Culinary tour of London

Luckily for me London is only an hour long train journey away from where I live. So once or twice a year my husband and I take the opportunity of going down for a weekend of gastronomic adventure that is not easily found where I currently reside. Before leaving for the big smoke, I made a pledge that I wasn't going to waste any meal on mediocrity, given the vast number of great eateries London has to offer.
Setting off on Friday evening we arrived in London and immediately headed for Covent garden to sample the delights of Wahaca. Wahaca was co-founded by Thomasina Miers, who won Masterchef a few years back. This rapidly growing chain of restaurants serves Mexican market food for a reasonable price whilst upholding an ethos of locally sourced and sustainable raw materials.
It has lively and vibrant atmosphere with knowledgeable staff, tasty cocktails and a queue out the door on a Friday night.
The dishes are flavourful, colourful and simple but not for the faint hearted. If you have a delicate constitution take your gaviscon and avoid the spicy tomato juice with the tequila.
Once you've recovered from the previous nights cocktails and chilli a hearty breakfast from Brew will set you up for the day. http://www.brew-cafe.com/
This is a great little cafe which serves really interesting dishes alongside more tradition breakfast fair. Satisfying sweet and savoury options and great coffee make this a must visit place. It is a very popular spot so make sure you get there early to avoid the rush. In winter you can still sit outside as you get a blanket to wrap yourself in as you eat. They also have a lunch menu.
If you want foodie heaven, get yourself down to the real food market on London's vibrant South Bank. http://www.realfoodfestival.co.uk/home. It's is like Mecca for all food lovers with Spanish, polish, Jamaican, French, English, middle eastern, far eastern and many other cuisines laid out like a kaleidoscope of colour.
It runs though the summer on Fridays, Saturday's and Sunday's.
Before you catch the train home stop off in Soho for a fancy cocktail in Mark Hix's bar. Maybe only the one though as they are quite pricey, or skip dinner and have a few!

A couple more cakes

This Christmas has been a very busy but enjoyable time. I made many foodie things for Christmas including this boozy christmas cake. After Christmas I made the piano cake for a joint birthday. I'm quite pleased with the piano cake and looking forward to doing a christening cake later in the month. 

Watering Can Cake

This is one of the most recent cakes I have done. I'm definitely learning new things with every cake I do but I think there is a long way to go to get the refinement that I'm after!  

Cakes, cakes, cakes

I've been doing a few cakes recently so here is a photo of the one of the car cakes I did which was a little more successful than the first attempt. I've got one or two more coming up plus I'm going to have a practice at making my wedding cupcakes. Any tips welcome!  

Better late than never!

Ok so I haven't got my daring baker post done on time but I've been a busy little bee recently. I've been making cakes, damson gin, working and doing wedding preparation etc! I was quite keen to do this recipe though as anything with almonds in it is basically food of the gods and we were having a leaving lunch in work for a colleague going on maternity leave and I thought this was appropriate. 

As I have been rather busy organising presents for the departing colleague and doing a cake for the same day I needed to have made the macaroons for the lunch, it was a bit of a rushed affair. The resulting macaroons were delicious but I don't think they were quite what they should have been. They were a bit soft instead of being nice and crisp. 

I filled my macaroons with Maya Gold spiced orange dark chocolate and cream. They were really lovely but I would like to have another go at making them to try and perfect them and also try different fillings.

Recipe

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.