About Me

I'm 14 years old and I want to make a blog to be able to show my likes and interests and to give me something to work on.

Sunday 18 January 2015

My favourite things about winter!



Hi everyone! Today I was struggling with ideas of what to write on here but when I was out on a walk I saw all the snow and the winter sky and decided to do a post on my favourite things about winter. Personally, I think that winter is the best time of year. I just love everything about it from Christmas to the winter candles and even the weather! I hope you enjoy this post about my favourite things about winter. Enjoy!:)

This is a really obvious one but one of the things I love about winter is Christmas! I love putting up the tree with my family, putting up the lights in my room and listening to Christmas music while we decorate the tree with baubles we have had for years. Another thing that makes my Christmas is going to see the city centre lights switched on with my friends. I love it because where I live there is a Christmas market and even though it's the same thing every year it just makes me so happy! The smells of all the different stalls make the festive season come to life.



When it turns to the winter season I always look forward to being able to burn winter  candles. This winter I have been LOVING Yankee candles. I think my house has went through four this year? I don't know but I just love them so much. Usually in my house we use wax burners but I think in winter everyone needs a candle. My favourite at the minute is the Vanilla Chai scent. It's really strong and its a lovely winter twist on the hot drink. I'll actuall be quite sad when spring comes and I have to put all my lovely candles away!:(

SNOW!! Everyone at one point in their life loved snow! When it snows really heavily where I love all the schools get called off and everyone in my family stays in the house. My sister and I always go outside to build our signature snowman - which we always have very high expectations off and it ends up looking like a deformed squirrel. When we finish our 'creation' we come back inside and have a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. In my house we call it the winter lunch. I have some really good memories of when it snowed and I think that's why I love it so much.



Another one of my favourite things about winter is being able to bundle up in your big heavy jumpers and coats. It makes me feel so lovely I don't know why, I just love it! This year I bought like five new jumpers and they are all so comfortable! The other thing I love about jumpers is that you can layer them with collars and I LOVE collars!! I just think they are so cute and pretty and  I probably sound really weird sitting here with my collar obsession.

Well those are all the things I love about winter. Some of them are really common reasons that people love winter but there are some that I think are quite weird but I still love them! What are your favourite things about winter?


Thanks for reading,
CoffeeQueen x

Saturday 17 January 2015

Caramel Brownie Cheesecake!

 
 


Hi everyone! Happy Saturday! Today (as I said in my last post) I made a cheesecake! The base is a chocolate chip brownie and separating the base and the actual cheesecake is a thick layer of caramel. It took about three hours to make, including preparation, cooking and cooling. I found this recipe on allrecipes.co.uk and it gave really good instructions to follow. So here's the recipe and I hope you enjoy this post!:)

Ingredients:

• 1 box of brownie mix. 
I used tescos own range brownie mix and it worked really well! I think it was about £1 or something so it wasn't that expensive!

• 3 medium eggs.

• 1 tablespoon of cold water.

• 425g of toffee sweets. 
I used just over two packets if again tescos own dairy toffee sweets!

• 150mls of evaporated milk.

• 400g of cream cheese.
I used just under two tubs of full fat Philadelphia cream cheese. You're best weighing it out though just to make sure!

• 100g of caster sugar.

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.


Method:

1) Pre-heat your oven to 140 C and grease the bottom of a 9-inch loose bottomed cake tin.

2) In a small bowl, mix together brownie mix, one egg and one tablespoon of cold water. Spread into the greased tin and bake for around 15-20 minutes.

3) While the brownie mix is baking, melt the toffees with the evaporated milk over a low heat in a saucepan. Make sure to stir often to avoid the toffee from sticking to the saucepan. When the mixture has a smooth consistency, pour 80mls of the mixture into a small bowl and leave aside for later for pouring over the cheesecake. 

4) By this time your brownie mixture should be ready to come out. When you take the mixture out of the oven, turn the oven temperature up to 180 C because the cheesecake requires a higher temperature to cook at.  Don't worry if the mixture still feels uncooked because it will be going in the oven again with the rest of the cheesecake. Pour the rest of the toffee mixture over the brownie and make sure it covers it right to the edges.

