Foodies Festival, Syon Park

Todays’ post is about all things food and drink. I don’t know about you but for me bank holidays are all about relaxation, family time and obviously eating way to much! So, during the bank holiday weekend I had tickets to the Foodies Festival in Syon Park. As the name suggests the Foodies Festival is essentially a celebration of food and drink. It contains an array of independent food and drink stalls from yummy brownies and unique dips to pop-up restaurants and bars. Throughout the day there are also food demonstrations and master classes by top chefs, such as Aldo Zilli and last year’s masterchef winner Ping Coombes.

Tickets are a little bit on the pricey side around £10-15 for an adult (although there always seem’s to be 2-4-1 deals available). The event is really designed to be a fun day out for the whole family with plenty of open space for picnics and live music playing, which adds to the whole festival vibe,- so I would say definitely worth the entrance price. You even get free products samples at some stalls, so you can taste before you buy  :)

What made this visit particularly special though was the gorgeous weather on the day –the sunshine
created a lovely relaxed summery atmosphere - very rare for a bank holiday weekend in the UK! In fact, I remember the last foodies festival I attended in Hampton Court a couple of years back, it was pouring with rain and I was covered in mud by the time I got home! This was certainly a very different experience to that!

Here are a few pics from the day...

To quench our thirst we opted for some freshly squeezed mango juice. Lately I’ve been loving freshly squeezed juices as they are 100% pure, which means no added sugars or sweetener’s, unlike the processed juices available on the high street. They are so much healthier and you can really taste the flavour of the fruit. 

Now for my favourite stall of all - The Brownie Bar

I’m not usually a brownie person, but these looked delicious and there were soo many unique flavours to choose from that I was intrigued to try them. It took me a good 10 minutes to decide which flavours to try. I eventually opted for the Malteaser Brownie (which was hands down the best brownie I have ever tasted) and the Nutella + Peanut Butter Brownie (which was also pretty good!).

Washed down by some ice tea…

As it was a sunny day, I felt it was obligatory to have some ice cream in honour of the good weather. The Whipsmith’s stall were advertising nitrogen ice cream, something I had never heard of before.

They make the ice cream in front of you, which is fascinating to watch. Although it did mean a long wait.

There were soo many flavours to choose from …

I was also incredibly excited to see that there was a macaroon stall (Dimkin's Patisserie)!!! Of course I absolutely had to try these and I wasn’t disappointed they were just as delicious as those I’ve tried in France and Belgium :)

More sweet stuff!

The only downside to my day was that there weren’t many savoury stalls that sold vegetarian dishes, which meant I had no choice but to overdose on the sweet treats (which I guess isn’t too bad for a sweet tooth)!!!

Overall, it was a lovely day out and I would highly recommend it to any foodies out there!

See you next time for more of my ramblings. 

xx

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Kunzle Cake Recipe

The other day I was feeling a little nostalgic so I had rummage through my secondary school things and came across a recipe from 5 years ago when I was just in my first year. After endless Google searches I have come to the conclusion that there aren't any Kunzle cake recipes out there quite  like this one, so for today's post I thought I  would share this beloved recipe with all you lovely people (you can thank me later)

For those of you who don't know a Kunzle Cake is basically a chocolately biscuit mixture topped with more chocolate… heavenly!

Kunzle cake is possibly one of my favourite sweet treats (and that's saying a lot) its super easy to make as no baking is required and is perfect for any party or those lazy Netflix’s days.

To make Kunzle cake you will need: 

200g hobnobs or digestives, 85g Butter, 1tbsp Golden Syrup and 1 dessert spoon of granulated sugar             

Topping: 100g milk chocolate, 25g butter, 1tbsp semi-skimmed milk and decorations of your choice.

Method:

Step One: Firstly you will need to break your biscuits. I placed the biscuits into sandwich bags and used a rolling pin to break them up - don't get too carried away because you want the biscuits to be broken into small chunks not a powder! Alternatively, you can use your hands to break them in to small chunks but that's more time consuming. 

