Cake Decorations Haul

I've been getting into baking over the last month, and have bought a few things to make my treats that little bit prettier! 

The first things in the photo above are my favourite out of everything. They're the Wilton Food Colouring Pastes/Gels (which can be bought from this seller for £2.85-89 each). You only need the tiniest amount, so I can see them lasting a while. I bought Pink, Sky Blue, and Violet. I bought the Violet to make my buttercream/frosting whiter. It will counteract the yellowness of the butter (just like a purple toning shampoo counteracts brassy tones in blonde hair).

I also bought a few pots of decorations from Tesco. The Dr. Oetker Sugar Stars were £1.29, the Tesco Multi Coloured Confetti was £1.50, and the Strawberry Glimmer Crunch was... I've forgotten, but it was probably around the same price!

The Rainbow Dust Edible Cake Decoration Glitter in Hologram White is from the same seller as the Wilton Food Colouring Pastes/Gels, and was £2.95. I chose this colour because it will go with everything. I'm tempted to buy a few others, though!

The muffin cases were from this listing, and cost £1.20 for 24. I think they're expensive, but they're big, thick, and I'm using them for my sister's birthday cupcakes/special occasions. They're not cases to be used every time you bake!

The Dr. Oetker Wafer Daisies were also from Tesco, and were £1.49. These are also for my sister's birthday cupcakes :)

From TK Maxx, I bought some Silicone Baking Cases for £3.99. I've wanted some of these for a while because you can reuse them, making them more cost effective in the long run!

I also bought the Confetti Sprinkles for £2.49. They're more expensive than the ones from Tesco, but the pot is double the size. These are the ones I used in my Chocolate Chip Cookie Slabs.

The Cookie Cutters were bought from TK Maxx a couple of months ago, but thought I'd include them because I saw some similar ones when I bought the Silicone Baking Cases and Confetti Sprinkles the other day. I also wanted to include them because they're so colourful! These were £2.99.

I also bought a piping bag and some cupcake boxes, which were also from eBay, but they weren't pretty enough to make this post ;)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Slabs

Hello! I made these chocolate chip cookie slabs (with Galaxy and sprinkles) yesterday, and they're delicious, so thought I'd share them with you! I mostly followed this recipe, but made a few changes. Instead of 200g of chocolate chips, I used 100g of chocolate chips and 100g and chopped up Galaxy. I also added sprinkles to, and on top of, the mixture before I put it in the oven. I also didn't make tranditional round cookies, but put the entire mixture into a huge tray. This just saved space, and I didn't have to worry about the cookies expanding and running into each other. Also, the recipe says to bake for 10 minutes, but mine were no where near done at that time, so I left them in for about 20 minutes (And have done every time I've made them so far). This may be because I made a giant one instead of individual small ones. I'm really happy with the sprinkles. I didn't know if they would hold up in the heat, but they did, making the cookies look pretty. I'm going to add more to my sister's birthday cookies to make them as colourful as possible!

If you've got any baking recipes you swear by, send them my way!

Models Own Beach Party

Models Own Beach Party is highlighter orange in polish form! The formula was a pleasant surprise, taking 2-3 coats. I thought it'd be sheer because it's a neon, but that wasn't the case. Some will find this garish and tacky, and I have to agree with them... but I still love it :) My hair, makeup and clothing are always simple, so I like to go crazy with my nails. I think I'll wear Luis Lemon next week; a neon yellow!

Update!

All of my animals, past and present

I haven't written one of these in ages! Partly because my life hasn't been that exciting, and partly because I didn't think there was any point. However, I was reading through my old posts earlier and loved reading my diary type entries. It was interesting to see how I felt years ago.

So, I've finished year 2 of university! I can't believe it. In one of the posts I read earlier, I wrote: I don't think I'll get into uni, and even if I do, I don't think I'll manage it. Well, past me, you did get in and you are managing it! I had an exam on the 6th June, and that was my last assessment. Results are on the 19th July. I'll find out half of my degree grade on the 19th July. Scary stuff.

Year 3 and the dreaded 'd' word will be upon me in a few months time. I've thought of a topic for my dissertation, so I'm going to look into it and then narrow it down with the help of my lecturers when I go back. I'm just hoping they don't dismiss it! It has to be English based because I'm majoring in English Language and Linguistics, but I've also found a way to incorporate my minor (Media) and my interests. Fingers crossed it works out!

I want to start exercising a little to tone up and improve my health. I did the Blogilates Call Me Maybe Mighty Squat Challenge yesterday, and oh my. My legs sure are hurting today! I'm feeling muscles I didn't even know I had. I'm going to do an ab specific video tomorrow, and then whatever else takes my fancy.

I applied for a job earlier! I've enquired about jobs before, but never applied for one. One with a form and everything. Some of you may not know this, and some of you will, but I have huge confidence issues, so this is a big deal for me. I'm nervous (understatement), but I was terrified to go to uni and that all turned out fine (so terrified that it took all of my willpower to force me out the door, and I was sick every morning for a couple weeks).

