Friday, 27 January 2012

Easy Chocolate Ginger Truffles

This recipe is so easy, that is not baking, more just crumbling, mixing, shaping and dipping! It is really a cake pop recipe (if you are familiar with them) without the "pop"!




Crumble a ginger sponge cake (I recommend McVities Jamaica Ginger Cake)



Stir in about a third of a tub of chocolate butter cream icing (I recommend Betty Crocker's)



Mix well. Add more butter cream icing if needed.

Roll into small balls.

If you have time chill them in the fridge for 30 mins or so, but not essential.



Melt chocolate.

Dip balls in chocolate

Sprinkle with "sprinkles"!

So, to summarise - crumble, mix, stir, roll, chill, melt, dip and sprinkle!!!

 Finally ....... enjoy!

And if you are a Pinterest Fan/Freak, maybe you could pin it (Hint!)

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

A drive through the Titanic Quarter in Belfast

Today I spent the day at "Focus on Finance" as part of Invest NI's Boosting Business programme.

Some of it was more relevant to my Janmary Designs jewellery business than others, but I came away with lots of information and I will be able to apply for 5 days of financial consulting.

OK, enough of the boring business bit, on to the Titanic Quarter.

I hope to shortly spend some time exploring and photographing this exciting area of redevelopement of this historic part of the city of Belfast. It is here of course that the Titanic and many other of the White Star Line ships were built and launched. 2012 is the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic's demise, so there are lots of events planned.

Finally we will have our own Titanic Visitors Attraction- about time too!

So.....today I just spent about 15 minutes driving through the area, occasionally stopping to take some photos with my iphone.

This (I think!) is the Drawing Office, and I believe it is stunning inside. Can't wait to see around it.

 Drawing office (I think!) of Harland and Wolff shipbuilders #titanic quarter #belfast #northernireland

This is the new Titanic Visitors Experience - each of the 4 sides are the same dimensions as the bow of the Titanic (think Kate Winslet and Leonardo de Caprio).

 Final #titanic image from #belfast #northernireland  for today #iphoneography #instagram366

 
You can see how the ships must have towered over the rest of the shipyard buildings.

This is one of the two large cranes are very symbolic of Belast and it's ship building heritage.

 #Belfast #titanic quarter #shipyard #iphoneography

They are known as Samson and Goliath (although I don't know which one this is) and I remember as a child watching them loom closer as we drove past them on our way to visit our grandparents in north Down.
 
I also snapped this photo with my iphone of a traditional terraced street in East Belfast.

#Belfast street #everydaylife #p366 #photoaday #iphoneography

Finally, have a wee look at this new ad for Northern Ireland, and all we have going on this year.


Belfast was named by National Geographic Magazine as one of the top 10 destinations for 2012 - it's all happening!

What are you looking forward to this year?