The Sugar Bar

Kid Diva’s back in the nest. And joy to the reunion with her oven, finally. Living without one was not only upsetting me, it was making me almost allergic to the thought of surviving without one. The things I could normally roast and bake had been reduced so drastically it wasn’t a surprise that I found myself relying more on cereal and rabbit food than ever!

The past month has been very hectic too, what with balancing a Masters and part-time retail work at American Apparel, there really wasn’t much time left to do any sort of fancy cooking. It was simple, easy-peasy, bang bang type of cooking. And sometimes, there wasn’t even any cooking involved except for re-heating or microwave blasting the damn thing. I can’t tell you more how glad I am to be home for Christmas, to smell dinner cooking at half 7, to be able to flip through my recipe books very (and I stress that word ‘very’) leisurely whilst planning some sweet treat to bake the next day. I admit I am procrastinating and not giving my essays the appropriate amount of attention and care as I do my cookbooks, but it’s all worth it after being forced into oven abstinence the past few months.

I may not be able to fit as many recipes as I intend to attempt into the remaining few days I’m home for Christmas, and I’m constantly reminding myself that the reason for this is the heffer of an essay I have to tackle next. Yes, I’ve just about finished the 1st one I kept bitching about on Twitter and now have to haul ass on the next. Wish I could laze away another day doing nothing (except baking) but that’s really not likely at all. And it’s a real shame since returning to London means living without an oven for another 9 months – that’s madness. Pure torture. I don’t know how I’m going to cope. Might have to eat myself to death as a way to console my aching heart.

I find that I have recently crashed into a state of poverty which is a really awful time of the year to realize your purse has become as dry and unfertile as the Sahara desert. Fortunately, all my Christmas presents have been sorted out and I managed to (with help from the Mama) purchase some Christmassy ingredients for a bit of baking this week. So not very much left to worry about I suppose in terms of spending (she says). But before I start waxing lyrical about this babe of a recipe I found scribbled in a very old recipe book of mine, let me share with you this bit of shopping I thoroughly enjoyed today – RIBBON SHOPPING. Might have overshot my tiny miserly budget I set out for ribbons today. I’m still waiting for guilt to set in but it seems it’s gonna take a few more years for it to hit me.

Pretty, chic, Laura Ashley-type ribbons in lovely pastels (my favourite is duck egg and mint green) are quite hard to find. I often purchase mine online from that Cakes Cookies & Craft Shop I talk about quite a lot. Although they’ve got quite a range of plain ribbons advertised on their retail shop, it’s pretty much a race against other eager customers as the colours I want are always sold out. Purchasing by the metre pisses me off too as I hate having to estimate how much I’m going to use or how large my ribbons tied will look like, etc. For Pete’s sake I’m just buying ribbons not attempting to plan a conspiracy act against the Senate or something like that. Just give me my ribbons! Moreover, it’s even more difficult to find ribbons in pretty but not garish, childish patterns. After reading about a fantastic cheap ribbon find in Singapore via Evan’s blog Bossacafez, I knew I’d finally struck gold. When Evan posted a post Really Cheap Ribbons II, I snapped, threw caution to the wind and nicely asked Mum for a lift to Arab Street to check out this ribbon treasure chest.

I wasn’t disappointed. Polka dots? Oui. I love ‘em. Duck egg shades? Awesome, bung it in my basket. Mint green and contrasting baby pink dots? Holy smokes, isn’t that simply adorable? Yep. Gotta have it. Ladybugs? Geeez, you’re killing me, mate. Chocolate brown ribbons, mocha coloured ones, milky latte types, fuschia strips with white lace edges, cut-out-heart ones for the soppy lovesick ones, baby pink/blues with milk bottle patterns for baby showers, etc. They’ve got it all! After deliberating for quite some time, I managed to come round to 5 rolls, paid and left grinning from ear to ear.

Happy days.

