The Pancake Café: The Georgian Town House, Durham

Pancakes are famously done best by the French or the Americans. However, hidden away in the very north of England I think I may have found a fairly strong contender: the pancakes served in The Pancake Café at The Georgian Town House B&B.

The menu is quite simple, offering sweet, savoury and breakfast pancakes, each with different toppings. I started off our feast with a little pot of Lady Grey, and then ordered the cinnamon, banana and honey pancake which came with two big dollops of vanilla ice cream...

...while the boyfriend went for a breakfast bacon a maple syrup pancake which came with a large cup of coffee. Yum!

The pancakes themselves were not the super thin crêpes of the French, nor the thick, fluffy American kind, but rather the reassuring slim variety often found cooked up at home on Pancake Day. Mine was then covered in thickly sliced banana, doused in a hefty sprinkle of cinnamon and then smothered in sweet honey, all with a side of the previously mentioned large balls of ice cream- the café was definitely not stingy with their toppings and I was impressed!

Two large pancakes later, we may have also ordered a fruit scone which of course came with clotted cream and jam!

The Pancake Café was a wonderful little haven from the bitingly cold weather outside. Although small, the café itself was charmingly decorated, with the walls covered in murals of the inside of a country house, lending the space a very cozy feeling. The food was really very tasty, the servings unexpectedly big and our whole experience at the café, down to the friendly waitress, was definitely worth the walk through the howling wind and occasional sleet flurry to find it!



P.S- Just so all you lovely readers know, I have finally got around to setting up a Facebook page so please feel free to go like it if you want!

Twycross Zoo

Last week, my university cheerleading squad and I visited Twycross Zoo as part of our Cheer Week celebrations which is basically a week of fun things to celebrate the end of exams, done together as a squad.

Now I love zoos. When I was little, I was definitely one of those kids whose face was pressed up against the glass, trying to get that little bit closer to the animals inside the pens. I'd run excitedly from pen to pen, fascinated by all the creatures with their colourful fur or camouflaged scales . I wish I could say I've grown up a little, but that simply wouldn't be true. Needless to say, I was very excited when we arrived at the zoo...

Twycross had pretty much all the animals you could wish for (except big cats- we only found a cheetah and a snow leopard which were beautiful, but weren't quiet as exciting as maybe lions or tigers), and, maybe slightly oddly, an absolute abundance of monkeys. Seriously, they had more monkeys than I think I've ever seen before. All different shapes and sizes, from the apes and orangutans to tiny little monkeys that chattered excitedly amongst themselves! The zoo's banana budget must be through the roof!

The penguins were hilarious, placing them second in my 'top three animals' ranking. (The elephants came in third (the baby one was adorable!) and the flamingos came in first. Mainly because what could be better than giant pink birds?!) They came right up to the edge of their enclosure and pottered around, craning their little necks to see the people crowed around them. I later realised this was because they were anticipating the arrival of a large bucket of fish, which was fed to them as part of the penguin parade. Here, the smart little birds waddled out of their enclosure to eagerly snap up the fish being thrown to them, while the zoo keeper told us about them and the effect of our pollution on their environment.

But for me, the flamingos stole the show. There was a large pond full of them, each ruffling their bright pink plumage and shaking their tail feathers, determined to outdo each other. Personally, I found them mesmerising- I could have watched them all day!

However, before long, it was time to go. So with one last wave to the monkeys (and with my inner-child sulking at being dragged away) we headed home.

Gourmet Gadgetry: Cupcake and Muffin Maker

The other day, Marcus surprised me by sending me a little present to congratulate me on obtaining a place on a graduate scheme I'd applied to (yay!). I excitedly opened the rather large box to reveal a cupcake maker by Gourmet Gadgetry! 

So, if you're wondering how exactly a cupcake maker works, it's essentially a toasty maker, just for cupcakes. It supposedly creates perfectly formed little cupcakes in a fraction of the time they normally take to bake. I couldn't wait to try it out and so cracked on with some baking!

I baked some very simple lemon cakes. Here's what you'll need if you fancy doing the same:

For the cakes:

100g Butter

120g Self rising flour

120g Caster sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla essence

1 tsp Baking powder

Juice of half a lemon

For the icing:

100g Butter

200g Icing sugar

A few drops of food colouring

Just blend the mixture all together until it's of a smooth consistency. Then, pop your mixture into either your cupcake cases and into the oven (I tend to cook mine at 180C for about 15-20mins) or into your cupcake maker, wait for them to go golden brown and then remove and leave to cool.

