Snickers cheesecake

Mmmmm. Look at this ridiculous thing.

 

You can see a recipe for this totally-over-the-top-and-indulgent Snickers cheesecake over at Aimee's blog (I'm guest-posting while she's on holiday). It's based on the very easy vanilla cheesecake I made a few months ago, but is about a billion times more unhealthy!

Animal Crossing birthday cake

Do you like cake? Do you like video games? Say hello to this then....

HELLO.

Isn't it beautiful? It's from the incredible Gourmet Gaming - a website dedicated to replicating food featured in video games by creating recipes in real life (how amazing and creative is that?). It's not just cake either.. there's an amazing mix of food including a Sonic chili dog, Legend of Zelda soup (this looks amazing), Sims mac and cheese and more!

Luckily for me Dani (the girl behind the site) is currently doing some design work at The List, so I was able to twist her arm and share this recipe for her Animal Crossing: Wild World birthday cake!

 

What you will need:
2 mixing bowls, hand whisk, a sieve, three 8-inch cake tins, baking paper and an icing bag/pipe.

For the Cake:

• 4 Eggs (Separated and  at room temperature)
• 4 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 400g Plain Flour
• ½ Teaspoon Salt
• 227g Butter (at room temperature)
• 450g Caster Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 200ml Milk
• ¼ Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

For the Pink Coconut Icing:

• 500g Cream Cheese
• 200g Butter
• 50ml Natural Yoghurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 270g Icing Sugar (approx.)
• Few Drops Red Food Colouring

To Garnish:

• 6 Strawberries
• 2 Tablespoons of Coconut Flakes
• 4 Green Candles

This is what we are aiming for. 

Make your cake! 
Grease your cake pans, line with baking paper and preheat your oven to 175 degrees C.

In a mixing bowl beat together the butter and 350g of the sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Now add the 4 egg yolks (one at a time), followed by the vanilla extract. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, mix together, then slowly add the milk.

In a separate bowl add the egg whites and whisk until fluffy (Juliet note - make sure bowls are SPOTLESS before you try to whisk egg whites, or you'll have problems!). Add the cream of tartar and continue to whisk until peaks form. Gradually add the remaning 100g of sugar until the peaks stiffen. Then gently fold the egg whites into the cake mixture, and pour evenly into cake tins. Bake for around 25 minutes.

When the cake is baked (do the stabby/prodding tests to make sure), leave to cool then pop in fridge while you prepare the frosting.

Make your icing!
Beat the butter (poor butter) in a bowl until light, then add the yoghurt and vanilla. Gently stir in the cream cheese, being careful not to over mix (this will thin the frosting and make it runny). Gradually add the icing sugar bit by bit, adding more as you need it (to thicken or sweeten the icing). Then add the red food colouring and put it in the fridge to chill.

Construct your cake! 
Aim for flat and smooth cake layers (even out with a knife very carefully if needed). Ice the bottom layer, being careful not to go over the edges, place the next layer on top and continue this until you have a stack of three layers.

Set aside 3 tablespoons of icing and cover the cake in the remaining icing - this does not have to be neat. Now place the strawberries (with stalks trimmed) pointed end up evenly around the cake. Put the last bits of icing into an icing bag/pipe, using a large nozzle, pipe drops of icing between each of the strawberries around the cake. Garnish with the green candles and a sprinkling of coconut.

Tada!

Dani's instructions are so detailed it puts my recipes to shame (ha) but I can't wait to try this out!

I was absolutely addicted to Animal Crossing a little while ago - I'd definitely recommend it if you like quirky games (particularly if you happen to enjoy collecting fruit & fishing, & hanging out with grumpy foxes. It is cooler than this sounds).

Hope you enjoyed!

Christmas shopping: gifts for guys

 Hi! So hopefully you've all seen my first Christmas gift guide (and found it fairly useful!). To follow on I thought it would be fun to get a different perspective on gift ideas, and roped my (ever patient and helpful) boyfriend into writing something! Enjoy....


Hi I'm Craig, I am 30 years of age and I enjoy music and fun.

Juliet wanted to get some Y chromosome perspective on gifts for those difficult-to-shop-for gentlemen in your lives. As a gentleman of refined taste myself, I was happy to help. While I can't guarantee that all men everywhere will like this stuff, I can definitely confirm that none of it would be unwanted should it end up in my stocking.

Jah bless!

IF YOU HAVE.... 

