Best Shops For Gifts in London

Long time no see!

Christmas is fast approaching but for some of us, that means it's time for the last minute rush for presents! Honestly, I quite enjoy the commercial side of Christmas: Adverts, shopping etc. however of course, I never have nearly enough money to buy all the things I would like for other people. A girl can dream...so I put together a list of great shops to go to in London (if you live here or are visiting) for your under the wire shopping.

1. Primark. If you have a tight budget, it's really worth trying Primark. Such cheap items for reasonable quality (teenagers and tweens in particular will love items from there). As well as clothes, you can also buy accessories, bath and beauty products and such cute items from the home section-which has cushions, candles, blankets and other little ornaments to decorate your bedroom.

2. Lush. Need I explain how amazing this shop is? They have already made, super sweet gift sets however they can be quite expensive so you may want to buy individual bath bombs and soaps. Either way, it's sure to be a winner with whoever you're buying for.

3. Whittard. Many people haven't heard of this place but their shop layout is adorable and products very high quality (however sadly quite high in prices too). They have a range of different flavoured teas, coffees and hot chocolates, along with their beautiful teapots and cups. The great thing that I love about the shop as well is they have freshly made taster pots, that way you're not just buying your tea blindly. This is a particularly great gift if you're just here on holiday but of course, anyone would love it because hey, who doesn't love tea?

4. The Body Shop. Once again, the Body Shop is just...great. It really isn't the most expensive shop you'll come across and they have pretty gift sets, usually consisting of body butters, shower gels, body lotions and loofahs (I love that word: LOOFAH!). The prices of sets depend on what's inside however generally range from around £6 - £30.

5. Boots. Once again, for Christmas Boots sells a whole section full of sets of make-up, skincare, bath products and sometimes even random food and drink like teas and coffees! I find the sets are at reasonable and affordable prices. Additionally, they also have Soap and Glory product sets which many (particularly teenage) girls adore and let's all admit, smells fabulous. Here's an extra tip: Towards the end of December and beginning of January, Boots have all of their Christmas gift sets on sale so do take advantage and keep an eye out for those. Last year, all the sets were 50% off!

6. Paperchase. Ah this has become one of my favourite shops since I went Christmas decoration shopping with my sister last month. This is mainly because I visited one of the biggest ones, located in Goodge Street. I wouldn't however, recommend going to smaller Paperchases as they don't tend to sell the best products, but the bigger ones have amazing things! They have a whole load of things but mainly stationary, mugs, bags and arty stuff so if you have a friend who likes that cool stuff, give it a go because as the Japanese would say: it's so kawaii!

7. Waterstone's. Know any book lovers? This is a great place to buy it (and I'm not just saying that because of the prestigious shop display). As well as their huge variety of books, they also have awesome stationary and book accessories. Wow, that just sounded completely sponsored didn't it?

8. Fenwick. I guess this is just the place to buy everything right? American sweets, jewellery, clothes, homeware, but best of all: TOYS. If you're buying for a younger one (or an adult too, we all like what we like...) this is a really good place to do it. Who needs Hamleys' prices...

9. The Disney Store. At the moment Disney animated films are really taking over (even with adults!) so let's be honest, we all like a bit of merchandise. Particularly younger ones will enjoy receiving either an Elsa dress or a cuddly Eeyore toy (I would!). Or you can be like me and go in just to watch Frozen in the little kiddy cinema section!

If you have any other suggestions, do let me know!

Sharleen x

A New Start.

It's been a month since I last posted and I'm so terribly sorry. Things have been a little rough lately and I'm just trying to get myself together so I haven't felt like writing. Recently I've been feeling that I HAVE to write a post every week and if I don't, I'll lose my readers, so I've been forcing myself to write and thus, might not get the best results with my writing. From today I want to start fresh. I want to start writing about what I truly want to write about and start writing when I actually want to. No obligations. I'm not sure what kind of things I'll be writing about in the future (although it will still be a big mix of things). I may write about exactly the same kind of things as I do now, or it may be totally different. If what I write about in the future changes and you decide you no longer want to read my blog, that's totally okay! If you do still like what I write, then welcome to my new start!

Big Love,

Sharleen x

Hi Guys!

For today, I just thought I might catch you up on what's been going on recently.

Shopping, shopping, SHOPPING. Too much shopping! I'm so happy with my current wardrobe that I was thinking of doing an autumn look book on my blog soon. How exciting!

