Five Foodie Instagrammers you MUST follow

The majority of my social media activity is on instagram, either posting daily photos or scrolling through my followers' posts. Instagram is a great place to get inspired and see the world through different perspectives. Sharing photographs is such a simple concept, but one that is incredibly effective. As an account holder you can express yourself in whichever way you want the social media world to see you, as yourself, a business or as a personality. It can be as personal or as impersonal as you like, and although once upon a time it was frowned upon by photographers, it has become a great platform for amateur and professional photographers alike to share their creative talents and get themselves 'heard'. Some people even make a tonne of money by posting sponsored content on instagram - so it really is a big game changer in social media marketing and the digital world.

Me, I like to post photos that I am proud of, less of the personal family portraits (those photos belong in my scrapbook), and more iconic photos of places I've been, food I've eaten and beautiful moments that I'm desperate to share. I like there to be a slight divide between my personal life and what I share on social media. I don't tend to upload every photograph I take to Facebook, but maybe share one or two on instagram that best some up the night that I can look back on and reminisce.

I follow people who inspire me, whether that be through travel, fashion, fitness, baking or food in general. But mostly food! So I thought I'd share with you five foodie instagrammers who I love to follow and who you should absolutely follow too.

Madeleine Shaw

I first noticed Madeleine doing yoga in a Tanya Burr video. I was interested by her healthy living ethos and bubbly personality, so found her blog, and instagram page which I now follow intently. She uses her instagram page to share recipes, wisdom and photographs in and around London. Loving her instagram page then lead me to buy her new book, Get The Glow, a recipe book and 6 week 'get the glow' challenge full of advice, tips and meal plans.

Deliciously Ella

Ella Woodward, aka Deliciously Ella makes healthy living easy. Her photos are beautiful and as well as foodie pictures, she shares her inspirations, blog pictures and her own products. She's a real advocate for healthy eating and healthy living in general and shares her own healthy eating journey. Like Madeleine, Ella has recently published her own recipe book, and is planning to write several more.

Hannah J Bakes

Hannah is an amazing baker, and in recent years has set up her own baking company, Hannah Bakes - selling beautifully handcrafted celebration cakes and artisan bakes. I grew up with Hannah in a small village in Buckinghamshire, where we went to the same primary school and spent hours running up and down the streets and building dens in our front gardens. We'd occasionally bake using Roald Dahl's cookbook. Hannah's instagram page is all about cake, and showcases her creations in all their glory.

Afternoon Crumbs

Nicole Dodds is Afternoon Crumbs - a baker and blogger 'spreading happiness through cake'. And oh my goodness, she does. Her instagram page documents her everyday life and her cake accomplishments, which are amazing. Every cake is different, and inspired by events and occasions.

Zoe Eats Clean

Zoe Burdon is a blogger and loves healthy food. If you're like me and trying to kickstart a new healthier you, then zoe's blog is a good place to start. She's a student and so the ingredients she uses in her recipes are accessible and affordable. Her instagram page is jam-packed with everything from salads to smoothie bowls and gives me so much inspiration for my own meals.

Be sure to check out the instagram pages of these fabulous five! Who are your favourite instagrammers and what inspires you?

Kate xo

Grandma's Birthday tea party

My sweet Grandma's birthday was last weekend and we wanted to throw her a small party with her nearest and dearest to celebrate her years.

Birthdays are my favourite, and now with a small person in the family I am SO incredibly excited for the next ten years worth of birthdays and parties! Food and drink usually makes up a pretty big part of the occasion, and is a big talking point for an event or party. So it is important to get it right.

We chose an afternoon tea party theme and decorated the dining room with ditsy florals, pink balloons, birthday bunting and confetti. I found the floral napkins in Waitrose - they have a really lovely selection of napkins, paper plates and cups, ideal for parties. I bought the birthday bunting, balloons and confetti from Sainsbury's. Note the tumble dryer pictured in the corner of the room - adds a little je ne sais qouis don't you think?!

I spent the entire day before baking up a storm in the kitchen (quite literally - imagine flour and icing sugar everywhere including my hair and clothes) in preparation. I set out with a plan, and chose three different recipes, as well as scones and a fresh cream victoria sponge layer cake which we made on the day.

For a savoury option, I decided on four different sandwich fillings, and made nine finger sandwiches of each which I displayed on a platter. The fillings were; salmon and cream cheese; egg mayonnaise and cress; ham and cheese; tomato, basil and mozzarella. These were incredibly easy and quick to make on the morning of the party and easily wrapped in cling film and stored in the fridge before guests arrived.

