Costa Coffee Christmas Range 2023

Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new blog post. I thought that today I would talk to you all about the new Costa Coffee Christmas range. Yes, I know it may be a bit early for some of you to see Christmas but who doesn’t love hearing about some new delicious goodies that are coming to a Costa Coffee store near you very soon? 

Sticky Toffee 

Who doesn’t love a good Sticky Toffee Pudding when the days get dark and cold very quickly? 

The Sticky Toffee drinks come in two formats. A Latte to keep you warm when the weather gets chilly and a Iced Latte that will help to refresh you when the Christmas shopping gets a little bit too stressful. 

Both of these drinks will feature a yummy sticky toffee flavoured sauce, topped with Light Whip, and drizzled with even more sauce, finished with a sprinkling of bronze shimmery, angel-like dusting. 

Black Forest & Cream Hot Chocolate 

Black Forest is back baby! I know a lot of people including myself were devastated when Black Forest was scrapped for last years Christmas range and then had to rush to try and grab it in a store during the last week leading up to Christmas. This year, Costa has brought Black Forest back with a bang! 

The iconic drink features a rich hot chocolate with cherry sauce topped with cream and drizzled with cherry sauce. 

If you are a Costa Club member and have the App then you are already able to get the Black Forest & Cream Hot Chocolate in stores before the rest of the range and before non-members can grab it on 2nd November. All you have to do is scan your card and ask for one at the till or order one through the Click and Collect feature on the Costa Coffee App. 

I must admit, I may have already grabbed one through the Costa App when I was out with Luke the other day and oh my god it was worth the wait. Delicious and fruity. Utter perfection. 

Roasted Hazel 

Is it just me or does the scent of roasted nuts makes it  feel like its the beginning of the festive season? Now you can enjoy that feeling in a drink! 

Roasted Hazel will be available as a Latte and a Hot Chocolate. Both of these warming drinks will include a flavourful roasted hazelnut syrup, topped with Light Whip, and completed with a beautiful, bronzed shimmer and mini gold stars. 

I do love Hazelnut and this screams a very me drink so I am intrigued to see what Roasted Hazel tastes like. I also love the addition of gold stars. I bet it looks pretty and adds to the festive vibe! 

Gingerbread & Cream Latte 

Gingy is back and  they’re looking tastier than ever! 

This drink features a milky coffee laced with a generous slurp of sugar free gingerbread syrup, topped with cream and adorned with a mini gingerbread person.

I love anything Gingerbread so I will definitely be grabbing one of these. 

Inspired by After Eight® Hot Chocolate & Terry's Chocolate Orange® Hot Chocolate

Who doesn’t love a good couple of After Eights after a filling Christmas Lunch? Well Costa have made an After Eight® Hot Chocolate so you can have it all Christmas season long! 

Is it just me who associates Terry's Chocolate Orange® with Christmas? I just imagine one of these tasty chocolate balls in the bottom of my Christmas stocking. Costa has also decided to bring back the well loved Terry's Chocolate Orange® Hot Chocolate for those who love a good Chocolate Orange drink throughout the festive period. Both of these drinks come with either a  Terry's Chocolate Orange® Segment or an After Eight® slip on the side. 

Costa Express:

Costa Express customers can enjoy a taste of the festivities with the new Sticky Toffee Latte, new Sticky Toffee Hot Chocolate, and new Sticky Toffee Iced Latte (only at Costa Express’s Hot and Iced self-serve machines). 

Shell customers can get exclusive access to the new Roasted Hazel Latte, new Roasted Hazel Iced Latte (only at Costa Express’s Hot and Iced self-serve machines) and new Roasted Hazel Hot Chocolate.

Food:

Pigs In Blankets Toastie

Pigs In Blankets is an ultimate staple of Christmas Dinner for a lot of people in the UK so cramming these beauties into a toastie sounds like a perfect idea to me. 

This brand new product for Costa Coffee features succulent pork sausage and maple cured bacon, with sweet, caramelised onion chutney, all in tempting garlic, onion and sage crumbed cheese-topped bread. 

Vegan Turkey & Trimmings Toastie

Just because Christmas is full of meat doesn’t mean that we can leave the vegans out of having some delicious festive food

This toastie consists of vegan turkey with stuffing, yummy cranberry sauce, vegan mayonnaise, vegan gravy, all in toasted white bread. 

