Cat & the Cream Vegan Cupcakes

Today I just wanted to do a quick followup on the blogpost I did a week or so ago about cake, go and read that first here. In that blog I mentioned about lots of different vegan cakes but in this post I want to specifically talk about the company 'Cat & the Cream'. One of the main reasons I am re-mentioning them is due to the fact that my Mum was very enthusiastic on the 'Ocado' order and brought 4 different flavours of their cupcakes!

The first one was a beautiful and refreshing combination of 'Lemon, Lime Grapefruit & Coconut' which tasted pretty exotic and I loved that there were so many fresh flavours in one cupcake, including 'coconut' which is one of my favourite ingredients ever!  

This was the one I'd already had before, which I'd teamed with vegan squirty cream and strawberries for a complete pudding, which is 'Chocolate, Coconut & Raspberry with Chocolate Icing'. This is of course the perfect cupcake for all you chocolate addicts!

I found this one a bit more unusual as it's 'Chocolate, Fresh Mint Ganache & Raspberry Icing'. The mint flavours just gave it a very different and exciting element which I don't think you find too often in cupcakes and with the raspberry icing it really just lifted the chocolate. 

The final one was a cupcake that I would never have had down as my first choice but it was so delicious, it was 'Pear, Hazelnut & Chocolate Chip with Hazelnut Icing'. Now, I have only recently really gotten into nuts and I'm putting them with everything so what better then having them in a cupcake!

So, as I said we got ours from 'Ocado', but may I add that I didn't eat all of them in one go and I did of course share them ;) They're very reasonably sized and a perfect treat so I like to take them every other week or so to college with me. I love all of the different available flavours and they last for quite a long time too which is really useful. And of course the best thing about them is that they're vegan, dairy free, wheat free & soya free whilst tasting absolutely delicious! 

Let me know if you've tried them before and what flavour you would like to try!

love, bean xx

LUSH 'Volcano' & 'Catastrophe' Review

Today I'd like to do two reviews of a couple of lush products I brought recently. Now, if you've seen my YouTube videos (link up above) then you'll probably know that I have a bit of a thing for the company 'LUSH'. There are quite a few lengthy reasons for this, a few of which I'll just quickly run through:

1. They're very reasonably priced
2. They have a big 'cruelty free' campaign
3. Around 80% of their products are vegan
4. All their products are vegetarian
5. They only used preservatives when they need to
6. They use fresh ingredients
7. They're convenient because they have a lot of shops

Now these are only a few reasons from the top of my head but they really are a wonderful company for all their ethics and their ethos, hence why I seem to spend half a fortune every time I even step near one of their shops. The two products I'm going to be talking about today are both vegan, both of which seem to have rather dramatic names!

The first of the two is a face mask called 'catastrophe'. I'd never tried one of their face-masks before and to be honest I thought I'd rather spend my money on one of their more long lasting products, oh what a fool I was to think this! Some may say that the downside to some of their products are their longevity, this one being 3-4 weeks depending on which day you purchase it in the week. But to be honest for me, the 'best before' date just reflects that the ingredients they use are fresh which is fabulous. Now what this mask is designed to do, with the aid of ingredients such as blueberries that are over-flowing with anti-oxidants, is to help with those days when you see a couple of spots creeping up or if you generally have quite problem prone skin. Afterward using it I found my skin was feeling really squeaky clean and fresh, and the smell of the mask was well, quite simply lush! 

The next product is a footmask which I thought was a fairly bizarre idea at first, I realise I'd been living under a fairly big rock as this is a pretty standard beauty product. It's called 'Volcano' and it's perfect for a quick fix to freshen and soften your feet. It took me a couple of goes to get used to the best way to apply it and I think you have to be careful in terms of application because if you don't have things like your water to wash off with afterwards and your cling film handy then it can get a bit messy. But it's now definitely going to be a standard pamper evening essential for me as I'd been struggling to find the best way to keep my feet in good condition. I think it smells just like a 'Soy Chai Tea Late' which is a pretty gorgeous smell if you're into that type of thing like me. If you go on the Lush website here it tells you each of their products' 'backstories' which I personally think is really interesting.



Let me know if you've got any favourite lush products at the moment!

love, bean xx