Scones (Plain & Cheese) Recipe

Hello Everyone!

This is yet another recipe for your empty tummies to enjoy! I love cooking and baking so much, so this is the reason I have written so many posts of this genre. Sharing my experiences and recipes with you is a privilege, and I hope you like them so much that you even take it upon yourself to bake/ cook your own creations.
For this scones recipe, it was a very last minute decision to bake these. I was sat, bored in my IT lecture (it's just revision), when I was moaning as I was so hungry- I had no food or money. I could roughly remember the simple ingredients we had at home, and had a thought "I haven't made scones in a while…"so thats when my decision was made- I'd be baking scones, plain for everyone (mainly my dad) and a few cheese for me and my sister. I was very serious about making these when I got home from college that day, that whilst sat on the bus I messaged my sister with my adamant intentions.


Ingredients:
Plain Scones-
*350g Self-raising Flour
*1/4 tsp Salt
*1 tsp Baking Powder
*85g Butter (Cut into cubes)
*3 tbsp Caster Sugar
*175ml Milk
*1 tsp Vanilla Extract/Essence
Cheese Scones-
*Everything as above, minus the Caster Sugar and Vanilla Extract/Essence
*Instead add cheese-grated ( as much as you want)

Pre-Heat the oven at 200c/ Gas Mark 7

Method:
1. Place the flour into a mixing bowl, along with the salt and baking powder. Mix these together.
2. Add the butter to the dry mixture and rub together with your fingers until you get what looks like fine bread crumbs. 

3. Stir the sugar (only necessary for the plain scones) into the mixture. -> Here would be where you'd add the grated cheese.

4. Pour the milk into a jug and place in the microwave to warm it up for around 30 seconds. (make sure the milk does not turn hot) Add in the vanilla essence (only necessary for plain scones) to the milk.
5. Make a well (hole) in the dry mix and pour in the milk and vanilla. Quickly combine together (in a ball)-easier to use your hands.

6. Sprinkle flour over the work surface an tip the dough out. Knead the dough slightly to assure it is together well and a bit smoother.

7. Roll out the dough to the thickness that you require. (the thicker the dough, the less scones you'll make)

8. Take a cutter (or something round) and cut out as many scones as you can- place them on a greased baking tray reading for baking. With the left over dough, repeat the last process of rolling it out and cutting the shapes, until all the dough has gone. 

9. Place all of the 'cut outs' on a baking tray. Glaze the shapes with either a beaten egg or milk.

10. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until risen or golden on the top. Enjoy these on their own or with jam and cream (the plain scones).

Sorry for the quality of this image, I took it one handed! :/

I hope you enjoy making this really simple recipe, it involves simple, everyday ingredients and doesn't take that long to make or bake. Enjoy the simplicity of such a typical British food- loved all year round. 
Comment or upload images of how you found the recipe and your final result. I'd love to her how you all got on. :D

Oreo Cheesecake

Hello Everyone!

With Easter having just past us by, you may be a bit fed up with those never-ending chocolate eggs (no!? Well, a change may be what you're pining for). Although this is still chocolate, it is a change as it's Oreo biscuits and a creamy cheesecake filling- and who doesn't love Oreo's!? 

I have made this recipe a number of times before, and I can honestly say that for me, it took a fair few tries to get this 'perfect' and how it should be. Problems I've had have been; the biscuit base didn't stick together (too crumbly/fell apart), and the filling didn't set (it was more like melted ice cream). So I hope that this works for you, unlike my first few attempts- also there is no 'baking in the oven' involved.

Ingredients:
*1 packet of Oreo's (about 14 biscuits)
* 1/4 cup of Butter (or add as you go)
* 1 tub of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
* 1/2 cup of Sugar
* 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
* 1 tub of Whipped/Whipping Cream

Method:
1. Separate the Oreo biscuits (the two biscuit halves and the white cream centre), put cream in one bowl to use later.

2. With the biscuit halves crush them into crumbs, either mechanically or manually, and set to one side.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. 

4. Pour the melted butter over the cookie crumbs to stick it together. If they don't form a 'buttery biscuit base' then you could add more butter until you get the correct consistency. Transfer the biscuit crumb mixture into the round baking tray and flatten to fit the tin. Place the tray in the fridge to partly set whilst making the filling.
5. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla essence together in a mixing bowl, until well blended. For this you could mix it by hand or with an electric whisk or mixer.

6. Stir in the whipped cream to the creamy mixture- if you buy 'whipping cream' then you will have to beat it, until whipped (you could use a whisk or spoon and mix by hand-which will take a long time, or use an electric whisk or mixer). 

