Banana Pancakes

It's time for brunch and that means one thing - pancakes.

You can't go wrong with the basic pancake recipe, it's a classic loved by all. 

To add a slight twist, I added bananas and topped my pancakes with Nutella. 

The best combination ever. 

I started by caramelising the thinly sliced banana by tossing them in brown sugar. Place in a saucepan and gently heat for a couple of minutes to add a sweet touch. 

Make your usual pancake batter - flour, eggs and milk is all you need. Once you have poured this into your saucepan, immediately add the sliced banana using however much you like. 

Continue as you normally would, flipping the pancake to cook both sides.

And there we have it, a delicious banana pancake made within minutes. 

Topped with Nutella, this is the perfect wakeup call. 

A weekend of eating...

Having visitors in Newcastle means one thing - eating. 

This weekend Alice came down from Edinburgh to stay with me and see our new house. With lots to catch up on, food was of course the perfect accompaniment. 

Friday night began with homemade lentil stuffed squash. Mum had sent us the recipe earlier on this week  so we decided to put it to test. Butternut squash stuffed with lentils, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach and topped with cheese, it tasted just as good as the recipe looked. 

After a day of retail therapy, we decided to try out Jam Jar, a new restaurant which has just opened in Jesmond. The quirky yet homely food and drinks venue is exactly what Jesmond needs.

Jam Cocktails

Their menu is built around fresh, locally sourced produce with English comfort food and all-American classics. Expect British classics such as traditional fish and chips, homemade pies, and afternoon tea combined with transatlantic favourites such as friend chicken, buttermilk pancakes and not to mention the best burgers in town. 

Pulled Pork Burger & Chips

Alice and I opted for the pulled pork burger served with chips whilst Becca went for the Sirloin Steak.Housed in a contemporary space with a fun and upbeat atmosphere, Jam Jar rose above all expectations.

Steak & Chips with Coleslaw

GoPro: HERO3+

"The worlds most versatile camera"

Over summer I adopted a GoPro Hero 3 and became obsessed. 

It's amazing how a camera so small can capture such incredible footage. Strapped to your head, clamped on a wakeboard, or simply just handheld, it's so easy to capture the experience that is your life.

The new HERO3+ is smaller, lighter and mightier and their latest compilation illustrates just that...

GoPro have taken it to the next level, I think I may have to purchase....

University Preparations

Living in halls for the past year was so much fun and don't get me wrong I wouldn't have done it any other way. However, being in a boxy room whilst sharing toilets, showers and a kitchen between 20 girls wasn't quite so fun.

So as you can imagine, I am very much looking forward to moving into a house with 6 of my closest friends. Obviously when you're renting a house it's difficult to decorate the rooms as you're pretty restricted with what you can change. Wanting to make my bedroom my own, I decided that bunting would be a nice touch. 

Having never sewn before, I set myself the challenge of making my own bunting using a vintage tablecloth which we found on eBay. 

Cut out a series of triangles from the patterned fabric

Take two fabric triangles (I used an old bed sheet for the back of the bunting) and place them with their right sides facing inwards. Stitch them together leaving the top open. 

Trim the seam at the lower edge of the triangle point

Turn the right sides out and press with an iron

Now assemble the bunting. To make your binding fold a strip of cotton tape (2.5cm wide)  in half  lengthways and press with an iron

Place the top edge of each triangle inside the folded binding and sew through the binding and triangles

Make sure that the triangles are evenly spaced along the binding and you leave length at either end for hanging 

Afternoon Tea

If all had gone to plan I'd be in Budapest right now. Instead, I am in rainy cold England for my last week of 'summer' before heading back to uni. 

Unfortunately, my friend Becca got severe fest flu post Bestival so we couldn't go on our mini break. We were obviously both very disappointed so decided to plan some fun days out to make up for it.

Thorpe Park was first on the agenda taking us back to our childhood days. 

