Les macarons...

Since sampling some delicious macaroons (ok, I'm switching to the English spelling!) on my trip to Paris in July, I have been meaning to try and make them myself. I was a little hesitant, having heard and read numerous horror stories from friends and websites, about how tricky it is to make these delicious little buggers, however, following my recent success at creating a scrumptious red velvet cake for my birthday earlier in the week, I decided to put my baking skills to the test.


Now I am no expert when it comes to baking, but with two very successful birthday cakes under my belt this year, I am beginning to think that there's not much to it - you follow a recipe (and your instincts) and hey presto you have something delicious to eat.

So, I put on my apron and got started. The macaroon-making process does not involve many ingredients - here's the recipe I followed:

150g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
3 medium egg whites
50g caster sugar

First you combine the almonds and icing sugar together and then sift so that you end up with a fine powder-like consistency. Next, whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl (add a pinch of salt) slowly adding the caster sugar until the mixture thickens to form soft peaks. This meringue mixture can then be divided into separate bowls if you wish to make different flavours and/or colours (if so, then add the food colouring and flavouring at this point) before using a spatula to fold the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue by adding half first, and folding, and then adding the remainder.


Spoon the mixture into a piping bag - or as I did, a plastic freezer bag! - and pipe the macaroon mixture into small rounds onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Give the tray a sharp tap on the counter and leave to stand for 10 minutes before baking for 15 minutes at 140°C. A tip which really helped me to remove the cooked macaroons from the baking paper is to pour a tiny bit of water between the tray and the paper after you remove it from the oven, as the moisture will help the macaroon lift without sticking.




For the filling, I used nutella to fill half of them, and I made a buttery filling for the other half by mixing butter, icing sugar, cinnamon and strawberry jam.


Mine came out pretty well for a first try - they were not perfect, but they tasted really yummy, light, fluffy and chewy. I found the hardest part was trying to make them a uniform shape and size....which they weren't! Mine also did not have as smooth a surface as the shop-bought ones. I suppose this takes practice though, and possibly a proper piping bag.


So if you fancy making macaroons, but are a little wary, I would say...give it a go!

Happy birthday to me!

So another year has gone by and despite feeling a little unmotivated to organise a party, I ended up having a super fun time celebrating my birthday earlier this week.

I started to get into the spirit of things by baking a cake on Sunday to take out with me the following night. I had never made a red velvet cake before, and after tweaking the recipe a little, I was slightly nervous about how it would turn out...well, luckily it ended up tasting really yummy (even if I do say so myself), and I will definitely be making it again!


I saw in my anniversaire whilst out dancing on Sunday night at Gangbusters, a monthly club held on first Sundays in the upstairs bar at The Lexington pub in Angel. The night is hosted by Tim Hellzapoppin and features a selection of swing, jump blues and boogie woogie tunes. There was a nice crowd this month, and I was glad that I went out to enjoy my first dances as a 28 year old after the clock struck midnight.


After I left Gangbusters, I got to dance to some northern soul playing in the main bar downstairs - good to note that the same DJ's play a set there every Sunday and not only is the music awesome, but it's free entry and the decor is beautiful....you can't go wrong!








When I woke up on Monday morning, I couldn't help but feel a child-like excitement about opening my birthday parcel from Aaron, and got up early to unwrap my presents whilst on Skype with him. In case you're interested, these included a selection of sweeties, an awesome necklace that I'd had my eye on, and an absolutely beautiful pair of white dance wedges. I loved all of it and felt thoroughly spoilt! The surprises continued though, when I was drinking pink champagne with my mum in the afternoon and the doorbell rang, only to reveal a man from Interflora with a box containing a big bunch of roses from my sweetheart!






I met with friends on Monday night at The Gallery in West Hampstead, which is where Aaron and I held our engagement party earlier this year. This time I reserved the upstairs balcony area, which has a completely different feel to the downstairs bar, and holds less people, but was perfect for our group and nice for a change of scenery.










I lost count of the number of glasses of wine that everyone kept replenishing for me...








The cake went down a treat and I made a birthday wish...

What I couldn't wish for is a lovelier family, fiancé and friends because they are already the best. Thank you to everyone who made my day so special and for all the sweet birthday greetings!

Now, to keep applying my UV protection day cream and anti-wrinkle night cream and see how things look this time next year....

Vintage Festival 2011 at Southbank

Wayne Hemingway's Vintage Festival took place at London's Southbank Centre last weekend.

The event follows on from last year's Vintage at Goodwood, featuring music, fashion, film, art, design and British culture from the 1920s to the 1980s.










Held over the course of three days, a plethora of vintage shenanigans took place inside the Royal Festival Hall, and also spilled outdoors along the Thames.

I only went along on the Sunday, so I can't comment on the other days, but overall I had a pretty fun day out, despite a few gripes!










It was quite a last minute decision to go, as I got a cheap ticket through an online deal (in fact, most people I know also booked with this special offer). The original ticket price of around £60 per day was, in my opinion, too steep...

Quite predictably, my main plan for the day was to do as much dancing as possible, but I found the Torch Club (which, on the Sunday was located in the Clore Ballroom - where my sweetheart proposed to me!) to be quite deserted every time I went there. This was a shame, as it's such a big dance floor, and had great lighting with a disco ball casting a pretty twinkling effect around the room.








I did, however, dance in the Soul Casino, which despite feeling like a sauna, attracted a good crowd consistently throughout the day, and had the most constant flow of fun music to get me shaking my tail feather. Norman Jay's set was hands down the best session of the day for me. I normally love his sound system at the Notting Hill Carnival, and he definitely played some killer tracks at Vintage.






I feel like I spent a lot of the day walking up and down flights of stairs, moving from room to room trying to find something to get really excited about. One of the more exciting moments, was being stopped and given a VIP pass to the British Airways fashion show, complete with complimentary champagne and a flight attendant to escort us to our seats! It was interesting to see the various uniforms over the years, with some quite surprising and colourful ones thrown in between the standard navy blue suits.












I enjoyed the beautiful summer's day on the Southbank, people-watching and taking in the interesting, cute and spectacular outfit choices, spending the day with friends, and generally feeling lucky to live in such a vibrant and beautiful city that is home to so many fun events.






If I'm honest, there was a certain something lacking for me - I don't know if this is because I expected to be swing dancing more or because by the end I felt like a nomad moving from room to room searching for that certain je ne sais quoi...

The evening heralded a fun country and western band in The Torch ballroom, which proved rather enjoyable to me, it was just a shame that there was hardly anyone there to watch them! Following that, I went to catch the end of Snakebone's performance in the Let it Rock room, which by this point was more atmospheric, with a good crowd, people dancing all over the black and white checkered dance floor and a smoke machine induced haze enveloping the club.








The event has its pros and cons, and given the huge scale of it, it would be hard to make it perfect for everyone. Maybe if I had found my dancing mojo (or at least a few more guys to help me find it) I would be writing more of a rave review right now, but as it is, I will just say that I had fun....as well as a good night's sleep after eight hours of hoofing it up and down 5 flights of stairs...

On another note, my friend and I had our photo snapped upon arrival at the festival, and it appears on www.nyanzi.com - go check out this guy's blog as he takes fab photos!