7. Pour in the cookie crumbs and the cream whites to the mixture and stir/whisk together until a smooth creamy consistency.

8. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the baking tray with the biscuit base and evenly spread over the top. 

9. Place in the fridge for a few hours or over night to set properly.

10. To serve, either cut into the cheesecake with a knife and serve. If you use a baking tray, like mine, with a removable bottom which will make the cheesecake look more presentable.

I hope that you enjoy making this really simple and quick cheesecake recipe, if you don't get it right the first time, don't worry its hard to get anything 'perfect' without attempting it multiple times. Trust me this happens to me many-a-time. 
I'd be interested to see how your cheesecake's turn out, if you choose to make it, post pictures or links! :D

Media Music Survey

Hello Everyone!

It would be of great help if all you lovely people could complete this survey for me. It is to gain some research for my media magazine which I have created, the survey only asks you questions about your music tastes. 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Thank you so very much for filling out this survey, it will be of great help! :D Sorry this has been a bit of a boring post, but the next one should be better.

We're Happy!

Hello Everyone!

This post is partly a bit of self (class) promotion, but I thought it would be a cool thing to write about. At college I take Media Studies as an A Level, and am currently completing my A2 year, in this year part of the course is to learn about media in the online age. My teacher thought it would be a good idea to attempt to create our own parody/viral video to experience the process first hand, also this can be written about in our exam. We spent one lesson going out in small groups to capture some footage of people dancing in a variety of backgrounds to then piece together in the video. The next was spent cumulating and editing (I didn't go near the editing team, as I just can't use editing software to save my life, aha) the footage into one video full of dancing to Pharrell William's number one song, Happy. From this we posted it on Youtube, and then each member of the class was responsible to share it on any media platform out there...Twitter, Facebook, Email, Word of mouth and on here (Blogger). We were going to share the video, leave it for 3 weeks and then look back at how many views it has collated, to finally write up an evaluation of the experience. So far at this moment in time it has 444 views in 5 days!!
So here is the video, have a watch... like it, share it, leave a comment! Thanks :D

Have you recently filmed or taken part in your own parody or version of a song, or have you come across any out there on Youtube which you love... feel free to leave a comment below for me to check them out. :D

Oreo Muffins

Hello Everyone!

It was my dads birthday last week and he asked me to bake him some cakes to take to work with him on the Tuesday. His work does this thing where when it's someone's birthday, that person brings in cakes for everyone to share and celebrate their day (cute right!). So this year he allowed me to decide what I was going to bake, (I was the one making them, it's only right!) and I found a recipe for Oreo Cupcakes and instantly fell in love.
Below is the Oreo Cupcake recipe (ingredients and method included) with some lovely images to display the processes I went through.

Ingredients:
(For the cake)
* 250g Self raising flour
* 250g Light brown soft sugar
* 50g Cocoa
* 250g Dark chocolate
* 250g Butter
* 4 Eggs
(For the filling)
* 154g Pack of Oreo's
* 250g Butter
* 300g Sifted icing sugar
* A few drops of vanilla extract
* 1-2 Milk (if necessary)

Pre-Heat the oven at 160c/ Gas Mark 3

Method:
1. Mix together the sugar, cocoa and flour.

2. Melt the dark chocolate together with the butter over low heat- so you don't burn the chocolate. (I used a saucepan half full with boiling water from the kettle and a bowl with the chocolate and butter in over the top to melt it).

3. Into the dry mixture stir in the melted chocolate and the crack the eggs in. Beat the mixture until light and fluffy (a typical cake mixture consistency).

4. Poor the cake mixture into the muffin cases. Use up all the mixture topping up any cases that look too sparse. (You could do what I always do and use your finger or spoon to eat the leftover mixture- Yum)

5. Place in the oven for about 40 mins, until the cakes have risen. (Another way of checking whether a cake is baked properly is to stick a knife into the cake and if it comes out clean then it is done).
6. Transfer the cakes onto a wire rack and leave until cool.
7. Whilst the cakes are cooling, you can make a start on the buttercream icing. Beat the butter until it is of a creamy consistency. To this add the icing sugar and vanilla essence, then mix well. If you find that the mixture is slighlty dry then you could add a tablespoon of milk at a time, or if your mixture is too wet then you could add more icing sugar. (It can sometimes be a trial and error)
8. Crush the Oreo cookie biscuit parts and add about 3/4 to the mixture. (Here you could place the cookies into a food blender/processor, or simply get something hard and bash them)
9. Spread the buttercream icing over the cupcakes. To do this I used a piping bag to get a nice effect, but a knife or spoon will do just fine.

