Oh what a week – from testing and measuring the color that most people associate with relaxation… (The answer was blue!) To finding out if people believe in love at 1st sight? Which most people do!... it sure has been a busy auld week! I’ve been filming video footage for Colorgenics Goldin Universe website for a few days and deciding on which color top to wear was actually quite funny. I had originally decided on a blue top – but on the morning of the shoot… I just felt like I needed to wear purple… funny how the mind guides us in what colors it feels it needs at a particular time! So purple it was! You can check out one of my videos on my profile or on the homepage! This week I also tried my hand at baking cupcakes… such fun! I nipped over to my friend Emma’s house (she’s a super cook – the Brie Van de Kamp of Irish society in my opinion) and we whipped up 2 different batches of the most colourful tasting cupcakes I have ever had!! Bias you might say… no seriously – they were mouth wateringly good! We tried out 2 different recipes – one was her old time favourite cupcake recipe that she has had for years and mine was a slightly healthier version. We were having a cupcake-off… then getting some of our friends to decide which ones tasted better….  The truth is… her ones did taste a little better – but mine weren’t too far behind... and were supposedly better for your cholesterol!! I’ll include the recipes at the bottom of the blog and a little photo... so you can drool over what we made J

We used food coloring for the icing and this is where it gets interesting…. We colored the cupcakes in blue, pink, red, brown, white and cream icing – the coloring extract did not have any flavour – yet still people didn’t really feel drawn to eating the blue cupcakes! Interesting!! Let look at this in a little more detail….from the research that I have done over the years – blue is an appetite suppressant – it can actually reduce the desire a person has for food! There are hardly any blue foods… apart from blueberries… and in my opinion they are purple!!! Now I’m not telling you to dye all your food blue if you want to lose weight (although it’s a fun experiment… which I’ll do in the next few weeks and take pictures for you). What I am suggesting is that if you would like to reduce your food intake – eat from a blue plate!!  It works… I tell all my weight loss clients in the clinic to use smaller blue plates when on a weight loss course with me – and because of the nature of the color – they really do lose the weight!

So now – that’s all I have time to fill you in on for this week! If you’ve done your Colorgenics – and you were impressed with it – why not try the next stage of colorgenics – which is the future prediction…, it can actually reveal what the next 3 months of your life will look like!! It’s kind of a future personality test… though color! Let me know how you get on by adding your comments and feedback to the dedicated section on the website!
Have a good week!
Love,
Katie-Jane xx

 

Recipe Section
My One’s (slightly healthier)
120g Plain flour
140g Caster Sugar
1.5 Teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
40g Unsalted Butter
1 Egg
Quarter teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven the oven to 170degrees C (325F) Gas 3.  Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, butter and salt into a bowl and mix until its pale in color and all one consistency. Slowly pour in half the milk and beat until its all mixed together nicely.

Next mix the egg,vanilla extract and the rest of the milk into another bowl and then when whisked together, pour it into the other bowl and mix the too together and continue mixing them for a few more minutes until the mixture is smooth… don’t overmix!

Spoon the mixture into your cupcake paper cases until about two-thirds full and then bake in the oven for about 20-25 mins and they look a nice golden brown. Leave the cupcakes to cool before you add the icing. Then decorate the icing with hundreds and thousands or whatever else you feel like!!

Frosting
250g Icing Sugar
80g Unsalted butter (Softened)
25ml Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Mix the icing sugar and butter together until its all one consistency and well mixed… then add the milk and vanilla essence in a separate bowl and slowly add it to the butter mixture… a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk is mixed in… continue beating and mixing it until it looks light and fluffy for at least five minutes. Remember – the longer you mix – the lighter and fluffier the frosting becomes!!
ENJOY!!! YUMMY!!!! J
Now for Emma’s Recipe
The secret is equal parts butter sugar and flour:

125g (4oz) Butter
125g (4oz) Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
125g (4oz) Self Raising Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Whisk in the beaten eggs and vanilla essence. Sift together the flour and baking powder and gradually fold into the butter and sugar mixture until just incorporated.
Spoon a heaped tablespoon of mixture in to each muffin case. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly golden. Take out of the tin and place on a wire wrack to cool.

Butter Cream Icing:

250g Butter (Softened)
600g Icing Sugar
2 Tbsp Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Split the icing sugar into two bowls. Combine one half with the butter and the other half with the milk. Finally combine the two mixtures and add a few drops of vanilla.

Ummmmm….. Tasty J
If you do a cupcake challenge like we did – let us know which one’s you find tastier J