Since finishing uni, I've been baking and blogging quite a bit. I don't have any fun plans for the Summer, just looking for a job and thinking of dissertation stuff. If I do end up getting a job, I don't know how I'll be able to cope in year 3, but I'll get to that hurdle later. I do want to try and do some fun things, though, like go to Thorpe Park with my friends. I've been to Alton Towers (didn't think much of it), but never Thorpe Park. I'd also love to take a day trip or weekend to another city.

And that's everything! I may try and make these updates a regular thing again. We'll see!

Colours of the Rainbow Tag!

I had seen this tag doing the rounds, and when Laura tagged me, I thought I'd have a go myself! For this tag, you simply pick a product for each colour of the rainbow (plus pink). It can be the packaging that's coloured, or the product - whatever you choose! I actually found this pretty hard. I wanted to stay away from nail polishes because I've already done the Favourite Nail Polishes - Rainbow Edition post. I also wanted to pick a variety of products, not 4 or 5 shower gels.

So, for the colour red, I've chosen one of my eBay brushes (you can see my post on them here). For £1.54 (they're now around £2.55), I'm very pleased. It's soft, dense, doesn't shed, and washes well. I've been using it for my powder blushes.

For orange, I picked The Body Shop's Mango Body Mist. I love fruity scents, especially mango, so this is perfect. 

I've cheated a little with yellow because there's hardly any yellow on it! But it's the best I had, and I wanted to pick products I actually use and love. This is The Body Shop's Mango Hand Cleanse Gel. I love it! It smells just like the other mango products, and lives in my bag (I have the other scents laying around the house). I reviewed this, and the other scents, here.

I just had to pick Original Source's Lime Shower Gel for green. I've used this for years. I told you I love fruity scents!

For blue, I picked Nivea's Express Hydration Primer. I've been using this for... over 8 months now, and I've still got over half left. It's very thin compared to the Witch primer, but it works (I reviewed it here).

Maybelline's Rocket Mascara isn't exactly indigo, but it's the closest product I had. I've only been using this for the last couple of weeks, but really like it. It separates my lashes and defines them. I've also been using the Mega Plush one, which is great, but I think I prefer the Rocket because it's not as feathery, so gives a little more definition. 

I chose Cutex's Nourishing Nail Polish Remover for violet. It's my favourite nail polish remover, and all I use now. It does the job and smells nice for a nail polish remover (like vanilla).

I picked Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey for pink (swatched here). It's my favourite lip product, and one of the few I wear to its full intensity.

I love a good tag! I tag everyone reading this :)

Follow Affordable Treats on Bloglovin!

Hello, all! I'm not sure if you've heard, but GFC is supposedly being removed soon. This means all you lovely people in the box to the right will not be able to stay up to date with my posts that way. However, you will be able to stay up to date if you follow Affordable Treats with Bloglovin' here. Bloglovin' is free, and so easy to use. I've actually been reading blog posts through this website for months now, and much prefer it to the Blogger dashboard. All you have to do is click 'follow' to follow a blog, you can group the blogs you follow into categories, you can mark posts as 'read' so they don't clog up your homepage, and you can 'like' your favourites.

I hope you all follow me over there so we can continue to interact! Your comments really do make me smile, and even make my days!

Favourite Nail Polishes - Glitters

Choosing just 16 favourite nail polishes in my Favourite Nail Polishes - Rainbow Edition post was incredibly hard, so I bring you part 2: Glitters! I used to dislike glitters, but have come to love them. Fine ones look pretty over every nail, and chunkier ones look great on an accent.

My first favourite glitter is Illamasqua's Creator; a black base with silver glitter. I bought this on ASOS with a £10 voucher, and I'm glad I did, but wouldn't pay the full £14.50. As much as I love bright nail polishes, I also love shades like this.

Sally Hansen's Oxide is more of a shimmer than glitter, but it didn't fit into my Rainbow Edition post! This is similar to Creator, but it's more of a gunmetal shade, and the glitter is much finer.

Models Own Ibiza Mix is a mix of green, blue, purple, gold and bronze glitter. Very unique, in my opinion. I used to hate chunkier glitters, thinking they looked tacky, but this looks very pretty on my ring fingers.

Models Own Party Pieces (exclusive to ASOS) is a mix of larger and smaller glitter chunks, and the colours include red, blue, green, purple, gold and silver. It's very fun and goes with most colour nail polishes.

Barry M's Amethyst Glitter is densely packed with blue, purple, pink and gold glitter pieces. I love this with darker blues!

Barry M's Pink Silver Glitter is so, so pretty. The glitter is very fine, so I don't mind wearing this on every nail. Glitter can be very bold, so I love that the colour is subtle to even this out.

Essie's Beyond Cozy is another fine glitter that I like wearing on every nail. Normally, the combination of gold and glitter screams tacky, but this colour is very cool toned, and can sometimes look silver, so I think it works. I wore this for Christmas 2012, and will probably wear it for Christmas 2013, too!

I also love my flakies nail polishes (Nubar 2010 and Gosh Rainbow), but haven't included them in the photo. They're so beautiful, with the flakes changing colour in the light. They look incredible over dark polishes!

What are your favourite glitter nail polishes? Are there any I absolutely have to have?