Restaurant Review- Bar Remo, Princes Street, London

Restaurant name: Bar Remo

Location: Princes Street, London

Description: Low-key Italian restaurant in the heart of London near Oxford Circus; according to the website, it has been run by the same family for over 90 years.

Reason for visit: Dinner before a show at the nearby London Palladium - Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and I went to see Rick Stein Live.

I ate: Lasagne al forno, £8.45, followed by tiramisu, £4

My companion ate: I can't remember the exact name but I think it was papardelle with mushrooms in a tomato sauce, followed by the same dessert.

The food was: Simple but very tasty with very large portions. The tiramisu tasted properly home made and the lasagne was piping hot and very filling.

The atmosphere/service was: It's a small restaurant with relatively basic seating but comfortable enough and it has a very down-to-earth, unpretentious atmosphere.

Price range/value for money: Very good, the portions were very large and reasonably priced - I would have expected to pay more.

Would I recommend it? Yes, it's near Oxford Circus but a little bit away from the main bustle of the shopping streets so it would be a great place to stop for lunch while you are shopping, or for a pre-theatre dinner.

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Rosewater Mini Rose Bundt Cakes

These rosewater cakes were made in a mini bundt tin but you could also make them as cupcakes with rosewater buttercream frosting. The cakes have a surprise on the inside - they are bright pink! I made them for a colleague's birthday as I knew she wouldn't want a big cake and a lot of fuss but I wanted to make something. I received the Nordicware mini rose bundt tin for Christmas and wanted to try it out as well!

I thought rosewater would be the perfect flavour to go with the rose cake tin. When I want to find a recipe using a specific ingredient I am more likely to turn to the internet than a recipe book- books are great for browsing but it can take a long time to find a specific recipe if you don't know where to look! I found this recipe on the Australian website Taste.com.au but did not include the frosting, and I used vegetable oil instead of canola oil.

You need:

1 cup vegetable oil (250ml)

1 and 1/2 cups caster sugar (330g)

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt (280g)

2 cups self-raising flour (300g)

2 tbsp rosewater

pink food colouring

Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix the oil, sugar and eggs in a large bowl.

Gently mix in the yogurt then the flour.

I then added the pink food colouring.

Here's a close-up of the Nordicware bundt tin I got for Christmas, it's very pretty!

And here you can see the side view

I sprayed each indent in the tin with Dr. Oetker Cake Release:

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The cakes came out of the tin perfectly thanks to the Cake Release, and you can clearly see the rose shape - I was really pleased with these.

I had enough mixture for a second batch but had run out of Cake Release so instead I used Fry-Light. I thought a spray oil would work better than greasing the tin with butter as it would get in all the nooks and crannies. I also thought that using Fry-Light would probably be no different to Cake Release, but I was very wrong! Fry-Light is obviously an oil for cooking and you can see from the picture below how dark the cakes using Fry-Light came out. They still came out of the tin easily, but they cooked for the same length of time - of course, the oven would have been hotter for the second batch, but I think using oil instead of Cake Release meant they were overdone. I'll go back to using Cake Release in future!

Despite everyone thinking the darker cakes were chocolate, they went down well at work. I sprinkled the tops with edible red glitter for a little extra pizazz. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the inside as they were bright pink from the food colouring! The rosewater taste was quite subtle but I think definitely there, and the shape of the cakes was a real talking point.

There are several blog challenges this month that this recipe is perfect for. Firstly, Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel at Dollybakes and Laura at Laura Loves Cakes, as their theme is l'amour. (That's love, for non-French speakers!)

Secondly, I'm sharing this with Cakeyboi for Treat Petite, as the theme is Valentine's treats for your loved ones.

Four Seasons Food is focusing on "food from the heart" this month so I think these mini rose cakes fit nicely with the theme. The challenge is hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg.

Finally a new challenge, Love Cake, hosted by Jibber Jabber. Rose-shaped cakes are certainly evocative of love and passion - the theme this month is baking with passion.

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Restaurant Review - Bill's, Salisbury

Restaurant name: Bill's

Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire

Description: Bill's started out in Lewes; the owner ran a fruit and veg stall which was destroyed by flooding in 2000 and he wanted to offer locals somewhere to sit down and eat, so the restaurant was born. It's now a small chain; I've already been to the one in Wimbledon.

