Cocktail Tasting Menu, The Balmoral

Friday was Stuarts birthday, and being the selfless wife I am I took him to see Skyfall (oh hello Daniel) and then onto The Balmoral Bar at The Balmoral Hotel for the Cocktail Tasting Menu. Its been 5 years since the Balmoral Bar opened, and to celebrate this birthday the bar had created a special…

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St George’s Market

Every time I am back in Belfast, I make sure I always have time to visit St George’s Market.  Edinburgh has some great weekly markets, but nothing beat St George’s – partly because its indoor! Little has changed with the market since I used to visit as a kid, other than a few refurbishments over…

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Rainbow Cake

It was my Dad’s 80th Birthday last week and what better way to shock him than to turn up unannounced on his doorstep with a brightly coloured rainbow cake in my hand! Unsurprisingly he was not put off by this brightly coloured mass – it was at the end of the day still cake (though…

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Going Underground

Last Wednesday night the Edinburgh Cake Ladies took cake underground in aid of cake-eating, all things spooky and most importantly the great local charity Its Good to Give. The Real Mary Kings Close kindly let us host the event in the close for this ghostly evening, and it was not an event to miss.  I…

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We Heart Cake

Oh yes we do. I have often moaned about the lack of cake shops in Stirling (where I work).  It has its fair share of Greggs etc, but not a real proper homemade cake shop, and sometimes you just need big wack of something tasty and homemade. It would now seem my cake prayers have…

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Japan Part 2: Miyajima

Late afternoon, after tearing ourselves away from Hiroshima we took a short train ride and ferry (all included in the handy Japan rail pass!) to Miyajima, which is a small island just off the coast, and home to the Itsukushima Shrine for which it is famous.  On arrival our hosts collected us and transported us…

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Spanish Chocolate Cake

Its Chocolate Week, so I thought it was apt to make a chocolate cake.  This one I found in the June issue of Sainsbury’s Magazine.  I am not really sure what makes it Spanish – maybe the orange? olive oil? or even the ground almonds? Nonetheless its very tasty and easy to make! Ingredients 125g…

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Japan Part 1: Hiroshima

Watching the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday reminded me of our holiday to Japan in May, and the fact that I never posted about it! So here at last is the first part of our wonderful trip! After talking about going for ages we eventually booked our trip for the end of May.  Before we…

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A Proper Autumn Sunday

Its been a while since we have had the opportunity to do nothing on a Sunday, especially on a Sunday when its dry and the sun is out!.  So, we took advantage of the weather and headed out to Glencorse Reservoir, which is out in the Pentlands near the Flotterstone Inn. We had a beautiful…

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Eat Street

** Sadly Eat Street is no longer operational During the summer I managed to be down in London a couple of times and was able to treat myself to the delights of Eat Street, a Street Food initiative run by Petra Barran and based at Kings Boulevard, up beside Kings Cross Station The principle is…

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