Harry Potter Tag| It's Carenza B

Hello!

So the other day I was looking through a website about different YouTube and Blogging tags, when I stumbled across the Harry Potter Tag and knew I had to do it. In case you haven't read any of my book related posts, you won't know that I'm a big Harry Potter fan. Seriously, I can't imagine life without Harry Potter. I'm currently reading the fifth book and loving it. So without further a do, this is my Harry Potter Tag!

Question 1- Favourite Book?

I would have to say my favourite book is the third book, the Prisoner of Azkaban, because it is the first book to show the dark side to Harry's life. In the first two books it's not as dark as your getting to know the characters and they're laying the foundation for the next books. It's also the only book where Harry doesn't come under threat from Voldemort, instead he faces a threat closer to home. It also shows you what Harry fears and sees Harry finally have a father figure in his life. Another thing it does is show you how even in the wizarding world Harry feels isolated because of his past.

Question 2- Favourite Movie?

My favourite movie is the fifth movie, the Order of the Phoenix, simply because the music in that movie is my favourite from all the movies and the story has a lot more levels to it. It shows Harry experiencing his first kiss and having a love life, fighting against Umbridge and a new regime, dealing with the death of Sirius. It has a lot of aspects in which we can relate to at that point in Harry's life.

Question 3- Least favourite book?

My least favourite book is the second, the Chamber of Secrets, as I find it really boring and in my opinion doesn't add to the franchise or story. It's really flat and doesn't have the different levels of energy the books have. I have never liked the book or the movies, I found them both tedious to read and watch.

Question 4- Parts of the books or movies that made you cry?

Obviously, the deaths of certain characters, in particular Dumbledore, Dobby, Tonks and Lupin, Fred and sometimes Sirius. I remember watching the sixth film and coming out crying when Dumbledore, I would like to say that I almost always cry at a character dying in books but movies never really make me cry, but Dumbledore's death made me cry. Tonks and Lupin's deaths make me cry a lot because they had just had a son and now that child will be an orphan, which is just like Harry and it just really upsets me because I can't stand the thought of him being left on his own.  

Question 5- Favourite character?

My favourite character is Remus Lupin. He is a very level-headed character and goes out of his way to help those around him. I feel sorry for him because he's a werewolf and that he gets hated because of this when it's not his fault. He lost all of his friends the night James and Lily died,  James died, Sirius was taken to prison and Peter was "dead". He just has had lots of trouble and when he finally finds some happiness in his life, he dies. I just love him as a character and he was portrayed wonderfully in the movies by David Thewlis.

Question 6- What would your Patronus be?        

I think my Patronus would be an elephant, as they're my favourite animals and I think they're really cute. Plus they're very big, so they'd be quite strong.

Question 7- If you could have the Resurrection Stone, Invisibility Cloak or the Elder Wand which one would you choose?

I think I'd choose the Invisibility Cloak, as I don't have anyone to bring back from the dead nor would I want to as they become quite sad and the Elder Wand sounds like a burden. I would find it quite useful to have  an Invisibility Cloak as you could walk around without being seen and sometimes it would be quite nice to vanish and have time to yourself.

Question 8- What House would you be in?

I would like to think I'd be in Gryffindor but I don't think I'm to brave, so I'd say I'd probably be in Ravenclaw as I think I can be quite brainy. However, on Pottermore I did get Gryffindor so who knows.

Question 9- If you could meet any member of the cast who would it be?

I would love to meet Evanna Lynch. I don't know why, but I know it would be a really fun experience and that it would be something you'd never forget.  

Question 10- Have you played any of the video games?

I've played one of the games on the DS, but I found it really hard so I gave up. I also played the Lego game with a friend, and if I can remember right we got really far with that. I never played computer games when I was little so this answers really thin.

Question 11- If you were on the Quidditch team which position would you play?

I think I would be a Keeper as I use to play goalie in Hockey for my school team for two years, then gave up. I have quite a powerful strike, if I say so myself.

Question 12- Were you happy with the ending?

I was happy with the ending as it tied everything off nicely and signified that everything was over. There was no way a sequel could be written and I was happy with that.

Question 13- How much does Harry Potter mean to you?  

Harry Potter means a lot to me as it was around for a great part of my childhood, all the movies were released in my lifetime and the later movies, I watched in the cinema. I wasn't allowed to see the movies till I read the books and I'm glad my parents did this as I feel like I understood the world better. I also listened to the audio books read by Stephen Fry and I remember waking up as the final book ended and realizing I'd missed the whole book. 

So that's my Harry Potter tag and I hope you liked it, it was a bit different but I feel like you guys will enjoyed it. Remember to follow me on Instagram and Twitter for more content, @itscarenzab. Also if you have an requests or inquires email me on my business email itscarenzab@gmail.com.

Happy Halloween!

Love,

Carenza x

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Cupcakes| It's Carenza B

Hello!
So today is another first on my blog, it's my first baking post! When I first started my blog in June, I had no idea in which direction I wanted it to go in.  It was just something I wanted to do as a hobby and now nearly 6 months later, I have a good idea where it's going and have got into the swing of writing, although I don't post as often as I would like, I feel like my posts are better quality than if I spent less time. Anyway, back to baking. I knew I wanted to do a baking post but I decided to wait until now as I wanted it to be something special. This recipe can be used all year round, minus the orange flavoring and still turn out really nice. I'm sure your cakes will turn out a lot better than mine, and if you do make them please tag me on Instagram and Twitter @itscarenzab. Let's bake!

