Mini Eggs & Fingers: Easter Sponge Cake

As Easter is fast approaching and I haven't baked anything in what seems like forever, I thought I would find a fun themed cake to bake for the occasion! I took inspiration from three different places to create this and I am actually quite proud of how it turned out. The original recipe I found was a chocolate cake, however since I don't really like too much chocolate, I decided to switch it up and bake a Victoria Sponge instead.

You Will Need (decoration):

• Around 400g of mini eggs
• 2 packs of each type of chocolate fingers

You Will Need (buttercream frosting):

• 300g of icing sugar
• 150g unsalted softened butter
• Vanilla extract

You Will Need (cake including filling):

• <100g of Icing sugar (not sure how much I used)
• About 4 tbsp strawberry/raspberry jam
• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar, warmed in the oven
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 175g self-raising flour

Method

Preheat oven to Gas mark 5 (190 degrees celcius) and warm the sugar

Grease two 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins and line them with greaseproof paper

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

Beat the eggs and blend into the mixture, stirring in a spoonful of flour with the last egg

Sieve in the remaining flour and turn into the two tins

Bake the cakes for 20 to 25 minutes

If the sponge springs back when lightly pressed, then it is done!

Turn on to a wire rack to cool for a few hours.

For the buttercream, beat the icing sugar and butter together until smooth

Add in the vanilla extract and mix in

For the jam, I put it into the mixer until it was smooth, but you don't have to do this

When the cakes are cool, slice the top off of one of them so that it is nice and flat

Smooth the buttercream onto this half, then put a layer of jam on top

Place the other half of the cake on top and that is the Victoria Sponge done!

I left the cake to set for a bit in the fridge whilst I made some icing to stick the mini eggs and fingers on with.

For the icing, add tiny spoonfuls of water to the icing sugar so that it doesn't become runny; you want the icing to be the consistency of PVA glue so that it will hold the decorations on

Now, time to decorate! 

Use the icing to carefully stick the chocolate fingers around the edge of the sponge, then use the rest to add a thin layer to the top to help keep the mini eggs in place

And there we have it! A simple yet fun cake to bake this Easter! 

Recipe credit: 

Buttercream Frosting: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2451647/buttercream

Decoration: http://www.scarletscorchdroppers.com/2015/03/23/chocolate-mini-egg-easter-cake/

Victoria Sponge: Cooking for your freezer - Mary Berry recipe book

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

xx

How I Remove My Makeup

I have never looked up the best way to remove makeup at the end of the day; over time I just figured out what worked best for me and what products I liked the most. 
I don't follow a strict skin routine which is something that I am working on changing as when I do put on a face mask or use my electronic facial brush, I notice a huge difference. That being said, I have made a small step towards doing that by introducing a proper routine for taking off my makeup. 
I used to just use a facial wipe which removed makeup well on the surface, but wasn't good enough to remove any that got into the pores etc, so I needed to switch things up. Now that I have managed to do so, I thought I would share it here on my blog. 

Firstly, I use one of my trusty Simple Micellar Cleansing Wipes to remove any visual makeup so that I don't have to use as much product as I would if I didn't have this step. 
These wipes are amazing. They are gentle on the skin whilst still tough on the makeup, which is exactly why I don't use any others. 
Just take one and gently wipe off your makeup in circular motions to avoid missing any. 

After that initial step, I take one of my large oval pads to apply my cleanser with. I like these pads as they are big and a lot easier to hold than normal round pads. 
The cleanser that I am using at the moment is the Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gelee Milk. It is a light texture; a lot thinner than lotion but isn't runny at all which I like. I apply this with the cotton pad and gently wipe it over my face to remove any last bits of makeup that the wipe didn't get to. It leaves my face feeling so nourished and smooth as well which is a plus. 

I then do a second cleanse. The first one is mainly to remove the last bits of makeup so this one is to mainly cleanse the skin itself to help leave it refreshed and fully clean. The one that I am using for this is the B. Sparkling Water Cleanser. To be honest, I picked this up as I thought it sounded interesting, then I noticed that the product itself recommends people to use it as a second cleanser which is why I bought it. 

I apply this with my hands (making sure I wash them properly first), lightly massaging it into the skin - again in circular motions - until it is mostly absorbed. I then splash my face with warm water and gently pat it dry. 

Although this isn't really a step to help remove makeup, I do apply this afterwards just to help get rid of my dark circles since I don't have makeup on. 

This is the Vitamin C Brightening Eye Gel by Superdrug. I liked the sound of this as it is infused with Vitamin C which I thought would be more effective than a normal eye gel. So I apply this under my eyes in a circular motion and then just wait for my skin to absorb it. My eyes instantly feel refreshed and more awake so I will definitely be purchasing it again. 

So, that is the routine that I am currently following to remove my makeup. All of these products are from Superdrug (except the oval pads which are from Tesco), and they are currently on sale for:

Simple Micellar Wipes - £2.05

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Cleanser - £3.89

B. Sparkling Water Cleanser - £3.45

Vitamin C Brightening Eye Gel - £4.99

xx