The other day I baked Oreo cupcakes and they were absolutely delish! I haven't baked in a while and I really do miss it. As it's autumn, prepare for lots of pies!

T'was my birthday two weeks ago as well, and that was bloomin' brilliant (spot the alliteration). I was lucky enough to get some Zoella beauty products, some Soap and Glory products, a lovely Frozen T-Shirt, and a new microphone for my camera! That leads me on to my next point.

Two of my friends and I started a YouTube channel! It's just for fun and very amateur however, if you feel like checking us out click HERE. The quality of the visuals is not great but I'm planning to get a new video editor which will hopefully help with that too. 

Other than that, there's Halloween coming up. If I stick to my costume idea it's pretty much fully home-made (sorry, it's a secret right now) and so I may do a tutorial for that after Halloween. But don't worry! It will still be useful for any dress up parties you may be invited to in the near future.

Have a lovely week, 

Ta-ta!

Autumn Carrot Cake

Heyo!

Last week I made an absolutely "delish" carrot cake and wanted to share the recipe with you. It requires quite a few ingredients, but I promise, it's super simple to make!

Ingredients:

- 200g Self Raising Flour

- 175g Light Brown Sugar

- 250g Carrots

- 150g Raisins (or 80g if you're less fond of raisins like myself)

- Pinch of Salt

- 2tsp Ground Mixed Spice

- 3 Eggs

-150ml Sunflower Oil

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

- 200g Cream Cheese         

-4tbsp Icing Sugar           

- Zest of 1 Lemon            

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Put the flour, salt, sugar, spice and raisins in a large bowl and mix together.

3. Grate the carrots, add to the large bowl and mix everything together again.

4. In a small bowl, add the eggs to the oil and whisk them lightly together. Then pour into the large bowl with the dry mix and mix it all together with an electric whisk (or a wooden spoon, that will do as well).

5. Put the mix into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour. You'll know it's ready by putting a skewer or a knife into the centre and it comes out clean.

6. Allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

7. Make the frosting: Zest the lemon (but only zest the top yellow layer, not the one under which is white) and add it into a small bowl with the cream cheese.

8. Add the icing sugar into the small bowl that has the lemon and cream cheese and mix the 3 ingredients together. (Add a little more icing sugar into the mix if you think the frosting lacks taste.)

9. Spread the frosting onto the cake and decorate it how you like.

And that's pretty much it! This was truly a lovely recipe and very relevant to the new season. It's so easy peasy and therefore... I do recommend giving it a go!

Sharleen x  

Summer Bucket List ~ Read.

Hey Guys! 

Although it is the end of summer, I wanted to share with you one more thing I did of which I forget to tell you about.

I finally finished The Hunger Games and Read The Fault in Our Stars! To sum up 'The Hunger Games', it was A-MA-ZING. 'The Fault in Our Stars'? Let me begin by apologising to the book for having doubted it. At the beginning of reading it I thought it was completely over-rated and was, quite frankly, pretty boring really... I did share my thoughts with others, whom agreed with me. So how could it not be boring? As I read on I began to get more and more into the book and when I got to the end (which I predicted correctly by the way, 10 gold stars for me!) I thought it was such a beautiful, yet truthful ending. The mix of it being a predictable, yet somehow also unpredictable, ending was probably what made the book so great and popular. But yes... I'm not entirely sure where I intended to go with this so if you don't mind me, I'll just be reading 'Catching Fire'. Ta-ta!

Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Bubble Tea.

Whoop whoop! 

Guess who got a bubble tea this week in central London (which was indeed number 19 on my Summer Bucket List). You guessed it, me! I went to China Town the other day with two friends and ordered my usual mango bubble tea with lychee popping pearls (£3.25 at Cuppa Cha) which was A-MA-ZING as usual.

If you haven't already tried a bubble tea, I really do recommend it (I wouldn't suggest getting a milk one though... unless you're a big fan of milk).

 This week my friends tried it for the first time and they're now obsessed. I think that's saying something...

Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Ice-Skating

Hello!

On Thursday I went Ice-Skating with a few friends (which was of course number 6 on my Summer Bucket List and also one of my new year resolutions). I went with intentions to learn how to ice-skate and I've got to say, even though I was still being dragged by a friend rather than actually pushing myself forward with my feet (it's hard okay?!), I do feel that I improved confidence wise and that's already a start (I hope...). I will definitely return before the year finishes.

Enjoy your last few days (or day) of the holiday.

Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Take the Tube Somewhere

Hello!

