Daily Bollocks - my answer to journalism

Hellooo!

So today I have had no work to do (yay!) so I started looking through old files on my computer and I found a thing I made called "Daily Bollocks". 

The press at the moment is ridiculous. I am the first one to admit that I love buying magazines and I love reading interviews, but what I don't love is reading gossip.  I don't really see the point. Interviews are by and large different, they normally (although not always) contain these weird things called facts. I find it strange that we have accepted that journalists don't need to put facts in articles - surely people's lives aren't that boring, and if they are - don't write about them! I also hate reading interviews that are the same in every single magazine and seem to bring up information that we all know and don't care about. 

Daily Bollocks is a spoof of a magazine/newspaper, which incorporates all of my annoyances. I also made a collage type thing of some made up headlines.  The "news" in Daily Bollocks is old, but you will get my point (I hope). Let me know what you think...

Katie :)

Children in Need!!

Howdee Bloggees!!

Children in Need is coming!! Tomorrow night at 7 begins one of the best nights of TV all year. I must admit I do prefer Comic Relief, but it is so close behind it's not even worth thinking about.  I mean what is better than blackmailing celebrities to do funny/stupid things. NOTHING!

I think it is great though that so many people do do things for charity, especially for all those children. Even if you aren't going to watch the show, please consider donating even a little bit.

I really wanted to buy some Pudsey ears to wear tomorrow but I couldn't find any in the shops! Instead I have made some Pudsey cakes and I am selling them to my friends.

Why don't you have a go at baking something to sell to your friends? I made chocolate cupcakes and covered them in yellow buttercream and smarties, but anything will do!

If you want to donate here is the link: Children in Need website and don't forget BBC1 tomorrow night at 7.

Katie :)

Salmon, Pea and Lemon Risotto

Hello Dear Bloggee,

Today I want to invite you into the world that is risotto. Risotto for those of you that don't know is a rice dish, that is cooked really slowly and is super yummy.  It is really easy to make and although it takes quite a long time to cook, I think it is definitely worth it.

You can put whatever you like in a risotto, but I want to share with you my Salmon, Pea and Lemon Risotto.

Serves 2 people.

Ingredients:

100g risotto rice.

1/2 a large onion

1/2 red pepper

frozen peas

1 salmon fillet

50g parmesan cheese 

1 stock cube

1 glass of white wine

1 lemon

Creme Fraiche (optional)

Method:

1. First up you need to chop up the onion and pepper and place in a large pan of hot oil.

2. When the onions and peppers have softened, you need to add in the rice. Stir until the rice is coated in the oily/oniony mixture.

3. Then if you have some white wine, add one glass and stir until it has been absorbed (if you don't have wine go straight to stock)

4. Then you need to make your stock, add 1 vegetable stock cube to 1.5 litres of boiling water in a jug.

5. Gradually add your stock, making sure that all the liquid has been absorbed before adding more. This should take about 15 minutes. Keep stirring, so that it doesn't stick to the bottom.

6. Whilst this is happening, you need to poach your salmon. Place the salmon in a saucepan and cover with water, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 7 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked. Once cooked, break up into pieces.

7. Before you add the last bit of stock, add in the frozen peas (as many as you want) and stir.

8. Add in the last of the stock and the salmon and stir again. Add in the juice of half a lemon. 

9. Once the rice is cooked, take off the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese.

10. Leave to rest for a couple of minutes.

11. Serve with creme fraiche and a slice of lemon.

Hope you enjoy making it.

Katie :)

Halloween!

Happy Halloween Bloggees!

I don't actually really celebrate Halloween, and this year we didn't even do pumpkins :( Because it is mid week and we have lectures tomorrow, no one went out.  This didn't stop me from putting on Halloween make-up on though (it may have had something to do with the essay I was supposed to do) to look like I was shot. What d'you think?

As I said we weren't going out and my housemates demanded that I made us all some treats so that we could at least pretend we were taking part.  Originally I was just going to buy some over-priced Halloween chocolate BUT THEN I saw these really cool brownies on Teenage Granny's blog that I just had to make them (by the way, her blog is AMAZING you should really check it out).

The idea of using brownie mix was quite upsetting, but in the end they were so quick it actually didn't matter!  You can get the "recipe" off her blog and I know it's a bit late, but just pretend that Halloween has a boxing day and bring them out tomorrow. Here are the ones I made, hastily this evening. Cool eh? Shame I don't like brownies or marshmallows!!