I love to incorporate some Vegan products into my diet a lot of the time so I will definitely be trying this one out! 

Honey Roast Ham & Wensleydale Ciabatta 

All I’m going to say is Cheese, Gromit, Cheese! 

This sandwich features juicy British Honey roast ham and Wensleydale cheese, mature Cheddar and honey and béchamel sauce, packed into a cranberry stuffed ciabatta.  

I have been enjoying sandwiches and burgers with a Bechamel sauce recently so I may try this to see how Cranberry, Honey, Roast Ham, Wensleydale and Bechamel all work together. 

Melton Mowbray Pork Pies & Sausage Rolls

Who doesn’t love some good picky bits? 

The Melton Mowbray Pies consisting of seasoned uncured British pork baked in a rich hot water crust pastry. The Sausage Rolls have seasoned pork sausage meat, pulled pork and divine Bramley apples, in an all-butter puff pastry topped with a wonderful festive pastry star. 

I love both a Pork Pie and a Sausage Roll so I’ll definitely be tempted to grab one of each. The Sausage Roll sounds divine to me. Savoury, full of flavour and still utterly seasonal. 

What’s Returning? 

The following savoury delights are returning for the festive season at Costa Coffee. 

Brie, Bacon & Cranberry Panini, Brie & Cranberry Toastie, Turkey & Trimmings Toastie and the Turkey Feast Sandwich. 

Sweet Treats: 

Belgian Chocolate Ganache Cake

I mean, who doesn’t love Chocolate Cake? 

This new product is a rich chocolate cake, filled with chocolate frosting and topped with an indulgent chocolate ganache and star sprinkles. 

Honestly, this sounds amazing! I love anything that has a ganache in as it adds some texture to the cake. I just hope that the cake itself is terrifically tender! 

Sticky Toffee Loaf Cake 

A piece of Sticky Toffee Loaf Cake and a Sticky Toffee Latte? Can anyone imagine a better pairing? I can’t! 

This afternoon delight consists of a toffee flavoured sponge cake which is topped with caramel frosting, caramel drizzle, and indulgent fudge pieces.  

I love the different textures that are going on in this cake. You have the cake itself paired with the smooth frosting and the chunky fudgy pieces. A definite must try! 

Vegan Christmas Cake Slice 

 Vegans need a sweet treat too! 

A rich fruit cake base and is topped with a layer of marzipan and white icing.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of Christmas Cake. If you are then this will definitely be a treat for you! 

Polar Bear Gingerbread & Christmas Tree Shortcake Biscuits 

A cute biscuit can really perk up the dullest of days! New for 2023, Costa have released two cute biscuits to go alongside a drink and a catch up with friends. There’s a cute Polar Bear shaped Gingerbread Biscuit and a festive Christmas Tree shaped Shortcake Biscuit. Definitely a great treat for a catch up or those little ones who need a sweet treat. 

Bags Of Sweet Treats 

Sometimes when you are out and about with either friends or your own, you just want a little bag of something. Well, Costa has come to the rescue with these amazing bags of goodies that are new fof 2023. 

There is Salted Caramel Honeycomb Bag (Salted honeycomb coated in caramel flavour milk chocolate, in collaboration with Mighty Fine). There’s also Clotted Cream Fudge bag (rich, crumbly fudge made with West Country clotted cream and handmade by Mr Stanley’s)., These would be great alongside a warm drink or stashed in your bag for when you need a little pick me up. 

What’s Returning? 

Back for 2023, we have Vegan Mince Tart, All Butter Mince Pie, Terry's Chocolate Orange® Muffin (which is available in Costa Coffee stores right now), Gingerbread Muffin, White Chocolate Trillionaire’s Slice and the Crispy Festive Wreath. 

Will you be trying any of the Costa Coffee Christmas 2023 range? What’s your favourite festive drink? Let me know! 

Costa Coffee’s Christmas Menu is available to purchase and try on 2nd November. 

All photos are from Costa Coffee PR. 

Thanks for reading! 

Jamie x

Shoving My Face Into All Of That Cake | Cake'ole Bradford

Hey everyone!

Welcome to a brand new post! I tried out Cake'ole in Bradford a while ago, and I thought that today, I would talk to you all about my experience there.

