Healthy Wholemeal Scones

Hi everyone! How are you all on this fine A level results day?

Well I'm hoping you're good, because I'm good but I'm also very bored.

What normally happens when I get bored is that I bake, a lot and so today I tried my hand at some healthy baking! Less of the muffins and brownies and cookies and more of the healthy wholemeal scones. I played around a bit with Delia's recipe and created these moist little goodies in a really short space of time.

Here are some picture of the scones - with and without jam and cream cheese; below I'll leave the recipe!

                            

Ok, so, in case you were wondering the recipe is as follows;

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

110g wholemeal flour 

110g self raising flour 

25g butter (margarine) 

25g caster sugar 

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

50g raisins 

150ml milk (semi-skimmed) 

Method:

Preheat oven to gas mark 7 or 220 degrees C (200 fan)

Lightly grease a baking sheet

Begin by sifting the salt, baking powder and flours together into a bowl. 

Then mix in the sugar and cinnamon, and rub in the butter. 

After that, stir in the raisins. 

Now using a fork stir in just enough milk to form a soft dough - you'll find that you probably won't need the whole 150 ml's. 

Now turn the dough out on to a floured surface and roll it out to about 2 cm thick, then using a 5-6 cm circular cutter, cut out the scone rounds.

Re roll and cut out any trimmings too.

Arrange them on the baking sheet then brush the tops with the rest of the milk and bake near the top of the oven or 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool them on a wire rack and serve (best warm) with jam and philadelphia cream cheese

(Maybe a bit of cream if you're feeling super cheeky!)

Calories per scone: 161

With Jam and Light Philadelphia: 216

Variations:  If you don't have self raising flour then use the same amount of plain flour and add 2 extra teaspoons of baking powder to the recipe.

If you don't like raisins you can try the same amount of chocolate chips, small chunks of fresh fruit eg. apple, dried fruit mix or nuts, just use your imagination and personal taste!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe and let me know/send me some pictures if you do make them and what you think! The original delia recipe is for "wheatmeal date scones" and you can find it in the "Delia Smith's Book of Cakes"

Much love, Grace xxoo

Hello there beautiful strangers,

It's been such a long time, and I know I say that in the majority of my posts, but now summer time is here - admittedly almost over *sigh* - I have some spare time on my hands to really focus on my blog! 

I'm going to make this a pretty random post, and try to catch up on some OOTD's and favourite products; so, let's get started! 

Firstly I'll do you a quick review of my new nail varnish, I purchased this today with my saved up boots points and for £2.99 you couldn't ask for more

Maybelline Color Show Nail Varnish in "Orange Attack"

It's a vibrant summer colour which isn't too thick and not too thin, I find that you have to apply one or two layers to reach a nice colour build up but because it dries quickly this is extremely easy to do.

Overall I'd rate this 5/5, extremely generous but 100% honest, I'll be purchasing a variety of colours in this range ASAP.

Jeans - New look, Hat - H&M, Coat - Charity Shop
Top - H&M

 Believe it or not this is what I wore walking to town on a supposedly summers day, this outfit comes in at around £38-£40 which is a pretty great bargain considering the jeans are £23 on their own!

Necklace - Kukee (online)

Finally, I'm going to do a few products at once, I purchased all of these on a wim without reading reviews - my general rule of thumb is don't purchase less than a 3 star - and as a few of these didn't live up to expectation I will be making sure I don't do this again anytime soon

Picture above Left to right;
Umberto Giannini - Glam Hair Backcomb in a bottle, 1/5, made my hair brittle and dry, split ends stand out and a general waste of money, won't ever repurchase unless I can find another use for it as I was extremely dissapointed :(
Original Source - Lime Shower Gel, 4/5, beautiful smell, extremely refreshing, not a 5* purely because I prefer the Tea Tree variation
Umberto Giannini - Colour Luxe Billionaire Blonde Shampoo, 5/5 fantastic smell and beautiful results, from bronze-y to golden toned hair, I will definitely be buying this again!
Original Source - Mint and Tea Tree, 5/5, fabulous purchase and I just can't get enough! This makes me want to shower as much as I can and the tingling sensation is sooooo relaxing.
Charlie Body Spray - Shimmer, 3/5,Admittedly I could of tried this in the shop but for some reason I didn't, not too bad and it's a lovely smell, yet at the same time a bit too chemical-y for me?

