Vanilla Star Cupcakes // Tanya Bakes Recipe

I haven't done a baking post in a while now but I recently made these cupcakes from Tanya Burr's baking book and thought I'd make a post out of it. They were pretty easy to make and all the photography in 'Tanya Bakes' is so gorgeous! The instructions are really easy to follow too and I love that at the top of each recipe Tanya has written a little paragraph talking about the recipe and what they mean to her.
 For example for this recipe she wrote: ' These were some of the first cakes I made when I was little, with my mum. We used to call them fairy cakes as this was about 20 years before the cupcake craze began! They are pretty, cute and yummy, too, they will not fail to put a smile on anyone's face.' I think that this is a really nice touch and just makes it a bit more personal. This book is also quite special to me because I went to her Norwich signing for it and got to meet her for the second time and take a selfie with her.
So let's get into it...

INGREDIENTS:

50g unsalted butter, softened

180g caster sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

160g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

160ml milk

For the icing:

500g icing sugar

250g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate (optional):

Chocolate stars (I used magic stars)

Glitter Sprinkles

1. Preheat the oven to 180°/350°F/GM4 and line the cupcake/muffin tray with paper cases.

2. In a bowl , cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Then mix in the egg and vanilla extract.

4. Fold in the flour and baking powder, then slowly add the milk, beating as you go until you have a smooth batter.

5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 mins until golden.

6. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

7. For the icing, mix together all the ingredients until smooth. Spoon or pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate with chocolate stars and glitter or whatever you fancy.

Thank you for reading and let me know if you Tanya Bakes and if you've baked anything from it yet.

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Beauty/Makeup Storage

I've wanted to do this post for quite a while now but always put it off as I thought: 'I'll find a better way to store my makeup soon' or 'I haven't finished organising yet'. But I've finally done it! and even better, this post idea came from MakeSpace, an on-demand self-storage service that picks up, stores, and delivers all the items you need. So basically for this post I'll just show you how I store my makeup and beauty stuff and what I use to store it, so lets get into it...

Firstly I keep all my makeup brushes, which are mostly Real Techniques, in this cute little pot from Ikea. They're quite popular, so I'm sure you've seen them all over instagram as they're just so cute!

Then I keep my sort of everyday makeup, lipsticks and mini makeup in this acrylic makeup organiser from amazon as it's just easier to get to things and it looks pretty.

Onto the main part, I keep pretty much everything in these ALEX drawers from Ikea as they are just perfect. In the first drawer I keep most of my makeup, in the second drawer is nail polish, lip balms and palettes, the third drawer is hair products and bath and body products and the last drawer is skincare.

I used to want to get the MUJI storage dividers as they're such a good size to keep all your makeup in and fit perfectly into these drawers, but I didn't really want to spend money on them when you can honestly just use takeaway containers. So that's what I use to keep everything organised as they're free and all you have to do is wash them up! 

Second Drawer

Third  Drawer

Last Drawer

Thank you for reading and make sure to check out MakeSpace!

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Iceland Travels

I recently got back from a school trip with loads of my friends to Iceland, which was amazing. I have only ever properly been abroad once before and that was when I was eight years old and my family and I went to Portugal. So as I have recently added another page to my blog about travel, I thought what better to do then make a post showing you all the photos I took when I was there. We stayed there for five days and in that time visited so much and it really was one of the best experiences of my life! So be prepared, there are lots of photos (I did have even more, but it really was ridiculous so I deleted some!).

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Blushed Nudes Eye-Shadow Palette | Maybelline

I got this palette as a birthday present form my best friend and I've used it so much since. I actually haven't had an eye shadow palette like this before with more pinky toned shades in and I had been wanting one for the summer and this palette did catch my eye a few times but I never got round to actually purchasing it. So I guess you could say my friend did very well with this present ;)

So for todays post I thought I would do a little review of it and show you some swatches of the shades as they are very beautiful.

Top Row in palette - Left to Right

Bottom Row in palette- Left to Right

Overall there are twelve shadows and they all blend out so well and most of them are really pigmented. They are mostly shimmery but I also love that some are matte and it comes with a little brush with a sponge applicator on one end and a brush on the other, which is handy. They also stay on for a reasonably long time there isn't too much fallout when you apply them.

On the back of the packaging there is also little guides of which shadows to use with others and you can see how versatile they all are and its just a really helpful guide, especially if your are just starting out with makeup.

Thank you for reading!

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Lavenham | Suffolk

I recently went to Lavenham, a small village in Suffolk, for the day with my dad and thought it was really pretty so took a few photos. So what better to do with them then make a post for my blog! So here they are.

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Zoella Beauty Sweet Inspirations

Zoella's new product range, 'Sweet Inspirations', came out a few weeks ago and since then I've been dying to try them out as the packaging looks amazing! I've also tried lots of her other products and they are all amazing so I had high hopes for this range. I only have a few products from this new range but I thought I'd do a review on them anyway. The scent of them is inspired by sweet macaroons which I do really like, however not as much as the scents of her other ranges. So here are my thoughts on them. 

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Fave Spring/Summer Lipsticks

Top to bottom: Clinique- Nude Pop, Rimmel London Lasting Finish- 03, L'Oreal- Juliannes Nude

Clinique Pop Lip colour- Nude Pop
This is only the mini size, but I love it! It's a really pretty pink toned nude that has a tiny but of shimmer in it and is so easy to wear. The packaging is also really cute and I love that it's not round like a typical lipstick. Instead its got a sort of cuboid shape.

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Celebrity Gridded Drawings | Portraiture

If you know me you may know that I'm quite artistic and love drawing. I also took GCSE art and so I do a lot of work for that which helps me practice and get better. So, basically I thought I should really make a section on my blog about my art as it's a big part of what I want to do in life. I'm not sure how much I'll be posting about it, but I just want to have a few pictures of my artwork to work as a sort of portfolio or just a diary. 

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Beauty Blog Post Ideas

I'll admit it. Sometimes it's really hard to think of new blog post ideas, especially if you're like me and have a lot of schoolwork on your mind. So I thought I'd just do a little post listing some ideas in case you're stuck and just can't think of anything. Oh and if you're wondering this notebook is from Paperchase and is so helpful to organise things and its super cute.

- Monthly Favourites

- What's in My Bag

- Makeup Reviews

- Skincare Reviews

- Everyday Makeup Routine

- Style Snippets

- Makeup Looks 

- Makeup Haul

- Skincare Haul

- Clothes Haul

- Baking

- What You're Wearing on Your Nails

- Morning Skincare Routine

- Evening Skincare Routine

- Pamper Evening Routine

- Travel Diaries 

- Favourite Bloggers

- Favourite Youtubers

- Makeup Collection

- Skincare Collection

- Nail Polish Collection

- New Years Resolutions

- DIY'S

-  Winter/Spring/Summer/Autumn Fashion Staples

- What I got for Christmas

- What I got for my Birthday

- Q&A's

- Bedroom Snippets

- Fave Candles

- Fave Skincare Brands

- Fave Makeup Brands

- Brand Focus

- 5 Ways to de-stress 

- Brands that Don't Test on Animals

- Favourite Books

- Products Not Worth the Hype

- Product Empties

- 5 Makeup Items to try in Superdrug/Boots

- Favourite Lip Products

- Makeup Habits You Need To Get Into

- What's in my Makeup Bag

- Desk/Dressing Table Tour

- Drugstore Makeup must-haves
- High End Makeup Must- haves

- Room Tour
- Autumn/Winter/Spring/Summer Nails

Thank you for reading! 

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