Girl In The Pretty Dress

There are many, many delicious cakes on offer in Vienna. However, I was most looking forward to trying Sacher Torte - which was invented in the city. Sacher Torte is a chocolate cake made to a secret recipe and sandwiched using apricot jam. As a girl who has eaten a LOT of chocolate cake over the years, I'd say this is definitely worth the hype. After exploring Stephansdom (and a nearby bavarian market) we headed to The Hotel Sacher to try out Austria's most famous cake in the place where it was first conceived.

As I've mentioned before, we have a penchant in our family for handmade gifts (as demonstrated here ). So with Mother's Day coming up this Sunday in the UK I've been mulling over what to make. I thought this recipe I came up with for Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Bread would be perfect, after all my mum is forever telling me I need to eat more fruit and veg... Unfortunately my mum has decided to give up chocolate for lent so it's back to the drawing board for me but I hope you all get chance to try this delicious recipe for yourselves. If any one asks, it's one of your 5 a day! Recipe: 200g (1 cup) Golden Caster Sugar 120g (1/2 cup) Soft Margarine for baking 250g (2 cups) Self Raising Flour 2 Eggs 1/2 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Salt 3 Bananas 200g (1 cup) Chocolate Chips 1) Preheat the oven to 180 °C 2) Grease and line a loaf tin 3) First, cream together the sugar and margarine (can be done with an electric beater)....

Jumper Dress: F&F | Leggings: Topshop Tall | Boots: Debenhams | Mittens: Next This time last year I wrote about my ' 14 for 2014 '. I've never been one for resolutions, but I'd suddenly found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands and it seemed like a good way to organise my spare time into something more productive and enjoyable. So far so good-intentioned... I started as I meant to go on with Number 1: Blog more - and managed to do this for the first few weeks. Then in March something rather wonderful and unexpected happened... I got a promotion at work. And all of a sudden my spare time started to shrink. So number 1 had to be re-assessed whilst I adjusted to my workload. A few of the other numbers were also neglected whilst I was enjoying my new role, so this year I've decided not to make new resolutions, I'm just going to carry some forward: 1) Blog more 2) Keep a Journal 4) Get back in the saddle and go...

It's Father's Day today in the UK and it's no secret to anyone who knows me that I think my Dad is pretty damn amazing.  In our family we do things a little differently when it comes to commercial holidays. Whenever they roll around the rule is that all cards and gifts have to be hand-made (because it's the thought that counts!) It's fair to say that, over the years, the 'no shop bought gifts' rule is something which has backfired on my parents once or twice... There was the time my sister made my mum a pair of "binoculars" by cellotaping two cardboard loo-roll tubes together, the year I got made redundant and each parent just got a hug, and let's not forget the Mother's Day when I broke my arm (long story) and we ended up in A&E for the rest of the day. But now that I'm older and wiser I've learned to stick to what I'm good at. So this morning I have been baking up some goodies for my Dad - who loves nothing more t...

Technically , Stir-Up Sunday was last weekend - the 24th November - but as my laptop has gone to the great scrapyard in the sky *sob* this is the first chance I've had to borrow one and start posting again… For those of you who haven't heard of 'Stir Up Sunday' before, it's an old English tradition (and one we follow religiously in our family.) It basically refers to the Sunday that falls a month before Christmas. The idea is that you put aside this day to complete all your pre-christmas baking - thereby allowing a month for your cake and puddings to 'mature'. On this day everyone who's present can 'stir' the mixture and make a wish… This year will be the first time the responsibility of the cake has fallen to me, and sticking with tradition, I'm following our family recipe… Tools of the trade: Mixing Bowl (x2)  Cake Tin (20.5cm Square - though anything about that size will do) Baking Parchment Wooden spoon/spatula Ingredients: 400g ...