The Ciné File Vol. 9

Everything I've seen this week utterly pales in comparison to the cinematic high I've ended on: Paddington has to be one of the most charming and wonderful British films in existence.

Despite a bit of a mid-week panic thinking I would't be able to fit it in - and instead indulging in Netflix, Sky Movies and seeing films I normally wouldn't such as Horrible Bosses 2 - I've now seen Paddington twice in one weekend, and I'd go and see it again tomorrow if I had the chance. What a film!

(Boozy) Paddington Pudding

Paddington Bear may hail from deepest darkest Peru but he's a British national treasure.

The new controversially-rated film, Paddington, (the BBFC bizarrely recently classified it as a PG...) featuring a selection of British acting royalty and Ben Whishaw as the voice of the famous bear is released in UK cinemas today. Given the fact that I sadly don't have time to watch it on the opening weekend, I thought I'd do a spot of Paddington-themed baking instead and put a trip to the cinema at the top of my to-do list for next week.

Everyone knows Paddington loves marmalade almost as much as Pooh loves honey, and it's the time of year when there's nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a bowl of steaming hot pudding. It therefore seemed like a bit of a no brainer to play around with good old-fashioned bread and butter pudding and give it a cheeky Paddington twist.

I managed to unearth a jar of Seville orange marmalade from the back of a cupboard and found this recipe for a Marmalade & Whisky Bread & Butter Pudding on the BBC Good Food website. Paddington has been so well received thus far that critics are raving about it, and the general consensus is that grown ups will love it as much as children - hence why I've tried out a recipe that has the option to include whisky, turning a childhood favourite into a truly grown-up dessert if so desired.

Technical Thursday: Mary's Tuiles

This has to be one of the annoying Technical Challenges to date.

It's not particularly difficult and for once didn't lead to elevated levels of stress in any way. The problem is that the challenge required the bakers to make 9 tuiles and 9 cigars, but the recipe provided makes around 50. This is fine if you have all the time in the world and an industrial-sized oven, but working in a small kitchen with limited baking trays (and patience as the afternoon wore on) the whole process took literally hours longer than it needed to.

If I'd have known this I would have halved the quantities from the beginning, but once you're elbows deep in tuile paste and in the middle of a production line with a template, it doesn't make sense to stop, or throw away the rest of the mixture. I made the decision to carry on past the requirements of the challenge and use up all the mixture, but ended up losing over 3 hours in the process. Eugh.

Plus, I spent the evening nursing burnt and stinging fingertips from shaping piping hot tuiles, which is less than ideal to say the least!

Transformation Tuesday: Week 22

My LighterLife counsellor and I have come to the conclusion that weight seems to drop off me in a very distinct pattern.

One week I'll lose a lot and feel ecstatic and completely over the moon, and the next I'll lose very little and feel dejected and like I'm veering dangerously off-course. Looking back logically it all evens out, so I'm a lot less stressed than I thought I would be about this week's tiny loss.

Manicure Monday: GLAMOUR Tate

Today's nail varnish is a bit of a surprise one and a last minute addition to my collection.

I buy a ridiculous number of magazines each month, and a large chunk of my wardrobe is taken up with boxes full of archived old editions from at least the last 5 years. I'm pretty sad, and can't wait to live somewhere with decent bookshelves to display them all. Although I have a set selection of magazines that I buy religiously, there are others that I purchase here and there if they take my fancy. Glamour is such a magazine.

Claire Danes and "stress-free Christmas shopping" have been tempting me all month, but after a friend mentioned there was a bottle of Nails Inc. nail varnish with the magazine I knew it was definitely going in my basket the next time I was at the supermarket.

I'm glad I decided to take the plunge even if I'm not overly impressed with the polish!

The Ciné File Vol. 8

For some reason I seem to have spent the week mostly re-watching a lot of films that came out in cinemas last year. I'm the sort of person that has to be in exactly the right mood for specific films, and something about this week meant I was even less successful than normal in actually branching out and finally making a start on my ever-growing list of unwatched films that I’m dying to see.

Despite this bout of nostalgia – which resulted in losing an afternoon after finding The Way Way Back on Sky Movies, and watching Monsters, Inc. twice in a row while baking – I have managed to squeeze in a couple of new releases closer to the weekend.

Hello, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Penguins of Madagascar, I’m looking at you…

Technical Thursday: Egg Custard Tarts

So it turns out I'm a bit of a disaster when it comes to basic recipes.

Give me something with a million ingredients I've never heard of, a series of complicated instructions that reduce me to a state of mild panic and a finished product the name of which I can't pronounce properly and I'm in my element. However when I'm faced with the sort of recipe I should technically be able to do in my sleep I slowly fall apart until I'm so frustrated that I just want to throw it all away and give up on baking as a hobby altogether.

Step forward, Paul Hollywood's Egg Custard Tarts, made from a recipe so simple I had to read it three times to check I wasn't missing vital steps and yet required two attempts at the pastry, a flap about the custard that turned my language so colourful I felt like Gordon Ramsey, and resulted in 12 rather sad looking tarts that definitely aren't at the standard I'd like them to be.

Eugh. According to everyone at work they tasted okay though, so all is not lost!