While you're waiting for them to cook, you can whip up some icing. Pop your butter into a bowl and whisk until it's smooth. Then gradually start adding your icing sugar and your drops of food colouring. I normally taste it as I go along to see when it's sweet enough. You can then just smear your icing onto your cool cakes or ice them with a piping bag like I did!

I found that the cupcake maker did make the entire process much quicker. The moment I put the batter into each little well, I could see it starting to cook. Once the lid was on, I only had to wait about seven minutes before they were done. Not only that, each cake slid easily out of their well and each was golden brown and identically shaped. Decorating them was very easy as no cake had been able to 'rupture' or had risen oddly. 

I'd definitely recommend Gourmet Gadgetry's cup cake maker (especially to students fighting for oven space!) as it made baking just that bit quicker and easier. There was also no need to buy cupcake cases! I churned out around 28 cupcakes in the end since I just put in more batter once the first round were finished. Luckily, I have three hungry housemates who will be more than happy to eat them all!

All Hallows' Eve

Just a little post to say in case you haven't noticed, Halloween is nearly upon us! It's that time of year again where you can dig out your scary costumes, eat all the sweeties you want and tell ghostly stories by torch light.

When I was little, every year without fail my sister and I would make bin bag witches' dresses (helped by our Mummy of course!). These would inevitably be one black bag with arms and a head hole cut, tied at the waist with another black bag fashioned into a belt. Then we'd get the stapler and cover our dresses in paper stars and other such witchy things. We'd carve pumpkins too and Mum would sometimes make pumpkin soup from the slimy insides (Lu and I never dared try it!).

As we got older, our bin bag dresses got left behind, but I haven't forgotten how to carve a pumpkin. Therefore my housemate and I got creative and carved these two little beauties. (This is perhaps the most adventurous carving I have ever done- in case you can't quite guess, one is a cat and the other is the Boogie Man...)

Happy Halloween everyone!


Update:
At the weekend, I popped off to a little Halloween party. I thought you might all like to see my make up- I went as a Day of the Dead skull! The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday where people take the time to remember the deceased. It's also coincidentally celebrated around the same time as Halloween!

Cyprus: the laziest of holidays

Last week, Marcus and I packed our hand luggage suitcases with pinpoint precision and hopped on a super cheap flight to Cyprus to absorb some summer sunshine. We arrived in the middle of the night and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was still beautifully warm, which boded well for the rest of the week.

We were staying at the Capital Coast Resort and Spa, where we had a little studio suite which was perfect for all our needs. As this was a studenty holiday, we'd decided to cook for ourselves and so this little suite was packed full of all the essentials (including a blender and a crazy shower!), and was wonderfully light and bright.

Our days became pretty routine- up early enough to grab the perfect spot by the pool, splashed and lazed around all day until dinner, which was followed up by a couple of drinks in the bar while watching the sun set over the sea. This was all perforated with a few games of chess or contract whist and frantic suncream reapplications.

One night we even ventured out of the hotel. Our escapades took us to a wonderful little Chinese restaurant just down the road. (Yes, in Cyprus we opted for chinese...) The food was much more 'home made' than the chinese restaurants you find at home and was absolutely delicious. We ate under the light of chinese lanterns in a pretty, themed garden while being serenaded by a singer from the bar next door.

It was an incredibly lethargic trip, but I have to say, exactly what we needed after such a busy year. I came back with a respectable tan (Marcus was many shades darker!) and feeling thoroughly relaxed. Definitely the perfect way to kickstart summer in ernest!

May Week, Cambridge

May Week is the traditional name given to refer to the period after exams at Cambridge University. It's a time where students can blow off steam and many of the colleges have extravagant balls. Luckily for us, these balls often have wonderful firework displays which can be seen from the river. Therefore last night, my mother, Marcus and I wrapped up warmly and headed down to a bridge over the River Cam to watch the Trinity May Ball fireworks.

Kings College

Despite spending a large amount of my time in Cambridge, I aways get blown away by how picturesque it always looks.

The fireworks were amazing, lighting up the sky timed to a variety of music from modern to classical. There were even blooms of fire shooting up along the neighbouring bridge! The combination of the music, fireworks reflecting in the river and the beautiful setting really made this a magical night. The rain even held off until after the show too!

Many people had taken to the river to watch the display, rafting up under the bridges. Once the show had commenced, we watched them all dreamily punt back up the river before heading home.