Hope you had fun wherever you are, especially if you dressed up and went trick or treating.

I changed the blog again today (this also may have had something to do with said essay), what do you think?

Katie :)

Jam tarts

Just a quick blog post bloggees, as I really should be writing an essay.

If you ever make a quiche like the one I made the other day, and you have any left over pastry, the best thing to do with it, is make JAM TARTS.

They are super easy and really tasty.

All you have to do is roll out the remaining pastry, then you need to cut out circles - if you have pastry cutters then use them, if not, find something round to cut around (oo it rhymes!) - and place them into yorkshire pudding/muffin/cupcake trays.

Fill with a teaspoon of jam (don't go crazy with the jam like I did, because it just overflows and goes everywhere) and put in the oven 180 degrees for 5-10mins or until the pastry is golden brown.

Leave to cool and set and then eat them all in front of your favourite tv programme (Miranda or Ab Fab is high up on my list)

Enjoy!

Katie :)

Quiche (and profiteroles)

Bloggees!

How are you? So I promised you profiteroles (I really can't spell that word) and I have failed. I know, outrageous really! I did make them, but I let my flatmates assemble them, and they didn't look great, and then we ate them all up before I had a chance to take a picture, so I am sorry! I do have a picture of the choux pastry though *fingers crossed that's enough*

BUT...

Do not fear, because I made quiche! I can hear your excitement, really I can. I know, quiche is no where near as exciting as profiteroles (I've spelt it wrong again, thank goodness for spell check!) but when you pull this out of your oven, your friends will just faint with amazement.

I decided to make a brie, bacon and broccoli (another word I can't spell!) quiche.

Here's how I made it:

Ingredients

For the pastry:

10 oz plain flour

5 oz cold butter (cut up into small piece)

cold water

For the filling:

1/2 onion

2/3 bacon rashers

1/2 a brie

1/4 broccoli

2 large eggs

1/2 pint full fat milk (or 1/4 pint semi-skimmed and 1/4 pint single cream)

grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

Method

1. First up we need to make the pastry. It is so much easier to do it in a food processor, but if you don't have one (I don't) it is fine to do it by hand. You need to rub together the butter and the flour until you have made breadcrumbs (you need to be patient as this does take time). Then you need to slowly add some cold water (1 tablespoon at a time) until the mixture starts to form a dough (don't add to much water, the drier the mixture the better). Place this in a freezer bag and put in the fridge until needed.

2. Next we need to make the filling. I would start by chopping up the onion, and placing it in a frying pan of hot oil. Whilst that is browning you can cut up your bacon into small pieces and add that to the onions. Season with cayenne pepper, paprika, mixed herbs, and salt and pepper. Leave to soften.

3. Whilst this is happening, you need to chop up your broccoli into florets and place in a pan of boiling water, until cooked. Drain well, as you don't want excess water in the quiche.

4. Once the pastry has been in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, you can bring it out and roll it thinly onto a floured surface. Then place it into your quiche dish, prick with a fork and then cover with greaseproof paper and baking beans. You are now going to bake it blind for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees, or until the pastry is cooked all the way through.

5. Whilst the pastry is cooking, you can make your egg mixture. All you need to do is whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and cheese.

6. Once the pastry is cooked, bring it out of the oven and remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans.  Spread the bacon and onion mixture on the surface of the pastry and arrange the brie and broccoli in a nice pattern. Cover with the egg mixture, making sure it doesn't overflow. Place it in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20/30 minutes. You don't want the mixture to wobble when it is cooked (if it is burning too quickly on the top, you can place some foil on top).

7. Finally, all you need to do is eat it!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Katie :)

Brioche (and Bakewell tarts!)

My dearest bloggee

I promised I would blog about my Bakewell tarts and here they are:

They were so easy to make. I used this recipe from BBC Good Food and just divided the recipe by 3, so that I only made 5/6 mini tarts. They were truely scrummy and I can assure you even the novice of baker can make these (and if your feeling naughty, you can always buy the pastry!)

But moving onto my more exciting venture... Brioche!

I have never made Brioche before and after The Great British Bake Off came to a close, I (like most of the country) decided that I could bake and thought that Brioche was the way forward. I used Paul Hollywood's book 'How to Bake' you can also find his recipe here. 

He said to use a machine that had a bread hook, but being a student, I don't have access to fancy technology, so I made the whole thing by hand in front of Strictly Come Dancing (my house mates thought I was mad!).

