Miss Mollett's High Class Tea Room - Appledore

My parents have visited this sweet little tearoom before and told me about the wonderful time they had here, so when my father asked me where we should take my mother for Mother’s Day, I knew this was the place. The bright tearoom is painted light pink and covered in a variety of decorations, (all for sale) from beautiful paintings of birds, cottages and even a tiny drawing of a teapot who’s chunky frame is at least twice the width of the picture.

We’ve pre-booked three ‘High Class Afternoon Teas’ so when we sit down we are asked what kind of tea we would like, what jam we’d like with our scones and (the best part) what cakes we’d like after. Its all prepared super-fast and is on the table just as we are admiring the mis-matched cups and saucers. Everything in here is mis-matched (one of the things I love about this type of tearooms) including the table cloths, plates and decorations around the room including three different but similar mini chandeliers (to add a touch of class) and a beautiful old bird cage complete with fake birds and  adorned with tea cups dangling underneath, hanging from the centre of the room.

My mother warned me that I might not be able to finish the my food and when the fairly modest spread arrived I’m not sure if I believe her, however three perfectly soft sandwiches, delicious cups of tea and a medium-sized scone (with strawberry jam) later I can see why she said that (and there is still cake to come!) When a member of staff comes to clear away he even offered to pack the left over scones for my mum to take home and brings them back in tin foil fashioned into handbag for her. Perfect for taking home AND a great accessory! The Icing on the cake (so to speak) of this perfect Mother’s Day meal was there huge slices of cake they brought out to finish the meal and finish us off as none of us could eat all of the generous helpings!

This meal, the tea room and the staff were all so lovely and we felt welcomed and comfortable here. There really is nothing better than a nice meal in a lovely place with your family after which the world seems a little brighter (and you feel a whole lot more full). I would really recommend this place to anyone, especially familys as they are so welcoming to people of all ages.

Website: missmollettstearoom.co.uk
Address: 26 The Street, Appledore, Kent, TN262BX

In The Mix - Baked In Gluten Free Mug Brownie

Name: Gluten Free Mug Brownie

Company: Baked In

Bought In: (Would you believe it,) Whirligig… the toy shop.

I have been more and more interested in gluten free baking in the past year or so since having a celiac partner means I have to watch what I cook (and bake). So when I spotted a selection of Baked In easy baking kits in a local toy shop (of all places) AND that one was gluten free, I had to buy it! I have also never baked a mug cake before, I was sure they were harder than they looked and I was worried that getting it wrong would create a mug cake explosion in my microwave! However because this one was gluten free and in a simple to use kit, I thought why not, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s chocolate…

The kit comes in a lovely box with the dry cake mix, separated into four bags for four mug cakes and another bag of marshmallows for decoration. All you need to add is butter, water or milk (I used milk) and a mug (or four, depending on whether you want to share or not!)

Part 1) Put the butter into the mug and microwave for 10-20 seconds to melt it, I needed the full 20 but you may need less or more depending on the power of your microwave. However, make sure it is completely melted before going on to…

Part2) Empty one bag of dry ingredients into the mug and add the milk or water. I used milk because I felt it would give a better taste but the water option does mean that lactose intolerant people can also enjoy this baking kit.

Part 3)Make sure the mixture is fully combined  and place in the microwave for 60 seconds. When you take it out, sprinkle some marshmallows on top for decoration and sweet gooey taste! Now, I wish I had tried putting some of the marshmallows (of which there were more than enough) inside the cake for melty goodness all through, you might want to try this in one of your cakes!? I also wonder what would happen if you bought a giant mug and did them all at once… though I guess that would be just like… a cake.

And enjoy! The box says allow to cool for 5 mins but its really not THAT hot, I only left it for a couple of minutes and the temptation got too much! Dig in!

I would really recommend trying these gorgeous kits, a few of which have won Great Taste awards, for parties, nights in with friends (like I did with this one and it disappeared before I could take pictures!) or just as an indulgence for you! These were super tasty and a great addition to a night in with friends.

In The Mix - Betty Crocker's Devil's Food Cake Mix

Name: Devil’s Food Cake Mix

Company: Betty Crocker

Bought In: Tesco

Oh yes, chocolate again, we all know how much my Adam and I love it by now and this beautiful pile of chocolate filled with chocolate covered in chocolate is no exception. You will need vegetable oil, 3 eggs, water and a tub of chocolate icing, the preferred,(and the one I used) being Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Icing (lots left over mmmm!).

