Life of a Short Indian Girl

Whilst my white chocolate and orange cake has become a classic in our house, I'm always looking for inspiration to diversify my baking. So when my mum asked me to make dessert for a dinner party a while back, I went on search for some inspiration. After lots of googling, I was torn between baking churros and a cinammon cake- so I decided to combine them! I managed to find a churros cake recipe, and with a few adaptations it worked amazingly. I adapted the 3-layer recipe from baking mad into two layer as it was a relatively small dinner party, hence why the values are weirdly specific. I was unsure how it would turn out as the churros are baked not fried, and I've never made them before. I decided to make waaayy more than I needed in case I messed up the shape of some of them (which I inevitably did, as well as burning the first batch). But the second batch tasted amazing and you could easily eat the leftover churros on their own...

As much as I love a Nandos, I'm all about experimenting with different flavours and cuisines. This weekend, I decided to branch out to an experimental Kebab place in Islington called Bababoom. It was a cosy restaurant about 5 minutes away from Highbury and Islington station. The music playing was so vibrant, and I actually found their Spotify playlist on their website which most restaurants don't do!  The menu itself was quite limited, but despite this I was still stuck between all of the choices. I ended up going for the s affron and orange chicken shish and  the Baba's fries (with house dukkah- I don't know what this actually was but it tasted amazing). The portion sizes were good and both the kebab and fries were really well spiced. I also tried the broadbean falafel with sweet potato hummus, which was so good! This was the first falafel variation I've tried and it definitely did not disappoint. The hummus was ...

Half Cup, a 5 minute walk from Kings Cross, has been on my brunch bucket list for a while. I've attempted to eat there before, however with a 40-minute wait at the time I didn't think it was worth it. This time the wait was only around 20 minutes (I did go a lot earlier, around 10:30) which wasn't too bad at all.  I guess the wait is due to the cafe itself being quite small inside. There was such a nice, cosy vibe and I loved the artwork and wooden benches.  I'm definitely more of a savoury than sweet person, however the sweet brunch options were too good to pass up! I ended up going for the Sweet Brioche French Toast- which had chocolate 'soil', caramel, rhubarb puree and was topped with a nutella mascarpone.  And needless to say, it looked and tasted amazing! And the flowers were so cute.  I also tried the Toasted Banana Bread, which had tahini yoghur...

Remember in secondary school when teachers made you say a 'fun fact' about yourself as an ice-breaker? Well, mine was always that I could quote any F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode. So when I managed to get Friends Fest tickets this year you can imagine how hyped I was!  It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I've been waiting for this day for years. We went to the Friends Fest in Kenington Park, London but there are locations all over the UK. The doors opened at 12 and we had a set tour at  pretty much as soon as we arrived. The set tour was probably my favourite part of the whole thing! It was 30 minutes long, with 10 minutes in each of Joey and Chandler's, Ross' and Rachel and Monica's apartments which felt surreal. I was amazed at how much detail they had put into the sets - they even filled up Joey's fridge with take away boxes. I loved seeing all the original props (including Phoebe's guitar and my personal favourite Pat the Dog). T...

Anyone seen those iconic igloos along Tower Bridge on instagram? They are just idyllic, but super hard to get a hold of. I tried multiple times during the year to get one- thank fully, I was third time lucky! The igloos are placed along the river during the autumn/winter and paradise pods are there during the summer. I was SO hyped for this, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The igloos are for a maximum for 8 people- if you book for less than 6 people you share one. There were 6 of us so we got a whole one to ourselves. We won with the timing as well- 7-9pm, so we saw the views in daylight, sunset and at night. The view was amazing throughout, but at sunset was something else! The food and drink wasn't as expensive as I thought, considering the location and the fact that the igloo was free. The food was grill/pizza/pasta- I had a sourdough pizza which was good (not quite franco manca but still) and I got a White Sangria cocktail ( Sauvignon bla...

Indian street food- delicious, quick and incredibly cheap. Need any more convincing? One of the things I most look forward to when we visit Kolkata (after seeing family of course) is the street food. There's nothing like it. Different parts of India have specialties, and here is your guide to street food in Kolkata, in the East of India. You've probably heard about food poisoning from street food (and true, I did get food poisoning this time), but in general if you follow take these precautions you should be safe. Don't ever drink water unless you've seen it's been filtered or is sealed bottled water. If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire you'll see that sometimes they put tap water into bottles and pass it off as mineral water! This applies to food as well- if there is ANY water in your street food, do not eat it If the food is on a plate that has just been washed, make sure to wipe any excess water off it so it doesn't contaminate the food Only...

I realise it's been almost a year since I did a 'dessert place in London' post, but I am slowly making my way through my dessert bucket list. So next up.... DOUGHNUT TIME. You'll have seen these amazing doughnuts all over Facebook and Instagram.  The Australian company have bought their amazing creations to London, and on a sunny post-exam day I couldn't resist a trip to Soho to try them out for myself.  The actual store tiny, but you can't miss the queue of people lining up for these masterpieces (or just window shopping and taking to be honest). I spent a good 5 minutes just looking at them in awe! They all looked incredibly, but in the end it was a toss-up between: Notorious P.I.G-  strawberry buttercream and glaze, topped with sprinkles and Percy Pigs  No share- dark chocolate glaze, roasted hazelnuts, feuilletine (crushed crepes apparently) and Ferrero Rocher Houston, we have biscoff ...

I've been meaning to go to My Old Dutch for aaggeesss now, and on a couple of hours break we had between our lectures we decided to pop over for lunch in Holborn. Even from the outside, the restaurant looked colourful and vibrant. The inside was the same! It was a hard decision on which crepe to get- sweet or savoury???? I have a massive sweet tooth, but I'd never had a savoury crepe before. In the end, I went with a savoury one called 'Some like it hot'- chicken, cheese, onions and peppers and a lovely thick pancake. It all worked so well, and the chicken was really well spiced- I wasn't expecting it to be that good! The next time I went, I got the 'My Old Dutch'- smoked bacon, chicken, ham, peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn and cheese. I didn't think you could get better than the 'Some Like It Hot', but I was wrong! I don't usually like having different meats in the same dish, but it worked so well, and the veggies and cheese ...

Carrying on with my London dessert posts, I introduce .... Nosteagia! You've no doubt seen their bubble waffles on Instagram. This is a van-business started by 2 graduate students who wanted to bring Asian and English food together, with the Bubble Waffle being inspired by the Egg Puff in Hong Kong.          Honestly, this place is a hidden gem. The van is positioned in a square area off the main road opposite Green Park, where there are a few other vans including hot dogs and hog roasts (which looked good but we were only interested in the dessert), with a grassy garden bit in the middle where you could sit. We were really lucky with the weather, so we sat in the garden area bit opposite the van, which was really peaceful considering we were in a touristy area. But on to what you actually want to know about - the dessert. I had the Cookie Monster- nutella, a chocolate chip cookie, cream and choco...