£10 to spend

1. Han Solo in carbonite! This silicon mould is in the shape of Han Solo as trapped in carbonite, and can be used to make Han-shaped ice cubes, chocolate bars, or whatever else you can come up with. £9.99

2. Tasty beer! Brewdog are moving from their boutique brewery roots to gradually taking over the world. Find out why with a bottle of tasty 18.2% stout, a great gift for any beer-loving gentleman (or lady). £9.99 Also available, personalised bottles here – worth a look.

3. Bike SpokeLit. This light attaches to the spokes of a bicycle wheel, and dramatically increases visibility from the side. The main thing however is – it looks super cool! £7.99

4. Moustache Hip Flask. Hip flasks are practical. Moustaches are stylish. It follows then, that this hip flask is both practical and stylish! £12


£25 to spend

1. Leatherman 'Style' multi tool.  Leatherman make the best and hardiest multi-tools, as is well known by all men. This is their teeny-tiny handy key-chain multi tool, ideal for all manner of unexpected man/tool/object interactions. £23

2. I like Pandas, and I also enjoy parties. If you know someone who also likes this fantastic combination, then this might be the t-shirt for them. £21.99

3. Help save wild animals with the WWF! Get a plush toy, sponsor an endangered animal. If your boyfriend likes animals, then he'll like this. If he doesn't, you might want to reconsider him being your boyfriend (OH SNAP!) £19.99

4. Home brewing starter kit. This kit contains everything you need to make your own lager (except sugar, I believe). 40 pints worth! That is a lot of lager, plus the satisfaction of making it all on your own. You can add funky flavours or do whatever you like, all for a top-value £23.80.


£50 to spend

1. Massage Chair add-on thing! Obviously these are great. £59.99

2. Kymera magic wand remote control - this is a magic wand that you use as a universal remote. You teach it gestures to turn on the tv or hi-fi or change the channel or the volume, and you get to feel like a magic wizard! Good deal, I think. £49.95

3. It’s well known that gentleman of a certain age enjoy spending many hours playing video games. You will surely know if the gentleman in your life falls into this category. If so one of these will go down a treat:

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – celebrating the 20th anniversary of the original Zelda, the latest instalment is out on the Wii. This edition even features a shiny gold controller! £47.90
• Guns! Explosions! Ridiculous storylines and industry-leading multiplayer! That’s right, it’s the world’s biggest entertainment franchise (I know, what the hell?) – Call of Duty MW3. Pow-pow! £43 or thereabouts
• If stealthy sneaking (and springing across rooftops) in historically-accurate(ish) representations of Constantinople and other Renaissance-era cities sounds more up your street, the conclusion of Assassin’s Creed – Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, might be in order. £49.90 (collector’s edition).

4. Awesome glasses. These glasses are nigh-unspillable and pretty smooth. Support someone close to you’s drinking problem this Christmas with these. And at £42 (plus postage, natch) you’ll have enough left from your £50 to buy a little beverage to go with them. Mmmmmm, alcohol.


£100 to spend

1. Learn to surf! Surfing is the best thing ever, you get to have amazing fun, be in the sea, make cool friends and get fit. The first time you catch a wave is amazing. Coast 2 Coast are friendly and professional and based in Dunbar (just outside Edinburgh) and offer a great course of four lessons for £95 (all equipment hire included). By the end of that you'll be shredding gnarly surf-tubes!

2. Vuzix iWear. These are those glasses that you wear that make it seem like you’re watching a massive screen some distance away from you. Plug them into you ipod, DVD player, laptop or whatever, and have an ignoring-everything-around-me party. £100

3. House of Marley headphones. These have been voted the best among all the recent ‘celebrity’ headphones that are filling the shops, even better than Dr Dre’s Beats (and for significantly less outlay). Great sound, pretty stylish, ideal for jammin’ (see what we did there?) your beats. £99.99

4. Nixon make nice watches (and OK, some pretty ugly ones too!), and this one is particularly nice. Modern and simple, it’s a good watch. £100

Polished criminails

Today I'm guest posting over at Polished Criminails, a lovely nail art blog (which also has a cracking name!). Rachel-Karina is working through a 31 day nail art challenge, so I did a quick tutorial on easy pastel leopard print!

This also gave me a great excuse to update my own leopard print how to (which previously just had awful iphone photos). It now has action photos!

& hopefully my epic Christmas gift guide has been useful! Part two (written by my lovely boyfriend Craig!) will be up tomorrow.