London with Mum

So mum and I went for a long weekend to London a few weeks back to spend some quality time together before uni. It was really special and we had such a great time! We went to art galleries, ate tons and tons of cake and went to the natural history museum (and of course did a little shopping!!)

We visited the Nordic Bakery where they serve these delicious cinnamon rolls. they are quite filling (even for me) but warm, sticky and sweet with a lovely taste of cinnamon.

The decor it very spacious and simple which really works well and is well worth a visit for a quick coffee and a cake.

I LOVE Damien Hirst. I'd heard many reports about the exhibition, not all good, but I still really wanted to go, and I have to say it was one of my favourite exhibitions I've been too. I think his work is so interesting and really stops to make you think about the topics he's investigating, also his aesthetic is just incredible and everything is so brightly coloured yet some are natural and delicate. So worth it seeing, and already increased my love for him....

This is one of his pieces, it's outside the TATE modern where the exhibition was.

We went to a really cool French patisserie cafe in Soho called Maison bertaux  

where they sold this yummy fruit tart (It really reminds me of the cream cake in Matilda, which is my favourite film of all time).

 We also visited primrose Bakery in Primrose Hill which has a tiny little shop but delicious homemade cakes and cupcakes. 

I had a brownie and ice tea in another little cake shop (we really did eat a LOT OF CAKE ...)

The Natural History museum was really fascinating. We went to the inside out exhibition which explains and shows all about how the insides of animals work. Unfortunately you couldn't take photographs so that was a bummer!

They had these beautiful jars full of real animal specimens kept in preserving liquid as samples in the lower floor. There were all kinds from reptiles to fox's and birds, all kept in hundreds of jars. 

 Mum having her usual drink of choice, sparkling water! I had a pear juice (this was also in the Nordic Bakery)

 Mum also had a very jammy flapjack in another cafe 'Fleetriver bakery' near Holborn. it was extra delicious and I kept sneaking a few pieces.

 We also visited China town, I just love all the packaging! The colours and text are so vibrant :) I bough Scott some Panda biscuits from here as a small present, we usually get them from Selfridges but they were much cheaper here which is a bonus!

And finally we got the train home... :(  Such a wonderful time and Thank you to my mum for always being there and making things special x

The Sugar Plum Tearoom, Rhewl

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the long gap between blogging this past two weeks, it's just Ive been totally consumed in the opening of our new tearoom 'The Sugar Plum Tearoom'. Ive been involved in so much, from decor, to preparing food, choosing crockery and adding final touches to make it extra special. Now that it has finally officially opened I will have more time to do bogging, art and cooking etc :) But for now, I have some pictures to share with you from this first week (We had a 'soft lauch' on Monday and were now at the end of the first week).

We wanted the tearoom to be a lovely place for all generations, and somewhere where you have the combination of beautiful surrounding's and delicious local food! The colour scheme is light and bright and I especially love the different coloured chairs and food tins that hold the plants :)

Scott has been wonderful, and spent so many hours helping my parents, myself and the staff at Homewoodbound out in making the tearoom possible, - so thanks Scott :) He's also head waiter and is a pro at the coffee machine already! (I'm still learning that part....)

The kitchen is open plan and all the fresh homemade local cakes are displayed on the marble counter.

Here are some blueberry cupcakes we tried on Saturday - they were so pretty and still tasted delicious and creamy.

Happy customers from this past week :) -

Cath is the lovely lady that makes the majority of the cakes - she's really talented and her St Clements mascarpone sponge cake is a real favourite already!

This was our welsh afternoon tea with bara brith and Welsh cakes, served with butter and a pot of tea for two.

My homemade 'Watercress' soup was going down a treat earlier in the week. (The same watercress soup recipe I posted a few weeks ago).

This was my grandma enjoying a cup of tea this afternoon, I love her too bits and she and my grandad have both been to sample various items from the menu.

I will post more as time goes on, but I'm also working of starting a blog just for the tearoom, so I will also post the link for that site as soon as I'm finished tweaking it...

You can find us on Faceboook - The sugar plum tearoom

And on twitter - SugarPlumTRoom

The website is also in development, but my mu Hazel has written a blog featured on Homewood Bounds site - Tearoom Blog

Chocolate tiffin cake

Chocolate tiffin is my go-to cake of choice when I'm out. Sometimes I fancy a brownie or a Victoria sponge, but generally I tend to edge towards a tiffin. I think it's because I am such a chocolate monster, that I sometimes get bored with all the sponge in cake. My friend Cecily, and boyfriend Scott think I'm quite irritating when I eat all the icing and filling of a cake but leave the sponge. I don't know about you, but to me that's the best bit! Tiffin however doesn't have sponge, especially not dry sponge, as it consists of a biscuit base, soaked in butter and syrup and flavoured with cocoa powder - YUM.

Sometimes it can have big chunks of biscuit, or can be finely crushed, sometimes it has nuts, cherries and dried fruit, and sometimes it's plain. But it HAS to have a lovely thick layer of milk (preferably milk, but dark will do) chocolate on top!

Recipe adapted from This page

Ingredients: 

110g (4 oz) butter

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

4 teaspoons cocoa

225g (8 oz) digestive biscuits, crushed (some fine and some chunky)

1 handful of raisins , and or glacier cherries, dates etc

225g (8 oz) milk chocolate

1. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan. Careful not to burn the butter. Now add the cocoa powder and sugar.

2. Crush the digestive biscuits. You can do this by hand or in a food processor. I place the biscuits into a freezer bag and use a rolling pin to crush them, which is good as it finely crushes some parts and leaves some good chunks too.

3. Now add  your biscuits and handful of fruit/nuts to your wet mixture. Give them all a good mix so the dry ingredients are all covered.

4. Pour mixture into a Swiss roll size tin and press down. Melt the chocolate and pour over the mixture in the tin.  Refrigerate for roughly and hour or until ready to serve.

 

 I like mine with a cup of tea. It doesn't really need anything with it as it's so delicious and rich as it is.

  This is also a lovely little plate I found in a box of things my mum had bought at an antiques fair last week. The colours of the flowers are really cool, and I like that their not just pinks and daintily coloured. The maroon works well with the dark green, and really sets off the cake !

 This cake doesn't last very long in our house! My mum is also a big tiffin fan, and my dad and Scott just like cake generally, so they regularly enjoy eating the concoctions I find myself making.

Pinapple upside down cake

Pineapple upside down cake is one of those cakes on my 'list' of cakes to make. I've only eaten it a couple of times, but I'm always enticed by the red glace cherries and the lovely golden caramelised pineapple ring's. It's pretty retro, and my mum always tells me of how she used to make it in domestic science (cookery class) when she was younger.

I served ours with minted mascarpone which is so fresh and delicious (recipe further below)

 Here is my adapted version of Nigella's cake.

Some recipes caramelise their pineapple first,some don't, but I prefer to so you get that lovely golden colour!

Caramelising:

1oz butter

2oz caster sugar

Cake
6-8 slices pineapple from a 425g can, plus 3 x 15ml tablespoons of the juice

1 small tub of glace cherries

100g flour

100g caster sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g soft butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Melt the butter and sugar in a non stick frying pan on a medium heat. Now add the slices of pineapple so that start to caramelise and brown nicely (without burning).
Now leave them to cool.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Butter a square tin roughly 20 x 20 cm   (neither loose-bottomed nor spring form).

 Arrange the pineapple slices to make a pattern like in the below picture.

Fill each pineapple with a cherry, and then scatter them around the edges and any spare gaps.

Cream the butter and sugar. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla paste. Now mix together the dry ingredients, and gently fold into the wet ingredients.

Use the pineapple juice to loosen the mixture a little.

Pour the mixture carefully over the cherries and pineapple rings. The mixture will only just cover the bottom layer so don't worry if you think you haven't made enough!

I used a spatula. Make sure you don't reposition the cherries accidentally whilst doing the 'smoothing'.

Bake for 30 minutes. Now ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one swift movement, tip the cake the right way up!

The following pictures are taken with instagram!

Minted Mascarpone

A handful of fresh mint leaves

1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring

1 tub mascarpone

300ml double cream

Wash your mint leaves if they are from your garden (like mine). Now blitz them until they are finely chopped in a food processor. Now add them to a bowl, along with the peppermint flavouring. Add the mascarpone and cream, giving them a good mixing together. Chill for 20 minutes or so, and there you have it! a gorgeous alternative to plain cream or ice cream. I first had this at Piccolino's in Manchester with Scott for my birthday meal, it was delicious and i couldn't wait to get home and give it a go myself!

The mascarpone really lifted the cake, and made the perfect combination. It also works really well with chocolate brownies and fondant's!

We had this after our main meal as part of our 'Thursday family night'. Even though my Dad was on a furniture delivery and Scott was on holiday skiing! But myself, grandma, grandad and mum had a lovley meal no-the less :)

Summer dresses, seabear and abstract dinosaurs!

A few moment's using instagram

1. New Earrings from new Look £3.99

2. Some gorgeous vintage toy rabbit's from my dad as a present

3. Trying on pretty summer dresses in Topshop

4. Seabear cooling down in the pool with all this sun were having.

5. Cecily's abstract dinosaur in college

6. More Seabear

7. Spending time with Georgie (GG) who's back from uni!

8. Mother's Day Victoria sponge  

Grandma's Chocolate Cake

 This is a secret recipe that my grandma uses for a biscuity chocolate cake which we have at special occasions and it's a real family favourite. I like to add caramelised almonds to the top as a little twist, but it is still the same recipe from 57 years ago when my grandparents bought their first stove and were given a recipe book free with this cake recipe in it!

Here is the recipe for the caramelised almonds.....

1 packet of flaked almonds

1 teaspoon of water

1oz icing sugar

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 8.

Place the almonds in a sieve and wet them slightly under a tap for a few seconds. Then sprinkle them with the icing sugar, making sure to coat as many of them as possible. Now line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and spread the almonds on the sheet. Now place in the oven for 5- 10 minutes, making sure you keep a close eye on them so they don't burn. Then take them out of the oven and leave to cool.

(pictures at the bottom)

I made it the other day as a treat and it still tastes so good.