Double Chocolate Muffins | Recipe

Need I say more than Double Chocolate Muffins?

I'm going to share with you this incredibly yummy double chocolate muffin recipe but again I must state this is not my own, I found it online from the Dr Oetker website, so I am merely sharing the recipe love because it is good. 

A little while ago you may have seen my Fruit Burst Muffin recipe, those muffins were pretty damn healthy. But I had the devil in me today and wanted something massively indulgent so I opted to bake these Double Chocolate Muffins.

They look good don't they?

I just fancied something really sweet and I already had most of the ingredients anyway in my little baking cupboard so I thought I would take an hour to just faff around and bake. Now lets move onto the important stuff to bake these gorgeous treats. 

Ingredients

• 275 g Plain Flour 
• Baking Powder - 4 tsp
• 60 g Cocoa Powder 
• 75 g Caster Sugar 
• Medium Eggs x 2
• 225 ml Milk 
• 110 g Butter 
• Vanilla Extract -1 tsp

I know what you're thinking, I haven't added how much chocolate chips to add and this is where I get a bit creative, I don't like those store bought pre-made chocolate chips, I like chunks of real chocolate. So I bought two large bars of chocolate one white and one milk and used about half a bar of each and just chopped them up into chunks. I don't always like sticking to a recipe rigidly I like to improvise a little and add a little twist. I also used soft brown sugar in my recipe. 

Method

Sieve the flour, baking powder a cocoa powder into one bowl. Then in a separate bowl mix together, eggs, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla extract. There is quite a lot of milk in this recipe so I would advise adding the wet ingredients slowly to the powdered ingredients. The mix should be really gooey and a bit lumpy then add the chocolate chunks. 

Put into muffin cases in a muffin tray and whack it in the oven for around 20-25 mins on gas mark 7. 

Then Enjoy!

This recipe makes 9 really nice muffins, they're actually surprising very light not too dense and a little spongy which is really nice.  I actually added a little extra to the ingredients so that I could make 12 muffins. The reason I use chocolate bars because I love the taste of my favourite chocolate in the muffin, most chocolate cooks fine even if it isn't cooking chocolate so I always bake with good quality chocolate.

I really love baking and I don't do it enough, I'm going to try and make sure I bake at least once a month. 

Let me know if you have any great cake/muffin recipes for me to try next month?

Lakeside Shopping Centre Haul

Recently I booked a random day off from work and thought what a great idea it is to spend the day at Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock. Possibly the worst thing to do is go to Lakeside when you haven't been paid.

So several hours and lots of money later this was the damage...

Which isn't actually too bad

I'll be honest I haven't bought myself clothes in quite sometime, purely because all my money has been going on beauty products and I always find it really hard to see things I like in the Spring/Summer season. I wear a lot of black and I'm trying to revamp the ol' wardrobe so there's no point in me buying things that are going to be out of season in a couple of months. I want to change my wardrobe so that it has the basic essentials that last a lot longer. You will notice a theme, there is a lot of black but it's my favourite colour and you can wear anything with it and Autumn/Winter is easily my favourite season for clothes. 

Boux Avenue is easily my favourite lingerie shop, I have shopped there years. I won't go into too much detail by showing you exactly what I bought (nobody needs to see that) but I just got some underwear. I love the shop at Lakeside, it always looks amazing, I love the way all the sizes are laid out in the draws below and the staff are literally amazing. I really appreciate walking into a shop, being greeted and service is my number one thing I look out for and this shop ticks all of the boxes. I don think they are actually too expensive but I love the little details such as the gift wrapping and things like that. 

I also accidentally fell into Zara. I never go in to buy anything but always end up with a bag full of stuff. This time I was very good, I was just having a look around and found some plain black leggings, fab quality and a thick waist band and they were only £20! I didn't take a pic because to be honest, they are pretty boring and it's hard to take a pic of leggings when they aren't on you. 

But as you can see I also bought this gorgeous black jumper, honestly words cannot describe how much I love this. The quality and weight is gorgeous, I find it hard sometimes to wear jumpers without them making me look bigger but this just lays perfectly because it is quite heavy. Of course I love the little lace detail on the shoulders, it's so cute. This was £25 which I think is still a good price for the quality. 

