The Film Roll I Thought Was Destroyed

2017 has gotten off to a pretty unforgettable start for me. I celebrated my 21st birthday on the 18th February and was lucky enough to go away with my boyfriend and family to Iceland. We spent 3 nights in the Reykjavik area, touring the Golden Circle and dipping into the blogger-famous Blue Lagoon. The following weekend, I was blown away with being surprised by my boyfriend with a weekend in Paris! We travelled down on the Eurostar from St Pancras and had a wonderful couple of days exploring a few of the main sights and exploring a little off the beaten track. While Paris was a surprise, I had planned to take some 35mm film with me to Iceland to capture some of the memories. After doing some research into whether my film roll would be damaged by passing through the airport x-ray scanners, I concluded that for my purposes it would be ok to pass through the hand baggage scanners a couple of times (once on the way out and once on the return journey). Apparently the x-rays they use for checked luggage are far stronger and so it's advised never to put film roll in hold bags. I knew that I may experience some fogging but I wasn't too concerned. What I didn't account for was Paris. Given the security situation in the city, most museums and attractions required me to put my camera though an x-ray machine. Add this to the security checks for the Eurotunnel, I thought that my photographs would be all but destroyed by the time it came to developing. I estimate that this particular film roll passed through x-ray scanners around 10 times, and since the damage cased to film by x-rays is cumulative, I didn't have high hopes. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the results. Of course the x-rays have had some visible effect on the photographs, but there's something quite lovely about it. I thought I'd share a little mixture of photographs from the two trips.

2 Lessons In 2 Decades

So today, I turn 20 years old! A month ago I probably would have begun this post by telling you that I don't feel ready not to be a teenager anymore, that 20 seems old and I need one more guilt free reckless year. But something my tutor said changed my perspective. He reminded me of the fact that I've only NOT been a child for about 4 years of my life. I look like an adult but I don't have the full experience, he on the other hand has spent the majority of his life in an adult mind and body. This got me thinking, I may have lived on this earth for 2 decades now (phrasing it like that is pretty scary don't you think?), but I'm only just beginning as an 'adult'. I'm now thinking of myself as a 4 year old adult rather than a 20 year old person, so instead of listing 20 things my short stint of life has taught me, I thought I'd narrow it down to just 2!

Monster Birthday Cake Bake

I realise it's been a ridiculously long time since I last did a baking post, and that makes me quite sad because I've noticed that lately I've just seemed too busy to bake. But I thought today would be the perfect opportunity to change that so I'm really excited to be posting this! It's my boyfriends birthday today and it has become a sort of tradition that I bake him a surprise cake every year. 

I'd seen similar cakes to this one on Pinterest but when I clicked through they had always been done by a professional baker or baking company, so obviously no how-to instructions! Despite this, I thought I'd just have a go with the skills that I already have and see what I could come up with. So here is my attempt at a monster cake!

I started with four plain sponge cakes, I use Mary Berry's all-in-one cake recipe but you can use whichever one you feel comfortable with. Three of the cakes will be used to stack and make the main body of the cake, while one will be crumbled up to make the cake-pop mixture.

After making the basic cakes I began the decorating process by making the cake-pops, as these are by far the most time consuming part if you don't have a lot of experience with them like me! I have made them before but only once so I don't own a cake-pop tin, so I used the crumbled cake mix method. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of how to do this but really, all you do is crumble up the cake into small bits (I cut off the crust beforehand), and add a scoop of buttercream/frosting so it becomes sticky enough to roll into ball shapes. It's a good idea to use your 'worst' cake for this bit because it doesn't matter if it's a bit misshapen! Once you've rolled them up and added the sticks, I found it helpful to refrigerate them for 10 minutes before decorating so that they were bound together a bit better. I then dipped them in white chocolate and put them in the fridge to fully set.

Next I moved on to icing the cake. I used the same plain buttercream which I added to the cake-pop mix to stack the three cakes on top of each other. Then I made up some more buttercream and coloured it orange (go for whatever colour you want!). I then scooped it into a piping bag and used a nozzle which looks like a star but with a flat edge on one side. Starting from the bottom, I iced little vertical dashes in a circle around the cake, and then made my way up ring by ring, slightly overlapping each row.  This can be quite time consuming but keep at it because it really does look lovely and 'fury' once done!

All that the cake needed then was the finishing touches. I cut out five circles from royal icing that I had coloured black and stuck one to each of the cake-pops with a small blob of buttercream. Then I arranged them into two rows of eyeballs at different heights. The mouth is just cut from royal icing, a black strip and four white triangles for the teeth.

And voilà! This was such a fun cake to make, and although it can be time consuming with the extra element of the cake-pops, it isn't too difficult at all and the result is well worth it because it went down brilliantly with my boyfriend!

If you have any questions about how I created this cake just leave a comment below and I'd love to answer them. Also do let me know what you think about the cake and if you decide to give it a go!

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19 Things In 19 Years

So today is my 19th birthday *yay*! I feel like 19 is a bit of a funny one; you've done all of the big celebrations that come with your 18th, and you have a while to wait until the big 2-1. With that in mind I don't have huge plans to celebrate this year, just a nice meal with my family and a night out in town with my friends. But I thought I'd begin my last year as teenager by sharing 19 lessons I have learnt in my 19 years on this earth. I'm certainly not saying that I have all the worlds wisdom, but these are just a few snippets I've discovered along my journey so far. Here goes...

1. Not taking the easy option pays off in the long term
2. Experiences are more valuable than possessions
3. Worrying changes nothing
4. Death doesn't care who you are
5. People change
6. There comes a point when you realise the way your parents built you isn't enough - and they don't ALWAYS know best
7. Regret is almost entirely pointless
8. Time heals
9. Pain often leads to the biggest growth 
10. Politeness is important, and it always gets rewarded
11. Forgiving people makes you feel lighter 

12. The way things are right now is not the way they will always be

13. Not everybody will understand the value in art
14. There is no shame in enjoying your own company
15. There will always be somebody who doesn't like you, so you might as well be yourself
16. Stepping outside your comfort zone is a good thing
17. Everything seems worse at night
18. Your school years are NOT the best of your life
19. Empathy is a very valuable tool

Do you agree or disagree with anything on my list? And what lessons have you learnt in your life so far?
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