PHOTO A DAY: Day 119

^We went on a lovely hour walk through our village this evening.^

PHOTO A DAY: Day 118

^I'm feeling really jet lagged today, so in an attempt to keep myself I wake I did a spot of wedding shopping. We bought some of our tableware from Vegware - I reviewed them on my blog earlier this year. Our wedding 'pile' is soon needing it's own room!^

HOLIDAY: Travelling to Florida and Robbie's

If you follow me on Twitter (@Treasure_E_M) or Instagram (treasure_e_m) then you might have noticed I was lucky enough to go on holiday to Florida with my lovely family for the past two weeks. I have visited America a couple of times but never so south, so I was excited to explore another area of such a fantastic country. We flew from Heathrow to Toronto first and then onto Fort Lauderdale in Florida with Canada Air. Flying via another place is a great way of reducing flight costs for long haul flights, you can save hundreds so definitely look into it as an option if you book a longer flight! After a slight worry that one of my brother's wouldn't be able to get on the flight (airlines book too many seats on every plane they have, with the thought that someone won't turn up. Unfortunately one of my brothers had a ticket without a seat number, which means you have to go to the gate to see if there are any spare seats - talk about stressful! Luckily he did get on the flight and our holiday could start all together). From Fort Lauderdale the drive to our villa was about 3 hours, it was on the Florida Keys. If you want turquoise sea, white sand, palm trees and sunshine, then Florida Keys is the place for you! Key West, at the bottom of the Florida Keys, is the most southern point of America so you can very close to the Caribbean. There are a lot of influences from Cuba and Mexico - including the food, language and style.

On our first day we visited Robbie's - quite the tourist attraction on the Keys. It was heaving and every time we passed it throughout the holiday it was really busy. You could see Tarpon fish and Pelicans, the fish were an incredible size but lets be honest, I was mostly enjoying the stunning views!

Feel free to leave me a comment - I love reading every single one :)

WEDDING: Pastel Maternity Wedding Guest and Bridesmaid Dresses

We have at least one guest that will be heavily pregnant at our wedding, how exciting! This certainly doesn't mean they need to wear a shapeless dress, there are such lovely maternity ranges nowadays that you can feel comfortable and stylish at the same time! These maternity dresses are perfect for pregnant bridesmaids or wedding guests and once again, they follow the pastel theme of our wedding...

ASOS Maternity Exclusive Lace Bodycon Dress With Ribbon Detail £40

ASOS Maternity Midi Skater Dress In Embroidered Mesh £30.00

ASOS Maternity Exclusive Maxi Dress With Pleated Front £25

ASOS Maternity Exclusive Midi Dress With Knot Front And V Back £24.50

ASOS Maternity Exclusive Lace Bodycon Dress With Ribbon Detail £40

Do you know of any other lovely wedding maternity dresses? 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

PHOTO A DAY: Day 117

^Back to work and the day to day normal things. I really fancied a stir fry yesterday but fell asleep with jet lag so didn't eat it. It was so delicious, I can see it becoming a firm favourite!^

PHOTO A DAY: Day 116

^We flew back fromAmerica today! Super sad to leave all of the gorgeousness Florida had to offer but looking forward to seeing Tom. Mixed emotions :)^

PHOTO A DAY: Day 115

^A Custom Car Show was today's activity, there were a lot of amazing retro, classic cars there! I think this one was my favourite though :)^

PHOTO A DAY: Day 114

^Universal Studios, Orlando - the one and only 'park' we visited in Orlando. This place is like a playground for adults and children alike, it's so magical! Having been to both the one in LA and this one, I prefer the LA Universal Studios. There's a bigger focus on the making of films, rather than just rides but both are such fun places to visit!^

PHPTO A DAY: Day 113

^Today we visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Talk about an inspiring, fascinating and interesting place to visit - I'd highly recommend it.^

RECIPE: Lemon Sponge Cake

It was my Dad's birthday back in March, so I decided to make a cake. But no ordinary cake. A sheep cake! I had seen one in Waitrose and decided to set myself the challenge of recreating it, which was surprisingly easy. I wanted the sponge to be a light colour, so that the white chocolate curls would really look like wool. I settled on a lemon sponge, with lemon curd and lemon buttercream - lemon heaven!

What you'll need:

175g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp. Baking Powder

175g Unsalted Butter

175g Golden Caster Sugar

3 Large Eggs

Grated Zest of 1 Lemon

1 tbsp. Lemon Juice

For the Filling and Covering:

3 to 4 tbsp. Lemon Curd

150g Unsalted Butter

300g Icing Sugar

Juice of 1 Lemon

100g White Chocolate Curls

Chocolate Flavoured Icing (you buy it in a tube, ready to ice with)

What to do:

1) Preheat the oven at 190'C. Grease and line two 18cm by 4cm cake tins. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add all the other ingredients. Using an electric whisk combine for about 1 minute until you have a smooth creamy consistency.

2) Next divide the mixture between the two prepared tins, level off using the back of a tablespoon and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes.

3) When a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre of the sponge, remove from the oven. Let the sponge cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

4) To make the lemon buttercream, beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and to your preferred sweetness. Stir in the lemon juice.

5) On the top of one of the sponges, spread the lemon curd generously. Then put the other sponge on top. This is when I started to 'carve' the sheep. Using a bread knife, I cut at an angle around the top of the cake. The bottom sponge was no cut at all. This creates an upside bowl kind of shape.

6) Cover the 'sheep' shaped cake with lemon buttercream. This can be challenging as the crumbs of the cake will combine with the buttercream but it doesn't need to look perfect as you'll cover it with white chocolate curls.

7) Sprinkle the white chocolate curls all over the cake, until it is completely covered. Pipe on a sheep face using the chocolate flavoured icing and 4 little hooves.

Have you ever made a 'shaped' cake?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)