HAPPY NATIONAL CUPCAKE WEEK!

So I hear it's National Cupcake week, and so to celebrate here at Sugar Paper towers we're going to spend all week talking about cupcakes!
First off I want to tell you all about my favourite thing to put on a cup cake and that's MASCARPONE!!

My favourite alternative to butter cream is the swwet soft cheese mascarpone. Mixing this with icing sugar makes a great topping for cupcakes.

Add anything you like, from vanilla essence to lavender, lemo to a dash of cocoa. Not as sickly as using butter, but sweeter Mascarpone is THE BEST. try it!

Seleena Daye vs The Film Review

So this is one of those blog posts where I try to talk about films, this time it's this one:

Scott Pilgrim vs The World.

A week and a half ago I went to watch this film, after what seemed like the longest wait (coincidentally the last time I waited so long for a film was when I was waiting for Art school Confidential, which is also adapted from a comic, which for the record was a big disappointment).
So yes I think I covered that this film is adapted from a series of comics, which I love, as with anything adapted from a book, you always know it will not quite live up to the book.

I went in there excited, I had already been quite vocal about my opposition of the casting of Micheal Cera as Scott (no where near arrogant enough), but I didn't let that stop me doing a wee in my pants.

First thing we noticed when we got in the cinema was how hot it was, then I noticed that the audience was largely male (90%-10%) and nerdy, this coupled with the fact it was (Orange) Wednesday resulted in a sweat fest. I have never been so hot in the cinema in all my life, like full on testosterone sweat box, There was a point where we we're struggling to breath.

Anyway, the film. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the comics or seen the film yet, so I'll just tell you what I thought.
I (think) I loved it!
Once I put aside that there was nothing I could do to change the casting of Scott, i began to enjoy it. Mainly because almost everyone else is so perfectly cast. Kieren Culkin as Wallace in particular (and here I agree with my pal Holly that Kieren has become our favourite Culkin , Macualy was mine when I was 6) Stephen Stills, Julie, even Anna Kendrick as Stacey was good and all the exes cast so well, Chris Evans spot on and who doesn't love Jason Scwartzman?!?!
The fight and band scenes were real good, they got the right balance of computer imagery and elements of the actual comic in there.
Young Neil comes alive more and Kim Pine is still my favourite (more Kim Pine!).
I did think that if I hadn't read the comic, would I be a little confused about what was going on, I will have to ask a friend who sees it who hasn't to know that.

I was asked if I thought Ramona and Envy were hotter in the comic or the film, most definitely the comic, which is a shame, I'm not sure what Envy lacked but it was something, think her smacked arse face was the wrong kind of smacked arse face!

The same person (Ben) that asked me who was hotter, also said they enjoyed the film, but it lacked the heart of the books, which I agree with.

I really enjoyed this film and will watch it again and again, but if I hadn't read the comics it would one of my favourite films.

I am going to see it again this week (and probably again next week) so all this will most likely change!!

If your life had a face I would punch it.

Party Rings!

Some of you may be aware that my friend Katie likes a party ring now and then (see party ring cake I made for her birthday last year).

So yes, I primarily made this cake because some time ago Party Rings started containing gelatin, I thought Katie was aware of this, so made her a party ring cake to try and make up for the fact she can't eat the biscuits (also because I wanted to do feathered icing).


Unbeknown to me, she didn't realise party rings were full of animal, and this shocking truth was revealed to her at my birthday shenanigans this year (party rings are of course an ultimate party snack!).


So to make her feel a little better, I went one further this year and made her some Veggie party ring biscuits she could scoff down without any guilt!
To make the biscuits I used a rich tea biscuit recipe, here's how;
for one batch you will need:

-4oz/100g plain flour
-1/2 tbsp baking powder
-1 1/2 oz/30g caster sugar
-pinch of slat
-3oz/75g unsalted butter cubed
-a little milk

Pre heat the oven to Gas mark 5/ 190 c, grease a baking tray.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl then rub in the butter until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Add a touch of milk and mix until you have a firm dough.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, roll out quite thin, around 2mm. Cut out ring shapes and mark faint lines on the top.

Bake for 8-10 mins, leave to cool.

To make the icing put a few tbsp of icing sugar in a bowl and add warm water a little at a time until the consistency of thick glue.
Put into separate bowls to add food colouring.

