Home Bargains baking essentials

With a new series of the Great British Bake Off just around the corner, I've been inspired to flick through my baking books and make notes of the next recipes I want to test. Unfortunately it's been ages since I last had both the time and energy to get weighing, mixing and decorating, but I've made up for it by stockpiling pretty cupcake cases and cake toppers, so when I do finally get round to it my cakes will be the best dressed around! 

Home bargains has always had pretty bake-ware and accessories but recently I've noticed they have a large range of Wilton products for unbelievable prices. I haven't previously bought much from the Wilton range as I've found it a bit expensive, but i know it is popular with bakers and I've had my eye on some flower shaped cupcake cases for a while. My luck was in last week when I called in to my local store on my way home from work and I picked up a few things from both the Wilton and home bargains ranges which I thought I'd share. 

The tulip baking cups were a bargain at 49p. There are 24 cases in the pack and they are good quality cases which should keep your cupcakes perfectly formed as they bake, unlike those thin white ones you get in cake mix boxes which fold all over the place as soon as you put the mixture in them, leaving you with some oddly shaped creations. 

The food writers were 59p and look like they will be easy to use and quicker than icing pens for when you're running short on time. As they are festive colours I won't be using these until Christmas time, but I will look them up online and see if they have good reviews. 

The other cupcake cases were from home bargains own range and I think they were 39p. The last thing I need is more cupcake cases (I'm on the verge of becoming a "collector" of them!) but with such cute prints I couldn't resist.

The red bags were 59p I think, or maybe 79p, I can't remember exactly. They are paper bags which are perfect for packaging up your homemade sweet treats to take to work or on picnics or to give as a gift. They also come with stickers to seal them.

The vintage dream cupcake sets were 99p each. I have a few similar sets from Poundland but these are far prettier so I just had to get them. Plus the ones from Poundland are all holiday-themed, which means this purchase was okay as these can be used YEAR ROUND. If that isn't reason alone to buy them I don't know what is...at least that's what I keep telling myself!

Has anyone else found any baking bargains recently?

P.s. Lakeland have their summer sale on at the moment and there are some reductions on gorgeous bake-ware, including a 3d carousal mold. I'm consequently trying to avoid the website....for now!

NEXT summer sale goodies

Last Saturday marked the biannual 5am feeding frenzy that is the NEXT sale. I have to admit to quite enjoying the early morning trawl around next - but don't get me wrong you won't find me queuing the night before, even I won't prioritise securing a front of the queue spot over at least a few hours of sleep beforehand!

I had arranged to meet my boyfriend just before 5am at the store (it was his first experience of the madness and I had already shown him the things I wanted to pick up!) unfortunately I forgot to set my alarm that night and didn't wake up until 6.30 am when I noticed I'd missed two phonecalls from him - I had inadvertently stood him up, oops! (I felt awful but luckily he had seen the funny side of it and had even picked up everything I had pointed out to him a few days earlier, I was very impressed!) by the time I got to the store it was nearly 7am and the crowds had left so I had a leisurely browse without being nudged or getting in someone's way which i preferred (I just need to convince the bf to do the early shift next time too haha). I haven't actually got round to photographing the clothes I bought, but here are some of the other things I picked up:

The printed bed sheet is so pretty, it's a pale lilac colour with a rose print and comes with a matching pillow case. I think it will look fresh with a white quilt cover on top and makes a change from boring plain sheets. This was reduced to £5 from £10.

I also bought two candles, one was fragranced in 'just pink' which is NEXT's signature scent which is floral and feminine and was just £2 down from £5. I can't remember the name of the second candle but it was white and again smelt lovely. That one was reduced to £3 from £9.  

The l'eau Rose gift set seemed like a bargain at £4 from £10. It contains a 30ml edp spray, a roller ball and a solid fragrance. The scent is floral but also quite fruity which I didn't expect. The lightness of the fragrance makes it a great scent for summer. I also bought a 30ml boxed edp for £3 which will make a nice gift. My only complaint is that the scent seems to fade quickly but. At. That price you can afford to reapply it throughout the day.

I needed some new black heels for work and these were only £16 from £32. I had tried them on before the sale and they looked nice on so I was pretty pleased to spot them in my size on sale.

I also wanted some new navy loafers as I wore my last pair out. These are so comfy. They were £20 from £40. 

I also bought a bird feeder for just £3 but I've already put this I'm the garden.

I didn't buy a lot from the clothes department but did get a nice navy suit for work and a t-shirt. I did pick up some other things but unfortunately had to return them as they didn't fit...too many sweet treats at work I think! Nonetheless I was pleased with my little haul and look forward to seeing the new autumn collection filter in (and not just so I can start planning what I went to get in the next sale haha).