Cake'ole are an LGBT+ establishment that offers different cakes and treats on a daily basis to keep their minds and customers on their toes. They also offer a range of drinks, milkshakes and even an afternoon tea. Cake'ole is located in Centenary Square, in Bradford, which is known for many attractions including the Mirror Pool and City Hall

We walked into the excellent establishment, took a look round, and, decided to choose a table to sit down at. The building itself has a slightly cosy and relaxed aesthetic to it with chairs and large tables dotted around. We looked at the menu for a couple of minutes and chatted about the drinks that we wanted. When myself and Luke had decided on what drinks we wante, I got up and checked out the cakes of the day and then ordered.

Luke had decided to get a Black Forest Twisted Shake, whereas I decided to choose a Salted Caramel Twisted Shake. If you follow me on any form of social media, then, you will know that I have a little bit of an obsession to Salted Caramel. These Shakes came in sort of glass mason jars and were filled to the brim! My Shake came with Whipped Cream, a salted rim, and caramel sauce. (I love a good coarse salted rim!) The drink was creamy and had an authentic caramel taste to it. By this, I mean that it actually tasted of Caramel and not the sort of artificial Caramel that sometimes Caramel based drinks taste of. The rim cut through all of the sweetness of the shake, the caramel sauce and the cream which made the drink morish instead of sickly. I love a good salty sweet moment! There was even more salt at the bottom of the drink which meant that you weren't left feeling sick at the end of the drink. Honestly, I would go back just for this drink along as the contrast of smooth, crunchy, salty and sweet was amazing! Luke loves his drink. He loved the contrast between the sweet cream and the slight fruitiness from the Black Forest Shake. He also loved the slight decoration of Black Forest Cake pieces that were on the top of the Shake as this added to the contrast of textures.

We then got two slices of cake to enjoy. The first one that we got was Mocha. A chocolate sponge with Coffee Buttercream. This one was nice, but I didn't get much of a Mocha flavour from it. I loved the contrast of the fluffy sponge against the rich smooth buttercream though. We also decided to get a slice of Blue Raspberry. What made it Blue, you ask? Well the colour of the cake, of course! The cake was super moist, the icing was slightly sweet but the raspberry flavour was still there. Again, this cake had an authentic Raspberry flavour to it. I loved the contrast between the slightly sweet flavour of the icing against the sharpness of the Raspberries. I would definitely come here again!

We finished our drinks and cake, chatted for a bit and decided to do a little bit more shopping around Bradford before going home.

Check out Cake'ole.

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x

Creating Memories Before Your Eyes | Trinity Leeds 5th Birthday

Hey everyone!

Welcome to a brand new blog post! Trinity Leeds invited me a while ago, to celebrate their 5th Birthday and I thought that I would talk to you all about it. I thought that, in today's post, I would take a different spin on it and, talk about the memories that I have of Trinity Leeds.

Trinity Leeds invited me to see the release of the massive cake that would be honouring the birthday, a day before the general public coukd. The Cake was literally bigger, and, more beautiful than I could ever be. Pink in colour and decorated with things that scream Leeds such as Northern Ballet and much more,. The Cake itself was a Red Velvet, which I love but I rarely have due to it being lactose on lactose with an amazing colour. It was an amazing cake and I loved talking to everyone including some amazing Leeds bloggers such as Lizi, Lucy and Lucinda,. Don't forget to check them out!

I remember when Trinity Leeds first opened, everyone knew that Trintiy Leeds was here and that it was going to impact the shopping experience of West Yorkshire, by a long shot. I remember how most of my friends were interested in the dynamic One Direction merchandise based store that was a part of the centre at the time. I remember the buzz of the first week, with oohs and ahh's from members of public, when they looked up at the grand roof of this magnificent shopping centre.

One of the other times that stand out to me, is, when I went to my first Student Lock In. I dragged a group of friends and we ended up exploring the crevices of the shops that lie within the centre. The glorious thing about Student Lock In, is that there are discounts and goodies every corner that you turn. I think a few of the main reasons that this resonates as an amazing memory for me is, that, I got to see a student community awaiting to have a good time within somewhere that isn't completely alcohol fuelled, which is rare, and, because this was the night that myself and Michelle became lifelong friends, Myself and my friends have all matured in different ways but I will always hold this memory and the group of friends close to my heart.

I've also met well known bands including, Neck Deep, due to the amazing store that used to be in Trinity Leeds, which is known as Pulp. Pulp was and stil is, the epitome of what I like my aesthetic when it comes to fashion to be like sometimes. I remember meeting my friends, making my way towards the store and queuing in line to talk to the guys that made up the band. I had to rush afterwards as I was meeting Michelle, and, a few other friends for a night at Wetherspoons which I remember quite well.