Transformation Tuesday: Week 21

Well, there's another milestone off the list this week…

Manicure Monday: Bordeaux

I had another look at my nail polish collection last week and finally decided that I needed to bite the bullet and actually buy a couple of winter appropriate shades. After approximately a decade crouching beside an Essie display in Boots I settled on three deep red colours, all of which upon reflection look pretty much identical in natural light. Oops.

As Christmas music is now on a repetitive loop in shops and festive films are infiltrating nearly every channel on the television it's getting harder to ignore the impending holiday season, so I've gone for Bordeaux on my nails: a beautiful dark red the colour of mulled wine.

The Ciné File Vol. 7

You know it's a good film week when it starts with Disney animations and ends with an outstanding biopic of one of Britain's most tragic unsung heroes and the race against time to crack the Enigma code in World War 2.

I wish more weeks were book-ended with films like that!

Children in Need Pudsey Vanilla Cupcakes

Since leaving school - and therefore no longer having the long, exciting build-up - Children in Need seems to creep up on me without realising and all of a sudden it's Friday, Terry Wogan's everywhere and I'm frantically trying to bake something Pudsey-themed for charity.

If, like me, you're a little unorganised this year and need to whip something up quickly this afternoon for a last minute bake sale or to munch on while you sit on the sofa and watch the show (and donate!) then look no further than these super easy vanilla cupcakes with the best chocolate frosting IN THE WORLD. Seriously, Lorraine Pascale hit the jackpot with this recipe.

They're so simple to make, taste amazing, and if you can muddle your way though using a piping bag then they'll look really, really cute.

Now's the time to be a Baking Hero, so aprons on, and bake for the nation!

Technical Thursday: Floating Islands

I think everyone remembers Dessert Week of The Great British Bake Off Series 4, as it's the one that highlighted how a quaint little show about cake wasn't immune to scandal.

When making their signature bakes - trifles - at the beginning of the episode Deborah accidentally used Howard's custard instead of her own, and not only did it ruffle feathers in the tent and cause a bit of a commotion, but it ushered in an entirely new era on the show. Custard-gate overtook the weather as the main topic of conversation in Britain that week, and I like to believe that it's heart-racing and deliciously tense episodes like this that elevated GBBO to BBC1 for the following series.

In amongst all the custard excitement at the start of the episode it's ridiculously easy to forget what on earth happened in the rest of it. The Technical Challenge was Mary Berry's Floating Islands, a "classy, dreamy dessert" that features quenelles of poached meringue floating on top of custard and decorated with a ball of spun sugar. Don't worry, I hadn't heard of them before the episode either.

Easy peasy? Not. At. All.

Transformation Tuesday: Week 20

In my head I'm still being mature about weight loss - in the sense that any loss is a positive thing - and given the fact that I'm not entirely sure how long this mindset is going to last I'm going to enjoy it.

Manicure Monday: Urban Jungle

When I had a massive tidy up of my nail polish collection a few months ago it turns out I threw away most of my autumn/winter shades. Booo. The only non-pastel shades I have are various shades of red (all of which are practically the same…) and a couple of greys, which is extremely annoying! Despite my best efforts to save money at the moment, I'm going to have to invest in some deeper reds and purples over the next few months - any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

In the meantime, however, I've taken inspiration from the chill in the air and the growing Christmas excitement and used one of my favourite Essie polishes this week: Urban Jungle. The icy white reminds me of snow and practically screams 'winter', so I felt it was a November-appropriate shade, despite being in Essie's summer collection.

The Ciné File Vol. 6

This selection of films is - admittedly - a little bit nerdy, with more Marvel superheroes than you could shake a stick at and another trip on the U.S.S. Enterprise at warp speed this week.

The film highlight though - Interstellar. Good lord: what an astonishingly brilliant film, so brilliant in fact that I've already seen it twice and plan on seeing it at least another two times next week. Christopher Nolan is a genius.

Technical Thursday: English Muffins

Technical Thursday is back! Woop woop!

Life feels very strange without the weekly dose of the Great British Bake Off. In order to cope with this I'm going to carry on with a GBBO-themed bake each week by working my way through more Technical Challenges. I loved doing them each week during Series 5, and given the fact that I'd never made the majority of the bakes before I found it really helpful to try them out and expand my baking knowledge in the process.

After very little deliberation I figured, why stop now? I spent an hour or so the other day working out a plan of attack, and have decided to go back to Series 4 - famous for the tense episode where Deborah stole Howard's custard - and start doing the Technical Challenges from Week 1 through to the Final. I'm not going to lie: I'm very excited for the next few weeks.

Transformation Tuesday: Week 19

YES. YES. YES.

Well this week was a tiny bit of a success, and exactly what I needed.

Manicure Monday: Le Poivre

Another week, another chance to indulge my Soigné obsession.

I told myself I was going to stop buying nail varnish, but then I saw Soigné had a sale on, and safe to say all my best intentions went out of the window. Oops.

The Ciné File Vol. 5

This week I rewatched my favourite film of all time, attended an encore screening of a production I now regret not seeing live on stage, and went into a bit of a Marvel meltdown.

Nothing like a varied week on the film-front to keep me on my toes!