Honey Joys

The last time I made honey joys was around a year ago when I was at university and had a weekly budget of 50 bucks for food, petrol and any other necessities. I guess the wonderful honey joy memories came flooding in, and logically I knew I could afford the few ingredients. 

However, the university version I made included a microwave instead of a stove top/oven plus a large plastic container instead of a muffin tray/patty cakes. It still tasted yummy- but a very cheap version of yummy. 

Anywho, just stick with the stove, oven and patty cases- it tastes EXACTLY like you would buy them at a school fate when you were 9. 

Pretty sure I ate almost all of them within 2 days. :/

, LA

Portfolio + Job!

A couple of weeks ago I emailed some design studios. I put together a portfolio for myself and created a couple of new designs. I finished them that evening so I could send them off with some other ones I'd previously done. 


One of the responses I received was from a lovely lady working not only as a freelance graphic designer for 'Elki' but also as a graphic designer and web specialist for Dubbo City Council! 


I came in for 4 days of work experience then they offered me a casual graphic design position over the Summer! Happy Lauren! :)


, LA 

Halloween treat! Chocolate Pumpkin Cake.

Well, there is this girl Catherine, who I love to stalk almost every day, twice a day. She really must retire from her current job to bake + post blogs constantly. 


She baked a halloween cake and it looked delicious. So I decided to attempt such a thing on halloween. It all went terribly wrong when I discovered the main thickening ingredient in the frosting was HEAVY cream and not THICKENED cream. 


I tried- oh how i tried to make it thicker. But in the end I just whipped up a generic cake frosting and added all the other ingredients (even though I had already used all the creamed cheese in my first frosting attempt). In the end it was still moist and super rich- it just lacked a nice thick layer in middle of the cakes.


And instead of adding lovely little spiders to my cake I squeezed some melted chocolate out of a thick plastic bag and froze it. 


I never liked chocolate cake before, so this recipe is a keeper. 


, LA

P.S happy birthday christina! I will  bake you something else when you finally get home. 

Macbook

In Germany I didn't have a computer until Mum and Dad came over half way through my stay. And let me tell you- when you have no mobile phone to speak to your friends AND no computer, let a lone no job...you realy do go a tad crazy.  

So other than being so excited to see Mum and Dad, I was also really excited that they brought me pressie. I thought I deserved it considering my last computer would run out of battery after 3 minutes, take (and I'm not exaggerating) 10 minutes to turn on, and was completely incapable of staying connected to the internet for more than 5 minutes. 

So when they arrived so did my Macbook. Ah sweet love. 

Marcel managed to find the complete CS3 system on a random USB lying around his uni (most convenient time ever) and so I started with a couple of designs.

Might I just add: that once you have a MAC you can never go back. 

, LA

SUUF Look Book

When I was in Germany I was asked if I could do a look book for a German fashion line named 'SUUF'. 


If you don't know what a look book is (and care), it's pretty much like a mini booklet with all the clothes on display for a particular clothing line. 


The job was fun but a lot of work, in a short amount of time. I completed the 60 page layout on the Sunday and edited the atmospheric pictures the night before. 


One very long day later- i finished! Could have been a lot better with a bit more time, but I finished it... and enjoyed the extra Euros!

Fantasy Land

 I took these photos a while ago, and had a bit too much fun running around our college 'forest' with my friend Heidrun. Dressing her up in a $20, second hand dress and  making her 'act' like she was warm was hilarious. 

I don't know WHO wore that dress for real and how OLD they were, but the thought of wearing it for any 'special' event just plain scares me. 

I also made a book cover out of one of the photos a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy.

, LA

Banana Cupcakes & Maple Brown Butter Frosting

These cupcakes are too addictive 

I never knew a thing such as 'browning butter' existed. But let me share with you something that takes frosting to a whole. new. level.

All you do is 1. put the butter over the sauce pan 2. let it boil on medium high whilst constantly stirring and 3. wait until a white, foamy layer forms on the top (thats when the butter should turn golden brown) and bam!

My friends all know I am a bit of a food addict, and I really do sound like a fatty- but this frosting tastes like caramel and happiness and running through a field of poppies on a sunny spring day.

Below, I whipped up the recipe for you. 

, LA

A Land Left

Well, it's been exactly 3 weeks since I hopped on a plane in Germany and flew back to my lovely homely home in Australia.

The 7 months were a mixture of many emotions- mainly being good ones, however I was definitely ready to retire to my bed and Mum's home cooked meals. Best learnt lesson- never do nothing (if you could say that).

I literally didn't have a job for my whole stay, and for the first time in my life I understood what it meant to be 'bored'. It almost sounds ridiculous, seeing that I was in Europe. However after the first 3 months of being in the same city and not having enough money to travel, you could see where I went wrong. The 2 months before I left were absolutely dreadful and uncalled for. Double shifts are just UNNATURAL. I should have went to Germany with little money and found a job. Silly me.

But in saying all that, the trip was absolutely amazing. Friends, adventures, different seasons, a new language, being with my man, castles, forests, culture...and the list goes on! 

Here is this massive tower that overlooks Stuttgart, the city I lived in. It's a TV tower, but had a pretty dandy elevator to the top. My oh my it was windy! I have A LOT more pictures to upload from Germany but I'm too lazy to go grab my external hd.

, LA