The dough was really sticky at first and really elastically, but after a while it came together. I thought it was going horribly wrong, but I had read somewhere that it was supposed to glue your fingers together, so I ploughed on! After kneading the dough for at least 15 minutes I added the butter. This was really fun because the dough became soft and easy to manage (and it sounded like it was farting!). 

I would definitely advise starting this the night before, because once the butter is incorporated, it has to go into the fridge for at least 7 hours. I think if I had done it during the day I would have been impatient! So when it was morning all you have to do is knock back the dough (basically taking the air out) and then split it into 9 equal sized balls. Now, Paul says to use a round cake tin, but I don't have one at Uni, so I used a 20cm square tin. It doesn't look as good, but it does the job.

Once you've put the dough into the tin, you then have to wait another three hours (I attempted work, but...) but then you can FINALLY put it in the oven.

This was the scary bit, because my oven is truly awful, it is WAY to hot. So I turned it down a bit and just prayed! I sat in front of the oven true GBBO style and waited. It browned on top really quickly, but I knew this was meant to happen. It kept getting darker and darker though and the middle still wasn't cooking. After a while I panicked that it was too brown and put a foil hat over it. This seemed to do the trick and in hindsight I wished I done it early.

Nevertheless, eventually my brioche was cooked and I could relax and finally (albeit reluctantly) get on with some work. 

I have just eaten my first chunk and it scrummy (tasted a bit like a croissant) and I can't wait for more, especially with some jam.

If you attempt the brioche, let me know how it goes for you. Tomorrow I am going to make some profiteroles so I will see how they go.

Katie :)

ps. who watched the GBBO final? Were you happy that John won? What about Brendan?!

Using a wine bottle as a rolling pin... Oh yes!

Hello Dear Bloggee (I'm so going with this).

Just a quick one I'm afraid. Being a student, normally means you eat hundreds of ready meals (delicious, but horribly fattening) but being a keen baker/cook I won't let myself eat them. So I wanted to share with you my Caramelised red onion and goats cheese mini tartlets.  They sound complicated, but I can assure you they are not.  They go perfectly with a salad to keep things healthy or you can just have them as a starter.

I got the recipe from Delia Smith Online: Caramelised Balsamic and Red Onion Tarts with Goats' Cheese. 

Here is what I did:

1. First I made the pastry (I made half so that I only had four). It was so simple, just rubbing the butter and flour together and the cheese before adding the water. Don't worry if you accident;y add too much water, you can add more flour when you are rolling it out.

2. Then, once it has been refrigerated, you need to roll it out.  I didn't have a rolling pin (they cost £10!) so I improvised with a bottle of wine (anything long and round will do). Once I had rolled it, as thin as I could, I cut out circles, just with a nice, about 1 centimetre bigger than the tartlet tin. I then put the pastry in the tin before pricking it with a fork.

3. I then put them in the oven, until they were just cooked and going slightly golden brown (about 5 minutes, depending on the oven)

4. Now for the filling.  For 4 tartlets, I used 1 red onion. I chopped it finely and then put it in a pan with oil (butter is probably better). Once they have started to soften, add the balsamic vinegar.

5. Here is where I cheated.  The onions with caramelise themselves over time, but I was in a rush, and overly hungry, so I added a little bit of caster sugar to give them that lovely sweet taste (about 2/3 tbsp).

6. Finally, all you need to do is add the onions to your tartlets, place a circle of goats cheese on top with a little sprinkling of cayenne pepper and sage (I used dried sage) if you have it, and then pop them in the oven for a about 10 minutes and Bob's your uncle (or great uncle in my case).

7. Once the goats cheese has begun to melt, they are ready to eat. Place them on a bead of salad and there you go. You have produced a very sophistacated meal with very little effort!

Let me know if you decide to make them, and if you have any questions. Come back for bakewell tarts next time.

Katie :)

Salted Caramel chocolate mini cakes!

Hello dearest reader,

As you can see I've decided to re-vamp my blog, which is probably for the best seeing as I haven't blogged in forever! 

It is now called Katie's Secret Treats, so that I can share with you my baking, because let's face it dear bloggee (yes that is what you are) there is NOTHING better than a homemade cake freshly out of the oven. I may still occasionally talk about TV, but for the moment, let's stick to all things unhealthy and purely delicious.