Don’t you like how sometimes you purchase things you know you don’t need at the moment, but like an investment, you’re buying for the future? Some people think that’s foolish and so self-indulgent. I, on the other hand, would like to argue (in defense of us eager shoppers) and say we’re stocking up for the winter. In times of need, when you just can’t bloody find any ribbon about the house, or need an emergency gift for a friend, may be in desperate need to put your hair up on a hot day when all hair ties have decided to go missing or rip at the very last second which counts the most, you’ve got ribbon.

How comforting does that phrase : ‘You’ve got ribbon’ sound? Surely you agree!

And on to moi Christmas cookies. I know cranberry, white chocolate and walnut combo can be pretty normal, unexciting and predictable at this time of the year but surely a little stereotyping, a little cliché at Christmas time is totally forgivable? I love this combination of flavours (even if I dislike white chocolate. It’s weird but with raspberries or cranberries, I’d eat the white crap) and cranberry white chocolate was a duo I fell in love with in high school. Funnily enough, I liked it so much it was what inspired me to start baking and make truckloads of cranberry white chocolate cookies to last me a lifetime. Besides I thought it was pretty apt to return to my beloved oven with a favourite recipe of mine – and at that, one which I’d left to drown in the back of a very old recipe book forgotten behind newer, fancier celebrity chef cookbooks.

These cookies may not look great. They’re not as chunky, as fat, as voluptuous as I’d like them to be but I’m sure I’m to blame for that. Nevertheless, I think they taste great. A little on the sweet side so might have to reduce the amount of white chocolate buttons used in this but the flavours meshed together brilliantly and the cookies turned out nice and chewy in the middle and perfectly crunchy on the outer edges. I used cheap vanilla essence and that wasn’t as delightful as it would’ve been with a better quality vanilla extract but not complaining since they still quite scrumptious, evidence thanks to my elder sister A.

Mum: You’re baking tonight? Right now?
Me: Nah. Gonna head upstairs and do some work first (in my head, really I’m going to be blogging and twittering). I’ll bake a little later tonight. I’ll make another loaf cake tomorrow (after our Christmas eve roast dinner) for the family gathering on Christmas day.
A, my elder sister: You’re certainly attacking the oven with a vengeance, huh.
Me: Yea.
A: These cookies are delicious. Your best I think.
Me: They’re a little too sweet, no?
C, my younger sister: Yea! They’re so sweet.
A: Where? If you tell me where it’s sweet, maybe. But I don’t think they are. They’re good.

Feel really good about that vote of confidence. It’s always so rewarding to see the people you love enjoy the things you make. Okie dokie, I must be off to get working on these essays even more before I tackle my carrot cake for tomorrow’s dessert. Went to bed at 4am this morning trying to tie up all my arguments and have a feeling that it will be done again tonight so that I can both enjoy my holiday and meet my uni deadline.

To all those furiously baking and working away like Silas Marner in their kitchen dens, I salute you all. Happy Christmas! I can’t wait to catch up on all that Christmas food blogging soon.

Cranberry, White Chocolate & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

1 1/4 cup plain flour
113g unsalted butter, cold & cut into pieces
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 150dC.

Beat sugars and butter together til light and creamy. Mix in egg, vanilla and baking soda. Sift in flour, add salt and mix into batter. Fold in chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts.

Drop rounded tablespoonful of batter onto parchment-lined cookie trays and bake 2″ apart. Careful as these cookies will spread a bit and some of mine stuck together. If it does, use a small butter knife or spatula to separate and reshape cookies.

Bake 18-20 mins or until pale golden brown. Leave to cool about 2-3mins on the tray before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack. These cookies will firm and crunch up as they cool.

Earlier this week I was moaning about how quickly I get through my fruit. I can never buy them as fast or faster than I eat them which means by the end of the week, I’m usually lacking in my 5 a day and feeling a little stuffed up and unrefreshed. I depend on fruit acids to cleanse my system and keep me awake. My sugarfree polos tend to help a little but nothing like something fruity to complete my day, add a little colour to my life and jazz up any pudding I’ve prepared.