5) In a large bowl beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Add your eggs one at a time making sure to mix well between each addition. Pour cream cheese mixture over toffee mixture.

6) Bake cheesecake for around 40 minutes or until whenever you feel like it's ready to be taken out. Chill in the tin and when the cake is thoroughly chilled, loosen by running a knife around the edge and then remove the rim of the tin. Heat reserved toffee mixture for around 30 seconds in the microwave and pour it over the cheesecake. Make sure you cover the top of the cake entirely with the toffee mixture.


And that's it! You should try making this because it is so easy and my family have told me it tastes really good! Here are some pictures of my cheesecake:






Thanks for reading,
CoffeeQueen x


Friday 16 January 2015

I'm 14, not 84!



Hi everyone! I'm 14 years old from the UK and I'm a bit obsessed with coffee, books and baking. I want to start a blog because for one; it looks really fun and I want to share some of my opinions and experiences with people who don't know me. I don't want to reveal my name because I want to keep this blog private and don't want anyone that I know to see my thoughts. I know it sounds like I'm REALLY insecure but I just like to keep my private life private! So for my first blog post I'm going to do the 25 questions challenge. I hope you enjoy!:)

1) Do you like blue cheese?
No I hate any type of cheese. I can't stand the smell of it. I think that's what puts me off.

2) Have you ever smoked a cigarette?
No. Once again, I'm 14 not 84.

3) Do you own a gun?
No...

4) How do you take your coffee?
Black! Best thing ever!


5) Do you ever get nervous before doctors appointments?
Not really because I have to go like once a week so the nerves kind of wear off after a while.

6) Do you like hot dogs?
I'm probably the weirdest person in the world for saying this but no I actually don't like them at all.

7) Whats your favorite Christmas song?
The fairytale of New York or All I want for Christmas is you.

8) What do you like to drink in the morning?
Either coffee or really cold water.

9) Can you do push ups?
Nope I have like no upper body strength at all.

10) Whats your favorite meal?
Anything pasta related, I'm a pasta addict!

11) Whats your favorite piece of jewelry?
My heart-shaped crystal necklace that my aunt gave to me a few Christmas's ago. I never take it off.

12) Favorite hobby?
Emm.. I love reading and baking but I also love performing on stage! It's one of my favorite things ever.

13) What exam subjects are you taking?
I take Biology, Chemistry, Physics (I'm a science geek) along with French (which I absolutely love!) and I take Sociology, Maths, English language, English literature and ICT.

14) Name a trait you hate about yourself.
I hate that I bite the inside of my gums. I swear to myself all the time that I'm going to stop but it never works out.

15) Middle Name?
Elizabeth.

16) Favorite place to be?
Anywhere except my own country! I want to travel the world when I'm older. I'm so excited because I'm travelling to America next year with my school for 10 days!:)



17) How many dogs do you have?
One, a lhasa apso called Mazie.

18) What is your favorite book?
I am in LOVE with the hunger games series. They are my three favorite books ever!! I also love Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell.

19) Do you still have your tonsils?
Yep.

20) What is your favorite cereal?
Either Cornflakes, Weetabix or Raspberry Granola.

21) If you were a crayon what color would you be?
I think I would be yellow because I have blondish hair and I kind of like that color so yeah, yellow. 

22) Favorite sports to watch?
WIMBLEDON!!! Hands down the best sport on TV!

23) Favorite TV show?
Pretty Little Liars (WHO IS A)  but I also am obsessed with Dance Moms, The 100 and Once Upon a Time. Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother are also up there with my favorites.


24) Favorite actress?
Jennifer Lawrence, enough said.

25) Favorite stage show?
Either Les Miserables, Into the woods or Wicked.


Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you didn't find this too boring. I kind of enjoyed doing this to be honest and I'm looking forward to posting again. Tomorrow I'm attempting to make a caramel brownie cheesecake so I might post a picture of it on here if it turns out OK. 

Thanks again for reading,
CoffeeQueen x