Blogmas Day 21: Yule Log Preparation & Tips!

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Okay, so tomorrow is when I start making my Yule Log for Christmas Day - each year we take it in turns to do a different dessert. Last Year we had a Christmas Pudding, which means this year we have a different dessert and again next year we have Christmas Pudding. It just mixes things up a little bit. Seeing as I'm now able to cook (whether I'm good at it is a different matter completely!) My Dad and I take it in turns to do the dessert or starter each year, I normally opt for the dessert as I have a sweet tooth and love super Christmasy desserts! And I haven't made a Yule Log since I did cooking at school... SO I'M DOING IT AGAIN!

Basically... I have tried to devise a plan to make this run as smoothly as I possibly can make it... Me being me I panic when something goes completely wrong and always seem to think that chocolate will be able to fix it (well it fixes 99% of the problems in my life!!) So... 

• Tomorrow - I will bake the sponge in the morning and leave to cool and later add the chocolate buttercream icing (probably my favourite part) I will then leave this to set and cool in the fridge for 24 hours so the buttercream can set!
• On monday I will melt some white chocolate to put over the yule log to give a Christmas snowy log effect (I think its a cool idea but whether it will work is another matter, you'll see on boxing day when I do my picture post if it has or not!) 
• I will then leave this to set until Christmas Day and then I will get it out of the fridge just before our main dinner to get to room temperature!

I've decided to use the baking queen Mary Berry's recipe as I always use and trust her recipes when I bake!

Tips & Ideas

• Someone recommended I put a drop of Cherry Liqueur in the batter mix?
• Use baking parchment below your cake mixture before baking - it will make it easier to lift out the tray!
• Roll the sponge really really slowly!
• Don't worry if it cracks, it just makes it look a bit more rustic!
• Some people recommend rolling the sponge before putting icing in the middle so its more malleable? 

Just have to wait and see won't we!

Chocolate Cuddles

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

xoxox

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Blogmas Day 14: Boozy Bailey Hot Chocolate Recipe!

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I thought I would share my absolute favourite thing to drink this year when I need warming up!! Alcohol is always available in my house (especially at Christmas). Just make sure you aren't going to do any driving for the rest of the day after having this bad boy!!

What You'll Need!

Hot chocolate powder (I opted for Aero as its super bubbly and adds to the yummy magic!)

Baileys Original Irish Cream Liqueur

Your most Christmasy mug you can find in your house

Milk

A small whisk

A Shot measurement

How to do it!

1. First you need to boil water in your kettle (pretty easy step!)

2. Add 6 teaspoons of the hot chocolate powder (the more you add the more chocolatey it becomes!). Add a small dash of milk but not too much!! Then whisk together to make a thick paste.

3. Then you need to get your shot measurement and here is when you decide how boozy you want it to be - I personally opt for a double shot just cause I like mine really strong! And again mix!

4. Add your water to the top and then whisk whisk WHISK!!! You want your hot chocolate to be super creamy as well as boozy! 

5. OPTIONAL - you can add marshmallows or whipped cream if you want! I decided to add some Fluff into mine as it makes it even thicker and amazingly yummy!!!

6. Now you can drink it!! Enjoy!

I will definitely be having this on Christmas Day!

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

P.S I also have a Shortbread video tutorial coming up and a dog treat recipe as well!!
P.P.S Make sure you go and check out Stephanie Mavericks YouTube and her blog (She has a giveaway too!)

xoxox

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Blogmas Day 13: Christmas Room Tour

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Today I thought I would do a Christmas room tour video - I just thought this would be a sweet little segment to put into Blogmas instead of me always writing loads... 

Mistletoe Kisses

Emma Victoria

xoxox

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Blogmas Day 7: Favourite Christmas Songs

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I thought I'd share some of my favourite Christmas songs with you all! At the moment I have my 2 favourite Christmas Albums which are the compilation CD"The Best Christmas Album, in the world... ever!" and "Christmas Tales" by my favourite violinist Alexander Rybak... The first CD is actually my mums as she bought it before I was even born, and sadly this CD is beginning to show its age, but we are hopefully going to buy a new one (probably the same CD) soon! I know a few songs will be cover's of over songs, but to me they are still beautiful and they still have that meaning to them!
Below will be a list of links of my current favourite Christmas Songs, a short, sweet and relaxing post today!