Mum was in charge of scone making, and made twelve standard size scones with currants. To make things easier for our guests we cut each scone in half, and spread raspberry jam with a large dollop of clotted cream on top of each.

The lemon sponge recipe came from a trusty Google search. I made it as a tray-bake which I then cut into mini squares, perfect for afternoon tea nibbling. The lemon curd icing was what caught my eye, and although my attempt wasn't quite as pristine as the photograph shown on the recipe, I was happy with how it came out. It went down a treat with my family so I'll definitely be making this again.

I chose a chocolatey option in the form of 'Brookies', a recipe I've used so many times originally shared by beauty blogger, Lily Pebbles. These brownie cookies are bite size and with the icing sugar dusting look really effective at a party. The recipe makes so many! So, aware of how many cakes I'd planned to make, I halved the amounts given and made roughly 30 brookies, and we have a few left over.

Unfortunately, the white chocolate and raspberry cookies just weren't all they cracked up to be. I hadn't used this particular recipe before and my cookies were more scone than biscuit, which was really disappointing. As a result, there were a lot of these left over and I may have to donate them to colleagues at my Mum's office. They certainly looked good though and I think my Dad was quite a fan - thanks Dad!

For Grandma's birthday cake, the main event, the centrepiece, the piece de resistance, I made a fresh cream and strawberry victoria sponge cake - the perfect summer time cake. I followed my Mum's good old sponge recipe: weigh four eggs and use self raising flour, sugar, butter of the same amount plus a drop of vanilla essence. Pour mixture into two sandwich tins and cook on 180 for 25 minutes. Easy peasy. I then whipped double cream and mixed two spoonfuls of strawberry jam with a large punnet of chopped strawberries and used the two to sandwich the two sponges. I used a paper doily to act as a stencil for the top of the cake and sieved icing sugar over the top. My friend bought me the chandelier style birthday candles holder which went really well with the overall party theme and added a bit of glam to the cake. It tasted amazing!

For drinks, we made two large pots of tea and kept it filled up all afternoon, there was juice for the kids and a bottle of prosecco for the adults of course!

The afternoon was really good fun and the food was very well recieved. My Grandma even took home a 'doggy' bag and we have leftovers that will last us all week (I can kiss goodbye to my healthy diet!). It's a great, and a pretty cost effective way to entertain a party of people. This kind of thing could be done for a hen do, baby shower, coffee morning or even at a wedding party - you can be as indulgent as you like! There are so many ideas for hosting an afternoon tea party on Pinterest, one of my favourite places to get ideas for entertaining, recipes and decoration - so if you're planning an event, I'd definitely recommend taking a look if you haven't already. Warning: you'll get hooked!

What was the best party you've been to?

Kate xo

Studland Bay Middle Beach

★★★★

A couple of weeks ago, the sun came out in Bournemouth town, and after a tough few days hunting the worldwide web for jobs, my sister, her partner, baby Sofia, and my brother decided that we all needed to get out of the house for a few hours, allow ourselves some time away from the computer screen to clear our heads.

We clambered into our bogey green Citreon C3 and set off on an adventure. After little debate, we decided upon Studland, a small ferry trip across the sea from Sandbanks. With a few map reading errors (on my part) and narrowly missing embarking the channel ferry (although, when is Paris not a good idea?!) we arrived at the end of the sandbanks ferry que. With baby snoozing, we sent the boys off to get supplies for some kind of car picnic and we happily watched as other families did the same thing. Be prepared if you're planning a trip to the island yourself as there is not much in the shape of amenity, apart from toilet blocks, beach shop/information centre and ice cream huts. So pack a picnic and treat yourself to a coffee and some Purbeck ice-cream later in the day!

The ferry crossing lasted a mere ten minutes and we were immediately lost amongst beautiful scenery and coastline of Studland bay with Poole harbour in our midst. We paid and displayed in the first car park we found - if you're not National Trust members (which we're not) its a whopping £6 to park, but the sun was shining and moods were high, so we paid without a second thought. I should add that this omits you parking in all beach car parks on the island, so if we'd got our acts together sooner and had more time to kill, a whole day's parking for £6 is not bad at all.

We lasted about 5 minutes at this particular beach as we realised that buggies and sand aren't the greatest combo, and although there were sand buggies to hire, little 5 week old Sofia wouldn't stand a chance. So, back in the car for another ten minutes or so to Middle beach. We parked in a shady spot and took some snaps from the view point overlooking the coast with views across to Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight. Absolutely breathtaking. I'm really starting to like Dorset, and I have a feeling there are plenty more places like this around the county.