The first thing I wanted to share with you is these salted caramel chocolate mini cakes:

(If your not salivating right now, I don't think we can be friends!) 

I had too of my friends round to stay the other day and I wanted to make a really cool dessert. A while ago I bought these mini sandwich tins from Lakeland and I wanted to find some way of using them. Originally I was just going to make mini victoria sandwiches but that seemed a little boring. At easter I made these cupcakes in a jar from Teenage Granny's blog and everybody loved them, so I thought I would have another go at making salted caramel.

So here is my recipe, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

For the chocolate cupcakes:

(I used my Primrose Bakery app on my iphone, but any chocolate cupcake recipe would do)

115g dark chocolate

85g butter

175g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs (separated)

185g plain flour

3/4tsp baking powder

2/4tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

250ml semi-skimmed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and grease tray.

2) Melt the chocolate, either over boiling water or in the microwave

3) Cream the butter and sugar until pale and then slowly add the egg yolks. 

4) Add the melted chocolate to this and beat well.

5)Put the flour, baking powder, and bicarb together in a bowl and measure out the milk with the vanilla extract.

6) Gradually add alternate milk and flour to the main mixture and beat well.

7) In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks have formed and then fold into main batter.

8) Spoon mixture into prepared tins and bake for 15 or so minutes (make sure a clean skewer comes out) I made 18 halves.

9) Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the salted caramel:

(I used Hannah Obee's recipe)

450g caster sugar

2tbsp golden syrup

115g salted butter

125ml double cream

2tbsp creme fraiche

1) Place the sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan with 100ml water.

2) Melt on a low heat. Make sure you don't stir, but gently swirl the pan around to stop it from sticking.

3) Once the sugar has melted, turn up the heat and cook until it looks like a golden brown colour.

4) Then turn off the heat and quickly whisk in the butter, cream and creme fraiche (be careful as it does bubble up).

5) Add in salt crystals and table salt to taste, and leave aside to cool. (I put mine in the freezer to speed things up)

For the salted caramel cream cheese icing:

(I used this recipe from phenomenon.com)

1 tup of cream cheese (I used philadelphia)

57g salted butter

2-3 cups (1 cups = 125g) icing sugar

1tbsp vanilla extract

1) Beat together (I used a handheld whisk) the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy

2) Beat in 1 cup (125g) icing sugar and the vanilla extract

3) Slowly beat in half of your salted caramel mixture

4) Beat in 1-2 more cups of icing sugar to get a nice thick consistency (you don't want it to run off the cupcake)

5) Add salt if desired

6) refrigerate for half and hour before use.

To assemble:

1) Level off the tops of half of your cakes, these will become the bottom.

2) Spread a large helping of your cream cream icing and sandwich with another cake.

4) When your caramel has thickened, poor over the top (it will drip down the side, so do this on your cooling rack)

5) Sprinkle with salt crystals and admire your work!

I have never written a recipe out before, so please let me know if this makes sense, and let me know if you decide to make it.

Katie :)

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF!!!

As you can tell from my title, I am not at all excited about the return of The Great British Bake Off! If you haven't seen it is basically a cooking competition but the contestants are not professionals. This gives it it's charm I think because it makes you believe that you can do it (even though you probably can't!). It's not as drawn out as some of the other cooking programmes and you genuinely do learn from what you see (I now know how to fold cake mixture correctly). The other great thing about the programme is Mary Berry! She is adorable and a great judge. Paul Hollywood is the other judge, he is a bit more scary but actually they compliment each other perfectly. Hosted by Mel and Sue (you can follow Sue on Twitter @sueperkins), who are both hilarious, form the icing on the top. On the basis that I love baking and I love television, you can understand why I love this. 20.00 on BBC, be there!

Also on at the moment is Celebrity Masterchef. It started yesterday and I hadn't seen it before but I actually really enjoyed it. Besides I think Emma Kennedy, lovely twitterer and book writer (@EmmaK67), is on it soon, so that is an added bonus. It starts at 18.30 on BBC 2, it's only half an hour and is worth a watch!

A new programme called Gates starts tonight on Sky Living. If you have Sky I would really recommend you watch it. It about parents meeting at the school gates, so if you were a child (I think all of you!) or if you have a child (probably not all of you) then I think you will appreciate the humour. Besides it has an awesome cast! Start's at 20.30 tonight.

If you don't have Sky, then don't panic because Jack Whitehall has created a new comedy called Bad Education on BBC 3 tonight at 10! It should be really funny and I hope worth a watch.

