Lake District - Day 2

On Day 2, we popped by the Drunken Inn Restaurant for a quick bite after finding good reviews. This was after we had breakfast and done a 2 hour walk in the woods!

We did have a quick break in between at one of the benches and tried the Kendal mint cake

We thought it tasted like After eight mints but slightly chewier.. supposed to give you energy for your "hikes"..

Anyway, the Drunken Inn was packed with people (as we arrived around 1.30pm) and we were famished... so we quickly ordered at the bar..

I ordered the fillet steak and onion sandwich which is served with chips and wholegrain mayo.

It was nice especially after our long walk ...mmm

Later on that day, we went back to the hotel room to freshen up, have a short nap (hehe..) and we were off again to the city centre. Decided to stop for a cold drink. We popped into Esquires coffee house http://esquirescoffee.co.uk/. Look at the cute cupcakes!!

We just had smoothies as we were going to head to dinner soon.

We took a drive to a nearby town called Keswick as we were told by the receptionist at our hotel that it was a scenic route. Indeed it was! We arrived at Keswick (About 30 minutes later), parked the car and walked around in the city centre. We decided to give Sienna's a go http://www.siennasbarandgrill.com/. I cant remember what everyone else had (sorry!) but i had the baked cauliflower and cheese (i.e. vegetarian) as i was still so full from tea! It was really nice and i remember everyone else saying they enjoyed their meals as well.

Breakfast

Day 2 at Ambleside; the anticipation of a delicious breakfast had been killing my husband since we arrived here at the Fisherbeck Inn the day before. He had read the good reviews about breakfast and couldnt wait to try it.

The dining area was very cosy and was very quaint looking

For the first course, the orders were 2 Cinnamon poached fruit compote, natural greek style yoghurt, and pecan granola, 1 portion of cornflakes with milk and 1 portion of half a ruby grapefruit gratinated with vanilla sugar. For the second course, we ordered 2 full lakeland breakfasts i.e. bacon, 2 eggs of your choice, pork sausage, tomato, mushrooms and black pudding and 2 smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

The feedback was that the english breakfast didnt taste particularly great, and portions were abit on the small side. My husband kept eyeing my scrambled eggs which tasted abit too egg-ish for me, but he polished it off, no problem!

Didnt take many photos as we were usually too hungry, however, the next day i decided to try their onion scone served with egg, mushroom and marmalade which was on the special menu. I know you might think..onion scone??? but it was really yummy..

We were then ready for our daily walking trails... H.E.L.P...

Lake District - Day 1

I was initially very apprehensive about going to Lake District as i am not much of an outdoors person, but when my husband wanted to go, we decided to give it a go. We went with another couple and it took us close to 5 hours driving from London as there was a massive jam on one part of the highway. We visited the Ambleside district after being recommended that it was still very scenic but there was a relatively good sized town centre too. Ambleside lies at the heart of the Lake District National Park at the head of Lake Windermere, nestling under a crown of fells, Loughrigg, Fairfield and Wansfell.

We stayed at the Fisherbeck Inn http://www.fisherbeckhotel.co.uk/ which was a Bed and Breakfast. We stayed in one of a newly refurbished room and I loved how the room was decorated. Very summery.

After checking in around 4.30pm, we popped out to check out the town centre as my husband wanted to  get to a pub to get ready for the Barcelona v Manchester United Champions League match. As we headed in pub to pub, we slowly realised that everyone had already found a place, sat down, enjoying their alcohol whilst waiting for the match to start! Plus alot of the pubs were not going to be serving any food for the duration of the match (as the chef wanted to watch it too i presume?) ..After hunting around for a pub that did have space, served food for dinner, and had a big screen tv, we settled in the Sportsman Inn http://www.pub-explorer.com/cumbria/pub/sportsmaninnambleside.htm. We managed to secure good seats i.e. right in front of the screens and they served free sausages and chips during half time. However, the food quality was disappointing. I personally wont be back.

Two of us wandered off during half time to go get ice cream from a nearby shop we spotted earlier. 

Mmmm no photos as we were struggling with holding 4 ice cream cones between 2 of us, but it was good! Rum and raisin especially!

Macarons part 3 - Pink macarons

Still on a high from my successful lemon macarons, plus the fact that i was off to the Lake District soon on a short holiday, i decided to bake more macarons as a snack for the journey. I made 2 batches i.e. 1 red and 1 pink.

The results..

Sandwiched with lemon mascarpone filling..

I am sure you must have realised that i havent included any photos of the red macarons. Unfortunately when i removed the red macarons from the oven (which came out perfectly), the greaseproof paper slided off my baking sheet and fell flat onto the table!! SUCH A SHAME!! 

This is when i decided i should either get a silpat or a silicone baking mat for future use..

Macarons part 2

This is my first attempt of making macarons (post macaron class).. There are so many flavours to choose from!! Finally decided to make macarons with lemon curd filling.

In the process.

Ta dah....

Minnie mouse cupcakes

My younger sister started off by baking some chocolate cupcakes in pretty cupcake cases. It must be the type of paper used for the cases, as they seem to come away from the cake once the cupcakes were baked. They were quite oily as well. Hence the double cupcake cases in the photo.

Time for icing.

Almost too pretty to eat...ALMOST!

Cupcakes galore

Had a bit of time on my hands and inspired by DC cupcakes http://www.georgetowncupcake.com/, decided to practice my icing technique i.e. "the swirl" on some cupcakes. I started off by baking some classic vanilla cupcakes and whipped up some buttercream. As i was going to bring the cupcakes to the office, i opted for a neutral colour ie pastel green.

Sprinkle some sprinkles on top..

Place them in a nice tin (my sister gave this to me)

I noticed that my icing didnt go round the entire cupcake though, and its because i used a nozzle that was too small. A bigger nozzle is definitely on my list of things to get next...

Macarons

I have always and will  always love the look of the macarons either beautifully displayed in shop windows or neatly arranged in boxes. Little did i know, how difficult it was to make them! Ahhh..so pretty! This one i bought from La Maison Du Chocolat http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.co.uk/uk/en/

My first attempt was with my mom who is a seasoned baker. By looking at the recipe, it honestly didnt look that difficult as there were only a few ingredients involved ie ground almonds, caster sugar, icing sugar and egg whites. Easy peasy or so we thought! Our first attempt went horribly wrong as the macarons didnt rise and were crispy on the outside, really flat but still wet on the inside. So back to the internet to find out what we had done wrong. Lots and lots of explanations but what better way then to try again! Round 2 brought about similar results except that the macarons were not as flat. This was the point my mom decided that she actually didnt like macarons at all. I however, decided to enrol for a macaron class. Click click click, and i had booked my macaron class at L'atelier des chefs http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/ (figured the french cooking school sounded promising). 3 weeks to go, i could hardly wait!

Sunday 8.30am in the tube, really sleepy and feeling really sorry for myself having to trudge to Oxford Circus...*yawn*. The sleepiness slowly wears off as i get lost and end up rushing to get there by 8.50am (ie 10 minutes before the class starts). I am the second last to arrive, phew! I have to say i was impressed with the facilities offered especially the shiny red Kitchenaids! We were split up into teams of 4 and were taught to make four types of fillings ie salted caramel, gingerbread cream and caramelised bananas, lemon buttercream and white chocolate and orange marmalade fillings.. yummy! I have to say i felt the class was abit too big, and although we took turns, it would have been better if we could have had our own portions to work on.

This was the results from the class.. ta dah..

Erm, yes they were slightly smashed as i met my husband for dim sum after my class, and only remembered to take a photo once i got home..whoops! Stay tuned for photos from my macaron attempts...