Happy Monday everyone!



Today the sun is shining through my window and for the first time in many mornings I'm feeling really motivated to get on with all the things I have planned, but first I want to share with you all the Banana and Chocolate chip cupcakes we made yesterday, Sundays being our only day off, we always reserve it for family day, we try and tackle our huge to-do list, have pancakes, do gardening, make roast dinners and watch movies but all very chilled of course, yesterday I spent all day in my pj's the kids changed clothes like 1000x and Pedro was a total sweetheart and went out to get a few bits we needed for dinner, all in all it was a very chilled Sunday.


I have been in the mood for cup cakes for a few days now, and as miss Petal has now decided she no longer likes bananas I had a whole bunch of them sitting in the fridge getting ripe, and I don't know about you but I really don't like ripe bananas... I have made banana loaf cakes a few times and only River and I eat it so I thought banana and chocolate cupcakes would be a better way to use up all the bananas, these cup cakes at not at all sweet, but the chocolate give them a bit more groove.
I adapted this recipe from a super healthy one my mum had sent me a while back, and I'm really happy with how they turned out, hope you give them a go, they are super quick and easy to make and a good one to let the kids to help out too.


-What you will need-

For cup cakes:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 ripe bananas 
• 2 medium eggs or 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup fine brown sugar
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter melted
• 1 bar dark chocolate chopped or chocolate chips
• big handful of walnuts (optional)

For Crumble top:

• 1 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 tablespoon dry oats
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 table spoon fine brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted cold butter  

Let´s Get Baking!

1.  Preheat your oven to  to 180c/ gas mark 4 and place your chosen cupcake cases into cupcake tin.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
3. Mash bananas with a fork and mix in eggs, melted butter and sugar.
4. Then slowly combine the dry ingredients with the banana mixture, once all combined fold in chocolate bits or walnuts. ( I did half the batter with just chocolate and the other half with chocolate and walnuts)
5. using an ice-cream scooper or a spoon scoop batter into cupcake cases, about 1/3 of the way.
6. set aside and make your crumble 

For crumble! 

1. In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar and oats.
2. Add cold butter, and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingers to make a crumble.
3. Once you have yourself a nice looking crumble spoon over cupcake batter so its covered in the crumble!
4. Place your cupcakes in the over and bake for 15minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes before taking them out of the tin. 

Tip:
Cupcakes bake really quickly so make sure you preheat your oven, and if you think they are still not done after 15minutes bake them for a further 5minutes before checking again. 

And Enjoy! 

Ever since I can remember I have always loved photos, my mum did a great job at capturing my childhood through photos, and I guess that's where I get it from, we never had a super fancy camera just a simple compact point and shoot one,  I remember getting super excited going with my mum to the high street to get the pictures developed, the suspense of waiting to get these memories that have been frozen in time always amazed me. As I got older and technology evolved and digital cameras started to make an appearance i kinda lost my groove, it's like the magic was gone. I don't think it was until I started dating Pedro that i really started getting back into taking photos, I wanted to capture every moment with him, every place we went all thoes "firsts" oh and when I found out I was pregnant with Petal I knew I wanted to capture even more, every second of her.

 As my love for photography grew so did my need to go back to film, and last year my beautiful mum and one of my bestest friends got together and for my 28th birthday they gifted me the most beautiful analog camera a Canon AE-1 to be exact, it was the one i wanted and they spoiled me, although I really wanted a film camera I had no idea how it worked, I had never heard of all this aperture and shutter speed it was all a bit confusing at first, and everyone I spoke to would explain it in a differante way, just making it all a bit more confusing, but after reading a few things and just having a go I think I have kinda got the hang of it, I still have a lot to learn, but I love all the pictures I have taken so far, and that excitmente of going to get the film developed and then waiting for days till I get them back makes me feel really happy and like I'm little kid again. here are some of my favourites from the last film I got developed.

I used Fuji Film Superia X-TRA 400





One of the things I most love about this camera is this light leaks, all these little imperfections are what make the pictures even more special, lots of people don't like that and I'm ok with it.

















 -Love Denny-