17.

Last birthday as a teenager. Whoa.

I feel old saying this, but where did the time go? 

Seems like just yesterday I was standing in line to go into my 1st grade class, happy days. 

Anyway, I wanted to make the most of this day though; I felt 17th birthdays are too often neglected, being in-between "Sweet 16" and "OMG you're an adult 18" parties. So I decided to invite a little group of my best friends, and just have a little garden party, talking, laughing, and eating cake. Lots of it.

Which is where we come to the one of the best parts about birthdays; the cake. Me being me, I decided to have two, because...well that's just double the sugar, therefore double the amazing. Oh, and there were brownies... and cake pops. 
And savory food, but that's nowhere near as interesting.

I had to take all the pictures pretty quickly, but, alas, I got to this one too late, haha.

xo.

The Simple Life

Or maybe it should be called "The not-so-simple-actually-really-tiring-make-you-fall-into-bed-life"; it's not all just collecting fresh eggs and taking afternoon naps with a piece of wheat in your mouth.
On the contrary, it involves a lot of hard work.

I realised this when visiting my aunt and uncle in their new country home in France, in literally the middle of nowhere. I'm not kidding, the village they "live" in was a 15 minute drive by car. So in actual fact, they actually live in the middle of a field. Or ten.

Photobomb, country style.

Normally I would freak at the idea of spending a longer period of time in the middle of nowhere, being more or less a city person, but it actually ended up as being on of the most enjoyable holdays I've ever been on.

The reason for this though was that it was, in essence, more simple and uncomplicated than normal and everyday life. Yes, you had to muck out the stables and wash the dishes by hand, but you also could sit yourself down outside with a book, and just read. No cars, noisy neighbours, or aeroplanes. Just peace and quiet.
It made me realise how busy we are, constantly running around, often forgetting to stop, relax, and enjoy life. It also inspired me to make this edit with a photo my boyfriend took whilst there.

Talking of whom, what do we have here?

One of many little frogs!

And a cricket! I think. Or maybe grasshopper? Oops.

These were on the day we went for a walk in the woods, which was, surprise surprise, next door.

 And there were a lot of trees. Meaning my would-love-to-drive-around-the-world-in-a-vw-bus-boyfriend just HAD to to take pictures of all of them. 

There's something about breathing in rare fresh air.

xo

Nutella!

Chocolate, hazelnutty-ness and a whole lot of sugar goodness!

This can only mean one thing...

NUTELLA! <3 

Smooth, nutty but chocolatey oh-my-goshness all packed into one jar.

So I promised to make a nutella-esque blogpost on instagram today, and here it is. (Feel free to make that blue button go green on insta, teehee @katievely. It's not much, just a few photos that I took and have edited before I go to bed; I'm so tired after playing tennis the whole day in the freezing cold weather. (See, if you had followed me on insta you would have known that and I wouldn't have had to mention that twice, tut tut :P). 

Night night!

Katie. <3

Victoria Sponge Cake

So last Sunday, the shops were closed, I had no homework, and no sport.

I had time.

Wait what?

So I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't get to say that a lot - everyone, including yours truly, seems to always be busy running to meeting after next, trying to finish an essay due the next morning, or getting ready for exams. That's what makes having time on my hands a little foreign, like a kid that's never had a weetabix before; I don't know what to do with it.

(Excuse me for the awkward comparison but it made sense to me, seeing as the first time I had a weetabix I just bit into it, completely oblivious to the fact I should've put it in a bowl with milk)

Anyway, back to time. I may not have so much of it, but I guess that makes me appreciate it more and gives me a little push to actually do something useful, or at least fun with it. Which, trust me, is something not easy for a world class procrastinator like me - but I'm getting there.

So, on Sunday, I decided to do one of the things I love the most: baking.

Even though I enjoy giving myself challenges when I comes to cake baking and decorating, I decided on a simple, three tiered Victoria Sponge.

If you don't know what a Victoria Sponge is, well the name kinda gives it away. It's a traditional British sponge cake with jam in the middle and powdered sugar on the top. It was apparently named after Queen Victoria who ate it at her popular afternoon teas. I decided to give it a little extra effort and add a cheeky bit of silky buttercream in between the jam, mmm-mmmm.

I shall leave you now with the method and another picture, before I start my late-night blabbering.

Sweet dreams,

Katie. <3

Method

1. To make the victoria sponge cake, I used this recipe, but any will do as most of them are very similar and the secret really lies in the method of making the batter - be sure to follow the recipe closely and not to over mix the batter, otherwise air will be lost and the mixture will become stiff.
Also, since my cake was three-tired, I used one-and-a-half times what the recipe said, and three cake pans so each could bake separately.

2. For the jam, I used shop-bought. If you or your granny feel like making it yourselves, feel free, yet jam is something I have not yet ventured into and I don't have a granny to do that for me, so shop bought it is.

3. Buttercream. I beat 150 grams of butter until pale and fluffy, then gradually added in 300 grams of sifted icing sugar, along with a teaspoon of vanilla in too.

4. To assemble, I just really spread the buttercream on the cake, then the jam, put another cake over that and repeated the process. Foolproof really. :) 

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

To be honest I never before had really quite understood that old saying. What made a person a friend if they needed help?

