Met Ball 2013 Best Dressed

Arguably the most exciting event in the fashion calendar, the annual Met Ball is the fashion world's Oscars, and each year the sartorial bar is raised higher and higher. This year, the Costume Institute exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum pays tribute to the punk era, and so last night's theme was Punk: Chaos to Couture. Leather, studs and safety pins were all over the red carpet as revelers embraced the theme with aplomb, but overall the fashion tended to lean more towards couture.

Olivier Awards 2013 Best Dressed

I adore the theatre. Having been a part of my school's stage crew for 5 years I gained a real appreciation for the stage. I still experience a certain thrill and a spine-tingle every time I enter a theatre that takes me back to hours spent following scripts by torch-light in the wings, frantically changing sets between scenes and cursing the cast's innate ability to break and lose props with no knowledge as to how they managed it. These memories are some of my most cherished (ignoring how stressful they were at the time!) and helped to develop a special and unique adoration towards theatre that I really can't explain properly, but hope will never fade.

Unfortunately I don't get to go as often as I'd like to, so have decided that as a mid-year's resolution (not a thing, but it is now...) I'm going to make a substantial effort to go more. Living in London is a dream come true, and being so close to so many world-class productions and not seeing them is a total crime, so come 30th May and the end of my exams I'll start working my way down my list of shows. I'm excited already!

Back on topic, last night saw Covent Garden transformed as the Royal Opera House hosted the annual Olivier Awards. A celebration of the best of British theatre, the awards were as glamorous and spectacular as expected, with hosts Hugh Bonneville and Sheridan Smith entertaining those inside while the piazza was filled with theatre fans watching on a large screen.

MTV Movie Awards 2013 Best Dressed

I've been buried in revision since I got back to London and haven't surfaced for a while, but nothing will drag me back to the real world like the pull of a red carpet and a celebration of film. Last night was the MTV Movie Awards, and there were many examples of excellent style on show.

Hot Cross Bun Pudding

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a mince pie, and Easter isn’t Easter without a hot cross bun. This year I was determined to do something different with them, as there’s only so many times you can have a hot cross bun toasted and covered in butter before it gets a little boring… Morrison’s March/April magazine had a recipe for a Hot Cross Bun Pudding so I stocked up on buns (packs of 4 were 75p each or 2 for £1: bargain!) and decided to make it today.

Easter Flapjack

Nothing annoys me more than open packets of ingredients in the cupboard, so when I had a good rummage in the kitchen and found open porridge oats I couldn’t resist making something with them. Limited ingredients and an unwillingness to leave the warmth of my parents’ house to buy more meant I was stuck with something simple: flapjack.

Strawberry and Lemon Sponge Cake

I stumbled across this recipe while reading Morrison’s March/April magazine online and instantly knew it was one I absolutely had to try. It’s originally billed as a cake for Mother’s Day, but is a perfect summer dessert. Strawberries and cream are infused with tangy lemon curd and sandwiched between light vanilla sponges. This is an utterly British cake, an embodiment of Wimbledon, Pimms, bunting and the Queen. It looks beautiful and is really easy to make: ideal to impress distant family members with your culinary prowess over Easter or an excellent finish to a dinner party with friends as a pre-exams/post-dissertation treat.

(Chocolate) Bread and Butter Pudding

For me, a mention of Bread and Butter Pudding evokes memories of snuggling up with a blanket and a film in the middle of winter and tucking into a steaming bowl of the pudding with lashings of double cream. It’s an iconic comforting winter treat, and given the unpredictable British weather – snow in March?! – I think it’d be the perfect dessert to make this week. I found this recipe from Gary Rhodes months ago here, and made it for my flatmates at uni. However, as none of them were really fans of fruit in a pudding, I omitted the traditional sultanas/raisins and instead added dark chocolate. From their gushing compliments I’d say it was a success, although personally I’d prefer to leave it unchanged and as my mum used to make it with the fruit! If you do have Easter eggs left over after the weekend (it’s a long shot but worth asking…) then you could always put them to good use and make your own variation of the recipe below. Waste not, want not!

