Curly Hair, Who Cares

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is the simplest of simple British bakes: Victoria Sponge. Curly Cooks: Victoria Sponge Everyone knows and loves victoria sponge: it's a classic afternoon tea staple, and if you've never made it, now is the time! It's super easy and it's an instant crowd pleaser. Let's get into it. Jump to recipe First, gather your ingredients: In order: sugar, margarine, vanilla extract, baking powder, eggs, self-raising flour Measuring the ingredients is easy, if you don't know the exact amounts, or if you want to increase or decrease the quantity, then weigh the eggs, and use about the same weight of everything else. For example, my four eggs weighed around 235g: So minus the ...

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is the French pastry known as chaussons aux pommes, or apple turnovers. Curly Cooks: Chaussons aux Pommes Literally translated, the name of this pastry means 'Apple Slippers', but in the UK they are generally known as apple turnovers. They are super tasty and another of the amazing treats I used to eat (probably too) frequently when I worked in Paris. They're a bit trickier than some other bakes but they are definitely worth the effort as they are delicious. So, onwards to apple heaven!  Jump to simple recipe For this recipe you're going to need to start with apple sauce, the kind you'd have in an apple crumble. When I made these I used sauce that I made ...

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is the French Palmier. Curly Cooks: Palmiers Palmiers are a simple French biscuit made of puff pastry, and, like most French sweets, they are delicious. They were something I ate fairly frequently living in Paris, as they were one of the pre-made packaged goodies that were provided where I worked. Recently I was reminiscing about my time abroad and I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making some of the treats that I miss eating, just like these tasty little cookies.  Not only are they simple in taste, but they are also super simple to make. If you use pre-made puff pastry like me, there are only two ingredients needed: the pastry, and brown sugar. Personally I don't kno...

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. First up: Brownies! Curly Cooks: Chocolate Brownies The Final Product If you know me, you know that I'm very proud of my brownie recipe, and if you've had them, you know it's for good reason: they're amazing. I've made them for my friends plenty of times, for birthdays or parties or just because I wanted to bake something. So, since I've not seen anyone in so long, the only way to share my brownies is to share the recipe. It's super easy and very sweet, which means it's always enjoyable.  Jump to simple recipe First you should preheat the oven to 180 C Fan. Next, you can get together your ingredients: ...

You've seen Page to Screen, you've seen Screen to Screen, now it's time for Stage to Stage! Specifically, Be More Chill, the musical sensation nobody is talking about. Be More Chill: Broadway to West End My standard bathroom selfie So, if you remember my series on New York , you'll remember that I went to see Be More Chill on Broadway, and I loved it. While in London to get tattooed, I decided to take a detour out of Victoria Station, and decided to head to The Other Palace theatre to see if I could bag a cheeky last minute ticket for their production of Be More Chill. It happened to be literally the second preview when I went, and I manage to grab an excellent seat for the low low price of £35 (I don't even want to think about how much I paid for my adequate Broadway seat). I really wanted to see it in the West End, but had resigned myself to saying that I saw it on Broadway and nothing could live up to that. I was very wrong about that. I LOVED this pro...

OK well honestly this post isn't just about Greggs, but rather the rise of veganism in the UK and people's over the top reactions. Curly Hair, What's in There? : Greggs The controversial pastry So if you live in the world, you'll know that this week Greggs launched their new pastry: the vegan steak bake. It's made of quorn and vegan gravy, with a butter and egg free pastry. Sounds delicious, and I can confirm that it is (I just ate one). Earlier in the year they also introduced a vegan sausage roll, which flew off of trays and sold out of Greggs stores across the country, and for good reason: they taste so good. In all honesty I don't know if I ever had a real steak bake before going veggie so I can't really compare, but I can say that it's got a great flavour and is a great alternative.  The real reason I'm writing this, however, is because the General Public is up in arms, and I can't understand why. People are asking why vegan...

Let’s talk about Disney! I saw Frozen 2 the other day and loved it so I want to discuss. Spoilers, obviously. Curly Hair, What's in There? Frozen 2 Poster for the movie Frozen 2 follows the events of the first movie with Elsa as queen of the happy kingdom of Arendelle, Anna and Kristoff content as ever and Olaf just being Olaf. It starts with a flashback to Anna and Elsa as children playing 'enchanted forest' with the ice powers, and their parents tell them a story about a real enchanted forest and the spirits of the four elements and their mother sings a lullaby which, when you think about it, foreshadows the whole movie. We then skip forward to present day where Elsa is hearing a voice calling her and although she doesn’t want change she’s drawn to it. So, when the kingdom starts to ruin she decides she needs to follow the voice and save the kingdom, by travelling to the enchanted forest. Here she discovers histories and secrets of Arendelle she’d never befo...