So there is a lot to watch tonight, which is good because I am still mourning the end of the Olympics. Did anyone else get really attached? I did nothing but watch them for whole 2 weeks it was brilliant!

I hope you're not going out tonight, there is far to much telly to watch!

Katie :)

Parents and cake!

When I say parents, I mean the television programme starring Sally Phillips and Tom Conti and when I say cake I mean an absolutely amazing rainbow cake. Are we clear? Great!

So. Parent's.  It is a new comedy on Sky 1, about (you guessed it) Parents! 

Sally Phillips' character looses her job and is forced to move her husband and two children back to her parents house.  The first episode aired last Friday and although it wasn't the best programme around, I think within time I will grow to love it. Sally Phillips is great in the role. If you don't know her, she is most well known for playing Shazza in Bridget Jones' Diary 1 & 2, or from playing Tilly in Miranda, but I know her from playing Tash in Jam and Jerusalem, the superb comedy from Jennifer Saunders (if you haven't seen it, it is really good, a nice gentle comedy with an amazing cast). Anyway enough about that.  The next episode is on Sky 1 this Friday at I think 8.30, so tune in and let me know what you think!

Right, now let us move onto cake. The other day it was one of my friends twentieth birthday's and I decided that I would make her a cake. I saw the cake on Teenage Granny's blog and I knew that I had to make it, and it would be perfect for my friend.  I'm not going to lie to you, it took me a day and a half to make it, and I was one of the most stressful cake's I have EVER made, but when she cut into it, I didn't care.  If you have the time and the patience I would definitely recommend that you make it, but beware the icing almost tipped me over the edge (it took four attempts, use butter not margarine). But here is it. Not only did it look awesome, it tasted great too. Someone who tried it said that "that cake was lighter than f**king air"! Not a bad review really!

Hope you enjoyed Wimbledon, I certainly did. Let me know what you think of Parents on Friday.

Katie :)

Dead Boss, Live at the Electric and more!

My exams are over, I am back home and the TV is most definitely on!

Firstly Dead Boss. Written by Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh and starring none other than JENNIFER SAUNDERS!

The first two episodes were shown last week.  I had high expectations because of the amazing cast, and sometimes that is not good, because rarely programmes live up to their expectations.  This meant that I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it. It's about a women who is falsely accused of murdering her boss and is sent to prison. O and it's a comedy and is hilarious. The casting is spot on and it is so weird and the characters are so bonkers it just works. The next episode is on tonight at 10:30 on BBC 3 and I highly recommend that you catch up on i-player and watch it tonight!

Secondly, Live at the Electric. Hosted by Russell Kane, it is a sort of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow-type programme that features sketch comedians and character comedians. I wanted to watch it because I have seen Lady Garden live and really enjoyed it.  It wasn't as good as I had hoped, each act only gets a small time and some of it isn't even live.  Having said that some bits are really funny, but beware it is not light comedy.

Moving away from comedy Lewis has been and gone and it was brilliant as ever. 

With Kevin Whateley and the devine Laurence Fox, set in Oxford, it is one of my favourite detective programmes. It is quite a slow burning programme and sometimes I get a little bored during the episode, having said that the last series was a lot better. Unfortunately it has just been announced that the next series is its last, but let's hope it goes out in style!

The next couple of weeks, sees some new programmes airing. Psychobitches starts tonight at 9 on Sky Arts 1. Parents starring the wonderful, gorgeous Sally Phillips is coming to Sky 1 soon and Jennifer Saunders is soon to star in another BBC programme Blandings. So there is a lot to look forward to.

Let me know what you think of Live at the Electric and Dead Boss tonight! 

Katie :)

Episodes

Hello everybody!

Just a quick blog post today as I am in the middle of writing an essay!

Friday night TV at the moment has been pretty amazing hasn't it? Would I Lie To You? Have I got News For You, Not Going Out, QI, Twenty Twelve, The Graham Norton Show, and now... Episodes!!

Episodes (Golden Globe winner) is now on its second series. It stars none other than Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends), and Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig (both from Green Wing - love that show!) It is basically about a couple (Mangan and Greig) trying to make a television programme in America where Matt LeBlanc is the lead.  It is absolutely hilarious and if you haven't seen series one, I seriously recommend it.  However I don't think it should stop you from watching series two tonight.