Step Two: In a small pan melt the 85g Butter, golden syrup and the sugar over a low heat. 

Step Three: Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in the broken biscuits and mix throughly.

Step Four: Press the mixture in to a 1x7" square or round sandwich tin.

Step Five: To make the topping melt the chocolate and 25g butter in the microwave at 20 second intervals until completely melted. Alternatively you can use a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water if you feel more comfortable doing it that way. Once it has melted stir in the milk.

Step Six: Spread the topping over the surface of the Kunzle cake and top with your chosen decorations. I used some white chocolate stars.

Step Seven: Once it has cooled pop in the fridge so it can set.
Step Eight: Once it is has set cut into slices and enjoy..

Hope you liked today's post I knew it was worth keeping this recipe for a rainy day! 

If you make the Kunzle cake be sure to tweet me a picture of it :) 

See you next time for more of my ramblings.

xx

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Oriental Afternoon High Tea at Yumacha Braserrie, Nottingham

Today I will be reviewing another recent afternoon tea experience of mine, this time from my very own home town of Nottingham, for those of you who have not heard of Nottingham think…Robin Hood, Maid Marian!

I have been far and wide for afternoon tea (well…. London & York!), yet I have never sampled the delights of afternoon tea in one of my local cafes/ restaurants – until recently that is!

So a couple of weeks ago I was craving tea and cake (yet again!) and I managed to persuade my sister and brother-in-law who were visiting from London to treat themselves (and me) to a late afternoon slice of cake at Central Avenue in West Bridgford (our local hub for shops and restaurants). It was then that I discovered Yumacha for the first time…

Yumacha is a gorgeous newly opened bar/ restaurant in West Bridgford with an oriental theme to it. As soon as I walked in I was blown away by the décor, as you will see from the pictures below it really is a beautiful little place – very quirky and sophisticated. I particularly love the mismatched sofas – they looked so comfortable and add to the peaceful and relaxing vibe of the restaurant.

In the centre of each table there was this adorable flower pot  – I warn you now do not pick it up to admire it…it has a lot of water in it, which could spill all over you!! You should learn from my mistakes! - No dining experience is complete without me embarrassing myself at least once!!

On the walls there were historical photographs of how Central Avenue was in 1965, which I thought was a lovely touch!

Ok, so enough of my ramblings about the appearance of the restaurant –after a quick perusal of the menu, I discovered to my absolute delight that Yumacha serve an oriental themed afternoon tea and priced at only £10.50!!, which seems like an absolute bargain compared to the £44 I forked out for my last afternoon tea in London! So it was decided – 3 oriental afternoon teas it was J

The waiter appeared momentarily confused and a little perplexed when we asked for the afternoon tea. As Yumacha is a fairly new restaurant I’m guessing we might have been the first customers to opt for the afternoon tea! Perhaps this post will inspire a few more people to follow in our footsteps!

The waiter quickly overcame his surprise and began laying the table with the cutest mismatched cups and saucers and teapots, filled with yummy loose leaf herbal tea - ready for our afternoon tea.

While we were admiring the mismatched cups and saucers the waiter brought out our fruit scones, now as I mentioned in my previous post the scones are my favourite part of any afternoon tea and again I wasn't disappointed! I am not usually that keen on fruit scones as I feel it makes the scone really sweet, but these were delicious so I happily dolloped the cream/jam on and went forward with my usual Devonshire cream tea.

After enjoying the cream tea we moved on to the next stage…the sandwiches! There was only one sandwich type, your standard cucumber sandwich – (a little disappointing)! The oriental inspired dishes were a prawn cracker, which was surprisingly lovely - I even gobbled up my sisters when she wasn't looking! There was a duck spring roll, but thankfully also a vegetarian spring roll option, which was incidentally one of the yummiest spring rolls I have tasted!

