Recipe // Sticky Chocolate Wonka Brownies (courtesy of Isabella) ♡

Hello there! Me and Isabella made brownies over the weekend and I thought I'd post the recipe because they came out really well, this is Isabella's recipe not mine but we added Wonka bar to the original recipe, I'm not sure if she made it up or found it somewhere else but  I also like making recipe posts and I'd like to do more so if that's something you'd like please comment :)

What you'll need:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 75g dark sugar
• 150g milk chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of golden syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of chocolate/vanilla flavouring
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 bar of Wonka Millionaire Shortbread 

Instructions:

1. lightly grease a 20cm/5 inch shallow square cake tin

2. place butter, sugar, chocolate and syrup in a sauce pan. Heat gently, stirring until the mixture is blended and smooth

3. leave to cool, beat together eggs and vanilla, whisk in chocolate mixture

4. sieve together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold carefully into the egg and chocolate mixture, use metal spoon or spatula. Put in tin, add broken up squares of Wonka bar and any extra milk chocolate you may have, and cook for 25 minutes until edges shrink away from tin, leave to cool (it should be quite gooey so don't put it in for longer if it's gooey), cut up and eat :)

These were basically the best brownies I have ever had in my lifetime, I'll definitely be making them again. I thought brownies were good shopbought, I had never made them before but they are so much  better homemade, imagine chewey on the outside and gooey on the inside and there you have it. Hope you liked reading this and attempt this yourselves, please leave a comment if you'd like to see more recipe posts :)

Collective January Haul 2014 ft. Isabella: Primark , New Look,Superdrug and More ♡

Hello there people, I have been shopping a few times in January so I thought I would show you what I have gotten as on each trip I haven't bought a great deal but together it makes a substantial haul. I went out with Isabella yesterday and got some cool stuff, we also baked brownies so I might do a separate blogpost with the recipe on there :)

1. Beatles Shirt (Primark) - £8

    Frilly Dolly Socks (Primark) - £1.50 each 

    Hello Kitty and Tatty Teddy Socks (B&M) - 99p each

I didn't buy this with Isabella but I thought I would still show it, I've had quite the obsession with socks recently because I've gotten some Dr Marten shoes which show off my socks so I've come to the realisation that I need more socks. I love love love Hello Kitty and Tatty Teddy, and I think frilly socks are nice to wear if you're wearing 'grown up' type clothes or bands shirts because then it shows you're mature but a bit childish too.

2. Pop Tarts t-shirt (New Look) - usually £12.99 but with student discount it was about £10.37 

I found this shirt in New Look and although I've sort of made a new years resolution to buy less t-shirts, I felt I had to buy this because anyone who knows me knows that pop tarts are one of my favourite things in the world, it has gotten to the point where people who I barely know in sixth form will come up to me just to tell me that they tried pop tarts, pictures are 3 types of pop tarts: chocolate chip cookie dough, blueberry and chocolate chip which were all £3.50 in tesco, one of them Isabella gave me for Christmas but I'll get onto what she gave me for Christmas later :)

3. Clueless (B&M) - £2.99

    Tatty Teddy Socks (B&M) - 99p

B&M isn't a shop I see everywhere, in fact I only know of two but if you know of one you really need to go there because you can get practically everything there at reduced prices. Even pop tarts! Unfortunately there weren't any when I went with Isabella yesterday. I picked up Clueless because me and Isabella started watching it the last time we met up but we didn't finish it and we watched the last half hour yesterday, I just thought I'd buy it because it's a good price and a film I feel I should own and it can take a place next to Mean Girls. I've already explained my newfound obsession for childish socks so I won't go into more details.

4. Baby Lips (Superdrug ) - £2.99 each but in a deal that was like buy one get one half price
    Free sample of Nivea Deodorant (Superdrug) 

I have wanted Baby Lips for what feels like forever, you can see this in one of my old wishlists. I have heard from reviews and people I know that these two are the most popular, I really like the idea of them because they smell good and tint your lips but feel more like a lip balm than a lipstick. Isabella got the peach flavour which is funny because her nickname is peaches and she picked it up without knowing it was peaches. We got offered a free sample of this deodorant too, my Mum brought up the point that it may have been offered to us because we smell but obviously I accepted it and I think it's a nice compact size so I can keep it in my bag for school or satchel for when I go out. If you want a review of baby lips I can do that so comment below if you'd like to see that :)

5. Frilly dolly socks (Primark) - £1.50

    Alice in Wonderland Socks (Primark) - £2.50

I picked up some more dolly socks (I think that's what they're called) in an off-white colour because I already have white ones, black ones, and grey ones. I figure if I can get at least 7, I can wear them everyday. I've seen loads of people pick up the Disney socks in primark and I was very tempted, they had Snow White, the Little Mermaid, Bambi, Tinkerbell and these. I would've bought them all had they not been £2.50 each because that's a lot for socks and I would've ended up spending over a tenner, but these feel so soft, I'm a little worried about whether the colour will wash out but oh well.

