Adventure to London

Last weekend I took a nice little adventure to London with my boyfriend. I have really been looking forward to it as its been arranged since June, but it finally came around and it was such a lovely weekend to end the year.
  To start with we made our way to our hotel (The dockland Crowne Plaza) to drop our bags off where we were upgraded and given a room overlooking the river, the view was lovely. In the afternoon it was finally time for my late birthday present to see Disney on Ice which was such a well put together show and had all the well known Disney songs in it to sing a long to. Once we came out we had a bite to eat at TGI Fridays and made our way back to the hotel on the Emirates Sky Line, We decided to get it at night on the way back from the O2 instead of in the day on the way there because we thought the view over London at night all lit up would be an amazing, and it really was, It was a bit scary but the view was just amazing.
  On the following day it was time for one of my christmas presents, to go up the shard, It was so exciting being so high in the sky and being able to see for miles and miles, it was something I would recommend to anyone, just try and go up on a clear day which luckily it was for us so we could see everything so clearly and see the fantastic view of London. In the afternoon we headed over to Winter Wonderland which I didn't think was as good as it has been previous years but we went into the Magical Ice Kingdom which was another christmas present and that was really good, some of the sculptures made out of ice were pretty amazing. By this time we were freezing so we decided to go to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for something to eat which was very yummy and headed back to the hotel (again on the sky line) to pick our bags up and head home.
  Overall the weekend was great, we made lots of amazing memories and tried lots of new experiences which I would definitely do again.

View from our window

Disney on ice

View from the Sky Line

Magical Ice Kingdom - Winter Wonderland

Magical Ice Kingdom - Winter Wonderland

Christmas Baking

Here's some last minute baking ideas which I love, both recipes are great for the festive season.
Chocolate coated biscuits

150g Butter
120g Caster Sugar
1 egg
300g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Cinnamon
1tsp Ginger
400g Milk chocolate

• Preheat oven to gas mark 6
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
  

• Beat in the eggs

• Gradually sift in the flour and spices to form a dough

• Roll out dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface to roughly 3mm thick

• Use biscuit cutters to cut whatever shapes you want your biscuits
• Bake for 20 mins

• Put biscuits on a cooling rack to completely cool down

• Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water

• Carefully spoon the melted chocolate over the biscuits
  

• Place the biscuits on a sheet of grease proof paper so that once their dry its easier to peel off

Snowflake Cupcakes

110g Butter
110g Caster Sugar
2 eggs
110g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
Ready to roll white icing
3tbs Icing sugar

• Preheat oven to gas mark 3
• Mix sugar and butter together until light and fluffy
• Beat eggs
• Pour the eggs into the sugar and butter mixture beating well

• Sift in the flour and baking powder carefully folding it into the mixture
• Spoon the mixture into the cake cases

• Bake for 20 Minutes until golden

• Put cupcakes on cool rack to completely cool down

• Mix the icing sugar with a small amount of water until it smooth and drips of a spoon
• Roll out the white icing to 2mm thick
• Use the snowflake icing cutter to cut the white icing

• Cover the cupcakes with the icing mixture and top with the snowflake piece of icing

Christmas party outfit!

It's that time of year again, overloaded with Christmas shopping and preparation? Well here's my Christmas party outfit for anyone struggling with ideas and inspiration over the Christmas party season.
For my Christmas work party I wore this really simple missguided black skater dress with bardot style sleeves giving it a bit of subtle detail. I partnered this dress with a gorgeous pair of beige peep-toe heels from newlook with two ankle straps for added support and comfort. The bag I am using here is a beige over-sized clutch from missguided which paired well with the heels as well as it being practical. To finish this outfit I wore a beige spiked statement necklace from primark which just completed my final Christmas party look.

Bracelet - Pandora
Watch - Michael Kors
Rings - Pandora

Laura x