Last summer, I waxed lyrical about pears in my Pear and Cranberry Upside-Down Cake (recipe from Ottolenghi). Pears surely are one of my favourites but I’m never without a bag of apples (Pink Lady if I can) and a whole fruit bowl of clementines (you know if I’ve been gorging on clementines when I start getting the orange-peeling thumb nail). With the right seasons, I love golden kiwi fruit, papayas, pineapples and plums. In the summer, I live off berries on ice and a side of fruit sorbet. I love the way they easily cleanse your palate and almost get your system to reboot. Also, I can’t deny how good they taste.

A firm favourite is the lemon. What a sexy, chirpy-looking yellow fruit to bring some sunshine to you winter or summer, night or day. It tastes great in just about anything from sweet to savoury. It’s bloody gorgeous with fish (and I love my seafood). It looks awesome. A little zest and you’ve totally sexed up any dish or cake or sweet. And a little goes a long way. Power-packed, I say! A little squeeze makes a great cocktail, or for the non-booze drinking ones, heavenly with a cuppa earl grey. If you’re ill, lemon honey works wonders. Make it from scratch with a slice of lemon rather than down that disgusting medicinal Lemsip – it’s a whole lot more comforting and cheaper too.

I had Sunday brunch last week with an old friend of mine at Ottolenghi’s and I couldn’t resist taking away 2 little cakes with me. There was a whole beautiful range to choose from and although I was tempted with the Chocolate Bailey’s cake, I went for 2 lemon types: Lemon, Blueberry & Almond Cake (left), Lemon Pistachio & Polenta Cake (right). Both were topped with a lemon drizzle which made it look ultra yum. I love eating lemon drizzle. I could eat the thing on its own without any cake, it has to be cooled and hardened of course. So yum. Like eating brittle. Sweet, lemony brittle.

I may be biased. Some people call me mentalist, crazy fool, mad Dave or just nutter. Halloween night I dressed up as Lady Gaga (platinum blonde wig and all) and blatantly won best dressed. But my little tea hat and vintage round shades gave off some Mad Hatter vibe which only adds to my ‘nutter’ reputation, no? And how apt that I love nuts – especially pistachios, then comes hazelnuts, cashews, edamame/natto (may not count as a nut), cashews, brazil nuts and pecans. Pistachios my true favourite. As an ice cream flavour, you don’t even have to ask what I’ll be choosing. That the Lemon Pistachio & Polenta cake was topped very generously with crushed pistachio AND had crushed pistachios in the cake itself was a real treat for me. Sorta gave me a rush you’d get when say something was Buy 1 Get 1 Free or 3 for 2. Not the most eloquent or sophisticated analogy, but I’m sure you know what I mean!

The cake was so lemony and sweet, with a lovely crunch of both pistachio and polenta. The lemon drizzle was perfect, not too sweet and not too tangy. I’m a bit of squirrel so I spent a bit of time nibbling at the polenta bits, sent me a little crazy after with my sugar high but totally adored this cake. I’m not surprised why it’s one of the more popular cakes of Ottolenghi’s and why everyone’s dying to get their hands on the recipe. Can see myself in the near future going back for more of this!

As much as I find the combination of lemon, blueberry and almonds of the second cake to be simply amazing (I made a cake based on those flavours with yoghurt once a very long time ago here), there was nothing about it that really was shouting at me – saying, ‘Yes I’m so amazing aren’t I, now shut up and go buy a dozen more to gorge on and share if you are willing’. Was real good and moist nonetheless!

What can I say then? Ottolenghi loves it lemons and knows what to do with ‘em. I am a fan.

All the lemon-eating moments and lemon daydreams meant I had to make something incorporating it this week. I had plans, inspired by the lemon pistachio and polenta combination, to make lemon cream truffles with that lovely crushed pistachio filling and topping. But I have been a little brain dead this week and totally forgot to get them!  I even wondered if I could use lemon curd with it but feared that might make the whole thing too ‘wet’. I wasn’t being particularly creative I’m sure, but you know what they say though, when one door shuts, another opens. I found a key lime at the bottom of my vegetable chiller drawer and so whacked that on top of the truffles which gave it a lovely lime perfume and lacing of flavour. Nothing too strong to contest the lemon. And it worked. Simple flavours. Not as classy as that of Ottolenghi’s. Still very tasty and lovely in my opinion.