I have other memories of Trinity Leeds including the amazing food that I have tried at the shopping centre, and, the fashion finds that are still within my wardrobe, and, I hope to enjoy more food, find more amazing clothes and have more great memories in Trinity Leeds very soon.

Have you had any good memories at Trinity Leeds? Let me know down below and if you've had any good cake then let me know!

I hope that you've enjoyed this slightly food based blog post and I hope that you come back soon to read the next post!

Thanks for reading!
Jamie x

Pies, Pork & Much More | Trinity Kitchen January 2018

Hey everyone! 

Welcome to a brand new blog post! I thought that today, I would talk to you all about the new vendors that are at Trinity Leeds at the moment!

Trinity Kitchen is an open plan food court that is situated within the heart of the well known shopping centre, Trinity Leeds, which has a plethora of stores ranging from beauty to children's clothing. Trinity Kitchen has a range of vendors that are full time residents such as Tortilla, Pho and Chicago to name a few, but TK also bost a range of independent vendors that stay for a time period to showcase their food to the people of Yorkshire.

A square bright yellow cake in a rectangular white on the inside, light blue on the outside box with a coffee cup filled with light brown tea on a light golden brown wood rectangular table on a light background. 

The first vendor that I tried out was Mr D's Magnificent Pie Machine. This vend or already sounds like a savoury sub-company of Wonka just from the name and they don't disappoint when it comes to their food. Mr D's serve delicious Pies but ensure that they are all jelly-less, which I love due to finding that some mass produced Pies end up being gelatinous which then puts me off the pie a bit. Mr D's offer a plethora of flavours ranging from the humble Sausage Roll all the way to luxurious Game Pie. I also loved that they had quirky flavours on offer such as Pork and Black Pudding and Pork and Chilli. I decided to go for a jellyless Pork and Apple Pie. I made the right decision doing this, I love Apple and Pork so I knew that I was going to like it, but oh my god I took that first bite and I was in heaven. The pastry was slightly flaky but crunchy around the crust which is the best type of pastry. The filling was packed full of meat and chunky Apple Sauce which I loved not only for the taste, but for the texture, as the flaky pastry against the bits of meat against the flowing sauce was just amazing. I'd definitely get one if you're in Trinity Leeds as they're delicious as a light snack or a meal with some of the sides that they offer. It's hard to find a pastry business that makes me want to scream that I'm from Yorkshire, without mentioning a certain name that ends with egg, but these definitely make me want to scream that I'm from Yorkshire.

Two semi circles of light golden brown pastry containing  pieces brown cooked Pork with a pale green Apple Sauce all on a white rectangular plate on a golden brown wood table on a light background. 

After the amazing pie, I made my way to the Trough Foods vendor to try some of their amazing food. They focus on all things meat ensuring that the best is going into your mouth. I tried a Pulled Pork Mac & Cheese topped off with Apple Sauce. I thought that i might as well as carry on the theme! I rarely eat Mac & Cheese due to my lactose intolerance, but I thought screw it I might as well! The sauce was creamy, thick and tasty but not too Cheesy as sometimes in Mac and Cheese, it can make the dish a little bit sickly. The meat was fall off the bone tender and I adored it in the Mac & Cheese, as it just gave a different taste to the dish as a whole and the apple sauce was amazing. It just cut through the richness of the meat and sauce and just lifted the dish to another level.

A cluster of bright yellow Macaroni and Cheese with dar brown pulled pork layered on top with a pale green dollop of Apple Sauce all within a light brown square takeout box on a light brown wooden table on a bright background. 

The last vendor that I decided to check out was Meli Patisserie. i have talked about them before on the blog, but I wanted something sweet to round off the lunchtime meal so i decided to pop around and enjoy a Lemon Cake as their cakes and patisserie products are to die for. (They do a range of cakes and sweet treats including everything from Baileys Cake to a Strawberry Tart.) The Lemon Cake consists of a deliciously sweet White Chocolate Mousse, with a layer of smooth Lemon Cream which is all draped in a zesty Lemon glaze. I chose this one as I wanted something refreshing due to the slightly drab weather that surrounded Leeds. i received a complimentary cup of tea with the cake, which is always an amazing thing in my opinion, as I grabbed it once I ate the cake and drank it around Leeds City Centre. If you love Cake, Tea or anything sweet then check them out!

