Tenant Information - News

As the Royal Wedding approaches if you are not too busy preparing your Royal Wedding cupcakes (recipe below) there are a number of celebratory events happening round Sheffield.

These range from the opportunity for a civilised glass of pimms and cucumber sandwich at Sheffield University SU’s garden party and community events such as a “wedding dress walk” and “right royal wedding party” in the city centre.

There will also no doubt be street parties all over Sheffield, so embrace the royal wedding if for nothing more than a day off from work/uni and great excuse to splash out on some Royal Wedding tat such as these wonderful items... http://royalweddingtat.tumblr.com/

For those of you who feel like celebrating less like Prince William and more like Prince Harry many of the clubs and bars around Sheffield are hosting Royal Wedding themed nights within stumbling distance of your student accommodation including Sheffield Uni SU, o2 Academy, Plug and a variety night at the Cavendish. So why not dress up like your favourite royals and toast the happy couple with a shot or two!

With the Royal Wedding just around the corner here is the perfect cupcake recipe for you to try out in your student accommodation;

What you need...

For the cake:

• 120g plain flour
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• ¼tsp vanilla extract
• 1 quantity vanilla frosting
• hundreds and thousands or other edible sprinkles, to decorate
• a 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases

For the vanilla frosting:

• 250g icing sugar, sifted
• 80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 25ml whole milk
• a couple of drops of vanilla extract

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
• Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and mix together until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Then gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.
• Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth.
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.
• When cooked leave to cool.

For the vanilla frosting:

• Beat the icing sugar and butter together until well mixed.
• Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then gradually add to the butter/icing mixture. 
• Once the milk has all been added continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.
• Spread or pipe the frosting onto your cakes once they are cold. Decorate as you wish using either sprinkles and/or sweets. If your more adventurous you could make your own royal wedding themed decorations using fondant icing.

Feel free to email us pictures of your cupcakes ...

Here is Fern Cottons attempt at decorating a cake to look like Prince William

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/photos/fearnecotton/5164/last

and here are some other cake/cupcake ideas...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.105992616153224.12859.100002274593183

From The Home Accommodation Team

Happy Christmas from the Home Accommodation team

Before you leave Sheffield and your accommodation for Christmas please remember to….

• Leave your heating turned on at a low temperature to prevent  your pipes from  freezing
• Set your burglar alarm
• Ensure that all your windows are closed 

Other useful tips . . .

• Please do not dry clothes on radiators—this causes black spot mold and condensation to develop

•  Where applicable please make sure all rubbish is placed inside the bins provided not on the bin store floor

• Please do not put hair straighteners directly onto the carpet or furniture, make sure you use a heat mat

Don't forget your next rent installment it due 1st March 2010 - remember to make sure you have given us your payment method.

Check out our Christmas Party pictures here!

Have a great Christmas and New Year break!!!

A pair of Sheffield students who set fire to a television by placing it in an oven at their student halls of residence were jailed for two years today.

Joshua Hart, 20, and 21-year-old Daniel Gyi decided to put the front part of the TV monitor in the electric oven in the kitchen of their student flat in Endcliffe Crescent, Sheffield, after they had spent the afternoon drinking.

Two weeks previously, biomedical sciences student Gyi and Hart, who was studying Spanish and maths, had finished their first year exams at the University of Sheffield

Prosecutor Elisabeth Martin told Sheffield Crown Court the pair had spent the afternoon in the pub drinking and watching football before returning to their four-storey block of student flats.

She told the court seven other people - two men and five women - were also in the student accommodation block at the time of the incident, which was around 3.30am on June 26 last year.

Describing what happened on the night she said: 'A chair that's in the hallway of the flat had been set alight and gone out.

'In the communal area of the flat itself a bag had been placed over one of the alarms and the heat detectors.

'A further heat sensor in the kitchen had been covered up with a plastic bag, a Tesco carrier bag.

'An appliance was found in the oven. What happened in this particular chain of events was that a monitor, a TV monitor, had been placed in the electric oven.'

Ms Martin said Hart and Gyi had been drinking in the pub during the afternoon before returning home where they then decided to throw the television off the top of the block of flats.

The front part broke off and the students took this back inside, she said, before setting fire to a chair and putting the television in the oven.

When thick smoke started pouring from the oven, the defendants panicked before they left their student accommodation, she said.

The court heard he also told police: 'We just fancied burning it for no reason'.

Hart, she said, described himself as 'particularly drunk that night'.

The defendants wandered off, Ms Martin told the court, and Ben Rigby and Jake Nolton, who were in the block of flats that night, were woken by the heat alarms going off and proceeded to wake up the other five people in the premises.

It was only when Hart and Gyi eventually came back and saw how bad the smoke was that they alerted the security officer on the premises, the court heard.

Two fire engines were called to the block of flats and in later investigations fire officers found that the smoke in the kitchen had become so hot it had settled on the floor.

Gyi and Hart both eventually admitted they had caused the incident and pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Their defence counsel, Peter McCartney, said both young men had committed a huge error in judgment by putting the plastic part of the television in the oven.

He said: 'It was extremely reckless. It was not, however, malicious.'

But Judge Peter Kelson QC said he could not ignore the seriousness of the offence the pair had committed but took into account that they were both of previous good character.

He said: 'Doing the best I can to balance everything and with a heavy heart knowing the sorrow and grief it will cause to your families, I sentence you both to an immediate custodial sentence of two years.

'You will serve half of that.'

As the pair were taken down their families, who were present in court, sobbed loudly and hugged each other.

PC Rachael Burgin, from South Yorkshire Police, said officers agreed with the judge's decision in the 'unique and complex case'.

She added: 'The incident could have resulted in tragic consequences had it remained undetected.

'We have to pay credit to Jake and Ben for intervening. I agree fully with Judge Kelson's decision.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360658/Students-cooked-TV-oven-drunken-prank-jailed-years.html#ixzz1G6JL93wp