The Perfect Peplum

Oasis, £35

Hello again readers! I'm back after a very exciting three weeks in Ghana, during which I worked in a school and a creche, lived in a house of 24 people and traveled loads. I even designed a dress and had it made for me, so that will be sure to appear on the blog sometime soon!

Ok, so it has come to my attention - and I'm sure your own - that peplums are HUGE at the moment.  And who can blame us for loving them? The high neck is sophisticated whilst the shape flatters in all the right places. It's feminine yet smart. It's fast becoming a wardrobe staple - and I am missing one.

I have scaled the internet far and wide and come back vaguely unsatisfied, as I like a top with a lot of personality, and to be frank, there doesn't seem to be a huge range of peplum tops on the market. However, here are my top four - what do you think?

Charlotte

ASOS, now £11

Topshop, £30

Paprika @ ASOS, now £17

Diamond Jubilee Red, White & Blue Cupcakes

And this just proves how versatile a recipe can be!

These cupcakes, made for a Diamond Jubilee party with the family tomorrow (in honour of the Queen's 60th year on the throne here in the UK) use exactly the same recipe as that of my previous post, the Birdy Birthday Cake. They have a vanilla sponge base and lashings of vanilla frosting... but this time I divided the sponge mixture, colouring one half red and one half blue!

To add to the colour scheme theme, I took a small amount of frosting and dyed this red and blue too, swirling this into the naturally cream-coloured batch. I realise they are not perfect - in fact, some of my attempts at 'swirling' bordered on disastrous - but hey ho, I tried!

On a side note, I'm off travelling to Ghana next week for three weeks, so I leave fashionwaffle in the capable hands of Jade! Farewell for now readers!

Charlotte

Birdy Birthday Cake

Last week was my good friend Gemma's 21st birthday, so I made this super-girly pink vanilla sponge! This recipe was taken from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (initially for vanilla cupcakes), but I coloured the sponge instead of the icing, and decorated with Peeps, which are chick-shaped marshmallows from the US. They are coated in pink sugar, so I rubbed this off and sprinkled it all over the frosting.

We had a lot of people to serve so we couldn't eat too much, but this worked out for the best as the cake was pretty sweet! Still, I would make it again!

Charlotte

Banana & Chocolate Cupcakes

Banana and chocolate is such an underrated combination in my opinion, so I knew when I spotted these in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook I would just have to make them. This was the first time I had attempted  the chocolate frosting from the book as well, having only tried cream cheese and vanilla before... and it was delicious! Very rich, creamy and moreish. I left the bowl clean.

As usual, the recipe was dead easy to follow and produced lashings of frosting - just the way I like it!

Charlotte

Brownies from Nigella's Kitchen

Oh gosh, it's making my mouth water just looking at them...

As I'm sure many loyal fashionwaffle followers will know, I am on a quest to find the perfect brownie recipe. So far nothing beats the recipe for 'Sticky Brownies' from the book 'Blissful Brownies', published by Marks & Spencer. But these were not too far off.

This recipe, taken from Nigella Lawson's latest book 'Kitchen', incorporated cocoa powder and milk chocolate chunks, which I was a little apprehensive to try, as I usually stick with masses of dark chocolate melted into the mixture instead. I think I was right to be. Although the texture was gorgeous, the flavour just wasn't meltingly rich enough, and instead I found them rather eggy, on top of which the chocolate chunks sank to the bottom and largely remained stuck to the foil beneath.

Nonetheless, I still love Nigella, and cannot deny that these were tasty!

Anyone willing to share their best-ever brownie recipe?

Charlotte

Beautiful Fashion Arrivals

So, I had a little browse of the ASOS and Topshop sites the other day (before realising miserably that I have less cash to dispose of than I'd originally thought - *sigh*). Anyway, here is my wishlist from this week's arrivals - what do you think?

Charlotte

Topshop, £25
LOVE photo print T-shirts and this one is so bright and colourful!

Oasis @ ASOS, £60
Pastels are still big and this is one of those adorable dresses you can wear to anything and everything.

Project Social T @ Topshop, £22
I have a thing for cross t-shirts at the moment and have been struggling to find the perfect one. This could be it.

Topshop, £22
As I tend to prefer statement tops to bottoms, I would have no idea what to wear these with - it's just I love them!

Topshop, £30
Pastel-coloured, smart, sophisticated, high-waisted - adorable.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Over the Easter break I was unable to see my good friend and term-time housemate Will (aka Willie-G) for his birthday, so I made him a belated birthday cake for his return today! And here it is, in all its rather inappropriately feminine glory. (Well... it was either flowers or butterflies!)

The recipe was taken from Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess', and originally it was for a loaf cake, but I thought it may look more like a birthday cake if made in a typical circular tin. I wanted to keep it fairly traditional, as Will seems to like in cakes, so instead of making a heavy frosting I just mixed up a simple icing sugar-and-water mix and drizzled it on, letting it seep down the sides.

Have to say, it's more successful than my attempt at a lemon tart last week... but that's another story!

Charlotte

I pierced the cake to allow the lemon syrup, made whilst the cake was baking, to sink into the sponge.