This Charming Quiff

I love a good quiff.  Its not a hairstyle I can pull off myself but on others, its awesome.  I particularly love my popstars to be quiffed.  Throughout the ages of pop it has been proven that donning a quiff is the surefire way to stardom.  Lets take a look at the evidence....

Elvis of course is probably the most famous of the early quiff pioneers, getting out the grease in the 1950s.  However my favourite 50s pop quiff comes from the legend that is Cliff Richard.  So famous is Cliff's early choice of hairdo that he is often referred to as "Quiff Richard" ha ha ha (excuse my sides from splitting with laughter)

Now, if this next pop star was a category on Family Fortunes our survey would probably say "The Smiths" was the top answer, but you'd definintley win a bonus prize for naming "Quiff" as something people relate to melodic 80s mardy bum Morrissey.  Like Brian May's regal curls, Morrissey's gravity defying hairdo has stood the test of time and he is still rocking a quiff today. 

Keeping the quiff flying high for the girls is Elly Jackson of La Roux.  Supporting the theory that a quiff = pop success, Elly's quiff got bigger and bigger as her career took off until it reached a staggering height of 15 inches (probably, maybe, this is just a rough estimate) upon reaching number 1 with Bulletproof. 

Taking the quiff to Europe are hyperactive twins Jedward.  After lasting for weeks on the X-Factor (I'm sure some would say it felt like years) the guys have had chart success after teaming up with Vanilla Ice and came 8th while representing Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest earlier this month, promptly hurtling their tune Lipstick to the top of the charts throughout Europe.  With their boundless energy and ever increasing quiff size I think Jedward are set to conqour the world! 

Now the case studies all point to a formula of Catchy Tunes + Big Quiff = Guaranteed Pop Stardom.  However there are anomalies to this equation.  Just cast your mind back to 1997, if you went to the Smash Hits Tour that year you would have seen Jimmy Ray flashing his quiff all over the place whilst promoting "Are You Jimmy Ray?".  He had the catchy song, he had the big quiff, sadly he was only a one hit wonder never to be heard of again.  Who knows, maybe he flattened the quiff after the first single and that's why we never heard from him again? 

this old thing...

I found a dress that I've not worn for ages in my wardrobe this morning, so decided to fling it on for work.  But then I got loads of compliments on it so thought I would share with the blogging world...

I got it about 4 years ago, its a Laura Lees for Topshop design.  I loved the Laura Lees collection and bought quite a lot of the dresses that she did for Topshop.  They were always a mix of pretty prints with quirky embroidery, and cut beautifully.  This dress is a classic example of Laura Lees. 

I also managed to get a beautiful dress from her mainline collection at a bargain price on Ebay but its never fitted me :(  Seems her Topshop sizing is a lot more generous than the mainline collection! 

Totally Tropical

Yum yum my obbsession with pineapple is still going strong and I've discovered some delicious pineapple desserts for summer.  Del Monte do an ice lolly made from pure pineapple juice.  My word they are absolutely scrumptious and so refreshing!  According to the packaging one lolly counts as one of your "5 a Day" too, bonus! 

I love cake and one of my favourite pass times is baking and experimenting with different flavours.  I've been wanting to do some kind of pineapple cake for a while now so I bought a fresh pineapple this week and got in the kitchen.  I decided to do a variation on the traditional cupcake.  I wasn't sure how much of a flavour the fresh pineapple alone would give the sponge so I decided to use pineapple yogurt as well. 

So, after a bit of thought and Googling for inspiration, I decided to take my basic cupcake recipe but replace half the butter with a quarter pineapple yogurt, also leaving the milk out (there's enough dairy already).  Once I mixed everything together I crushed up the pineapple and folded it into the mixture. For the icing I used more of the yogurt just mixed with icing sugar. 

I really wasn't sure how they would turn out but they were delicious!  Really light and summery with a zingy kick, yum! 

These were only the first trial so they need prettying up a bit (yellow food colouring, jelly pineapple sweets maybe?) but the little brollies will definitley be staying!  I'll be making these again soon, look out for them on the Cakes by Crumb stall at the next Lickity Split event...