Boots 70% Sale Haul including Sanctuary, Soap & Glory, No7 and Champneys

Last Wednesday I headed out bright and early before work to take part in the legendary boots 70% sale where all of their unsold Christmas gifts get discounted! I've been every year for about 6 years and manage to stay stocked up of my favourite beauty products at a fraction of their usual retail price. In previous years the sale was 75% off but still who can pass up 70 % off Brands like soap & glory and sanctuary which never have more than 1/3 off! Clearly It wasn't just me who thought this as by the time I arrived at the store shortly after it opened there were already crowds of people with huge ikea-sized bags full of gift sets! I was lucky that there was at least one of each product I'd wanted following my trip in my lunch break the day before and was done with my little haul in 20 minutes. My mum had also headed out early and between us we got quite a stash! 

The products above are just my part of the haul and two gifts! I've been told by my boyfriend, who had the day off work and was asked to accompany my mum, that he'd never seen her move so fast as she dashed around the store haha! I don't think we bought an excessive amount though I would imagine it should last us a year or so (until the next sale!) and many of the items I would buy full price if I had to anyway, so it makes sense to take advantage of such a bargain! 

So, here are some of my favourite things a bit closer up:

This sanctuary Mande Lular set was reduced from £18 to £5.40 and contains a 500ml bath Creme, travel sized body polish, body soufflé and a body brush. The bath Creme alone retails at £10 and I love sanctuary products, they're not tested on animals and are paraben free. 

This No7 set contains treats for pretty hands and toes! This was reduced from £20 to £6. It was definitely the glitter varnish that drew me to this set, I'm a magpie for glitter varnishes and sequinned cardis! ( I have three grey sequinned cardis that are all very similar....how many becomes too many?!) The colours in this set are great for winter so I might put this set up until then, but the sensible part of me thinks I should return it as I have glitter nail varnish, hand cream and foot cream aplenty....

I've needed a new blusher for a while and although I've seen some gorgeous palettes in the new ss14 make up collections they're all pretty expensive, perhaps one for a birthday wish list. The soap & glory powder trio was reduced from £20 to £6 and each powder retails for £10 or £11 each so that's a huge saving. My only complaint is that they are fixed in the palette so you can't pop it in your make up bag (perhaps the perfect excuse to indulge in one of those aforementioned palettes?!) my other s & g purchase was the face time set which contains a range of skin-care products. This was £7.50 from £25 but I think I might return it as I'm not sure I really need it. 

I probably don't need more nail varnishes but the colours in this Champneys set caught my eye. The sparkly grey is great for evenings and the blue and pink match the colours in all the shops so I think they'll be very en-trend for spring. They were reduced from £12 to £3.60 so at 60 p a varnish you can't go wrong! The little pink box is full of travel sized miniatures which are ideal for taking on holiday. This was also reduced from £12 to £3.60.

I was initially a little sceptical about this bronzer as I don't usually have the right complexion for it, but it's actually very subtle and gives more of a warm glow than a bronzed look, and it's so pretty which may have swayed my decision a bit! This was reduced from £16 to £4.80.

My mum picked up these miniature perfumes for me for £4.50 from £15 and they're handy to pop in your handbag.

I forgot to add these two goodies to my haul above too. The cupcake book is by Rosie's Pantry and has some delicious recipes including banoffee cupcakes and rose water cupcakes. This was reduced from £6.50 to £1.95. The cocoa butter set I originally glanced over, it sounded nice but I knew my mum had already got me the sanctuary treats so I resisted! That evening by chance I came across a beauty blog which raved about this exact kit, so back I trundled the next day in my lunch break in the hope of finding some left. I was in luck and picked up two sets and I can't wait to try it out. I like cocoa butter and sugar scrubs so I have high hopes for this. It was a bargain at £3 from £10.

And finally, I bought the above Champneys bag for my mum. I forgot to add it to the main photo above but it contains three full sized products and three travel sized ones. This was reduced from £50 to £15. And that's all from my mammoth boots haul, phew!

George @ Asda Summer Sale!

George @ Asda has just launched its end of summer sale and there are some great bargains to be had! (Don't forget you can also get cashback on your purchases from Top Cashback).

Clockwise: Grey Skater dress £6 - Floral Playsuit £9 - Pink T-shirt £3 - Gladiatory Heels £10  -  Blue Crochet Vest £5

(Another) Primark Haul ♥

Primark is finally getting it's new season stuff in and I had a quick look on Friday to see what I could spot. It might seem a little ironic that yesterdays post was about my self-imposed savings challenge, but the important thing to remember is that these purchases were made before the start of my challenge...

