Cooking Salted Caramel Apple Crumble on the Vlog!

A little earlier my latest vlog went live. I filmed this during my week off work, which was in fact last Tuesday, the 28th of October.

Any who, I decided to do something a little different on my channel, I filmed myself baking a salted caramel apple crumble in the second part of my vlog. I did have a bit of a salt disaster but all turned out well and it was really scrumptious!

I really enjoyed baking, filming and editing it! I think it might possibly be the best edited video I've done so far, so I really do hope you enjoy it!

The Recipe 

(From Nouvelle Daily)

For the Crumble:

1 or 2 large Bramley Apples (I used 4!)

180g flour

60g caster sugar

110g butter (chopped in to small chunks)

sea salt

ground cinnamon

For the Caramel Sauce:

120g butter

120g brown sugar

100ml cream

Step One:

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a medium sized dish.

Step Two: Core and peel the apples, then slice them into medium sized slices. Whack out the vegetable steamer and steam them for 2-3 minutes. Alternatively boil them in water until almost cooked through.

Step Three: Add the flour and chopped butter to a mixing bowl and mix it up with clean hands. Working the butter in to the flour until it looks a bit like crumbled cheese. After that is completed, add in the sugar and stir well. Leave to one side once completed.

Step Four:

In a saucepan over a low heat, add the ingredients for the caramel sauce and keep stirring until it starts to boil. It should have a sauce consistency.

Step Five:

Time to layer! Place your steamed apples into your dish and then sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon. After that is done, cover with a small amount of caramel sauce, before throwing over some sea salt. Add another layer of apples and cinnamon, then caramel sauce and sea salt - keep on doing this until you're out of apples. 

Step Six:

Layer on the crumble mix. You have the option to drizzle more caramel sauce on top. I chose not to but do whatever you prefer. And, finally, sprinkle on a touch of salt.

Step Seven:

Nouvelle suggest placing the dish in to the oven for 20-25 minutes, but I chose to do it for 45-50 minutes as I wanted the crumble to be crispy and golden. 

Once it's all lovely and baked, leave to cool for 5-10 minutes and then serve up with a big dollop of whipped cream, custard or ice cream!

H&M Knitwear Love

I always find that H&M do some of the most gorgeous knitwear, at really affordable prices too. And as you all know, I LOVE my knits. So here's a few pieces that caught my eye and would also be great staples for A/W 2014.

1. Purl Knit Cardigan. You have to have a few plain cardigans in your wardrobe, it's essential! You can throw them on with pretty much everything and rock that simple yet chic look.  

2. Cardigan in Mohair Blend. I really like the look of this one, although it is pretty pricey. And, I've never even heard of 'Mohair', but sounds fancy.

Likewise to the cardigan next to it, it's a simple throw on and works with all outfits.

3. Rib Knit Jumper. The V neck trend seems to be a continuing as we hit the colder seasons.

 I find V neck's really flattering and a little bit sexy, yes I said the word sexy, haha. But, in all seriousness this cute find needs to come home to me, I'd get so much wear out of it!   

4. Marled Cardigan. I know what you're thinking, another similar grey cardigan, how many do you need Zoey?! Well the answer my friend is that you can never have enough grey cardigan's! I wear a jumper or cardigan pretty much every day, so I like to have A LOT and this little beauty is the perfect chunky knit at a super affordable price! 

Spooktacular Jewellery

I know Halloween has already passed but I wanted to share my spooktacular jewellery with you!

As some of you may know, I'm a HUGE Tatty Devine fan! And, if you haven't already heard of Tatty Devine, they are a London based jewellery company that create unique and interesting perspex designs. 

Anyway, over the years, I have collected some beautiful intriguing pieces, but for this blog post I have set aside the ones that are fitting to the occasion of Halloween. I have chosen the La Luna Moon earrings (A/W 2013), Eley Kishimoto Giant Batmosphere necklace (A/W 2011), Aarrghhhh necklace (core), black Gem Owl necklace and ring (A/W 2011), one of my Name Necklace's, an Owl tortoiseshell necklace (A/W 2011) and Cartoon Eyes rings set (core). 