10.  Lastly sprinkle the remaining cookie crumbs over the cakes.

I hope that you enjoy baking these as much as I did. Oreo's are just simply amazing and anything you try to make with them turn out great!

My Weekend Away

Hello Everyone!

The weekend just gone was probably one of the best I've had in a long while, it was full of great food, lots of laughs, emotions running high and spending some time with some amazing friends- and making closer relationships. 
I didn't go far, only to Emsworth (15-20mins drive from me), from Friday to Monday. It was a church youth event called 'Winterfest' where every February half term a huge group of young people get together to have a fun weekend doing activities, playing games and for the main reason of praising and worshipping God. This was my 5th year attending and I feel that through the years they have just got better and better, this time there was 120 young people from year 6 up to university attendees and graduates, which is the biggest one yet. 

On the Friday when we arrived we had to go set up our beds in the rooms we shared with our cell groups. Once set up we had a meeting- which involved a worship music part and then a talk about a specific topic.
All of the days follow this pattern with Saturday, we all got on two coaches (boys on one, girls on the other) and went to Guildford Spectrum leisure centre where we went swimming/diving and bowling. We were there most of the day, and when we got back we chilled out for 2 hours, waiting for dinner to be ready. Once again the evening ended with a music worship event and a talk. This meeting was followed by a ministry event which is where everyone got into their cell groups and had a prayer circle, a time to pray for anything on your mind. 
Sunday was met with waking up super early for breakfast, followed by normal church services. However, this Sunday was a baptism with 7 young people getting baptised in front of hundreds of onlookers. How amazing! Later we had some active games which consisted of; hockey, dodgeball, bin basketball, human inflatable fusball and inflatable jousting. My team lost every game we played, and unsurprisingly we lost the whole event. :/ Winterfest ended it's last night on a high, with a talk which included a rather successful science experiment (mentos in a coke bottle), which was a great way to show how we sought for God in our lives and how he works in ours. Also there was a stage diving competition, which shows how unconventional church really can be...

...Excuse the bad quality, I took a video from one someone else took.
Monday morning was just a huge packing down and tidying session, to put everything back into order. With hundreds of people taking part in the cleaning it didn't take long at all.

I felt like Winterfest 2014 was so good, and during the weekend I became a much more confident person and made some closer friendships who will all be with me for life. :D When it ended and Monday morning came around, I just know that I now can not wait for Summer Camp in July which is very much the same event- but much longer! :D 
How has your half term gone so far? Even if you don't get half terms like some (most) people, how was your weekend? :D

University Offers

Hello Everyone!

As of today, Friday 14^th February 2014 (also known as Valentine’s Day), I have received all 3 offers from the universities I have applied for. They are all conditional offers, in the hope that I achieve the grades to go in September, which is what I am aiming for.

Although I am 18, which is the right age to go to uni in the UK, I still feel so young- like I shouldn’t be going for interviews, applying for student finance or worrying about money. I should be having fun being young, spending time with friends- but in reality I will still be doing all of this at university, if not having a great time then I will have made lots of new friends who are interested in the same things I am. Whilst writing this I am getting super excited for September to come, not only will I have just started a degree, but I will either be, or nearly be 19 (Woah! Getting old, aha :P).

The 3 courses I have applied to do are;

* Magazine Journalism and Feature Writing- Southampton Solent University

* Multimedia Journalism- Southampton Solent University

* Journalism- Portsmouth University

3 very different courses in the subject of journalism, but from all I anticipate to gain the same if not similar skills of getting me closer to my ambition of becoming a magazine journalist or designing magazine layouts.

As you can possibly tell (if you know Hampshire, or have heard of it) that the two universities are both near each other (about 30 mins drive between the 2) which suggests that I don’t want to move away from home. This is partly true! Instead I will commute daily to and from my lectures. I see it as a blessing that the course I REALLY want to do (Magazine Journalism and Feature Writing) is so close to where I live! :D It just means the whole 3 years of uni will work out cheaper for me. For the tuition fees alone, after the degree I will be in £27,000 in debt- however, this is the cheapest loan you will ever pay back. My dad has said to me ‘Just think of it as a tax, paying a small amount back each month, ONLY when you earn over £21,000’- what a wise dad I have!

For me now it is a case of replying to these offers, selecting my ‘firm choice’ and my ‘insurance choice’, after that I have to wait for August to come round and open that envelope which will contain my fate (Ooo, scary!)

Congratulations if many of you, like me, have received all your offers! And I suppose it’s going to be a shared ‘Good Luck’ in your exams to everyone in this situation.