D.I.Y ZIGGS BOMB! - (using mini Hama beads!) 8-bit appearance

'TAKE COVER!'

'Explosions first, questions later'

Hey guys! Earlier this week I had a sudden urge to buy some Hama Beads - I used to have them when I was younger and I remember making some pretty cool things with them. Today was the first day I used them and I decided to make something linked to one of my favourite champions from the online game, League of Legends. 

Ziggs - he is one of my favourite champions in the game (alongside Annie) and I just find him really fun to play and so whilst I was playing around with the hama beads I thought I could try making a little Ziggs Bomb - and so I did! By the way, by little I mean little, the photo to the left I enlarged however my real Ziggs bomb is around 3.5x4.5cm in size! 

So if you'd like to make a little Ziggs bomb too this is what you'll need; 

(The top left picture is meant to be the pegboard)

- Hama beads! (I use the mini beads but use whatever size you wish)

- A pegboard (which matches your size beads - obviously heh)

- Some tweezers (this will depend on the size of your beads, the larger ones you can place with your fingers however as I use the mini beads I just find the tweezers more helpful)
- Some ironing paper

- And an affinity for Ziggs! (Who couldn't love this crazy little laughing guy)

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1. Okay so the first step I took for making my little Ziggs bomb was to go onto Google and look at different styles of how the bomb had been portrayed. I found a photo that I thought I could (sort of) recreate and I used that as a guide.

<- this was the photo I tried to recreate. The link to the source can be found here.










2. Once I'd found a picture, I then tried to rummage through my beads to find the colours that I thought would look best - I chose, light grey, dark grey, white, dark brown (I tried to use this colour to make it look darker around the edge like in the real image - I'm not to sure on how that part worked out but oh well!), a sort of maroony - dark purplely/reddy colour, yellow and some orange shades. All I then had to do was to try and work out how to get it -sort of - like the picture.

3. 'Bombs away!' (A.K.A. try to shape it like your chosen image). Unfortunately I don't have any photos of how I shaped my bomb, because I didn't know at that point I'd want to do a tutorial on it. However I have tried to make a little template on a pixel generator which I hope shows you the placement of colours and overall give you guys just a vague idea of how I shaped the bomb!

<- This is a rough template of my Hama Ziggs bomb. I thought the pixelated image would help you see near enough where everything was positioned as I find everything made with Hama looks a bit pixelated anyway in appearance! (Which I love) I also tried to use the same colours and indicated where they go. ^_^

(The bright aqua colour was to indicate where I used the transparent beads. - I used one for support just so the bomb didn't break after it'd been ironed and I used four more so I could maybe make it into a key chain if I wanted to.) Cool right?

4. After you'd placed every bead where it needs to be you can do the easy part - the ironing! This will mould your creation together so it wont all fall apart. All you need to do is to place some ironing paper over your work and ensure your iron is on high heat with no steam. Then move the iron slowly over your work for around 20-30 seconds - (just be careful you don't melt your pegboard). Then when this step is done I'd recommended - before peeling of the ironing paper - to place a heavy book or something over your work - this will just ensure that it will come out flat. I'd suggest leaving it like this for around 5 minutes. Then remove the heavy object and ironing paper and gently peel off your bomb (it feels so weird just saying bomb - but you know what I mean!). And that's it. You have a little Ziggs bomb! So 'TAKE COVER!'

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed my little DIY tutorial, I felt it worked well with the games current 'Arcade theme'. Also, if you'd like me to try and make anything else using Hama beads just let me know and I will most definitely have a go! I also made today this super cute 'extra life' icon - another idea inspired by gaming;

<--(This is super easy!)



Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a lovely day or night! (As usual sorry if there were any mistakes)

Oh, and 'Look out below!'

Ricicle x

'Cute as a Button' Cupcakes (with edible buttons)

Eeee hello there! Today I made these super cute button topped cupcakes - with edible buttons! (How cool is that?!)

