Baileys Chocolate Brownies

What did you get for Christmas?

Fat.

I got fat.

Baileys And Chocolate Cheesecake

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

Chocolate Yule Log (with step by step instructions)

Hello everyone! In case you're wondering where I've been, I've not gone anywhere just a little tied up lately...but,

I do occasionally crawl out of my cocoon for one thing and one thing only....

CHOCOLATE.

And CHRISTMAS.

And when it's a Chocolate Christmas then I'm there with (jingle) bells on :)

Are you excited about Christmas? I am!! I've been to three Christmas markets (Christmas market in Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Southbank market in London and the Taste of Christmas food festival in London - posts about these to come soon!) and when I'm not doing that I'm waking up my housemates at 9am on a Sunday morning with Shakin' Stevens (NOT my own rendition, thank god) and I've got Michael Buble's Christmas album on repeat, again.

Do you like Christmas? I like Christmas too. Let's be friends :)

Halloween RIP Mini-Graveyard Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!

I made these cupcakes for a Halloween bake off at work which was supposed to be on Monday.

Turns out it was cancelled, but I didn't get the message. 

But hey, who's complaining when you've got cupcakes?! :D

(Although my team did get a little suspicious when I have them cakes with 'RIP' written on them... "Xinmei, are you trying to tell us something? Have we been working you too hard?!")

Chocolate Mousse 'Mirror' Cake

Okay, so I thought it was my blog's 100th post today. Turns out, its the 99th. But I'm celebrating anyway.

A few weeks ago, I made a chocolate mousse 'mirror' cake that I saw in Patisserie Valerie, and it was just so pretty that I just had to make it. (See it here, what do you think? Do you think I did a good job? Yes??). 

The idea of being a 'mirror' cake is so that the chocolate glaze on top is meant to so so shiny that you primp in front of it. This didn't exactly happen with my version, but I'd rather not see my face covered in flour and chocolate anyway! 

But if you want the real deal, you should probably check out Pat Val. I've fallen in love with their mille feuille cake.

Oh oh and good luck to those running the London marathon today! I can see you out of my bedroom window and I am cheering you on!!!

Afternoon Tea at The Ritz, London

Let me tell you a little bit about the story behind how this afternoon tea came to be. 

Four years ago, I was accepted at Cambridge to study Economics. Of course, my parents were delighted. And as a reward, my dad was going to take me for afternoon tea! And at The Ritz! Somehow, we never really looked into making a booking. Actually, I think the word I'm looking for is that a certain someone had 'tactically forgotten'. And then I graduated and started working and that was that.

But aha! 3 months ago I was browsing the booking website at the Ritz (as you do) and it seemed someone had made a cancellation... so before any more forgetting could be done (because by the time we got round to it I have have retired... Who knows?) I made a booking for three.

Oh my, I do love afternoon tea. And thank you to my wonderful parents for taking me! :)

Flowerpot Cake for Mother's Day

I love flowers.

But you what I love even more than getting flowers? Getting flowers that I can eat.

Especially when you can eat the pot too.

Nom nom nom.

So are you looking for a Mother's Day present? Look no further!  See Pudding Pie Lane's step by step instructions on how to make a chocolate cake flowerpot...

(Many thanks to my friend Ashley who helped me make this cake. You're awesome.)

Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies (Green & Black's recipe)

So I don't know how long (if at all!) you've been following my blog, but I've kinda cheated.

Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies

Whoopie! Whooooopppppieeee! These pies make me happy just by saying the name.

(Oh, I've also just realised - my blog is two years old today! Whoopie to that :-)

So what is a whoopie pie, you ask? They came from Pennsylvania and are sort of a dense cake/fluffy cookie, with a frosted filling sandwiching (usually marshmallow fluff) two cakes together. I guess they must be like some sort of pie, seeing as that's where the name came from, but these are as far from apple pies as apples are from oranges. But more.

According to Wikipedia (but isn't everything these days?) when farmers found these in their lunchboxes (baked by Amish women, obviously), they would shout 'whoopie!'. My theory is that they're whoopie 'pies' because the farmers would shout whooo....ppiiee! Whoop..piee! Whooopie...piee! Whoopie pie! 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Oreo Brownies

You really, really, have to try this.

There are cookies. And then there are Oreos. And sometimes there are brownies. 

But this is a chocolate chip cookie AND Oreo AND brownie mash up cookie cake thing. Can't get any better than that... especially if you've finished your degree! (As an Economist I'm making the simplyfying assumption that I've passed them.)

Yep, I've finished my degree! That's pretty scary stuff. 

....Why hello there Real World, are you ready for me??

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Triple Chocolate and Ferrero Rocher cupcakes

For a few of us, it is now halfway through Exam Term in Cambridge University. This usually involves countless cups of coffee, and many books opened, stared at, and fallen asleep on. This year though, I have had a new addition to my revision schedule - The Busker Outside My Window. 

