east end royal wedding knees up

So, how do you celebrate the nuptials of the future King and Queen of England?

Well, you kick off with tea in a souvenir mug of course....

Next step, put up the bunting.....

paper chain from Accessorize, bunting from Ebay

Then you watch the service, whilst drinking more tea

and a posh breakfast made by Mr P (he roasted cherry tomatoes in balsamic vinegar and olive oil and served on English muffins with scrambled eggs)

plate from Camden Passage antiques

 and finally after you've watched every moment, gasped at the gorgeous dress by Sarah Burton at McQueen, adored the hats, giggled at the flower girls, loved the Queens blanket and just smiled the whole way through...you head to a street party.

So, that was that 29th April 2010, the wedding day of Wills and Kate. Good luck to you both!

lemon and basil cake

My friend has been posting some delicious looking cakes, and one recipe looked and tasted so different, I just had to try it myself....lemon and basil cake....now, it doesn't look fancy, and it sounds kind of strange. But it works! The icing glaze is really sweet and the lemon is tasty. And who knew you could use basil in sweets?!

I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon baking this cake, wearing my laura ashley apron and measuring out the flour, chopping the basil. 

It was ever so tasty. Try it. I might share the recipe just like my friend shared with me.. The photo doesn't do it justice!

valentine's love in april

Belated valentine's cake post, the cute love heart cake if from my favourite bakery Anderson's- only £3:50. Bargain. Icing was a bit sickly sweet though!

anyone fancy carrot cake for afternoon tea?

It's been a while, I lost my camera at Christmas. But I have been doing lots of baking and have taken the odd picture of my creations.

Carrot cake is my favourite cake ever, and I've spent quite a lot of time reading Delia's recipe in her vegetarian cookbooks. Some old friends/ work colleagues were popping round for tea and cake and the occasion was special enough to warrant trying the recipe out.

I was delighted with the result, so moist and delicious. The icing was made from mascapone and cream cheese....it was perfect. I loved this cake and can't wait to make it again some day.

Here's the lovely spread we enjoyed, tasty sarnies and you can spot my treasured sugar bowl from Liberty (bought using a birthday gift from D + R- thanks boys!), my lovely sailor plat from east London vintage fair and the top of a cake stand I managed to save after smashing the bottom half - which was a bit of a disaster as it was a gift for M from K + E!

I have a few more posts coming so stay tuned folks. CCC is back with a vengeance! 

my perfect saturday

The Market Diner, NYC is the type of brunch I dream about, all the time. Just about a perfect Saturday would be if I could meet J & M for breakfast and then go to the Hell's Kitchen vintage market to trawl through some goodies.

Oh I miss New York.

the californian

Quite simply- you got to go there. The service is amazing, the menu is enormous, the coffee is refilled. The diner was built in the 1960's (I think) and feels like a proper American diner. It was renovated and reopened in 2009.

http://marketdinernyc.com/food-delivery/Market-Diner-New-York-City.10029.r?QueryStringValue=iPBkeH6U2oRGi3wkebKivA==

Once again, I miss NYC

magnolia's

It's a NYC 'must do' for any SATC fan (that's Sex in the City for ordinary folk)

Take a trip up Bleeker St in the West Village and sample the delights of Magnolia's. This place was even better than I imagined....quaint and cute with net curtains and the most delicious cakes and cupcakes

Now here's a link to the scene where Miranda and Carrie eat cupcakes outside the bakery. It's crazy that this 20 second clip put this place on the map and started the long lasting cupcake revolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CJAXZxJXA

Of course, I love Sex and the City and I love cupcakes so I had to combine the two. Thankfully these cupcakes did not let me down. I selected the red velvet. It was soft and spongy and the icing was like nothing I'd ever tasted before....

red velvet cupcakes

I tell you though, it was pretty darn hard to pick which cake to eat, so many beautiful cupcakes to choose from.

and finally, we had to walk around the corner to see Carrie's stoop. I feel for the owners who have mad crazy SATC fans from around the globe on their doorstep taking photos.

It's a beautiful house, you can just picture Carrie running down those steps in a quirky dress, looking fabulous......

do do do do do dod, do, do do , do

wheatgrass: avoid at all costs