Treatin: Peppermint Crisp Chocolate Cake

I received this chocolate cake recipe from my mother and have been making this fool proof recipe since I started baking at the age of nine. Now I use it as my base and simply add whatever is needed for the occasion - in this case peppermint crisp.

Ingredients: Makes 1 large cake or 36 cupcakes

Cake:

500 ml hot water
1 tsp instant coffee powder
250 ml sunflower oil
100 g cocoa powder
6 eggs
630 g sugar
500 g cake flour
10 g baking powder
 1/2 tsp salt
5 ml vanilla essence

Ganache:

100g dark chocolate, chopped
100g peppermint crisp chocolate, chopped
1 can of Treat Caramel

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.Mix hot water, coffee, oil and cocoa powder, leave to cool.
2. In a separate bowl, mix eggs and sugar well, until light and thick.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt, mix well and add to egg mixture.
4. Add vanilla to coffee mixture and fold coffee mix into egg mixture.
5. Divide mixture between two lined cake tins or 36 cupcake moulds.
6. Bake for 45 min(cake) or 20 min(cupcakes), cool before icing the cake.

1. For the ganache, melt the dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 95 seconds.
2. Add the caramel and 3/4 of the peppermint crisp chocolate, mix well.
3. Decorate cake with ganache and sprinkle remaing peppermint crisp chocolate on top.

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Hair Update: Fo Frizzle

It's time to take of the head scarves and beanies, put away the gel and styling mousse and step back from too many hair pins and head bands, because the new season is all about natural texture, home made braids and the odd slightly off colour.

This season is all about:

Middle partings

Loose textured braids

Simple up-do's

Shades of dusty greys and whites

'Gray hair is God's graffiti.' - Bill Cosby

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Fashion Update: Spring Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear

With all the major fashion weeks behind us and a new season starting. We find inspiration for our Spring wardrobe from the most captivating collections.

My top three s/s 2015 RTW collections:

Michael Kors s/s 2015 resort wear: Safari chic, a play-around with neutrals and the always present MK feminine touch. From khaki jackets to relaxed shorts and beautiful full length day dresses. 

 Burberry s/s 2015 Ready-to-Wear: Polished, cosmopolitan and a touch of exuberance. A true young-at-heart collection, featuring ostrich feathers, sheer panels and as always this season's reinvented trench.

Valentino s/s 2015 Ready-to-Wear: A definitive Spanish influence, the collection featured long, heavily embroidered dresses and in sharp contrast a few androgynous borrowed-from-the-boys looks. Striking red and black contrasted brightly beaded and refabricated whites.

It's a new season, a time for reinvention. Have fun with your fashion, don't be lazy now and remember wise words spoken.

' Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life, so you bought some sweatpants'- Karl Lagerfeld

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Clean Eat: Breakfast Smoothie

As the sun starts showing face earlier and the days get warmer. My usual oatmeal breakfast needed replacing. Smoothies, the perfect on-the-go breakfast. Prepare all the ingredients the night before and the next morning you have a perfectly healthy breakfast in ten minutes.

This breakfast smoothie contains fruit and veg for your minerals and vitamins, dairy for calcium and nut butter to keep you full, until lunch.

Ingredients: Serves 1

1 Banana, frozen and cut into chunks
5 Strawberries, frozen
100 ml plain Greek yoghurt
100 ml unsweetened almond milk
1 Handful of kale
1 Tbs organic unsweetened and unsalted organic peanut butter
1 Tbs organic honey

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend well.
2. Serve immediately in a tall glass.

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Fashion Update: Springing

Finally, spring has sprung in the mother city. You only need to take a hike up Lionshead or a walk through Kirstenbosch Gardens to realize it's bloomin. So in celebration of a new season, don your florals and let's go take a walk.

'You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming' - Pablo Neruda

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