There are many of them. They seem to take it in turns right below my window, usually singing (I think...), or humming, and sometime juusstt a little bit of screeching. 

Dear Busker - I don't care if you can play Mission Impossible on the piccolo, and tourists like to take photos of you, but my roommate and I have many a time pondered throwing a bucket of water on your head.

Mr Busker Man, I know you probably won't be reading this blog, so I'm just generally having a bit of a whine about you. But please go away and leave me to fall asleep on my textbooks in peace.

Many thanks,

Xinmei

Chocolate and Orange Tart

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I'm not back at uni and swamped with work so have been running around like a headless chicken (actually, I wish. I have been sat at my desk buried in my notes like a bookworm). This is probably why it's taken me about a week to write this post. I keep writing a bit, going back to do some homework, coming back to this, and then wondering what on earth I was on about...

Reindeer Cupcakes

Who feels Christmassy?? Actually, let me put that another way. Who's been listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album on repeat?

I have! I have! I have!

And in keeping with last year (I made chestnut cupcakes), this year I've got reindeer cupcakes.

Meringue Roulade With Chocolate

I'm worried that since exams I've gotten less... funny :S I mean, not that I'm saying you guys were falling-off-your-seats-lolling about at my blog (yes, lolling, not 'haha'-ing, because if so, you are living in the dark ages), but I'd just run out of sarcasm (mostly pointless, sometimes witty) and jokes (mostly at myself, sometimes at someone else) to keep even myself entertained :O

I blame it on the exams. I blame it on the stress. I blame it on the lack of sugar I've been eating recently.

But it's fine, this meringue if full of it! I'll be back to normal in no time!

Three Pôts de Crème

I finally finished my exams :)

Life is pretty good right now.

I award thee...

A while ago, I was so lucky to get not one, or two, but three (times a lady...) blog awards in one week. I'm so sorry it took me something like a month to blog about it, but it just took me an age to think up seven random facts about me that weren't:

a) incredibly boring
b) economics related 
or 
c) both.

Anyway, it's not that long. I made this Light and Dark Chocolate Mousse in 2009 and am FINALLY getting round to blogging and posting a recipe on it.
:)

Watermelon cake pops

I FINISHED MY ECONOMETRICS PROJECT!!! If you have been within a 20 feet radius of me within the last week, I apologise now. No one deserves that much economics bombarded on them. (Sometimes I wonder if I deserve to have this much economics bombarded on me.)

And so to celebrate, I am rewarding myself with a new post on here :)

I made these a while ago when I made the first 'accidental cake pops', which is where you can find the basic recipe.

When I made these at a family barbecue, all of the comments where 'oooh, what lovely strawberry cakes!' They're meant to be watermelon.

Watermelon!

Well, maybe it could look a bit like strawberry from far off...

Actually, nope. Definitely watermelon.

Also, I also made this as I know that now the weather is warmer many of you feel inclined to eat more fruit. This counts as one of your five-a-day, right?

Ever thought "I need to get off Facebook and put my face IN A BOOK"?

Well, now you can!

This is probably definitely the geekiest cake I've made. 

Did it help with any revision for my upcoming exams? No. 

But was it tasty? Yes. Well, I hope so anyway :)

This is a post for those of you who have upcoming exams (or have already had a few!). I'm not sure about other universities, but at mine we call Easter term 'exam term', though as my friend very rightly pointed out, it should probably be renamed 'procrastination term'. This is very true. From what I have observed, we have two types: a) those whose facebook usage increases exponentially b) those whose facebook gets disabled and actual work takes place. I have, unfortunately, this term, begun to fall victim of the former category.

Incidentally, I have created a facebook page for my blog! I would be eternally happy and smiley if you would hop over and take a look. You could even click the 'like' button if you fancied it :)

Chocolate Chilli and Lime Bread

Yes, it's from the Green & Black's cookbook! (And no, I'm not being paid to make all of these recipes.) I haven't made bread from scratch since Food Technology lessons in year 9, when we made bread, and I really really wanted to do well so I could get a green slip. Green slips were like getting merits, but green and had stars on it. If you got a red slip, you were in trouble. If you got three green slips, you got something really cool and special.

Or maybe it was just a letter home. I forget.

Pets De Nonne, which means...

"Nun's Farts". Hehehehe.

You can totally tell I'm turning 21 next summer.

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(I know I know, I didn't do a royal wedding related post. But if you really want, you can hop over to see the chocolate digestive biscuit cake, which is not quite as elegant as the one Prince William chose, but it will do :) Also, William and Kate are now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, where I spend my time predominatly studying procrastinating (i.e. baking) who needs Fiona Carns when they can have someone like me baking for them?? I just don't understand.)

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I bought this to back to university at the beginning of term, que lots of:

"Would you like another fart?"

"Where are your farts?"

"She did do that, but it was quite half-farted".