Hi honey, I'm home...

So I'm back home from my little break. How was my trip? Well, you'll be soon able to read all about it in the lifestyle and travel section of City Am (one of the London papers, for my far flung readers who don't know it) which will be publishing my review of the place shortly.

I have to say, after writing about the Moschino hotel, boy oh boy was this place I stayed in bland, despite all its five stars. It seems everyone with an interiors edge is getting hotel obsessed lately - I found out recently that Ideal Home magazine is revamping from the May issue onwards to include a "boutique hotel spy" section, showing how you can take inspiration from hip hotels to use at home.

It's a fabulous style concept, of course, but who, apart from the characters in Gossip Girl, really wants to live in a hotel? I guess my point is that there's no place like home, except at the moment I'm split between two of them (the family place in surburbia and my little London flat). Anyway, my London flat is looking a little bare of late, mainly because I've taken down four framed prints off my walls (not my coffee or eyechart ones though) because for some reason they just don't really feel very "me" anymore. But it's kind of strange that, in complete contrast, there's a picture on my surburbia-bedroom wall that I've had for absolutely ages and wouldn't dream of every taking down.

It's a print of Les Papiers Qui Volent (flying sheets of paper) by Bernard Faucon (image from bernardfaucon.net). I can't believe that I've had this on my wall for, oh, 15 years maybe, and have never taken the time to find out who Faucon was. All I know is that the teenage version of me who bought this print from a grungy little art shop near the Pompidou Centre while on a family holiday in Paris was drawn to this because it said something sort of wistful (backs turned to the camera, that faded summer light), and although I never really "got" what it was about, I've never really thought about ever taking it down the way I have with my other prints.

After having looked Faucon up online, I still don't "get" if there's a point to this image (does there have to be?) - but various pieces written about him online all pick up on it as being romantic and poetic and nostalgic. Most of his other work is pretty eery though: he used scary-looking plastic shop window mannequins for lots if not all of his photos; this one in particular sort of sends shivers down my spine while this one looks like some sort of manga still.

Flying papers wouldn't be the stuff Keep Calm would sell, but it's still cool if not beautiful (I don't use that word very often) in a quiet, subtle sort of way (I'm impressed at my younger self's taste back then) and while sometimes I will always be chopping and changing the pictures on my walls and the photos in my frames and moving furniture back and forth until it's just so, other times there are some pieces that are just perfect, even if you don't really know why. I'm not quite sure what that says about where my mind is at these days, but there you go. Photography for thought.

PS I love reading all the comments that get left on my posts, each and every one, but the very latest one, from someone super-cheered me up. Thank you for falling head over heels with HerLittlePlace.com. You inspired me to blog again after being all too tempted to stay under the duvet covers. Whoever you are, thank you.

Taking a break

I will be back soon - taking somewhat of an extended hot chocolate break to get my head in the clouds (pic from ffffound). Please note that I won't be taking orders for cookies or cards during this time; hope you can wait until I'm back. See you soon
xx

Moschino's fairy tale hotel

For some people, a hotel is just somewhere to sleep after a long day sightseeing whereby you wake up early in the morning to head out and return late at night to lay your head. But for me, a hotel is all part of the experience of the holiday in the first place - which is why I am in total awe of the Alice-in-Wonderland-esque Maison Moschino, the high fashion boutique hotel in Milan which opened at the start of the month.

There was an amazing spread of pics in Sunday Times Style yesterday - and here's a few pictures to share with you all now. My personal favourites include the giant tea cup table, the amazing ballgown bed (fashioned in red velvet), the dress-shaped lampshades and the pastry pillows. Dreams and fairy tales are the inspiration behind it all.

Magical, no? What I would not give to stay here just once!

(Pictures via Hotel Chatter and Fabric Of My Life)

Her Little Place in Where London

I'm thrilled to have Her Little Place included in this month's Where London, a magazine which scouts out what's hot in the city each month. Her Little Place is highlighted on the shopping pages below...

