Transformation Tuesday: Week 40

Brace yourselves: it's a big post...

Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake

As much as I love baking, I'm the most unadventurous person in the world.

I don't experiment. At all. Yes, I'll try new recipes and attempt to challenge myself, but when it comes to even slightly straying from the instructions I panic and completely refuse. Technical Thursdays meant I tried recipes for things I'd never heard of and could barely pronounce, but I followed the instructions to the letter. I have lots of ideas for recipes but never have the courage to try them out, but for some reason I'm feeling vaguely brave at the moment, so decided to transform an annotated doodle of a cake on a post-it note into reality.

For full disclaimer: this is a baby step and not nearly as impressive as it sounds! I worked out exactly how I wanted the cake to look, then trawled through the BBC Good Food website to find various recipes that I could mix together to make it happen.

The Raspberry & White Chocolate Easter Cake was born, combining a duck egg sponge with tart raspberry jam, a white chocolate buttercream and enough Mini Eggs to potentially single-handedly keep Cadbury's in business this year. Boom.

The Ciné File Vol. 25

This week I've indulged my inner five-year-old by revisiting my favourite classic Disney animations from when I was growing up - hello Mulan, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast - and honestly loved every minute of it. As much as I love Pixar there's something endlessly magical about the traditional 2D animation that never grows old.

In amongst wishing I was a Disney Princess I've managed to squeeze in a trip to the cinema to see new historical drama Suite Française - a beautiful yet thoughtful account of a wartime romance - and the National Theatre Live screening of the critically acclaimed A View from the Bridge.

Maltesers (Bunny) Cupcakes

I've been following Cupcake Jemma on Instagram for a while, so when she recently opened a bakery - Crumbs & Doilies - in Kingly Court, Soho, I was obviously intrigued. Throw in a detailed cake of Westeros and I was officially a little obsessed. Good heavens, the cakes look outstanding. I'm not joking when I say the Crumbs & Doilies Instagram page is absolute filth - the cupcakes are beautiful, but it's the full-sized cakes that are simply stunning, from expertly blended ombre frosting to dripping chocolate over crisp white buttercream, these cakes were made for social media, no filter required.

No surprises, but it instantly shot to the top of my list of places to visit when I'm next in London (and not dieting...). Having stalked the Instagram page for long enough I headed over to YouTube for a look at the recipe tutorials, and that's where I found these Maltesers Cupcakes.

Determined as I was to try them out, in the spirit of all things Easter it seemed only fitting to swap in an iconic Maltesers Bunny on the top for a suitably themed batch of cupcakes. They definitely did not disappoint...

Hot Cross Scones

I have my baking mojo back! And, in a wonderful turn of events it's nearly Easter, so get ready for an onslaught of Easter themed bakes over the next fortnight...

Hot cross buns are an Easter staple. Whether you're a diehard fan of the traditional fruity ones, or have been tempted off the straight and narrow by the likes of M&S's chocolate and fudge variety, they're always a firm favourite over the Easter period. I was going to try and find a recipe and give them a go this year - oddly I've never attempted them before - but as soon as I came across this corker on the Delicious Magazine website I changed my mind entirely.

Baking hybrids are everywhere at the moment: cronuts, duffins, cruffins... if it's possible to combine products then odds are a bakery somewhere in the world has tried it. Well, why not at Easter too? Everyone loves scones, so what better invention than a Hot Cross Scone?! This recipe combines the fruit and spice found in a hot cross bun with the crumbly texture of a scone, and the result is pretty special indeed.

Transformation Tuesday: Week 39

It's more of the same this week, I'm afraid.

The Ciné File Vol. 24

This week I've unashamedly let my film watching slide as I headed back to Westeros for a rewatch of Game of Thrones from the very beginning in preparation for Series 5 next month. As a result I've been too focused on the Iron Throne and trying to learn basic Dothraki to even contemplate watching my normal number of films!

However, I have managed to watch one of my favourites from last summer - the sci-fi blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow; along with the truly awful Emperor; and the astonishingly wonderful French dramedy, Untouchable.

Transformation Tuesday: Week 38

Well, it's been another tough week (I hate how these are increasing in frequency again) but I've survived, and I have you beautiful people to thank for that.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

I celebrated my 19th birthday a few years ago with a BBQ party at home with all of my best pals, neighbours and family friends. At the time I'd just started to seriously enjoy baking, so used my birthday as the perfect opportunity to make a huge selection of bakes from The Hummingbird Bakery book, Cake Days. I planned out the couple of days before the party with military precision and spent them hiding in the kitchen from dawn till dusk so that for the party there was a table of cakes, cookies, tarts and whoopie pies for everyone to enjoy. Of everything I made, this is the cake that had the most compliments, and the one that I still have people asking me for the recipe literally years later. Well, here it is...

Fans of chocolate, rejoice, as this cake will be utter heaven for you, and in a not entirely coincidental turn of events it contains Guinness, so it's pretty appropriate for St Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Whether you're just in the mood for cake, or if you need/ want to make something themed for St Patrick's Day then you can't go wrong with this Chocolate Guinness Cake topped with a cream cheese frosting. Delicious doesn't even cover it.

The Ciné File Vol. 23

There have been lots of new releases this week, and given how I felt pretty behind recently I've made a concerted effort to try and work my way through as many as possible over the last few days.

This has led to Chappie (horrendously disappointing artificial intelligence caper); Still Alice (yes, Julianne Moore's good but she's not great); and the utterly stunning and hugely overlooked X+Y. It's one of the most touching and beautiful films I've ever seen - so much so that the lack of buzz surround the film is completely baffling to me. Run and see it: it's a stunning British film fully deserving of everyone's attention, regardless of your feelings surrounding mathematics.

Transformation Tuesday: Week 37

This week has produced a disappointing - but anticipated - result on the scales but I've made a major breakthrough in terms of a non-number goal.

The Ciné File Vol. 22

My break from film is well and truly over, with three trips to the cinema this week - to see Cake, Jupiter Ascending and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - and a test-drive of the new Sky Movies Monsters channel with the awful 2014 Godzilla.

It looks like I've rediscovered my film groove!

Transformation Tuesday: Week 36

Considering I had a planned lapse in London, I'm pleased with my loss this week.

However, it's not all plain sailing as temptation reared its ugly head and I've really struggled. Boo.

Coming Soon: March 2015

It seems like Christmas was only last week so how it's March already I have no idea!

Today's post should technically be an instalment of The Ciné File, but as I've - appallingly - only seen one film this week it seemed like a waste of a post! I'll include that lone film in next week's reviews, so instead my monthly round-up of the latest new releases in cinemas, Coming Soon, is here a day early. How exciting!

Awards season is well and truly over, and although the overwhelming majority of nominated and winning films have already been released (some are still in cinemas if you missed the initial rush), March allows U.K. audiences to catch the handful that slipped through the net over the last few months. Friday 6th finally sees the release of Still Alice: the film that saw Julianne Moore win the Best Actress Oscar/BAFTA/SAG/every other award in the world for her performance as the titular linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. There's also the Oscar-nominated animation The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and feature-length presentations of the BAFTA-nominated Short Films.

Don't fear if you're sick of seeing cinemas flooded with award-worthy films: March sees artificial intelligence thriller Chappie; comedy Unfinished Business; historical romance Suite Française; and the live-action remake of Disney's classic fairy-tale, Cinderella, to name a few. Something for everyone, then! Read on for release dates and trailers for the best films hitting cinemas in the next 31 days...