Sharkett Sisters

BLUE SKY DREAMING

June 07, 2019

The days have got brighter and longer, and it finally feels like summer is truly on the way! Well, it does if you ignore today's thunderstorms anyway!

And to make things even better, our work summer Fridays started today - 3.30pm finishes every Friday here we go!

Summer in the city can be tricky to dress for, but we're loving being able to get our legs out and strap on a pair of sandals every day instead of being stuck in jeans and trainers. We've been super excited to change up our wardrobes and get some great summer pieces to inject even more colour and fun into our wardrobes (if that's possible)! So we want to show you a couple of our fave new pieces. The aim is to be holiday ready and city stylish at the same time - after all, we're not made of money...

We have both fallen head over heels in love with this colour blue! Somewhere around a royal blue, with all the summer vibes and Grecian feels, we just adore it! And if there every happens to be a Mamma Mia 3 then we're ready to be cast.

Zara is doing blue SO well right now so we've pulled together a little collection of our favourites for you to shop at the bottom of this post, so make sure you check those out as well as our linked outfits below!

Top, Shorts - Zara

Sandals - Topshop (new seasons linked)

Bag - Topshop

Necklaces - Anna Saccone & Missoma

Earrings, Sunglasses, Pearl Hairclip - River Island

For me, this shade of blue paired with a bright white is just such an effortless match. Something about it just exudes the fun and happiness of summer and holidays. The top is such a gorgeous print and such a cute shape, it was a sure-buy from the second I saw it. Obviously I love the colour but I adore the details too, like the ruffled straps and lace up front. These white shorts from Zara are such a staple wardrobe piece for me. They're perfect for sunny days in the city but will flow seamlessly into a holiday must have. I've had them previously about 5 years ago and they're so versatile and super easy to dress up or down. I love that they are high waisted too, making them perfect for wearing with all of the cute cropped tops that are hitting the high street this summer. I've got the perfect rainbow sequin top just waiting for the right moment that will look amazing with these shorts!

I'm so obsessed and in love with this hair clip trend. I've managed to build up quite a collection already - as you can probably imagine. I just think they look super chic and really pull together an outfit. This AMAZING pearl clip is from River Island and it's such a good price too! They've got a fab new collection of clips and grips so it's definitely worth checking out! The earrings are also from River and match nicely to the clip with the pearl drop. I find that I've grabbed for these earrings more than any others recently, they're perfect for pretty much every outfit.

Cami - River Island (last season)
Culottes- Zara
Sandals- Topshop (New season link)
Bag, Pearl clips, Sunglasses- Accessorize (Bag and sunglasses are last season)
Earrings- H&M

'Oh here she is with another pleated midi skirt' I hear you say... well stop right there because these are actually culottes. I love these, they pretty much look like a skirt 90% of the time unless I do some dramatic lunges or an impression of the Zara model in the link above, which to be fair, is not particularly often... They are amazingly swishy to wear, I love that there is a lot of fabric in them which makes them feel a lot more expensive than they actually were. They were another of Zara's absolute bargains at £29.99!
We've definitely gone on about this enough but how amazing is this colour? It's one of my favourites to wear, it's so vibrant and eye catching and it looks amazing onto many different skin tones!

And I have to mention these stunning pearl hair clips, they add such a pretty detail to an outfit. Me and Imogen were seriously twinning on the day we took these photos, even down to the pearl accessories!
These earrings are also a current favourite of mine, shell jewellery is definitely having a moment right now as you might have noticed. I have been wearing these H&M earrings almost everyday recently. H&M have an amazing selection of gorgeous shell pieces, I have plans to get into store very soon to get some more!

And as promised above, here are some of our absolute fave blue pieces from Zara. They are all such amazing colours and shapes and we hope they give you the inspiration to go out and add some blue to your wardrobe too!

1. Floral print skirt 2. Satin jumpsuit 3. Cut out jumpsuit 4. Printed midi dress 5. Floral bow mini skirt

We really hope you liked this post! What's your verdict on this colour - obsessed as us? We'd love to know.

Please follow us on Bloglovin', Instagram and like our Facebook page 'Sharkett Sisters', if you want to see more of us, and never miss a post.

Make sure to check out our Instagram feed and stories, for the latest Sharkett Sister activities!

Antonia and Imogen x

baking

APRICOT, BLUEBERRY AND GINGER SCONES

May 24, 2019

Happy Friday, can you believe it's another bank holiday weekend? Dreamy!

Is it just us or are scones one of the most more-ish bakes there is?! The second we eat one, we want to eat one everyday for the rest of our lives! We decided you can't have a baking blog without a scone recipe so here it is...
But this is not just any scone recipe, this is a flavourful and fruity Sharkett Sister's Apricot, Blueberry and Ginger scone recipe!

These scones are full of sweet apricot chunks and bursting blueberries, which is just divine against the subtle flavour of ginger. We love this flavour combination and it works so perfectly in a scone. There's a burst of fruity flavour in every bite, and they taste even better topped with apricot jam and clotted cream.