Alexander Rybak - Silent Night

Elton John - Step into Christmas

(Hint - it's from the Grinch!) Jill Zadeh - Where Are You Christmas?

Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody

My ultimate favourite Christmas song in the whole entire world is Fairytale of New York - I cry everytime I listen to this. Everything about it...

Simple post today, but it gets us in the Christmas spirit!

18 Days till Christmas!

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

xoxox

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Blogmas Day 6: Christmas Wishlist!

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I had a cute little idea which I did for my 18th birthday and I thought I'd do the same and do a Christmas Wishlist!

1. Sewing Machine - I've wanted a sewing machine for a while as I really want to start getting crafty and making things again, and this one from Next is just adorable & affordable!

2. Lady Million Perfume - I'm running low on perfume again, my D&G One perfume is getting to the littlest it can get (insert sad face here), I can never decide what perfume's I actually like, but I definitely like Lady Million and Black XS by Paco Rabanne - Okay I just like Paco Rabanne

3. Despicable Me 2 - I just LOVE the minions, and I still haven't seen this, and I really want to see it, and I really want to own it!! Yeah... I just really like the minions.

4. Collectif Mina Bag - You may have noticed a re-occurrence  I still actually haven't bought this bag yet, and I really still love it - you never know I guess?

5. Hell Bunny Pink Olive Dress - My god do I love this dress, I know I have loads of dresses but I really like this one! :(

6. SkullKandy Headphones - My babies broke a couple of months back and now I'm stuck with little ear bud ones, I really badly want some more Skullkandy headphones as they were the best headphones I ever owned!

7. iPad Mini White - Technological items aren't normally on my Christmas list, but a little iPad would be helpful with organising things and taking to places instead of caring a load of heavy stuff like my laptop.

Well I hope you enjoyed!

19 Days till Christmas!

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

xoxoxox

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Blogmas Day 2 - The 2013 Christmas Tag!

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So my lovely friend Steff from Stephanie Maverick tagged me in this way back in November but I 
decided I would do this for my first post of Blogmas! I will be scheduling posts seeing as I'm so busy over this time of the year! 

1.  Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic?

In my house we kind of have a real and a synthetic - in my room I have a slimline 6ft synthetic tree which I put up on the 1st November (I don't care what anyone thinks - I just love Christmas so much!!). However, downstairs we have a real tree because my dad always insists on having a real tree. This year we have got to decide whether we are going to get a real one because of the puppy - but its likely we will still have one!

2.  You're in a coffee shop, it's December, what do you pick?

Hmm - I'm currently really loving the Chocolate & Orange Mocha Latte at Costa from the Autumn (I go to costa pretty much every day when I'm at college!) 

3.  Whats your favourite colour scheme for decorating the tree?

I used to be very different to my mum I always used to have just white decorations with crystal white lights and white doves but I've now kind of grown up over the years and become more traditional, much like my mum. My mum decorates our tree very rich as we believe more is less on the tree as we always get a 6ft tall tree which is very wide and bushy! This year my colour scheme for my tree is Red, Green, Gold and White.

4.  Giving or receiving?

I absolutely love giving presents no doubt about it - I do need to start making my presents for close friends and putting their bags together!

5.  To mince pie or not to?

 I had my first mince pie around mid October already - I adore mince pies and I need to make some in December for my family!

6.  What's your traditional Sunday lunch?

We kind of have a huge table full of food for Christmas, our traditional Sunday lunch we have is very boring so I'll tell you about my families Christmas dinner instead - ready for the list?...: Turkey, Ham, Pigs in Blankets (Sausages wrapped in bacon), roasted Chestnuts, Sprouts, French Beans, Peas, Carrots, sweetcorn, Roasted potatoes, mash potato, homemade Yorkshire puddings, bread sauce, gravy (2 different gravy's) and a few other things too... We are fatties at Christmas.

