Donut worry

This doughnut dress is one of my favourite dresses of all time (most probably because it's got embroidered doughnuts on it! Doughnuts!). I first saw this dress on my Instagram/blogger bestie, the intelligent, lovely and stylish lady, Liana of Finding Femme. Liana's blog is one of my big blog-inspirations, her posts are elegant and eloquent, and her style is always beautiful. When Liana wore this dress she styled it impeccably with a beautiful belt and scarf, and fantastic heels. As we are going towards colder weather here in Sweden, I styled it with a pair of thick tights and warm cardigan (that I didn't wear for the pictures, because the dress looked better without). We are already reaching temperatures below zero during night and early mornings. So tights were an essential.

I've proclaimed my love for doughnuts on the blog before. As I said then, good doughnuts are hard to come by in northern Sweden. We don't have the immensely famous Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts, so from time to time I embark on the adventure of whipping up my own doughnuts.

So far I have only ever tried making "Cake Doughnuts" and if I am to be honest I didn't know that there were different types of doughnuts until quite recently. With the info I've gathered Cake doughnuts are more old-fashioned and are raised by baking powder rather than yeast and therefore have a more "cakey" texture. All I know is that they are delicious and easy enough to make.

The recipe I use can be found here from Joy of Baking. I've mentioned Joy of Baking earlier and I cannot rave about it enough, what a brilliant place it is! I often use recipes from Joy of Baking so don't be surprised if you see it again on the blog.

CAKE DOUGHNUTS

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 165 grams sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 390 grams flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used regular salt)
• 3/4 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
• 40 grams butter, melted
• 120 ml milk, room temperature

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.

In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla. Alternately add the flour, milk and melted butter. The batter will be soft but cover it with plastic film and let it sit at room temperature for half an hour.

When the batter is firm enough to roll out, do so on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to about the thickness of half a centimetre. Cut out with doughnut cutter or cookie cutters. I used two cookie cutters, one 8 cm one and another 2 cm one for the doughnut hole. Heat up oil in a fryer to 190 degrees C. I used canola oil, but you can use any oil you prefer. Carefully place two doughnuts at a time in the fryer and fry each side for about 60 seconds or until golden brown. Remove doughnuts from fryer and let sit on paper towel until cooled.

The doughnut is ready for icing, sugar or ganache. Or you can eat them as they are, they're delicious as they are without anything on too.

Homemade doughnuts are really great, and they are fantastic straight out of the fryer. So delicious when they're still a bit warm. I love to fry the doughnut holes on their own and roll them in cinnamon-sugar and eat them before I eat the actual doughnuts, but don't tell anyone... 

Dress: Nishe via Asos (old)

Nail polish: Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine in Blueberry

Much love!

The origin of my style

Blouse: ModCloth (sold out)

I have recently been thinking about style, and where it comes from. Some time ago ModCloth announced a competition (details: here) where you were to post an outfit inspired by a woman in your life (e.g. mother) in time for Mother's Day. This got me thinking about where my style comes from, and how much of it has been influenced by my mother.

My Mum in yellow with her friends some time in the 70's.

Instantly I knew what outfit I could submit for the competition. I already had everything in my closet, and I didn't even need to search for an appropriate picture of my Mum and her outfits, I knew exactly which one to use!

Blouse: ModCloth (sold out)

Skirt: H&M (very old)

I could have my Mother go into a clothes shop and choose one single item, and the likelihood that it would be the same as I've chosen is big. For some reason when it comes to clothes and style my Mother and I often agree. Is that because I've grown up seeing what my Mother wears?
Maybe, but as any scientific experiment using siblings, I have a sister to compare with, and she does not share our style. So it got me thinking, how much of our tastes are intrinsic and how much is developed?

Like much else clothes, style, fashion and more, are probably a mixture of intrinsic and developed tastes. For me, my major inspirations when it comes to style have been ladies during the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to clothes, and so is my Mother. And thus we end up liking the same things. I'm just lucky my Mum and I aren't the same age, because we would surely fight over clothes.

Where does your style come from? And how inspired have you been by your mother or other ladies in your life?