I think they would be perfect for parties, as a little gift or for just a bit of fun!

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If you'd like to make these adorable little cakes you will need;

FOR THE CAKES - (This cake recipe is my usual cupcake mix - I used it last time in my 'Whimsical Rainbow Cupcakes' post and the link to the recipe is on there. I will list everything you will need to mix and do on here for ease but just remember the original recipe is on that post! ^_^  ♥)

Anyway - for the cakes you will need;

- 110g Butter or Margarine (I used Stork)
- 110g Caster Sugar
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 2-3 Drops of Vanilla Extract


FOR DECORATION -
- 110g Unsalted Butter
- 500g Icing Sugar
- 1tsp Vanilla Extract
- A little bit of milk if you need it
- Pink Food Colouring (I use Pro Gel Rainbow Dust)
- Writing Icing
- Candy Melts! (I used blue and yellow candy melts but any colours of your choosing will look equally as cute - if you'd rather keep it simple you can also use just plain chocolate!)

And here we go! (Just remember that the original recipe for cake mix can be found in my 'Rainbow Cupcakes' post) Photo's will be posted alongside the steps to give you a vague idea of what it should - sort of - look like!

FOR THE CAKES -  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ 

1. First of all you'll need to preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. You can also at this point place you're baking cases into a cupcake tin. (I normally do this step right before the mix is completed, but its completely up to you!) 

2. Now you'll need to cream together the 110g of butter and 110g of caster sugar until the mixture is light, creamy and fluffy! Like this;

3. Once this step is done you'll need to beat the two eggs in a separate bowl and then add that to the mix. This should be done gradually. Once the eggs have been added then mix in either two or three drops of Vanilla Essence. 

<- You should have something that looks a little bit like this.














4. Now you'll need to sieve in the 110g of self raising flour. For this method I normally fold in the flour with a spatula as I know that way every bit of the of the flour will be added into the mix. (It also makes it a lot easier to use all of the cake mix when it comes to putting it into the baking cases as you don't waste any)

All mixed in and ready to go into the cupcake cases!















Step 5. Finally all that is left for the cupcakes is for them to be added into the baking cases! You can either do this in spoonfuls or by piping them in. I used to do the piping method as it did allow the mix to go in a lot neater however I just opt for adding the mix in spoonfuls now - purely for speed.

Here are my cupcakes before going into the oven. I used brightly coloured baking cases as I wanted every bit of the cake to stand out colour wise. However of course - the choice is up to you! ^_^








Step 6. Your cakes will need to go into the oven for around 15-20 minutes or until they are a nice golden colour. Normally my cakes are pretty much ready by 15 minutes, but sometimes I have needed to leave them in up until the 20 minute mark. Best advice is to just keep an eye on them and keep checking!

And that's your cake mix done! You should be left with some pretty yummy looking cakes - but they're not done yet! They need some decoration! 

FOR THE DECORATION - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

1. What I did firstly for the decoration was to make the chocolate buttons. (This can be done while the cupcakes are cooling) For this step I used a silicone button mould that I purchased recently (from the Range) and the chocolate coloured candy melts in the colours blue and yellow. You can use normal chocolate if you'd rather or different colours!

These are the candy melts and my silicone button mould!

2. The next step is to then melt your chocolate - this step for me was a bit of a estimated guess as I didn't know how much chocolate would be needed for my silicone mould. It was a bit of a trial and error but my best advice would be start with small amounts of chocolate first. Its easier to start with a little and add more than to use too much and waste it! Unfortunately my camera lost charge at this point so I don't have any pictures of this step. Sorry :(

3. Once you've melted your chocolate and poured it as best you can into the mould you'll then need to leave it at room temperature for around 10 minutes, then put it in the fridge for however long you need.