Sadly you won't be able to get most of these as they are limited edition and their collections change twice a year, however some of these are core pieces, which have been on their website for a good while now and I will link them below.

Starting with the Aarrghhhh necklace! This was one of my first Tatty purchases - I got this way back in 2011! It is perfect for Halloween! You can let your necklace do the talking (or screaming) and scare off everyone with this fun statement necklace!

Next we have the Cartoon Eyes ring set. Another fun statement piece, for your fingers.

And lastly we have my very first name necklace, I actually got this as a little gift when I did my internship at Tatty. Anyway, what's great about these name necklaces is that you can personalise them - you can chose what you want it to say, the colour, style, absolutely everything! I went for the 'bloody' text in glitter black on a sliver chain.

Autumnal Photoshoot iPhone Snaps

If you've already seen my previous Autumnal Photo-shoot blog post, you'll know that I wanted to do something a little different on my blog. And, well, when you live so close to such a beautiful park (Cassiobury Park), it was hard not to grasp the opportunity to snap away! And, of course to be surrounded by thousands of crispy orange and yellow toned leaves - that almost match the colour of my hair!

 Anyway, here are some snaps I took on my good old trusty iPhone. Hope you enjoy!

London Day Out Vlog

Last Sunday me and Joe popped into London to do a bit of early birthday shopping, and I decided to vlog the day as I always find London really interesting and there's so much to see!

We got the train to Liverpool Street Station, one of my favourite station's in London! And wondered around that area... Of course, being so close to Brick Lane and Spitalfields market, we had a bit of a wander that way. My intention was just to pop into Tatty Devine to get a few treats, but there was so much going on! It was insanely crowded, tons of food market stalls, vintage stalls and a jazz band playing in the middle of the street! Anyway, after some serious credit card damage, we were feeling a bit peckish! It was a choice between bagels and chips, and chips won! We then headed back to Liverpool Street Station and popped into the Lush store there, I obviously bought too much but I love Lush's bath-bombs and bath-melts!!

We then made our way to Selfridges, everything was all christmasy and beautiful. Especially the windows! I would highly recommend go checking out the windows for yourself. Absolutely stunning!

After being wowed by festivity, we were feeling a bit peckish again and decided to check out Patty & Bun. Now, everybody raves about this burger place but I have to say, I left feeling very disappointed. The burger was too saucy and greasy. And I asked for mine to be well done but it came out pink and I'm really not a fan of pink meats. The girl kindly re-did my burger again, but it was still pink inside, but I was polite and attempted to eat at least half.
I like to know my food has been well-done and cooked properly. Fuss pot, I know!

As I was feeling a little sad after our burger incident, I convinced Joe to go into H&M. I wasn't planning on buying anything but I walked away with two knits. I know what you're thinking, Zoey do you really need anymore knitwear?! The answer is, you can never have enough knitwear! 

We then ventured on outside and it started to get a little dark, so we headed on home. I was very much delighted to be re-kindled with my tea stash and my hot water bottle. We snuggled up on the sofa and watched Xfactor, the perfect end to a lovely day.

Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencils Review

I know what you're thinking, not another lipstick review... But what can I say, I am a self proclaimed lipstick junkie!

Anyway, these little babies were released back at the end of August (I believe), but I've only just recently got my hands on them. And, not to mention all my favourite beauty bloggers have been raving about them since then, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about!

There are ten shades in total, from nudes to reds to plumy colours. I decided to pick up 'Minimalist', 'Nude Perfection' and 'Berry Much' in Boots, as it was 3 for 2. And at £4.99 each they are a right bargain anyway! 

