I know this post is a little long overdue, as I posted about the first part of my holiday a couple of weeks ago.  I am having a nightmare with my internet, which has been going on for the last few months and has just gradually got worse.  It won't be long until Virgin are in for an ear bashing.  It works for a minute and then turns itself off and I have to restart my wi-fi to get it working again, which makes it a nightmare to do anything that takes longer than 5 minutes.  Does anyone else on Virgin have this problem?

Anyway, getting back to the actual point of this post, here's what I got up to on the rest of my trip to Ireleand...

Whilst exploring places in Ireland we made a stop in Waterford, one of Ireland's oldest cities famed for it's Waterford Crystal.  They had some beautiful crystal figures, this bear and Cinderella carriage being my favourites, but they did cost a pretty penny.

Next we went to Kilkenny, one of my favourite cities in Ireland.  It has the most amazing castle and the grounds are lovely.  It's a shame the sun didn't come out a little more, but we escaped the showers by ducking into one of it's many cute cafes.

Next we visited a quaint little irish market town called Thomastown.  There wasn't much there, but is was a nice place to have a little wander round and I just had to mention it as we stumbled across a little chocolate shop called Truffle Fairy.  Where we couldn't resist buying a selection of their chocolate and fudge, but best of all was their chocolate brownie.  I am not exaggerating when I say it is the best chocolate brownie I have ever tasted in my life!  So if you're ever in Ireland I'd definitely recommend a trip to their little chocolate cafe just for a slice of their chocolate brownie, trust me it's worth it.

Finally we went to the Rock of Dunamase, which is the ruins of Dunamase Castle on top of a giant mound.  To be honest there's not much too it, but my nan is always telling me tales of when she was a young girl and how she and her brother's and sisters used to spend summers up there playing hide and seek, whilst her dad picked mushrooms.  So it was nice to go and actually see what she has been telling me about all these years, in a place where she has such fond memories.  The views from the top are magnificent too, you can just see fields of green for miles and miles.  It definitely shows where it got the nickname of the Emerald Isle from.

I know I have been a little quiet in the blogosphere recently and that is because I took a little holiday with my boyfriend to Ireland to visit family and explore a little more of the Emerald Isle.  So I will apologise now if this post is a little long and photo heavy but I thought I'd just share a little of what I got up to on my little break.

I hate flying so I had a super anxious morning waiting to get on the plane and as we were up at 3am to head for the airport, we spent the first couple of days relaxing and catching up with family.  We went to Emo Court, where they have a big stately home with a really nice cafe set in lovely grounds with a big lake.  It was really nice to just walk around and luckily the rain held off until we went into the cafe for a late brunch.  If you've been to Ireland before you'll know how lucky you are if you manage to make it a whole day without getting caught in a shower.  We also went to one of the oldest pubs in Ireland for our first Guinness, it was such a quaint old Irish pub in a little town called Abbeyleix.

Now I'm sure if you read my blog you'll know that it's no secret that I love animals and the zoo, so of course we had to take a trip to Dublin Zoo whilst we were there.  If, like me, you love the zoo, I'd definitely recommend it if you ever happen to be in the area.  It is set in the grounds of Phoenix Park, which is a lovely setting and a nice place to visit in itself even if you're not a big fan of the zoo.








Playing spot the Hippo, I was actually a little stupidly excited by this one as I've never seen a Hippo in real life before.



So as not to bombard you, or bore you, with too long a post I have decided to split my trip into two parts and will share the rest of my trip with you in my next post.

It's no secret that I love to bake so I thought I'd use Easter as an opportunity to cook up some chocolate-y goodness and decided to bake some yummy Mini Egg and Creme Egg cupcakes.

Ingredients

For the sponge:

70g unsalted butter

210g caster sugar

105g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

255g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

2tsp baking powder

240ml whole milk

Milk chocolate chips

Frozen Cadburys Mini Creme Eggs

For the frosting:

500g icing sugar

160g unsalted butter

50ml whole milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Yellow food colouring

Dark Chocolate

Cadburys Mini Eggs

1.First of all pre-heat your oven to 190ºc/Gas mark 5 and fill your muffin tins with cases, this recipe usually makes around 16 cupcakes.

2.Using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs one at a time on a medium speed, followed by the vanilla essence.

3. Sift together the dry ingredients and add a third to the mixture, mix on a low speed, then add a third of the milk and continue to mix on a low speed.  Repeat twice until the flour mixture and milk has all been used, then raise to a medium speed until the batter is smooth and well mixed.

4. Fill half the cases with the chocolate batter and put a frozen mini creme egg in each case.  Freezing the creme eggs overnight before hand helps them to keep their shape whilst the sponge bakes so it doesn't melt into the batter.  Mix half of the pack of milk chocolate chips into the remaining batter and fill the rest of the cases and bake in the oven for 18-20 mins.