Anyway, here's what I picked up:

This cute skater dress is my favourite purchase and was a bargain at just £8! I think it's really versatile too, the short sleeves and lightweight fabric mean that this dress will be perfect for sunny days (if we get any more of those), but the rich plum and deep navy colours will take it through to autumn. The print also features black in the pattern so I think it could even be worn with black tights in winter and a cardi for a casual shopping trip or lunch out.

 

This jumper was also £8 and has sheer sleeves and pretty pearl detailing around the neck line. The jumper is really soft too which is a plus, as I often find them too itchy to wear. I think this could easily be dressed up or down, and would be good for evenings or layered up in winter. 

I picked up these cute teacup pyjamas for just £4 reduced from £8. There were lots of reductions on pyjamas, jewellery,scarves and home ware, and the assistants were still marking the new sale prices when I was there so it might be worth a look if you're passing.

These Ice Cream pyjamas were another sale bargain at just £2 down from £5! The print reminded me of our holiday and I thought they'd be great for the next one so snapped them up.

The tea-towels were on sale too, reduced from £3 to £1. They're the really soft type, so I think they might be better as hand towels instead. They also had a red floral pattern set on sale too.

And finally, this pack of hair bands was £1. I can't seem to find good quality hairbands often these days. I bought a pretty pack of 6 from Accessorize last month and 2 broke within a day of wearing them, and the third is already wearing out after 3 wears. So I thought I'd get a couple of thicker bands to try instead, hopefully these will be stronger than the thin ones, and the bows add a nice detail too.

Two-Tier Rose Cake (Attempt 1...)

Last week I came across a beautiful 3-tiered cake decorated with cascading roses in my newest cake decorating book (£1 from the M&S sale, very much worth looking out for!) and thought it would be lovely to make for guests we're expecting at the end of the month. I wanted to practice it first, as I had grand ideas of a two tiered cake, with different flavour sponges and buttercreams, with a beautiful display of fondant roses. It was just as well I did because I'm a baking novice and as such encountered several hitches along the way, all of which lead to a less-than-perfect looking cake :( But at least I know what to improve for the real thing I guess! Namely;

- Do NOT forget the Marzipan. (I said I was a novice!) I completely missed this out from both the ingredient list and method, and it was only when I came to add the royal icing that it  seemed like icing the cake was a lot harder than it should be. I was right. As a result the icing didn't quite stick to the cake as well as it should have, and you can see where the sponge cakes are sandwiched together. It doesn't look good.

- Remember that baking a small cake means adjusting the cooking time. I forgot to do this and as a result my "strawberry" tier tasted predominately of overcooked cake.

- Make sure the cakes are level before applying the icing. Yet another rookie mistake and this caused a fondant rose to roll off the top of the cake, land in the middle of the previously smooth icing leaving a big dent and then proceeding to fall (and smash) on the floor.

I'm disappointed with the overall look of the cake (and didn't really want to upload the photo to my blog, but It's a learning curve right?) but not to get too disheartened by it, I was pleased with how the roses turned out - it took me an entire evening to make them all and it took a while to get a technique going, but I don't think they look too bad for my first attempt at making roses, and I do like the colour of them too. I also made a strawberry buttercream for the top tier cake and luckily that turned out very nicely and added some flavour back to the cake!

So, here it is...hopefully the second attempt will look a lot better!

(And yes the picture is small in a vain attempt to minimize the obviousness of the awful icing...I know it doesn't succeed however!)

Latest Poundland Haul ♥

I was in London last week and managed to find my way to Poundland for a quick look as I'd seen a few things on their website which had caught my eye. I didn't have long to spare but I still managed to fill a basket! The first thing I picked up are these cute Cath Kidston style floral coasters. I thought these would be lovely on our garden table, and I couldn't resist taking a picture with my newly polished nails as they matched so well!

The next thing I spotted was a cupcake carry case which holds 12 cupcakes. I was really pleased to find this as I've been on the look-out for one since I saw them on the Poundland website a few months ago. I already have the cake carry cases and they are great for keeping cakes fresh and transporting them. Similar cupcake carry cases are sold in Asda for £6, and Lakeland for £15.99, so i think this is great for £1!

I also finally remembered to pick up a couple of packs of food covers. These are so handy in the summer to keep flies off your food, especially for picnics and barbeques outside. These food covers fold flat for storage and pop up when you start to open them, which I think is a better design than the old ones I used to have which would have a little string that you'd pull to clip a plastic clip in place, as they would wear quite quickly and wouldn't stay up. Each pack contains two covers too so even more of a bargain!

And last but not least I found this amazing little gadget, which is a 4 way USB charger, and can be plugged in to the USB port on a laptop or computer, or a usb car adaptor (which I also bought from Poundland but I put it in my car before I remembered to take a photo, so I've found a stock photo). This is so useful as I can charge my mobile, ipod, tablet and camera from this at the same time, so makes it a great space-saver for travelling as I can take just one little charger for all of my electricals, or with the help of my car adaptor I can now charge them all in the car. If I spot another of these I will definitely be snapping it up for a spare!
 

