Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park!

As Christmas is just around the corner, London is getting all set for this winter festival. Last week I went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park with friends for the day. I will leave you to a few pictures of the beautiful place and hope that it lifts your Christmas spirits :)

This was a fun house that I went into and literally got lost in the maze!

This place was called the Bavarian Village where they served food and drinks :)

Isn't this the cutest soft toy you have ever seen? A friend won it in a game of darts!

Winter Wonderland looks so much more pretty once it is dark because of all the lights!

To end the night at Winter Wonderland we went ice-skating. Even though I have never gone ice-skating before, it was a fun experience which obviously included falling down a couple of times. Later we went for Malaysian food at Satay House which is near the Paddington Station. 

I'm very sorry for bombing you with so many pictures but I thought of sharing a few since I am in London. Hope you enjoy!

Day trip to Windsor, London.

You may have read on my earlier posts that I will be starting university in the next few days. And to experience these 4 years, I have come to LONDON. Being an international fresher in a university has quite a few advantages- of which one of them was the Windsor Walk tour that I along with a few friends went for!

The Windsor Castle is the residence of the royal family at Windsor in the county of  Berkshire. It is one of the most widespread and beautiful castles I have every seen!

One of the things that we were very happy about that day was that the weather was super pleasant. Because as we all know, sightseeing and extreme weather never goes well together. 

We started at the university in a big coach and reached Windsor in about one and a half hours. On our arrival to Windsor, we were given a short talk about the town by the tour guide. We then walked to the banks of the river and saw the Queen's swans!

The complete road was winding upwards and was quite tiring to walk along. Then we continued walking towards the castle and came across beautiful architecture, lanes for shopping and even more exquisite architecture. 

If the flag on top of the mast is flying high, this means that the queen is staying in the castle! Unfortunately it wasn't when we were there :(

The roads all around town were quite narrow and there were cars coming from literally every direction possible! Our tour guide then took us to the other end of the castle. This end faces a long 7m path surrounded by greenery all around. It is like a park for people!

We were told that the willow arches that can be seen being built above were to celebrate 60 years since the Queen's Coronation. Its construction was still going on when we were there. The arches were going to be unveiled on the 19th of September- 4 days after we went there!

Would a trip be complete without having the traditional Fish and Chips? Absolutely not! So then we started walking towards a local bar called The Royal Oak. On the way we passed a small museum which is where the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla took place. 

Just beside the museum was The Crooked House Of Windsor. And it is literally crooked. And beside this building is the world's shortest lane! 

As we kept walking, we finally reached The Royal Oak. I was a lovely bar-cum-restaurant. The interiors were really pretty and atmosphere, lighting etc was really dim with jazz playing in the background :)

Even though we were a big group of about 40 people, the food arrived really quickly along with drinks( by choice) and water. They first started off with the dips and the started serving the fish and chips etc. Clearly it was one of the best meals I have had since I got to London :D

Enjoying a great supper with friends!

Fish and Chips with mashed peas :)

The meal was a perfect ending to a sort-of tiring but fun day! 

Hope you liked this food and travel blog post for once :)

Victoria Sandwich Cake

A Victoria Sandwich Cake is one of the most basic and easy to make cakes. It is fairly firm yet moist. It can be left plain or can be flavored with grated lemon or orange rind, coffee or cocoa powder.

I made this cake and coated it with a layer of apricot glaze. For a first attempt, the outcome was pretty good.

Ingredients (for the basic recipe or 3-egg recipe):

• 3/4 cup or 175g sugar
• 1 cup minus 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• milk

Procedure:

• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. The mixture should drop easily from the spoon or whisk if tapped against the side of the bowl. 
• Add the beaten egg a little at a time, beating well between each addition, so that the egg is absorbed into the mixture. 
• Sift the flour and fold into the mixture. Add a little milk to give it a dropping consistency.
• Spoon the mixture into prepared tins. Level the surface, then make a slight dip in the centre.
• Preheat the oven at 180C.
• Put the prepared tins in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until the cakes are well risen, golden and firm to touch.
• Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tins, then transfer to a wire tray. Invert the tins over the cake and leave until completely cold. This helps keep the cake moist with cooling.

I layered the cake with a apricot glaze. The apricot glaze is frequently spread over sponge or sandwich cake before the layer of icing is applied. The sticky glaze ensures that there are no loose crumbs that could stick to the icing and spoil the finished effect. It can also be used to attach decorations to a cake, such as desiccated coconut or chopped nuts, to attach almond paste to a rich fruit cake, and as glaze for fresh fruits on a gateau.

Ingredients ( for apricot glaze) :

• 3/4 cup apricot jam
• 2 tbsp water
• squeeze of lemon juice

Procedure:

• Place the apricot jam, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan.
• Heat gently until the jam has dissolved, then boil for 1 minute.
• Strain and cool

As I was a little short of time, I left the cake with only the apricot glaze on and no icing. I had planned on making either a butter cream icing or glace icing for the cake but could not do so.

The Victoria Sandwich Cake with apricot glaze can be served as dessert along with vanilla ice-cream!

Hope you find this useful and easy to make :)