Chocolate brownies are a staple recipe that everyone has, or should have, down to perfection. Today I thought I’d share my perfect recipe for the best bitter, sweet, gooey brownies. 

I N G R E D I E N T S :

225g dark chocolate

110g butter

35g cocoa powder

3 eggs

150g light brown sugar

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat oven 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4 and prepare your tin. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. 

2. Once the chocolate and butter have fully melted sift in the cocoa powder and leave to the side to cool. Whilst the mixture is cooling whisk the eggs until frothy before adding the sugar and whisking further until the mixture is thick and mouse-like.

3. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture once the mixture is cool. Use a metal spoon to fold the mixture as this helps to add more air to avoid a stodgy mixture. 

4. If you wish to you could add 100g of walnuts, cherries, chocolate chips or whatever else you like to your brownie mixture at this point, personally though I like just plain brownies though.

5. Transfer your mix to your prepared tin and place in the oven to cook for 20 minutes turning the tin around halfway through for an even bake. Leave to cool before cutting into bitesize pieces.

~ Jade xx

On days where you don't have much time to worry about your makeup, you’re only going to be running errands but you don’t want to be barefaced or you just generally don’t wear a lot of makeup the five minute face is an important routine to have in your arsenal for when you need it. 

BASE | For base when you’re in a rush it’s best to keep things simple. Skip a foundation as they take a bit of work to buff into the skin and instead opt for a tinted moisturiser/BB cream/CC cream type product, these are much lighter on the skin and so take next to no time to apply. I’ve recently been enjoying using the Bourjois CC Cream - full review here. Although you could skip a base altogether.

CONCEAL | When you don’t have a lot of time a quick all-round concealer is the way to go. The Rimmel Wake Me Up is one of my all time favourite concealers as its good for under the eyes and any blemishes, it also blends into the skin quickly and easily.

BROWS | The quickest way to fill in your brows is with a pencil as faffing around with powders or pomades takes far too long when you’re strapped for time. I love the Soap & Glory Archery Brow Tint & Pencil, the pencil side is waxy so sets your brows as well as fills them in and the pen side creates a natural looking brow as you can create individual looking hairs.

EYES | If you’re in a rush there’s no time to mess around with shadows or liner so just a good coat of mascara will see you through - don’t forget to curl those cases though. My mascara of the moment has been the Maybelline Lash Sensational - full review here.

CHEEKS | Forget about contour and bronzers and instead just opt for a cream blush. It’s quick and easy but adds a youthful and fresh look to the face. The Bourjois Cream Blush in 01 Nude Velvet is a beautiful coral shade which will suit most skin tones.

LIPS | For lips just opt for a lip balm, no one has time for to worry about a red lip in a hurry.

What are you 5 minute makeup go-to’s?

~ Jade xx

It was Lucy’s birthday last week and so I decided to test out my baking skills and create a pastel rainbow cake. Not something I had tried before but ended up turning out pretty great - even if I do say so myself. It takes a bit of time - from start to finish it took me nearly three hours - but the end result is pretty impressive.

I N G R E D I E N T S :

200g Self-raising flour

200g Caster Sugar

200g Butter (at room temperature)

4 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

1tsp Baking powder

Food colouring of your choice (I used five different colours)

For the filling:

200g Butter

400g Icing sugar

1tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

1tbsp Cream

Jam (optional)

M E T H O D :

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC and grease your cake tins. It’s okay if you don’t have enough cake tins for the amount of layers you want your cake to have as you can bake the layers in batches.

2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light in colour (the lighter the colour the fluffier your cake will be, an electric mixer makes this much easier).

3. Add the vanilla extract and baking powder.

4. Add the eggs one at time with a tablespoon of flour to prevent the mixture from splitting. 

5. Fold in the rest of the flour with a metal spoon to add extra air to the mixture.

6. Divide the mixture into separate bowls for each colour, I divided mine into five bowls as I was using five different colours but the same principal applies whether you’re using more or less colours than I did. 

7. Add the food colouring to the bowls of plain mixture. Add a little at time so the colour doesn’t become overly vibrant as we are wanting a pastel look but add slightly more when you think the colour is perfect as the colour will fade slightly as it bakes.

8. Transfer the mixture to the cake tins and spread evenly before putting in the oven to bake. Cooking time will depend on the amount of layers you are baking. For my layers, as they were fairly thin, only took roughly 7 minutes. 

9. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring them onto a cooling rack to completely cool. 

10. Whilst the cake layers are cooling make the butter icing. Mix together the butter, icing sugar, cream and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. The longer you mix the butter cream the lighter in colour it will become, personally I like a fairly white looking butter cream - although its very hard to get butter cream purely white because butter is naturally yellow tones - so I left mine to mix for a good 15 minutes.

11. Once the cake layers have cooled now is time to begin layering the cake. I chose to alternate between raspberry jam and buttercream between my layers so the cake wouldn’t be taken over by buttercream but this optional. I also put buttercream all the way around my cake to give it a neat look and also so the rainbow aspect of the cake is more of a surprise. 

12. Decorate as you please, I used Smarties and pink glitter sugar. You could also cover the cake in fondant icing over top of the buttercream if you wanted to. Chill in the fridge for a while to allow the buttercream to set if the buttercream is very soft or its a hot day.