At a later date, I shall be returning to get 'Fab Orange' as I'm really into orangey-red lipsticks at the moment. 

Anyway, I have nothing but great things to say about the Maybelline Velvet Lip Pencils, they are really easy to line the lips with and then of course to fill the lips in full. They have a great selection of colours, the longevity is fabulous, however you do have to re-apply after eating (which I'm sure most of you do anyway) and they are super pigmented.

And, I'm sure you're all thinking that these are an exact copy of the NARS Velvet lippys and you're right, they pretty much are. The Maybelline Velvet Lip Pencils are just as great and a much cheaper dupe of the NARS Velvet Lip Pencils. The NARS lip pencils retail around £18 which is pretty steep and the price is why I can't justify buying one, although that's a bit controversial for me to say considering I am a high-end make-up junkie. 

Although having said that, I swatched the NARS pencils in Canada and they are lovely and they do have some cracking shades. But these Maybelline one's are equally as good and for less than a third of the price, you can't really go wrong can you?

Anyway, above I am wearing 'Nude Perfection' and I'm smiling so it must be good right? Correct! I bloody love this shade and I don't own anything like it! It reminds me of a MAC lipstick that's on my current wish-list, I'm talking about 'Velvet Teddy' by the way. The one that's sold out at the moment which makes me super sad. I'm waffling... back to Nude Perfecto. It's the perfect yellow-toned tan shade, perfect for every-day wear, super pigmented and glides on nicely.

Moving on to 'Berry Much', the perfect autumnal shade. A deep berry colour that doesn't look too vampy, gothic like.

How gorgeous is that colour! And, like-wise to 'Nude Perfection', this one is super pigmented. I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this one during Autumn/Winter. 

The only thing I will say is that I should of lined my lips better with this one, but hey-ho. 

And last but not least, I will give a little shout-out to 'Minimalist' (but not in a good way). I was drawn to the name as I'm a bit of a 'minimalistic' lover. But, I decided not to take some snaps of this one as it is my least favourite of the bunch. It's not as pigmented as the other two but I think that must be the point of it being minimal and all that jazz. But yeah, I'm not feeling this one as much. Maybe because, it's more of a barbie pink shade with pecks of glitter in. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of glitter, but not on the lips, it's rather childlike. Unless that's your thing, than that's cool.

My final thoughts: I see what all the fuss is about and again for £4.99, they are an absolutely gem for the price! I wouldn't reach for them every-day as I favour my trusty MAC lipsticks over anything. However, they are a nice change every once in a while. And, they do line the lips perfectly, as long as you keep on sharpening those little babies so they are on point. But, yes, overall I am super happy with them and they are great product!

Have you tried these little gems? If so, what colour is your favourite?

Autumnal Photoshoot

Outfit

Dress - Motel Rocks

Cardigan - Primark

Boots - Schuh

Brooch - Tatty Devine

Bag - Primark Limited Edition

Makeup

Foundation - Estee Lauder Double Wear in the shade 'Cool Bone 1C1'

Blush - NARS in the shade 'Douceur'

Lips - Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter in the shade 'Red Velvet'

Eyeliner - Stilla Waterproof Liquid eyeliner

(Here's a little video diary of the day in action.)

The day. During my week off work I went to Cassiobury Park with Joe, and he took some Autumnal shots of me. Everything looks incredibly pretty during this time. The crispy leaves, the oranges and reds, wearing wooly knits, and anything pumpkin related. Perfection.

Anyway, the reason behind the photo shoot was that I wanted to do something a little different on my blog, and I've had something like this in mind for ages so it was nice to finally see it all come together. 

My only critique of the snaps, and I'm sure some of you will agree, is that I should of used a better quality camera. I do have a Canon 30D, which I should of probably used for this, but I am a little out of practice with it these days. I think my little vlogging camera (Canon S110) captured some pretty nice shots anyway. I know they aren't 'perfect' SLR quality' but I'm ok with that.