Whilst the cupcakes cool on the side you can make the frosting.

1.  Mix together the butter and icing sugar with an electric whisk until fully combined and has a sandy consistency, then mix in the milk and vanilla essence.  Whisk on a high speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

2.  Separate the mixture into two bowls and add yellow food colouring to one half of the mixture little  by little until you reach your desired colour.  Fill a piping bag with a large star tip nozzle with the yellow icing and pipe onto the Creme Egg cupcakes.

3.  Break the dark chocolate into pieces in glass bowl and place over a pan of simmering water to melt.  Drizzle over the Creme Egg cupcakes and leave to set.  Whilst they are setting, add the rest of the melted chocolate to the other half of the frosting and mix well.  Then pipe the chocolate frosting around the edge of the chocolate chip cupcakes to create a nest and then pipe a small dot into the middle to sit the Mini Eggs in.  You have to work fairly quickly when doing this as the chocolate cools and sets the frosting faster making it harder to pipe.

Here is the end result...

Let me know if you decide to give these a try, I'd love to see how yours turn out, or if you have any yummy Easter recipes of your own to share.

Rings & Tings started out as a little stall on London's Brick Lane and grew so popular that it is now a well known online store based in Hong Kong and has been featured in many magazines.  So when I was asked if I would like to review some of their items on my little old blog, I was more than happy to oblige.  I was sent a small selection of their jewellery items and I was really impressed with their fast delivery from Hong Kong, normally when I'm sent packages from there I am waiting weeks but I received this one within a few days.

The thing I love about little surprise packages like this is that I end up with things that I probably wouldn't have usually picked out by myself but end up loving all the same.  This is exactly what has happened with the lovely jewellery I was sent from Rings & Tings.  The necklace, for example, is something that I probably wouldn't have looked twice at on the shelf but have worn countless times since I received it (I'm sure you'll be seeing it in a few outfit posts).  It is just so easy to wear, it goes with everything and is the perfect length, not too long nor too short.  Then the rings are perfect, as I'm loving simple dainty rings like this at the moment.

Rings & Tings also has a great selection of clothes and bags online as well, so I'd definitely recommend checking them out.  I've got my eye on a few of their lovely bags at the moment.

Have you ordered anything from Rings & Tings before?  What do you think?

This week it was my birthday and as underwhelmed as I am about getting another year older, I still wanted to have some fun.  One of my favourite places to visit as both a child and an adult is the zoo, so it seemed only fitting to revisit one of my childhood favourites Twycross Zoo.  It turned out to be a lovely sunny day where I spent most of it coo-ing over a four week old elephant and baby gorilla, watching the funniest of chimp fights (only playing, of course) and making friends with a penguin.

After a busy day at the zoo, there was just enough time for a quick change before going for an amazing meal at my favourite local Thai restaurant with my parents, sister and boyfriend.  Unfortunately I was too busy eating the delicious food to take any pictures but I did manage to get a quick picture of my outfit before we left.

Top - Peacocks

Necklace - Primark

Skirt - Primark

All in all it was a great day, and I got a lot of lovely gifts, which I will share with you another day.

Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Samsung S3 case - £1.80

Eiffel Tower Watch - £3.01

I was recently sent these lovely items by Born Pretty, an online store that sells a wide variety of beauty products, accessories and phone cases as well as a selection of clothing.  An added bonus is that they offer free worldwide shipping.

The first item I was sent was this phone case.  For £1.80 I think it is an absolute bargain and so pretty and cute.  It comes in three separate parts, the back is a thick plastic that is not at all flimsy and easily protects the back of your phone whilst making it look super cute.  The black surrounding splits into two parts which fit onto the top and the bottom of the phone and clip back together to hold the back in place.  Once it is on it is very sturdy and there is no fear of it falling off or unclipping.  The only downfall is that my phone charger doesn't fit into the charging point at the bottom properly with the case on, so I have to take it off every time I want to charge it which is a little bit of a pain.  All in all though I think this case is lovely and really good quality for the price.  They have a wide range of other Samsung cases as well as iPhone cases at really affordable prices.

After browsing their range of women's watches I spotted this lovely vintage style Eiffel Tower watch.  I love the vintage style face with the picture of the Eiffel Tower and the delicate hands.  I also love the brushed gold surround and rivets which add to the rustic look.  It is a little bit bigger than I expected from the pictures on the website but I don't know if that's just because I have dainty little wrists though and watches always look massive on me.  Lucky for me I love the oversized look, and am more than happy with it.  Again, it is really great quality for the price.  

As if their prices aren't good enough as it is Born Pretty are offering my readers 10% off their orders, all you have to do is enter the code "SAKEC10".