la ferme du noyer;

Take a peek at the beautiful video my oh so talented boyfriend Ollie made of our recent trip to the Dordogne in France. There are photographs to follow. 

 Sincerely, Alexa xoxo

instagram update;

London, Southend on Sea, OK Diner, Weddings, Mama's birthday, Gay Pride.

General adventures and tomfoolery.

Sincerely, Alexa ♥

i met up with the king;

Sunday was date day and what a peach of day it was too. A few weeks ago we'd spotted an advert for a vintage American car show, complete with fake Elvis, needless to say we were super excited. And so off we set early Sunday morning with a picnic in tow. Now I am not usually a car fanatic, but I'll put my hands up and admit it, I am officially in love with a pink Cadillac. The cars really were works of art, though we decided that parking one at a supermarket would be a task and a half. As you can see, Ollie and I met the King himself - well, his dodgy/amazing (delete as appropriate) Yorkshire counterpart. We had our photo taken with him and he even gave us a cheeky nod from the stage. 

Ollie doing what he does best - 

The most beautiful sea I have ever seen, we could definitely have been abroad.

AMAZING stormy skyline (I was made to pose) -

It was such a fun day even though the weather was so up and down. Date days are

my favourite and I am beginning to appreciate the beauty of a good Sunday (especially as I work in retail and there is no such thing as a weekend). We're going to head out to a car boot sale this Sunday coming and finding a pub for a delicious Sunday roast. Here's to Sundays and here's to Elvis Presley with a Yorkshire-American accent. 

Just a quick note to say how proud I am of my dear friend and fellow Ma Bicyclette gal,  Nicola Semple ( Semps!), who has just landed a dream Creative Writing job at Tiger Print Studios in Bradford, I am everso proud of you, you beautiful and talented creature.

Sincerely, Alexa ♥

what kind of bird, are you?;

I am super excited about Moonrise Kingdom, I love pretty much everything Wes Anderson 

has ever done so this will definitely not be a disappointment. Have you seen it yet? Take a peek 

at this trailer, are you excited as me?

Sincerely, Alexa ♥ 

pages turning, lights are burning, see what you could not see;

I am very much in love with Australian singer, Sarah Blasko at the moment.
 She has such an incredible voice and her songs make me super happy on my daily bus trips to work. If you haven't heard any of her music yet, here's my current favourite song, it's a peach! -

Sincerely, Alexa ♥ 

P.S  Oh, and a pinch and a punch for the first of the month. Happy March!

hey good lookin' what you got cooking;

Today I decided that it was high time that I got back into baking, the fact that 

a builder, and electrician and a plumber (is it me or is this story starting to sound like a bad joke...) were 

banging about the house from 8:30 am meaning me having to be up at that time on my day off had nothingggg to do with it. 

For Christmas, my lovely best friend Sheri gave me this beautiful book by Bakerella about how to bake cake pops;

Now i'll be honest, this is not my first attempt at cake pops, and the first time I tried was less than successful, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

Ingredients:

3 Eggs (medium - large)

Weigh the three eggs and use the same weight in each of the following ingredients - 

Self Raising Flour 

Caster Sugar 

Butter (I used Stork)

3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

1/2 A large bar of white chocolate - melted

2 Tablespoons of Red Food Colouring

2/3 Of a Tub a Betty Crocker Frosting

1 Bag (250 grams)  of  Candy Melts (Available on ebay/online)

Sprinkles/Edible Glitter/Cake Decorations

Lollypop Sticks (Available on ebay/online)

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until combined.

2. Then add in the flour and eggs and stir well, 

until it looks like this!

                      3. Add in two teaspoons of vanilla extract, three teaspoons of red food colouring,

and 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and your melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Add the mixture into a greased and floured baking tin, put in the oven at 160 degrees and wait for 20 - 25 minutes.

Allow to cool. Here are some Red Velvet cupcakes with white chocolate frosting I whipped up from the spare mixture. They were super yummy! 

5. Once the cake is cooled, turn the entire thing into crumbs, pick out any bits that will not crumb, 

and mix in 2/3's of a tub of frosting. 

When the two are combined, roll the mixture into balls and put onto a plate.

 Put into the fridge for a couple of hours or the freezer for 15 minutes so that they

 become slightly more solid, but NOT frozen.

6. Once they have hardened, melt the candy melts, dip the end of the lolly stick

 into the melted candy and push firmly into the cake ball.

 Once the candy on the stick has set  in the cake ball, 

then coat the rest of ball in the melted candy mix.

7. The book said to use something like a polystyrene block to stick the cake pops in

 til they have dried, but as I had none of this, I improvised and

 used a small colander instead. And here are the finished products -

I hope this tutorial helps. I was super pleased with the result, let me know how yours work out.

Sincerely, Alexa  ♥