Autumn is coming

Hello!
I'm really looking forward to the Autumn season & everything that it brings with it. The UK started doing pumpkin spiced lattes last year so pretty excited about those & then autumn means chillier weather! We've had such an unusual hot summer, we had constant heat for 3 weeks on holiday and then about 5 weeks of sun after returning home - it doesn't seem to be disappearing either! I'm kind of craving my winter layers & wrapping up in hats & scarves! 

My baby sister got engaged a few weeks ago & has set a date for an April 2014 wedding! So excited & luckily we all like her Mr! Hah. So these next few months are going to be wedding crazy. I don't think it will sink in that she's getting married until the day then I might cry a lot!

We had my nephew/godson's dedication last weekend & I made the cake for it! It was a really special day & great to be with so much of my family. I have got sooo much baby fever but it's not my time yet, I'm enjoying just the two of us far too much at the moment!

The night we ate Korean food

Last Friday we went out for my bestie's birthday to Topokki, a Korean restaurant in town. It was my first time trying Korean food & I was NOT disappointed. It was so delicious & so fresh - I'll definitely be going back there again. I highly recommend it if you're local. It's quite a small place & I don't think you'd really go for a romantic meal but just to get out of cooking yourself & enjoying a night on the town this is the place to be.

I had the dish above which was sooooo full of flavour. It was an 'oh my gooooooosh' moment the minute it touched my taste buds! but our friends had this dish below. They bring out a hot plate, fresh vegetables and raw beef then fill the pot with stock, you then put in the veg, dumpings and beef to cook it yourself. I'll definitely be having this dish next time! Once all the veggies & beef are cooking in the stock it really brings out the flavours and makes an incredible stew! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

^^ rice water drink ^^

Lemon, ginger & mixed berries layer cake

This was a cake I threw together with ingredients that I had in the cupboard. I knew I wanted a lemon cake but I found I had ginger & frozen berries to use up too. This was really really delicious!

Also, I recommend using this cake release spray. I'm the sort of person who hates buttering the cake tins (mostly because I'm lazy) so I use this instead and it does a grand job!

This is the recipe for 2 layered lemon & ginger sponge cake with lemon cream & frozen berry filling!

Ingredients:
Sponge
6oz butter, 6oz sugar, 6oz self-raising flour, 3 eggs, a cup of lemon juice, a handful of stem ginger (chopped)
Lemon cream & filling
8oz soft butter, 16oz icing sugar, 5 tablespoons of lemon curd, frozen berries

Method:
- Cream the butter & sugar together until fluffy. Add flour, eggs, lemon juice and stem ginger & mix well. 

- Pour batter into 2 cake tins lined with greaseproof paper.

- Bake for 25-30 mins on 180 degrees

- Leave to cool. Mix the butter & icing sugar together until soft and add the lemon curd. You may want to keep tasting & add more sugar or lemon curd depending on your preference.

- Once the cake is cool, spread the lemon cream between the two cakes. Add the berries to the middle & then cover the rest of the cake with the remaining cream. 

I put the berries in frozen because we didn't eat it until later but if you're eating it straight away then make sure the berries aren't frozen or alternatively use fresh berries! 

FEATURED! Nail Art - Marble Effect

Hey there,

I'm featured again over at herecomesthesunblog sharing my marble effect nail art. Follow this link to get the full tutorial!

I'm out for some Korean food later to celebrate my besties birthday! Will be so nice to get out and do something fun & different!

Hope you all have a lovely friday! It's the weekend!!

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A few days to feel loved

Sometimes when life feels a little bit hard your good friends have some free time before their holiday & decide to visit you. That's when everything becomes right with the world again! This happened last week!
Our friends Mark & Naomi moved just outside of Brighton a while ago now & at first you don't know whether the move will make you drift apart or bring you closer together but I'm happy to say we're closer than ever. There's more of an excuse to phone each other and make sure we're seeing each other as often as we can. I guess when you take it for granted that you're friends are so close you don't always realise how much they mean to you. I was torn to all sorts of bits & pieces when they left but I'm glad to say we've seen them a good few times since the move.

They visited us last week, the first visitors to stay overnight in our new place! They arrives late Thursday night so we stayed up late chatting & reminiscing before retiring for the evening. Friday morning, Sam went to work, Mark went to study at the library & we ladies of leisure stayed in our pjs until past 11am! Poor men, hard at work while we spend their hard earned money. What you gonna do!? After bacon sandwiches & countless cups of tea we got ready to go out to get Naomi's wedding & engagement ring cleaned in town - the best thing about that was the guy in the shop cleaned all my rings free of charge too! I felt like a new bride! What a treat! We celebrated (bit extreme I know..) with chocolate milkshake (for naomi) and green tea chai frappe (for me) before heading home to greet the boys. Sam finished work early & Mark had finished his studies just at the same time. We headed over to the Lickey Hills Country Park for a spontaneous walk/hill climb! It seems to be becoming a tradition for us when we get together. It rained & my feet got wet but I'm not complaining. Sam & I have decided since that we'll do it more often just the two of us, exercise & quality time!
All good hill climbs deserve to be finished off with a good beer or cider don't you think? And thank you England, there is always a good pub around the corner somewhere! We ended up staying there late before coming home & sitting down to dinner at 9pm. Ooops. 
Then booohooo they headed off on holiday on Saturday morning. It was so refreshing to be loved that weekend by such good friends! Miss you already guys!

DIY Home: Handpainted floral feature wall

A few weeks ago I got the itch to paint another wall after enjoying the triangle feature wall project so much! I nipped down to the local DIY home store & picked out a lot of colourful paint.

I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted to do but I brought the colours with the desire to just go with the flow and see where I ended up. SCARY! 

I couldn't tell you what got me started or where I got my inspiration, I just started to paint & it sort of came together.

I do really like the finished wall & it has really brightened up the rest of our bedroom & given it a different feel but do any other artists feel like when they work on something for so long you lose appreciation of the work you've done?? Admittedly, I felt a little like that but I'm happy for it to stay the way it is for the moment. I'm sure I'll get the urge to elaborate and experiment more once I roam pinterest for other home décor ideas! 

Also, I joined twitter! I gave in and got one but I don't really know what to do with it yet. Follow me! I'm @katiejpoursain.