Chocolate & Mint Aero Bubble cupcakes

So it’s my friend’s birthday soon and she loves Mint Aero Bubbles. I had originally planned to make her some of these to give to her on her birthday but I got much too excited and made them straight away.

They are chocolate cupcakes with surprise Mint Aero Bubbles inside, decorated with chocolate fudge and mint buttercream icing.

I just used a basic chocolate cupcake recipe for the cake part because I didn’t want it to be too overpowering along with the majorly rich topping and minty pieces inside. I used measurements for 12, but I wanted mine to be double the size of a normal cupcake. I guess they were almost more like muffins?!

If you wanted to make these, here is how I made mine…

What you will need…

For the cakes:

115g butter

115g caster sugar

115g self raising flour

2 eggs

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Mint Aero Bubbles, frozen

For the icing:

70g butter, softened

140g icing sugar

Green food colouring

Peppermint extract

Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Icing

After preheating your oven to 180°C, make sure your butter is at room temperature and beat together with the sugar until fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time.

Blend the flour and cocoa powder together and then fold this into the mixture gradually until it is creamy and spoonable. If you think it’s too thick, just add a couple of drops of milk.

Share about ⅔ of the mix between your cake cases evenly. Then, add a few of the Aero Bubbles and cover them over with the remainder of the mixture. (I used frozen Bubbles so they would still be almost whole once the cakes had been cooked. If not, they would melt. It’s important to cover them up so that the chocolate doesn’t burn in the oven.)

If your cupcakes are the size of muffins too, bake them for about 18-20 minutes until risen and spongy. The Bubbles are obviously less dense than the mixture and full of air, so they shouldn’t sink. (Some of mine actually rose, so they were nicely distributed throughout.)

While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream by whisking the butter and icing sugar together until thick. Then, fold in a few drops of the mint flavouring and green food colouring until you’re happy with the colour and taste. You could add a little bit of milk here too, if you think your buttercream mixture is too dense.

If using a piping bag, push some of the mint buttercream down to the end and do the same with the Chocolate Fudge Icing so that both will come out at the same time. You could quite easily make some chocolate buttercream by just adding some cocoa or melted chocolate instead of the mint flavouring, but this Betty Crocker one is my favourite type in the world so I wanted to specifically use this one! You could always spoon the icing onto the cakes by hand, too. Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool before decorating with the icing and a few more Aero Bubbles and enjoy!

I know some people think chocolate and mint is a bit of a funny combo, but I think the light sponge and rich creamy topping work really well together (and my friend did, too!).

I was really tempted to make these into little frogs when I’d finished. Can anyone else see the resemblance?!

xxx

My entirely 'drugstore' Kylie Jenner inspired makeup!

So.. This is my first ever post! I wasn't entirely sure what to start with, but after stalking Kylie Jenner on Instagram for a little while I decided to try and recreate her current makeup look.

I looked at a couple of pictures, using mainly the one above for reference, but also took some inspiration from a few of her more recent photos where she has less-pink lips and more-pink cheeks!

I wanted to concentrate on drugstore products, and ended up using: 

Face:

Garnier 5sec Blur Smoothing Perfecting Primer

Max Factor CC Colour Corrector (Yellow)

Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation (100 Ivory & 400 Natural Beige)

Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer (Light)

Maybelline Instant Anti-Age Eraser Eye (Light)

Maybelline FITme! Anti-Shine Stick (315 Soft Honey)

Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder

MUA Bronzer (Shade 3)

L’oréal Paris Glam Bronze Wild Instinct Bronzing Powder (302 Medium)

Bourjous Paris Blusher (15 Rose Éclat)

Beauty UK Baked Blush (Box No.3 – Halo)

Eyebrows:

Seventeen Brow’s That! Brow Kit

Maybelline BROWdrama (Medium Brown)

Eyes:

MUA Pro-Base Fixing Mist

MUA Ever After – Matte Palette

Revlon Highlighting Palette (030 Bronze Glow)

Bourjous Paris Liner Clubbing (Ultra Black)

L’oréal Paris Super Liner Perfect Slim (Intense Black)

Eyelure Naturalites (116)

L’oréal Falsh Lash Telescopic (Magnetic Black)

Lips:

Jordana Easy Liner For Lips (Tawny)

Milani Lipstick (26 Nude Crème)

L’oréal Paris Infallible 24HR Lip Colour (113 Invincible Sable)

For the famous Kardashian contour and highlight, I used the Maybelline FITme! Anti-Shine Stick and Maybelline Instant Anti-Age Eraser Eye as well as some powder products, including the Beauty UK Baked Blush shown above (which is actually much more of a highlighter, and cost something like £2 when on 2for1!).

On my eyes I used a mix of Penny and Chino in the crease, blended out with Bare and Taffeta. I ended up using the Revlon Highlighting Brick on the lid with a few sprays of the MUA Fixing Mist on my brush. The shadows in this palette aren't the greatest quality, but I think it cost about £4 so I can't really complain!

The lip combination I used wasn't quite matte enough for Kylie's look, so I just patted some translucent powder over the top from my Soap & Glory Concealer combo to take away some of the sheen. 

I absolutely love the browny nude that Kylie has been wearing on her lips lately. Does anyone know what she wears/anything similar?! 

xxx