It seems that me & Katie of Leedsgrub shared some telephatic cupcake thoughts. I had been plotting all week to pop over to Chapel Allerton on Sunday on my way to lunch for some cupcakery…Katie beat me by ONE day and made it over to the wonderfully vintage little bakery on Saturday! It’s not the first time – I think I missed her at Hansas’ one Sunday by 30 mins!!

As you probably figured by now, I love most stuff vintage-y, cute-sy, yumm-y and retro-y. Even baker-y. Yeah, all good things end with a Y. I’ve done a few cupcake rounds, and have grand plans of spending a day trawling cupcakeries in NYC later this year. So far, I’ve loved the Hummingbird as their cakes are not sweet, which is then nicely tampered by the super sugary icing. Bacon don’t like it as much – he thinks it slightly weird that the cakes demonstrate a total lack of sugar whilst the icing is sickly sweet. I don’t mind it as I can then scrape off most of the icing so I end up with a suitably sweet cupcake. And of course, the fact that their recipes always turn out well and tastes like what they serve in-store. BUT the Hummingbird Bakery is not the topic of my post today – the Leeds-born Sunshine Bakery is.

Most definately a welcome addition to Leeds, I had yet to find something quite like this in the Leeds area…or anywhere near. We popped in on our way to Mother’s Day lunch – very lucky as they are not usually open on Sundays- to pick up some cupcakes. I actually checked their twitter feed before I left to see if they’re open, and as luck would have it, off the back of Katie’s lovely review of their cakes, they were offering a free cupcake to anyone who said they love leedsgrub! How nice is that ??

It was very lovely inside the shop, a certain modern vintage feel to it, from the proper coffee machines to china cups. We chatted about twitter abit (i follow them) , and how more businessess should embrace it ect..I do love speaking to businessess on twitter, it’s very bizzare but lovely! It’s even more wonderful when you see the person behind the twitter account….and especially for a ‘small but perfectly formed’ local bakery like this which I would have otherwise not found out about if not for the fact it had been tweeted around by local tweeps.

More on the ‘small but perfectly formed’ part – they are looking into expanding back and front, with tables planned on the sidewalk and opening up of a secret garden up back now that spring is FINALLY upon us. Wow. I must return when that happens – I do love a good cuppa with cake in the garden! At the moment there are tables inside for you to have your cake, and if the mother in law hadn’t been waiting for us at the pub we would had probably sat down for a cuppa and continue chatting with the friendly cupcake maker behind the counter (which I had very rudely not got his name!!). So we had ours to go for after lunch, packed in a sturdy specially-made-for-cupcakes 4 hole box.

We went away with two double chocolate, one mango & passionfruit and one Eton Mess cupcake. The one with the white rose is Eton Mess

The Mango & Passionfruit is the one with choc bits on white frosting

And of course, the double chocolate

The Mango & Passionfruit was very summery – light, with the right amount of fruitininess. Bacon loved this – and for someone who dislike passionfruit & mango, this is high praise indeed. The MIL gave it her thumbs up as well – her favourite. The Eton Mess was also very, very lovely – a meringue-like frosting with the delicate white rose to top it off….and I love the delicate strawberry flavours that was in this pretty and delicious cupcake. yum yum good.

However, the best of them lot, in my opinion, was the double chocolate. The sponge was light and moist, without losing it’s chocolate gooeyness. The frosting was absolutely DIVINE – I believe it’s very whipped chocolate cream with a glaze of chocolate on top. Chocolate cupcakes tend to get slightly sickly for me with the frosting, however, I could have had 10 more of these. Mm mm good.

See how moist the sponge is? Ohmigod…

The verdict? Bacon gave it his double thumbs up, even going as far to say that this is the best cupcake he had had so far. He’s plotting to send me to one of the cupcake classes that they regularly run . As for me, I absolutely love how everything is so light and delicate, with the right amout of sugar and moistness.

The Sunshine Bakery
182 Harrogate Road
Chapel Allerton
Leeds LS7 4NZ

*crossposted from notabrownbag - I have delayed posting this here due to having a sad week last week . It DOES close Monday, so if you’re interested, get clicking NOW!

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In conjunction with the fabulous girls from Culture Vultures ; THE local cultural & art website right here in Leeds, UK ; I am running a bento competition!!! Unfortunately it is only available for entry by denziens living and working in Leeds – but the gifts are definately fabulous as they’re handpicked by me!

The selected winner will be getting a specially made bento from my kitchen (yes, made from scratch!) in an adorable bento box that they get to keep and treasure. I have hand-picked a selection of envy-inducing ‘bento-gear’ for the winner to make their own bento lunches, as well as a how-to handbook on making superbly kawaii bento lunches and being the envy of all your colleagues!

