Crumbs to Crunch

Sometimes, you get one of those days when everything seems to be going wrong. You've missed an important deadline, or your pet fish died, or aliens have invaded. Or something like that. If you've had a day like that, you need cake. Right now. There's no time for messing around with scales or accuracy and definitely not washing up. You need a cake fix. And Mug Cakes are your saviour. In the interests of research, we decided to try out a couple of recipes from the book ' Mug Cakes ' by Mima Sinclair. It's a lovely little book, full of innovative recipes and pretty pictures. I particularly liked the troubleshooting section at the beginning that helps your avoid exploding cake fiascos. As we were having a movie day, we went for the popcorn and ice cream cake. I think we can all agree it was a resounding success. Delicious and instantaneous. Others went less well. Our mixed fruit and outs cake still tasted nice, but exploded in the microwave ever...

Are you looking for somewhere a bit different to have a coffee in London? How about underneath the hull of a 19th century ship? The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship built in the 1860s. Her job was to sail the world transporting tea, therefore the museum is jampacked with tea facts. For example, did you know that all tea is made from one single species of plant? Green tea is made by drying the leaves quickly after picking them, whereas for black tea the leaves are bruised and fermented before drying. After a recent fire, the Cutty Sark ship and museum have been updated and redesigned. The set out is great and really interactive, with little films, interactive games and even seats that move up and down to make you feel as if you are at sea! It's great for all ages.  And of course, after a bit of culture or history, it's always time for tea! The Cutty Sark's cafe is underneath the ship. Of course, we sat right in the middle. Knowing that there's a 963 ton shi...

Gorgeously chewy cookies sandwiching a good dollop of icing, Biskies are a wonderful little treat. I'd never come across these cute cookie creations until I went to Cutter and Squidge in Soho. Such a huge array of Biskies were on display, it was impossible to choose one! In the end I decided to buy a box for my friends to sample lots of the flavours that were on offer, As it was such a lovely day, I decided to have a Biskie buffet on the roof top garden at the Southbank Centre. After having a cheeky bite of my friends' Biskies, I concluded that my favourites were the lemon meringue pie, the apple crumble and the salted caramel brownie. Even though there is quite a big proportion of icing to biscuit, I found that Biskies aren't sickly at all. So if you're looking for a posh pick and mix, why not indulge in a box of Biskies and share with your favourite people!

8 cream teas in 10 days... we think that we have a serious problem! We spent ten glorious days in the West Country where we binged on the local speciality - cream tea. Never have we seen such an abundance of piping hot scones and lashings of clotted cream. The cream was so thick and delicious, we never knew that we had been missing out till now. As we have clearly been doing our research, here is a list of our favourite cream tea variations in Devon/Cornwall.  Strawberry Cream Tea - Madeleine's, St Ives A perfect way to finish a beach day in St Ives. With lovely staff, this is a traditional homely tea room. The fresh strawberries that came with our fresh out of the oven scones got us in the summer mood. Savoury Tea - The Dwelling House, Fowey Has the incessant afternoon-teaing left you shunning sweetness? Never fear, for you can have your scone and eat it too with a savoury tea. Hot cheese scones with chilli jam and luscious salad can tide you ove...