“Happy Anniversary To You..” is that even a song?

 

Happy Anniversary To You, Happy Anniversary To You.. No it is not a song, but when your grandparents are presented with a(beautiful) cake with candles to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary (50 blinking years! That is half a century! More than double my age!") What song are you supposed to sing?

My wonderful grandparents are the centre of our family (my maternal family anyway). It is quite emotional to think that absolutely none of us would be sat there if it wasn’t for them. They have been a couple for over 50 years, and in their time together they have lived in 3 houses, birthed 3 children, who have consequently gone on to all marry and have 6 grandchildren between them, and to top that off, they are “Great-greats” to 2 great-grandchildren (my beautiful nephews).

So to celebrate this, as my Grandma did not want a ‘big fuss’- despite them both more than deserving one- they both paid for us all as a family to go out for a meal at a fantabulous carvery restaurant in Dunchurch, Rugby- The Huntsman.

My A.A. (Auntie Andrea) works there you see, and has done since before I was born, and and so this is a lovely place to go if we have have a family meal because the atmosphere is always lovely and light, and the food itself is delicious!

So after a scrummy starter, and generous, tender, superbly cooked carvery dinner, we all enjoyed tucking in to one of a tasty choice of puds.

I was a bit too full for my usual choice, Mississippi Mud Pie? Coffee Panna Cotta? Warm Chocolate Brownie? Crème Brule?…. all a bit warm and stickily filling after such an extravagant meal, so I had homemade soft dairy ice-cream, and hot fudge sauce. My, my, my, after all my years of coming to the

Huntsman Carvery, I never get disappointed by that pudding. That hot fudge sauce has a flavour like no other! Sweet, but not too sweet, bitter, but very tasty, chewy but smooth, and it combines so well with that substantial soft, silky, dense ice-cream perfection. I swear, if I could have a constant supply of this ice-cream and sauce I would be a happy happy person! FYI, as you can probably see from the picture, Hot Fudge is not the only flavour they do! Toffee, Chocolate, Strawberry, Butterscotch, Raspberry… and the list goes on, AAAAND you have the option of fluffy whipped cream and chopped nuts!

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And if that still isn’t enough then they EVEN do take-away!!! My brother being the delicate flower that he is decided to take away is homemade Warm Chocolate Fudge Brownie with chocolate sauce!

So for a fantastic evening, with absolutely second to none company, all accompanied by food that tastes even better than it looks, I would definately give it 5 waffles!

And a final word, see that stunning professional looking anniversary cake? My cousin Abs, who is studying catering at Rugby college decorated that. Very proud of her

Hola Chicas/Chicos!

I am back in the sunny, warm, fragrant country that is England after spending a week (7 nights) with my fl8ies in Majorca! I have had severe blog withdrawal symptoms…

We were staying in the lovely hotel that is the Hi! Bouganvilla ApartHotel in Sa Coma, Majorca, a massive 600 room family hotel comprising of studios and apartments, whereby we enjoyed 5 swimming pools, 2 restaurants, 2 bars and an all inclusive breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet!

Majorca 2012 :-) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Pudding wise, the holiday was a real mixed bag. The BEST puddingy aspect was the most amazing caberet act of The Sundaes, 3 hilariously delicious ladies- Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate who entertained us the whole evening with the music selection that only a misery guts could resist singing along to! You may even remember them from Britain’s Got Talent 2012? 

Sadly, the rest of the holiday failed to deliver on the pudding front… If you have watched Peter Kay you may remember his joke about being at a party and having the ‘Scooby Doo’ effect of voulevants, quiche, chicken legs, voulevants, quiche, chicken legs… etc. Well disappointingly at the Bougenvilla, it went a little like, generic mousse cake, generic blamonge, generic fruity pastry concoction, generic mousse cake, generic blamonge, generic fruity pastry concoction.. but this was repeated on a daily basis… without fail.. with little variation. Usually with some tinned fruit cocktail on the side, and pots of ice cream that are gone in one teaspoon full!

But those puddings sound amazing, I hear you cry. But I am afraid the distinct lack of flavour and unusual texture combinations, not to mention the repetitiveness of it all, meant that although it always LOOKED nice, it certainly didn’t live up to my eatible expectations.

I may sound very ungrateful, and trust me, the food itself minus pudding was a winner, there was so much choice and it was so exciting each day waiting to see what will be on the menu for us to choose (a WIIIDE selection of combinations) of. But when a pudding-obsessive like myself goes on holiday, I would love and adore some tantalising gastronomic extravaganza to happen on my plate! I am ashamed to admit that on more than 1 occasion I went without pudding altogether!