Part 1) Mix the cake mix with the eggs, oil and water. The box suggests an electric whisk but I did it by hand, takes a little while to get it “smooth and creamy” as the instructions say but it does the job just fine. I would use the electric whisk it you have one though!

Part 2) Now I have something to confess here… the instructions say to “pour the cake mix into two greased tins and I did not… I poured it into one, my logic being that I could cut it in half after to fill it. It didn’t really turn out that way…

Part 3) it says on the box to bake 23-28 mins, of course because I put the mix all in one tin I did it a little longer and it came out looking gorgeous, so I flipped it onto a wire rack to cool…only (and this is SO, SO important) I didn’t knife test it first! And it splattered all over the rack and my table. I did manage to clean it up, save it and put what was left back into the oven for a bit more time, KNIFE TEST IT and have a pretty good looking cake after (albeit one that was about half the size of the one on the box.

Part 4) The icing on the cake, literally! If you have followed the instructions properly, let your two halves cool on your (nice and clean) wire rack and then pop one on a plate, add a layer of icing, sandwich the second half on top and smother your cake in all the icing! Also, if you so wish (like I did) sit and eat the remaining icing with a spoon!

Notes: This is an amazing cake, the box only has one thing in it, the bag of cake mix, so this recipe is super easy to do and its all chocolate, perfect! If there is one thing that this recipe has taught me though, it is that when taking a baked cake out of the oven always, always, ALWAYS knife test it! I can’t stress this enough, ALWAYS! Slide a clean knife into the centre of your cake/cup-cake/loaf etc and take it out again, if the knife is clean the cake is done, if it comes out with batter on it then put the cake back for another couple of minutes.

Cafe 1809 - Hildenborough

Café 1809 (pronounced ‘one eight oh nine’ after its founders winning race number) has come to be called simply ‘Kelly’s Café’ (again, after its founder and probably because it’s easier to remember.) and is one I have been meaning to visit for a while. So when a friend suggested popping in there for lunch I had to say yes.

The main room is on two levels, the counter and majority of tables on the same level as the door and a raised platform with a few more tables on one side of the room. The room is well spaced and light, partly owing to the beautiful borrowed light that takes up a third of the room (with a view of the clear sky today that brings to mind countless inspirational quotes I'm sure founder Kelly Holmes would be proud of) and fills the room with natural light, it is under this light that I sat for the first half of my meal, enjoying the light and looking at all the interesting items in the stacked crates serving as a display case next to us. The whole room is dotted with interesting knick-knacks from paintings to clocks shaped like bikes and different shaped and sized mugs. The space in decorated in earthy browns and greys giving it a half earthy half industrial feel, large bare metal girders helping the latter.

For the first half of my lunch (while sat under the borrowed light) I had an amazing hot chocolate with marshmallows and here is the first thing I love I want to point out. Café 1809 not only does hot chocolate but the very smart waitress informed me that they do milk hot chocolate (at 58%) and not one but two types of dark hot chocolate (at 70% and 85%) AND white! Choices, choices… As always, I accompanied my hot drink with a cheese sandwich but since the plain cheese sandwich only seems to be on the children’s menu, when it arrived I got a surprise. Whilst my friend’s sandwiches were accompanied by smart salads covered in a lovely dressing MY sandwich came cut into triangles and separated by piles of popcorn! This is certainly a first for me but a tasty first!

It was at this point in the lunch that the table next to us got up and left, this table was surrounded by sofas so of course we switched tables immediately (don’t pretend you wouldn't  do the same!) to eat our second course in comfort. My second course was another hot chocolate (70%) and a piece of Rocky Road from the gorgeous dessert bar up on the counter, full of all sorts of home-made desserts that make it very hard to choose! Next to this is also a juice bar for juicers of you out there!

All in all I really enjoyed my lunch at Café 1809, the smartly dressed staff are a pleasure, the food is delightful and the space aesthetically pleasing, highly recommended! 

Twitter: @Cafe1809
Facebook: facebook.com/Cafe-1809-Hildenborough-891302637566330
Website: cafe1809.co.uk
Address: 152-154 Tonbridge Road, Hildenborough, TN11 9HW

In The Mix - Morrison's Double Chocolate Cupcake Mix

Name: Double Chocolate Cupcake Mix

Company: Morrison’s Own

Bought in: Morrisons

Preparation: Another easy one, grab a bowl and spoon and a muffin tray and enjoy these delicious treats!