6. Lolita glasses (Poundland) - £1

Me and Isabella just like buying accessories when we go out even if we're not going to wear them again, these are not quite Lolita glasses because the shades aren't black but they're close enough and we were both reading Lolita at the same time plus it reminded us of Lana Del Rey who we both love. 

7. Isabella's Christmas Presents to me

I would've included my Christmas presents from Isabella and Antoinette in my Christmas Haul but we didn't exchange Christmas presents until last week but I still wanted to show you. Isabella bought me a box of the pop tarts from America, that sounds stupid because they're all from America but some of them are cheaper because they're sold in England more but these ones aren't so yay! Also she bought me a Winnie the Pooh toy and a Roo toy which is so cute, I was with her when she bought them and they are in a deal at the moment, they were like £6.99 each which is amazing for Disney toys plus they're fairly big.

8. Antoinette's Christmas Present to me

What you may or may not know is that me and my friends are obsessed with Harry Potter, especially after going to the tours (which you can see a blogpost about here) and I am completely and utterly in love with Draco Malfoy (and Tom Felton) so now I have a cushion.. with his face on.. in my bed.. which is great :D

9. Black Cardigan (Primark) - £10 but charged £5

First things first, I am a bit confused about the price of this. Before I picked it up, I thought it would be £12 or £14 like all Primark cardigans but then it said £10 which was a pleasant enough surprise, then they only charged me £5 at the counter which is such a bargain. I bought it two sizes too big so it's really cosy and baggy, I wanted one just like this as I mentioned in my wishlist so that's awesome.

10. The food me and Isabella bought.. 

Before you judge us, we really didn't eat that much from here, I reckon we were hungry when we bought it because we ended up dividing most of it up and I took it home, we used some of the chocolate to make brownies which tasted so good and I'm thinking of doing a recipe blogpost on those, if you want to see that please comment, we spent the rest of our day after shopping watching the end of Clueless and watching Ferris Bueller's day off as well as making brownies.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed seeing what I've bought over the last month :)

Christmas Haul 2013 ♡

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a merry Christmas if you celebrate it (I'm not religious but I celebrate it for the commercial side and to treat family members and my friends don't shoot me I'm sorry)and if not, I hope you've been enjoying the time off school or work. Sadly I have mock exams in January so I can't relax too much, I did take Christmas day off though to watch Elf with my family, eat bacon sandwiches, open presents and end the day with burgers and an episode of a TV show of our choice each. My grandparents and one of my half sisters came over on Boxing Day. Anyway, I got some really cool stuff this year and I thought I'd show you what I was given, this isn't to brag but I enjoy seeing what other people got for Christmas and it makes for a more personal post :)

This is what I got in my stocking, opened at 8:45am thanks to my 13 year old brother (I would've woken up early anyway to be honest), I was going to take pictures of all the individual items but I thought that would take ages and bore you to tears. I would be lying if I said I hadn't already eaten the m&m's, I'm a bit scared to eat the Hello Kitty chocolates, they're like malteasers, I don't want to throw the box away so if I do eat them the box will probably be hoarded in my room. I was a bit disappointed to find that the Disney tissues were plain so now I'm scared to open them as well - I really am terrible I know.

This is probably the cutest present I received, not only is it a big hello kitty toy which would be cute enough but it is a microwave heatable thingamabobby too! I hardly ever use them any more but maybe I will now. It's such a lovely addition to my room because of the colours, my room is light pink and white on the ceiling so it matches the colour scheme perfectly :)

Another hello kitty toy! I actually got this in my stocking but I forgot to photograph it with the others and it's cute enough to deserve its own photo, whilst it looks a bit Ke$ha-fied, I think this is cute - I just really like hello kitty.

