Degusta Box Unboxing

AD/Gifted

Hey beaut's!

It's that time again....Degusta Box reveal time! If you haven't heard of Degusta Box before it's a food subscription box where you receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products a month, some products you receive could be completely new to the market and others could be firm favourites! The box is just £12.99 a month but if you'd like to try one out for the first time you can use my code R5R0F to get £3.00 off, making your first box just £9.99. So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's! 

This time around we have a 'Hello Spring' themed box filled we all the treats you could think of to get us in that Spring-time mood! I have so many favourites this time, the Organic Cheerios where so nice. The Smarties bar was immense but I'm such a chocoholic! I also loved the PITCH rolls, the flapjacks and I've made use of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar too!

Veganuary - The BEST Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies.....Oh how I love myself a cookie or five! Theres nothing better than warm, home made chocolate chip cookies so today I thought I would  the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe! These are so addictive and their so easy to make, you literally only need one bowl a wooden spoon or spatula and your ingredients (which are also pretty basic) and your good to go. 

Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe

We've found ourselves in lockdown for the second time this year which means I'm furloughed and off work AGAIN! Although this sucks, it does give me plenty of time to start my festive bakes and cakes seeing as I'm stuck at home again, so I thought I'd kick things off with an absolute classic, the gingerbread cupcake! These taste so festive, there's just something about that gingerbread flavour that makes me feel all cosy and Christmas-y, I've finished them off with a yummy batch of vanilla buttercream and some cute little gingerbread biscuits and I think they look so cute! 

Halloween Degusta Box Review

Hey beaut's!

It's that time again....Degustabox reveal time! If you haven't heard of Degustabox before it's a food subscription box where you receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products a month, some products you receive could be completely new to the market and others could be firm favourites! The box is just £12.99 a month but if you'd like to try one out for the first time you can use my code R5R0F to get £3.00 off, making your first box just £9.99. So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's! 

Panda Sweets Pick N Mix Box Reviewed

Hey beaut's!

I have the biggest sweet tooth, whether it's chocolate, fizzy sweets, gummy sweets or boiled sweets, I love them all! So when Panda Sweets asked if I'd like to try one of their Pick N Mix boxes my mouth instantly watered and I just couldn't resist.

August Degustabox Review

Hey beaut's!

It's that time again....Degustabox reveal time! If you haven't heard of Degustabox before it's a food subscription box where you receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products a month, some products you receive could be completely new to the market and others could be firm favourites! The box is just £12.99 a month but if you'd like to try one out for the first time you can use my code R5R0F to get £3.00 off, making your first box just £9.99. So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's! 

Degustabox Review + £3.00 Off Discount Code!

Hey beaut's!

It's that time again....Degustabox reveal time! If you haven't heard of Degustabox before it's a food subscription box where you receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products a month, some products you receive could be completely new to the market and others could be firm favourites! The box is  just £12.99 a month but if you want to try one out for the first time you can use my code R5R0F to get £3.00 off making your first box just £9.99. So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's! 

Super Basic Easter Cupcakes To Make While On Lockdown!

Hey beaut's!

It's been a while...about 3 weeks to be exact and that's all down to the horrendous situation we are all in! The place I work thankfully closed it's doors a week and a half ago, and although that means I'm temporary out of work until the store re-opens I'm just so glad I can stay home and keep as safe as possible! Making sure we all stay at home can be boring but it's absolutely essential right now to protect our NHS and ourselves, so something fun you could do alone or with your kiddies is bake!

The recipe I'm sharing today is pretty basic (plain sponge and chocolate buttercream) and is made up of the simplest ingredients which hopefully you'll already have in your cupboards at home, I bake a lot so I do always have a stash of ingredients in my baking cupboard and the Easter mini eggs I already had as I was planing on doing lots of Easter recipes for you guys, but that's not worked out as I'd hoped so I'm using up the bit's and pieces I'd bought already! 

What You Will Need For The Cupcakes - Makes 12
125g butter
2 free-range eggs
125g self raising flour
100g caster sugar
25g light brown sugar
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
splash of milk

What You Will Need For The Icing
150g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
15g cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp milk
Any Easter treats you have to decorate.

How To - Cupcakes
1. Firstly pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 /180 and line a muffin tin with your cupcake cases.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whack in your butter and both of your sugars and cream together, then pop in the rest of your cupcake ingredients and mix until smooth with a hand whizzer or standing mixer. If the mixture is a bit thick then add a splash of milk to loosen things up.
3. Pop a heaped tablespoon of the cupcake batter into each cupcake case and bake in the oven for around 16-18 minutes or until the top of the cupcakes are springy to the touch, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

How To - Icing
1. In a large bowl, beat the butter until it becomes smooth and silky, then start adding the icing sugar and cocoa powder slowly to avoid the dreaded icing sugar cloud and mix again until combined. If your buttercream becomes thick just add in a tablespoon of milk at a time until you get the perfect consistency.
2. Pipe or spoon the icing on top of the cupcakes and decorate how you wish, I used up some Cadbury Mini Eggs and some Smarties Orange Eggs for mine.

