Getting Local & Getting Festive | Booths Christmas Preview Event

Hey!

Welcome to a brand new blog post! I know that it's far too early to be typing Christmas but Booths invited to their Christmas Preview Event at their Ilkley event a while ago and I thought I would talk to you about what happened at the event.

We arrived at Booths and entered the designated area where everything was screaming festive and ready to party. Myself and Luke grabbed a drink and slowly made our way around the room.

We stopped off at the Vodka stand. Of course, I would instantly go to the Vodka stand. Honestly, I'm bad with remembering names and brands unless it's completely drilled into me but this Vodka tasted of sweet Caramel with a slight salty kick and I loved it! I think that this would be great to have alongside dessert at any Christmas event or on Christmas Day itself.

We then wandered onto the Pie stand and I absolutely loved these. From my recollection, you can order the big Pies within in store for you to collect for big parties or or the big day. You can also pick up some of the smaller pies instantly in your local store including a wonderful Game one which I had a slice of and it was delicious. I also had a taste of the Ham and Apple Pie and oh my gopd I could eat both all day everyday!

Myself and Luke then walked on to the Sweet Treats section. I could live in this section forever. If you don't see me for the festive season then its probably because I'm hibernating here! The first sweet treat that myself and Luke tried were the Chocolate Stollen Bites. I know that Stollen and Chocolate sounds like a weird mixture but I loved it. If you're a bit confused at what Stollen actually is then let me tell you. Stollen is known as a rich German fruit and nut loaf which sometimes has Marzipan and other things in. These little bites had little dark chocolate chips embedded into them and were dusted in sugar.

We then had a taste of some Amaretto Brownies and I think that these are my new favourite thing in the world. These are described as a Dark Chocolate Brownie bites with Amaretti Biscuits,topped with a light Sugar dusting. I love a good Brownie but these were amazing as the Dark Chocolate mixed with the sweet but slightly nutty Amaretti Biscuits is amazing. If you can get your hands on these then I'd definite;y tell you to try them.

 Next on the sweet treat list were Caramel and Pretzel Shortbread Bites. These are described as s crumbly all Butter Shortbread base with a generous layer of smooth Caramel, topped with salted Pretzels and finished with a drizzle of Belgian Milk Chocolate. I loved these due to the sweetness of the Caramel and Chocolate against the salty pretzels but I think personally a tiny sprinkle of salt on top would make it perfect for myself but I love anything that has a sweet/salty relationshio going on.

Last stop on the sweet treats train is, Iced Christmas Cake Bars. These are described on the website as, Fruit Cake with Apple soaked Vine Fruit, Cherries and Dates, topped with a layer of Marzipan. I'm not the biggest fan of Fruit Cake or Marzipan but the Cake wasn't as dense as it normally is and the marzipan was weirdly not as full on as it has been in other products in the past so I quite liked it. I think that it would go very well with a cup of Chai maybe.

All of the above Sweet Treats are 2 for £6.
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Thank you to Booths and their PR for inviting myself and Luke to this event. Thank you to the staff at Booths Ilkley for putting on an amazing event and being amazing when chatting to them.

I hope that you've enjoyed reading this slightly early festive food blog post and I hope that you come back next time for another blog post!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x

Dunking Into The Cookie Dough | Kaspa's Leeds

Hey!

Welcome to another blog post! The wonderful guys over at Kaspas Leeds invited me over to their new restaurant to have a look and to try some of their wonderful desserts and treats and I thought that I would talk to you all about it.

Kaspa’s are a chain of exciting dessert houses that offer the world’s favourite hot and cold desserts under one roof. Kaspa's menu boasts a mouthwatering selection of desserts including ice creams, waffles, crepes, milkshakes, sundaes and so much more. Kaspa's will change the way you view dessert. At Kaspa's Desserts, their ethos is to create an environment where enjoying authentic desserts with family, friends or anyone that wants to come along is an unforgettable experience.

We entered The Core Shopping Centre and walked through the beautiful building until we found Kaspa's. We walked in and was shown over to a marvellous modern table. We sat down in two plush leather chairs and was told how Kaspas works which consists of choosing what you'd like to have, making sure that you know what table you're at (I was at number four) and ordering it at the till which has writing of types of food that are served at Kaspas such as Cakes, Waffles, Milkshakes and so forth above itself.