To feather the icing:
Spread the base colour over the top of the cooled biscuit, then take a teaspoon and dip in the top icing layer, dribble across the biscuit quickly to make thin lines and using a cocktail stick drag these lines vertically.

Start spreading the news...

Wilkinson's will be opening in Manchester Arndale. Finally C&A will now have something worthy taking it's place!

Craft Idol # 7

Shauna Richardson - Crochetdermy

Here at Sugar Paper we do like a good museum...from dinosaurs to textiles to toys, but big taxidermy animals (the kind you get at Manchester Museum) are always a firm favourite. I found out about Shauna Richardson's awesome work in one of my mum's crochet magazines, I know, I should be 'ahead of the game' with the latest yarn craft, anyway, I was super-excited to see how this lady had turned yarn into these awesome animals and thought you might like it too..

Shauna came up with the term Crochetdermy to describe the work that she does, because in her words ' When say that I crochet animals, it often creates a stereotypical image in people’s minds' ... this kind of craft is right up our street, no floral chintz here, just pure flawlessness.

Shauna is currently working on a piece for the olympics involving 3 crocheted lions, which will be touring in 2012, I can't wait to get to see the animals up-close...for more pics you can check out her website.

Indietracks!

So, like ten years (read as three weeks) ago we went to our first indiepop festival, Indietracks.

Here's what we got up to (remember I'm writing this three weeks later so events maybe be exaggerated!)

Friday:

The best part of Friday was spent buying the essentials to go camping with, Super noodles, Iced gems, Roysters, The National Enquirer!

All this fannying about and eating pizza meant we set off later then expected, but it's OK we're only half an hour drive away, WRONG! we were half an hour drive away but our lack of getting actual proper directions meant we got a little lost!

We found one end of the site but it was the wrong end, eventually we asked for directions and made our way to camp.

We then set up camp:

Had a little walk round (spotted FOUR yes FOUR Cath Kidston tents, twee or what!!!) and did the important things you do at a festival, EAT! I tell you, our camping stove is hot! The best shade of blue ever.

We finally stopped faffing about and set off on the tractor train to where the music happens.

We missed Allo Darlin' and Veronica Falls but managed to catch the last of Eddie Argos' new side project, Everybody Was In The French Resistance now, if I wasn't aware of this before I would have been after the band's new song 'Formed a side project' (yes done to the tune of Art Brut's formed a band).

Saw some pals. Think we then did a little dancing and headed back to camp. Didn't go to the disco there as we are old tired people, but it sounded good, bit of Helen Love. Instead we were trying to sleep an figure out what to use a pillows as we forgot ours FAIL!

Also didn't appreciate blasting 2 and a half Smiths songs at 4am, not a fan of The Smiths at the best of times, never mind when trying to sleep!

Fake celebrity spots (IE poor mans versions of):
-Zac Pennington -Jared Leto -James Corden -Aid Edminson -Jherek Bischoff -Oliver Reed

Saturday:
Today was the day of our workshop and this stressed me a little! but not as much as the shower queues, jeez! how long does it take a lady to get ready, TOO LONG! yes I don't wash my hair often so that cuts down my time, but yet again I don't shave and prune myself for four hours whilst at a festival, get in, teeth wash me pits and bits, next thing you know I'm ready. Also girls at indie pop festivals queue up for the shower in floral dresses, FACT!

Pre shower stress we manged to brew a nice cuppa and have some cereal with frozen not frozen milk. And post shower stress managed to have an ice cream, always a winner.

The sun was well and truly shining so we went on a nature trail (mostly saw ducks and trees) before walking down to the site.

We tried to see Jam on Bread on the train, but the carriage with the music was too full, so sat a carriage away admiring the views chilling out and stuff.

Think we may have watched The Smittens then and some other bands before we went back to collect our workshop stuff.

This was when the stressed kicked in, I like to be organised and suddenly had like a few miutes turn over between workshop, so all my organisation went out the window. Then began our 20 things to make and do workshop (although there was only 18 as, inevitably we forgot some things!!).

The workshop went quite well I think, everyone there seemed to enjoy it, as predicted the felt owl was the favourite thing to do, origami was another favourite.

And before I knew it, the workshop was over, I stressed for most of it!

