Cardiff adventures

I went to cardiff for 4 days at the start of the month and it was awesome!
:D

I kicked off my adventure in Milgi- I arrived early (I know, that never happens..) and decided to go for a mooch on city road- as everyone knows its my favourite.
I had rose and raspberry tea and coffee, cardamon and pistachio cake.

rose and raspberry tea is easy- hot water, squashed raspberries, food-grade rose water, and some rose buds to choke on (although this is a milgi standard, for a more relaxing tea, leave that step out.)

I normally have chai cupcakes with cinnamon butter icing when I'm in milgi, but they didn't have any left- leaving me no option but to eat some other kind of cake.
I was so impressed I've found a recipe.  I will be making this- with or without adult supervision.

Ingredients

For the cake

• 200g/7oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 4 free-range eggs
• 3 tbsp strong coffee
• 8 cardamom pods, seeds removed and ground
• 250g/9oz self-raising flour

For the filling

• 250g/9fl oz double cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 5 cardamom pods, seeds removed and ground
• 60g/2½oz pistachios, shells removed, roughly chopped

For the icing

• 110g/4oz icing sugar
• 1 tbsp warm coffee

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Grease and line a 23cm/9in deep cake tin.
   Technique: Greasing and lining cake tins
   Watch technique0:33 mins
3. Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition until well incorporated.
5. Add the coffee and ground cardamom seeds and mix well, then fold in the flour.
   Technique: Folding
   Watch technique0:35 mins
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin, transfer to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown and well risen. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
7. For the filling, place the cream into a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.
   Technique: Whipping cream by hand
   Watch technique0:48 mins
8. Add the icing sugar, ground cardamom seeds and pistachios and whisk gently until the mixture forms firm peaks.
9. For the icing, place the icing sugar into a bowl, add the coffee and mix together until smooth.
10. To assemble the cake, carefully cut the cake in half horizontally with a bread knife and place the bottom half onto a plate. Spread the pistachio cream over the bottom half of the cake, then top with the other half. Spoon over the icing, allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake.
11. To serve, cut the cake into wedges and place onto serving plates.

following my cake adventure, I went to Sarahs (more tea!) and then we went for a rainy BBQ at Chaz's house- so I got to see everyone all in one go! awesome! (Thank you, Jay, Becca, Emma, Sarah, Dan, Amanda and Ellie for an awesome evening- good food, good company and plenty of ice cream)

On tuesday I met amanda for breakfast in a shot in the dark- tapas bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and chai tea. thats healthy, right?

I then went for a mooch round the "rainbow bargain shop" the one that used to be a church on the corner of wellfield road.

Where did they find these super 70s arm bands?! and doesn't rubber perish?!

now, I don't have a ny children, but I'm pretty sure if I did I wouldn't look at those and think "life saving and bargainous, a must have"

loving the packaging though.

this product is imaginatively named.. "Batball"

I followed a hard days wandering round cardiff in the rain with 2 pots of fruit tea in "tea and cake" with Jen and Emma- we were there for 3 hours. its lovely when time flys because you have so much to talk about.

Jen had to go home and do work-stuff- so Emma and I went for dinner in Milgi.

A FEAST.

On wednesday I went to the olympic football- I shall post my photos separately as not everyone is into the footy.

On Thursday I headed off to Didcot.