Pumpkin Loaf Receipe

I did try and plan a weekly segment within my blog but it has not really happened. So instead I will just post a recipe every now and again.
I love autumn and the majority of food has to contain pumpkin of course! This is a recipe that tastes very similar to the pumpkin loaf in Starbucks. Hope you guys enjoy my recipe.

Ingredients

210g Plain Flour                        2 Eggs

200g Caster Sugar             115ml Vegetable Oil

3/4 tsp Salt                         1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Baking Soda              230g Pumpkin Puree

1/2 tsp Nutmeg                   60g Pumpkin Seeds

1/4 tsp Cardamom                1/4 tsp Allapice

1/2 tsp Cinnamon                 1/4 tsp Clove

Method

• Preheat oven to 180c
• In a large bowl sieve the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, salt and spices.
• In a smaller bowl mix together 2 beaten eggs, the vegetable oil, pumpkin puree and vanilla. Once mixed well pour into the dry ingredients.
  
• Mix well
• Pour mixture into chosen loaf tin with your choice of a non stick method. I used a little unsalted butter.
  
• Sprinkle the Pumpkin Seeds on tops
• Bake for 50-60mins or until the knife comes out clean.
  
• Cool for approx 5mins in the loaf tin and then place on a cooling rack to cool completely to be served. 
  

Hope you liked my Autumn Fall Pumpkin Spice Loaf recipe. 

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Friday Recipe- Red Pepper and Wensleydale Soup

I thought I would try a new weekly occurring theme on the blog. I love to cook and I love to bake from receipts and adjust accordingly to my own tastes, So with this in mind I thought of sharing a receipt every Friday. I do need to think of a new name though so I'm up for any suggestions. Anyway this is my first receipt. I have loved this soup since being in my first coffee shop making the soup. I adjusted the recipe to give it a little kick and it is very comforting and warming, particularly now we are moving into Autumn.

Red Pepper and Wensleydale Soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1tsp Paprika
• 1/4tsp chili powder or flakes
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• 250ml vegetable stock
• 150g Wensleydale Cheese.

Method

1. Chop onion and red pepper and add to a pan with a small amount of oil. Cook gently till soft
2. Add paprika and chili powder
   
3. Add chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock and simmer for 20 mins
   
4. Once simmered blend 
5. Add Wensleydale to your blended soup. 
   
6. Enjoy with a lovely slice of homemade bread or just any good crusty bread.

I hope everyone likes the recipe it is one of my favourite soups to make. 

Easter Sunday with Mother

I planned to post this a while ago but did not get round to it. Every Easter my mum comes up for the weekend and Easter Sunday we have a slightly unusual tradition; Camden Town. Every year since I was around 14-15 we have been going to Camden at this time of the year (as well as summer). As usual the sunshine was out it was nice and warm with a slight chill in the air but I was easily able to not to wear a coat/jacket. It was unusually busy for this year but nothing me and my mother could not handle!

Before we even got to our usual places in Camden we came across the Mad Hatter along our travels!

He was very fun and something a little different and unusual to find in Camden. We continued the journey along to the food area to plan our meal for lunch time and along the way decided to have a fruit skewer covered in chocolate! Well more like I decided!

We stopped in my usual favorite shop Collectif in which I purchased 4 items all pre-birthday money spending so fingers crossed I get enough next week. I will have to take a picture of my amazing outfit on my birthday as I will have to wait till then for them. We both decided for our lunch to share an Indian wrap which I do not have a picture of but it was very yummy! Before I forget here is some latte art I did for some customers at work over the Easter period.

Because I don't really do Easter HAPPY SPRING TIME!  

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! And this year is the year of the Goat (or sheep) but anyways its my year!. Today in inspiration of Chinese New Year I thought I would take me and my Nan to Chinatown. The dancing of the dragons is happening this weekend but it was still a lovely atmosphere to be in with people handing out red envelopes for luck.

I have also decided this will be part of my photography challenge 'Just for Fun'.

Week 8- Just for fun 

While there I picked up some very yummy  Chinese food items to go with my Chinese meal I was cooking later that night.

