When Life Gives You Lemons... MAKE A CAKE

Lemon Madeira Cake

I have been dying to bake a cake since the last time, which was quite a few months back and especially after spending quite a lot of money on the new Cake Decorating magazines (issues 1-18) I needed to make use of the utensils with the magazines. 

Me and Ume wanted to start off basic but not too basic like a sponge cake so a Madeira cake it was and lemon is another love of mine. 

We followed the recipe from BBC Food

Click here for the recipe

It was a delight if I say so myself

Priya ♥

Birmingham International Food Fair

Om nom nom nom nom nom nom

Yes the Birmingham International Food Fair was here for a week and five days and today it has unfortunately ended.

Me and my boyfriend Ume had gone on the first day and were hoping to go back on the last day but never made it back.
Our first stall was the Olives *olives galore*. We picked out a few as it was a help yourself kind of service and we didn't think it would be £**.** (oops). But it was worth it and still expensive. 

It seemed that a lot of the stalls were just duplicated such as Caribbean/Indian/Thai cuisines and more.
Like Ume said that there's not much point in spending a lot of money on certain foods that are available to you on a daily basis such as noodles or paella and with reasonable prices. Unlike the goat curry which we haven't really spotted around Birmingham it was worth our while and inexpensive. 

"Visitors will have the opportunity to try out the different specialities and flavours from countries including France, Germany, Poland, Holland, Italy and Spain as well as further afield such as Australia and the Far East.

Exotic dry fruits from Iran, breads and pastries from Austria and a typical Australian barbeque can be found alongside Sicilian biscuits and nougat, Thai noodles, fine French bread, cheeses and wine as well as a good hearty German grill.  These are just some of the foods for visitors to try and buy to take home.

The Best of the Midlands will also be represented with traditional produce and locally brewed drinks and food from local restaurants with a Regional Food Fair and includes award winning local cheeses, ostrich burgers and traditional pork scratchings."

 Birmingham International Food Fair

The olives were a big 10 out of 10 because we love our olives and my favourites were stuffed garlic,and stuffed feta cheese.

As we have never tried Goat curry from the Caribbean range we gave it a go and again we had another 10 out 10 dish served with rice and salad. To me the texture of the goat meat was a similar texture to the texture of lamb.

I think know that the highlight of my day was a cold, refreshing can of G R A P E  S O D A!

Did you get yourself down there or ever been to something similar?

Priya ♥

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Welcome to Cosmo Cube!

That's right I'm back so long peeping beauty - its all about the comso-ness!

A huge apology for my AWOL

But I'm back now but I'm still trying to juggle working everyday, with seeing family and friends and then blogging and plenty other stuff.

So anyway the news behind Cosmo cube is purely because when I say I'm no expert in beauty or fashion I am not an expert haha its just my personal interest's and opinion's but I'm still blogging my fashion and beauty loves. Therefore the reason we now have Cosmo cube is to write about anything I want, to share stuff such as beauty to food recipes, from food recipes to TV shows and so forth.

Hope the UK-ers have enjoyed our somewhat scorching summer, weather update for those in the West Midlands that the forecast shows a sunny/clear week ahead.


Embrace what you have

Priya ♥

As versatile as a pair of black pumps

H&M strappy sandals


Hi guys, hope you are all well. These baby's are my pair of strappy sandals that I knew I just had to pick these up because of the price, the block (easy walking) heel and  the velcro fastening (again easy).


These beauties are my latest fashion love because as I said in my previous post on strappy sandals they go with anything that you can make work. I have only yet paired them with my Easy A American Apparel Jeans from Asos and rolled them up to ankle height to show a bit of skin  which gives the elongation effect on my legs and giving it more of elegant and feminine look.


+ a better way to show off this summers nail pots on your tippy toes - unlike peep toes !!


on a scale one 1 being comfortable and 10 being painful I would say the comfort of these shoes fall on a number 4.
The strap at the front of the shoe does tend to rub quite a bit on the toe where I have had to wear plasters which don't really stay put (annoying). I've lasted well in these heels for 9 hours the most and  personally I'm usually in ankle wedged boots most days rather than flats.


H&M are also doing other colours in these shoes * metallic silver *


I definitely still want to invest in the Zara strappy sandals out the lot and even the new look ones maybe, but then I hate getting similar dupes because I think I'll fall in love with one specific item and forget about the other one (which has happened and I do a lot of that). Also to be honest with the weather being all wet and wild  I feel as though I'd rather invest in something I can get use out of. But they are still ever so pretty to wear at any occasion :)

Sorry for the poor quality just thought I'd show how they looked on me,


xxxx

What would you pair them with?

Boyfriends Buntastic BBQ for two

Hey guys so I thought to share you with you a few pictures I took last Friday when the weather was raring to go..* unlike today * 

I've never really had a proper big family type BBQ probably for the obvious reason - Big Family, which is why I can't wait to have a family of my own and make it big whether its a small number or big. I must say I enjoyed this one thoroughly. Its even better because although my family is scattered I fortunately get to enjoy the other halves family get-together's. I can remember two BBQ's one of which was at my Uncle and Aunts house back in Manchester which is amazing because my auntie knows how to make everything sparkle and she even made her own punch. The second time was three years back now to my first year at uni where it was the end of exams and all that hard work had been accomplished...myself, Ume, and a few other uni mates decided to kick back at uni halls garden with the little portable BBQ's. We even had to warm up the food in the oven first because of how awful those little BBQ's were but it was a pleasant time and something I miss dearly *so much fun*.

So this Friday just gone was absolutely amazing even with the two of us it was just ever so nice and as it was a spur of the moment thing, as Ume called me after I finished work asking if I was up for it I didn't really see any good reason in turning it down, especially with the weather. We managed to catch somewhat of the sun as we shot off to the shops to grab a few things. The only let down was the fact that we were disappointed because we couldn't find anything lamb type to grill (and we love lamb) in all the places we went. But it was still such an epic time with the frankfurters, the sausages, the chicken wings, the Mediterranean vegetables and the quorn burgers (that came out amazing thanks to my amazing chef).  Yup, that's the boyfriend. 

I just love BBQ's its just the best way to eat food hot off the trot, all the glorious sunshine and just being outdoors.