Top of the popcorns

Always my go to snack, and although I've always loved microwave popcorn, you couldn't beat cinema popcorn....'til now. When I'm asked that all in important question 'sweet or salted?' I always dreaded the servers face when I say 'can I have mixed? and in alternate layers if possible?'.  I know I'm being awkward but the combination of a sweet and a salty bit of popcorn at the same time is the ultimate flavour!! So, I was very excited to try Metcalfe's Skinny Sweet 'n Salt popcorn in Pret last year! It is exactly what I'd been waiting for and it's way less calories than a bag of crisps. Poifect.  

Another great sweet and salty mix is from Ike and Sam.  I first tried it at the Taste of Christmas fair last year and have since bought it from whole food's store. It's quite pricey but the big bag lasts for ages.

At 'The Red Shoes' Secret Cinema recently, the amazing smell of popcorn was wafting around the giant old factory building, there were a couple of stalls by a UK company called Love Da Pop. Making the freshest popcorn possible, I had the caramel flavour, mmmm mmmm!

1 Metcalfe's Sweet 'n Salt Topcorn  2 Popcorn Bunnies print by ArgyleWhale  3 Ike and Sam's Sweet & Salty popcorn  4 Love Da Pop flavoured popcorn

A visit to Florida

In Naples, West Coast Florida I indulged in iced mochas, frozen custard, margaritas and tons of things that will rot my teeth.  On fifth Avenue (around 5th/10th) there is a Kilwins and the smell of them making chocolate and fudge on a huge table right by the open window is insanely good. I brought back some peanut butter fudge from here and it is amazing, I wish I'd brought back more!  

The idea that these caramel apples were in the departure terminal of Miami airport is a bit scary, I couldn't eat one of these on a normal day let alone about to board a plane for 9 hours....ergh, still, they look pretty!

A visit to Atlanta

I went to Atlanta recently, it's a really cool city once you find the good spots! We started out staying in Buckhead which is quite a residential area in North Atlanta.  The complimentary limo at the Wingate by Wyndham made getting around nice and easy though! I scouted out the closest Whole Foods and stocked up on random snacks and treats on the first day! The cupcake display was pretty dreamy!

When we moved to down town Atlanta we visited Underground Atlanta.  A cool underground parade of shops, restaurants and bars.  My favourite store was the Southern Candy Company, stocking loads of treats, fudge and chocolate covered everything!

If there's one thing I wish I could have brought back to the UK from Atlanta it would have been Cheese Cake Factory.  I know it's not exclusive to Atlanta, and if you go to the states make sure you visit one.  The array of cheese cakes is insane and I managed to squeeze in three trips on my two week holiday!  Our first experience was at a mall in Dunwoody near North Springs in North Atlanta - we picked up a slice of the 'seasonal' Reeces Peanut Butter cheese cake to SHARE.  We were both completely and utterly defeated after this....

One place I highly recommend visiting in Atlanta is the Park Tavern in Piedmont Park.  An amazing, huge park which after hiring bikes to ride around, visiting the lake and watching the dogs in the gigantic dog park we headed here for lunch. I had a lovely fresh lemon cocktail and the biggest onion rings I've ever seen. So good.

Other areas in Atlanta worth visiting are Virginia Highland, Poncey Highland and Little Five Points.  Both have some lovely little restaurants, pubs, bars and really cute shops.  Young Blood is a brilliant boutique come gallery which I could and did spend hours in and Atlanta Cupcake Factory do a winner dreamsicle flavoured cupcake.

Cinnamon and Apple cupcakes

I've had a stunning Easter weekend, the sun has been shining since Friday morning, I've done lots of relaxing and also a bit of baking....yesterday I made these Cinnamon and Apple cupcakes.  They are so tasty, I just added some cinnamon powder and apple purée to the usual cake mix, then added some apple juice and apple purée to the icing mix.  Just one problem I had - the apple wasn't puréed quite as much as it could have been and so the few lumps of apple left in the icing clogged up the icing pipe, I had to sieve it all to get rid of the lumps...slightly annoying!