The stress was soon gone, and the fun began. Hanging with our pals Amy, Mel, Helen and Gemma, seeing more bands.

I got very excited about Tender Trap and they were our favourites of the weekend (a lot of that had to do with Amelia Fletcher's daughter singing along, word for word by the side of the stage!).

We must have taken our workshop stuff back to the campsite and had some tea, of Supernoodles with cashews and sweetcorn, oh yeah! I think someone was repeatedly playing Oasis on an acoustic guitar, swift exit back to decent music!

We watched some more bands, but I can't remember who!!

Next thing you know it's nightfall, it's chilly and we're all dancing around to The Primitives BIG HIT. They didn't even play it at the end, pfft!

Had a a few dances in the giant shed then headed down to the campsite disco, we got there nice and early so we could have a proper dance, but it seems the best disco was the night before. We asked for Girls Aloud (it said they play that) but got the response 'not yet, later' IE when everyone is drunk, god forbid playing pop music in a non ironic way. This signalled bedtime for us and away we went.

Kandy had to tell some people off for blasting drum and bass from their car right near our tent, honestly at an indiepop festival!

We figured out a much better set up which gave us some kind of pillow, that coupled with the not as loud disco meant a much better nights sleep!
( Our poor mans celeb spots today included Jemaine Clement and Billy Corgan).

Sunday:

So it was packing up day, boo. Well I left Kandy to pack up the tent as I refused to give in for a shower, purely because I refused to believe people would take THAT long to shower it turns out they do, pfft.

The sun was shining again, so we got our brunch of an ice lolly and sat on the grass of our once placed home (read as tent).

We packed everything in the car and drove to the site.

Today was the day we became tourists!! Starting off with a look at the old buses (where Kandy got excited as one was the number of a bus she used o get to school). Then to the museum, pictures taken which would later be turned into amazing GIFs.

Mini train ride in the sun (I secretly hope my drawn on, with melted pencil, eyebrows, don't accidentally melt off.)

OH YEAH, now would probably be a good time to say, Kandy and I thought it fit and funny to wear Team Edward t shirts on this day, this caused something of a stir, a lot of amused faces, mostly confused!

We wanted to cover all the attractions, so it was then off to the mini railway followed by the shop. The sun, coupled with our almost matching outfits, and the fact that Kandy last visited The Midland Railway when she was little,and let's throw in the 20p tattoo in an egg machine and a packet of iced gems, meant we turned into our 11 year old selves.

We managed to see some bands too, we watched The Millipedes in the Church (where I got a load of spiders pray in my hair, dead flys in my fuzz bonce ugh!!), Internet forever in the big shed thing.

We treated our sens to some on site food for tea (seeing as we packed up the mini hob and nearly eaten all the Roysters!!) We had a well tasty curry, that we sat on a train to eat.

Wandered aimlessly some more, had a little sit down in the car (why were we so tired, to much fresh air!!). I then took my own booze in, I thought screw it it's the last night, the security are passed caring.

HERE IS WHERE I GOT CHUCKED OUT!
Walking over to the big shed business, I'm sipping at my posh cider, when out of nowhere some jobsworth appears and says 'Did you buy that on site ', knowing full well I didn't, I just played dumb and asked could I not drink it, he said no and I best drink it of site or I'll get thrown out, jeez! Later I realised I should have flashed my performers wrist band and said 'its off my rider!'. But alas I went and sat outside the cafe sipping my illegal booze, most twee throwing out ever.

Actually I think before that is when we had a cup of tea in the cafe, (Poor mans Alan Carr spot)which was great time as it just started to rain, first time for the whole weekend. We came out and then watched Slow Club on the grass, who tried to bring the sun back out, but sadly weren't successful.

I think I may have gotten a bit moody then because, even after going on about it all weekend, I only managed to watch like 5 minutes of The Pooh Sticks!

We did enjoy watching headliners The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart from a distance and nosying around the desolate trains.

Before getting a bit eager and waiting for the Atta Girl disco, a little too early (it was running late!). But it was worth it, had a rate good dance, so much so my trainers got proper dusty, best dance of the weekend.

Then it was all over, back in the car and a drive home whilst I shoved Roysters in my slightly drunk mouth.

We really enjoyed the rain free, twee fest, train tastic of a weekend, I would do it again, but with pillows.

(for more pictures go here.)

Schmindietracks!