It is on BBC Two at 10pm and you would be a fool not watch it with me!

If you are revising or writing essays, good luck, and don't work too hard!

Katie :)

Cupcakes in teacups!

Ok, so not exactly a blog about television, BUT before you stop reading I will mention some TV near the end, so bare with me!

I came up with the idea to make cupcakes in teacups, when I saw this blog post by Scarlet Curtis.  She made lemon mouse in teacups, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I didn't have a any nice antique teacups like she does but I think it worked anyway.  I thought it would look good if I made red velvet cupcakes as I've never made them before and I thought it would contrast the white teacups.

There were quite a lot of steps, but it turned out and here's how to do it:

I used this recipe from BBC Food and adapted it to work for me. 

You will need: 
(this is enough for 2 teacups, that will take 250ml of liquid each. I would recommend using smaller teacups, so 5 100ml teacups):

For the cake

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 2/3 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 free-range eggs , lightly beaten
• 3/4 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
• red food colouring paste
• 100g self-raising flour
• 33g cocoa powder
• 2/3 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

For the icing

• 50g butter
• 100g cream cheese
• 250g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
  
  
  First off, you need to cream together the sugar, the butter and the vanilla extract. A wooden spoon will do the job, but an electric whisk would be quicker!
  
  
  Next up, you need to add the eggs separately, adding a little bit of flour after each egg to stop it from curdling. 
  
  
  In a separate bowl, add the yoghurt and the red food colouring paste. I used paste as you only need a little bit to get a great colour, but food colouring from your local supermarket would do.
  I was a little bit worried that I hadn't added enough colouring, but it actually turned out well.
  
  
  

  
  
  
  Add this mixture to the egg, butter and sugar and beat well so it is completely incorporated.
  
  
  Then fold in the flour and cocoa powder followed by the milk.
  
  
  Now you have successfully made your cake mix. It should look like this:
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  You need to grease your tea cup and then add the mixture. Try not to get any mixture up the sides, as this will burn and it won't look very good!
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Now this is where it gets complicated, because I used an AGA to cook these and this doesn't help those of you with traditional ovens. In a 2 oven AGA I put it in the roasting oven for 28 mins with the cold plain shelf on the top set of runners, turning once. I will try to cook then in a traditional oven but if you keep checking on your cakes, they should rise when pushed and if you put a skewer through them it should come out clean. Here's what mine looked like:
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Whilst they are cooking you can make your icing by mixing together the butter and cream cheese until smooth and then gradually adding the icing sugar. Make sure it is completely combined and you don't get any food colouring in it!
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Right, once they are cooked, you need to let them cool down and whilst they are cooling you can watch some TV! (I watched Friday nights episode of Have I got news for you - very funny! and then the new episode of Not Going Out -also hilarious!)
  
  
  Once they are completely cooled, you will need to ice them.  To do this you can put the icing in a piping bag, or I recently bought this really cool syringe which made the process a lot easier. If I was to make it again I would add a bit more icing sugar as the icing didn't quite stay where I put it.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Here is my finished product:
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  
  Let me know if you have a go at making them and ask me any questions if you have any problems and I will try to help!
  
  
  Enjoy :)
  
  
  
  

BAFTA nominations!!

Ah the BAFTAs!  I love BAFTA night.  All your favourite television actors and actresses together in one room.  Brilliant!  If you haven't seen the full list of nominations for this year you can have a look here.  I just wanted to tell you about the ones I'm most excited about and who I think should win on the night.

First up is Leading actor.

I personally want Benedict Cumberbatch to win for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock.  He is so dishy, and so lovely and such a good actor.  He was a guest with his mum on the French and Saunders Radio 2 show and it just made me love him even more, so I really hope he wins.

Next is Supporting Actor.

Again another nomination for Sherlock is Martin Freeman.  I first saw him playing a porn star in Love Actually and didn't know him very well, but then I say him in Nativity! and loved him.  The relationship between him and Benedict in Sherlock is brilliant.  I can't wait for another series.

Supporting Actress.

Miranda Hart has to win. She just has to! I adore her show Miranda and was so excited to see her in Call the Midwife.  Chummy was such a wonderful character and it was so Miranda-esque I can't believe it was based on a real person.  I am slightly worried that Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) may have the edge, because Downton was watched and loved by so many people.  I never really got into it, but from what I did see, it was very good.

Next up is Female Performance in a Comedy Programme.

