Afternoon Tea Baby Shower

This year has been full of pregnant ladies and babies, and two of those pregnant ladies just so happen to be my sister and her sister-in law. This seemed like a perfect excuse to make up a dessert table and have an afternoon tea (here is the first dessert table we did). Afternoon tea's and dessert table's are brilliant because they give you the creative licence to do whatever you want with the decor and the menu.

We decided to make the invitations ourselves (which we had a lot of fun doing), most of the pom poms were home made as was the bunting hanging from the table. Food wise we had a mix of home made and shop bought which turned out really well, because if you don't have time to make all the food there are so many bakery's, deli's and other food places that do brilliant food for occasions like this. It always worth having a look around in your local area for places like that. For serving dishes we used a combination of things that all three of us had, what our mothers had and we hired the tea cups and tea pots from the bakery where we got the cake from (And the dish ran away with the spoon). Flowers also make everything look prettier, we decided on one big pitcher of flowers and a few smaller jars of flowers dotted around the table.

All in all I think it was a big success and it just goes to show that a mix of home made and shop bought can work really well, and just have fun with it. Here is the vlog of the whole thing

  

Instagram Update

As stated previously at the beginning of this post, I have been pretty rubbish a blogging and showing you what has been going on with my life.  So I thought the best way to update you gust would be through my instagram pictures. If you are on instagram do come and follow me because it is where I upload the most and just to see what is going on with me (@capturing_my_world).

So I came back from Dubai to the rainy north of England 

The leaves started changing colour 

The picture of the cake I made for Eid Ul Adha made it into this Sorted Food video :)

It was still raining 

Autumn was in full swing 

My friend got married and it was beautiful wedding 

We went to Morocco

It was my birthday and this was a handmade car from my sister (you can see her blog post about it here)

The festive lights is Manchester Arndale were looking very nice 

The days were getting shorter and I realised that I was awake (most of the time) before the sun was 

And before I knew it, it was new years eve, and because it is my grandma's birthday in new years day we always spent the day with family and I baked a cake 

I was experimented with colours 

And had my first rainbow cupcake order

We finally started putting our VHS tape onto DVDs

One of the advantages of having shorter days is the I would see this whenever I left work 

No comment ;)

I was working all day on pancake day so the next day I made savoury sweetcorn pancakes with mushrooms and a freshly laid fried egg  

I bought a new baking book which I love 

I'm really getting into gardening 

I love watching the plants starting to pop out of the soil 

Also trying to be more healthy 

And Spring has officially sprung 

So now you are up to date with what has been going on. I think I might make this Instagram update a regular feature I quite like it. Remember for all my goings on check out my instagram (@capturing_my_world) and until next time, bye :) x 

Eid and Bithday celebrations

The day after the blessed month of Ramadan is over it is Eid (specificly Eid-ul fitr). One the day of Eid it is custom to pray a special Eid prayer and spend time with family, friends and loved ones. It also seems to be an excuse to eat food all day and have a permanent food coma :-). A tradition in our family is to always have seviyan (sweet vermicilli in milk) and boiled eggs; and the we spend the rest of the day with extended family at my grandma's house. On Eid-ul fitr there are also gifts or money given to loved ones as well. Also coincidently this year Eid landed on my dad's and cousin's birthday, so there was a lot of cake consumed. Here is a short video of the day.



Hope you all had a prosperous Ramadan and a wonderful Eid xxx

Ramadan gifts

As many of you know the holy month of Ramadan is in full swing now. In this month of Muslim's will fast from sunrise to sunset. Also in this month Muslim's increase their worship (through praying and reciting the Qur'an etc) to the all might Allah and increase their good deeds. Doing all of this helps Muslim's build their patience, be grateful for what we have that others around the world may not have, and most importantly to get closer to Allah in our hearts and on a spiritual level. The month of Ramadan was also the month in which the Qur'an was revealed and sent down to the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

It is custom in Ramadan to take gifts when visiting  loved ones and neighbours, and normally these gifts include a box or tray of dates (which many Muslim's open their fast with at sunset). However I wanted to try something different with dates this year. I made mini almond date truffles and mini coconut macaroons instead. I saw the recipe for almond date truffles about a year ago and thought they would make perfect Ramadan gifts, and my recent love for making coconut macaroons can be read about here. In the recipe for the truffles it does ask for medjol dates (which are quite sweet) however I didn't have any at the time so I used the dates I had and the added a bit of honey for some sweetness. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the process of making them but I did take a picture of the finished product.

