A sad day :(

Yup it happened. My mother broke my panda spoon. It's hard to even talk about it. I'm fighting back the tears as I type this. It's sad day as we lose a close friend that was near and dear in our hearts. May he rest in piece or .... Piecesss D':. I never even got to name him. I wasted my precious time with him and now it's too late. I will never forget you.
On the plus side, I mastered the peppermint hot chocolate. I will definitely do a recipe soon ^^ also gonna attempt to do a coconut white hot chocolate and a hazelnut hot chocolate. Yummy. Getting fat toooo night-

♡ Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Recipe ♡

It's 3:00am and I remembered that I said I was gonna do this like... yesterday... slack haha what can I say I'm on holidays ^^
Any-hoo let's get this scrumptious recipe started BUT before I do, I can't take the credit. I actually got the recipe from a super amazing and ridculously fantabulous youtube lady called missglamorazzi. You should all definitely go check her out, her videos are amaze-bangin! Here's the link to her video if you wanna see the pro make it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjOz0haZ4w
I also saw her panda mug and when I saw it in the store it kinda made me more inclined to buy it. So every time I drink this rich and peanuty drink out of my mug, I feel like I'm channeling her.... and NO it's totally not creepy! I swear! 

Ingredients

• Milk
• Cocoa Mix (I used Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate Powder)
• Peanut Butter (smooth or crunchy optional)
• Reece's mini peanut butter cups
• Vanilla essence
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Whipped cream

Let's Begin 

1. Grab a saucepan and pour a cup of milk in. This will be enough for one serving so add some more milk if you are making a big batch. 

2. Place it over the stove that is medium heat.
3. Once the milk has been heated up, but not boiling, place 2 spoon fulls of cocoa powder (you can add more if you prefer it to be super chocolaty). Then stir the cocoa until it is mixed well into the milk. After this I test tired it a bit to see if I needed to add sugar, I didn't but you are welcome to if it isn't sweet enough for you. 

4. Then add half a spoon of peanut butter. Seriously do not over do the peanut butter. Learn from my mistake, I added two spoon fulls and it just didn't melt well into the drink and then it was too thick and gluggy and gross. Just don't do it. If you want to add more peanut butter than do it in portions, add a little bit first and try it out before adding more. Make sure the peanut butter is melted well into the mixture.

5. Add a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon. I like cinnamon a lot so I add a lot more than just a dash. Probably like a teaspoon. Maybe more... :P

6. Then add a few drops (like about 3-4) of the vanilla essence. 
7. Then just mix and stir and mix and stir. I remember when I was in highschool taking home economic, my teacher taught me a cleaver little stirring trick to make sure you stirred everything well. Go around the edge of the pan stirring it around 3 times and then when you get back to the top, make a figure 8 in the middle. It's silly but it just stuck with me and I still stir like that. Just a little tidbit I thought I might share. 
8. After everything is thoroughly mixed, just pour the drinking into a mug.

9. Then it's time to decorate. Go crazy with the whip creme and add it like it's not gonna hit your hips. Then just top it off with some mini peanut butter cups and voila you're done. Easy as 1, 2, 3 

 Now go and sip some yumminess

Oh and don't forget to take some cute selfies of your pretty mug with your cute drinking mug ^^ (see what I did there ;) heheheee) 

♡ PanPan Panda Mug ♡

That's right!! I bought the panda mug! It was too cute not to haha and I love it! I also got the kitty kat mug for my 'soon-to-be-sister-in-law' ^^ I'm the best!
I made peanut butter hot chocolate and it is superrr yummy!!! Except I added too much peanut butter and now it's too thick and rich lol just add more milk..... Now I'm out of milk :p this is why I don't cook. I am one girl that doesn't belong in the kitchen. Anyway stay tuned for the recipe later tonight :)

☆ Holiday Mugs ☆

The search for the ultimate cute and quirky holiday mug has begun. It has become my goal in life. This all consuming mission is not gonna stop until I get to feel like I'm sipping out of a winter wonderland. Even though it like the hottest time of year here down under :(
Look how unbelievable adorable these are. So the frog, pig, panda, and cat mug isn't really Christmas-y themed but look how cute it is. I'm gonna have to buy it anyway lol

♡ Elk Espresso Cafe ♡

This quaint little cafe is located somewhat in the outskirts of main Broad Beach and it is definitely the next 'it' cafe. Late last year/this year the new hit cafe was Bumbles Cafe and though still great, it's major faults to me would have to be it's fairly dear price and it's highly increased popularity. Not that I'm not say that both of those qualities aren't good for business, I'm happy that this small, simple, quirky cafe has become one of the wonders of the Gold Coast however for customers like me it's not the perfect getaway place anymore. Perhaps the reason why is becauce I've been there too often, I have lost the first impression/blown away/stunned in awe feeling. And that is the exact reason why I love Elk, I am blown away by it's rustic, industrial feel but at the same time the sharp edgy feel is juxtaposed against hints of rough nature such as thorny, cactus like floral arrangements on each table and a wall of vines wrapped around a metal fencing. 

I absolutely died when I tried their Crème brûlée thickshake, it has to be THE best item on their menu. I love it so much that I had two of them in one week. Yeah I'm just a tad addicted hehee I have to know how to make it... actually maybe it's good that I don't know or I would be drinking it everyday all day haha I wanna try their other drinks but the Crème brûlée is wayyy too good. I'm just gonna have to force myself to try new things. 

Their food menu isn't what I would call extensive. But then again it is just a simple cafe. I ordered shoestring chips with aioli dip which I must say was flipping amazing. I have extremely high standards for aioli sauce and I have had a lot of let downs but this was up to standard. It has been given my stamp of approval  Then for my main I ordered something I have totally forgotten the name of but I know it had rocket, potato and trout, and other stuff lol It was good stuff.              I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. But the definitely isn't the place to go if you are super hungry. Luckily for me, the both times I went I wasn't overly starved. It is more what I would categorize as a place to go for the atmosphere and vibe not so much the content obese sumo man food feeling. 

Then for dessert I got the chocolate and caramel meringue. 

It came out warm and heated, the bottom chocolate cake layer was soft then the thin middle layer of caramel was melted and deliciously oozing out and then finally on top was the perfectly crisp meringue. Yummy! At least that's how it looked. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would taste. Not complaints however it was lacking a little oomph if you know what I mean. 

Currently for cakes they are doing a 2 for 1 special so the second time I went I tried their other cakes. This was the banana bread and the orange and almond cake.

I must say, their creme is spectacular. I never ever EVER like creme but the sweet sugary one and their creme definitely wasn't that. Their creme wasn't bland but wasn't overly sweet either, what sold me was the fact that it wasn't a heavy type of creme, it was light and fluff and honesly... cloud like. I know it sounds like a movie type gimmick .. 'like floating on a cloud', but seriously it was that magical. It was so good that I gobbled up all the creme, I never do that! 

I feel like this place is definitely gonna be seeing more of me. A new summer fling perhaps ;)

Elk Espresso

07 5592 2888

Broadbeach/Mermaid Beach

16 Chelsea Avenue Broadbeach, QLD, 4218