Little update: the other day I took the tube to the Central London with my friends (number 17 on my Summer Bucket List) and went shopping! (It seems I can't get enough of it...) 

That's another one ticked off my list.

Sharleen x

P.S. I know this is a very short post but I just wanted to do a quick update as I want to keep record of everything I've done off my bucket list.

Summer Bucket List ~ Pride and Prejudice

Hello!

The other day I watched Pride and Prejudice (number 21 on my summer bucket list). My friend said it was her favourite movie and that I must watch it so indeed I did. 

For anyone who hasn't seen the film, it's about a girl called Elizabeth who falls in love with a man of higher class called Mr Darcy, whom she misjudged from the moment she met him to be, well, not very nice. That's pretty much it for the whole two hours... Now I'm sure why you might understand why I wasn't particularly WOWED by the film as I thought it had a very bland and tedious storyline. With that having been said, it was better than I expected. It's definitely not the type of film that I'm used to/like watching as I'm not particularly into movies that are set 'back in the day', so perhaps it's slightly unfair for me to criticize this film that's loved by so many but this is just my opinion. It really wasn't that bad though (but I wouldn't watch it again...haha).

Until next time!

Sharleen x

I've set a new blog design so I'm very sorry that some of my previous posts may now be a little bit messed up.

Summer Bucket List ~ Lemon Drizzle Cake

                                                             

Heyo!

The other day I baked (which was number 7 on my Summer Bucket List) a Lemon drizzle cake. I found the recipe off one of Tanya Burr's youtube videos and thought it looked super simple and yummy so decided to give it a go. 

I've written out the recipe but if you would prefer to watch the video, click HERE.

Ingredients: 

- 3 Eggs

- 170g Self Raising Flour

- 170g Caster Sugar

- 170g Butter

- 1 tsp Baking Powder

- 110g Icing Sugar

- 2 Lemons

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Grease your tin or put greaseproof paper.

3. Put your eggs, self-raising flour, caster sugar, butter, baking powder and zest of 2 lemons into a large mixing bowl and mix together using an electric whisk or a wooden spoon until smooth.

4. Put the mixture into a rectangular loaf tin and put into the oven for 30-45 minutes. (TIP: It's ready when you put a table knife into the centre of the loaf and no batter comes out.)

5. Whilst your loaf is in the oven, make the drizzle: mix the juice of
the two lemons that you got the zest from earlier and the icing sugar together in a small mixing bowl.

6. Once the loaf is out of the oven, when it's still hot, using a sharp knife poke holes into the loaf.

7. Pour the drizzle on top of the loaf and give it time to soak in.

And that's pretty much it! 

This was a super easy, super yummy cake and something I've never tried before so I really do recommend that you give it a go! 

Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Number 20) Go to the Park

Hello!

Yesterday I completed number 20 on my summer bucket list which was to go to the park. I enjoyed wearing the new clothes I'd bought earlier in the week and feeling like little kiddies again with my friends because of a skipping rope that I brought along with me! Haha...

Until next time!

Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Number 23) Mini Primark Haul

Hey there!

On Monday I was able to tick off number 23 on my summer bucket list (which was to do something with my mum). We went to Primark on Tottenham Court Road and did a little bit of shopping which was absolutely lovely. We went at around 11am which allowed us to avoid the massive crowd of people that builds up during early afternoon (yay us!). I thought I would do a mini Primark haul and share with you guys what I bought. Let's get started:

Frilly Ankle socks (3 pairs, black, white and grey) - £2.00

Sunglasses - £2.00

White Stretchy T-Shirt - £3.00

Cushion - £4.00

Navy Blue Plimsolls - £3.00

And that's it! Enjoy your summer!

 Sharleen x

Summer Bucket List ~ Number 5) Bowling

I am so sorry for my completely smudged make-up, oh well who cares... It was hot outside okay?!

Hey Guys! 

So I completed number 5 on my summer bucket list as today I went bowling with 7 friends. YAY. What a lovely day especially after having been so unwell on Tuesday. I will apologise before hand for the terrible photos but I really don't feel like carrying around a big camera everywhere I go this summer so please just bare these bad quality phone camera photos. There's not much too say other than it was a very nice day (but perhaps a little too hot for my liking). Also, I think I aced the game of pool with my friends *Sarcasm intended*.

I hope you're all having a lovely summer.

Sharleen x

                                                                                           

Summer Bucket List

Happy Summer!

Yesterday, I wrote a summer bucket list on a piece of paper and then a thought hit me, why don't I rewrite the list on my blog, then do as much of the bucket list as I can and share my experiences as I go along!

