Paul Hollywood's Chelsea Buns

So as some of you may know, and some of you may not, and some of you may not care, I've entered to the Great British Bake Off 2014. 

I even got through to the phone interview round! But I totally freaked out when they called me ("what?! You want to talk to me?! Yes I can talk about baking I love cakes I want to eat cakes all day I've been baking for 7 years my parents don't like cake but it's okay because people at work do did I mention I love cakes wowweeee!" "Erm, thanks Xinmei".) 

Paul and Mary, at the very least I hope you'd be proud of these chelsea buns. 

(You can find the recipe here, or below.)

The Reach Bar & Kitchen, East London

Did you know that we have Cyprus in London? Yeah, there's a Cyprus on the DLR! Sun and sand is closer than you think. Except in this Cyprus I suppose you'd have to make do with Sun(days) and sand (dust). 

But anyway, one stop away from Cyprus, in E16, is The Reach Bar & Kitchen, a newly opened cosy little gastropub set in a old grade (I or II) listed building, which looks rather picturesque set by the Thames swooshing away.

Being in the location that it is, I think this pub is better then the clientele that it serves. On the other side of London, or Shoreditch (I get a bit of a Shoreditch vibe to it), it would have been perfect. Which is a shame, because I really liked The Reach :-)

Baileys Chocolate Brownies

What did you get for Christmas?

Fat.

I got fat.

Baileys And Chocolate Cheesecake

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

Chocolate Yule Log (with step by step instructions)

Hello everyone! In case you're wondering where I've been, I've not gone anywhere just a little tied up lately...but,

I do occasionally crawl out of my cocoon for one thing and one thing only....

CHOCOLATE.

And CHRISTMAS.

And when it's a Chocolate Christmas then I'm there with (jingle) bells on :)

Are you excited about Christmas? I am!! I've been to three Christmas markets (Christmas market in Blenheim Palace, Oxford, Southbank market in London and the Taste of Christmas food festival in London - posts about these to come soon!) and when I'm not doing that I'm waking up my housemates at 9am on a Sunday morning with Shakin' Stevens (NOT my own rendition, thank god) and I've got Michael Buble's Christmas album on repeat, again.

Do you like Christmas? I like Christmas too. Let's be friends :)