halloween iced biscuits | a recipe

It's no secret that I am terrible at baking. My Mum shudders in fear when I tell her I'm about to bake, and that fear doubles when that baking involves decorating. I don't know what comes over me when I'm faced with a tub full of food colouring and sprinkles, but I get very carried away. I've never been able to go with tasteful, everything I make has to be covered in E numbers and glitter. I think it may have something to do with needing bright colours and inches of icing to cover up whatever disaster the actual food product is...

Last week I spent a bit too long on Amazon as a result of trying to find some non-natural food colouring (funnily enough, because I'd made some bad macarons which weren't holding their colour in the heat) and came across a box of Americolor. And they happened to be delivered with my order of the Biscuiteers book. Combine this with the fact it's Halloween today and I went on a trip to a small town which had a disproportionately large kitchenware shop and could pick up some cheap Halloween biscuit cutters and before you know it, you have a recipe for an Annie-baking-disaster. 

I had to do pumpkin biscuits, it was practically a done deal. I'm so impressed with the food colouring, I've not had such bright colours with anything from the supermarket, and even though they weren't cheap, you only need the smallest amount for the brightest colours so they'll last an incredibly long time. I also had to have a go with making some bats, although I think I won't be picking out white bits from the hundreds and thousands packet again any time soon. Faff. 

I'm pretty impressed with the Biscuiteers book. It explains things really well, and when you're as crap and as determined to get better at icing biscuits as I am, that's quite a good thing. I need a few more attempts at getting my flood and line consistencies to be a little better, but that's my impatience rather than anything else. If you're looking for a book for icing biscuits inspiration, then this book is perfect. Also, it has gorgeous pictures and it exceptionally well put together. The only downside is the idea that I would have all the various cutters which are required lying around at home ready to use. There are templates at the back of the book, but not the same amount as the designs which are used in the book, and so you can find yourself getting a bit carried away on deciding what to make before realising it may require another Amazon order or a bit of tracing and cutting. Neither are great options. 

So here's to more baking and decorating disasters, I have a feeling this blog will be seeing a few more of them. Oh, and shout out to my friend's cakes - gluten free and passion fruit flavoured icing. What's not to love?As always, give me a shout if you have any improvement techniques, lord knows I need them, and I'll happily take them. 

a little visit to the blue lagoon | iceland

As part of my whirlwind trip to Iceland, I booked in a chance to go to the Blue Lagoon.The Blue Lagoon is a man made lagoon which is fed by the water output from a nearby geothermal power plant. After the water is used in the plant, it passes through a heat exchange to provide heat for the lagoon. The waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulphur and being in the Blue Lagoon is supposed to help some people suffering from skin diseases. Slightly unusual right? It's supposedly the 25th (!) Wonder of the World, and it seems to be one of the things to do when in Iceland, so I knew I'd have to fork out the fee and head off there. After all, it's not something you can do everyday, and it's certainly not something you can normally do in my little part of South London. Plus, I'm a sucker for when something looks really cool to do, so I was hardly going to miss bright blue hot waters. But, as is always the way with these things though, there were a couple of things I wish I'd known before I went there.

For a start, this place books up quickly, and you have to book. I left booking it until a week before I flew out to Iceland and that was a mistake. There was only an 8am slot left, which meant that I had to get up at a ridiculous time to go on the coach to get there - not exactly the recipe for a relaxing spa trip. In the end, it wasn't the end of the world, and booking the transfer to leave from my hotel really helped as it made the whole process really simple. I think I'd underestimated how popular the whole thing would be. 

Secondly, I wish I'd known when I first showed up is how much nakedness the whole process of visiting the Blue Lagoon would involve. As someone who swims in England regularly, I'm cool with throwing on my swimming costume and then showering - but in Iceland and specifically at the Blue Lagoon you have to be naked when you shower, and then when you return you can't leave your towel anywhere near the shower in order to be able to grab it without anyone seeing you. Maybe if I was just a little more body confident this wouldn't have bothered me, but it did. 

I knew it would involve a serious amount of touristy crapness, and I think you have to be prepared for that to be in the case in order to throw caution to the wind and just enjoy the experience. So you have to know that there will be drunk Americans in the pool - even if you visit at 8am - and there will be people who are spending more time taking selfies in the pool rather than just enjoying the experience, and the whole thing will be vastly overpriced. I mean, Iceland is expensive anyway, but the Blue Lagoon takes it to another level. They market the waters are being really therapeutic, but how therapeutic can something be if there's a pissed Texan next to you drinking Icelandic beer at 8am?

Also, on a snobby side note, I hated getting changed afterwards. The changing rooms were packed, and one of the reasons I pay to go swimming rather than just going to my local pool is to avoid a packed changing room. Getting a bra on after you've been swimming is hard enough, it's even harder if you have to knock out three other tourists in the process. 

But don't get me wrong, the whole experience was pretty fun, and I did enjoy it (even if it has left my hair a little dry, use the conditioner like they tell you to folks...). You can't really go wrong with a daytime spa trip, and the free silica face masks which were easy to get hold of were definitely a plus point and nothing to complain about at all. The heat from the water was lovely, a bit like having a massive bright blue bath. Also, I splurged (ha) out and treated myself to a Skyr smoothie (when in Iceland, eat Skyr...), which was honestly so lovely I still think about it even now. I'm really glad I went, but it felt a bit like a microcosm of my entire time in Iceland. I'm glad I went, but I don't think I'd hurry back any time soon. 