So there you go everyone, I've tried my hardest to make this post interesting and I hope you'll find these reviews useful, as for the OOTD, that's just a little look into my personal style, hopfully I'll be doing more fashion based posts soon.

Hugs and kisses,

Grace!xoxo

Hi there whoever's taking time to read this,

I haven't posted anything in a while because everything's been pretty hectic, I've had exams for two weeks and then we got hit by the snow. I guess snow's white and fluffy and fun at first, but it sucks a bit when it turns to ice, then again there's no point moaning about it because it's worth it to make snowmen and be a child again ^^

So all I have to say is quit moaning everyone; It comes once a year if we're lucky and this IS Britain you know.

I also did a 10k run in whilst it was snowing this morning, minus degrees and I think I'm burnt from the cold  (call me crazy) but I beat my personal best time and did it in 59minutes45seconds. Which I know probably doesn't sound like a lot but I haven't been running long, I'm slowly but surely getting better! :)

ANYWAY! I'll be posting another review soon and if anyone has any suggestions or requests feel free to leave a comment below, or talk to me on twitter! :-)
https://twitter.com/Gracemmaaa

Hugs and Kisses from Britain,

Grace xoxo

Space girl bath bomb: Not exactly out of this world.

Purple bathtime! (Sadly had to add my
own bubble bath to the bath bomb)

For my birthday last year I received a bath bomb from my nearest and dearest friend Aoife, it was from my favourite shop lush so, understandably my expectations were high.

The bath bomb itself is cute, purple and shaped like a planet, smells divine and is showered in a pretty glitter; on the inside claims to have popping candy. Sounds like heaven right? Well not entirely.

Although "space girl" appears amazing I've come to realise that looks truly can be deceiving  Once dropped into my bath the beautiful scent of grapefruit oil magically disappeared, the glitter wasn't present in the water and no bubbles of any sort, the only upside that the bath bomb turned the water purple! Also I'm pretty sure there isn't popping candy inside.

Space girl bath bomb - Lush, £2.10

Now I have to say that usually I'm extremely fond of the Lush products I regularly use, I use several hair products and am a big fan of their facial cleansers and bath bombs, however this ONE product didn't leave much to be desired. However, I don't believe this one bath bomb has let lush down simply because of the amazing organic products they have to offer and I don't believe it will ever put me off buying from there again. Thank you though to my amazing friend though because it was a great and thoughtful present nonetheless! <3

"Space Girl" bath bomb, 2.5/5

Like I said before appearances can be deceiving but if Lush were to nail what it says this bath bomb does then it would be an all time favourite! Only upside was that it turned my bathwater purple. 

Hugs and kisses from Britain,

Grace xoxo

P.S. Please check out my twitter, I'm completely new with no followers and am happy to follow back :-) 

https://twitter.com/Gracemmaaa

I'm about to make a post to do with my skincare routine: if anyone has any questions or comments that would be really appreciated! :-)

Grace xoxo

Clinique - blushing powder (102 innocent peach, £21)
-perfectly real makeup (01 shade, £21)

Parfait!

So this is the first post to my new blog and this makeup has a little story behind it you see. I recently discovered Zoella's youtube channel and really started getting into beauty, skincare and fashion; she inspired me so much that I though "I'm going to create a blog!"

And well. Here I am. On this blog. Hoping someone will read this, , , , ,,

ANYWAY! Just before Christmas I became tired and bored of my typical high street make-up  I'd ran out and soaked up every last drop of my estee lauder foundation that I purchased in NY and could definitely feel my skin drying and damaging slowly, but surely. So I took the opportunity to visit harrods on my post Christmas spree and set myself a challenge to find a great foundation. 

Not only did I not have to look further than the first brand stepping into the department store but the lady I was served by was possibly the sweetest, professional lady I'm yet to meet! After trying out different foundations and finding my correct shade she (I wish I'd asked her name) made up my whole face. After wow-ing at the foundation she asked about blusher; I was hesitant but agreed and I'm so glad I did!

Foundation 10/10

Leaves skin feeling flawless, vanishes pores and blemishes, doesn't dry out skin, offered in a HUGE variety of shades to suit, and a little goes a long way!

Blusher 9/10

The reason only a 9 simply because I've never been a huge fan of blusher, I PERSONALLY find it hard to apply, also the price of blusher is generally less than foundation but this came on par; nevertheless an amazing buy and worth every single penny!

These are both two amazing products that I would very highly reccomend!

Hugs and kisses from Britain,

Grace xoxo