A square bright yellow cake in a rectangular white on the inside, light blue on the outside box with a coffee cup filled with light brown tea on a light golden brown wood rectangular table on a light background. 

Have you tried any of the vendors, old or new, from Trinity Kitchen before? Let me know down below! 

Thanks to Trinity Leeds for inviting me to come down and try the amazing new vendors at Trinity Kitchen. Please do check them out if you live anywhere near Leeds.

I hope that you have enjoyed this food based blog post and I hope to see you next time for another blog post!

Thanks for reading! 
Jamie x 

This post was in return of goods or services. All views, opinions and ramblings are my own. 

Satay, Pizza Burgers & Having Your Cake & Eating It | Trinity Kitchen Novemnber 2017

Hey!

Welcome to a brand new blog post! Trinity Leeds invited me to Trinity Kitchen to try some of their new vendors so I thought that today I would tell you all what I thought about them.

If you havent heard of Trinity Kitchen then let me tell you all about it. Trinity Kitchen is an open plan food court within Trinity Leeds that serves a plethora of food from different cultures such as Vietnamese food from Pho, Italian Pizza's from Pizza Luxe, Mexican food in the form of Tortilla and much more. Every so often, Trinity Kitchen like to bring in six different street food vendors to give variety but to also ensure that new businesses are getting exposure.

Myself and Luke (who comes to most of the events alongside myself) made our way around to Trinity Kitchen and decided to sit down in a sort of quiet sectioned off corner that had a wide rectangular glass window overlooking the wonderful architecture that surrounds Trinity Leeds within the city centre of Leeds.

We decided to start off by checking out Tikks Thai Kitchen. Tikk's Thai Kitchen is known for cooking amazing yet authentic Southern Thai Street Food. The reason behind why the business is called Tikk's Thai Kitchen is well because all the food is prepared and cooked by Tikk who is an Thai Native and a trained chef. We enjoyed a dish of Chicken Satay and Sriracha Fries which came with a wonderful nutty Satay Dip and some wonderful fried Shallots. I love Chicken Satay! This Chicken was wonderfully charred but still tender which I think is quite hard to do as sometimes charred Chicken loses all of its moisture. The Dip was wonderful light and nutty. Luke hates Peanuts but he loved this dip which well contained Peanuts! The fries were crispy and the Sriracha gave a slight tang to them which I loved. The Shallots were there to add a bit of crispness but also a tad bit of cooling if you thought the Sriracha was a bit too much. I'm still wondering why I haven't tried Sriracha Fries before this because I was missing out!

The next place that we decided to try was Sela Bar who have collaborated with Little Red Eats to create a vendor that creates amazing burgers ranging from ones from ones with Candied Bacon and one that was made for Cheese Lovers. I decided to get a Pizza Burger to share with Luke. Yes, you heard right! A Pizza Burger. This Burger consisted of an great homemade Beef Burger topped with a great Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella, Pepperoni and a whole host of amazing goodies. I did think that this would be more of a just an Instagrammable product and that it woudn't taste amazing but oh my god did I eat my words and much more. The Patty was succulent and delicious. The powerful tomato sauce against the creamy Cheese was wonderful and the little pieces of Pepperoni gave the burger an extra lift of flavour and texture. I was kind of glad that this came in a Brioche Bun. I love the good old Sesame Seed Bun but I also love a smooth Brioche Bun as you don't get Sesame Seeds everywhere. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that's going to Trinity Kitchen soon!

The last vendor that we decided to visit was Meli Patisserie  Meli Patisserie create amazing cakes, sweet treats and mousses to fill that sweet hole that has been left in your soul. We tried a Lemon Cake which consisted of a White Chocolate Sponge, White Chocolate Mousse and Lemon Curd smothered on the top and a Baileys Cake which consisted of Dark Chocolate Sponge, a wonderful Baileys Mousse and smothered in Dark Chocolate Ganache. I loved the Lemon Cake as it was sweet but tart at the same time. Luke loves White Chocolate and Lemon so he was in heaven with this one! The Baileys cake has a sort of deep sweetness going on due to the Dark Chocolate but I loved it. I'm not the biggest fan of Dark Chocolate sometimes but when paired with the Baileys Mousse, it was divine! These would be divine when catching up with friends!

