What's the time Mr Wolfe?

When Bean and I took a lovely trip into Brighton last weekend on Sunday we treated outselves to a coffee and biscuit in Mr Wolfe.

Before we left on Sunday morning we had a skim through The Simple Things and read through the article all about Brighton.  Mr Wolfe was featured in the article so we decided to give it a go.

It's just up the back, off Western Road, so nice and handy to get to.  It's very s but so nicely turned out.  The walls are all black chalk board and the menus are all written up on the wall, which is a nice touch.

The coffee was tasty and the gold teapots are fabulous! Wish I'd had tea rather than coffee. The tasty little cloud shortbread biscuit was not only extremely cute, but also very yummy.

Will definitely be visiting Mr Wolfe again!

When Bean Came to Stay

Outside florian florist on western road - gorgeous Mother's Day selections

What a lovely weekend I had.  I didn't really get to see much of G but I feel like I achieved loads.  It was such glorious weather I spent the day outside on Saturday in the garden tidying, fixing the shed roof, planting some bulbs and taking a load of junk to the dump.

It feels so good to get rid of loads of rubbish and make everything a bit tidier.  I then came inside, made a cake, tidied up and hoovered the whole house.  A real spring clean!

On Saturday evening Bean came to stay....so lovely to have her over.  We didn't do anything on Saturday night apart from chat and eat a tasty thai dinner that I made, but it was just nice to have her here.

On Sunday morning we tucked into a yummy breakfast that I had prepared of yogurt, oats, rhubarb and blueberries! Very healthy and tasty.

After checking out the fab article in this months Simple Things and doing some quick Google searches we went armed with a number of different new places we could try. 

The fantastic places we found were Mr Wolfe for a tasty coffee,  Dowse for some greetings cards, Sushi Garden for some lunch and Present (only opened this week) for a look at some gifts.

Cute sign that drew us in to have a look in Dowse Gallery and Shop

Fab interior of Mr Wolfe, Montpelier Place

Bean in Mr Wolfe reading the most recent Stylist Magazine

My gorgeous new scarf and jumper from COS

Tasty Sunday special - all this for only £6.50!

Sushi garden on Preston street, Brighton 

Recipe: Lemon Layer Cake

I haven't baked for ages and although I've made jams and chutneys recently and made some very tasty meals, I don't remember the last time that I spent the afternoon baking.

I feel like I've managed to master my pastry but I haven't ever quite mastered the sponge.  Cupcakes never really work out so I thought maybe I would try a layer cake.  I went for something plain and simple so as not to get carried away with frills and whistles, rather than concentrating on the texture and flavour of the cake.

I keep seeing fantastic layer cakes, and although I attempted one a year back, it never really lived up to Emily's or these tasty looking treats on Pinterest.

When searching through for recipes it's tricky to find fab ones that are in English measurements, but after a quick bit of looking good old Delia came up a treat!

This lemon layer cake was the perfect choice!  I doubled the recipe to make it a super tall 4 layer cake and added some lemon juice and icing sugar to the icing to make it a bit less creamy.  Admittedly also I used shop bought lemon curd as that was a bit much to do as well!

I cannot believe how super quick and easy this cake was and the result was flipping amazing! 

What layer cakes have you tried?

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stages 2 and 3

Stage 2 - Feeding the cake:

This stage of my Christmas cake making was pretty simple - feed your cake.  I made an alcohol free cake, not for any reason apart from the fact that I didn't have any brandy in the house and also loooove the flavour of earl grey.  

I dribbled a tablespoon of earl grey over the cake once a week for the 3 weeks prior to Christmas. 

Stage 2 done.

Stage 3 - Decorating the cake (the fun bit!):

I cheated with decorating the cake and have to admit that I made neither the Marzipan nor the Royal Icing.  I bought both from ASDA and am hoping (having never made a Christmas cake before)that these are as tasty as if I had made them. 

To get the marzipan to stick to the cake, and add an extra bit of Christmas flavour, heat a bit of marmalade mixed with water and brush this all over the cake.

I love the marzipan layer on an Xmas cake and have heard a good way to add a bit more is to cover the cake in a thin layer, but then add another disc of marzipan just to the top of the cake.

Once the marzipan is on it's time for the icing and making things look pretty.  I'm not a fan of royal icing so I rolled mine as thin as possible. 

A tip for the marzipan and Icing - once you have rolled it out, fold it over your rolling pin to lift it over the cake as this will prevent it from stretching too much as you lift it.

You can make your decorations as simple or extravagant as you want.  I went simple this year for my first year, with just thin icing snowflakes, glued into place with marmalade.

Christmas cake - Done!

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stage 1

I followed this tasty looking recipe for my gorgeously tasty Christmas cake- the first I've ever made.

There are several stages to making the perfect Christmas Cake the cake, the feeding and the decorating.

I have never attempted a Christmas cake before but I thought if G and I were spending Christmas day at home together then, as my first year as a wife, I should make the effort this year.

Stage 1 - How I baked the cake:

Ingredients:

• 
  
• • 150 grams currants
  • 350 grams raisins
  • 50 grams glace cherries
  • 200ml cold earl grey tea
  • 75 grams chopped pecans
  • 150 grams butter
  • 90 grams soft brown sugar
  • 1 orange grated
  • 150 grams plain flour
  • 75 grams ground almonds
  • 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4tsp ground ginger
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon black treacle
  
  
  18cm round tin
  Temp 150C
  yield approx 12 slices
  
  
  
  

Method:

1. Place all of the dried fruit in the earl grey tea, stir and place  in the fridge over night.

2.Preheat oven to 150C and prepare tin.

3. Cream butter and sugar together then add orange zest.

4.Add eggs one at a time (adding tbsp if mixture starts to curdle) Beat in treacle.

5.Sift in dry ingredients, then mix this alternatively with the soaked fruit, into the creamed mixture. Fold in pecans.

6.Pour into prepared tin and bake in the oven, until a screwer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

7.Brush with more earl grey and wait until completely cold before turning out.

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