4. Now it's time for the - dun dun dun - buttercream! For the buttercream I actually had the help of THIS recipe. What you need to do firstly is to add the 110g unsalted butter into a bowl and cream together until it is light and creamy. Like this; 

5. Then you'll want to add in the 500g of icing sugar and gradually sieve and beat it into the creamy butter. For this I also used a spatula, its my weapon of choice when it comes to anything that needs a thorough mix!

^ Above is how my buttercream looked after the addition of the icing sugar!

6. Add in the 1tsp of vanilla essence and mix well again. At this point you can also add a little bit of milk if you need too to help loosen your mixture. But if you don't consider your buttercream ready for some serious colouring!

^- And that is the kind of colouring I am talking about! How amazing does that look! 

7. Okay so for this step add in only a small amount of pink food colouring (you can add more if you need to) and mix this into your buttercream until you have a colour that you are happy with. When you are, its time to grab a piping bag and get ready for piping! 

Ready for battle - of the cake variety!

And here are how your cakes should look - or something similar! All colourful and fun!

8. Once your cakes have the buttercream on, its now time to get your chocolate buttons out of the fridge and very carefully popped out of the silicone mould. If there are any parts of the chocolate that are sticking out you can just carefully slice them off with a knife.

^ Above is a photo of me just taking my chocolate button out of the mould. And to the right is a photo of all of my lovely colourful chocolate buttons! (I was really excited at this point)












9. All that is left is to simply add to the buttercream with your chocolate buttons, place them anywhere you like and however many you want on each cake. Either way they will look super adorable.

To the left is some button ideas that I tried out just to see how they would turn out. The far left one is done simply by placing some normal cake sprinkles in the mould before I added the melted chocolate. It left me with a very funky polka dot button! The other button has the same sprinkle method for the spots, however I used some writing icing to give of the effect that its been sewn onto the cake! Cool huh?

And that's it! You should hopefully have some 'Cute as a button' cupcakes!

I am so happy with these cakes - they turned out better than I could have hoped! Thank you for taking the time to read and if you do make these adorable cakes please let me know as I would love to see them!

As always sorry if there were any spelling errors or confusing parts, this is my first ever post where I add my own instructions so I hope it was okay. Any advice or tips would be appreciated! But anyway, thank you for reading regardless!

Have a wonderful day and I hope to see you soon! ♥

Ricicle x

P.S. Just as a disclaimer I am in no way a professional baker, baking is just something I enjoy to do in my spare time. ^_^ 

Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Cranberry and Orange (Sweet) Soda Bread

This week I wanted to try a Soda Bread or 'Quick Bread', which I think was the first challenge attempted by the contestants this week. (Okay technically it was last week, but for the purpose of this blog it was this week - heh)

We are using Paul's  recipe this week - as in the contestant... not Hollywood, although they weirdly look alike??? (weird) I found that this recipe was so easy to follow and it was really quite quick too. Honestly, the longest process was the cooking time!

Anyway, for Paul 'not Hollywood's recipe you will need;

- 400g Plain Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 50g Caraway Seeds (I found these at the spices section in my local supermarket)
- 50g Unsalted Butter
- 100g dried cranberries
- 175ml Buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 Unwaxed Orange (only the zest)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

^ First step was nice and easy wasn't it - 'easy peasy lemon squeezey'. Onto step 2!

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, caster sugar and caraway seeds. Using your fingers, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the cranberries and orange zest.

Here we go, as always I will put images of my attempts at each step on here for you - to simply give you a vague idea of how it should - or kind of - look like!

This is the flour, salt, baking power, caster sugar and caraway seeds looked after being mixed together.

This is the butter before it ended up looking like breadcrumbs! I cut up my butter into little cubes simply to make it a little easier as it wouldn't be very pleasant to try and rub a whole block of butter between your fingers... *shudders*.

As a side note I always loved doing this at school when we did cooking - I don't know why there is something kind of soothing about the whole technique. I don't know. I'm weird.

Admittedly its not the best picture but is after rubbing in the butter.

Ta-da breadcrumbs!






Okay so all that is done lets go for step three!