It is my hope that this will start a lunch-volution, and the end of the sloppy sandwich on dry, stale bread that I see so many people stuff their mouths with during lunch time. To be able to go into a working lunch and not served a selection of sandwiches with unidentifiable fillings would be absolutely amazing. Having lived in blue-skies California, winters here in the north gets me depressed – but the thought of opening up a box of sunshine halfway through the work day brightens up my day to no end. Hey, maybe if everyone packs a bento, there will be no crime, peace on earth….and all that jazz…:D

…..my mock-interview, which was posted on their website:

What is a bento box?
“Portion control meets nutritionally complete work of art”.
Bento box is basically a box that you put your food in. If you’ve ever been to a Japanese restaurant, you would be familiar with the plastic mock-lacquer box with compartments that your dinner arrived in. In my opinion (and many others) the hinomaru is the classic bento, freshly cooked white short grained rice with an umeboshi (red pickled plum) in the centre – representing the Japanese flag.

In Japan, bentos are as widely available as Mcdonalds for the lunch-on-the-run, from vending machines to convenience stores (kombini) and railway stations. The credit-crunched version of assembling lunch at home and bringing it with you to eat at work/school has long been part and parcel of the Japanese culture – just as a brownbagged sandwich is to the Western culture.

However, the style of bento that is gaining somewhat of a cult status worldwide are the bentos made for children. This is instantly striking, from the rice molded into adorable shapes like rabbits and penguins. Go a step further and you’ll find great charaben/kyraben (character bento) practitioners recreating whole scenes of computer games into boxes of edible goodness – from a scene out of Mario to Professor Layton! There are competitions in Japan where accomplished charaben artists churn out their most adorably cute creations; from anime characters made out of ham to a whole zoo and Hello Kitty disguised as a penguin!

What do you put in it? Does it have to be Japanese food?
Two words; ANYTHING GOES! There are no hard and fast rules on this – I ensure I incorporate all food groups packed tightly in a box . Traditional bentos usually follow the rule of 4 parts starch, 1 parts fruit/veg and 2 part protein – but this is by no means a be all and end all. I generally try to lower my carbs intake whilst upping my fruit/veg intake, making it more 1:1:1. A bento for me has to tickle my tastebuds and fill me up enough so I do not succumb to a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate. Fabulous bento practitioner-turned-author advises JUST NO JUNK, whilst another accomplished bento practitioner advises that nothing raw should be packed, and always ensure you use an icepack in summer….nobody wants a spoiled lunch!

Japanese food definitely helps, especially those that are designed to be eaten at room temperature, i.e. rice balls. Again, no hard and fast rules, I have previously packed hummus & crudites. Olives works well, so does cherry tomatoes and mini cheeses (think babybel) Some of the more refined bentoists have turned plain cheese and ham sandwiches into magnificent work of art. The key is to keep each individual item small, that way you are able to add a wider variety of foodstuff.

Is it for one greedy person or for two to share?
That’s the beauty with bentos – and the addiction that many bento makers face with purchasing as many bento boxes as they can possibly find! The variety of shapes and sizes of bento boxes available is astounding, from plain flat plastic containers (i.e. tupperware style) to elaborate cedarwoor crafted ovals and Hello Kitty shaped plastic boxes. Personally, my burger-shaped bento box gets the most laughter when I reveal it at lunchtime .There are boxes out there designed for all appetites, from tiny 350ml containers for toddlers or a snack to giant picnic boxes (kouraku) catering for a family picnic.

The rule of thumb is bento lunches are generally made for one – I keep my boxes tiny (below 600ml volume) to keep a strict tab on the portion size, but the husband gets a man-sized non-cute 1 litre box. Another note; bento boxes comes in all shape and sizes, but generally the cute ones are on the small side, catering to children and adolescent girls!

If you were making a bento box of beauty for your most beloved what key ingredients would you include and why?
Lots and lots of colours! There is nothing more stunning than opening up a box at lunchtime and having a riot of colours exploding from a deceptively simple box. Healthy bento euthusiasts live by the colour rule; Red, Green, Yellow and Orange. This means alot of fruit and vegetables…….but rest assured, I am a self-confessed carnivore, so you won’t be stuck with a vegan lunchbox – unless you want to!

To enter, please click here!

Its been amazing snowfall here in the UK, with chaos wrecked on transport links and such…however, if you stay closer to home its fabulous!!! Could you believe it all fell in a 6 hour timescale – I woke up at 6.15 and it wasn’t snowing…by 7.30 the snow was about 2 inches deep. By noon it was about 6.

So deep you can’t even see my snow angel!!

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Can’t really walk without wellies anymore..

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bacon pretending to be a snowman..

