Claiming my blog

Quick update to let you all know that you can now Follow my blog with bloglovin :)

Can I Touch It?

The iPad 2 is going to be officially released and on sale in less than an hour in the UK. Apparently the queues outside the Apple Store(s) are remarkable. I've used the original iPad and it is a very cool gadget, but when it was released I had just bought my laptop which at the time was a greater priority. 

But now? Now I'm thinking, it might be time to treat myself. 

I've still got the 1st gen iPhone and although I would love the iPhone 4, it makes much more sense to buy the iPad 2. (I don't use my phone very much). So I might just buy myself a new toy!

Travel Plans

It's St. Paddy's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I know I'm one day late... Did you celebrate at all? We had Hot Dog Day at work with a St. Patrick's Day theme and since I took a half day off I went to have my nails done before we went to our local Irish pub for an afternoon and evening of Guinness (for Paul) and Magners (for me). Even wearing really low wedges can lead to burning heels after standing for 8 hours! Thankfully we had the day off today too so it was ok to sleep in.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The King's Speech

We went to watch The King's Speech yesterday. I really enjoyed the film and I truly believe that it deserved all the accolades and awards that it won. The characterizations of the members of the monarchy were great and the story was very heart warming. 

I do like the British monarchy - I think that it's a great institution despite its rules and possibly antiquated outlook. But even if you know nothing about the British monarchy I would still recommend this film. Besides it's got Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter starring - if they're not a good reason to watch it then I don't know what is!

Wicked!

I bought tickets to go and watch Wicked - The Musical at the end of the month

So excited! I've been wanting to watch it for ages. I've already tweeted Louise Dearman (Glinda) to tell her that I'm going to be watching her. Such a groupie!

Happy Women's Day

Today we celebrate International Women's Day. We also celebrate Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day/Mardi Gras.

But this post is about women and the lovely Mimosa Cake that is traditionally made for Women's Day. This is a traditionally Italian recipe and in fact I first tasted Mimosa Cake a couple of years ago in Sicily, and it is delicious. I've never attempted to make it myself but I found a recipe that appears to be traditional and genuine to share with you, perhaps you'll be inspired to give it a go.

Ingredients

For the sponge:

75 g flour

150 g sugar

75 g of potato starch

6 eggs

For the custard:

500 g of milk

4 egg

100 g sugar

25 g flour 00

lemon zest

For the whipped cream:

200 g heavy cream

50 g icing sugar

Rum or orange juice to moisten the sponge

Preparation:

SPONGE CAKE: whip the eggs with the sugar for at least 8 minutes. When the mixture is firmly add the sifted flour and starch and mix well. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove from the mold and allow to cool, invert the cake, cut the base to 1 cm thick. Dig the remaining sponge cake (made the wisps that will be used for coverage), to form a vacuum which is then stuffed.

CUSTARD: Boil the milk with lemon peel, then let it cool, add egg yolks, sugar and flour, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. When cooked, put it in a bowl to cool.

WHIPPED CREAM: Put a bowl and whip of the mixer in the freezer for 10 minutes. Pour the cold cream into the bowl from the refrigerator freezer. Beat for 1 minute with the mixer, then add the icing sugar and mount completely.

TOPPING THE CAKE MIMOSA: pour the cream into the cold cream. Dampen the sponge cake with rum or orange juice. Stuff the gap obtained with the cream. Place the base of the sponge cake upside down, with the most yellow exterior. Spread entire cake with cream made in order to create a cohesive element. Take the crumbs obtained from the excavation of sponge cake, and appiccicatele over the entire surface of the cake, giving the effect of a mimosa flower.

If you do decide to make it please let me know how it turns out! Happy Women's Day to all you lovely women out there :)

Make yourself comfy

Please take a seat on my lovely, white vintage armchair up top. It's new you see and it's very much looking forward to being oohed and aahed at by lots of lovely people.

I thought it was time to spring clean and spruce things up a bit. I've only done a couple of slight changes, made the layout much cleaner. I'll probably be changing a couple of other things and adding others, but this looks good at the moment.

Here's a reminder of the previous look -

What do you think of the new look?

Cappuccino Art

I'm not a caffeine freak. I can survive, nay, live, without it. In fact I rarely drink coffee at home, I just have it at work and when I'm out, and it's almost always cappuccino that I'll drink. So here are some wonderful cappuccino art features which are just such fun!

Sources
1. Can't remember where I found this but I love the art and the teacup and saucer!
2. gardencountycooking.blogspot.com
3. nuffy.net
4. senemscoffeehouse.com

Shoes for the Sole

Sometimes I log on to the ASOS website and online window shop. I save things that I like in my bag but I don't necessarily press the Proceed to Checkout button, and for a very good reason - oftentimes the final amount is rather high! This is my shoe selection for Summer '11. I haven't bought any (yet) though I would love to. Unfortunately the total amount of these 5 pairs is... €432.95!

Do you have a favourite pair out of these? Or do our footwear tastes differ? Leave a comment!

Giveaway - On another blog

I thought I'd let you, my lovely readers, know about a giveaway that's happening on another blog of a fellow Malteser. She's an artist and is giving one lucky person the chance to win some of her creations... but you've got to hurry because there are only 2 days left!

denisescicluna | blog: february giveaway: "My last giveaway was last September and it was a jellyfishmonster one. This time, I am feeling more generous... because you can win: a DJ je..."