Trinity Leeds has some other amazing vendors at the moment including Food4Festivals who create great Greek food including Gyros, Gravy Train Poutine who create amazing Canadian Poutine and Bunnymans Bunnychow who create amazing South African food that comes in an edible bowl.

Check out Trinity Kitchen here.

Have you tried any of the above vendors? Would you try any? Let me know down below! 

Thanks to all of the vendors for creating amazing food and the wonderful gius at Trinity Leeds for inviting me along to try the vendors.

Thanks for reading this food based blog post. I hope that you enjoyed it. 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

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 

Making The Best Out Of Your Work | Leeds City College Printworks Event With Michelle Walker

Hey,

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to Leeds City College to showcase their Printworks Campus and all the food that they have on offer during the year so I thought I'd let you read about what we ate and a little bit about the event. Michelle took the photos as she's an amazing photographer and a great person.

It started with meeting Michelle in Leeds Train Station (the 2nd biggest train station within the UK), we chatted and made our way up to Trinity Leeds as I had an appointment at Apple. We chatted and browsed around Leeds city centre including going into a massive American candy store where I picked up some Jägerbomb fudge!

We tried making our way to the campus but in true Jamie style, we ended up getting lost and then ended up getting an Uber to the campus to save us getting more lost. We were greeted by a lovely woman and made our way into the campus.

Printworks Campus is one of the campuses of the well known Leeds City College. This £25m state of the art building serves to many students with subjects such as Hospitality and Hair & Beauty amongst many other things. They help students along their career path within many ways including incorporating workskills into their studies. The Printworks Campus sells food in and out of term times.

We made our way through and was given a perfect looking Pimms cocktail to evoke the feeling of Summer. We made our way through to the restaurant area and chatted for a couple of minutes until a few marvellous students/staff members came over and filled our glasses with red and white wine. (Who's going to turn down wine?!)

We then just chatted about anything and everything. A few moments later, the first dish was served to us. The starter was Veal and Goats Cheese Nugget with pickled beetroot and other fresh vegetables. I've never had Veal and I've not had many fun experiences of consuming Goats Cheese but I loved the two encased within the nugget. The piquancy from the pickled beetroot contrasted really well with the nugget and the freshness of the other vegetables just made the dish pop.

The second dish that we devoured was a fish course. This entailed Saffron infused Scallop with a herb soup, salmon roe and wasabi peas. I liked the textures that were going on within the dish as you had the meaty texture of the Scallop, the smooth texture of the soup and the popping sort of texture of the wasabi peas. I rarely have scallops so it was nice to divulge into that for once and I loved the zing that you got from the wasabi peas.

We had a little discussion and then we were served the main course. If you love Pork then the main will definitely be up your street! It was a Plate Of Pork which included Slow Braised Belly, Black Pudding and Chilli crusted Pork fillet. The dish also contained Apple Puree. It was meant to also include Rhubarb but the wonderful members within the campus thought that it wasn't as good as it could be so it was omitted from the dish. I love Pork so this dish was instantly amazing in my eyes. I was a bit intrigued by the black pudding and chilli but it really worked! The apple puree gave a contrast of textures and flavours with the pork as the smoothness of the puree went against the crusted pork and the sharpness of the apples went against the sweetness of the meat.

The last meal of the event was dessert. I always love dessert! Chocolate and Coconut Torte with Coconut Shavings, Blackberry Sorbet and torched Meringue. I love anything chocolate and coconut based so in the form of a cake is a great way to showcase the combination. It resembles summer with an indulgent side in my opinion. When you contrast this with the sharpness of the blackberry sorbet it just creates a magical feeling in the mouth. The meringue and coconut shavings created a nubbly texture within the dish just to contrast with the softness of the torte and it was amazing! If someone offered me this at the end of a night then I would adore them quite a bit!

The whole room then gave everyone that had worked their butts off a massive round of applause. We were given some goodie bags and then myself and Michelle made our way back to the train station (we were given instructions, thank god) and then we made our way home!

I would like to thank all the staff and students at Printworks Campus who worked so hard to create this event!

Michelle also has a new website where she will be expressing her love of photography via pictures so I shall link that here. Don't forget to check her Flickr where the pictures for this event and many other events are located which is linked with her name above this paragraph.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog post and I hope that you've liked reading about the food that is served within Printworks Campus.

Jamie x