Yet recently, a very good friend of mine started getting chronic migranes (that's what we think they are at least), and has been so down about everything. She can't concentrate on anything more after midday if she's lucky, and feels helpless because she hasn't been able to get a correct diagnosis yet and therefore hasn't got suitable treatment. It's like a vicious circle, and it is really taking it's toll on her. Someone who, just a few weeks ago, was laughing non-stop everyday sheds the same amount in tears now. It breaks my heart to see her like this.

Suddenly "A friend in need is a friend indeed" popped into my head out of literally nowhere.
Then I understood: The question above that I had been asking myself the whole time was exactly the point. The fact they've come to you for aid shows their trust, repect and friendship for you, because they know you will be one of the few, if not the only, who will understand and help them. It works the other way round too; you're so close to them that you can almost feel their pain with them and are longing for them to feel better, because you care.

I'm sorry about the cheese, but that's finally one of life's little mysteries solved for me.

So anyways, after another migraine the other day, she needed chocolate. But she had none. And this is a girl who is a fully fledged chocaholic, and when she needs chocolate, she NEEDS it.
This resulted in someone or other having to run over to the cafeteria to get her a bar of whatever, and the grin plastered on her face while devouring it was priceless. Until the next migraine came. But that's besisdes the point.

I decided that this type of emergency should never occur again and therefore put together an emergency pack, consisting of an extra-large milka chocolate bar complete with instructions.

I may not have stopped the migraines, but I at least put a smile on her face. And that's what counts.

Hope you are having a lovely first of may, which reminds me, I've had my blog for a month now, and hopefully, for a lot longer, tee hee :)

Love,

Katie xo

Bright Lights

Well hello there, it's been a while.

So I've been pretty busy lately. School, exams, friends, parties... oh wait, the last two don't exist any more since the first two rule my life now. Sigh.

But I'm back! And I want to make that more regular because I enjoy doing this, as well as surfing weheartit (if you haven't hearted my photos yet, you should!), then getting depressed because I'm sitting with a tub of ben and jerry's ice cream whilst all those weheartit girlies look so perfect. But I still eat, #yolo.

I want to share some photos that I don't actually know why I took, but I did, and I'm just putting it down to my 13 hormonal year-old-self who had just learned about manual focus and exposure time. They're not my normal type of photo, but I still think they're pretty cool. 

I'm in a cool mood today, so I'll sign off a little differently today and leave the photos with you.


Adios, bichachos. <3

Blueberry Cheesecake

So I have this massive passion for baking. Mixing the ingredients together to get a yummy, sweet batter. Having the whole kitchen and eventually the whole house (no no, it wasn't me who closed all the windows to keep the scent in, cue innocent pouting face) smell of freshly baked cake. Layering on lashings of frosting; be it buttercream, cream cheese, or runny icing,

and then finishing off the lot appreciating a piece of decorated goodness in all it's glory.

Let's just take a second to get over that. 

Weeell, maybe my "passion" is more of an addiction...but so what, who doesn't love cake?

And exactly this is what went through my head when we were invited to friends for Easter and asked to bring the dessert. Score.

I started racking my brains for some amazing, eastery, bunny-rabbity cake. Carrot cake crossed my mind, but my Mum had already called dibs on that. I was stumped, until I walked through our local supermarket. They were selling bundles of moist, german cheesecake, which in this case, and often, incorporates fruit into it. Bingo.

So, slightly weary of baking cheesecake due to my lack of experience yet excited by this new challenge, I looked up a recipe that only required chilling, and decided blueberries would complement it nicely. 

And after 2 hours of baking, or rather 1 hour to make the actual cake and berry compote, another to lay the berries on top in perfect order, satisfying my inner German perfectionist, it was done.

Ta-Daaaaa!

Same picture, just a different edit. I always have trouble deciding which photo edit I should use, whether it be Instagram, Facebook, or just a photo I want to print out. So I decided to do the right thing and upload both. Pat on the back, Katie.  

An operation of military precision, trust me. 

Apart from that, blueberries always remind me of summer, and summer makes me happy. So why not have a little laugh? :)

I really do hope you enjoyed this post. I'm still pretty new on the blogosphere, so leave me an honest comment on what you thought, I'd really appreciate it and I'll check you out too, pinky promise :)

I'll leave you then with the recipe and this one last picture of yum. Mmm-mmmmmm.

Love, 

Katie <3

Method

I used this cheesecake recipe from Lorraine Pascale (I actually love all her food, and just as a fun fact, she used to be a model).

Then I made a blueberry compote for on top of the cake by putting 400g of frozen blueberries in a little pot with a few tablespoons of water, brought it to the boil, and let it simmer for 15 mins, or depending on how strong you want it to taste. Sugar and lemon juice can also be added depending on taste.

I let this cool for a while in order to prevent the cake from melting, and then poured it on top. 

I then assembled around 300g of blueberries on top of the cake, but always buy another pack just to be on the safe side. You also don't have to assemble them neatly, they'll look perfectly nice sprinkled all over.

Et voilà! You now have a scrumptious blueberry cheesecake to share with friends, family, or just keep to yourself. 
But don't worry, we can keep that little secret between ourselves. <3