Intern at Vogue

I'm starting my second week at Vogue today and have been meaning to update you all on the last week's antics. The office is great, everyone is friendly and are happy to answer any questions you have. They all make you feel very comfortable and welcome. The week started off fairly slow, I'm a fashion features intern so most of my work on the most basic level includes scanning newspapers, doing research for the features team, ordering look books for the upcoming issue and general admin. Towards the end of the week, as call-ins for shoots started to arrive, it got a little more exciting. Gucci, Louis, Fendi - it all feels so much more luxurious in real life and I have to stop myself trying on all the fabulous shoes (especially when fortunately, or unfortunately, I am a sample size 39/40). I wish wish wish I could show you photos but my hands are tied (rather bound) by an intimidating looking confidentiality agreement in which I cannot divulge any upcoming story/feature/shoot ideas or content. Booooo, but of course it's understandable. Anyway, apart from the 20-minute panic in the morning over what I'm going to wear, I'm loving it. This week we're receiving more call-ins and preparing for a handful of shoots coming up in the next week. It's all hands on deck but luckily we have an extra intern to help out. I'll keep you posted. X

PocketSize

Finally I can show you all something I (and six others) have been working tirelessly on for the last couple of months.

This is PocketSize magazine. You can click Full Screen to read the articles.

Birthday Cake

I've been dying to show you this recipe and photos for over a month now but getting my hands on them (from my elusive sister) proved harder than I initially thought.

But I got them today so I can finally share the recipes, tricks and tips on how I made my sister's eighteenth birthday cake.

Although I've made tons of cakes over the years - some for occasions, others just for fun - this was the first time I'd tackled royal icing. My Mum had asked for a similar version of my own eighteenth birthday cake (below) which was made by the glorious Paula at Costa Cakes so I embarked on some royal icing research. I also wanted to make a superbly moist yet crumbly vanilla sponge and fill it with jam and butter cream. My first port of call was Smitten Kitchen and all the information I could ever need was there. I'd recommend reading this post before starting on any layer cake and from there I used this recipe for the sponge layers and this recipe for the butter cream. I would recommend both recipes, they were both fairly simple and turned out brilliantly, even for a novice like me.

I bought two colours of royal icing, white for the base cover and fuchsia for the decoration. Rolling it out wasn't the easiest task with the tiny work space I have in my kitchen (think Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen and you're about there) and placing it over the cake was also a bit of a juggle. I made a couple of holes but the beauty of the decoration is that you can hide any mistakes. The decoration was simple, using these alphabet cutters for the letters and pink glitter to top it all off. I used a length of pink ribbon to hide the icing join.

The reason I even took on the challenge is because the quotes my Mum was getting for making a simple birthday cake were astronomical. I told her that my amateur attempt may look less professional but it's the thought and love that goes into it, right? Plus it'd be considerably cheaper - barely £15 to be precise. I even managed to pack it with me in hand luggage when I flew to Spain but that's a whole other story...

Anyway, it turned out not too bad for my first attempt. The white icing wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked but I was pleased with just about every other element. And I'm not even too scarred not to try it again.