Following the adrenalin filled day, we then headed to the Spa for a day of relaxation and pampering. We managed to get a great deal for the Harte & Garter Spa in Windsor. Having never been before we weren't sure what to expect as the deal seemed too good to be true! 

We made full use of the Thermal Suite, detoxing in the Sauna, Steam room and Hydropool. Both of us also had a neck, back and shoulder massage which was amazing.

On top of all of this, we were treated to afternoon tea and champagne in The Tower Brasserie. Just what we needed to complete a lovely day leaving us feeling very full!

Courgette, Walnut and Cinnamon Layer Cake

The sun has officially disappeared and winter is approaching, fast. 

All this depressing weather calls for one thing only - comfort food. With this in mind, I figured that this cake would be the ultimate cure for my summertime sadness. 

At the beginning of the year my friend Beanie set herself the a challenge - to bake the entire Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days' recipe book. With 110 recipes and 52 weeks in a year, it is quite a task but you can't exactly complain when you're baking cakes as good as this one... 

You will need:

For the sponge:

- 3 large eggs

- 300ml sunflower oil

- 300g soft light brown sugar

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

- 300g plain flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ground ginger

- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- 300g peeled and grated courgettes

- 100g walnuts, roughly chopped (plus extra halves to decorate)

For the frosting:

- 160g unsalted butter, softened 

- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

- 500g icing sugar

- 50g plain Greek yoghurt

(We reduced the quantities for the frosting as the original recipe makes quite a lot)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and line three 20cm diameter loose-bottomed sandwich tins with baking parchment.

Mix together the eggs, sunflower oil, sugar and vanilla essence until the are all combined.

Sift together the flour, baking power, bicarbonate of soda and the ground spices. Gradually add this to the wet mixture, beating well. 

Lastly, add the courgettes and chopped walnuts to the batter, mixing them in thoroughly.The courgettes are definitely the secret ingredient to this cake, they add great moisture, texture and colour. 

Divide the cake batter evenly between the three prepared cake tins and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden. 

 Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Whilst the cakes are cooling, you can make the frosting. Mix together the butter, cinnamon and icing sugar. Add the yoghurt and mix on a low speed until all the ingredients are combined then increase the speed and beat until the icing is light and fluffy.

Once fully cooled, spread the frosting on each layer sandwiching the three cakes together. Use the remaining icing for the top and sides of the cake. 

To finish, dust with cinnamon and decorate with walnut halves. 

Follow Beanie's bakes and the rest of her baking challenge on http://beaniesbakes.blogspot.co.uk

Enjoy!

Let the Clothes do the Talking

"Every girl needs Topshop"

Didn't get a ticket for London Fashion Week?

Fear not as Topshop are giving you a front row seat on Sunday 15th at 3pm.

Bringing the outside inside, Topshop has got a fresh new 'Showspace' located in London's Regent Park for spring/summer 2014. Giving fans/viewers a complete social media, Topshop have teamed up with Chirp to offer all customers a unique insight into the show. 

Streamed live, viewers will be able to purchase and share everything from the music to the clothes to the beauty across every channel, platform and device. 

Topshop's Oxford Circus store will feature a Chirp and Twitter garden that shoppers can walk through to receive content and images straight from the catwalk. 

The Topshop Make-Up look will be available to buy straight away after the show. 50 limited edition make-up bags have also been created using a key print from the catwalk collection.

So if like me, you didn't manage to get yourself a ticket to this years LFW, be sure to tune in at 3pm tomorrow afternoon and experience the Topshop Unique show like never before.

“Each season, we set ourselves the challenge to innovate and excite in a different way with the UNIQUE show; not only in terms of our Collection and show space, but also how to engage with and involve TOPSHOP fans worldwide. The link with Chirp is fun and we love the fact that it allows people to discover new aspects of the Collection and what goes on behind the scenes at UNIQUE through creating iconic images to story tell.  With my personal belief that product is king I am a great fan of the tag-line “Let the clothes do the talking” . 

Sir Philip Green