Part of me wished I’d bought some yellow candy coating so I could have lemon-yellow truffles, and truffles that didn’t look like a repetition of the Oreo Truffles I made in the post just before this one. Too bad, wish not granted. Do I have to say again that I’m poor? Goodness. I just don’t understand how not to live extravagantly huh.

Although I love playing around with edible colours, I really like the white coating for its clean look. I’ve also used pink candy coating with a slight variation of topping with pink and red hearts and butterfly sprinkles as a tribute to our lovely Mowie from Mowielicious. He adores all things pink and so Mowie, the pink ones are all for you. Bisous.

Might have to check back on this post for St. Valentine’s huh? Everyone busy making Christmas cookies and whatnots and I here I am, whacking out some lovey dovey bite-sized lemon cream pop-its. Ah! To be deviant and non-conformist. I jest. These truffles are much creamier than the oreo truffles as I’ve kept all the cream centers of the biscuits. I was inspired by the previous recipe, taken from Bakerella, which was very simple and basically turning an everyday biscuit into something a little more special and little dreamier.

What I would like to try next would be to make a double cream based lemon-infused centre and then coat it in biscuit crumbs or nuts a la Ferrero Rocher. These truffles have their centres mixed with cream and biscuit so it’s like having a bite-sized cream biscuit in your mouth all prettied up with white chocolate candy coating. Can’t wait to make this differently and see how it turns out!

Lemon Lime Cream Truffles
Ingredients

1 tube package cream biscuits
1/2 a package cream cheese, softened
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lime, for garnish
candy coating, melted

Keep the cream centres of the biscuits. Add to the softened cream cheese and mix well with zest of 1 lemon. Set aside.

In a bag or pestle and mortar, bash up the biscuits til they produce a fine crumb. Mix together with the cream cheese mixture. Form balls with 1/2 tbs mixture and set aside or in the fridge to firm up a little.

Prepare your candy coating according to the instructions on the package. If microwaveable, microwave for 1 minute or 30 seconds depending on your make. Remove from microwave and stir. Let stand for a bit before blasting it in the microwave for another 10 seconds. Repeat until you have a smooth, melted bowl of coating.

Drop biscuit balls into the coating and drop gently onto a parchment-lined tray. Garnish with lime zest and let it sit for coating to set. Fridge before serving so that the cream insides firm up a little.

Recipe produces 18 truffles.

I have a sweet tooth. (I’m sure you guilty ones reading this have one too) And I’ve never once felt like my penchant for sweet things was ever a curse. Until now.

The past week has been a great one. I was a little snowed under with my special preparation for Food Blogger Connect 09, our first ever UK food conference, with my new part-time job at American Apparel (whilst I struggle with a full-time MA at Birkbeck College), with keeping in touch with my mates all over the place, with feeding myself, with my readings (not to mention I now have a whole new employee guide to read as well). So not only do I find myself getting all freaked out with the work, nervous about meeting all the other talented food bloggers I’ve been communicating with, my naughty hand has been creeping into sweet bags, fudge packets, mint tubes, etc. It’s getting bad beyond bad!

And what topped it all? I made something sweet, sugary and cute for my fellow cyber mummy cum member of the morning Twitter Breakfast Club – Deeba of Passionate About Baking, a little belated birthday gift. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed myself making these gorgeous (can I say so myself?) little truffles and seeing Deeba’s face brighten up when I presented it to her. I couldn’t be any happier when they were successful since it’s been years, about 15 years probably, since I last made chocolate truffles or anything sweet related really. After carefully transferring the extra truffles into a little pop-n-lock box and then wrapping it up in a recently purchased furoshiki, I couldn’t be any more proud of myself. The recipe’s certainly easy to follow, nothing complicated at all. And I know I bitch, complain, whine and procrastinate quite a lot and so sometimes my blog goes into desert-mode with no sweet concoction blogged about for ages. Now, I don’t have an oven so I’ve decided to venture more into candy-making. And yay, the first candy post is a good one.

