Vishi's Views

To all my readers, Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅 May your holidays be filled with beautiful and happy moments with family, friends and loved ones.  I am sending virtual hugs, good vibes and love to each and everyone of you! Also sending out extra special love to anyone who is missing a loved one this year. 🙏💓 Wishing each and everyone of you a happy new year. All the best for 2021! 

 In today's post, I am sharing a recipe for delicious Christmas cupcakes. Ingredients  125 g butter, softened 200 g caster sugar 4-6 drops almond exract 4 eggs, lightly beaten 150 g self-raising flour 175 ground almonds For the topping 450 g white ready-to-roll fondant icing 55 g green ready-to-roll fondant icing 25 g red ready-to-roll fondant icing Icing sugar for dusting Method Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and put 16 paper muffin cases in muffin tins. Put the butter, sugar and almond extract in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and fold it into the mixture, then fold in the ground almonds.  Spoon the mixture into the paper muffin cases to half-fill them. Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes,or until they have risen well, are golden brown and firm to touch. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.  When the cupcakes are cool, knead the white icing until pliable, ...

When it comes to Christmas, the British royal family are just like the rest of us. They get together with the whole family, have meals, exchange gifts and enjoy relaxing and spending time together. In this post, I am sharing a few of the Royal family's Christmas traditions.  1. One week before Christmas, the Queen hosts a luncheon for extended family at Buckingham Palace. 2. The royals serve as patrons of many charities and they continue to support their respective causes throughout the holiday season by throwing Christmas parties for them. In 2018, William and Kate attended celebrations for military personnel deployed in Cyprus and their families in London. 3. Just like many other families, they send out annual Christmas cards to  well-wishers around the world. These cards always feature a portrait of the family. The royals official website says that the Queen and Prince Philip send out around 750 Christmas cards. She likes to get a head start on signing the cards while she i...

  It's December which means we have all started making plans for Christmas and shopping for gifts. Here, I am sharing some suggestions for gifts you can give to your loved ones if you are not sure what to get them or they haven't asked for anything,  Bath and beauty gift sets - You can get nice bath and beauty products such as hand towels, body washes, body butters and soap, make up brushes and cosmetics in gift sets from The Body Shop, Priceline and Kmart. They are useful things.  This bath pamper set is from Kmart  Candles - Everyone likes their homes to have beautiful scents in them, right? Candles are perfect for that and are sold in so many stores. Bath and Body Works has lovely scented candles and products and right now they have a mix and match deal where you save $20 when you spend $100 or save $10 hen you spend $50. Definitely check out their Christmas range!  A 3 wick candle from Bath & Body works Headphones: With most of us working from home, noi...

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm sure you have all started thinking about what gifts to get for your loved ones. As a book lover, I think books make great gifts and here I am going to tell you about some books which I highly recommend that you purchase. Athena Phillips is a children's author has written three great books including Carnie Vore Helps With Chores which tells the story of Carnie, a cute little dinosaur who helps her grandma with chores around the house and has fun doing it.  Donte Jackson's second book is called Herbie's Colorful World.  In this book, Herbie the dinosaur goes on an adventure with his friend Cameron the chameleon and they learns all about colors.  Donte and Athena wrote the first book of this series, Herbie's Happy Birthday, together. You can read my reviews of all three books by clicking on these links -  http://thevrk.blogspot.com/2019/02/book-review-herbies-happy-birthday.html   http://thevrk.blogspot.com/2019/08/r...

It's almost Christmas! I can't believe it's that time of year again, it feels like this year has gone so fast. Christmas trees and decorations are starting to go up in shopping centres, cities and households and people have started their gift shopping. New movies have arrived in cinemas and Netflix and this is what I will be talking about in this post. I am going to share some of my favourite Christmas movies which I'm sure most of you have seen or at least heard about.  If you haven't, definitely check them out! Home Alone is my favourite, I watch it every Christmas. Macaulay Culkin plays eight-year old Kevin McCallister who is accidently left behind by his family who fly to Paris for their holiday. Initially, Kevin enjoys being home alone but soon has to contend with two burglars.  There are four movies in the Home Alone Franchise but thei first two are the best, in my opinion.  This movie from 2004 is hilarious. Christmas with the Kranks...

  I want to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones. Enjoy feasting on delicious food, opening presents and spending time together. Hopefully Santa was good to you and brought everything you wanted! Have a safe, lovely holiday.     

Hello, Here are some easy treats you can make for Christmas. Rice Bubble Trees Ingredients: butter, mini marshmallows, green food colouring and rice bubbles, decorations Method: 1. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan 2. Add one bag of mini marshmallows 3. Put in some green food colouring 4. Add 3 cups of rice bubbles 5. Mix it together until it is combined 6. Shape the mixture into trees 7. Refrigerate for one hour 8. Decorate with white icing, m&m's or however you want.  Chocolate Peppermint Cookies Ingredients: Butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, marshmallows Method: 1. Combine half a cup of butter and 1 1/12 cups of sugar in a bowl. 2. Add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 3. Combine 2/3 cup of cocoa powder, 2 cups of flour and 1 tablespoon of baking soda 4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until they are evenly combined 5. Roll the cookie dough into small balls and ...

Hello! Can you believe Christmas is in two weeks?! This is my favourite time of the year. I love walking around the shopping centres and watching kids take photos with Santa, seeing all the beautiful decorations around the streets, in the city and hung outside houses and listening to Christmas carols. I'm sure you're all busy organising things for Christmas day and shopping for gifts. In this post, I am giving you a list of gifts you can put into stockings.    Toddlers and Kids  - Play dough, bubbles, pacifier, cute socks, baby photo book, story books, drink cups, bouncy ball, stickers, crayons, colouring book, soft toys, basketball, soccer ball, skipping rope, craft things.    Teenagers - Chewing gum, hair products, pens and pencils, lotion and sanitizer, USB/Flash drive, Jewellery, lipstick or lipbalm, Earphones/headphones, iTunes or Google Play gift card, magazine, books, make-up, mail polish, notebook, diary/journal, basketball, soccer b...