I will say the biscuits was hard to decipher but I figured out they were a blueberry cheesecake I think but they are so yummy and in very adorable package. We brought a red bean bun that my nan looked very interested in and when warmed it was lovely. I should visit Chinatown more often really. For dinner I thought I would cook a receipe from River Cottage- Veg which was the 5 spiced Chinese winter stir-fry. And this was amazing and lovely going with my peach soda with a glass ball inside to create the fizz.

For dessert we had some peanut and sesame seed mochi. Now I love chocolate mochi so thought I would give this a try. I will say if you like peanut butter than this is your thing. I personally wouldnt be able to eat too many though but they were worth a try and different obviously.

Me and my Nan in Chinatown

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! 

A little trip to Fortnum and Masons

Today I had a day to myself and mostly spent the day in the lovely Fortnum and Masons. I went here to pick up a very special anniversary present for my parents which I can not say as they do read this blog, but I will post it on the day of them being married for 25years! 

Apart from just picking up a rather special present for them, I had lunch at The Fountain resturant. I have been her before for breakfast with my parents but this time I was on my own. There is nothing wrong with having a lunch on your own particularly here. The resturant is a lovely atmosphere with a central bar with a modern style chandelier in the middle. The staff are all lovely and one even commented on how he liked my vintage style when he brought me the bill.

I decided to have a pot of peppermint tea with a goats cheese and heritage beetroot salad. I have never had heritage beetroot before but it was so lovely, nice chunks of purple and white beetroot with thin orange slices underneath. ( Sorry not sure what the different terms are). I love my cheese and this was no exception for the goats cheese on the plate. It was so smooth and soft it would just melt on your mouth. I know its winter but it would be a lovely summer dish. 

 After my meal I went to pick up a few things for myself and then it was time to go out into the lovely rain. I stillsmell fortnums on my clothes as weird as this sounds but it reminds me of the time we went to Disneyland and stay in the Disneyland hotel for my mums birthday.

Camden Town

If you was a follower of my previous blog 'Happiness Crafts', then you would find I used to talk about London a lot and visiting Camden in particular. Before I moved to London, I would visit Camden twice a year with my Mum and we have been doing this since I was 14/15; that is nearly 10 YEARS AGO! (I have only just come to this realisation). Back in them years I was a little alternative shall we say and Camden Market was the perfect place to buy the majority of my clothing from. Each year we would go and my style developed further to being, at the moment and probably forever, a lover of all things vintage and incorporating vintage into my style particularly the 40s/50s. Anyways enough of this and back on to Camden.

Since moving here in October the other day was the first day I went to Camden and without my Mum. Usually we would go on a Sunday were it is so busy you struggle to move and can only go ideally in one direction. I decided against going at the weekend and it was quiet completely different to the hype I am use to, but luckily Camden Lock Food market was on and I had a little bite to eat for my lunch. I decided to have a Piadina, which is Italian.

It was so good I could have gone back for more. It had homemade pesto, rocket, tomatoes and finished with melted brie which wasn't too melted making me like it even more. If you ever see this place go to it they do do a meat option to for all you non veggie people out there. While I was eating my Piadina there was also some very hungry looking sparrows.

After my lunch I thought lets go for something cold, crazy I know, and went off and visited one of my favorite ice cream parlour, Chin Chin Labs, who making their ice cream using dry ice and a wonderful arrangement of flavours. The whole place is decorated like a laboratory with toppings in test tubes and beakers back in the day they would serve the ice cream with a medicine spoon as well. Anyways, I had the special which was beetroot with Saffron Meringue and little drizzle of chocolate sauce and all I can say is wow! You had the slight earthy natural sweetness from the beetroot with a little help of warm chocolate sauce with an added crunch from the meringue. I would love to have this again if they ever bring it back!

Taking a visit to Camden wasn't just about the food, I went and visited one of my favorite vintage reproduction clothing store; Collectif. I have a wide range of their clothing and that visit was to be no exception, I picked up a very cute cherry print jumper with a little bow in the sale for £18 (I had seen this prior to the sale) and I also picked myself up a bargain, a pair of cropped high waisted jeans at £7! I don't know how I did it though as they look like they are full price online. Now I am not one to wear trousers/jeans but these were a snap and look great on. I will take a picture soon of this ensemble but for now here is a picture of the items I brought.

I hope I can take more visits to Camden and take one of my besties, Mel with me to enjoy some amazing ice cream!