So if it’s all good, then why have I slapped on the curse factor? Do you how much of the work/candy/truffle-in-progress I consume? Do you know how bad that little OREO crumb tantalizes me, how much I can’t bear to not lick off that bit of candy coating on the back of a spoon? Also, do you know how much toothpaste I’m going through at the moment?! It’s mental! Sensodyne is totally enjoying this. And there’s also my sugar high problems. I’m going crazy twitchy giggly and talking at super fast speeds (I bet half the people I grab, hug, smooch and then chat AT, rather than TO don’t even understand the words that are just rolling out of my mouth). 2 minutes into the sugar phase, I’m wondering why the lights are so bright; the world so bulbous and huge to the point that it’s pressing into my own eyeballs; I’m amazed at how delicious tap water tastes and I think I’m blushing. These are just a few of the more common side effects. The end result is less exciting and is usually me feeling tired, headache-y and a little sick.

What happens after a bit of rest or a few days of rest, depending on how good I am? The process repeats itself. Goodness! I’m blaming it on this week of food celebration! I’ve never eaten better and oh, look at me just lazying on the bed feeling fat and glorious. What a Nigella of a Diva. My coursemates have even started nicknaming me ‘Fatty’. Don’t worry, they’re just taking the piss. I call one of em ‘Pervert’ and the other ‘Fanny Pack’. It’s all good. We love each other all around, really.

I missed Deeba’s birthday and felt awful about it. What made me feel even more guilty was that I’d only found out on Twitter. Heck. I find out everything on Twitter these days – and if I feel like sharing with it others, I simply Retweet it to the high heavens like a loudmouth. It’s like who needs the newspaper when I’ve got Twitter on my laptop and on my blackberry? Seriously, even The Evening Standard’s now going free on the streets and the people giving them out pretty much beg you to take the paper off their hands so they can chuck aside that disgusting neon orange jacket they wear so they can finally escape our horrid English weather and head home for tea. Twitter’s great. Trust me. Now we just gotta get the rest of the foodie world onto Twitter and we’re sorted. (Cook Sister, hope you’re reading this. I’m wondering if my -does the magical hand movement- hypnosis that night worked! Haha)

Whilst I was doing the daily Food Blogger Connect (FBC) countdown on Twitter, our Twitter Breakfast Club were furiously direct-messaging each other about things we wanted from our respective places of residence. Deeba kept bullying me into telling her what I wanted from India. And I’m not exaggerating. That woman, bless her gorgeous heart, is tiny but she’s a real bully. But I love her anyway. She was so sweet to go shopping for a lamp (I love anything to do with candles and lamps, especially fans and masks if you wanted to know!) and a lovely Indian turqoise scarf for me. I am deeply touched and feel so loved and looked after. How could I not send the love back?

Pam from The Cooking Ninja, as well as Sunita from my favourite Sunita’s World, were simultaneously asking after me for any gifts I wanted. How nice of them!

But like Sunita, I believe homemade gifts are the best. You put the most thought and effort into them (sometimes I bloody slice a finger off for it, or scar my arm on the oven for life, ya know). A lot of ‘you’ goes into it and it means more, I’m sure, to the person receiving it to see that extra special-ness in a gift homemade by you rather than something storebought that gets bought up by a million other people. I do believe gifts handpicked from the store are great too but anything homemade is always just a step further in being more lovely, now don’t you think? And so, dearest Deeba, Happy Belated Birthday! Here are my OREO truffles for you!

Deeba’s, all wrapped up – pretty in pink

I did bring some extra truffles to FBC and those lucky few who tasted it, if you liked it, yay for me. If you didn’t, oh no! But don’t be afraid to send some constructive feedback my way as I’ve much to learn.