 And there you have it, a simple yet effective bake which can be adapted if needs be, if you don't have any light brown sugar then just add an extra 25 grams of caster sugar or vice versa, if you only have light brown just use that. If you only have plain flour that's fine too but you'll need to add some baking powder!

Do let me know if you give these a go beaut's!

February Degustabox Review + £5 off Discount Code!

Hey beaut's!

I have a subscription box review for you all today but it's a subscription box with a difference.... it contains yummy food and drink, so say hello to Degustabox*. Degustabox works very much like how beauty subscription boxes work, for £12.99 a month (postage included within the £12.99 price) you will receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products, many that are completely new to the market! So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's!

The shortlist for this months box is...

Galaxy Vegan Bar £3.00 for 1.

TREK Protein Flapjack Cocoa Oat £2.50.

KITKAT Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny 65p for 1.

Livia's Salted Caramel Million Squares £1.50.

My Sweet Chickpea £1.25.

Jacked Foods Chunks £1.89 per bag.

Mug Shot High Protein Roast Chicken Pasta £1.29.

Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard £1.50.

Very Lazy Slow Cooker Pastes £1.99 for 1.

Heinz Paw Patrol & Frozen No Added Sugar Pasta Shapes 55p each.

Lost Coast Fruit Spritzer £2.49.

This month we have an 'Easter is Coming' themed boxed and let me tell you - it's gone down a treat in my house! We have such sweet tooth's so the fact this box is pretty much crammed full of sweet things to try makes us very happy! I think my favourite bits in this months box has to be the Vegan Galaxy bars, I've been dying to try these as I'm such a lover of the original Galaxy bars so I'm intrigued to try the Vegan versions! I also love the KITKAT bunnies, the TREK bars, the Chickpeas and the Heinz pasta shapes are always a winner on toast for lunch, honestly this box is my favourite Degustabox I've had for a while, it's contents is INCREDIBLE! 

If you like the look and sound of Degustabox you can grab your first box for just £7.99 with the code R5R0F HERE.

*This post contains gifted items from Degustabox, all opinions are my own!

Easy and Affordable Gingerbread Truffles

 Hey beaut's!

If your having any festive get together's, dinner parties or you just want something sweet but picky to add to your Christmas Day table then I have the perfect bite size sweet treat for you - Gingerbread Truffles covered in white chocolate, oh my! These cost me around £2.50 to make and don't require much effort either, there so easy but so effective!

What You Will Need

1 packet of ginger-nut biscuits
2-3 tablespoons of cream cheese
2 bars of white chocolate
Sprinkles to decorate (optional)

How To
* Blitz the entire packet of ginger biscuits in a food processor, once the biscuits are blitzed pop 2 tablespoons of cream cheese into a bowl and whack in the ginger biscuit crumbs and mix until you get a wet sand like consistency!
* Once thoroughly combined, mould the mixture into little balls and pop into the fridge for an hour to set, if your in a rush just whack them in the freezer! If you find your mixture is too dry and you cant roll them into balls add in a third tablespoon of cream cheese and that will help bring everything together!
* Once your balls are firm and set (oh wow that sounds interesting doesn't it LOL) melt your white chocolate a coat the balls evenly and decorate whilst their still wet! I had some Christmas sprinkles in my baking cupboard so I used them on a few of my truffles, I was also using a block of milk chocolate that day for another recipe so I grated some milk chocolate on some and drizzled some melted milk chocolate on some others, you could literally use whatever you like to decorate them really!
* Once decorated pop them back in the fridge until your ready to serve them and voila! The truffles will stay good in the fridge for 4-5 days then you'll need to whip up another batch he he!

Will you be giving these a whirl beaut's? Or have you already tried them? I'd love to know!

Autumn Spice Cupcake Recipe!

 Hey beaut's!

I'm fully aboard the Autumn train, I'm literally obsessed with all things autumn at the moment and I just couldn't resist getting the spices back out and whipping up something yummy and seasonal! If your like spice cakes or gingerbread men then your going to love the taste of these beauties, I'm certainly going to be making a lot of batches of these that's for sure!

What You Will Need For The Cupcakes
75g unsalted butter
125ml black treacle
125ml milk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
175g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/4tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground allspice
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1/4tsp salt
1tsp bicarbonate soda

What You Will Need For The Buttercream
200g unsalted butter
450g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
splash of milk

How To - Cupcakes
* Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 4 /180 and line a muffin tin with your cupcake cases.
* In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and the sugar with an electric whizzer until well combined, then add in the egg and egg yolk along with the treacle and mix again!
3. Then add in your flour, all of the spices, bicarbonate soda, salt and mix until you get a batter start to form, then add in the milk loosen things up so you get a silky batter.
4. Pop a tablespoon of the cupcake batter into each cupcake case and bake in the oven for around 18-20 minutes or until the top of the cupcakes are springy to the touch, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.