Have you been? What did you think?

a little trip to reykjavik | iceland

It seems like everyone is going to Iceland at the moment. I swear I can't move for blog posts about everyone's visits to Reykjavik, or friends tales about their time in Iceland, or their school trip a few years ago. When I told my parents I'd been, my Stepmum told me how much she wanted to go and my Aunt told me she'd booked a trip in February. I'd booked my trip quite a long time ago, and then almost - as bad as it sounds - forgotten about it. It just seemed to slip my mind, and then crept up on me, which meant I found myself ringing round currency exchanges in London trying to find somewhere which stocked Icelandic króna. 

A result of this meant I'd barely done any of the research I'd meant to do. For someone whose job title is "researcher", when it comes to my own holidays or trips I seem to end up winging it. My first issue being that I thought that the flight was about two hours long. It was actually three hours, which meant Iceland was quite some way to go for a two day trip!  

I'll be honest, I felt a bit let down by Reykjavik. I've been to quite a few Nordic countries in my time, and found them all to be really pretty. I don't think I could say the same about Reykjavik, the vast majority reminded me of the council estate my great Aunt lives in in Stoke on Trent, and the rest looked a little bit like an industrial estate. There were small pockets of colour, most of it was because of the incredible street art which was dotted around the place. But really, I think that when it comes to Nordic countries, Reykjavik doesn't compare to places like Oslo or Copenhagen. It probably wasn't helped by the fact that it rained the entire time I was there, torrential pouring down non-stop rain, but I suppose that's what you get for visiting Iceland in October. 

Another element which didn't help my little trip to Reykjavik was the cost! Everything was a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. I knew Iceland would be costly, but I visited just after the "flash crash" (thanks Brexit), which added more onto the price, and even taking that into account the food and beer and other things were more expensive than I thought they were going to be. It was vaguely impossible to do anything without shuddering at the cost of it - the only way to do Reykjavik is to go there and just not care about the ridiculous amount of money leaving your account at every moment. 

There were some good points though - we visited the Blue Lagoon, which I'll talk about in a later post which was definitely an experience. We missed out on the Northern Lights, but having seen some blog posts about it (notably Erica's), then if you were in Iceland for those it would be perfect, and that would be worth the trip alone. Also, lots of people in my hotel were going on the golden circle tour, which I just didn't get time for, but would have taken in a large part of what Iceland is actually famous for - natural beauty. 

I think in hindsight, visiting Iceland should be for its natural beauty, rather than its architecture. Am I glad I went? Definitely. Would I go back anytime soon? Probably not. 

a little european travel wishlist

I've been super lucky in my time when it's come to European travelling. My Dad was big on seeing lots of countries when I was growing up, and as a result - according to my Been app - I've been to 63% of Europe, which isn't too bad I don't think. The only problem with going when you're a teenager as opposed to the age I am now is that I don't think I truly realised how expensive it would for me to go back to those countries by myself, and I'm not sure I appreciated them enough when I was there. Don't get me wrong though, I'd love to see the rest of the world at some point too. I've barely been anywhere else in the world, never got myself on a long haul flight and I will definitely have to rectify that. But those things cost money I don't have, whereas Europe isn't too hard to get to, especially now my colleague has introduced me to the "everywhere" tool on SkyScanner (how much was I missing out?!). 

But still, even with 63% there are some big countries I still haven't been to, that I'm desperate to get scratched off my little world scratch map. First on the list is the Czech Republic. Having been slightly disappointed by the lack of architecture in Reykjavik on my recent trip there, Prague in particular is supposed to be full of a thousands different styles - Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Art Nouveau and Cubist all plonked in one city sounds like something I could really get along with. Plus the beer is meant to be amazing. 

Next is Switzerland. A country with sweet architecture, colourful buildings, a mix of cultures with all the influences from France, Italy and Germany mixed into one little country, all with amazing mountain region backdrops? Perfect. Plus they clearly make some pretty good cheese and chocolate and I can't think of a better reason to visit a country than it having those. I didn't get chance to see much of Iceland's natural scenery, so I can't think of a better way to repent than going to see Switzterland's. 

Poland. You can get some seriously awesome deals on flights out to Poland, so I don't think this one will be particularly hard to tick off the list, I just don't want to visit when it's too cold! I quite fancy taking a trip to Kraków to see its medieval streets and castle, and I wouldn't mind a trip to Schindler’s Factory Museum or heading out to Auschwitz either. Plus the country is still affordable, even with the crap state of the pound at the moment. 

Finally, Hungary. I feel like the world and his wife have headed out to Budapest recently and I want to join that crowd of people. Part of this is because they seem to have such an excellent cafe culture over there, and I need no excuses to spend some lazy times sitting in a cafe with a coffee and a cake. And afterwards, you can just be even lazier by visiting a thermal spa. Perfect. 

Have you been to any of these countries? Or would you suggest somewhere else to go?