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Bacon shovelling our way into the house

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The farm enveloped by super deep snow

We’re usually away for Christmas, so it was refreshing this year that we decided to stay home. This meant that the cat have the pleasure of our company (hehe), I was able to have an actual Christmas dinner on Christmas day, and got actual presents to open up! I got some speakers, a new sewing machine and other assorted knick knacks – Your Shape Wii game for one, chocolates, books ect ect…yay!

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Not to mention the magnificent snowfall! My first White Christmas – but thinking about it..I have not actually spent that many Christmases in countries that actually snow, so one in five is not too bad! Yep, I made the above on Christmas morning…

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And bacon made this, which is supposed to be a snow-cat

Unlike alot of people, I do not tend to get stressed out with making Christmas dinner. In fact, I quite enjoy it. It’s really not that difficult as well….and I do love making Christmas dinner with all the trimmings..

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My beautifully golden brown turkey. Yumm. My secret recipe is to brine it, let it swim in salt water for 24hours ; it makes the turkey wonderfully moist and flavourful. And NEVER follow the cooking time on the packaging. I cooked this for less than 2 hours (4.2kg bird), whilst the packaging reccomended about a 3 hour + cooking time. Of course, ALWAYS check the thickest part of the bird is not bloody before taking it out of the oven. To be honest, my bird could’ve done with only 1 hr & 30 mins, as I let it brown (without the bacon) for about 30 mins at 220deg before wrapping bacon all over the turkey for the remaining time at 180 deg. This browns up the turkey beautifully, whilst the bacon wrapping keeps it wonderfully moist. Lovely.

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I also made my fave festive red cabbage; with port, red wine vineger, cranberries, orange juice & rind, onions, cinnamon, nutmeg & star anise.

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And of course, the lovely trimmings – roast potatoes & parsnips, stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, sprouts with chipped bacon and assorted roast vegetables. I do love the trimmings.

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My piece de resistance – traditional American candied yam. This is the first time ever that I’m making it, but it is a very traditional American dish not to be missed with Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners. Fairly unknown outside of the US, this came from the 3 Thanksgiving that I spent in California. I have not had a full American Thanksgiving dinner for so long….and sorely missed the candied yams. Slightly misleading name – this is not a candy nor is it made out of what the rest of the world call yam. It is sweet potato, cooked in a lovely sauce of butter, maple syrup, spices and orange juice, it is then topped with marshmallows (yes, MARSHMALLOWS!) and baked till the marshmallows starts to toast – about 15 mins.

Serve immediately – the marshmallow crust looks deceptively hard, but its all soft and gooey inside, perfect mixed in with the sauce. I added some crushed walnuts to my sauce, and it tastes absolutely magnificent. Delicious. I like. Suprisingly enough, so did bacon – he had been apprehensive ever since I bought the sweet potato (sweet potato with my Christmas dinner??!! Never!!) . He was won over by this wonderful dish, the marshmallows just melting perfectly into the sauce. Bliss. Definately something that I will be repeating, with bacon’s seal of approval.

The whole spread – with homemade giblet gravy…. yummz.

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Until next year!!

Thanks to the girls at The Culture Vulture ,I blagged myself a free goodie bag from tonight’s event at my local Urban Outfitters!! Love it, love it! Urban Outfitters had been one of my very favourite brand since I first stumbled across it in Santa Monica in 2000. I remember the day when I spotted this guy overloaded with Urban Outfitters bags in central Leeds…if I did not spot the shop ten meters down the road, I would’ve chased after him to ask where did the bags come from! The edgy fashions, the quirky household stuff, lomography cameras and mad bags (remember my speakers clutch?).

Tonight was their christmas special – with 20% discounts throughout the whole store, the place was HEAVING. I couldn’t even buy anything…as I could hardly move to the queue. Sigh. Anyway – as promised, here’s my goodies!

From left-right: leopard print linen scarf, Levis’ 501 cutoffs, set of 3 headbands, two pairs of pseudo Raybans, patchwork dress, purple thighs, LEE 120 years anniversary bag and salt-and-pepper shakers

Sooooo fab! The only glitch is that the cutoffs are way too tiny, and the thighs are definately not my size – I am not very tall, but it’s made to fit girls up to 5ft 3! So I’m going to have to figure out what to do with them – I see a giveaway coming up! I squeezed into the pretty patchwork dress that only came in one size….loved the salt&pepper shaker. Incidentally, I purchased the exact same salt and pepper shaker in Sydney back in 2006 as a gift . The pseudo-Raybans are cute – not something that I would ordinarily purhcase for myself, but I do think its cute. So is the scarf – I so really needed something like this but had just not gotten around to buying one.

Definately very random – but I love it nonetheless!