I ordered a Ferrero Rocher Milkshake which I think was just Ferrero Rocher's blended up with milk (I'm not fully sure) which may sound slightly simplistic but sometimes simple is key. I loved the creamy smoothness against the bits of Hazelnut that you got from the blended up Ferrero Rocher's. It just was a massive glass of heaven (if you like Ferrero Rocher's of course.) It was garnished with Whipped Cream which I know may sound a bit sickly but weirdly it gave the drink a little bit of freshness.

I then ordered the Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough which came with either Whipped Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream or Custard so I decided to be that weird person and go for Custard. I love Brownies and Cookie Dough so this dish was perfect for me and I love a good bit of Custard. The Cookie Dough had pieces of Brownie and the cookie dough had a crispy edge and a gooey middle. When contrasted with the Vanilla Custard, it tasted heavenly as you got a clean vanilla taste against the rich chocolate taste of the cookie dough.  I would eat this again and again.

I took a guest with me decided to get a KitKat Milkshake and they loved it. They said that it literally tasted like blended KitKats and that they loved getting a bit of crunch every now and again. They did say that it's not for the fainthearted though as they could only drink so much. They ordered the Banoffee Cookie Dough with Custard and thought it was delicious especially as it was topped with real Banana pieces and a Toffee sauce which merged inton the cuistard to create a lovely sauce for the dough. They said that they'd love to go back to try some more items from the menu.

What's your favourite sweet dessert? Have you been to Kaspa's before? Let me know down below! 

Thanks to the PR and staff at Kaspa's Leeds for inviting me. Thanks again to the staff for being amazing and for looking after me whilst I was at Kaspa's Leeds.

I hope that you've enjoyed this food based blog post and that you come back next time for another new blog post.

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x

The Body Shop Briggate Store Revamp Preview At Lamberts Yard

Hey!

I got invited to an event that was all about the relaunch of The Body Shop Leeds Briggate store which will be open by the time this post goes up so I do urge you to go and have a look if/when you are next within Leeds.

It started off with myself and Luke heading off to Lamberts Yard, a venue that I had never ventured to before, but once we arrived there we couldn't exactly figure out why the doors were not opening so after a good five minutes hmming and a swift tweet from the tap of my fingers we were in.

We walked up the festive inspired staircase's which led to the event space. Once we had entered the event space, myself and Luke were greeted by Annika and Lisa and was told about what was going to happen throughout the event which I will go through with you in a bit more detail throughout the post.

The first thing that I dragged Luke to was the 'watering hole' because I am an animal and I needed a drink due to humidity of the day. At the watering home, there were two drinks on offer. The first one was a Vodka and Raspberry Cocktail which was loosely based on the new Frosted Berries range and a non-alcoholic Apple Sling for the drivers of the night. This drink was based on the new Spiced Apple range that is also a part of the Christmas range at The Body Shop.

Come to watering hole, its where all the animals go to cool down!

We then chatted to a couple of bloggers including Lizi and Lucy. Myself and Luke then crawled like a lion over to the beauty bar where there were demonstrations, expert advice and hand and arm massages going on. I watched the lovely woman apply products to Lucy's arm. These products were to help Lucy's skin out for the cold weather. Whilst that was going on, I had a little play of the face masks that The Body Shop have on offer. (These include a Charcoal mask, a British Rose one, an Acai one, a Honey one and a Ginseng based one. They're all priced at £15 per mask.)

A mixtyre of The Body Shop products, 

Lucy's arm. 

I then grabbed another drink for myself and left Luke where he was stood as a presentation about all of the wonderful things that The Body Shop have to offer was abou to start. It started off with an animalistic version of Jingle Bells which was dubbed Jungle Bells. After this, the presentation was about the details of the new Leeds Briggate store which includes a personalise your own body butter bar, an events space, a complete new layout and a community wall for Leeds.

Body butters that are all about Leeds! Cute panda! 

After this, I found a little stand which had most of the Christmas range on so I decided to use Snapchat to promote the new range, The Christmas range consists of three scents. Frosted Berries, Spiced Apple and Vanilla Chai. These scents cater to everyone as you have a fruity scent, a clean scent and a creamy scent. I tried some of the products including tthe beautiful body butters, the new body gel lotions, the shimmer mists and lip balms.

Let's get wild! 

Frosted Berries contains juicy berries, white flowers, praline and fresh vanilla which creates a sort of fruity pastry tart fragrance, I was a bit hesitant on this as I loved the Frosted Cranberry range last year but I had one whiff of this range and instantly fell in love with it, It's like the Cranberry range but a tad bit sweeter.