Middle beach car park has easy access down to the beach via a single track road, which leads you to a small cafe and ice-cream hut overlooking the beach. We sat under an umbrella eating ice-lollies and basking in the heat. Yes, basking! The sun was shining and we literally could've been on a desert island in the Mediterranean - as I write this I'm looking out of my window to a grey miserable day, so the pictures make this all the more appealing right now. An hour passed and baby got restless, as babies do, so we packed up and made our way home. 

It was a truly unforgettable, albeit spontaneous afternoon, and well worth the trip. Without counting food, the visit to Shell bay cost a grand total of £15.50 between the four of us, including car park fee, ice creams and one ferry crossing, which is such great value. I'll definitely plan to go back in the summertime and spend a whole day exploring a bit more.

Where would your most memorable afternoon be spent?

Kate x

  

Quaker Oats Yoghurt Coated Raspberry Flapjacks

★★★★

The Quaker Oats yoghurt coated raspberry flapjack recipe is one of my favourite flapjack recipes, and one that I always go back to. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my brother suffers with egg and nut allergies and so when he's home, I like to find recipes that don't contain either of the two.

I usually get inspired to bake something new when I taste something I really like in a cafe or restaurant and want to try it out myself. I head straight to Google and search keywords until I find a recipe that makes something similar. I had some of the Boston Tea Party yoghurt coated flapjack when living in Bristol and instantly fell in love. As a West country cafe chain, and the nearest BTP cafe at least an hour away, I wanted to be able to recreate it for the fam here in Bournemouth.

I found this recipe on the Quaker website, although its not essential that you use Quakers oats, they'd probably taste better! The steps are easy to follow and I was able to find most things I needed in the kitchen cupboards (thanks to my family's new found love of porridge!). The mixture is extremely buttery and rich, which compliments the raspberry jam filling and the yoghurt and cream cheese icing layer on top. As you can see from the pictures above, its crumbly, but only due to the fact that there is very little syrup or sugar compared to some flapjack recipes. I urge you to try this! With preparation time no longer than 15 minutes and baking time of 25 minutes, you can have this tasty treat whipped up in less than an hour! Go go go!

What coffee shop treat has inspired you to bake?

Kate x

Urban Renaissance Cafe

★★★★

It was a blustery day (and perhaps blustery is an understatement - we nearly lost our footing more than once!) and so Mum and I wrapped up and head into Bournemouth town. Being a ten minute drive away from the sea is such a great feeling, that I don't think I'll ever tire of.

With the absence of the sun and grey clouds threatening rain, a trip to the Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery seemed like the perfect thing to do with our morning. The Museum itself is situated in a grand old house on the seafront, and the wonderful story behind it, was that Merton Russell-Cotes, bought the house and presented it to his beloved wife Annie for her birthday and they filled it with the most beautiful art and artefacts from all over the world.

The house and gardens are beautiful and well-preserved with amazing views out over the seafront and the pier.

After looking around the beautiful rooms of art and exhibitions, we stopped at the resident cafe, Urban Renaissance and had the most delicious 'slices' of chocolate cake accompanied by tea and juice.

The cafe is situated within the house in an open plan room with huge skylight and a floor to ceiling window overlooking the feature gardens and coastline.

The decor is modern and minimalist with a touch of colour. Think bunting, florals, bright colours and potted plants, I especially loved the yellow tea cups and saucers.

The chocolate cake was incredible, and I wish I'd asked whether it was gluten-free or some kind of vegetable substitute as it was different to any other chocolate cake I've tasted. It was moist and rich, but not too rich and I'm afraid on this occasion, it doubled as lunch. Oops. I had a Froblishers berry drink which was delicious too and helped to wash down the remaining cake crumbs. Mum had a modest pot breakfast tea which was served in the cutest teacup and saucer.

The museum and cafe are open Tuesday - Sunday between 10am and 5pm. I'd definitely recommend a visit, especially to see the 'Alphonse Mucha: In Quest of Beauty' exhibition currently displayed in the museum and to sample a slice of the chocolate cake!

What is your favourite Bournemouth attraction?