Ever since I stumbled upon Bakerella’s website, I have constantly played with the idea of making the gorgeous cake pops and candy I’ve ogled at so much. Bakerella’s a bit of sweetie goddess. Her truffles (you’ll find the recipe if you click here) were super easy to make and beautiful to look at. I loved it. Will definitely be making these again and again whenever there’s an occasion that calls for it and I’m hoping to experiment with other sorts of fillings. Careful though, as they’re quite addictive, what with being so bite-size and all. This is me, venturing into the chocolate/candy-making arena. Woot woot. How exciting. Makes me happy just talking about it now.

Naked truffles – pre-coated with candy coating

Just a bit about the truffles before I move on to FBC, remember to use candy coating or white chocolate flavoured coating instead of white chocolate itself. Using melting/baking chocolate will not set the truffles unless you put them in the fridge. But once you remove them, they’ll start to melt a little or between your fingers when you touch and hold them. Try to get candy coating or chocolate bark which is the best thing to use when making chocolates and candies. Can’t seem to find them? Try the cookie craft shop – can’t for the life of me remember the exact name of the shop off my head right now – but if you venture onto my Bake Shop page, you’ll find the link to their online shop there. For the pink ones, I’ve used Wilton’s Candy Melts in Rosa. Wilton’s is a little stiffer when melted so you get lovely little peaks and troughs when coating. I made the white ones with Squires Kitchen Easy Melt White Coating which produces a smoother, more drippy and liquid-y coating mixture. Hence, you’ll notice the white truffles are a lot rounder with less peaks and troughs. If you swirl the tops, they do tend to set with the swirls on but less noticeable than Wilton’s. Both products I found were lovely and tasted good, producing two types of looks which I think will come in very handy for future chocolate making.

Also, Bakerella says to use 8oz. softened cream cheese and 1 package of OREO cookies. I’m not sure if the US packs them cookies differently from the UK manufacturers but I found that I used 2 tubes of cookies (14 cookies in total), about 3/4 of the cream centers in total and just less than 1 pack of cream cheese. I chucked the rest of the cream centers as I didn’t want my truffle filling too sweet or as sweet as the candy coating itself. Not everyone’s as brave as I am with sugar. My Mum for one isn’t as she always complains about the things I make, so just be a little careful there with the cream centers.

It wouldn’t have felt right going to FBC, which was held at Levant Restaurant on Wigmore Street here in London, empty-handed. What else did I contribute? If you know my current predicament – no oven – you’d understand that I couldn’t bake anything and that’s not for lack of trying. The girls on Twitter went wild when I posted about LOLA’s November Flavour of the Month – Toblerone. I initially offered to get a few for the girls to take home but our breakfast club was rapidly expanding and not one to step on anyone’s toes for lack of sugary treats, I decided to order a box of mini cupcakes so everyone at FBC could have a taste of the latest flavour, their classic vanilla and my top favourite and love of my life – Red Velvet. And then, the RSVP list for FBC was expanding loads too so I emailed the lovely lady who’d I’d kept in contact with from LOLA’s and asked about a bigger order.

Courtesy of LOLA’s, we had 3 boxes of beautifully decorated and fairytale-like, glittered mini cupcakes sent to Levant for our enjoyment. Thank you LOLA’s! The cupcakes were gorgeous and I think everyone who had one were very impressed. Certainly, with the Toblerone cupcakes. I found myself standing by the table of cupcakes for a little bit explaining how LOLA’s had designed the Toblerone cupcakes, using Toblerone chocolate to make the cake and then white chocolate to make the ganache. You should have seen the faces, lips smeared a little with buttercream or white chocolate ganache frosting, break into grins after hearing that. I even know a few foodies who headed to Selfridges after the conference to stock up on some cupcakes! Wish I’d done so but the rain made me a little grumpy about trudging down the cobbled street in heels and a gia-normous bag full of yummy goodies.

I’ve never eaten edible glitter. Oh shoot me now, don’t I sound like an idiot? But goodness me, the thought of eating glitter itself sent me a notch higher up the sugar scale! I was well chuffed. Period.

FBC was amazing. Hosted by Jamie from Life’s a Feast, Hilda from Saffron & Blueberry, Beth from Dirty Kitchen Secrets and Mowie from Mowielicious, the event was a real success and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. A big thank you to all of them. Also, learned so much from the awesome bloggers and photographers who presented at the conference: such as Jamie, Jeanne from Cook Sister! (who has a wicked sense of humour!), Kang from LondonEater, and Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey?

