ramblings of a devoted tea drinker

Foodies Festival, Syon Park

Nishah 27 June 2015 Leave a Comment

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.

A sweet tooth in Bruges...

Nishah 24 May 2015 2 comments

Back in February I spent a few lovely and very relaxing days on a city trip to Bruges. Bruges described as the ‘Venice of the North’ is a great holiday destination and has many delights to offer from horse drawn carriages to the winding canals and medieval architecture. However, for a sweet tooth like myself, it is the multitude of tea rooms and chocolate shops scattered round the city that really stand out in my memory. Bruges is any sweet tooth’s paradise, famous for its rich chocolate and Belgian waffles, the city offers plenty of opportunities to indulge yourself!

Here are a few pictures from my trip, as you will see my sweet tooth was not disappointed...

I’ve heard that sampling Belgium waffles is a must while in Bruges. So day 1 we visited the Detavernier café close to our hotel.

The waffles from Detavernier were amazing, but very filling and sweet I'm ashamed to say I couldn't finish mine…

Washed down by some tea...

The first chocolate shop I entered felt like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

The owner of Chocolaterie Sukerbuyc informed us that her chocolates were all handmade and the best in Bruges - while I can’t comment on whether they are truly the best Bruges has to offer chocolate wise, they were certainly delicious and great quality :)

Walking round the town centre, it seemed that every other shop was a chocolate shop. That’s a whole shop dedicated to chocolate literally every few metres! It’s impossible to recommend any one chocolate shop over another, they all look incredibly inviting and great quality.

We found some delicious macaroons which has rekindled my love for them, so I am now on a search for some macaroons that are just as yummy as these ones in the UK.

It's an absolute must to try some waffles from a street vendor, they are the tastiest! But bear in mind they are a bit difficult to eat!

Kunzle Cake Recipe

Nishah 4 May 2015 1 comment

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.