Halloween! Pumpkin Picking, Painting and Sugar

It must be the most be the most basic thing to ever say, but I look Autumn. I pretty much wish that Halloween could be all year round and when I see the leaves start to fall it just makes my little dark heart happy.  

 I always like to have a few Halloween decorations up, bring me all of the pumpkins, the skeleton candles and the cute little lanterns, I’ll use them all. This year we had some of our nieces over to paint some pumpkins, we call this particular group the ‘niece babies’ as they’re the smallest ones. Girl gang goals all day. 

First we had to get some pumpkins, but this time it was my me and the bearded wonder getting it done as it was a bit wet and horrible. We always go to our local pumpkin picking farm, Freshfields. Did I think to wear proper shoes? No. Did I be sensible and let the bearded wonder go and pick them himself whilst I stayed in the car? Also no. I was not going to miss out, wellies or not. I love going to pick them yourself as you get so much more choice of size and colour which is great if you have a specific design idea. It’s usually great for kids as they have stuff going on and you go and get all of those cute pumpkin patch pictures of your kids. I was offering to take pictures of a family doing it as they didn’t have anyone else with, because let’s face it. That’s why we’re all there. Cute pumpkins, cute pictures. 

You know, I really thought it would just be cute when they came around to paint them. Get the niece babies around, do a little Halloween high tea (for the gram, of course) and let’s make some memories! Turns out, getting four little girls together, filling them with sugar and giving them paints was maybe not my best move, but it was fun and I’d like to think it’s something they’ll remember for a while. 

I did a little trick or treat board I saw on Pinterest where you will cups up with bits and bobs and glue them to a board in a pumpkin shape. I forgot about the ‘tricks’ and mostly did sweets, whoops. But it entertained them for a few minutes and was really funny to watch, counting it as a win. Is there such a thing as too much sugar? #auntieoftheyear.

Once they’d gone and we’d cleaned up the expected carnage I started to work on the Halloween treat bags for the girls in my team at work. I always love to give out some treats and make a big deal at this time of year at work. We all dress up and it’s just a little fun morale booster we love to get involved in. I did a supermarket sweep in Morrisons and got some tiny ‘ghost pumpkins’ for their desks, a chocolate apple and lots of little retro sweets. I also ordered some fabulous Hocus Pocus inspired chocolate from Chunkydunkchocs whiwh were incredible (if you don’t know you need to get to know). All packaged up into a Halloween pumpkin goodie bag and they looked pretty impressive at the end if I do say so myself. 

I wore an Interrobang skirt from a few years ago and drew a few spider webs on my face and practically skipped into work for my favourite day of the year. Does anyone else get as excited for Halloween? What do you do at home/work that makes it a bit more fun and not just for the kids?

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I'm Back! Let's Catch Up.

I’m back!

So I haven’t blogged for a while now, things take over, life, decorating, Instagram stories (speaking of which, come and have a follow). So I woke up today with the fire burning to get back into it. So here I am. I need to revamp the blog a bit so I’ll be doing that little by little and changing direction. 

I now live with the bearded wonder and have done for a while actually, my current obsession is decorating. Over the past two years we’ve worked hard to transform the house of magnolia and brown to a more colourful/mid century/Jetsons inspired wonderland. I say wonderland because frankly, I think it’s fabulous. I just can’t stop. So I’ll be doing some posts to show some before and afters, some DIY jobs we’ve done and some absolute bargains we’ve found online. 

I’ll still be posting about some hairstyles that I love, my hair was so long for a while that I just couldn’t do anything with it, so I’ve had a load chopped off so this should resume. Let’s also not forget about the fashion, you know I love weird and wonderful outfit, this has not changed.

Here's a few pics from the last couple of years, have a nose, I'll be back! 

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Halloween Is Coming...Make Sure You're Ready!

Who doesn't love Halloween? OK, some people. But I do, a lot. I would wear this stuff every,single, day. And I do to be honest, so I've rounded up a few of my faves to show you. I do sometimes find it hard to find great novelty seasonal wear in my size but the fashion industry is nailing it at the moment. What else have you seen that you love? Comment and let me know or tag me on Instagram (@victoryrollsandmixingbowls). All of the links are in the titles.

1. Boohoo Plus Emma 'Bite Me' Bodycon dress £12.00

If you want to salute Halloween without drawing too much attention to yourself (although, hello? You want people to be looking at this dress!) then this dress might be a good option. It's fairly plain but you'll look killer in it, black is always a winner in my book and I often wish I could tell those around me to 'bite me', so it's win-win right?