Kate x

Chewy chocolate chip cookies

Cookies are my favourite. The recipes are simple, and easy to adapt to add your favourite ingredients. They make people happy and are the perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea. You make big ones, small ones, short ones, chewy ones, fat ones, thin ones, crunchy ones and crumbly ones. Cookies filled with chocolate, fruit or nuts or all three! Need I say more?! For my birthday this month, my friends bought me a cute set of cookie bags and labels from talking tables and in amongst all the brown paper goodness was a 'big round chewy choc chip cookies' recipe, which I just had to share on my blog.

The original recipe makes 36 large cookies, and although I'm sure 36 cookies would have no trouble getting eaten, I thought it was a slightly obscene amount to make in one go for a household of 5 adults, especially after seeing the size of them when baked. So I decided to halve everything on the ingredients list but still follow the exact method, so all credit goes to talking tables for their heavenly cookies to-die-for!

To make your own, you will need:

250g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp Salt
170g Unsalted butter
200g Dark brown sugar
100g Caster sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla
1 Egg
1 Egg yolk
300g Milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 170c/ gas mark 3. Grease baking trays and line with baking parchments.
2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt and set to one side.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon.
4. Drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays - I used one table spoon of mixture for each cookie and rolled into a ball - do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be roughly 8cm apart.
5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven or until the edges are lightly toasted. Remove from oven and leave to cool on the baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

This recipe is one of the best I've used for making chocolate chip cookies. The cookies look just as you'd get them from the bakery and taste at their best still warm from the oven. They are chewy and incredibly chocolatey and perfect as a kind of cookie dough dessert by warming a cookie in the microwave for a minute or so and serving with a big blob of vanilla ice-cream, mmm...

Have a go! And of course, please share your favourite cookie recipes below.

Kate x

Afternoon Tea at Bournemouth Hycliff Marriott Hotel

★★★

On my birthday, my family treated me to 'Afternoon Tea by the Sea' at the Hycliff hotel, a grand old building part of the Marriott franchise overlooking Bournemouth pier and surrounding coastline. We all dressed up for the occasion and despite the weather being a little on the grey side, we excitedly took in the views as we entered the hotel.

As a hotel guest you are entitled to free parking in the hotel car park by registering your registration number at reception. Afternoon tea was located in the high grill bar on the ground floor of the hotel, with panoramic views of bournemouth beach and the crashing waves.

The afternoon tea menu consisted of the standard high tea components, complete with a selection of assorted finger sandwiches, a combination of plain and fruit scones with clotted cream and jam and a small variety of cakes and puddings. Options of Pimm's, champagne and other hot drinks were also available on request.

We opted for one tier of scones, cakes and sandwiches which would usually be recommended for two people, but judging by the size of other people's portions, we thought better of it! In my experience, afternoon tea is always much more food than you think, and the sweet definitely outweighs the savoury!

After the food and drinks arrived though, we did order another couple of fresh scones, just to be on the safe side!

The lounge area of the bar was well decorated with lavish decor and ornate furnishings with a modern twist. As part of a chain, I did think the interior did lack a bit of character, but it felt welcoming nonetheless. Service was okay, however a large party arrived just after we did which perhaps explained why the waitress tending to us was a little preoccupied at times. We were relaxed so this didn't effect us too much.

Now, I hate to give a bad review but the sandwiches were nothing special, which is surprising but I guess at £16 per person, not at the top end of the spectrum as far as afternoon tea goes. The scones were delicious, especially the plain scones, as they were freshly made and still warm from the oven.

After ploughing my way through the huge scone and several sandwiches, I was already short of room for cake, so allowed myself a breather, calling dibs on my preferred choice - it was my birthday after all! The cake choices were Vanilla, Blackberry and Apple 'Crumble', White Chocolate and Lemon Verbena Cones, Dark Chocolate and Coffee Gateaux Opera, and Lemon, Bloom Gin and Thyme Drizzle cake. The gateaux opera cake was by far my favourite. I'm not usually a coffee lover, but the cake only had a small hint of coffee and was pure indulgence. Thank goodness it was only a miniature! The blackberry and apple crumble was a hit with my parents, it was light and probably the better choice on an already full stomach. We asked for the remaining cakes to be boxed up to take home with us, so nothing went to waste.

Overall, it was a very pleasant afternoon. The scones definitely won it for me, and the lovely views over the sea. I think if I went back for afternoon tea at Hycliff Marriott, I'd order a plate of scones and a large pot of tea. The cake selection was good, but not great, so worth noting if you're after lavish patisserie style cakes. I can only imagine the coastline views on a sunny summers day must be to die for, so maybe even worth visiting for a glass of bubbles and watch the world go by!

Where is your favourite place to go for afternoon tea?

Kate xo