Unfortunately, when it came to the sweet treats (my forte) I wasn't entirely impressed with the line-up. However, this really is about personal preference, I personally have an extreme dislike of banana and one of the cakes happened to be a banana and toffee loaf cake, which I didn’t go near!  

Chocolate on the other hand is one of my weaknesses and when I saw an extremely chocolaty truffle sitting on the stand I was in heaven! Before I grabbed it from the tray and gobbled it up the waitress recommended to have at the end as it was very sweet! That was certainly the case! It takes a while to eat as it is very messy and very rich. While the three of us have overactive sweet tooth’s, on this occasion we were unable to devour all the cakes and pastries, as it was a bit of a sweetness overload even for us!

In keeping with the oriental theme we were also served a fortune cookie alongside our tea! Let’s hope my fortune cookie prediction comes true….

You sort of get what you pay for in my opinion, while the whole atmosphere was brilliant, the service and décor were just as good as what you would expect from afternoon tea at a top hotel, the part I was most looking forward to…the cakes (obviously) was a slight let down as I feel it was overly sweet and the options didn't really appeal to my taste buds. Overall, the experience was pleasant and enjoyable. I loved the unique oriental twist to the usual traditional English tea so I would definitely encourage others to check it out. 

If you don’t live in Nottingham and you don’t have the good fortune to be a short journey away from Yumacha then it’s worth checking out your local cafes/restaurants as you never know they might have a quirky afternoon tea option on offer, which is just waiting for you! The perfect thing about finding a cafe/restaurant near you that offers afternoon tea is that you don’t usually have to book ages in advance, you can simply pop over whenever you fancy a special treat!

Hope you liked today's post!

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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Wonderland Afternoon Tea Review at the Langham, London

So, time for another dose of my ramblings! As promised today's post will be a review of the ever so posh Wonderland Afternoon Tea at the Langham Hotel in Central London.

As my sister was hitting a big milestone in her life (the big 30) we thought we would celebrate (take her mind of it) by going to The Langham Hotel for a spot of Afternoon Tea! Now as much as I love afternoon tea the Langham was a serious step up from my usual cuppa in my PJ’s during an episode of eastenders!!

The Langham Hotel is located on Portland Place in Central London and has been there since its opening on 10th June 1865 (wow). We were drawn to the Langham over all the other posh afternoon teas on offer across the capital, as it is described as the birthplace of afternoon tea…oh and did I mention that it’s just a 5 minute walk from Oxford Street – perfect for a spot of retail therapy after gobbling up all those yummy treats! 

The afternoon tea is served in the Palm Court, which is really easy to find as it is on the ground floor, just opposite the main entrance. The Palm Court had a slight 1920’s, Great Gatsby vibe to it with dim lighting and a beautiful gold pattern on the walls – not quite as traditional as I’d expected but classy and elegant nonetheless. It had a very relaxed yet stylish ambience to it.

We chose the Wonderland Afternoon Tea, which is only served at 3 sitting times - 1pm, 3:15pm and 5:30pm, each lasting two hours.

We were greeted by a smiley lady at the reception who seated us right in the corner of the Palm Court. I truly believe we had the best seats in the restaurant perfect to get the whole view of the room and some privacy. Throughout our visit we were treated to live music from the pianist in the corner, which really added to the relaxing atmosphere of the room. 

Now as much as this day was meant to be relaxing me and my sister spent hours before the visit agonizing over what to wear and ruling out half our wardrobes as far too casual for the grand Langham! No one wants to be under dressed in a 5 star hotel do they?! However, all this tension turned out to be completely unnecessary as when we got there most of the people were in smart/casual dress. I even spotted a couple of men in jeans - phew! So, if you’re also worried about the dress code at the Langham, it’s safe to say you can pretty much get away with wearing anything, as long as it’s not joggers and your pajama top! 