Moving swiftly onto Primark, for me Primark is one of those store I really struggle to shop in, I literally cannot handle the mess and chaos of it, I'm terrible. However I went to Lakeside fairly early and to my excitement it was quiet and the shelves were perfectly stacked. The only reason I went in was to get some boots. Last year I bought some suede ones which I literally wore all through AW but they are a bit worn now so I thought I would see whether they have them in this year. To my joy, they had the same ones but in a leather look version, they are exactly the same so I snapped them up at on £15. I also love the fact they have a chunky rubber sole.

I also bought a grey vest top, again not very exciting but I kinda like the worn look about it and thought it would look great with my black Zara leggings, my boots and a little jacket to go over the top and it was only £1!!

No shopping trip would be complete without going into Lush, it's an unwritten rule that if there is a Lush shop thou must enter! I wanted to run wild however having abused my bank balance in previous shops I thought I would be good and only pick two bath bombs. I picked Honey bee bath bomb (I had to really didn't I?) and the Twilight bath bomb, I haven't tried Twilight before but it seems to be a favourite among bloggers. I'm more of a shower kinda gal but when I have a bath I do like it to be pretty indulgent so I'm looking forward to popping these in my baths. 

There we have my little mini haul.

Have you bought anything from these shops recently? 

NIP+FAB Glycolic Fix | First Impression

I thought I would do a "first impression" post on the NIP+FAB Glycolic Fix Pads, normally I would wait at least a month to do a full review but I literally bought these last week Monday and had to share with you my first thoughts on them.

I was reading a review on the Glycolic Fix Pads by the incredibly talented Gemma from www.missmakeupmagpie.com and I literally ran out straight away to buy them, I'm lucky because I have a Superdrug right by my office. Gemma writes THE best beauty posts and anything she recommends is always amazing.

Glycolic Fix, claims to help resurface the skin on your face by getting rid of old dead skin and encouraging new skin growth, these exfoliating pads contain 2.8% Glycolic Acid. They also contain hyaluronic acid and blue daisy which moisturises and soothes the skin. They cost £12.95 for 60 pads, which possibly is a little pricey, but having read good reviews I just wanted to try them out. 

I have a fair amount of acne scarring which I loathe and if there is a chance that a product can make it slightly better then of course I want to try it.  It suggests you to use them either once or twice a day but because my skin is so awful I thought I would use them twice a day, once at night and once in the morning after I have washed my skin.

After the first time I used them I was literally so impressed, I mean after just one pad I noticed a difference. I was expecting something good but I didn't realise it would be this good! I gave my face a really good rub with these pads to make sure I was targeting my problem areas such as my cheeks and my nose. I may have rubbed a little too hard as my face was fractionally red and I don't think this is as a result of the pads it's just my eagerness to make them work. My skin the next day looked amazing, it looked so fresh.

I must talk about the scent of these as well, I was kinda worried that they would smell quite chemically but actually they smell really amazing they have something called Blue Daisy to help moisturise the skin as well so they smelled a little floral. They are a pleasure to put on my face. 

Now let's talk about the actual results, so far the skin on my nose has literally transformed, normally it used to be quite bumpy and my pores were massive and just looked awful. After a week my pores are smaller, I have fewer blackheads and it's really smooth. The one thing I will point out and I'm not 100% sure there this is a direct result of the pads or not but I've noticed that the skin on my nose is slightly more oilier than what it used to be. My skin type is pretty average, not too dry, not too oily so I can notice when it does go one way or the other, but to be honest a little bit of powder and it looks fine. It's not a massive issue. 

When it comes to my cheeks I have noticed a small difference, the reality is that I have quite large scars on my cheeks so I may need something with a higher concentrate of Glycolic Acid to see a bigger difference, quicker but even after week I'm still impressed. My skin feels smoother on my cheeks and my make up blends better on these problem areas now. 

I am in love with this product and I want to try more from this range. 

As I said this is just my first impression, I will write a full review after I have finished the pot.

Have you tried any of the Glycolic Fix range?

How blogging has inspired me

This post is going to be a little lengthy and wordy not one of my normal beauty reviews, this is more of a post about why I started blogging and how it's changed me in a the few months since I started. 

I started this blog in mid March just as a hobby, it actually started because my work colleagues had started theirs and they were always talking about it and it just made me want to join in. I've always loved writing and I have a degree in journalism. About half way through my course, I fell out of love with writing and never thought about becoming a journalist again, I had well and truly closed that door for years. When I started Honeypot Blogs, I still didn't really see it as anything, it was literally something I could do to waste my time.