1. Write plenty on my blog!

2. Go to Abbey Road.

3. Do something spontaneous.

4. Go to The Beatles Shop.

5. Go bowling.

6. Go ice-skating.

7. Bake.

8. Sing.

9. Go out with all my friends.

10. Finish reading The Hunger Games.

11. Exercise lots.

12. De-clutter my room.

13. Read 'Catching Fire'.

14. Read  'The Fault in our Stars'.

15. Go somewhere I've never been.

16. Go to Brighton.

17. Take the tube somewhere.

18. Play Wii with my sister.

19. Get a bubble tea.

20. Go to the park.

21. Watch Pride and Prejudice.

22. Have a little movie night with myself.

23. Do something with my mum.

24. Learn a new song on the piano.

25. Make a lemonade.

I'm really looking forward to doing this and I really would encourage you guys to put together a list too so that you're sure to spend your holiday being 'uper' productive.

Sharleen x

P.S. I've already started my holiday with a massive bang! Check out who I met on Saturday...

Activities Week 2014

Happy Sunday!

Remember me talking about a week of fun that my school does in my last blog post? Well... I thought I might share with you some photos (although I took very few) and talk a little about the experience.

Luckily the weather was amazing (however I didn't particularly appreciate the sun burn I got at the end of the week. I might have forgotten to put sun cream but still... can you blame me? Who expects to get burnt with UK weather?!)

So obviously you can see in the picture that we did archery. I kept saying to my friends, "Doesn't this feel like the Hunger Games?" It would have been better though, if my hand didn't keep punching my face every time I released the arrow...

We also camped (which was my favourite part of the week). We made a massive camp fire, roasted marshmallows and people played Slender in the woods during the night. We were even allowed to play football on the field at 10pm if we wanted to, how cool! For dinner, we were given little disposable barbecues to share with a small group of friends and we had to cook our own meal with it. Oh and I also mustn't forget! There were some bunnies hopping around our tents too!

Me looking smug at the top of the wall...

We also went on a 3 mile hike the next day which was super tiring! (I have no clue how I'm going to do the 5 mile walk this Thursday.) We had to walk through massive fields of corn in the heat which is always fun...

Tunnelling however, was the scariest and more challenging activity that I did over the entire week. I was terrified 1. Because of the tightness of space, 2. Because of how slowly everyone was moving and 3. Of course because of the slugs in the tunnels. I really regret not having done the entire tunnel however, as I'm someone who feels that once I start something, I have to finish it.

Other than that, we did crate stacking (which was scarier than I thought it would be because of the hight issue and the fact that your legs are unintentionally trembling at the thought that all the crates are about to collapse), we also did an activity where we were given a task which was to create a small fire but all we were given were matches, and lastly, we were given a lot of team work and trust activities (which I didn't particularly enjoy because I didn't trust anyone in my group, haha, sorry guys!).

The view of the woods from our tent

So there we go. I hope you've enjoyed today's post and I'm very sorry for not posting last week but I've only got one more week of school to go and one more assessment (whoop, whoop) so expect more from me soon! Ta-ta!

Sharleen x

Mini Update

Just a random little photo...

Hello!

Apologies that I missed last week's post and if my posts are n

ot the most exciting lately and the photos aren't 'top notch'. I'm struggling at the moment to balance all my end of year exams (that are all suddenly rushing in) with blogging and resting. I'm trying to focus more on exams at the moment as they determine what kind of GCSEs I will be doing next year which is very important for me. During the holidays I plan to write more often than usual and have more interesting topics as I will have far more free time. Hope you can understand and bare with me!

As I've got a few things happening within the next few weeks I thought I might simply share with you what I will and have been up to (other than exams).

1. On Tuesday I (along with the rest of my year group) went silent for a whole day for a campaign that my school's 'We Day' (remember me talking about that in another post in March?) group have been working on. The idea was to go silent for others who don't have a voice, to raise awareness (I will write about this in a future blog post as soon as I receive photos).

2. Not that it matters to you guys but on the 30th June it's my sister's birthday and I bought her THIS
really cool pillow case thing from Etsy.

3. 30th June-4th July I'll be having Activity week. At my school we have something called 'Activity Week' which is a week where we have no lessons and just do fun things. Every year, the year 9s go to a place called Phasels Wood, where we do loads of cool things like tunnelling, rope activities and camping. (I really can't imagine myself camping. I'm not something who particularly likes nature and all.)