3. Mix the egg and buttermilk together then stir into the dry mixture using a wooden spoon. Use your hands to bring the dough together, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball.

 Basically this is just a very weird picture of the egg and buttermilk before being beaten together.

And this is the egg and buttermilk combo being added to the original mixture.

As you can see the cranberries have just appeared magically, this is because someone silly - A.K.A. me, forgot to add them when I should have in step 2. However, FEAR NOT, this didn't ruin anything, I just mixed the cranberries and orange zest in with the egg and buttermilk. It just meant a little more mixing in to make sure the cranberries were separated into the mix well.

The orange zest decided to make an appearance.

And now we have our soda bread dough, on the lightly floured surface, shaped in a ball with no missing ingredients, all ready to go into the oven. Hooray! Now we head to the final step - step 4!

4. Place the dough on the prepared baking tray and cut a cross into the top using a sharp knife. Bake for 30–35 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

This is how my soda bread looked before being placed into the oven with my cross in the middle. Looks a little bit like a Hot Cross Bun doesn't it?







30 minutes later...

Voila! Soda Bread! Sweet Cranberry and Orange Soda Bread!





Just as a side note Paul 'Not Hollywood's recipe said to leave it in between 30-35 minutes, I personally had to leave mine in a little bit longer than that as at 30 minutes my dough wasn't quite cooked. However I'd just suggest cooking it for the recommended time and just keep checking it.

And that it for today! Yet again I am super excited by how this bake turned out as I've never made a soda bread before. I felt it looked nice in appearance and it tasted delicious!

Thank you again for reading and I hope you have a lovely day... or evening!
If you do try this bake let me know and see you guys again next week for another Take On a Bake -(Off!) post. ♥

Ricicle x

The Bad Education Movie - Review (Sort of)

Basically this is just me wanting to talk about this film because I saw it today and liked it.

Now, I'm no film critic so don't expect anything in depth or good. I just wanted to tell you guys about this film because I saw it today - rather spontaneously - and really enjoyed it! However first and foremost I just want to mention that I don't intend to put any spoilers of the story line in here so I'm just saying this now as a warning in-case I do accidentally let something slip. Know that I didn't mean to and lets still be friends. Please? Yes? Okay? Awesome!

From the first series in 2012, I have always been a fan of Jack Whitehall's Bad Education. Having watched and been a fan of each series it was then pretty exciting to know that it was being made into a film, as it was quite sad knowing the series had come to an end last year. However, I must admit I was a little worried, as I didn't want the series, which ended on such a high, to then be remembered as something that wasn't that good because of the film spin off. Or film addition? Well - film either way right?

My worries were (as usual) for nothing! The film was - personally - hilarious! Full of randomness and fun I honestly could not stop laughing throughout. It had quite a intriguing - if a bit odd story line though - although as promised I wont delve into that because I don't want to risk spoiling it for you. Just know that its not too 'silly' like I'd imagined it might have been. Well okay, certain parts were a little far fetched but it was in a good way I guess. No joke seemed too stretched out and nothing was repeated in a effort to gain another laugh. Every funny part that happened in the film stirred a genuine laugh... from me anyway. (Does that almost sound review like? Check me out)

Image 1 - Looking pretty serious

To give you an idea of what the film is like I would say imagine The Inbetweeners films. Like Bad Education it started as a very successful TV series and then into two films. The tone and humour of Bad Education is also very similar to that of The Inbetweeners. So basically - if you're a fan of Will, Simon, Neil and Jay chances are you'll be a fan of Alfie Wickers and his class.

I must say however the film would probably be more enjoyable for fans of the series rather than watching it as a stand alone film. I think this simply because by watching it as a stand alone film certain elements may feel unexplained or confusing. (Don't let that deter you though if you haven't seen the series before!)

And that's pretty much it for today. Sorry again for any spelling mistakes or confusing parts. I know I'm not the best writer/blogger in the world but I really am enjoying this and I really do appreciate and thank you guys for reading! ♥ I hope you enjoyed my 'sort of' review and if you have seen the film too let me know your thoughts!