2. Boohoo Plus Tia Skeleton Hand Halloween Tee £10.00

Another beaut from Boohoo,  they do subtle Halloween really well at the moment, although to be fair I would use these both all year round. This one is probably more office friendly and you could wear it out for the evening as well. Again it's not too full on, some of you may prefer something a bit more out there but I love how this one is a bit more casual, it has a bit ole scooped neck which means you could probably team it with a nice little choker for some 90s vibes, I like it how they've styled it with some wet look/leather trousers I would probably do the same if I were you!

3. Asos Curve Halloween Tights £8.00 a pair

Tights that fit my thighs, hurrah! I know, I know, it can be a pain to find cute novelty tights to go over majestic thighs such as mine, but these go up to size 24-26 so I'm fairly sure even I could even I could wiggle into these fairly happily. I love them all but I think the bats are my favourite, and for only £8.00 a pair it would be rude to not try them all...especially now as I signed up to free next day delivery...whoops... 

4. Club L Plus Cape Velvet Midi Dress £34.00

Oh. My. God. Look at this little beauty, this appeals to all my witchy traits. While it may not be covered in baths, spiders or skulls, I think I'm in love and would totally rock this for Halloween. I have a bolero in a similar fabric and I'd love some more green velvet pieces. It's looks so luxurious and is a pretty good deal at £34.00. It's also not just limited to Halloween...with the other festive season just around the corner this could be your go-to dress for many a occasion. 

5. River Island Plus Black Choker £8.00

Now earlier I talked about chokers, I really love this one in the new RI Plus range. It's pretty simple in case you don't want to feel restricted and it's only £8.00. I really like the diamante circle in the middle for a little bit of sparkle. This is a great starter choker before you try out maybe a full one or maybe even a spike one. Ah, I do miss the 90s.

6. Hell Bunny Harlow 50s Dress £49.99

Now this print is one of my favourites out there at the moment, I have it in the skirt version and I love the dress! Just look at the print, it fulfills all of your Halloween dreams with pumpkins, bats, spiderwebs and ghosts. I got lots of compliments on the skirt and I intend to wear it all year round, no shame, no shame at all. They also do it in a top too... 

7. Voodoo Vixen Katnis Dress £66.99

Right, this is another one of my own purchases, it's been about at least a year but I bloody love it. It makes me feel a million quid when I step out in this dress. It's lovely and heavy too and...it has pockets!!! It is a bit pricier than the others but the proof is in the quality. The scalloped neck is to die for and let's not even get started on the colour and the cat print. I recommend you get this as soon as you can. Now.

8. Interrobangart Pumpkin Circle Skirt £50.00

If you really want to rebel against the subtle then this baby is for you, being a bit sucker for skirts I couldn't resist adding this one. I've bought from this lovely before and her skirts are great so go and have a look. I love this one, just look at the huge pumpkin face, it's great! She's designed the fabric herself and you can contact her about altering sizes as they're made to order. 

Images taken from Boohoo, Asos, River Island, Hell Bunny, Voodoo Vixen, Interrobangart.

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Halloween Baking

I have to say I love Halloween, last year was a bit rubbish as we didn't get any trick or treaters! Luckily I hadn't even made anything, so I got to munch all of the sweets for the next week!

This year however it was on! I had collected some ideas/moulds etc in preparation. We now live in a different area too..full of kids so I was really hoping for some knocks on the door.

I even carved a pumpkin, I hate gutting it out mainly because of the smell...no words can describe it...I'm sure you all know what I mean. But I saw a really good design online and wanted to copy it - a VW camper van! We love these in my house so I had to give it a go. I didn't use a stencil...and you can tell, but I was still really happy with it.

I decided to make bags of treats this year and toffee apples. I can't pass this time of year without making toffee apples, it's that simple, so this was the perfect excuse! I used my Fairground Toffee Apple recipe and added some more red liquid food colouring to make them a bit darker for the occasion.

In the treat bags I made up some biscuit lollipops, pinwheel biscuits, pumpkin chocolates and I also added in some gummy worms for the extra scare factor.

I actually stole the idea for the lollipops and pinwheels from Butter Hearts Sugar, I loved the idea of these and just adjusted the colours to orange and black. The only thing I'd do again is definitely leave them in the fridge/freezer for longer as the first batch didn't keep their shape, I did get the firmed by the end so they did look more like rock.


I made smalled one for the pinwheels and they all came out great as they took less time to firm up before putting them in the oven.

The pumpkin chocolates were actually just white chocolate melted down and mixed with Sugarflair colouring paste in Tangerine. I wish I'd made them a stronger colour but I'll remember that for next year. I think they're really cute though! I put them in the freezer to set and they took hardly any time at all.

I tied them up in clear gift bags and filled my halloween bowl with the treats. I did wonder if I'd made too many, but I thought I'd just take them to work if I did.

It was already dark when I got home and they kids had already started doing the round so I quickly lit my pumpkin, placed it in the window and hoped for the best!