I couldn't find the 9 piece fondant stamp kit I've seen on the website though, so I'm still searching for this, but it looks ideal for decorating cakes, and much cheaper than fondant cutters usually are!

Technic Nail Polish Review

I thought I'd do a quick review of the technic nail polish which I used to create my Cath Kidston nails. I bought 3 shades from Bodycare, a pastel blue, pastel green and dark pink, and at just 99p each I didn't really have high expectations for them. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are actually durable, long-lasting polishes, and even the pale blue was opaque in colour in just two coats and left no streaks. Since painting my nails I've washed my hair, done some gardening, cooked, been grocery shopping and carried out other chores and yet my polish has still not sustained a single chip! I can't wait to call in to Bodycare again soon and see what other pretty shades they have, I've already seen a pretty multi-colour glitter which looks like a very close OPI dupe, and at 99p they're a bargain!

Technic nail varnishes can also be purchased online at love thy makeup for £1.25 if you don't have a Bodycare near you.

Boots No 7, Sanctuary and Champneys Bargain Beauty Haul!

I called in to Boots yesterday and as I was passing through I noticed lots of big reductions on their luxury brands including Sanctuary, Soap & Glory, Champneys, Burts Bees and National Trust, some with 75% off. I am quite keen on Sanctuary (their products are paraben free too which is a plus) so I was pleased to spot a few items on sale (two of which I had already had my eye on, but didn't buy as my beauty box is already quite full following a successful visit to the Boots Christmas sale in January!) And it is the perfect chance to try new Sanctuary products that I otherwise wouldn't have; whilst I don't mind paying a premium for products that I know work and are reliable, with limited money in my account for non-essential purchases I'm not keen to spend over £10 on one product without knowing it won't be tried once and then stuck in the back of the cupboard.
So, on to the small haul I picked up!

The first thing I picked up was the Sanctuary "Dream time sleep in-a-box" which contains everything you need to send you off to a relaxing sleep. I can't wait to try this out later, it has a soothing bath float, 4 in 1 body elixir, smoothing silk scrub and comforting night butter. This had 1/3 off and was reduced to £8.38. I also spotted a box of skin conditioning oils, (which I'd also wanted to try before), and you can either use these as an intensive moisturiser on your skin or add to a bath to leave your skin soft and smooth. I'm a big fan of hair oil treatments so I'm hoping that these will work just as well! These were down to £2.30-ish from about £10. The third product I bought was a micro-dermabrasion body renewal scrub. I hadn't actually seen this before but I'm really keen to give it a go as I have an uneven skin tone and according to the scrub 9 out of 10 women noticed a visible difference to the appearance of their skin...so this has high expectations to live up to! This was also about £2.40-ish from about £10. Boots is also running a promotion where if you spend £10 on sanctuary you get a free creme souffle worth £11, so obviously I added this to my basket too! I've tried this out already and I really wasn't expecting much as I have quite a lot of moisturiser that I need to use up and didn't think it would be particularly different, but I soon changed my opinion. It is so rich it absorbs very well and quickly unlike some body lotions which seem to take ages to absorb, and it leaves skin feeling soft, supple and smooth and with a lovely fragrance.

Just when I thought I was done with my sanctuary haul I spotted the Champneys hand scrubs (far left in the picture) which were down to £1.50 and buy-one-get-one half price. I picked up two as I used to have a Sanctuary hand scrub which was lovely so I thought I'd give this a go. And even better I had enough points on my Boots card to pay, so effectively my bag full of goodies didn't cost me anything! There were also plenty of bargains to be had on the Soap & Glory shelves, Burt's Bees and National Trust aisles (including gift sets which would be good for birthdays or Christmas if you want to prepare early!), so if you're passing by it might be worth calling in and seeing what bargains you can spot!

As you can see in the picture I also picked up a couple of bargain No7 products. I'll keep it brief but currently boots are giving out vouchers at their self-service tills for £8 off a purchase of both No7 skin care and make up, and I already had a £5 off skin-care and £3 off make-up voucher from a till from my last trip to Boots, so I purchased a No7 BB cream (which is £13) and No7 eye illuminator pen (also £13) and was able to use all of my vouchers which gave £16 off, and as make up is on buy one get one half price this just left a few pounds to pay. I also used my mums vouchers to get her a BB cream and top coat nail varnish. I think that the reason all of the vouchers work and you still get the buy one get one half price promotion at the till is because BB cream is classed as both skincare and make-up, so if you want to purchase a few items yourself you'd need something in both categories like the BB cream or Bronzing pearls/palettes.

Now I just have to fit it all in my beauty box....!