frosted not stirred // new baking blog! Posted by Helena

It's been forEVER! The last few months have been taken up by an overseas holiday, a slight role change at work, and a new blog! Introducing Frosted Not Stirred. Friends have told me for years to start a food blog and I finally worked out what to blog about... Cocktails in cupcakes! I made some mojito cupcakes for a work friend's birthday and they were such a hit, I thought I'd keep rolling with it. One of my friends used to be a fancy cocktail bartender so I've been hitting him up for cocktail recipes and fun facts about the cocktails to go with my posts. Check it out at Frosted Not Stirred.

link it // april Posted by Helena

The usual round up of cool links.

• One of my London housemates (Laura) made one of my other London housemates (Tom) his usual birthday cake
• Alexa Chung and Poppy Delevingne's roadtrip for Net-a-Porter
• Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift's roadtrip for Vogue 
• 21 times Harry Potter was the cleverest book series ever
• Lasting relationships rely on two traits according to this article
• RED PANDAS! PLAYING IN SNOW!
• Will Smith rapping Gettin' Jiggy Wit It
• Notebook hack
• Meryl Streep's daughters
• 10 female indie song covers that Buzzfeed claim are better than the originals
• Motorola's press conference is awesome
• The alphabet according to Karen Walker
• Secret Underground bar in London - probably not so secret since it's been on Buzzfeed

gold & grit // cremorne Posted by Helena

Part two of my photoshoot with Gold & Grit. (Profile photos for everything forever!)

mixtape // december Posted by Helena

Avicii - The Days

Nicki Minaj feat. Skylar Grey - Bed of Lies

Calvin Harris feat. John Legend - Blame

Ella Eyre - Comeback

Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

Vance Joy - Riptide

One Direction - Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

Lorde - Flicker (Kanye West Rework)

Brooke Fraser - Kings and Queens

Cage the Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams

Olly Murs feat. Travie McCoy - Wrapped Up

Troye Sivan - Happy Little Pill

Neon Jungle - Louder

The 1975 - Medicine

Taylor Swift - New Romantics

Listen on Spotify (minus the Taylor Swift song because she removed all her music.)

dining all'aperto at la svolta Posted by Helena

Everything at La Svolta was delicious. I ate it all! That’s enough of a review, right? Okay, probably not. Read the full one over at The Modern Con.

I can personally vouch for the beef and tuna tartares, prosciutto with deep fried pizza dough (just as yummy as you think it is), the seared tuna and the chickpea and capsicum salad (how can chickpeas be so yummy with so few ingredients?). A special mention must be made to the Nutella pizza. The base was some kind of combo of puff and chewy pastry and the Nutella was so thick it stuck to the roof of your mouth. Heaven. Seriously.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s the best Italian I’ve had since I visited Italy and was raving about it for days afterwards. I’ve already told my friends we’re adding it to our Must Eat At List. It had a really nice atmosphere and nursing a glass of bubbly, I ended up making friends with the other ladies at my table. In fact, we’re going to brunch next week!

My new friends are: Sandra and Stina from Klaus and Fritz (Stina is also gold and grit photography) and Olivia who's probably the most famous Instagrammer I know and her sister Steff

La Svolta, 3-5 Cecil Place, Prahran and 450 Hampton St, Hampton.