We are home after our lovely week away. Apart from the rain
last Saturday in Exeter the sun shone the whole time.
On Wednesday we spent
the day on the beach in Mothecombe. This is a private beach that is only
open to the public three days a week. It is lovely. You park in a
field and after a short walk hit the beach. We found a great spot to
make our camp for the day. Minibakebakegirl and I spent lots of
time in the sea. There was lots of seaweed floating about!
We also visited Totnes.
We walked up the hill to Totnes Castle - I did keep disappearing into all the lovely
little independent shops. We decided Totnes was “Mum shop heaven”.
After lunch in the Tangerine Tree Café, we walked along the river to the Steam
railway. We got the steam train to Buckfastleigh and
back. We sat in a Hogwarts Express style compartment :oD
On the way back to town we popped into China Blue - oh my goodness this is another "Mum Shop" - soooo many things to look at! We had coffee and cake in their cafe. I had a huge slice of coffee cake - yum!
Friday was our last
day and we spent it on Bigbury beach. We bought a body board and
Minibakebakegirl and I had great fun - even if I wasn't very elegant!
Late afternoon after dumping our stuff in the car we walked over to Burgh Island as the tide was out. If the tide is in you can go across by sea
tractor. We walked up to the top of the island, passing the art deco hotel
that Agatha Christie used as inspiration for two novels. It's very exclusive and even has its own helipad!! The views are amazing!.
To break up the
journey home on Saturday we stopped off in Bristol. While wandering around the town centre we did
some Gromit spotting. There are 80 to
find in total. We managed to find 13,
plus one we spotted over the other side of the river!
See you next week,
Bakebakegirl
Todays top three
Spotify Songs:
1. Automatically
Sunshine – The Supremes
2. Cruel Summer -
Bananarama
3. Long Hot Summer –
Girls Aloud
We are on holiday this week in South Devon. On the way down we stopped in Exeter. It is over 20 years since I was last there and I didn't recognise anywhere! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and it was raining the whole time we were there. The Cathedral still looked stunning though.
On Sunday we went for a huge walk. We started at the bottom of the creek in Newton Ferrers and walked all along to the ferry point. We then walked back to where we started and walked along the other side which is Noss Mayo. On the way back we stopped at a lovely little place for afternoon tea. Unfortunately I didn't note the name but it is someone's house who opens up at weekends for people to come and eat in their garden - and what a gorgeous garden it is, with views across the creek. We each had a cream tea - delicious.
Today we went to Salcombe and spent time on the beach in the sunshine - gorgeous! Minibakebakegirl enjoyed swimming in the sea.
Tonight we ate dinner at The Ship Inn in Noss Mayo. Minibakebakegirl and I both had fish and chips, not the best picture but it was delicious. Hubby had a steak burger but after tasting our fish he decided ours was better.
See you next week,
Bakebakegirl
Today's top three radio songs:
1. Further Away - Lissie
2. Things We Lost In The Fire - Bastille
3. Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames
No baking from me this week but a few weeks ago I made Nigella's Instant Chocolate Orange Mousse from her Nigellissima book. This is so quick and easy. It is now my favourite chocolate mousse to make and Minibakebakegirl declared it her favourite to eat!!! There are no eggs in it - instead it uses condensed milk and double cream. I make it in espresso cups but I don't put the whipped cream on top.
See you next week,
Bakebakegirl
Todays top three Spotify songs:
1. Go Wild In The Country - Bow Wow Wow
2. Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three
3. Walk The Dinosaur - Was (Not Was)
Yesterday we went to St Albans - after a mooch around the shops we walked down to Verulamium park, passing the Cathedral on the way.
We also passed Ye Olde Fighting Cocks which currently holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest pub in England. I haven't been in but it is such an interesting shape from the outside. Seemingly there are underground tunnels leading to the Cathedral that Monks used.
We also saw a bit of a Roman Wall. It is amazing that something that old is still standing today.
Last week when Sister and Nieces were down I made some Ice Cream Cupcakes. These are the same as the Olympic Torches I made last year except I kept the icing white and added a flake! I find with these that you do have to eat them as soon as you have made them otherwise the cones go soft. Therefore I used 6 cone cases (for the six of us) and 6 normal cupcake cases - the normal ones can be stored in a tin and eaten another day.