This is one of my best presents, an Eeyore onesie! This is really cute, I actually made a mental note to buy a Disney onesie in the new year (I had hoped that they would be reduced in the sales) but now I have one so I'll be okay for a while. My Mum said she thought this one was perfect for me, and I quite like it - it's very fluffy and warm and I should think I'll be spending the majority of 2014 in it.

If you've read my favourites posts from a while back, you'll know I really love the simple moisturiser and I have used the toner before but not the cleanser. These products will definitely come in handy, plus it comes with a bag to put the products in and my makeup bags tend to be too small so it's nice to know I can divide up my stuff :)

Usually at Christmas, me and my brother are given jelly belly jelly beans in our stockings and we did get some this year but we've also both been given this which is quite a cute addition for my room. I used to have something similar to this but with gum balls (Lizzie will remember, and she'll probably remember the event that happened with it that turned me off gum for life) but this is much nicer and I hopefully will never be turned off from jelly beans. It does come with a packet of jelly beans as well. You have to put money in though to get the jelly beans though, but I love this I think it will be a cute addition to my room.

I was elated when I saw I had gotten this! I had told my Mum a few times before how much I wanted to try soap and glory and she said she was going to get some for my birthday and she didn't but she got me other stuff so I had forgotten about it, then I get this for Christmas which has several full sized products! It includes Hand Food, Sugar Crush Body Wash, The Righteous Butter Body Butter, Peaches and Clean Deep Purifying Cleanser, Heel Genius, Butter Yourself Moisture Lotion, The Scrub of Your Life Body Buffer, Thick & Fast Super Volume Mascara, and Sexy Mother Pucker XL in Pink Out Loud. Such a nice selection and it also came with some free samples of Super Serum. I like how it came with a proper bag too which I can use for travelling in the future (not that I do a great deal of travel but it's nice to know it's there)

Anyone who knows me knows I am a hell of a DVD junkie, especially with Disney films - I am basically getting all the ones we have on videos which have been watched so many times and me and my Mum are worried they're not going to play any more. I also got a couple of studio Ghibli films which is great, see I love Disney so much that I even go for Disney's company in Japan. I was surprised to get the Little Mermaid because that's been quite expensive and I hadn't seen it in any of the 2 for 1 sales so my Mum specifically said "don't expect the little mermaid for Christmas this year", she didn't say how she got it and to be honest I don't mind. I'm glad I got the Hunger Games too because I never got to watch it in the cinema, I wanted to read the books first but I don't own the books so I might just have to watch the films. I have seen all of the films here except for The Rescuers Down Under, Billy Elliot, The Hunger Games, (not sure about Winnie the Pooh) and Kiki's Delivery Service so I'm looking forward to watching those!

A nice little makeup set from my Mother, called Glamour Gift Box, containing Extreme Length Extend Mascara in Black, High Shine Lip Gloss in Whisper (is whisper a colour now..??), Stay Perfect Eye Shadow in sheer brown, and Stay Precise Felt Tip Eyeliner in Black.These all sound neutral so I'm sure I'll get quite a lot of use out of everything in there, if it were bright coloured things I'd be worried because I've still got huge pallets from when I was about 12 or 13 when I used to wear a lot of eye shadow when given the chance and usually in bright colours and I cringe just remembering it. So I wouldn't want any more bright coloured things that I'd get no use out of.

These presents are only paired because they're what my brother gave me, it may look a little pathetic to you but I really like it because over the past couple of months I have been collecting hello kitty socks (sensing a theme yet?), tatty teddy socks and disney socks so this is just another one to add to the collection and I quite like the money box because it's a cute knick knack.

More DVDs hurray! One of my favourite shows from my childhood (early childhood) but then I found some episodes on youtube and watched them again quite a while ago, and when I saw a box set had been released either last year or this year I knew I wanted it so I put it on my Christmas list. For my birthday I got the Sabrina the Teenage Witch Boxset so I am building up my collection of 90s TV shows.

Would is be Christmas without one of these? I think we all know the answer. I finished these by the end of boxing day, not going to lie. I have no shame.. well actually I have a lot of shame.. moving swiftly onwards.

