You Boy, You Punch My Heart Out

Party Rings are so damn cute why should we leave them for the kids? That's not the way it should be, we've had to deal with the down right pain in the rather curvaceous bottom of growing up, so hell yeah we deserve the biscuits.

So to celebrate this rather marvelous Friday, for no other reason than WE CAN, I give you the delightfully sweet, and by no means innocent Party Ring, hold on to your bow ties, it's going to get wild.

For these lovelies I've kept the recipe really simple, nothing too fancy, just good old vanilla biscuits with a glossy icing :)

Makes 12-15 round biscuits and 12-15 little hearts.

Ingredients

For the Biscuits...

3 1/2 oz (100g) Plain Flour

1 1/2 oz (45g) Vegan Butter 

2 oz (50g) Caster Sugar

Equivalent of 1 Egg (use your favourite vegan egg replacer, or if you don't have any you can just leave the egg out and add a little splash of soya milk instead.)

Few drops of vanilla extract

Small pinch of Baking Powder (1/4 Tsp)

Pinch of Salt

For the Decoration...

I iced half my batch in white icing and half in chocolate, but the possibilities are endless! Choose any colour icing that takes your fancy and edible glitter works well too! 

4-5 Tbs Icing Sugar

I put 2 Tbs in one bowl and simply added a few splashes of water and mixed until smooth and glossy.

With the other 2 Tbs in a different bowl I added 1 Tsp of cocoa powder to make it chocolatey :)

Asda do a range of baking supplies at good value, and their Hundreds And Thousands are vegan :)

Lets Get Baking!

Grab your favourite mixing bowl and cream together your v.butter and sugar.

Add in the vanilla and 'egg' (or splash of soya milk).

Now sift in your flour, baking powder and salt.

Keep mixing with your trusty wooden spoon until the mixture starts to cling together, now get your hands involved to make it form a dough.

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and let it chill out in the fridge for at least 30 minuets. I tend to make my dough in the morning and then use it in the afternoon, or chill it overnight. Chilling the dough just makes it easier to work with, and it doesn't seem to spread as much so you won't loose any pretty details.

Now, roll the dough out quite thinly, only a couple of millimeters. Remember Party Rings are so very sweet, which is of course why we love them, however you don't want to get toothache now do you? 

What shapes you cut out is up to you, of course the traditional is a round doughnut shape, but you can put your own twist on and see how they boogie.

Bake them at 180c for about 10 minuets, but KEEP CHECKING ON THEM. In fact, don't leave your oven, just stay hovering like a mad woman. You want them to be that perfect pale shade of golden, much paler than a normal biscuit.

Let them cool and smoother them in icing, hundreds and thousands and glitter!

Happy Friday!

Love and all that jazz x

   

Night Time Biscuits

This is a tiny recipe that should be written in a little corner of your baking book. These are what I bake when I am frightened, scared of the night or anxious about what has been or I have yet to face. They are buttery and soft and sweet enough to almost make the monsters go away.
I don't bake them very often, because I'd probably compare them to having candy floss at the seaside, they're exactly what I want at that moment in time. 

Only makes about 10 very small biscuits.

Ingredients

3 oz Butter
1 oz Castor Sugar
Few drops of vanilla extract
1/2 oz Cocoa
3 oz Plain Flour
1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

All you need to do is grab your favourite wooden spoon...

Cream the sugar and butter together, then mix in the vanilla.
Sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.
Now either use your fingers to make little round biscuits or put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe it into doughnut shaped rings.

Bake at 180 for about 15mins.

Love and all that jazz x

My Darling Sun

I feel like today marks the end to winters long sleep.
As I walked through woods with yawning trees, their branches creaking as they stretched, the breeze was warm and damp on the back of my neck. I sucked in greedy lung fulls of air, spreading my fingers over delicate snowdrops, wondering where the daffodils were.
Over the past few weeks an anxious feeling has crept back, it seeped into the centre of my body and sometimes I feel it easing between my bones. Most of the time I forget it's there, or rather, I don't feel it at all. But then out of the blue blue skies it can start knawing at my stomach, with no warning, and if I let it, I can start to feel very lost.
But after a much needed long walk with my mother this morning I feel like the sun on my skin and the earth under my feet soothed me. We walked and walked, three hours in total, we kept walking and the sun and the sweat kept my body warm and now I feel happy. My feet ache a lot, but blistered feet are better than moths that bite at the inside of your stomach.