It's a delicious twist on a British classic, and the colours look so pretty too!

Ingredients:

250g self-raising flour, and extra for dusting

50g caster sugar

¹⁄2 tsp baking powder

100g unsalted butter, cold

1 large egg, beaten

70ml milk, and extra for brushing

1 tsp ground ginger

2 apricots, chopped

100g blueberries

To Serve...

Clotted cream and apricot jam

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC Fan/200ºC, and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and baking powder and then sift in the flour. Cube the butter and add to the bowl, and then using your fingertips rub together with the dry ingredients to create a breadcrumb consistency.

Add the apricots, blueberries, ginger and beaten egg to the bowl. The pour in most of the milk - you may or may not need the full amount depending on your mixture. Combine the ingredients together using a fork, and then your hands once it begins to form a dough. If the dough seems too dry, add the rest of the milk.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and then roll out to around 3cm thick. Cut out your scones using a circle cutter and place onto the baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little milk, then place into the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Transfer the scones onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Finally, serve your delicious scones with cream and jam. We chose apricot jam to add to the divine flavour combination, but the choice of jam is completely up to you.
But what goes first - the cream or the jam?

We really hope you enjoyed this post!

Make sure you let us know if you give these a go, we especially love seeing those posts, just tag us on any of our social media platforms if you do!

Please follow us on Bloglovin', Instagram and like our Facebook page 'Sharkett Sisters', if you want to see more of us, and never miss a post.

Make sure to check out our Instagram feed and stories, to see what we are up to and get sneaky previews of what we're up to in the kitchen!

Antonia and Imogen x

baking

CARROT CAKE AND CREAM CHEESE BARS

May 10, 2019

Carrot cake is one of those things we wish we had tried sooner in life, there were so many childhood years where we missed out on such good cake. I'm sure everyone has had that moment of confusion like 'wait, is there really carrot in this cake?'. The answer is yes by the way, incase that moment is right now. The realisation usually happens when you're a child, but it's usually a categorical no when you think your parents are trying to sneakily get you to eat more vegetables. Vegetables in cake, really?!

It turns out those sneaky carrots give you THE most fluffy and oh so moist cakes - or cookies if you have Liam Charles' recipe book. We've eaten every last crumb of these cake bars and still can't get over how incredibly fluffy they are. We swirled in a cream cheese filling which just adds a perfect sweetness to the gorgeously spicy cake. The orange icing drizzle, orange zest and walnuts are the ideal toppings for extra added tastiness and a delicious crunch. These cake bars are just divine with every flavour enhancing the others for an indulgent sweet but spicy delight.

They are SO easy to make, and require very little attention span, so what are you waiting for?

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter, melted

180g light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

160g self-raising flour

¼ tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp mixed spice

pinch of salt

130g carrots (around 4 small carrots), grated

For the cream cheese filling...

4oz cream cheese

60g caster sugar

1 large egg yolk

¾ tsp vanilla extract

For decoration...

4 tbsp icing sugar

zest of 2 oranges

juice of ½ orange

handful of walnuts, chopped

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC Fan/180ºC, and line a square tin with greaseproof paper.

To make the carrot cake mixture, start by melting your butter - in the microwave is easiest but make sure your bowl is microwave safe. Then in a mixing bowl, add the melted butter and brown sugar and beat to combine. Then, beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Stir in the self-raising flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, baking powder and pinch of salt and stir until you have a smooth mixture. Lastly, fold in the grated carrot until evenly dispersed.

For the cream cheese filling, add the cream cheese, caster sugar, egg yolk and vanilla into a bowl and mix until smooth and creamy. Done!

Pour around half of the carrot cake mixture into the tin and spread out evenly. Then add half of the cream cheese mixture by adding it in spoonfuls onto the carrot cake mixture. Cover this with the rest of the carrot cake mixture, spread out with a spatula, and then add the remaining cream cheese mixture in spoonfuls on top. Then, using a knife swirl the two mixtures together for a marbled effect, making sure to get all the way down. Don't over swirl though or else the mixture will just disappear into the cake.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes, until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely.

Put the icing sugar into a small bowl, and then add the orange juice a bit at a time until you have the perfect drizzling consistency. Using either a spoon or a piping bag, drizzle the icing over the cake. Then top with the orange zest and chopped walnuts.

Taking a sharp knife cut the cake into pieces. We went for 16 squares but you can go for squares or bars as big as you want.

(You will probably want to eat the whole thing anyway so you could always keep it as one big square for yourself - people may judge you but we won't!)

We really hope you enjoyed this post as much as we loved eating it!

Make sure you let us know if you give these a go, we especially love seeing those posts. Tag us on any of our social media platforms if you do!

Please follow us on Bloglovin', Instagram and like our Facebook page 'Sharkett Sisters', if you want to see more of us, and never miss a post.

Make sure to check out our Instagram feed and stories, to see what we are up to!

Antonia and Imogen x