Another thing I had put on my birthday list and forgotten about! This is such a great gift because it contains so many Ben Folds/Ben Folds Five songs, it's sort of a 'best of' if you will. My Dad has a few Ben Folds piano books already but they have the scores for all of the instruments so they're a bit awkward for me to play from because I'm constantly having to turn the pages, my Dad is so good that he already knows it but this is great because the difficulty is the same, challenging but I'm willing to learn, but the score is just for piano and vocals so I won't have to turn the page as often. If you're interested, I've just started grade 8 piano and I got a merit in my grade 7 - I was pleasantly surprised, I absolutely love having new pieces to play so for a bit of fun on the side of my grade 8 pieces I now have some Ben Folds. If you don't know who he is, youtube him because he is such an amazing artist who doesn't get nearly enough credit.

This is a gift from my half sister which made me smile because, if you've been following me and don't know my name - my name is Bess, she saw this shop in Valencia called Bess and sent me a picture on Whatsapp of it and then she bought something there for me. I actually quite like the necklace as well, also a bit of chocolate is always good :)

I got these books from my grandparents and I've wanted to read the Bell Jar for quite a long time now, I've heard it can be quite triggering so I'm a bit worried about that but I'm still looking forward to reading it :)

More body butters! I really like this set because it's all fruity and I love sweet scents, it has body mists and body butters too which is great because I don't have many sprays so I usually don't smell of anything.

I also got a lava lamp but I keep forgetting to photograph it, and when I remember it it's turned off so it's just a big lump of wax haha sorry about that.

Thanks for reading, I know I wrote loads for each picture pretty much and probably bored you to tears because you just wanted to see the products. Again, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas or enjoyed having some time off to relax.

♡

The Christmas Tag ♡

 Hello there internet peoples, I was tagged in 'the Christmas tag' by Abbie which is cool because I really enjoy doing tags (if you couldn't tell my last 50334945394 posts are tags.......) I am trying to cut down on doing the tags but seeming as it's nearly Christmas I felt I had to do this, but from the new year I think I might try and limit it to a tag a month or something.

1. What is your Favorite Holiday Movie?

Probably Elf because it's cute and funny and adorable and it makes me happy. I also like Miracle on 34th Street (the original of course) and most romantic comedies seem to revolve around Christmas so I make sure I watch a rom-com or two around Christmas (it's Bridget Jones' Diary most of the time)

2. What's your favorite Christmas Colour?

 Silver

3. Do you like to stay in your PJs or dress up for Christmas?

I stay in my PJs until lunch then I change into something a bit nicer because if I'm going to be filmed I need to make sure I don't look like a complete troll.

4. If you could only buy one person a present this year who would it be?

could I buy one present for the whole family??

5. Do you open your presents on Christmas eve or Christmas morning?

I open my stocking on Christmas morning with my younger brother, then my other presents in the late afternoon. Who would open their presents on Christmas eve???????? Is that even normal???????

6. Have you ever built a gingerbread house?

No but I want to

7. What do you like to do on your Christmas break?

Watch movies, eat way more than I should, and usually do a puzzle as it is the family tradition (we have a Disney princess one to do this year!!!) Although this year I will be revising most of the time for January mocks..

8. Any Christmas wishes?

Just that everyone has a nice day and is thankful for what they have and for what they receive

9. Favorite Christmas smell?

Chestnuts roasting on an open fireeeeee, seriously though just the smell of bacon sandwiches. I know that sounds weird but in my family on Christmas day we have bacon sandwiches, yes we only have fry ups like once a year. No turkey/chicken until Boxing Day because that's when my grandparents visit, but the smell of sizzling bacon... yum.

10. Christmas meal or treat?

The tins of chocolates that disappear all too quickly

Thanks for reading, I tag all of my followers to do this and if you do please post a link below because I'd love to read it :)

♡

P.S I am going to Harry Potter Studios next week so that will probably be my most interesting post since I joined the bloggerverse..

VLOG // Christmas Shopping ft. Isabella ♡

So me and Isabella went shopping yesterday to buy christmas presents for people, (totally not Antoinette) and we made a little vlog. I'll be helping Isabella write a little post about the baking we did so stay tuned :)

Primark Haul & a few other goodies ♡

So I went to Primark today and bought quite a few things, it's not a huge haul but I find that when shopping in there it always feel like you buy much less than you think. Anyway I shan't dilly dally, on with the show!

1. Hello Kitty Cosy Super Socks (£4)

This are adorable slipper type things to wear around the house, a bit much but they're so fluffy and cute and I know I'm gonna wear them a lot when it starts getting cold. Plus they're better quality than the usual primark cosy socks (which I love anyway), plus they're a bit more like slipper pumps than socks. Really love this though, I have an obsession with hello kitty but I can't buy many hello kitty things without being told by my parents that I look like a  5 year old - life is quite hard, but anyway this allows me to unleash my hello kitty-ness!