The text reads: "Call us pernickety if you like, but we expect more from our greetings cards than soppy teddy bears and tired verses. That's why we're loving the bold bright designs at Her Little Place, a new online boutique founded by blogger, journalist and homestyle guru extraordinaire Huma Qureshi. More concerned with quality than quantity, the selection of products on offer is 100% gorgeous - herlittleplace.com."

Loving the praise, and thank you to everyone for keeping HLP going! And don't forget - Mother's Day is this coming weekend, so get your orders for a 100% gorgeous shortbread gift box in now!

Gorgeous chocolate cake

At the risk of sounding like a freak, I don't like chocolate cake that's too, too dark chocolatey, so last week, when making a cake for a friend's birthday, I tweaked a Rachel Allen version to get it just the right choccy amount and then added my own frosting which I then covered entirely with sprinkled Flake. I deliberately went with her basic recipe to adapt myself because the amount of sugar she uses is relatively low and these days I'm off super-sweet stuff. I've never been a fan of dark chocolate, so used really good quality Green & Blacks milk chocolate in the batter - you melt the chocolate in milk, so I imagine if you were using dark chocolate, this would make it ever so slightly lighter in taste, while milk-chocolate-melted-in-milk adds a really lovely creaminess. Instead of using Rachel's suggestion of chocolate butter icing, I went for a just as rich, but less sugary, cream cheese chocolate frosting instead. I'll definitely be making this cake again... and again.... and again... enjoy!

For the cake
125g milk chocolate (or dark, if that's your preference)
3 tbsp milk
150g butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder (I used hot chocolate powder and it worked fabulously)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the cream cheese frosting
I don't really have a set recipe of measurements, because it all just depends on how creamy and thick you want it.. I tend to use around 125g cream cheese (low fat if you want to balance out the guilt) with 90g butter to begin with, whip together, and then add icing sugar slowly as you go until you get the consistency you want. I then threw in a few teaspoons of hot chocolate powder and mixed really well.

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line two large sandwich tins with greaseproof paper.
Break the chocolate into chunks and place in a heatproof bowl with the milk over a saucepan of gently simmering water until the chocolate has melted - don't let it over melt, as that's when it starts to get dryish in texture.
Beat the butter until soft, add the caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and then fold in the melted chocolate.
Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the bicarbonate of soda and fold in gently to mix. Divide the mix between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.
Then take the cakes out, let them cool for a few minutes in their tins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Whip up the cream cheese frosting (you could add vanilla essence to it and keep it as vanilla frosting if you wanted a chocolate-vanilla cake) and then spread a gorgeous thick layer on the bottom of one cake (it's easier to sandwich the cakes bottom-to-bottom), then another lovely thick layer all over the top.
Sprinkle all over with chocolate powder or a crumbled up Flake bar (brilliant for embellishments). Serve on up - big slices all round!

I had frosting left over - so did a quick batch of chocolate cupcakes with lovely frosting on top too... yum.

Also, please don't forget, that if you want to order some deliciously exquisite Lavender or Rose shortbread gift boxes for Mother's Day, place your orders by the end of Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend
H xx

Chalkboard kitchen makeover

Well, what a productive weekend! After buying my Heal's chalkboard, I got greedy and decided I wanted more chalkboard space - I absolutely love how cool they look and bit the bullet and went ahead with my floor-to-ceiling one this weekend. I'm thrilled at how this turned out, as I was a little scared about how a pokey kitchen with no natural light would cope with an expanse of black.

I was getting very fed up of having the fridge with various electrical appliances balanced on top on show (I have next to no worktop space, so the gap on top of the fridge is where things like the food processor or iron end up), and this chalkboard does a brilliant job of hiding it! I'm already looking forward to scribbling all over it. Now, I'm planning on reinventing the original chalkboard, which is in an ornate frame, and replacing the board to make a mirror - waste now, want not! Take a look at the before and after pics below - what do you think?

From this...

to this...

and finally this!