The image I found here by the way.

Ricicle x

P.S. The film also stars Iain Glen A.K.A. Ser Jorah from Game of Thrones!

CURRENTLY PLAYING (Admittedly rather late)- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

<- Image found here.

Okay, okay, okay, I know this game isn't exactly new, but I've only just got around to playing it and I thought it might be fun to type up my thoughts of the game and tell them to you guys. (That was a really long sentence sorry)

So like I said this game has been released since 2011 on PC and 2012 on Xbox 360 and up until now I have never played it. However with The Witcher 3 being released earlier this year and it looking pretty cool, I wanted to get this game and have a see what its like. I'd also seen it in my recommended games on Xbox so I thought, why not? And here we are. Its probably a good thing to mention though that I haven't played the first Witcher Game as I simply couldn't find it at my local gaming store. #sorry

Today I literally JUST started the game, and by just started I mean I've just done the tutorial and a little bit of the main story (I think). The tutorial I thought was pretty good, it wasn't too annoying and I actually felt better for doing it. (I don't know sometimes I just feel the tutorials on some games can drag a little, but this one seemed just enough). I like the controls but I'll need to get used to them and the combat elements seem okay to me for now. Combat in the game reminds me so far of Dragon Age as does the circle menu. If anything there is only one thing I don't like so far and that is the process of potion making, only because it feels like you go through one menu into another. Maybe its just me. Other than that this game seems awesome and I can't wait to play more.

And that's it! Sorry this wasn't the best of posts regarding the game, I don't really know where to start with these kind of posts but I appreciate you reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Just as a warning, the next time I type up about this game it may include spoilers, so just in case you haven't played the game yet and would like to I'd just say be prepared.

Have a awesome day... or night!

Ricicle x

Take On A Bake - (Off!) / Arlettes

Arlette's. They are something I had never baked, eaten or even heard of before! But I love cinnamon so they had to be the task I chose to bake this week! (I ended up regretting this halfway through making them as they are so faffy! - but we persevere in the face of annoying recipes! ... right guys? *yeah*)

This week I chose to follow the recipe set out by the Hollywood himself - and my gosh was it frustrating. Not through anything he had done in the recipe, just because of how many steps where actually needed to make the biscuits. I had probably underestimated the amount of work needed for these biscuits... like - really underestimated! But hey ho, here we go!

It looks like pop art!

So for the Arlette's you will need:

• Strong white bread flour (I didn't even know this was a thing?)
• Plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• Unsalted Butter
• Granulated Sugar 
• Ground Cinnamon 
• Icing Sugar

Lets get started with Paul Hollywood's recipe; (like last week I will place images of each step to help give you a idea of what it should look like)

1. Put the flours, salt, butter and 50ml/2fl oz cold water in a bowl and gently mix to form a dough.

So in the bowl is 60g of strong white bread flour and 60g of plain flour, alongside 1 tsp salt and 40g unsalted butter (which needs to be slightly melted) this was just before I mixed it all and got it into a dough form! 

DOUGH FORM

2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth. Shape the dough into a square, wrap in cling film and chill for an hour (or freeze for 20-30 minutes).

Before kneading. 

After kneading - I wasn't sure of the size the square needed to be so I took a guess. Once this is done plop it into the fridge and start on the butter layer - dun dun dun. 

3. For the butter layer, cream the butter and flours together using an electric mixer. Sandwich the mixture between two sheets of cling film and roll out to a rectangle the same width as the square of dough, but twice as long. Chill in the fridge for 25 minutes.

 So this is after I mixed the 125g of unsalted butter and 25g of strong white bread flour and 25g of plain flour. It took maybe a good 2 minutes to get it nice and creamy.

I got a little confused by this step - I'm not really sure why I was just a bit unsure on how I could shape the butter. The clingfilm kept splitting on me so this was the best shape I could get! But anyway, once you have something like a rectangle, plop it in the fridge like the dough.