7.  Christmas day fashion

 Every year my mum makes me buy a new dress for Christmas - I have no say whether its a dress or not. I haven't actually got my dress yet, I haven't really seen one I've fallen in love with. We all dress up really smart and in nice clothes but this year I'm debating whether to just re-wear a new dress because of Alice as she keeps putting her muddy paws all over me and my clothes.

8.  What's your favourite Christmas song?

I have a favourite Album at the moment and that's Alexander Rybak's 'Christmas Tales' album - it had such beautiful covers on it as well. He is probably my favourite violinist - ever.

9.  What's your favourite Christmas film?

I watch around 30 christmas films per year staring on the 1st November - but my favourite Christmas film has to be ROBBIE THE REINDEER!!!!!!!

10.  Open presents before or after lunch?

Me and my mum believe Christmas is for children so we always open our presents first thing in the morning because when we were younger it meant we had all day to play with our presents until Christmas dinner at 5pm (we have our dinner in the evening so we go to bed all sleepy and our afternoon isn't wasted as we always play a family game!).

Oh this is getting me SOOOO excited for Christmas!! Not long - ONLY 23 DAYS! 

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

xoxox

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Blogmas Day 1: Glad Tidings!

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Welcome all to BLOGMAS - I have never before done nearly a whole month of blogging every single day. The prospect is worrying about how I'm going to fit everything in, but obviously if something completely disastrous comes up then I will probably do 2 posts in one day (but hopefully that never happens!)

I'm going to do an array of Christmasy things on my blog and some posts may be videos too as well as picture posts for when I go to Winter Wonderland in London (there is going to be more then 1 trip!)

Today I just want to share some of the pictures from last Christmas with my family and pictures I had taken through December!

Christmas Photoshoot 2012

Christmas Dinner Table 2012 (Decorated by me)

The Christmas tree & Bi-Folding doors mum and me decorated last year!

Panoramic view of my Garden December 2012

Finland Holiday - Walk in Ylöjärvi!

Look out for tomorrow's post which is a Christmas Tag!!

24 Days till Christmas!

Lots of Love

Emma Victoria

xoxoxox

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Pumpkin Carving Part 2!

So here are the pumpkins I have decided to carve this year with my mum, brother and his carer! We started doing three pumpkins as it always looks so cute down the path to our front door! In my area where I live, Halloween is absolutely huge - we have to get over 300 sweets in, and guarantee they will all go. For people to know its okay to knock on your door, you have to have a pumpkin outside, so for those who don't want Trick or Treaters they wont knock! This year we chose to do; Creepy Jack Skellington, Headless Horsemen and 3 ghosts. (Stencils below!)
(P.S Sorry for the really bad quality images my main camera lens is busted and my camera is beginning to play me up now, so I've had to use iPhone images!).

Gutting the Pumpkins!

I decide to carve Jack Skellington by myself this year...

Hard at work carving the pumpkin!

All Finished!

Well tomorrow I have my final Halloween OOTW up - its a dead Barbie Doll Outfit!

Lots of Love

Emma

xoxoxox

Pumpkin Carving Part 1 (100th Post!)

I thought before I carve my pumpkins on Wednesday ready for Thursday I would show you the pumpkins I carved last year with my Mum, Brother and his carer. On Wednesday I will also be blogging this years Pumpkins which will be part 2 of this post! Below will be the three links to my three carvings from last year. I'd probably say the hardest one to carve was the Smiling Jack O'Lantern which took me and Tor an hour and 45 mins to carve because, well we are beginners and we didn't have the right tools. I carved the Shocked Pumpkin face on my own and this only took me around 40 minutes. My mum carved the ghost by herself and cause I'm pretty sure she is like an art pro it only took her 20 minutes. I can't find a stencil for the shocked pumpkin but its really quite simple you could probably just draw it freehand!

Smiling Jack Stencil

Ghost Stencil

Happy Carving! I will show you my stencils which I have used on Wednesday Evening! 

Love Emma

xoxo

(P.S - I cant believe I've reached 100 posts - and this month I also reached 10,000 views! Super love that you appreciate my blog!!)