Finished product tied up with ribbon and a home made gift tag

Close up  

The tags I made using parchment paper and washi tape for the decoration. On the other side of the tag I wrote a sentimental message, 'May this Ramadan bring you peace, prosperity, good health and brighten your life forever Ameen xx'. For your Ramadan gifts you can put whatever message you want, whatever feels right. Hope you all have a blessed month and may this Ramadan bring you peace, prosperity, good health and bright your life forever, Ameen xx

'They aren't macaroons, they don't have two sides'...

.....Was a direct quote from my cousin when he saw these coconut macaroons. Obviously he was thinking about their more fashionable and popular cousin the French macaron. I said to him 'just because it doesn't look like a typical macaroon, it doesn't mean that it isn't a macaroon'. Anyway the recipe and the method couldn't have been easier and the outcome of it all is even better. They had a wonderful marshmallowy taste to them and were just scrummy. The recipe I used was from here, but at the end I did dip each macaroon into dark chocolate just to add a little extra to them. I actually made mine quite big, I think I might try and make them a bit smaller next time, but you can make them whatever size you want. 

All of the ingredients that were used

Getting ready to mix

Mixing away

Ready for the oven

Baked and dipped in dark chocolate

 

First Birthday Party

Now we all know that children never remember their first birthday party, so bearing that in mind my sister really wasn't intending to do anything for my niece's first birthday. Also it did come a day before my cousin's wedding and everyone was busy with that. However my mother, brother in-law and sister's father in-law started talking about do something for the occasion. On the actual day we just had an impromptu lighting of candles on a bakery bought cake with just the people who were already over at our house. Then a week later we ended up doing a proper thing at my sister's in-laws. This was an excuse to make up a dessert table, which to be honest me, my sister and her sister in-law were more excited about putting that together than anything else. Here are some pictures from the occasion.

I wasn't going to put any pictures of the impromptu thing but I like this
 picture of my brother in-law light the candle

On the party day, barbecue on the menu

It was lovely eating in the garden 

For the dessert table: Brownies with hearts on made by me 

Biscuits made buy my sister's cousin in-law 

Vanilla cupcakes with strawberries and Thorntons smiles on top of buttercream
made but my sister's sister in-law

The whole dessert table 

Buttons, paper straws and mini spinning wheels  

Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream and gold glitter covered cherries, also made by my sister's sister in-law

Even though my niece was actually asleep when we did the actual cake cutting a lot of fun was had. I can't believe my niece is actually 1 years old mashallah, it just seems like yesterday my sister told us she was expecting. Here's wishing her a long, happy and prosperous life inshallah.

The Wedding

A couple of the days after the mehndi is the wedding which took place a Tatton Park in Cheshire. There was a beautiful garden and mansion and the weather stayed well so the whole day was a delight. There was a sweet station, a dessert table and of course wedding cake. Also a message board where people could write their well wishes for the happy couple which was sweet. I was running around taking loads of pictures and video footage so here is a selection.

Wedding favours from the grooms side 

Car ribbon

Wedding favour form the brides side 

Drinks

Stage

Sweet station (Thank you to my sister for letting me use her hand )

Wedding cake 

The happy couple 

Message board

Dessert table

Me 

The dress that I was wearing was from Debenhams but it was sleeveless so I had sleeves put on to make more hijab friendly. The scarf was also from Debenhams, the necklace that I on top of my scarf was from Accessorize and I am also wearing a hand chain from River Island.

Here is the video: