Southbank and Red Velvet disaster!

I'm loving the mist that has settled over London at the moment, and was quite surprised that it hadn't extended to Southbank where my sister and I spent the afternoon. We walked around the Tea and Coffee Festival and bought  some yummy treats from the Outsider Tart stall. I had a Pumpkin Brownie and Kelly had a Congo Bar.... the brownie was divine and I bought their cookbook as soon as I got home! My sister had mentioned this bakery earlier in the week so I thought I better check their website and ... cutest thing ever... they have a 'Barkery' where they sell dog biscuits as well! I might need to buy some for my pets back home!

In search for an ATM, we walked closer to the river and came across a Christmas market selling all the usual German sausages, Christmas decorations and Gluhwein! It took me back to the week I spent in Dusseldorf last December exploring the markets in my time off. While walking along the Thames I managed to get some stunning photos of a hazy Big Ben and Parliament. 

After a lovely afternoon, it was time to head home and bake some red velvet cupcakes! After a rather stressful week, I decided this would be the perfect way to relax before the week coming up..... I was wrong! 

I used too much bicarbonate of soda (recipe said 1 tsp - I read 1 Tbsp) .

Because of this, the first batch I made tripled in size and all moulded into 1 giant cupcake while cooking. (Luckily there was enough batter for a second batch)

As I don't have an electric beater, my icing has chunks of icing sugar in it.

And possibly the worst thing about them is that they are not red but brown! 

They look like normal chocolate cupcakes - I was so upset! But at least they taste good and when I take them into work tomorrow I might just tell everyone they're chocolate and the icing is meant to bits of icing sugar in them. 

I wont post any pics of them just yet - it will just depress me even more! I will though when I perfect the recipe and produce RED cupcakes as soon as I am back in SA in my mom's fully equipped kitchen!

On a final note, one of the blogs I've been reading recently, has been talking about an accessories shop called Barberry and Lace. If you click on this link you will get a 20% discount when you buy something from their store! Go check out their website - their necklaces are beautiful and ideal for Christmas presents! I can't wait for my goodies to arrive in the post!

London Borough Market!

Borough Market is one of my favourite places to go on a Saturday morning! Definitely worth a visit if you are in London over a weekend!

 I dream of hosting a dinner party where I have bought all the ingredients from the stalls you are able to find there.

Tower Bridge

I have been working in London for 15 months now and the one thing that I have been dying to see is Tower Bridge open.

Seeing that I work between London bridge and Tower Bridge, this should not have been such an elusive sight, but as I don't often sit on the side of the building with a Thames view it has taken a little while.

Last Thursday though, we were sitting in a room that had a perfect view and I managed to get some stunning pictures as a huge ocean liner type ship made its way up the Thames.

Views from the Greenwich Royal Observatory

After a really busy week in Düsseldorf, I managed to get some free time on Sunday and went through to Greenwich with a friend. I have been there before but the extent of our trips have been the market and the lawns of the Old Naval College. This time we actually went to the museums and found the Planetarium!

I haven't been to the Planetarium since I was in primary school and I tried to go when I was in New York but there was so many people in the museum that they weren't letting anyone in. Unfortunately we were too late to see an actual show - but at least I now know where it is and I will hike up the hill another day.

The view from the Royal Observatory is stunning! It is situated at the top of a hill behind the National Maritime Museum, and you can see great views of East London, including the O2 Dome.

The first photo below is the only photo I took in Düsseldorf this trip. The rest are from my trip to Greenwich.

We're heading off to Scotland this weekend and I intend taking loads of photos! I love the architecture in Edinburgh and lost all my photos from my last visit. But more info about Scotland and our adventure to the Highlands when I get back!

High Tea Weekend!

My sister has been talking about the Swissotel's TLSee Afternoon tea for months, so about 3 weeks ago I decided I would surprise her and reserve a table for 31 July and tell her to keep the afternoon free for a surprise.

About 2 weeks later, I read about a Cakey Perry pop up high tea happening over the same weekend as our trip to Swissotel. Not only was I fascinated by the concept of pop up shops/restaurants and now high teas, I was also intrigued by the theme - a high tea based on Katy Perry's California Girl video - and all the photos that I've seen popping up on my twitter stream over the past week. We just had to go! Two high teas in one weekend? Why the hell not!

On Saturday afternoon we ventured through to East London to a tiny costume shop called Prangsta  on New Cross Road which was also the venue of the Cakey Perry High Tea. We were treated to tasty Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry Cupcakes, Cake Pops, Meringues, Bikini shaped biscuits, macaroons and strawberries stuffed with cake! Not to mention a rainbow layer cake.

As I've mentioned before, my latest obsession is making a layer cake so I was thrilled when we were given a slice of a layer cake with 6 layers! My other obsession is macaroons, I've tried once before to make them but it was a disaster so I have vowed that I would practice until I could make the perfect macaroon... which these were!

Not only was the tea amazing, but the décor was incredible and you could see all the effort that went into creating the perfect setting for this event. My sister's favourite item? The gold heels on display next to the rocking horse! My favourite? The giant gummy bear!

This afternoon was such a novel idea and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next event that Miss_Cakehead throws!

Sunday's tea at the Swissotel was a lovely way to finish off the weekend and prepare for the busy work week ahead. Being more of a traditional high tea, we were served a tier with the usual sandwiches, scones and tarts; as well as a plate of biscuits.  

These biscuits are the reason my sister has been talking about this tea for months! And the reason? They are shaped like some of London's landmarks.

As you can see, we have Big Ben, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye and a few other famous sights. Thank goodness they provided us with a box to take away the left over cakes because by the time we were ready to leave, all of the biscuits were still on the plate except for Tower bridge! 

After a splendid weekend of tea and cake, I was left thinking about what I would serve at my ideal afternoon tea. In my last post, I mentioned that I am currently in love with the Hummingbird Cake Days cookbook  so it would be very much driven from there with things such as tiramisu cupcakes and red velvet whoopie pies. But I will have to throw in a few of my (soon to be) perfected macaroons and mini layer cakes. I told my mother that she must plan her next book club as an afternoon tea where I will do the cooking, but will have to think about the cleaning. All I know now is that I better start practising!

Saturday afternoon braai

This past weekend we celebrated the lovely weather with a combination of British and South African summer culture: a Braai and Pimms! As I was hosting, I made a few side dishes and a dessert.

The one dish I made was roasted butternut with coriander and caramelised onions:

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prepare 1 butternut  by peeling, de-seeding it and cutting it into thin slices. On a large piece of foil, place some butter, sliced chilli and some roughly chopped coriander.  Place the sliced butternut over the chilli and coriander. Season with some salt, pepper, a sprinkle of brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and a tiny bit of olive oil. 

 Fold the foil over and fold over the edges so you create a parcel that will not let the steam escape while its cooking. Be careful not to get a hole in the foil parcel you have now created. Place on a baking tray and bake for approx 30 mins.

While the butternut is baking, caramelise the onions. I always make more because people tend to pick at them when they are cooked and when I go to assemble the dish half the amount of onions has halved! 

Heat some olive oil in a pan over a high heat, add 2 sliced red onions. Fry for a few minutes until the onions start to soften. Add brown sugar and vinegar and a tiny pinch of dried sage. Stir the onions and let them cook for a while longer until they look like this:

Remove the caramelised onions from the heat and set aside. Remove the butternut from the oven. When opening the foil parcel, be careful of the steam! Check the butternut is cooked - if not reseal the parcel and out back in the oven for a while longer. If its cooked, place on a serving plate and sprinkle the caramelised onions and some more chopped coriander over the butternut. Serve hot and enjoy!

A few months ago I bought the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days cookbook. I have been trying to find a time to use it, but as I've mentioned before, I have NO baking equipment. Well on Saturday morning I decided to change that as I found a tart that I thought would go brilliantly with a late afternoon braai. I went out and bought the cutest cooks measure from Oliver Bonas, a whisk, sieve and tart tin. 

The tart was a peach and raspberry tart, which required I make a shortcrust pastry (by hand) which I rolled out with an empty wine bottle (no rolling pin) and placed in the tart tin.

While the pastry was blind baking ( foil and rice as opposed to baking parchment and baking beans), I made a custard and whipped up some cream (also by hand). Once the custard  had cooled,  I mixed the cream in with the custard and when the tart pastry case had finished baking I placed the custard cream into it.

When I was just about ready to serve it, I cut up 2 peaches and arranged them on the tart and placed a handful of raspberries in the middle. I finished it off with a sprinkle of  castor sugar and a few mint leaves.

I must say, I was very pleased with the end result and I can't wait to make something else from this cookbook! It also gave me the opportunity to use a birthday present I got from my sister all the way back in January which she bought from the Octopus shop:

I decided on Sunday afternoon that I should use the left over egg whites and make meringues.... once again by hand! By this stage I was really wishing that I had an electric beater! But nevertheless, the meringues came out really well and I will definitely put myself through all the whisking again if I have left over egg whites.

First Post

I've been toying with idea of starting a blog for a while now, but I have always come up with excuses which stopped me from carrying through with it. These range from not knowing what I would write about to thinking that it would be really difficult to create one and would take more effort than its worth.

I'm pleasantly surprised that it did not take that long to create - I did spend forever trying to make it look 'right' however and then another few hours dragging things around the screen while I put off writing anything. But now no more excuses, the time has come. 

I'm currently on secondment in London, which unfortunately means that I work a bit too hard some (most) of the time, but I am fulfilling a dream that I have had since I was a little girl. I love the fast-paced environment and constant movement. It always makes me wonder where everyone is trying to get to and  what are they thinking about while they gracefully overtake tourists who walk through London underground stations with dazed expressions of pure panic and excitement. 

View of London from the London Eye - December 2010

I love how easy it is to travel from London, in April I spent 5 days in New York and realised a new dream to take the place of my 'London dream': I want to live in New York for a few months. This has surprised me, because up until recently I did not have much of a desire to go to the States, but now I am constantly looking up flights and imagining myself exploring the streets of a city that is so similar to London yet so different.

Stature of Liberty - New York - April 2011

Not only do I live for travelling, but I absolutely love taking photos of the places I've been and the things I've done. Whenever I go on a trip I always make sure my camera is packed... even before I check that I have my passport and tickets. This was my main motivation to to start a blog - I wanted somewhere that I can post my photos so others can see them. Therefore, most of the photos I will post will be my own.

So, I have mentioned my passion for travelling and photography... I also love cooking. I specifically enjoy finding a really complicated recipe and making it - without a trial run - for a dinner party. My latest obsession is making a layer cake - the more layers the better. Unfortunately I don't have the right equipment so it will have to wait till I move back to South Africa in January where I will have access to my mother's kitchen.

Finally, I love music! I can't play anything - but I listen to it all the time and am constantly on the lookout for a new band or song that I can listen to on repeat till I know all the lyrics. The music I like changes all the time and depends largely on my mood. At the moment my favourite song is 'To the Wind - Eastern Conference Champions' and my favourite band is Kings of Leon. I saw them play at Hyde Park in June and it was one of the best experiences of my life!