July (food) travels

Well, wasn't July surprisingly hot and sunny? I certainly picked the best time for my holidays. Here's what I have been up to, illustrated by shoddy photographs from my phone.

The first weekend I headed down to Carlisle to visit a friend. We drove to a couple of the nearby villages (it's possible I may have picked Cockermouth purely for the name *snigger*) where we sampled elderberry ice-cream and the local fudge.


The fudge was lovely and creamy. I think the eton mess flavour was my favourite as there were meringue chunks within the fudge.

We also went to the very picturesque Keswick to visit the chocolate shop. Possibly the hottest day to be sampling rich chocolates but it had to be done! I also had to take a photo of this cafe as I couldn't resist the cute exterior.

The rest of the time I mostly spent at my brother's in Glasgow. He's moving away next month for a new job so I thought I'd make the most of having free accommodation there and visit my favourite places. I'm really going to miss having a home from home in Glasgow.

Since it was so hot I *had* to visit Nardini's a few times. Their strawberry ice-cream is my favourite.


On another hot day I visited the gorgeous Cushion and Cake. (Hi Pamela!) Unusually for me I didn't have cake or tea but I had some absolutely delicious homemade lemonade. Definitely what I needed to cool down that day.

My other favourite cakey place to visit is the Cup and Saucer as it's full of retro charm. I had a tasty little chocolate cake with vanilla butter icing here.

And I can never go to Glasgow without trawling the charity and second hand shops! I was so close to buying this rose teaset as it's very similar to a cake plate I already own.

I also had some fantastic days out with my friend Alice. We spent a worrying amount of money in both Edinburgh and Glasgow's Mandors (a post on all my fabric purchases coming soon) and our usual amount of money on tea and cake (also a lot!) We had a cake day on her birthday, visiting both Eteaket and Cuckoo's Bakery. We decided to split cakes in Eteaket as we were so indecisive. Although the lemon and coconut cake was good we both thought the carrot cake had the edge. I also had a refreshing peach white tea.

I was keen to visit Cuckoo's Bakery as I have been hearing so many good things about them and I certainly wasn't disappointed. Hands down the best cupcake I have bought and we got these just as they were closing at 5.30pm. I had the pink lemonade cupcake: a fresh, fluffy sponge full of lemon flavour with a zingy raspberry lemon curd centre topped with very fluffy raspberry lemon buttercream.

We went back the following week and tried their triple layer sticky toffee pudding cake and it was equally as delicious. I like to think I was the cake champion as I was the only person in the cafe around me who had managed to eat the whole slice. "Epic Win" as all the cool kids would say.

Also by complete accident we stumbled across The Marshmallow Lady, another place I have been hearing great things about. I've never tried homemade marshmallows before and wow, they are soft, pillowy, sweet yumminess! I tried the millionaire's shortbread, lemon meringue and strawberries and cream flavours. Don't ask me for a favourite, I loved them all!


I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Glasgow Vintage Fair on my last Sunday. Unfortunately the weather that morning was horrendous but I was more than willing to look at pretty things in the rain.

Other travels included visiting Dunfermline and going to Stirling Castle. Great views from up there!


And that's pretty much it. Congratulations if you got to the end!

Has anybody else been having a "local" holiday this summer? Where have you been?