One thing's for sure, we're all getting older

Yesterday, I had the slightly unfortunate job of turning 24. I'm still struggling to comprehend why I'm not 17 anymore, but managed to stop myself from dwelling on this too much by spending a weekend with lots of my most favourite people, eating lots of food, drinking lots of wine and dancing like a loony (there really is no better way to spend a birthday weekend as far as I'm concerned!). 

On Saturday, we went to The Pit in Leeds for food- its one of my failsafe options in town for food, especially as it has a great atmosphere (and Rekorderlig cider on tap). Part of the reason we went there was so we could have a cheeky game of ping pong too. Sadly that didn't actually happen... it was definitely something we should have considered doing before ordering a table full of burgers, pulled pork and onion rings as we could barely drag ourselves out of our chairs; we might have been a tad optimistic thinking we'd be able to run around after a ping pong ball afterwards.

In the evening, my friends came over to my house and my lovely friend Charlie had put on an absolutely incredible spread of afternoon tea style cakes for the party. What a star! I'm really gutted I didn't manage to get a picture of it all, I was just too excited to start eating it all! Plus, my housemate Kathryn made a really yummy cocktail in a teapot to accompany it all! That may have been partially to blame for the hilarious dancing that ensued later in the night!

My actual birthday was a far quieter affair (there may have been a few hangovers in the building...) but it involved lots of food, eating lots of cake at Iron Cupcake (conveniently held on my birthday!) and admiring my looovely birthday presents. My friends are such a lovely bunch and gave me some lovely treats, they all know how much I love decorating my bedroom and so I was really excited to open lots of homey gifts (as well as some other awesome presents which will no doubt feature in future posts!). Here's a little selection to satisfy all of you nosy people out there :)

Pelican: The Maccabees

Hold your horses now, sleep until the sun goes down

Yesterday was my best buddy's birthday. We celebrated with an absolute mammoth feast at Cielo Blanco in Leeds Trinity, and when I say feast I mean morefoodthanI'veeverseeninmylifebefore. Wow. Not only was there absolutely tonnes of food, but it was all incredibly tasty too- I'm a big fan of Mexican (and cocktails...) and definitely was not disappointed! If you're ever in Leeds, definitely pay them a visit and get one of the sharing boards if you're feeling hungry- the pork belly was a definite highlight! It wasn't the cheapest place I've ever been but it was great for a celebration, if you want something a bit more budget then I've road tested Neon Cactus (their more relaxed sister restaurant on Call Lane) which is a bit more budget friendly. 

Anyway, now I've made myself want to eat that all over again, the meal was followed by a cake made by yours truly. I felt as though I was under quite a lot of pressure making a cake for someone who's such an expert baker, but knew I was off to a good start when her boyfriend and I both simultaneously decided that the perfect cake for Charlie should be pig themed. Clearly we both know her too well. I'm not particularly good with icing cakes so when I found this cake after googling 'pig cakes' I managed to come up with the perfect solution to my far from perfect presentation skills.

The chocolate cake is my Granny's old tried and tested recipe. I spent many happy days with her in the kitchen as a child making lovely chocolate cakes with her. Its the only chocolate cake I ever make- nothing else compares to the taste of this and the memories I have attached to the taste.

And guess what, lucky people... I'm going to share Granny Betty's recipe for you all to try. (Piggy decorations optional...)

You will need:
For the cake:
8oz butter
8oz caster sugar
4 eggs
12oz self raising flour
2oz cocoa powder
2tbsp milk
2 tbsp golden syrup

For the icing 
(this isn't part of my Gran's recipe, she used to just melt chocolate but I decided I wanted something a little more 'mud-like'... also explains why this part is in grams... I didn't want to risk messing the quantities up by converting it!)
150g icing sugar
150g butter
125g melted dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 190C.

Cream together the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a bowl until light and fluffy. 

Once combined, add each egg one at a time, mixing after adding each egg.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture gradually, stirring as you go. 

Then add the milk and mix together until you have a smooth consistency. I ran out of milk, having just guessed and bought a little home from work (not being a tea drinker or cereal eater I never buy milk so thought I might aswell just grab a little from the work canteen to save wasting a whole bottle!). 

Pour the mixture into a lightly greased cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Once the cake has cooled a little, remove from the cake tin and leave to fully cool. 

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate for your icing. Begin to cream together the butter and icing sugar and then add the melted chocolate and mix until it is all combined.

Cover your cake with the buttercream icing and then if you're making a nice little mud bath then grab some pink icing and roll into little pig shapes (this was by far the most fun bit, and they were surprisingly easy to make thanks to the help of my lovely assistant Coral) and cover the edges of the cake with crumbled up flakes.

Enjoy! 

Let me know if you try this- I'd love to hear if you like my Granny's old faithful recipe as much as I do. 

Mountain Sound- Of Monsters and Men

Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise

Lisette who writes a delightful little blog over at Lisette Loves coined a great little expression, NPA (nosy people's anonymous), in her post earlier today. Doesn't that sum up the world of blogging so well? We're all guilty of enjoying a sneaky little peek into other people's lives, so on that theme I thought I'd give you a look at some of the birthday presents my lovely friends gave me. They know me too well, and know how excited I get about new homey bits and bobs and so I was over the moon when I had the pleasure of unwrapping all of these beauties over the weekend. 

1. A girl can never have too many moustaches. They're a symbol of fun times during my uni days and will always make me smile.

2. Brownies in a jar- such a great idea... I'm dying to make them but can't bring myself to yet because the jar looks far too pretty! 

3. Wise, wise words. A very fitting gift for the girl who just forwent a trip to the gym in favour of coming home and eating approximately 1000 malteasers.

4. A frame made of a map of Merseyside to remind me of home. I decided Mama and Papa T were the most deserving people to be put in this frame. 

5. An incredible cushion in the same fabric as the basket and frame I posted about here. I'm loving having a few matchy matchy bits in amongst all of the other fabrics and colours in my room.

So there you have it fellow NPA's... a little insight into how lovely my friends are. I got some other fab bits and bobs too which I'm sure will appear as part of outfit posts and other things soon!

The Chain- Fleetwood Mac

But you know that we've changed so much since then

I thought it would be rude not to show you all my incredible birthday cake made by my lovely friend Charlie. It was such a lovely surprise and made a brilliant day even better. A MASSIVE thank you if you're reading this buddy! 

I had a lovely time celebrating getting another year older, although every time anybody asks "how does it feel to be 23 then?" I do keep having small heart attacks... WHEN DID I GET THIS OLD?! A jam packed day filled with lots of my friends did a great job at making me forget about the unfortunate fact that no matter how hard I try, I'm just not getting any younger. We spent the afternoon playing crazy golf and having a game of Laserquest surrounded by hoards of noisy seven year olds who share my birthday.  It was so much fun, our team got very competitive- especially when it came to trying to seek revenge on a bald middle aged man who had a particularly evil glint in his eyes every time he shot someone. 

In the evening, we grew up ever so slightly and went out for drinks and a bit of a boogie. I boogied so hard that I tripped over myself and landed on top of a table of empty drinks. The theme song to the night quickly turned into "I see you Kaz, shaking that ass, breaking that glass, shaking that ass". I'm glad my misfortune and general lack of coordination provided so much entertainment to my friends. We'll call it a special treat for them as thanks for joining me on my birthday.

 In my case, growing older really doesn't seem to have any link with maturing. And I fully intend to keep it that way for as long as I possibly can- life is far more fun that way.

Now, please excuse me while I spend the rest of my evening polishing off the remains of the cake and slobbing out on the sofa nursing my hangover. 

Do You Remember The First Time? Pulp