What is better than chocolate? That’s right, double chocolate, this wonderful pack not only comes with the chocolate cupcake mix but the chocolate icing mix AND chocolate sprinkles to decorate. All the chocolate you could wish for! You need an egg and a small amount of water and butter.

Part 1) Mix the extra ingredients (egg and water) and the cupcake mix in a bowl, I would recommend using a hand held or free-standing mixer if you have one because it took me quite  while to get the lumps out of my mix mixing by hand.

Part 2) Pour your cake mix into a tin, making sure its flat on top and pop it in the (pre-heated) oven. The mix says 12-15 mins so I set the timer for 14 minutes and they were perfect, really fluffy and soft!

Part 3) While they are cooling, mix up the icing mix and the butter. Be so, so careful while doing this as I managed to cover myself and the table in powder by mixing just a little too quickly. Don’t worry if it seems like there is too much powder and not enough butter at first, just keep mixing and folding that powder in.

Part 4) Finally, cover your, now cool, cupcakes in icing. Don’t be stingy, there is plenty of it, we even ate it out of the bowl after (because you have to, don’t you?!). To top it all off, sprinkle the chocolate curls on the top for a gorgeous professional look and enjoy.

Notes: This is the first baking kit that I have made that isn’t Betty Crocker and I am very pleased with it and if you’re very careful not to cover yourself in icing powder like I did and you smother your cakes in icing they will be absolutely perfect! 

Chocolate No-Bake 'Fridge Cake' or Tiffin in 5 Easy Steps

This is the first recipe I ever learned to make AND the first recipe I learned by heart, my mother taught me to make Tiffin when I was younger and needed something to take into school for my birthday and cake fairs and I continue to make it for birthdays and special occasions today. Anyone who loves chocolate (with chocolate on top) and sweet treats and wants an easy bake will appreciate this one pan mix.

You will need:

A medium knob of butter

2 tablespoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of coco powder

2 tablespoons of golden syrup

200 grams of plain digestive biscuits

200g of milk chocolate

Step 1) Crush the digestive biscuits to crumbs, I pop mine in a deep bowl and crush them with a potato masher and my mother seals them in a plastic bag and crushes them with a rolling pin, you can do either (or even come up with your own method of crushing!)

Step 2) Melt the butter in a pan and add the sugar, coco powder and syrup (hint: run boiling water over a spoon before using it to add the syrup, that way it doesn’t stick to the spoon and it all goes in the mix). Use a wooden spoon to blend the mix and then leave it to boil and froth about half way up the pan.

Step 3) Take the pan off the heat and fold the digestive crumbs into the mixture, make sure you run your spoon right around the bottom of the pan and coat all the crumbs or your tiffin will have dry patches. When you’ve mixed it completely press the mixture into a medium depth baking dish making sure to flatten the top and pop it in the fridge

Step 4) Put some water in a clean pan (or clean the one you were using) and grab a heat-proof bowl, break up your chocolate into squares and leave them in the bowl to melt, stirring every few seconds to stop it burning.

And…

…Step 5) Take the chcolate off the heat and your tiffin mix out of the fridge and spread the chocolate on top, pop it back into the fridge for a couple of hours and leave out on the side for about ten mins before cutting into squares and serving.

Enjoy!

In The Mix - Mix it up!

In The Mix – mix it up!

Those who have been keeping up with my posts recently will have noted my new series ‘In The Mix’, the first of which (Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Brownies) which you can find here: http://time-for-tea-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/in-mix-betty-crocker-chocolate-brownie.html was posted November 6th and I have since done more mix pack reviews. It all began when my brother, who is a student and wanted to learn how to make cakes but in the quickest, easiest way possible bought the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix box packet. As an avid baker I saw this as an opportunity both to bond with my favourite (and only) brother AND making and eating cake!

Since my first one, I have fallen in love with these mix kits, they make baking easy and assessable to everyone no matter what age or status. I would full recommend some of the Greens and Wrights kits to lone bakers or bakers making party food, the Betty Crocker and themed kits to families and parents wanting to give their children an easy way in to baking, there are themes such as  Minions, Star Wars, Frozen, Pepper Pig and Shaun the Sheep. Even if you are feeling a little extravagant and preparing for that posh dinner party, the Thorntons chocolate baking kits are for you. So I thought I would have a look at the top supermarket websites and see where you can get your kits. I did all of my research online and though I know a lot of the kits I found are available in stores, not all of them will be.