My very bad finished cakes, they look like something a small child had made!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes you will need:
8 oz or 225 grams Caster Sugar
8 oz or 225 grams Butter (unsalted, at room temperature)
8 oz or 225 grams Self Raising Flour
4 Eggs (I used medium, but I don't think it effects it too much)
50 grams White Chocolate Chips
50 grams Milk Chocolate Chips
Orange Zest or Flavoring- you can use vanilla extract, but I would recommend using orange as it gives it a strong orange taste with the orange butter cream
Orange Food Colouring- optional

I would recommend measuring out your ingredients before you start baking as then you have got the boring stuff out of the way.

For decorating the cakes you will need:

1 Terry's chocolate orange

Butter cream- Butter 75 grams, Icing Sugar 175 grams, Milk 1 Tablespoon

Orange Food colouring

Orange Zest or Flavoring 

Equipment

For the Cupcakes you will need:

A large mixing bowl or an electric mixer if you have one

A wooden spoon

A butter knife

A fork or whisk for the eggs

A cup to crack your eggs into 

Cupcake cases

Cupcake tray

For the Decorations you will need:

Piping bags- Normal and Heat resistant= I got mine from Lakeland for £2 for 25

Nozzles- one very small to do intricate designs, the other a medium star nozzle for the butter cream

Baking parchment

Baking tray

Cool display chairs- again from Lakeland for something stupidly cheap for 25, warning they're very tricky to assemble. 

Glass bowl

Pan 

Equipment for the whole process including decorating

Method

Step One: To make the eyes and mouth of the pumpkins, I melted a whole chocolate orange in a ban Marie.  An alternative is you can use black ready rolled icing but this added more orange to the cakes.

If you are using chocolate, quickly put your melted chocolate in your heat proof piping bag with a small nozzle- a quick tip, ask someone to help you decant the chocolate into the piping bag as I split a lot of chocolate and burned myself. Then on some baking parchment draw enough eyes for 20-24 cakes and mouths for the same amount of  cake, I would recommend doing simple designs as the chocolate can be quite fiddly. Once you've got the right amount of eyes and mouths, put them in to the fridge to cool while you make, bake and decorate the cakes. 

Step Two: Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius- that's gas mark 6 or 400 degrees Fahrenheit, if you want a more accurate conversion click the link . Put your room temperature butter and caster sugar in to your mixing bowl and cream them together until the mixture looks white/creamy and fluffy- you don't want any lumps.

Step Three: Add one egg and a quarter of the flour, repeat this step until the eggs and flour have been mixed in. If your mixture is a bit watery, add a small spoonful of flour until it becomes a thicker constancy. I used a wooden spoon to mix it but if you are lucky and have an electric mixer, I'd use that as it will speed things up.

Step Four: Add the milk and white chocolate chips to the mixture and stir thoroughly to get an even balance of white and milk chocolate chips. Then add roughly a quarter of your orange zest, the rest of the zest will be used in the buttercream for decorating the cakes. If you want, you can add a small amount of food colouring to give the cakes a subtle orange hint.

Step Five: Put your cupcake cases in to the cupcake tray, then put the mixture in the cases. I would recommend going no higher than half way on each cake case as otherwise your cakes will be very varied in heights. Then bake for 20-22 mins, this can all depend on your oven but the way to test them is to stick a skewer in and if batter comes out, there not cooked. Mine ended up over cooking and were very solid, but they were still yummy. Take them out to cool, and began decorating.

Ban Marie from step one

Making eyes and mouths for step one

Drawing on before helps you know how many you've done, but leaves marks on the chocolate

Getting someone to hold the parchment down helped, as it stopped it from curling in 

Main ingredients for the cupcakes

Desired look for step two

Adding the flour for step three

Ideal end result for step three

Small amount of orange zest to give the cupcakes a subtle hint of orange

Good look before adding food colouring in step four

Before mixing in the colour on step four

As you can see my cakes ended up pink

My cakes before going into the oven

After coming out of the oven, they no longer looked orange.

Step Six: To make your buttercream, first you want to cream the butter by itself until it is fluffy- this is something I learnt after making mine and is why my buttercream turned out so flat. Then once the butter is nice and fluffy, slowly mix in your icing sugar after having sieved it to remove lumps. Then finally add your milk, I got my recipe of the back of the Taste and Lyle icing sugar box but if you know a better method use it.

Step Seven: Add the food colouring and orange zest to your buttercream, as you've seen the photo of my final cupcakes you will have seen my cupcakes turned out pink as we didn't have orange food colouring and I mixed the red and yellow in the wrong order, but they tested lovely so I ignored it.

Step Eight: Pipe your buttercream on to your cupcake using a disposable piping bag as it saves washing up, to get the desired star shape use a medium sized star nozzle. Mental note, this takes practice and don't expect them to be perfect first time. 

Step Nine: Take out your cooled chocolate eyes and mouths and quickly place them on to the cakes as they start to melt as soon as you touch them. Then enjoy your cakes and have fun tidying up the mess you've made.

I don't have any photos for this step, sorry! So that was my first baking post and I really hope you guys enjoy it (and your cakes)! Don't forget to tag me on Instagram and Twitter at @itscarenzab, if you do make these cakes. If you have any BUSINESS inquires email me at itscarenzab@gmail.com.

Have a spook-tacular Halloween and rest of October.

Love,

Carenza x