These are a few of my favourite things....

I love chocolate and I love cakes. It seemed appropriate therefore to treat myself to the finest of both on this pretty miserable and wet week in August.

I took a walk around Angel and went to two of my favourite eateries. Along the way I made a (mildly) interesting discovery; both of the shops are called Paul.... Who'd have thought that the name Paul was in fact synonymous with top quality tasty treats?

The first is the patisserie Paul. They make amazing breads, cakes and pastries.

The second one is Paul A Young Fine Chocolates. They do 'wipe away your tears and make things better again' kinda chocolate - it really is that good :)

I have to say I spent a small fortune but you can't really put a price on excellence - at least that's what I'll be telling my customers when I open my Patisserie. I think I'll change the name first though to Bailey 'Paul' Ana Cakes.

Bittersweet Memories

Yesterday I celebrated my 33rd birthday. When another year rolls past, it gives you the opportunity to reflect on the year that has gone and make plans for the next. 

Last year I said goodbye to two relationships that were very dear to me: words cannot describe how difficult that was and I would be lying if I said that I am fully healed. On the flip side I developed some new passions (photography, international blogging and ting) and poured myself into my cakes. Even as I look at my earlier posts and compare them to the recent ones you can see the improvement. 

My life has a lot of bitter elements to it & you don't have to scratch too far beneath the surface to see that. But I also have so much sweetness. My life is a delicious, crazy, hard, fun, lonely, lovely, angry, happy, tearful, joyful and bittersweet rollercoaster. My personal mantra is that I want to live whilst I am alive and that means experiencing the good and the bad.

I made a Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake to symbolise the duality of my life; the sweet & the bitter coming together to make something delicious. 

 Here's to another year x

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Like many people across the world, I watched as London seemed to spiral out of control for a few days. What started out as a legitimate protest and a heated talking point for conspiracy theorists; quickly deteriorated into an open invitation for looting, arson, violence and even murder. I went from laughing at jokes on Twitter to offering condolences to a friend of mine whose friend was murdered and another who had her designer boutique looted destroying her livelihood.

Rest in Peace

For me the worst thing was the sense of fear that hung in the air; fear of going outside, fear of our youths, fear of racism, fear of violence, fear that the peace that we have enjoyed for so long would be taken away in the blink of an eye.

But as it became clear that the looters were gaining strength, London fought back. People took to the streets to clean up the city and protect themselves and each other. The news reporters made a conscious effort to be balanced in the coverage of the events and people all over condemned the actions of the minority and demanded peace.

I have my thoughts on why this has happened and I would be lying if I said that I was in any way surprised by it. As a people, so many of us are lost spiritually, unaware of our connection to the universe and each other whilst we drown in empty consumerism. 

But so many of us have that sense of community spirit and unity and refused to give in to fear and hate. I decided to make a multi-coloured cake including the black cupcake case and white icing to recognise that united we stand and divided we fall.

Peace and Love

x

Vive La France!!

I have just come back from my second trip to France this summer... The last trip was for a festival and was all about the music. This time, it was all about the food (and wine). 

I went with the boys to stay with family at their summer house in an idyllic village called Sainte Soline.

We were greeted with traditional English scones and proceeded to eat and drink, and eat some more for the entirety of our stay. In fact I've pretty much doubled in size. I'm saving the detox until after my Birthday though which is in the next two weeks as I'll just be lying to myself if I tried to do it any sooner! :)

The house has an orchard attached to it so we ate food fresh from the garden everyday.

I made a point of checking out as many patisseries as I could. Here are a selection of some of the desserts that I sampled on the trip. I went a bit macaron crazy and have a good recipe now that I will be testing out very soon...

Strawberry Moose

Petit Fours

Macarons

Macarons

Pastry selection box

All in all it was a lovely trip, further cementing my desire to spend more time in France. Everyone needs a summer house #fact!

Enjoy
xx