4. On the 5th July my school will be celebrating its 100 years (fun fact haha), meaning that I'll have to attend the celebratory weekend.

5. On the 16th of July, if all goes according to plan I'll be going to Thorpe Park. Yay... *Sarcasm intended* (I'm not a big fan of rides).

6. And on the 17th July I'll be doing a sponsored 5 mile walk.

Sharleen x

'Mythic Oil' - L'Oréal Hair Oil Review

Apologies. The photo is't great as I had to
 rush to get inside.

Happy Sunday!

This week I just wanted to share with you a recent(ish) hair product discovery I made.

Around a month ago, my mum bought me a L'Oréal hair oil called 'Mythic Oil'. I've been using it fairly regularly and I've just seen some amazing progress with my hair. When I started using straighteners last year I didn't use any heat protective spray for a few consecutive months which really did damage my hair. Since then, my hair was quite dry. Since I started using this hair oil my hair feels a lot more hydrated and soft. Also, my hair becomes static very easily however, I find that this hair oil stops my hair doing just that. Another plus is that you only need one little squirt (otherwise it will of course look greasy) and even though I've used it many times, nearly the entire bottle is still full!  The only downside is that it is pretty expensive however definately worthwile. I can't give you a specific place where you can buy it as I bought my mum bought it from my hairdresser (it's being sold legally, don't worry!) however you could try buying it from the L'Oréal website or your own hairdresser might sell it. Looking around on the internet the price range for this product is around £9-£13.
I really do recommend this hair oil for anyone with or without damaged hair.

See you next week!

Sharleen x

Bored.

Heyo!

For this week I made a little list of possible things to do when you're bored. Some are good and some are completely random. Anyway...



1. Read.

2. Bake a cake.

3. Do housework (yeah... it's possible...)

4.Give yourself or a family member a makeover.

5. Tidy your room (I know this isn't the most exciting but it's productive).

6. Check out this page on Pinterest which gives you loads of cool DIY ideas: http://gb.pinterest.com/kspees1/things-to-do-when-bored/

7. Prank call someone.

8. Draw.

9. Learn an accent.

10. Do homework (haha, who am I kidding?)

11. Write a blog post of course!

Sharleen x

13 Personal Questions Tag

Heyo!

I saw this tag over on another blog and I thought it would be fun to do so let's go!

Le Caramel Cream Frappuccino

1. What do you order at Starbucks?
Caramel Cream Frappuccino all the way!

2. What's one thing in your closet you can't live without?
 My fluffy socks! (I have an obsession for socks, it's
 weird... I know)

3. What's one thing that most people don't
know about you?
That I'm a blogger (apart from you guys shhhhh).

4. What's one thing you want to do before you die?
I know it's very cliché but I would like to be very, very super happy and absolutely content with my life.

5. What's one food you can't live without?
Oranges! I don't know why, I just love them.

6. What's one quote that you live your life by?
"What's meant to be will always find its way".

7. What do you like and dislike about the YouTube community?
I love how simple it is to pursue what you love in terms of media and/or music however, I dislike the fact that they get paid to promote products in their videos and the constant asking for likes. I'm not saying that I don't find the videos hilarious to watch though.

8. What's your number 1 song on your iPod/iTunes/phone?
At the moment I'm a bit obsessed with Let it Go from the movie Frozen.

9. What kind of style would you describe yourself as having?
I think I'm a bit of an all rounder. I don't really have a specific style that I stick to.

10. Favourite number? 
14 (the day of my birthday).

11. Two hobbies?
Singing and baking. I would have said blogging as well but I'm sticking to the question ;).

12. Two pet peeves?
When people make noises when they eat/eat with their mouths open and burping. Not nice!

13. Your guilty pleasure?
I'm sorry guys! I can't hold it in any longer! I love Glee. 


I hope you've enjoyed reading today's post and I shall see you next week. Ta-ta!

Sharleen X

Happy Sunday.

Heyo!

Very sorry for not having posted yesterday. I have reason!

 Yesterday morning I decided that I was going to try to have a good day rather than and 'alright' one. I decided to simply do things that I enjoyed and that would make me happy and then take photos of them. Apologies for some not being great quality. I took them with my phone.

Mint tea and home-made lemon cupcake. What a way to kick off the day (oooh that rhymed!)

Scrabble with my sister. I lost miserably.

The ideal way of tricking myself into thinking it's summer. A glass of lemonade.

Ukulele time! I'm still debating whether to call it 'Fred' or 'Lola'.