How To - Buttercream
* In a large bowl, beat the butter until it becomes super light in colour and whippy, then start adding the icing sugar slowly to avoid the dreaded icing sugar cloud and mix again until combined. As usual if the buttercream is too stiff then pop in some milk until you get your desired constancy.
* Pipe or spoon the icing on top of the cupcakes and decorate with some sprinkles if you wish, I actually crumbled up one of the cupcakes to use as sprinkles, and voila!

Whats your favourite thing to bake at this time of the year beaut's? I'd love to know!

Oreo Cheesecake Recipe!

 Hey beaut's!

I'm sure you all know by now how much I love my bakes and cakes, I'm always sharing my sweet recipes on my blog but something I'd never attempted before was a cheesecake!! I'm a huge lover of Oreos (and cheesecake) so I knew my first ever cheesecake needed to be an Oreo one, I was also inspired by a recipe I found on Jane's Patisserie as her Oreo cheesecake looks immense, but I've adapted the recipe to suit me more!

What You Will Need - Oreo Biscuit Base
*2 packets or 300g Oreos, I used 1 pack of original and 1 pack of brownie flavour.
*100g Melted Unsalted Butter

What You Will Need - Cheesecake Filling
375g full fat Mascarpone or cream cheese. I used mascarpone because I found it much cheaper.
63g Icing Sugar
150ml Double Cream 
Half a tsp Vanilla Extract
100g Oreos, I used 50g of original and 50g of brownies flavour.  

What You Will Need - Decorations
150 ml Double Cream
2 tbsp Icing Sugar
12 Oreos + Oreo Crumbs

How To - Biscuit Base
1. Blitz up the Oreos to a fine crumb and pour in your melted butter and mix until it feels and looks like wet sand then pop it in a spring form tin and press down firm to pack those crumbs together. 
2. Pop into the fridge or freezer to chill/set whilst you work on the cheesecake filling.

How To - Cheesecake Filling
1. Pop the mascarpone or cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and whizz together with an electric/standing mixer until smooth.
2. Once smooth, pop in your double cream and mix again until well combined and thickened.
3. Blitz up more Oreo crumbs and add them to your cheesecake mixture and mix well to combine.
4. Heap the cheesecake mixture on top of the biscuit base and chill in the fridge ideally overnight however, I made mine first thing in the morning and left it to chill all day until dinner time and ours was fine. Basically the longer you can chill it the better!
5. Once the cheesecake has completely chilled and firmed up decorate how you like, I whipped up some double cream and added swirls on top then I used left over Oreo's crumbs as sprinkles and broke Oreo biscuits in half to pop around where I had piped the whipped up double cream and voila!

What I love about using Oreo's is that it's that ultimate cookies and cream flavour and you can adapt it so much now that Oreo's come in different flavours, I think the peanut butter flavoured Oreos would work well in this for any of those peanut butter lovers out there!

April Degustabox Review + £5 off Discount Code!

Hey beaut's!

I have a subscription box review for you all today but it's a subscription box with a difference.... it contains yummy food and drink, so say hello to Degustabox*. Degustabox works very much like how beauty subscription boxes work, for £12.99 a month (postage included within the £12.99 price) you will receive 10 to 15 surprise food/drink products, many that are completely new to the market! So if your a bit of a foodie like myself and you love subscription boxes your going to love this beaut's!

The shortlist for this months box is:

Heinz Organic Baked Beans £1.00
Heinz Cream Of Tomato Soup Pot £1.19
Cheerios £2.69
Typhoo Black Tea £2.20
Robinson's Fruit Cordials £2.49
London Flavours Crisps £1.00
Candy Kittens Wild Strawberry £1.50
CRAFTED by Cracker Drinks Co Mango & Passion Fruit £2.00
Skinny Food Co Not Guilty Milk Chocolate/White Chocolate Crispies £1.49
Bull's-Eye NY Steakhouse Barbecue Sauce £2.49
Love Corn Smoked BBQ £1.29
Pachamama Bars £1.39
Eat Water Slim Rice Sushi £2.55

Overall I think the April 'Best Of British' Degustabox is amazing, it has a great variety of yummy treats and drinks to try and enjoy, and persoanlly I think it's one of the best boxes I've had, I literally love every single thing in the box this time which is always a bonus!

If you like the look and sound of Degustabox you can grab your first box for just £7.99 with the code 039DB HERE.

*This post contains gifted items, all opinions are my own!