2. Indigo pinafore (£12)
I love love love love love this, it looks quite good quality for primark and I have wanted a pinafore for so long. I bought a floral one a while ago which I love but a plain one will go with more things, if you see this in the store there are two buttons on the strap to adjust it and I adjusted it to the tighter setting but don't get confused if you see this in the store!

3. Cream High Neck Lace Crop Top (£3)
This was reduced from £6, I don't wear crop tops because I hate my tummy (guess why..) but this is a lace top which I love and I can wear it with high waisted shorts or with a top underneath which will be nice.

4. Eclipz Argan Oil (£4)
I have had several friends telling me that I should be using this because my hair is so weird, I'm not Moroccan just so you know. I'm mixed race so my hair is a mix between afro because my Mum is Jamaican and like English type hair from my Dad's side, it's all frizzy at the front but it's long, also it doesn't feel soft and silky like English/Asian hair does but apparently this is great to repair your hair (ooh a rhyme, Dr Seuss would be se-seuss-ed, sorry if you don't understand I'm not too funny) and there's a relatively big tub in this box, there was also a small tube for £2.50 if you want to trial it but this tub is much better value.

5. Cotton Wool Makeup Removers (£1)

These came in a two pack so my mum has the other half, not much to say but it's a necessity and at the moment I had been using flannels to wash it off so I have stained flannels which I'm not happy about, plus cotton wool is less harsh on the skin. For a pound you can't go wrong.

6. Eye liner (£1 each)

I'm aware it says £1.50 but I got charged a pound each, I have never really used primark makeup but I use Constance Carroll which is a cheap brand and this is that bit cheaper so I might try it out and review it on here. I wear eyeliner practically everyday so it's a must have for me.

7. Bendy Rollers (£1.50 each)

I've never used these before but my mum has and she says they're better for your hair than curlers because they don't pull at it and attach to it in the same way, she also said it will help me with volumizing my hair so I'm willing to give it a go. 

8. Peanut m&m's (£2) from Tesco

I've just been craving these to be honest, if you don't like them then why???? They are so nice I could cry.

 

9. The Naked Brothers Band Movie (£1) from Poundland 

Cannot believe I found this, I LOVED the naked brothers band when I was younger and I love the similarities to The Beatles, not music wise exactly but the rooftop concert and stuff. I just cannot believe this I'm so glad I bought this.

10. Spy Kids 4 (£1) from Poundland

I got this because I wanted to finish my collection, plus this movie shows the kids from the other movies grown up which made my emotional when I watched in the cinema.

11. Bendy Bando (£1.50) another primark goodie, sorry I forgot to put this sooner!

I love this, I want to start putting my hair up but it's a bit boring without any decoration. Plus I love floral designs.

Thanks for reading!

What to eat in the USA

PFood was one of the main parts of my trip to the USA, so here are the things that I enjoyed.

Reese's peanut butter cups are so nice, they sell them in the UK but I think they're more expensive and there are more variations in the USA, I don't usually like peanut butter but in Reese's it's sweet and chocolatey :)

A Wendy's baconator, omg why they don't have Wendy's in the UK anymore I'll never know. It's like a proper burger but fast food, omg x10000000 better than McDonald's.

I went to IHOP twice, the first time I got a toasted sandwich type thing and I made my family go back so I could get pancakes, so I got chocolate chip pancakes. One of the workers in the IHOP I went to the second time gave us 2 mugs to bring back to the UK, how nice right?

Chinese food is Chinatown, I had sweet and sour chicken with egg noodles. Best. Chinese. Food. Ever. Seriously, it was a huge portion so I couldn't finish it but it was amazing yum yum

Pop tarts! This is a cookies and cream one which was nice, I also had a chocolate fudge one which wasn't as good. We brought back strawberry pop tarts and hot fudge sundae ones too, yummy!

Candy corn, I had heard about this as a Halloween treat and couldn't pass up an opportunity to try it, yum :)

Finally, some cheesecake from Lindy's. it's world famous however personally I found it too soft, it wasn't like mousse which I hate but it was softer than I would've preferred. They did a lunch time offer there though where you get a meal with chips then with a piece of cheesecake for dessert.

The food in America was pretty great, there was other stuff too but no more photos :)