I REALLY want Jennifer Saunders to win.  AbFab is my utmost favourite programme and Jennifer is my favourite comedienne and actress and person in the world.  But... Olivia Colman in Twenty Twelve is hilarious. I've started saying sheeeit all the time now, and she really makes me laugh.  Ruth Jones as well in Stella is hilarious. I found the Welsh accent difficult to understand at first, but Ruth is brilliant.  Neither of them have anything on Jennifer though.  Go Jennifer, Go!

Comedy Programme.

I want the Comic Strip Presents to win for two reasons. Firstly Jennifer Saunders was in it (yay!) and secondly I haven't seen any of the other programmes!!

Finally the YouTube Audience Award.

For me there are three contenders; Fresh Meat, Sherlock and the Great British Bake Off.  I don't really know why Fresh Meat is one of my contenders because I have only watched one episode and it wasn't that great, BUT it has Jack Whitehall in it and he is a true babe, and I love him.  Sherlock, is well Sherlock, amazing, but... the Great British Bake Off.  Mel and Sue presenting was a good move by the BBC, they were perfect, and I learned so much from all the bakers.  So I voted for the Great British Bake Off, even though I think that Fresh Meat will win.  You can vote here so,

 do it, do it, do it!

The BAFTAs aren't actually on until the 27th May, but don't worry, I will remind you to watch them and in the meantime, I would love to know who you think should win,

Katie :)

The Bridge

Twitter teaches me a lot of things.  I learn about what is going on in the news (some people watch the news, or read a newspaper, I don't), I feel that I know what my favourite celebrities are doing ( I don't, they would never tell me) and I know what TV I should and shouldn't watch.  Emma Kennedy, (@EmmaK67) is brilliant at letting me/everyone who follows her know what TV programmes she thinks are good or bad. Over the past couple of weeks she has been sharing her views on The Voice, and more recently she has shared her views on The Bridge. Just a quick note before I move on to talk about The Bridge, you really should follow her on Twitter.  She takes no nonsense from wankers, but is a great person to follow and makes me laugh regularly, she could probably even be heralded as a twitter queen! So do it. (O and you can follow me too @KatieShuster, but I'm a LOT less interesting!)

So, The Bridge. It's on BBC Four and it's Danish. It is a bit like The Killing (which I highly recommend), it has subtitles (not as bad as you might think) and it is a crime/thriller type shindig (can sometimes require a change of pants as it can be tense).  I've only watched the first episode, but I can't wait to watch the next one. You can watch it HERE on BBC Iplayer and I really think you should give it a go.  Let me know what you think.

Katie :) 

Children's TV?

One of the best things about being a kid, is the large quantity of programmes you get to watch on the TV. I am Childhood Studies student at university and so this is pretty relevant to me, and besides I love to reminisce!

I thought I would start by introducing you to some of the programmes I watched as a kid:

TWEENIES!

Ok, hands up. Who watched the Tweenies?  When I was little I used to compare the Tweenies to the Teletubbies, but that wasn't really fair,  because the Tweenies were SO much better and more grown up! My favourite bit was when they did the Tweenie Clock 'where will it stop?' I always wanted it to stop on craft time as I loved copying what they made.

BLUE PETER!

O, Blue Peter! Still going, still hi-larious. I haven't watched it for some time now, but it is still on at least once a week and I think they still use the classic phrase 'and here's one we made earlier..' I never did get a Blue Peter badge, but I'm not convinced I ever tried very hard!

ROLIE POLIE OLIE

I have a confession to make... I definitely watched this when I was a teenager, probably when I was ill, but I was definitely not a child. But it was soooo good! I loved the theme tune and the fact that the different families where different shapes. If you haven't seen it, please go on to youtube now!

PINGU

I will admit, I have watched this recently and it is still great! I love the seal, and pingu and his sister. I love that they speak their own language, but you can still completely understand them! I just love it!

There are many more programmes that I loved to watch as a kid:

Grange Hill

Postman Pat

Thomas the Tank engine

Sesame streets

Dennis the Menace

Play days

Rosie and Jim

Teletubbies

Come Outside

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Bananas in Pyjamas

Arthur

I also looked up some new programmes that are out the moment:

Scoop

Sorry I’ve got no head

Roar?

I have no idea what they are about, I just love the names!

Anyway, a random post I know, but there you go. Let me know what programmes I have forgotten about - I would love to relive my childhood!

Hope you have a good wednesday!

Katie :)