Reason for visit: I met up with my old school friends over Christmas - we grew up in Salisbury and were all visiting our families there over the holiday period. When we were teenagers (18, of course!!) we used to go to a pub called the Chough; it remained under the same name (though I think different ownership) for many years but had just changed into Bill's restaurant. The layout inside was much the same and it was nice to be somewhere familiar, but at the same time good to try out a new restaurant. An additional reason for our visit was that the local paper was running a promotion for a free bottle of wine when two people ordered a main meal so it seemed like a bargain.

I ate: Rump steak with fries and garlic butter, £13.95. I didn't order a dessert but did try some of my friend's warm cinnamon mini doughnuts served with chocolate dipping sauce (£5.50).

My companions ate: There were 7 of us so we tried several dishes on the menu including the duck pie, bbq pork ribs, and the fish pie. One friend who is vegan had a selection of side dishes brought together as one meal.

The food was: Very good - my steak was very nicely cooked and my friends were all impressed with the food as far as I was aware. The mini doughnuts were especially good!

The atmosphere/service was: Good - we had a few dietary requirements for the chef to take account of and the staff were very helpful. We also decided to be cheeky and ask if we could use more than one voucher for a free bottle of wine as there were 7 of us dining, and they said yes!

Price range/value for money: It's been a while since I ate out in Salisbury and I'm used to London prices, but this seemed quite reasonable for what we had.

Would I recommend it? Yes, I liked the food and the staff were friendly and helpful. Perhaps it's because the Chough was one of my favourite haunts but I think this place will do well in Salisbury with locals and tourists alike.

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Baked Beef Cannelloni and the KitchenAid mincer

There's no denying that KitchenAid mixers are expensive, and take up a lot of space in the kitchen, but I absolutely adore mine. It's baby pink and was a present from my boyfriend :-) One reason I love it is how versatile it is - you can get all sorts of attachments for it. I've already got the pasta attachment and for Christmas my boyfriend's dad gave me the mincer attachment. It's very easy to use - you just screw it on to the end of the KitchenAid and it's ready to go.

I usually shop in supermarkets for the convenience but I get to our local butcher when I can - a great place called Scott's. They have a catering service which my boyfriend's family uses for parties, particularly on Boxing Day, and they also have a deli and meat counter. I asked for some steak that was suitable to mince, and was given some chuck steak. I'm not sure how much it was by weight; I asked for enough to make a couple of burgers for two people and ended up making three burgers and a portion of beef cannelloni out of it.

Here's the mincer attachment on my KitchenAid. You simply turn it on, feed the steak (sliced into strips) into the top, and watch it come out the other end as mince. Don't forget to put a bowl underneath to catch the mince!

It took literally no more than a minute or two before I had a lovely bowlful of minced beef. I decided to keep it simple and seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and oregano.

When I've made cannelloni before, I've cooked the mince first, but then found it tricky to stuff the meat into the dried pasta tubes. I decided to try stuffing the cannelloni with raw mince - I checked on the internet that this would work and I wouldn't end up with raw meat, and it seems to be a perfectly acceptable method. It was much easier to get the raw mince inside the pasta though when it cooked it had turned into pretty much a sausage!

Place the filled cannelloni tubes in a foil-lined baking tin and pour over passata which you can mix with garlic or herbs and season to taste.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 20-25 minutes.

To serve, sprinkle with parmesan cheese. This is a pretty simple but tasty recipe and was a great way to test out my new KitchenAid attachment!

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Alphabakes - February 2014

We're coming to the end of the alphabet, quite literally. There are only two letters of the Alphabet left, they are both right at the end of the alphabet and they are both quite tricky! So I wonder how many of you will be pleased to learn that the letter for this month's Alphabakes is....Z! Those of you who have been with us from the beginning have had a long time to prepare for this letter coming up so even though it's a toughie, I'm sure you won't let us down... I can think of a few things (as a hint, we will accept the American rather than British name for a certain vegetable!) - and I'd love it if someone made a Zombie cupcake in the style of Lily Vanilli!



Last month we had Y and there were loads of brilliant entries as usual. If you missed seeing the roundup, pay a visit to Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker.