Oscars 2013 Best Dressed

It's the biggest night in the film industry's calendar: the Oscars are finally here! If I didn't have a French class tomorrow morning I'd stay up all night and follow them live, but as it is I'm going to have to settle for red carpet coverage now and thoughts on the winners/embarrassing speeches/snubs in the morning. As I said in my post about the BAFTAs, awards season is my favourite time of the year and I'm expecting tonight to be incredible. Not only are the Oscars the awards everyone's been building up to, but with the fashion world in the throes of fashion weeks the sartorial stakes are exceedingly high. The red carpet is - quite frankly - going to be out of this world.

EE BAFTAs 2013 Best Dressed

Awards season is - without doubt - my favourite time of the year. Fashion and film collide beautifully, with never ending red carpets displaying all of the latest designs from the fashion world, and hundreds of gold statues handed out to the film and television industry's finest.

Tonight is the EEBAFTAs, the biggest night in the British cinema calendar. As I type, the ceremony is well underway at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Results are being tweeted live, but the show is recorded and will be broadcast at 9pm on BBC1, so disconnect your internet if you don't want to be spoiled! The red carpet, however, has finished, and as there have been so many stand-out looks tonight, it only seemed appropriate to take a quick break from work to document the best dressed here. I'll discuss the awards results later this evening (and mostly on twitter as they happen: @emma_forth) but for now it's all about the fashion.

I Give It A Year

 IGIAY is the hilarious new British “anti-rom-com” from Dan Mazer (writer of 'Borat' and 'Bruno') that follows a newlywed couple through their first year of married life. After a whirlwind romance highflying corporate PR woman Nat (Rose Byrne) and struggling novelist Josh (Rafe Spall) tie the knot and are an undisputed example that opposites can attract. They face doubt from friends and family from the onset and are clearly attracted to other people (Anna Faris and Simon Baker). Determined to prove their sceptics wrong they set their sights on making it to their first anniversary, but the honeymoon period is definitely over and 365 days starts to feel like a very long time indeed…

Based on a true story...

There's no two ways about it: I LOVE that recently historical films have been creeping into cinemas, simultaneously proving to be box office hits and capable of dominating the awards season. For both a history and film nerd, this is an extremely exciting prospect! Despite not being able to watch a film without looking for all the inconsistencies, goofs and plot holes, I'm not one of those people that automatically moans when a film is historically inaccurate - slightly ironic, I know, but perfect for these type of films!

Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

~ First They Came - Pastor Martin Niemoller

The Impossible

The initial images of the Indian Ocean tsunami destroying everything in its path as it traveled with a ferocious and unstoppable intensity dominated the news on Boxing Day 2004. As the day progressed, footage emerged showing the rest of the world the wall of water tearing through buildings, flattening palm trees and sweeping thousands of unsuspecting people to their deaths. It was one of the most significant and shocking natural disasters of the twenty-first century: an environmental catastrophe that left a trail of utter devastation in its wake. The Impossible manages to powerfully recreate this very moment in history, with director Juan Antonio Bayona using the true story of the Spanish Belón family with great success. Stunning visual effects and powerhouse performances render this a truly astonishing film.

Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Cookies

I’ve been searching for the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe for ages, as the ones I’ve tried in the past just haven’t turned out how I’d hoped. I thought I’d give this one a try as it seemed a little different: the ingredients called for not just peanut butter, but actual peanuts, milk chocolate and pretzels too. Surely it was worth a go?

Speculaas

Anyone who knows me knows that since the middle of November I’ve been rushed off my feet with numerous essays, presentations and a couple of incredible weekends at the Barbican Framed Film Festival. As a result, I haven’t had time to breathe let alone blog, despite having several folders full of photographs of baking and pages of notes on films all ready for me to collate together and eventually post. It’s Boxing Day, I’m sat in front of the TV watching Happy Feet and still unable to move thanks to yesterday, so felt it was the perfect time to start blogging all the remaining recipes/films/exhibitions that I still haven’t got round to doing!

These are Speculaas, courtesy of Edd Kimber. A spicy biscuit that I made in the summer, they smell like Christmas so would be ideal to make at some point over the holidays (even though it’s perfectly acceptable to make them all year round!). A pack of these would make a lovely gift too: maybe accompanied with a thank you note for Christmas presents? It’s be a little different and surely greatly appreciated…