Kang gave some fab tips on food photography. I think I understand my camera a little more now. But whether or not that’ll induce better pictures from me, I’m still pretty unsure about that so don’t get your hopes up, kiddo. It was great to finally meet the man behind the very successful LondonEater as well. Meeta was so bubbly and her presentation was a joy to listen to. I took notes! Yes I did. Check me out.

Finally got to meet the Twitter Breakfast Club too and we totally hit it off as though we were old friends. No shit about me being the baby of the group either. They were just my cyber mammees and daddees (if that applies to you Alessio ) Met Nic of Cherrapeno, Sarah of Maison Cupcake (your red hair rocks!), Alessio of Recipe Taster, Pam of The Cooking Ninja (I teased her for being unfriendly on Twitter when really, she just didn’t understand how it worked), Claire of Colloquial Cooking, Kerrin of MyKugelhopf (who has a sweet tooth the size of China, hello this woman’s amazing) and some other new foodies I discovered.

Completing our Lebanese lunch with a LOLA’s cupcake

We were all really excited about meeting each other. Upon entering Levant, which is beautifully decorated and scented by the way (you gotta go down the stairs which is illuminated by scented candles and rose petals in plates of water), you see everyone hugging, cheek-kissing, waving, blowing air kisses, etc. So much squealing, talking and hugging. It was fantastic! And of course, lots of food goodies being passed around. I was pretty delirious with happiness by the time I’d just set my bag down on the floor after spotting Sunita and Deeba.

The lunch was very delicious. I really liked the halloumi cheese on tomatoes, the falafel was especially good. Some said the size of it was too huge, but not a problem there for me. Not at all! There was a particular dish, don’t know what it was, but it was one with loads of nuts in it. That was out of this world. Only thing is, it gave me a garlic breath that was equally out of this world. Not great for saying hello to new foodie friends. Surely, they didn’t want my well-practised firm handshake and a ‘Hello, pleasure to meet you’ to end all hellos?

We all got on fine nevertheless. So, free love all around and garlic breath all around. Spread the joy of food and care not about silly things like the latter. Time passed quite quickly and before we knew it, FBC was over. We had goodie bags with Maldon salts, olives, West Country cheese, unearthed pannetone (had one this morning with a cup of tea and wow, very yummy), and some other exciting stuff. Yes, we were sent home with food. If I didn’t already feel like the young one of the group, if I weren’t already called the ‘Dancing Diva’, I’d have done a little happy dance right there with my ‘Dirty Kitchen Secrets’ goodie bag. But nah, I pass.

the wonderful bunch who inspire me

The night ended with dinner with a small group of us at Vivat Bacchus near London Bridge. Food was very nice. The wine even nicer. Pam had a hilarious little flirt with the waiter who took our coats. Goodness! Much banter, giggles, and laughter. Some stories and words of wisdom were shared. And the whole experience was something I’m very glad I didn’t miss. I have loads to learn and these lovely people have inspired me much. Despite being on the food blogosphere since 2005, I’ve nearly abandoned it for long periods of time a couple of times. And being a young high-schooler to college kid, I didn’t have the money, time, or kitchen space to explore much. But The Sugar Bar has grown quite a lot and I’ll continue to expand its horizons and test the waters out there! Watch me.

What about the foodie friends I’ve made? Bless them all! They are awesome and just talking about them, waking up to tweet with them puts a smile on my face and chases away any Monday/morning blues.

P/S. We somehow have also set up, not just friendships, but an international shopping community. Networking and globalisation sure has brilliant benefits

Big hugs to all I’ve finally gotten to meet and the new ones I met. It was a joy and I’m excited to keep in touch with everyone. Bisous!

And a final thank you to LOLA’s Cupcakes for sending us their lovely cupcakes to taste. They were little bits of heaven for us, for me definitely, and for FBC 09 I’m sure!