It wasn't long before I started getting knocks, everyone absolutely loving the pumpkin (yay!) and equally loving my homemade treats! I was all out in less than 40 minutes! I did nearly give all of my treats to a little brother/sister duo who couldn't have been older than 4 and 2, vampire and witch - so cute!!!

I then had to close the blinds and pretend to be out so not to disappoint any more trick or treaters! Next year I will remember and double up on everything. I'm loving reading everyone's halloween posts and have definitely gotten some great inspiration.


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Cambridge Zombiegeddon Brain Cake!

So from traditional to down right freaky. This month I was asked to make a cake fit for zombies...a brain cake of course!

This cake is to support the Cambridge Zombiegeddon, a flash mob zombie walk for Halloween. I've taken all of this technical description from their page so I get it right :)

"A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, and then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire. Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals

our aim is to do this at Halloween in Cambridge (Saturday the 29th) with anyone who would like to get involved it would sure as hell be fun!!! And that's the aim it's got to be fun and safe.
There will be 3 stages to this event with exact information becoming available shortly before the actual march so make sure you keep your eyes peeled.
There are a lot of different flash mobs zombie walks etc available on youtube I suggest you have a look to see what we are trying to aim for.
I have change the event to the Saturday for a few reasons mainly there are always more people in Cambridge and I am sure we will have lots of hungry zombies!! And we want a lot of people to witness the zombie march ... not only that, Saturday is a better day for most people.

So dress as a zombie and hunt for some brains tell your friends (BUT KEEP IT A SECRATE) you can be as original as you like or stick to the classic brain dead zombies. The wilder and more unusual the better.

We are currently looking to fill a few main roles in the organisation of the hoard.
We need a production team available to record the event although we encourage you to take a camera yourself and document the day, write a blog share on facebook or twitter.
If you think you can help in any areas at all please let us know it would be great to get your ideas and thoughts?

You can follow us on twitter @zombiegeddon_uk or #zombiegeddon share our events page on facebook or even use the flyer above.
Above all have fun
TM :D "

Right, now all of you cake lovers, let's talk about that big old brain! There was only really going to be one choice for the actual cake itself, Victoria Sponge simply wasn't going to do. So the logical choice was of course for Red Velvet cake! There's nothing better than when tucking into a brain than to see a gorgeous piece of Red Velvet under there. Although this cake wasn't really suited to cream cheese frosting so I opted for scary looking jam instead.


I baked the cake in a Pyrex bowl, perfect brain shape that my lovely mum bought for me because I couldn't find anything else that would fit. It took over an hour to bake because it was so fat and I wanted to do it in one big go rather than having to get pieces to match up.  I did have to carve down some sides to give it a bit of shape but other than that is was perfect.

I covered the cake in pink fondant coloured in Claret Sugarflair colouring paste. I tried to leave it a little marbled so it didn't look too perfect. I googled for good brain pictures for ages so I could get the right look. I decided I would make long sausages in the pink fondant, as long as I could and layer them on the cake in the squiggle pattern, pressing them against eachother to look like they were part of the same thing.


I wanted to get some shadowing to really bring out that good ole organ look - why not! Using Christmas Red (not very apt!) I used a brush to dab it in the creases Art Attack style, I watered it down a bit so it was more like paint. I dabbed it over some more to make it look a bit bloodied. I really wanted it to look like it had just been harvested from some poor unexpecting soul, and dumped in a box. So I created my own jam glaze. I didn't want to use an already red jam as I wanted it to be a bit lighter, so I used some jam I had left over from the Sachertorte, apricot. I then coloured it up with the same red and added water to make it a bit more glaze like so it spread more easily and looked a bit more like goo. Yum. I slathered this all over the brain enough to make any zombie drool...or moan?

To finish off the look I put the cake on some baking paper while I messily (on purpose) splattered some more blood jam on the brain so it splattered the paper. I wanted it to look almost like it came from a zombie butchers. There's no room for pretty cake boxes during zombieggon so I had a brain wave. I'd get a normal old boring cardboard box like you'd find in a bin and splat some bloody handprints on the side like passing zombies were trying to get to the brain. I did this with more Christmas Red and latex gloves...the food colouring is really hard to get off your hands so I decided to play it safe. I also did a bit of advertising with #zombiegeddon written on the sides just so you all know what the cake is supporting.

I then tied it all up with a lovely length of packaging string...pretty huh? And the look was complete. I'm actually really impressed with how it looked, fresh from a horror film and how easy it was to put together. I found it really fun to make as you do need something different upon all over the glitter and hearts now and then and what's better than making a cake that looks like a brain, ready to be feasted upon?


Happy brain eating.


Zom! x (did you see what I did there....) :D Pin It Now!