Recently my posts have become a little longer and I am putting a lot more content in than what I did when I first started, which lead me to start thinking why? Why I was starting to put more effort and focusing on the content when we all know that pictures probably play a bigger part in blogs than the content?

I was having a bit of a rummage around my old folders and stuff when I came across this black and white one and it gave my heart a little flutter because it made me remember what was inside. 

Now these are just the smallest amount of Elle articles I had cut out and saved, all of them are double sided but it gives you and idea. When I started my journalism degree, I was passionate. I was 100% sure that I would be a journalist and I was in love with reading and writing. I would save all articles I loved from several different magazines and several different journalists, as I said this is one small selection from one magazine. When I started looking over these pieces, I started to feel that buzz again. 

In this folder I also found one of my old assignments, one I probably got the highest score from and it was about my favourite lifestyle journalist at the time - Avril Mair who is now the Fashion Director at Harper's Bazaar.

At the time she used to write the best lifestyle posts for Elle, she was strong, confident and would try anything. There was some incredibly random things she would try out but I would read each word like it was my last. The woman was fearless and she was who I wanted to be. Needless to say after discovering this folder again it's sparked my passion, had I not started this blog I would still have my journo door locked tightly but it's now fractionally open. 

I love my job, I'm currently in online marketing and I'm going to be realistic and say I'm probably never going to be able to go fully into journalism, but who knows maybe in 5/10 years time I could do a bit of freelance on the side. How amazing would that be? I love writing and my blog has given me the opportunity to start developing my skills and write about what I love. It has reminded me of my passion and helped grow my confidence in writing again.

When I told my best friend Vernia, she really liked my blog, she was in my uni class as well and it's so nice to have someone share that sort of stuff with. She has always been a massive inspiration to me, because she is a born writer, we was an editor of a magazine and still writes on the side of her full time job and she just inspires me. With every blog post a write I'm keeping that fire alive, it's giving me a focus and I can truly say that I am happy to write again.

I don't have a lot of followers, this is a very humble blog, there is so much more that it has given me than just that. It feels really good to have that spark and that passion again. 

How have you rediscovered your passion?

The Watch Collection

Watches Watches Watches. Oh how I love my watches. 

I had a little obsession develop a while ago, I went through a stage of just buying watches to cheer myself up. Most people eat chocolate or ice cream, I on the other hand just buy pretty things. It started 4 years ago when I got my first watch, lovely little Sekonda with a black pearlescent face and then it just grew after that, which resulted in a total of 5 watches...so far. 

 My humble, yet beautiful collection.

I love to look at these and think back on how each one reminds me of a certain time or place and I like the variety of them all. Don't get me wrong they're hardly the cheapest habit, ranging from £50 to £250 but I've been so very good and not bought any more this year at all. But shall we have a closer look?

Sekonda

I had to start with the thing that caused my obsession, it's pretty and petite. Very different from my other watches. I bought this as a "cheer me up" purchase because me and my ex had just split up so I went on a pain numbing spending spree. It's very lightweight and I still love it but you can't see the beautiful pearlescent face in this photo.

Armani Exchange

Ah my lovely rose gold A|X watch. This one I just fell in love with when I saw it on display, I knew I was going to have it. I had to wait until the following pay day but it was just something about it I loved. I mean who needs numbers on a watch anyway?

Michael Kors

This is probably one of my faves, but everyone has a Michael Kors watch. I bought this last year when I got my first proper job in London to treat myself and make me feel good. There's probably not much more I can say about this watch as I think it speaks for itself. Big and a bit bling. What's not to love?

Armani Exchange

This one I must confess what a completely unnecessary purchase, the only reason I got it was because I needed a watch to wear at the weekends that wasn't metal. This picture doesn't do it justice, the stones are Swarovski crytsals so they shine beautifully in the light. Another one with no numbers again, very odd. I clearly like my A|X watches to have no numbers. 

Rotary

This one is really special to me, I saw it half price in my local jewellers and I loved it. I was really drawn to the face, I liked the roman numerals, very different to my other watches however I didn't buy it. When I got home I was talking to my parents about how I should have bought it because it was just such a good price etc. The next day they went in to see if they could find it and they couldn't, they said it had sold out. I was gutted, really gutted. Then my mum came home and was showing some canvas shopping bag and she told me to look in it and there it was! They had bought me it. I felt so special that they had done this and  it's still one of my favorite gifts they've ever bought.

There we have it, my little collection. 

What objects do you love and why?