la coco noire.

It's simple, it's moist, and it takes less than 5 minutes to throw together. What more could you possibly want from a cake!?
Ingredients: 4 eggs  //  225g butter  //  225g caster sugar  //  225g self-raising flour  //  3 tablespoons milk  //  1 tablespoon vanilla  //  2 tablespoons cocoa power

Method: Set the oven to 180 degrees. Mix all the ingredients (except the cocoa powder) in a mixer. Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl and add the cocoa powder to it. Grease a round baking tray. Now the fun bit - dollop alternating spoonfuls of mix into the baking tray! You can have so much fun with this bit, seriously. Then use a cocktail stick and swirl it round a few times to marble it some more. Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

Et voila. It's crispy on the outside like a rock bun and soft on the inside like heaven. And it's sooooooo pretty when you cut into it. Such a crowd pleaser. Treat yourself - it's Sunday!

 
You might have guessed by now that I'm a bit of a sucker for any recipe that's got 'easy' in the title. This isn't because I'm lazy. It's because I once made a cake from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook.

If you've ever used this cookbook then you'll know that you end up using pretty much all of the utensils, appliances and surfaces in your kitchen, dining room and bathroom. And are left with a big fat huge mess. And a chocolate cake that isn't really any tastier than a basic sponge (though you may disagree with me on that point).

As far as I'm concerned, baking is about fun. It's about easy. It's about straight forward. And it's about not having to spend the rest of the day washing up 50+ utensils and telling your mum you can't get cake mix off the ceiling.

So, I give to you my no-fuss, five minute chocolate flapjack recipe!

Ingredients: 250g porridge oats  //  125g butter  //   125g caster sugar   //  3-4 tablespoons of golden syrup  //  chocolate for melting

Method: Oven to 180 degrees and line a square baking tray with greaseproof paper (I tend to grease the actual paper with butter as well just to make sure I'm not left picking paper out of my teeth when I'm trying to devour them!).  Whack all the ingredient (minus the chocolate) into a food processor and pulse-blend until they are well mixed up. Squish this mixture into your baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let them cool down, melt some chocolate and spread on top. And then for the most important step - lick the bowl!

Would love to know if you give these a shot and what you thought of them! Like most sweet treats, they go down oh so well with a cuppa and a magazine. I urge you to try this combo.

My dad doesn't like chocolate cake.
And before you think the next line of this post will read something tacky like 'but I've found one that he loves' - he's actually on holiday right now. And when the cats away, the mice will play. This is moiiiiiiiist and delicious and craving a cup of tea and a sit down with a magazine.

Ingredients:  (For the cake) 175g unsalted butter  //  175g golden caster sugar  // 3 eggs  //  3 tablespoons golden syrup  //  175g self-raising flour  //  pinch of salt  //  40g cocoa powder
(For the filling) 85g butter  //  175g icing sugar  //  40g cocoa  //  tiny splash of milk

Method: Preheat oven to 180c and butter two tins. Whip butter and sugar together, then gradually add the eggs. Stir in the golden syrup. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder together. Fold this into the mixture. Split between the two tins and bake bake bake! 30 mins should do it.
When it's out and having a cool down, make the filling by whipping the butter with the icing sugar, adding the cocoa and maybe a splash of milk to moisten if necessary. ASSEMBLE!

Look at the moisture on this baby! Would love to know if you give it a whirl.

Today was the second shoot for Utopia Magazine (the first two you can see here and here). I can't show the final images yet but here are some behind the scenes pictures. As you can see, it was a very futuristic feel and I can tell you that covering someone head to toe in metallic paint - hair included - takes a lot longer than you'd imagine.  And then only 10 minutes of serious baby-wiping and elbow grease to take off, which was pretty impressive from the model, Kay. The images are being published at the end of May so then I will be able to fiiiinally post them on here. Very excited!

Last Saturday was a miserable, cold, rainy day. Where I'm sure most people stayed tucked up indoors with blankets, tea and chocolate, me and Mikey ventured out into the car and drove to Winston Churchill's old crib. Because we just love getting cultured on the weekend. Nah but in all seriousness, it's nice making something of a dreary day and wrapping up warm - because when you get home again it feels even more cosy.









Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photographs inside. I found this out by almost being tackled to the floor by a serious jobs-worth woman as I tried to take a picture of Lady Winston's dressing room. Why people never seem to be able to ask you politely not to take pictures is beyond me.  But lo and behold, I have zero pictures of the inside to share. Anyway, after getting our history on, we (obviously) stopped off for tea and scones in the cafe. And yep, that was the highlight of the trip.

I didn't mean to leave quite so much time between my first reading list post and this one but, well, life. Specifically fourth year. Anyway, the second book in my reading list is....

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

'We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves.'

I read this book during those middling teenage years when you don't really have a clue what you're doing or why you're doing it. Those years you spend feeling a bit weird and shitty about general stuff that you will later realize really doesn't matter. Growing up, eh - isn't it exciting! While I'm happy to say that I never went the whole hog and ended up on a ward (far from it!), this book really struck a chord with me. It's an autobiographical memoir of Susanna's time spent in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s and not only is it really well written, but it is - in a weird way - just completely relatable, whether you're a bit loopy or not. In fact, the writing is so beautiful that I actually highlighted half the book. This is an uncontrollable habit of mine that means libraries have been out of the question for me from a young age. Instead I had to buy everything, highlight the shit out of it and then stick it under my bed. Imagine my glee when Kindle's came out and they had a highlight option - all my highlights in one place(!!!)...I went into literary meltdown.  Anyway, this book has turned into a bit of a cult classic, especially since being made into a film with Angie Jo in 1999 (which, by the way, I would highly recommend seeing, who doesn't love Winona Ryder in the circa-1990s-Johnny-Depp days!?). I think this will always be the book that reminds of my later teenage years, and rereading it will always transport me back to that odd time in my life, where life didn't really make all that much sense. In the best of possible ways.

I would be interested to know your thoughts about Girl, Interrupted if you've read it or if you plan on reading it. Or if you have any other books you think I might enjoy, I always love book recommendations!

There is a definite home-ish theme to my recent favourite online posts - can you tell I'm itching to move out already!? I have definitely not spent the past few weeks browsing ridiculously expensive houses on primelocation in the hope that I win the lottery soon. Yep, I have definitely not been doing that. But if I had been doing that, it's safe to say that this Parisian apartment is my favourite find so far. As well as this absolute dream, I have been loving...

• This blog post featuring my second favourite dream apartment and basically everything I aspire to have in life. So beautiful.


• These gorgeous tablescapes making me never want to use a table for eating on again.


• This other apartment I would happily occupy if the other two weren't available.


• And this amazing photographer who has made me desperate to get my teeth back into wedding photography this summer!

What have been your favourite posts this week? Send me them to read - especially if they contain beeeeeautifully expensive houses!

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A few more behind the scenes pictures from my latest shoot for the upcoming Utopia magazine. You can read more about it in detail here. The second part of this shoot is happening in a few weeks time and I am so excited because the concept is possibly even cooler than this first shoot (...to be honest - I'm really just excited to be able to pig out on chocolate digestives and bananas for 6 hours while spinning around on a wheely chair and photographing every few hours or so, perks of being the photographer and not the make up artist!!). I cannot WAIT to share these pictures soon but at the moment I am on a tight-lipped promise to keep them secret until their official publication. So,you'll have to wait and see!







Make up by: G.L.C Make up  //  Model: Jessica Brewer  //  Styling: Alex Stone

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