What's with the Milk?

What is wrong with this picture? Have you spotted it yet? Yes, it's the plate full of coffee creamer. Rarely a good thing in my book these little plastic pots, but when served up alongside a pot of tea? Yuk.

Tea and Chocolate - A Dream Combination

When Sarah from the lovely Maison Cupcake contacted me recently to say I'd won a giveaway I was thrilled. When I realised it was for a box of tea flavoured chocolates I was pretty much ecstatic! Somehow the existence of Matcha Chocolat had passed me by, which was frankly a miracle as it is a product combining two of my favourite things in the world. Such is my love for tea flavoured chocolates I had previously sought them out at Pierre Marcolini and l'Artisan du Chocolat amongst others but here was an opportunity to have a whole box devoted to that most glorious of combinations. I awaited them with eager anticipation.

Where's the Green Tea?

If you're in London, I'm sure the latest craze for frozen yoghurt hasn't passed you by (and if you're in the States you're probably thinking "latest craze??"). I wasn't overly fussed about it having had a couple of fairly disappointing tubs but then I discovered that Frae offered a green tea flavour and I hot-footed (or hot-wheeled) it up to Islington to try some. My anticipation grew as I saw that one of the toppings on offer was mochi - the pounded rice sweets I had so enjoyed in Japan. I also added some mango and was ready to go. Well, it was another disappointment I'm afraid. Sure the mango was deliciously ripe, and the mochi were nice but where was the green tea in the frozen yoghurt? At first I thought I'd been served the wrong flavour but on comparison with Coffee Boy's I could taste that it was a bit different but I'd have been hard-pressed to tell you what the flavour I was eating was.

Green Tea cupcakes

Recently I decided to indulge two of my favourite things at once: tea and cakes. But not in the usual way: you know a lovely cake with an accompanying cuppa. No, this time I planned to enjoy both in one creation. Luckily, the lovely Rachel that I met on my cupcake course last year had sent me a recipe for green tea cupcakes that I adapted a little. In truth, although I loved the way the matcha frosting turned out, the tea flavour in the cupcake was a little bit too subtle for me. But then I do love my tea... I might be tempted to up the tea content in the cakes in future and lose the cocoa powder altogether. Still, they went down very well with everyone else so here's the recipe I used.

Review: Fleet River Cafe, Holborn

It always makes me happy when I read about a new independent cafe. With so many chains filling every high street in the UK it's good to know that smaller enterprises can make a go of it. One such place I was particularly pleased to hear about was Fleet River Bakery. For those of you that don't know the Fleet River is one of London's old rivers that is now subterranean. It starts in Hampstead and flows down to the River Thames just near Blackfriars. Apparently there are certain spots where you can hear the river flowing beneath your feet as part of London's labyrinthine sewer system.