Thanks for visiting,
Bakebakegirl
Today's top three Spotify songs:
1. Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell Williams
2. Wake me up - Avicii
3. Treasure - Bruno Mars
Sister and Nieces are staying with us this week. On Friday we went into London. First stop was to Dalston House by Leandro Erlich. This is the front of a victorian house flat on the ground with a huge mirror at an angle - it makes you look like Spiderman scaling the walls! Very, very clever. This is free and open until 1 August; however it is is very busy - we got there for it opening - you get 5 mins on the piece in groups of about 7 (there is plenty of space for you to play around and take photos!) and we were done within an hour. When we left the queue was huge.
Next stop was to Camden Town. I hadn't been here for years but it was just as I remembered it, lots and lots of lovely stalls to wander round. After lunch we had lovely fresh fruit lollies. Minibakebakegirl got her ears pierced last week and she bought a lovely pair of earrings, even though she has to wear her studs for several more weeks.
From Camden we went to Trafalgar Square. There is a large blue chicken on the fourth plinth at the moment....great introduction by Boris on this video!
We then got the Routemaster bus to Tower Bridge and went for dinner at ASK by the Thames. After dinner Sister and I both had the coffee and mini chocolate almond cake, it was delicious. Then, as it was such a lovely evening, we walked along by the river. There are water fountains by City Hall and there were lots of children in swimming costumes running through them.
We also passed The Monument in Pudding Lane - this is a much sunnier picture compared to when we went in May.
Back at Kings Cross we found one of the 5 Lego maps - celebrating 150 years of the London Underground. This one is how the tube will look in 2020.
The other maps are in South Kensington, Green Park, Stratford and Piccadilly Circus.
Thanks for visiting,
Bakebakegirl
Todays top three Spotify Songs:
1. Will You - Hazel O'Conner
2. Piano In The Dark - Brenda Russell
3. Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody
It's the start of the school summer holidays here. Minibakebakegirl really enjoyed her last week of Primary School. They performed three nights of The Lion King, we went to see it on the Wednesday night - it was excellent. It has still been very hot here and the Headmistress did say that they had recreated the Africa ambiance in the hall! After the show there was the Year 6 presentation for all the leavers where they were each presented with a dictionary. There was a slide show with photos of all her year from reception to their school journey last month. I did have a lump in my throat - little diddy Minibakebakegirl - where has the last 6.5 years gone....
As I said it has continued to be hot here (apart from Saturday and early Sunday which was very cloudy) so I didn't fancy baking today. Instead I made a fridge cake. Fridge cakes are great as you can just throw in what you like: nuts, maltesers, other biscuits, chopped dried fruits - they all work well.
Ingredients:
80g butter
200g marshmallows
1 tbp water
200g chocolate - chopped
125g digestive biscuits - broken into small pieces
125g glace cherries
100g raisins
Method:
This can be made in any sized baking tray or even dolloped into cupcake cases. it depends how thick or thin you would like it to be. Today when I made this I halved the ingredients and made it in a loaf tin with a loaf tin liner. If you are making this in a tin it is best to line with cling film, this will make it easier to take out and slice.
Place the butter, marshmallows and water in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until melted. Add the chocolate and again stir until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and stir in the biscuits, cherries and raisins until coated.
Pour into the tin. Place in the fridge and chill for a couple of hours until firm. Slice and enjoy. This is best kept in an airtight container in the fridge - actually I might get in with it to cool down!
See you next week,
Bakebakegirl
Todays top three Spotify Songs:
1. Love In An Elevator - Aerosmith
2. Janie's Got A Gun - Aerosmith
3. Dude (Looks Like a Lady) - Aerosmith
Sister and family stopped over at ours a couple of Fridays ago on their way to France. I made a jug of this cocktail for us to enjoy.
Ingredients:
1/2 cucumber - chopped
the leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
150ml vodka
3 tbsp caster sugar
300ml white wine
bottle of tonic water
juice of 1 lemon
Method:
Whizz the cucumber and thyme leaves in a food processor, then strain though a sieve into a large jug. Discard the pulp. Add the vodka, caster sugar and white wine to the jug and stir well. Top up with tonic water and add the lemon juice according to taste.
Add ice cubes if you like - my jug has a bit down the middle for ice cubes - so it doesn't dilute the drink. However as it has been so hot here I needed lots of ice for this picture - I served the drink in a marmalade jar with a sprig of mint and a retro straw!
This is a really refreshing long drink - perfect for summer - enjoy!
Have a good weekend.
Bakebakegirl.
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