Spiced Apple consists of crisp apples, cinnamon, orange and white flowers. This scent reminds me of the Glade Apple fragrance that comes out at Christmas as it's Apple & Cinnamon based. I'm not the biggest fan of Apple scents but I do love Cinnamon and as Orange gives it a slightly festive yet citrus hint, it means that I love this scent! It's just so warming!

Vanilla Chai consists of Madagascan Vanilla, Milk, warm spices and brown sugar. I'm not the biggest fan of anything with a scent of milk and honestly I wished that there was more spices in this for myself as I love anything thats Chai but it is a scent that is sweet and comforting! It kind of reminds me of the scent of Cocoa Butter in a weird way!

We also had some amazing food during the night which included Goats Cheese & Red Onion Chutney Panini's, Salmon and Guacamole, Cheesecake and Brownies. I was a bit hesitant when it came to trying Smoked Salmon and Guacamole together but it really worked! The cheesecake was a bit messy to weird to eat due to it being on a big tablespoon but I still devoured it anyway and the brownie was gorgeous especially with the garnish of cream and strawberry on top of the dense yet decadent treat.

Some of the make up that is at The Body Shop. 

Myself and Luke had a wander around and then said our goodbyes. When we said our goodbyes, the superb staff handed myself and Luke a goodie bag which contained an advent calendar which I'm going to refrain from opening until December and then throughout December I shall be opening the doors of the calendar via my Snapchat (which is thejamiesowden if you want to add it.)

If you live anywhere within Leeds or in the surrounding areas then I urge you to go and check out the new concept store at The Body Shop which is located on Briggate in Leeds opposite Harvey Nichols and Victoria Quarter.

Look at the cute panda! 

Have you tried any of the new Christmas ranges from The Body Shop? Let me know down below!

Personally, I had an amazing time at the event and would like to thank the PR team and everyone that was at the event via The Body Shop for putting on an amazing event! I can't thank them enough for gifting me an amazing advent calendar.

Thanks for reading this blog post! I hope that it has entertained you and hopefully it has persuaded you to have a look at the new ranges!

Thanks!
Jamie x

Fun With Festive Food | Browns Christmas Showcase With Michelle

Hey!

A while ago, Browns Leeds invited me to come along to their Christmas Showcase and find out all about what they can do to help your festivities go off with a bang. I dragged Michelle along which is why this blog post is going up later than expected as Michelle's had to juggle university and editing a lot of photos.

There are so many brilliant places within Leeds such as West Yorkshire Playhouse, the venues that are on Call Lane, Leeds Corn Exchange, The Key Club, Trinity Leeds, Victoria Quarter, the new Victoria Gate and much more but the one place that a lot of people miss is the Browns restaurant that is within The Light Leeds. Amazing architecture, decadent decor and delicious food makes Browns Leeds a great place to visit!

Myself and Luke met Michelle in Leeds Train Station, we decided to do the general sweep of Leeds which includes Lush, Hotel Chocolat, Lindt and other places. We both decided that we were going to wear Christmas themed outfits around Leeds and also to the event to ensure that everyone knew that we were in the festive spirit even though it was September at the time.

We wandered on up to The Light Leeds and we made our way to the majestic Browns restaurant and found the awesome Kellie and chatted about anything and everything for a while. A marvelous member of staff asked me if I wanted a glass of Prosecco which I obviously said yes to and found a place for myself, Luke and Michelle to sit down.

The first canape that was served to us was Turkey and Cranberry Brioche Rolls. This canape basically consisted of a soft opened brioche roll with succulent turkey and slightly tart cranberry sauce. As I said, the Turkey was extremely succulent which I loved as Turkey is great if it's moist and not stereotypically dry. I also loved the softness of the brioche.

Next on the list was Goats Cheese and Sundried Tomato Crostini. Crostini means little crusts which explans exactly what it was. I loved the smooth topping against the slightly coarse crispy bread that it was laying on. I know that lactose is a bad thing for me but I loved the Cheese! It added some depth to the canape.

We then ate Honey Glazed Pigs In Blankets. I love Pigs In Blankets! The fact that they are small means that you can eat more than you should and not feel guilty about it afterwards. Making them Honey glazed also means that they have that sort of sweet/savoury moreish taste. I just loved these and could eat a full plate of them!

Next on the food train was Turkey Sandwiches and they were Gluten Free! I liked these quite a bit and to be really honest I couldn't tell that they were gluten free. I think that these would be really well for like a sort of Christmassy sort of day picnic with fairy lights everywhere and Eggnog and something citrusy served drink wise to go with it.