As soon as we sat down we were presented with a menu of the selection of teas they had to offer, as I was searching the menu of over 30 tea blends (wow) for my regular breakfast tea, my sister urged me to step out of my comfort zone and try a tea I’d never tasted before, so I chose one of the scented black tea’s - the CHAI tea, which was described as “ceylon black tea with aromatic spices” My sister chose the Jasmine Green Tea, which according to the waiter was one of their most popular blends!

About 20 minutes into our tea the waiter came over and took away our tea pots – we were momentarily perplexed - WHAT? was that it…no more tea?!! However, this was not the case as about 3 minutes later we were reunited with steaming hot tea pots! In fact throughout our sitting the waiter kept an eye out to see whether our teacup was empty, if it was he would dash over and elegantly refill it. I was astonished at how attentive the service was, I must have had around 8 cups of tea as the waiter never let my cup become empty! Impressive!

Now onto the food ….while we were waiting for our tea to arrive we were presented with a sweet treat to get our tastebuds going – a tangy lime posset, it was absolutely delicious! This was followed by a wonderful selection of sandwiches. As I am a vegetarian I don’t often find the sandwich selection particularly exciting. In fact ….

I have been to afternoon teas before where there hasn't even been a vegetarian option , so I've had to just leave out the meat ones, which is usually most of the sandwiches (sigh) However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Palm Court also caters for special dietary requirements. We were served with an impressive selection of 5 different veggie sandwich options:

• Pearl las and broccoli quiche with piquillo peppers
• Spicy humous with crispy salad
• Cream cheese and cucumber on beetroot bread
• Montgomery cheddar and sweet onion biscuit
• Burford brown egg mayonnaise with mustard cress

The sandwiches were lovely and were very very filling and and the best part is you are offered FREE refiles on your favorite sandwiches, which of course we jumped at!

After we finished gorging on the yummy sandwiches, the waiter brought out a warm selection of plain and raisin scones (2 of each) now this is my personal favorite part of any afternoon tea and I wasn't disappointed. The scones were lovely, as was the small dish of clotted cream and strawberry jam already set out on the table for us.

As you can see I had a Devon cream tea (cream first, then jam) – How do you have your cream tea?

Okay so now onto the sweet treats, this is definitely the part my sister and I were most looking forward to trying the beautiful selection of treats consisted off…

• Passion Fruit and Mango Dome
• Valrhona chocolate tart
• Lemon and poppy seed cake
• Layer Eton mess push up pop

My sisters first words when she saw the tray of treats was “Is that it?” however, our eyes were certainly bigger than our stomachs in this case! In fact we actually struggled to eat everything simply because it was all so deliciously sweet and filling. My personal favorite was the lemon and poppy seed cake, as it wasn't too sweet, but still had a lovely dollop of icing on top! The eton mess on the other hand was definitely my least favorite….after a while I sort of gave up attempting to eat it as it was so messy (and embarrassing) to eat. That was the only sweet treat I was disappointed with as it was VERY hard to eat and if you are a bit clumsy and unladylike (like me) it might be a bit of a challenge!!

Disappointingly there are no refills for the cakes and pastries - however we were well and truly stuffed by this time so perhaps that’s not such a bad thing after all.

Palm Court certainly out did themselves in terms of excellent service, as when we booked we stated it was my sisters birthday, so they brought out a special birthday cupcake for her and even sang happy birthday to her…how lovely of them!

In terms of pricing the Wonderland Afternoon Tea is one of the cheapest afternoon teas the Langham offers, at £44 per person – bit of difference to the 7p they charged back in 1865! Just like in other top hotels that offer a high quality service there is bound to be a service charge to keep in mind, at The Langham there was 12.5% (£11.00) service charge.

I had the best time celebrating my sisters birthday and I highly recommend this afternoon tea as the service is brilliant, the food is extremely filling and scrumptious. I do think this whole afternoon tea experience is well worth the money, For more information about this Afternoon Tea check out their website - http://palm-court.co.uk/#/afternoon-tea/ 

P.s If you ever go to an afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel it’s always worth checking out how posh the toilets are – you will be impressed :’)

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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