Please email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by the 25th. Feel free to share your bakes with us on Twitter as well, and we will retweet all the ones that we see: @Caroline_Makes and @bakingaddict. Here's a quick reminder of the rules.



1. Post your recipe on your blog and link it to The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes, stating the relevant month's host. If you do not have a blog, email us a picture and a brief description of your entry which we will include in the round-up at the end of the month.



2. You can use your own recipe or someone else's recipe. The recipe can be sweet, savoury or a mixture! Anything goes as long as the random letter is predominantly featured in the recipe as one of the main ingredients or flavours or in the name of the bake itself (i .e . not as a garnish , or using 'flour' for the letter F!) You can also republish old posts/recipes but you must include the information for this challenge as stated in these rules.



3. Add the logo to your post and add 'alphabakes' as a label to your post.



4. Email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by midnight (GMT) 25th of each month. Please include:

• Your name (that you want included in the round up or we will use the name of your blog)


• Your blog post URL


• Recipe title


• Photo of recipe (to be included in the round up)

5. You can submit as many entries as you like.



6. You do not have to participate every month to join in.



7. You may submit your entry to other challenges as long as it complies with their rules.



8. If you use twitter, please use the tag #alphabakes and mention @bakingaddict and @Caroline_Makes. We will retweet all those that we see.



9. Have fun! :)

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Restaurant Review: Chiquito's, Leicester Square

Restaurant name: Chiquito Mexican restaurant and bar

Location: Leicester Square, London

Description: Mexican restaurant chain; the Leicester Square branch is big and noisy with quite cramped tables and such low lighting I had to use the torch app on my phone to read the menu! The restaurant does breakfast and cocktails as well as lunch and dinner.

Reason for visit: We needed a quick dinner after work before seeing a show on Leicester Square; I'd never been to a Chiquito's so it seemed a good opportunity to try the chain.

I ate: We didn't order a starter but were brought a bowl of popcorn flavoured with what I think was cheese; it was unusual but really quite good. I decided for my main course to try a Chimichanga - a tortilla filled with spiced rice, (I asked for it without the Mexican beans), cheese, and shredded chicken, then the whole thing is deep fried. It was served with a generous portion of fries and three dips.

My companion ate: A burger, of course... he never orders anything else!

The food was: Really good -I wasn't expecting to like the popcorn but did, and really wasn't sure about the Chimichanga until I had my first mouthful and decided it had been the right decision.

The atmosphere/service was: The place was busy but we had good service and were able to eat and get out within an hour which we needed to do for the show.

Price range/value for money: Not that cheap - the chimichanga was £11.95 and a BBQ double cheeseburger is £14.95, so it's what I call the Leicester Square effect. Even so the portions are generous and the food very good for a chain restaurant.

Would I recommend it?Yes, aside from the restaurant itself being a bit dark and cramped, I really liked the food.

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Restaurant Review: Kensington Creperie

Restaurant name: Kensington Creperie

Location: South Kensington, London

Description: Cafe/restaurant offering both savoury and sweet-filled crepes and ice cream

Reason for visit: I am part of a choir that performs concerts three times a year in some pretty amazing venues, so for the first time in November I sang in the Royal Albert Hall! My parents, my boyfriend and his mum all came to see the concert and I needed to find somewhere we could have a quick dinner after my rehearsal finished at 6 before I needed to be back on stage at 7, so this seemed the best bet.

I ate: A ham and cheese crepe. I got there late and ordered without even looking at the menu as I knew they would have this flavour!

My companions are: Not entirely sure as the others had eaten before I arrived; my mum said she had eaten a chicken and mushroom crepe, which was very nice, and my boyfriend's mum had a salad.

The food was: good - mine was nothing fancy but my mum really liked hers.

The atmosphere/service was: good - the service was very quick and they were happy for me to join the rest of the table late and to add on my order even though they had already calculated the bill. It's a low-key place that is somewhere between a restaurant and a cafe, very close to South Kensington tube.

Price range/value for money: Pretty good - while a lot of the crepes are not made with expensive ingredients, it's definitely good value for money compared to other places around here. And it was a lot cheaper than eating at the Royal Albert Hall!

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