Then there was Cumberland Sausage & Ginger Cake Stuffing. I love stuffing! I love all stuffing. Say the word stuffing and I will probably love you for it. Stuffing is so good! I loved how the Ginger Cake gave it a little subtle hit of warmth but the Sausage gave it lots of flavour. Again, I could eat these for days!

Now comes the desserts! Who doesn't love a dessert?

There was three in total. The first one was a Brownie and I love Brownies! I seriously love brownies to the moon and back, I love how dense and chocolatey they are. This one was firm but crispy and easy to pop in the mouth. It was delicious!

The second one was White Chocolate Mousse. I'm not the biggest fan of Mousse's or White Chocolate but weirdly I loved this. I don't know if it was because it was in a small portion or if it was the contrast between the white chocolate and the raspberry or something else but it was wonderful. Gorgeous and sweet with the right amount of cream in it.

The last one was a Lemon Tart which is also known to the public as a Tarte Au Citron. It was the right amount of sweet and tart. The lemon against the sweetness of the base was simply divine. I also love the Blackberry and Mint garnish as it gave it an elegant feel. I also love anything Lemon-y or anything with Lemon Curd in it.

There were also two other drinks on offer to consume throughout the night which were Aperol Spritz and Mulled Wine which I absolutely loved due to the spices that were used to mull the wine in. It was my first time drinking it but it definitely will not be my last time drinking it.

If you want to check out Browns Leeds to peruse their other menus such as their normal drinks menu or to have a Christmas party at Browns Leeds then click here.

Have you gotten into the festive mood yet? Do you love the sound of any of the above? Let me know down below.

Thanks to the PR team for inviting myself, Luke and Michelle and the staff at Browns Leeds for hosting the extravagant yet amazing event! I hope that you have enjoyed this post and I hope that you come back to read the next post or some of my previous posts!

Thanks!
Jamie x

Celebrate Being 3 With Cake | Pastille Leeds

Hey!

A few weeks ago, I was invited to come and celebrate Pastille's third birthday by going to their stores to have a good old knees up so I went! I also dragged along Michelle and Luke because it's always fun to invite more people to the party!

We met Michelle at the train station and headed on an adventure to find Pastille and after 20 minutes of not realising that it was basically in front of us we ended up at Pastille. Pastille had invited a few other bloggers and businesses to help them celebrate their third birthday. The businesses that were at the event were Borrowed Couture who specialises in amazing dresses, Handmade Sweet Designs who make handmade jewellery and Sugar Crush who had brought some cakes with them to get us all in the party mood!

Myself, Michelle and Luke instantly saw Katie when we entered the beautiful store so we spent sometime just chatting about anything and everything such as blogging, photos and Lush. We kept talking for a while and then decided to wander around. We all checked out the wonderful jewellery from Handmade Sweet Designs and then myself and Michelle clocked eyes onto Lizi and had a good old blogger based natter. It's great when you catch up with bloggers at events.

Items from Handmade Sweet Designs

Michelle then decided to get her nails done a beautiful purpleish colour which screamed her whilst I had another wander around and grabbed a Mint Chocolate Brownie. They were fabulous. Dense with a bit of goo and deep with chocolate flavour. There was also a bit of cream on top of brownie which gave a tad bit of lightness compared to rich chocolate and then there was a crisp bit of chocolate coated mint which gave a bit of texture and flavour. Gorgeous. Michelle finished getting her nails done and we then decided to fully check out the beautiful bakes that Sugar Crush had brought to the event which included a gorgeous Rocky Road with Popcorn in, a quintessentially British Eton Mess with a nice glittery Cherry on top! Sugar Crush also create bakes for baby showers, weddings, tea parties and more!

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Myself and Luke both decided to get manicures. I got a mix of matte turquoise and sparkly turquoise nail polish which I absolutely loved! I always love a bit of sparkle. Luke got a more muted white/pastel pink colour. We chatted a bit more and just had a wonderful time. We decided that it was time to make the adventure back to the train station so we grabbed our bags, grabbed some wonderful food from Sugar Crush which included their marvellous brownies. I love brownies, got handed a goodie bag which included rainbow highlighter and headed back to Leeds Train Station.

I had a wonderful time at Pastille's birthday event and hope that they have more fabulous years within Leeds! I hope that you have enjoyed this little post.

Have you been to Pastille before? Let me know down below!

Thanks!
Jamie x