cupcakes I used American Betty Crocker vanilla icing which I coloured,

red Starburst for the tongues,

Sainsbury's own brand chocolate decorating beans for the eyes,

and because I didn't have anything black for the nose I used a Tic Tac and coloured it in!

The ears are made out of grease proof paper, maybe next time I can colour a Starburst brown!

'Pugs not Drugs' Hummingbird cake

I adapted a recipe from The Hummingbird cook book for this homage to Pugs.

The recipe is for a Hummingbird cake, which is now officially my favourite cake (just above carrot and banana).

The Hummingbird cake is banana and pineapple, very moist and crumbly (like a carrot cake) with a light tropical fruity flavour.

The design is based on an illustration by Gemma Correll, an amazing illustrator and fellow Pug lover :)

Pug bisous bisous xxx

Body Shop, Body Shop, Boom Boom Boom

A few weeks ago I was asked to assist on Body Shop's 'Brush With Fashion' catwalk show for the release of their new, sustainable, cruelty free make up range for Spring 2011.

It was a collaboration with London College of Fashion, with alumni Nikki Palmer heading the make up team, alumni designs from the likes of William Tempest and Jena Theo on the catwalk and LCF student Katarina Voloder, a Fashion Illustration student who designed the packaging for the new collection. An LCF family affair!

Here is LCF's own coverage of the night… Snapshot

There were four make up looks all created with the new Body Shop range, and I was in charge of the one above.

It was a really fun night and I learnt something new, LCF keep honey bees on their roof!

I was going to post some photos I took myself, but my iphoto won't open, boo hoo!

So instead here are some links to press coverage of the event, I am proud to link coverage from Vogue, my make up work is on Vogue!!

Vogue, Beauty News

Vogue, Beauty Gallery

Vogue, The Green Style Blog

Grazia

Elle

Bisous bisous xxx

Vegan Holy Grail

Macarons!!

Crispy and smooth shells, moist melt-in-the-mouth with a tiny little ruffled foot (circumference). Kind of.

I had been following a thread on the Post Punk Kitchen forum, started by Andrew, a baker on the vegan macaron quest. It seemed that he was days from revealing his recipe when they archived the live threads and it was lost.

And then he appeared again, with his recipe! http://veganfordracula.blogspot.com/ Hurrah!

And so I got my VersaWhip out and got to work.

For my first ever attempt at Macarons (vegan or not) it wasn't too bad, sort of!

All seemed well until I peeked into the oven after 5 minutes to see the little macaron shells spilling their guts all over the place like tiny volcanoes.

This was for several reasons….

1. The oven was too hot

2. There was too much heat coming from the bottom of the oven

3. The shells had not been left to dry for long enough

I left my shells to dry for over two hours before putting them in the oven, but I think that because it was so cold in the kitchen they had not dried completely, leaving small soft weak spots on the shells where the insides promptly erupted from.

Normally the top of the macarons should be dry to the touch before going in the oven as this helps to prevent cracking and makes the macaron rise up, forming the signature little ruffled foot.

So for my next attempt I shall…

1. Decrease the oven temperature

2. Triple stack the trays, this should prevent too much direct heat getting to the bottom of the macarons, hopefully meaning that they will rise gently

3. Leave the shells to dry COMPLETELY before putting them in the oven, no matter how impatient I am!

Pre-oven, excited!

R.I.P Macarons

I also didn't allow the macarons to

dry before trying to pull one off to eat!

As my boyfriend lovingly commented, they look

like horribly deformed lady bits.

I'm sure I don't know what he means!

You can find the recipe on Andrew's blog. (link above)

I pretty much stuck to the original recipe, apart from I used liquid colouring and vanilla paste rather than powders, which are not readily available in the UK and I was too impatient to make an online order and wait!

The taste was so similar to a non-vegan macaron, I was very pleased on that front!

I think I probably need to grind the almond meal finer to give the shells a smoother dome, but the texture of the shell (and it's spilled guts) were very near perfection. With a little work I think the Holy Grail is in sight!

Bisous bisous xxx