 

We celebrated my friend Emily's 21st Birthday whilst on holiday. So I made a makeshift birthday pudding platter for her so that we could be really embaressing and sing happy birthday. This is another example of the hotel's food looking pretty! It consisted of generic pastry fruit concoction, generic sponge cake, watermelon triangles, grapes and pink grapefruit segments! Emily liked it anyway! :D

 

On our last ever day, my friend Louise and I did have a deliciously decadent and long awaited ice cream from Restaurante El Sol, by the beach in Sa Coma. Two scoops of ice cream (I indulged in Dulche de Leche and Chocolate) for 2,50€ was money well spent in my opinion! Oh yeah and we ate it on a hired 4 wheeled bike!

 

So please do not let my pudding snob ways deter you from choosing the Hi! Bouganvilla ApartHotel as your holiday destination in 2013, they gave us one of the most memorable weeks of our lives when we stayed there!

Nando’s do pudding?!

 

When: 28/8/12

Background: Me (Amy), my housemate Amy and our good friend Sarah-Jayne, made an impromptu visit to Nando’s in the Bullring, Birmingham, to celebrate my return to my fluffy-residence (I have 3 foster cats… not just shag pile carpet), and the fact we are now all qualified! 3 LONG YEARS HAVE PAST! WOO HOO! Naturally, in the pursuit of science(/my blog) we had to have pudding. I chose the main focus of this blog, and Amy chose Choc-a-lot cake, and Sarah Jayne chose White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake. More on those later…

What: Carrot Cake served with Frozen Yoghurt

How much?:

What was Good: O.M.G. This carrot cake in my mind was the PERFECT carrot cake. I have never tasted a more finer carrot cake in my days! Not even my Grandma’s (don’t tell her please). The cake was so light it practically melted in my mouth, and the mixed spice was evident in a fine perfume that hit my taste buds in a sweet/scented/aromatic after note. There were chopped walnuts within that added a slight, hidden, treasure hunted crunch every now and again, and the texture of the entire confection was simply divine. There was also the PERFECT amount of cream cheese frosting. Normally when I have had carrot cake before, there has been so much cream cheese frosting that I have had to leave some scraped of disappointedly in my plate at the end. This cake was not one of those disappointments. I chose a relatively light main course to allow sufficient pudding room, and although I felt full and satiated after, I was not stodgily full or feeling sick. I would happily chose this cake again! It was an absolutely wonderful end to a wonderful meal! Thank you very much Aaron our polite and friendly waiter for light-heartedly accepting our indecisiveness(+ tipsiness I hasten to add)!

What was Bad:

The only thing I can find wrong with this dessert was the frozen yoghurt! I do not think,. sadly, that it complimented the dessert well, if anything it just made it a bit soggy, and was so cold it caught my sensitive teeth! Not good! Other than that I would happily give this dessert a 5 waffles!

Waffleometer:

My Bosom Buddies also deserve a contribution. Amy, not me, obviously, chose Choc-o-lot Cake, also with frozen yoghurt. It was similar to that experienced in Portmeirion. It was very very pretty. So pretty that Sarah Jayne actually “HAD” to taste before Amy had even returned to the table. It was rich and creamy, but the cake was moist and dense. She VERY much struggled to finish it, yes her and Stacey appear to be made of the same constitution! So me and Sarah Jayne were required to finish consuming the sweet sickly beast. She also found the frozen yoghurt an odd and unimpressive addition to the cake, and it would have benefitted from pouring cream/ice-cream much more. However, a positive of the cake was that it was rich in cocoa flavour, with the added depth and intensity that milk chocolate would have lacked. Overall she would give the over-indulgent pudding:

  

Sarah Jayne chose a White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake. Being incredibly anti-fruit this was a risky move for her, but she was reassured by the very friendly Aaron that it is in fact Raspberry sauce, not actual Raspberries. On arrival, I was a beautiful slice of cheesecake, with the contrasting colours of the burgundy raspberry sauce and creamy white of the cheesecake itself. However, sadly, for Sarah Jayne this turned out to be another disappointment. On tasting it myself I found the actual cheesecake mixture to have very little white chocolate flavour, and mainly was overrun with the taste of cream cheese. It was too rich after a deliciously comforting and filling main meal, and so sadly, will not be on my list of must have “Waffle-y Studendous” puddings. The base also was not up to standard, being slightly soggy almost in texture and consistency. Sarah Jayne was also saddened by the Raspberriness of the sauce, and so also failed to finish consuming her dessert. All in all, Sarah Jayne would give the dessert a sad: