Gingerbread Hot Chocolate Recipe

Today marks the first day of Blogmas and I, along with almost 100 other amazing bloggers, will be taking part in the #TheBigBlogmasProject2014. Blogmas is a challenge, we have to write a post every single day in December about the chosen topic for the day, it's pretty hard work.

I wanted to kick off the first day of Blogmas with a very tasty (and festive) Gingerbread Hot Chocolate recipe. These days we have a whole host of different flavours we can add to our hot drinks and during the festive period, ginger is one of my favourites. A little fact for you all, I'm intolerant to cinnamon, which makes navigating festive foods and drinks a little tricky. Ginger is my cinnamon, it adds that kick most people get in their mince pies or mulled wine and it means I don't have to miss out on that Christmas spice. 

You can buy the gingerbread syrup from your local coffee shops or amazon, but you can get a similar effect by using the cheaper alternative, ground ginger. Ground ginger can be found in almost any supermarket and it's pretty cheap. So, if you want to make your own tasty Gingerbread Hot Chocolate, here's what you'll need:

Ingredients & Equipment

• A mug or latte glass 
• 3 tsp Chocolate drinking powder (ideally the kind you add milk to rather than water)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp Ground ginger (1/4 will give a very subtle ginger flavour, 1/2 will make it a little stronger)
• Milk (measure out in your chosen cup)
• Squirty cream
• Mini marshmallows
• Mini gingerbread men to decorate

Method

1. Measure out your milk into your chosen cup. Leave approx 1 inch for cream. 
2. Heat up the milk for 3 minutes in the microwave in either your cup, or in a heat proof jug.
3. Mix together your drinking chocolate and ground ginger so that the powders blend together. Then add to the hot milk and stir well. 
4. Transfer to your chosen cup (if you've heated it in a jug) then apply a generous amount of squirty cream.
5. Add marshmallows and gingerbread men for added tastiness. 
6. Sit back and enjoy your tasty Gingerbread Hot Chocolate. 

Don't forget to let me know if you try out this recipe and make sure you look up #TheBigBlogmasProject2014 for lots of other wintery posts. 

If you're also a fan of Vlogmas, I'll be doing weekly Vlogmas vlogs up until Christmas day, so make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel to keep up to date!

The Sunday Post: Sticker Books and IKEA Trips

Jisbon all the way, finally the two get it on// Listening to a bit of Oasis Definitely Maybe whilst writing blog posts// I am an independent woman, I can build IKEA furniture on my own!// I did it! My new shelves are built// Watching some Jimmy Kimmel in bed// Sticker book madness begins!// I got shinies!!!// Epic hot chocolate making skills//

It's been an odd week this week; I've mostly been trying to get all my stuff out of boxes and into more permanent homes. This is a lot easier when you actually have places to put said stuff, so eventually a trip to IKEA was needed. I finally got some shelving units to display all of my hair and makeup products, as well as somewhere to store my many hair tools that don't fit into my other draws. I also picked up a pretty funky looking mirror, which as I type is being skilfully mounted on the wall by my father, who keeps asking me questions about measurements I have no clue about.

Overall I've been in a weird post-university limbo. Anyone who has been to Uni and had the sudden and terrifying thrust into the real world, will understand the strange restless feeling I currently have. I have always been in education, or at least knew I would be going back into full-time education in the near future, but now I'm just sort of floating around not knowing what is going to happen. People keep telling me to relax and enjoy not having a job for a while, but the truth is I've done the whole unemployed thing before and it was not fun. I love having a job and having something to work towards and goals to reach, I like being busy! At the moment I have been splitting my time between sleeping, eating, running and playing LEGO Marvel and I'm a little bored. 

Hopefully this is just an adjustment period, I'll get over it and my head will stop spinning and I'll get my focus back. In the mean time I'm going to try and put all my energy into my blog, YouTube channel and I might even have a bash at a bit of script writing. Hopefully I'll be back to work soon but till then I'll be tapping in to my creativity to keep myself sane!

Have you ever experienced post-university limbo? Are you like me and enjoy having things to do?