These things may not seem like much to make me have a good day but take my word for it, I went to bed feeling that I had a mostly positive and productive day. I certainly would like to try this as much as I can as I feel it will completely change the way I feel at the end of the week. I urge you all to do the same and make a decision to have a good day.

Sharleen x

How to make Cherry 'Scoscuits'

Heyo!
I've been very unwell for these past few days therefore, I haven't been able to write a brand new post. A week or two ago I guest posted on another blog so instead of posting nothing, I decided to share the post with you guys as well. 
This is a scone recipe that I found on the internet a few months ago and slightly adapted and I must say are super simple and yummylicious. I've called them cherry 'scoscuits' because although they have a kind of "sconey" texture,  they don't rise very much like scones thus are (kind of) biscuits/scones. My sister is a big Star Wars fan and asked me to make scones as it was Star Wars day hense the writing on the scones (just thought I might explain that). Righty roo let's begin. 

                  Ingredients (makes roughly 25):

- 250g Self Raising Flour

- 75g Butter

- 190ml Milk

- 75g Sugar

- 140g Glacé Cherries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Mix the sugar and flour together in a large mixing bowl.

3. Chop the cold butter into small pieces and add in with the flour and sugar. Then combine the three ingredients together using your hands to make the mixture crumby.

4. Add in the milk bit by bit (continue to use your hands to combine the mixture).

6. Chop the glacé cherries up into halves or quarters (depending on how strong you want the taste of the cherries to be) then add them little by little into the dough (keep using your hands to evenly fold the cherries in).

7. Sprinkle flour onto a work surface (or chopping board if you want less to clean up afterwards) and roll the dough out to roughly 2 cm thick.

8. Using a cookie cutter, cut your dough into any shape and spread the shapes out over two baking trays. Then put into the oven for 15-20 minutes. They are ready to take out when quite solid on the top (don't wait for them to be rock hard however as after 20 minutes they should in theory be definitely ready).

And that is it! I'll see you next week.

Sharleen x

The Easiest Chocolate Cake

 Happy Sunday!

Yesterday I was reading an article on the easiest chocolate recipes and it lead me to one that I thought was very simple and doable.

Ingredients (Yes I'm aware there are a lot but it's really simple I promise):

- 225g Plain Flour
- 325g Caster sugar
- 85g Cocoa Powder
- 1 & a half tsp baking powder
- 1 & a half tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 Eggs
- 250ml milk
- 125ml vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250ml boiling water

For the Chocolate Icing:

- 200g Milk Chocolate
- 200ml Double Cream


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper.

2. Put all the ingredients apart from the icing ingredients and the boiling water into a large mixing bowl and mix together well with a wooden spoon.

3. Little by little add the boiling water and continue stirring the mixture together until well combined. (It is normal for the mixture to be very liquid.)

4.  Divide the mixture between the two tins and place in the oven for 25-35 minutes. Tip: Remove from the oven when a knife is stuck in the centre of each cake and it comes out clean.

5. To make the chocolate icing: Heat the double cream and the chocolate (which should be cut into small squares) into a medium saucepan. Do this until the chocolate has melted. Mix together and once completely combined, take off heat.

6. Put the icing in a new bowl and leave to cool at room temperature for around 2 hours until it is thick enough to be a spread.

7. Spread some chocolate icing over the top of one of the cakes. Then place another one on top and spread the rest of the icing on the top and around the sides.

8.. Put in the fridge for a few hours.

I made a few minor alterations to the recipe but if you'd like to see the original one (it has a video too) click on this link:

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_cake_31070

Until next week!

Sharleen x

Another Part Of Me.

Hello. 

Today's post is going to be very different. Cue cheesy intro.

Those who know me are extremely aware that I L.O.V.E singing. It is my everything.  It's what brings me back up when I'm feeling down and it's my medicine when feeling ill. I wanted to share that part of my life with you by simply putting a video of one of my covers and I shall say nothing else other than I'm aware that it's not perfect but I'm working on it. I'm not a piano player but I'm working on it. There's not a very good balance between the voice and piano but I tried my best. It has taken a lot of thought and courage to put a video out there for anyone to see but I've become more comfortable lately with the idea of putting videos of my singing on YouTube and who knows, I may well do just that one day. Sorry about the slip ups and the bad quality (closing the curtains was the only way to get my camera to focus, annoying, I know). Enjoy (hopefully haha).

'Safe and Sound' Cover

Until next week!

Sharleen x