4. Unwrap the chilled dough and butter layer. Place the chilled butter layer, short end facing towards you on a lightly floured surface and place the square of dough in the centre of the butter sheet. Make sure it is positioned neatly and covers almost to the edges. Lift the exposed butter sheet at the top and fold it down over the dough, then fold the exposed butter sheet at the bottom up over the top, so the dough is completely enclosed in the butter sheet.

So this is what happened when I did this step.. I don't even know what happened. It was just a mess, butter was everywhere and well I really don't know how I fixed it. A lot of flour I guess. But I wanted to share it because retrospectively it was kinda funny. But don't worry if yours goes wrong either, its nothing flour wont fix! #TeamFlour

5. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, short end towards you. Roll out to a rectangle, keeping the edges as even as possible. Fold the top quarter down and the bottom quarter up so they meet neatly in the centre. Then fold the dough in half along the centre line. This is called a book turn. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

See? Flour is the hero for your dough problems! From here it went back into the fridge for.. you guessed, another 25 minutes.................................

6. Remove the dough from the fridge and make another book turn. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

ANOTHER BOOK TURN GUYS - DO THE BOOK TURN.

Original photo found here!, but that masterpiece was edited by yours truly! (sorry Paul) 

7. For the filling, mix the granulated sugar and the cinnamon together in a bowl. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry to a rectangle as before and sprinkle over the sugar.

 So here is the 50g of granulated sugar mixed in with the 2 tsp of ground cinnamon

8. Make another book turn to incorporate the sugar, then roll out the pastry 1cm/½in thick, to a rectangle 12x20cm/4½x8in. Roll up the pastry from the short end like a Swiss roll. Wrap in cling film and chill for 25 minutes.

So above is how my pastry looked with the cinnamon all 'book turned' in and before I rolled into a tight swiss roll shape. As you can see its not a perfect rectangle shape but it really doesn't matter as in the next step we will chop the wonky ends of the swiss roll! So don't worry too much. Also so I can give credit, the second photo of Hollywood before I edited it was found here!

9. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line 2 baking trays lines with silicon sheets or non-stick baking paper.

Easy step! We can do that!

10. Trim the ends of the roll and cut into 8 x 1cm/½in thick slices. Dust the work surface heavily with icing sugar and roll each piece of dough out very thinly, turning to coat in the sugar and to prevent sticking. Place the biscuits on the prepared trays and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully turn the biscuits and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

This is the Arlette before being chopped up! As you can see the ends have been cut off so no matter what each section will be near enough equal! So like I said don't worry too much about forming a perfect rectangle.

Unfortunately I was engrossed in rolling out each biscuit that I forgot to take a picture of this step! Sorry!

This is what my Arlette's looked like before going into the oven! I made some smaller ones too out as I was able to make more than eight! I ended up using three different baking trays as I didn't have one that fitted them all in! They went in the oven for 5 minutes, and then what I had to do was flip them over and wait either another 3-4 minutes or until they were golden brown! I must add here that they smelt, delicious!

And here are the finished Arlette's -

They don't look too shabby do they? I am so happy with how they turned out as I have never attempted something as time consuming as this. I love how you can still see the swirl and the layers of cinnamon. I think its safe to say the frustration was worth it in the end!




And that's it for this weeks 'Take on A Bake - (Off!)', I hope you enjoyed this post and if you attempt this bake yourself be sure to let me know! I hope you all are enjoying The Great British Bake Off too, I know I am. Thank you again for reading and have a lovely day. (Sorry if there were any mistakes)

Ricicle x

P.S. I'm also sorry this post was up pretty much at the last minute, with tomorrow being the third episode of 'TGBBO', I've had a pretty busy and stressful few days so today was pretty much the first chance I've had to make them. But I did and I'm so glad I had time to do them as it was a great experience and learning curve baking wise! Hooray! ♥