Iceland – 3

I have to say, sad as it is, I was really excited when my local (rather small) Iceland made space for a baking section because it’s the closest supermarket to my house and what’s better than all the baking supplies you need, on demand, just a couple of minutes away?! However when I looked on their website I was disappointed by what I found. They do have some baking kits, including two amazing looking Thorntons chocolate packs but apart from that there was just one Victoria Bakery pack makes three which, while they all look delicious, isn’t the list of options I had hoped for. Iceland is also the only supermarket I looked at that doesn’t stock Betty Crocker kits, well, not according to their website anyway.

Sainsbury’s – 21

Sainsbury’s was a little better, I have seen a larger collection in store and even bought the Despicable Me Minions cupcake kit I made in there. So I was quite happy to discover all the other kits they do as well including some lovely plain traditional kits from their Sainsbury’s Own range and Wrights some tasty different options from Helens and Greens and the ever popular Betty Crocker, who I absolutely love because its perfect for anyone, no matter what age or what reason they have chosen to bake, party or fun… or just hunger!

Waitrose – 25

Although there isn’t a Waitrose close enough to me to use as a weekly supermarket (plus it’s a little expensive) I have used them in the past and fully appreciate the great choice they offer, their website told me the same with great options from Greens, and not one, not two but three types of Waitrose own, Waitrose Love Life, Waitrose Essentials and Waitrose Gluten Free. These icude some lovely Christmas packs including one that comes in a sweet little glass seal-top jar. They also sell the Betty Crocker cake and cookie sets.

Morrisons – 42

I have seen the huge baking section in my, rather large, local store and was impressed with all the Betty Crocker and kids themed baking its they have. I thought Waitrose’s 25 different cake and biscuit packs was impressive but it only gets better with Morrisons 42 include themed kits like (deep breath) Frozen, Spiderman, Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Despicable Me, Disney Princesses, Pepper Pig, Shaun the Sheep and Hello Kitty. They also sell branded kits from Maltesers for a lovely chocolate cake and M&M’s for choclate (or M&M) chip cookies. I really love the look of the Dr Oetker mug cake mixes as I have never made a mug cake before but have always wanted to try! (I sense another blog post or three!). Of course Morrisons also sell the Betty Crocker kits that seem to be the staple for supermarket cake kits.

Tesco – 44

It just keeps getting better, with Tescos incredible 44 cake and biscuit mix kits they too have thir own kits from the Tesco’s Own line, all simple traditional recipes, the ever present Betty Crocker mix packs, some themed ones from Symingtons such as the Minions pack I have used and a few by Victoria Foods and Greens that look so good.

Ocado – 70

Ocado seem to have snuck in in recent years and taken internet shopping by storm and looking at their website its not hard to see why, they sell EVERYTHING. As well as the fantastic choice they have for everything (and I mean everything) else they had 70, yes SEVENTY (I counted) cake and biscuit mix packs available on their website. If nothing else there are some fantastic company names in there, such as Devilishly Delicious and Hale and Hearty. Wrights, who seem to be not far behind on the popularity run and Betty Crocker (the obvious fore-runner) are in there too but it was this last one that surprised me. If you read the Waitrose section above you will see they do three different types of packs; essential, gluten free and Love life, Ocado stocks all of these.

Asda – 84

Whilst Ocado’s score of 70 mix packs is really impressive there is one place that takes the cake (pun intended) Asda, a magical name in easy baking for everyone. The spectacular 84 (I counted each and every one) their range naturally starts with their own brand ‘Chosen by you’ with some classic and some gorgeous Christmas specials (its nice to know that if this brand lives up to its name there are plenty of bakers and wannabe bakers out there, who shop at Asda anyway.) there is, you guessed it Betty Crocker packs in there and some Greens mixes, as seen in Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s as well as those gorgeous looking Mug Cake kits from Dr Oetker and the chocolatey Thorntons kits. A round of applause is truly in order for the amazing Asda and their inadvertent aiding of the amateur baking world.

So there really is no excuse not to give baking a go because nowadays its even easier to just give it a go with these super simple kits that are almost everywhere! Enjoy your baking and please feel free to send me pictures and comments at my Twitter: @TimeForTeaBlog1