I do hope you lovelies are enjoying this early spring.

Love and all that jazz x

The Boy With The Fairy Lights

T left his shoes here. When I got back to the flat after walking with him to the train station I saw them on the floor. It made me smile, it was like a guarantee that he was coming back. And they weren't just strewn across my room, I knew he hadn't left them by mistake in his mad dash to catch the train. They were placed together at the foot of my chest of drawers, purposely left.

Here's the thing about T, I'm mad about the guy.

One of my favourite memories is the first time we went for coffee, I had laughed so much when we found out we both took it the same way. I thought it was wonderful that two strangers would meet and happen to both want black coffee with three sugars. Maybe it's not that uncommon, but I'd never met anybody before T that liked it quite that sweet. 

I smoke more now I'm with him, but we quite like cigarettes...

I am different with him, but in a good way. And I love the fact that I can run around and round and jump up and down and then start dancing just because I've spotted olives in Asda... and he just smiles, and tells me he loves me. 

Love and all that jazz x

and a happy little christmas to you

well, the world didn't end with a bang, as i admit, a part of me thought it might. nope, we're all still here, merrily draining our glasses and breathing out heavy sighs, announcing when the diet will be starting...that is until new years of course, when we'll be swinging from the stars declaring that the drink in our hand is and will be THE last drink. We're always so full of 'start as you mean to go on's and 'this is the year'. now i'm not saying that i am not guilty of saying such things, in fact i think i may be the one shouting them from the highest star. but one thing that gets me, is that every year i find myself sat on the sofa on boxing day, slightly hungover, too full and in much need of a cigarette thinking 'so, there goes another year'. what happens to all my ideas and plans all those 365days ago?
however, this year, THIS CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN DIFFERENT. ok ok, yes i'm still sat on the sofa writing this, still too full and gagging for a fag, but but BUT, i'm thinking the world is going to carry on with it's little spin, no matter what i decide to last year i made all those plans and what happened? the world spun them out of my hands and now my life is so completely different to what is was all those days ago. so y'know what? this year i'm going to wing it. there's only one rule, DO WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY.
and that's it.
one resolution.
surely i can keep one resolution right?
of course the 'do what makes me happy' umbrella will be broken down in to little pretty steps before new years... :)

so, hope you all are having a great christmas! i feel so happy and lucky to have such amazing family and friends, they've all been there for me this year, and i send big love to them all!
and T, he's made me different, made me better, or maybe just dusted me off so my shine is brighter now, but whatever he's done, he's made me so happy.

i would show you a few snapshots of my christmas, but the internet is being ridiculous! have to wait til january!

so hope you all have a fabulous new years, i know i will DEFINITELY be starting mine as i mean to go on... hahaha!

see y'all on the other side!

love and all that jazz x

give us a smile for christmas

on a wintery day i packed a small bag with jumpers and oranges and skipped back to the forest.

my lips are chapped and the cold fog clings in my hair as it settles between the hills.

the icy air seeps through my jumper and when i'm cuddled under blankets it slips under drafty doors and traces patterns across my skin.

 

 

 

 



i have to say sorry for my lack of blogging...i've recently moved into a flat with the lovely kim from sweet monday and we have yet to have internet...a tad annoying.

i hope all you lovely people are having a glittery christmas?

 

love and all that jazz x



Take What Is Yours

Take What Is Yours

Now it's your turn, my love,
Give me your heart,
Wrench it from your chest,
It will only hurt for a while.
Is that want you want to hear?
Or should I tell you the truth, because we're not kids anymore and you know you're going to bleed.
Your blood will run thick and hot across your skin,
And as you place your heart in my hand,
Watch as it beats a fast thud that threatens to deafen.
The noise roars louder and fills up our world,
It crashes around us and opens up wounds.
Your face looks strange,
Contorted from the pain and explosions of laughter.
The shouts of joy and terror make our bodies tremble,
Our world thrashes and spins fast enough to blind.
And as our tears stream and bones ache
Just hear that thud and keep holding on.
When it stops,
When it all stops,
We are still standing, with healed scars across our chests,
And holding in our arms, eachothers hearts.

x