Custard Cream Bundt Cake

This may well be one of the best ideas I've ever had. I felt like a witch making this cake... Heston, eat your heart out. 

When I moved to my new team at work, I introduced a biscuit tin (this is more of a massive tupperware box in all honesty). We always have a healthy supply of family favourites to chose from, to ensure we never go weak, keel over and are unable to work. Then I found custard cream flavour spread in the supermarket. Oh yes... idea. 

Not content with just using the spread as a topping (my new favourite bundt 'thing'), I decided the cake itself would have a bit of biscuit alchemy. This is where the sorcery happens. I decided the only way to get that authentic taste in the cake was to create biscuit 'flour'. Not sure whether this would work, I gave it a bash anyway. The results were magnificent! And I quote, 'fittest cake yet' - not my words bundt-fans, the words of our Business Intelligence Analyst, Kate. 

The result was an ridiculously soft cake that tasted just like a custard cream! This one was demolished in record time.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g plain flour
• 3 custard cream biscuits, whizzed up in a food processor to a fine dust or 'flour'
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml vanilla yoghurt 
• 50ml whole milk
• 1 heaped tablespoon of custard cream spread
• Jar of custard cream spread (minus 1 heaped tablespoon!)
• 1 custard cream to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the extract.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
7. Pour the yoghurt and milk into a jug and stir in the custard cream spread.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt mix. Repeat this until everything is combined.
9. Stir in the custard cream 'flour'. 
10. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
11. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
12. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
13. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
14. When the cake is fully cool, pop the custard cream spread into a jug and heat in the microwave for around 20 seconds to loosen it. Tip over your cake and decorate with a biscuit!

Watch out for my next biscuit instalment... the Bourbon Biscuit Bundt! I'm on a roll. 

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.

Gin and Juice Bundt Cake

Firstly, apologies for the terrible photo... it was a party and I had a glass of fizz on the go! Food photography was not my priority...

Anyway, this weekend we celebrated my pal Sarah's birthday with a little party at her gaff, which resulted in an obscene card game, crying my make up off from laughing and one member of the party being put to bed. It was a blast!

Sarah is rather partial to a drop of gin, so it seemed only fitting to make something out of the old Mother's Ruin. I wanted something a bit zesty that would pick up on the subtle botanicals, so I threw a bit of lemon and lime in there for good measure too.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 350g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml lemon yoghurt 
• Zest of 1 lime
• Zest of 1 lemon
• A shot of gin 
• 300g icing sugar 
• More gin... make it a decent one though eh?

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the extract.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
7. Pour the yoghurt into a jug and add the zests and gin.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
9. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
10. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
11. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
12. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
13. When the cake is fully cool, mix the icing sugar with enough gin to make a runny icing. Yes, it will be strong, but you'll only have a thin layer. Unless you're a proper lush, in which case make it thicker! 

Take care when moving this one, it's very soft because of the gin, but it makes a beautiful cake!

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.

Marshmallow Bundt Cake

I've had a bit of a thing for Tunnock's Teacakes recently. They have that sticky kind of marshmallow inside which makes me feel like dancing. Then it came to me. I need a marshmallow bundt in my life. I was forced to experiment with a jar of Fluff. Afraid so.

I'm not going to lie to you; handling that Fluff stuff is like trying to tame a rather wayward swarm of wasps, so I'd recommend avoiding touching it at all costs - unless you're eating it. I was more successful there. I kept the flavour of the cake quite simple, as the topping is the star of the show here. The Fluff gives a wonderful glass-like shine, which remains even after it has set.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp rose extract (or lemon)
• 350g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml fat free plain yoghurt 
• Jar of white marshmallow Fluff
• Mini mallows (with cake decorating gear)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the extracts.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
7. Pour the yoghurt into a jug.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
9. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
10. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
11. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
12. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
13. When the cake is fully cool, put a full jar of Fluff in a microwaveable jug, and mix with 1 tbsp of cold water. 
14. Heat in the microwave until runny, then tip over the cake and sprinkle with mini mallows. 

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.

Common, Manchester

'Are you celebrating ladies?'
'Yes, it's Thursday and we've finished work early'.
Cue the lady in Common thinking we were actually mental. It was a good a reason as any to have fizz.

We sat basking in the sun (albeit after asking for the door to be propped open because we were redders) with our Prosecco, quite pleased with ourselves that we had survived the morning, and that we had a cocktail fuelled Friday-eve planned.

Common's just had a huge renovation, and is pretty unrecognisable from the hipster-haunt it was in its youth. Gone is the graffiti style wall art and quirty pieces of music memorabilia, replaced with Scandinavian style oak and fold back floor to ceiling windows. It's all very grown up these days.

We were off to Revolucion de Cuba's Barcardi night, so needed something substantial to line our bellies before embarking upon said festivities. Sensible you see. Since Common had just reopened, we decided to pop and see what the new menu was like.

Falafel Burger with haloumi, chickpeas, lettuce, cucumber and tomato: Our resident veggie Clare picked this, which was a nice change from your bog standard vegetarian option of 'fungus in a bap'. Thumbs up from Clare.

Fried Chicken Burger with lettuce and mayo: Simple yet effective; crispy chicken with a good dollop of mayo. It's like a really good version of a KFC fillet burger. Don't judge me, I really like them.

Cheese Burger with cheddar, lettuce, tomato and pickle: This was my choice. I just wanted a standard pink burger with pickles. It delivered exactly what it promised. I love the fact that they also put a chunk of pickle on the side, and that Emma and Clare weren't keen, so donated them to me. They're keepers them two. 

Reuben on rye: I so nearly had this, but the burger craving was just too strong. Lee had this beauty. There was generous amount of salt beef piled on top of Swiss cheese. She did mention that the sauce was a little tart though. (I need to mention here that she knows her Reubens... )

Veg chilli fries with cheese and jalapeños: Nice to see a veggie option to compliment the standard chilli fries. Lots of melted cheese, chilli and chunks of jalapeño. One very happy Clare.

Beef chilli fries with cheese, and jalapeños: This is the kind of thing I could devour whilst watching telly in the evening. These portions are huge by the way; we shared these two portions between four of us and still had bits left.

Doughnuts - apple and cinnamon and vanilla custard: I clocked these the second we got through the door. I still have the St John doughnuts fresh in my mind. Whilst nothing can ever compare to the hallowed St John item, these were pretty damn good! Common have an in house baker, which makes me very happy indeed.

Maple, walnut and cinnamon buns and chocolate truffles: Gee whizz. Seriously, those maple buns should make that girl her fortune. Just looking at this is making me a tad mithered. They were a genuine thing of beauty. I didn't try the truffles as I struggle a bit with chocolate desserts, but they seemed to go down very well with the girls. I believe bigger girls came in and stole the second one...

I'm still not sure how I feel about the refurb. Common is now totally unrecognisable from its former self. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't overly keen on the previous look, and it desperately needed something doing with it. It's better but totally different, and doesn't really feel like Common anymore. I think it will grow on me, especially when they have cakes like these.

Iberica, Manchester

So we were on the bus. This week had involved being crook, travelling back from Australia and kiboshed days out for our little posse of salmons (don't ask). Next thing we know, we're on an impromptu trip to Manchester not having a clue where we wanted to eat. The areas of interest were 'new and exciting' or 'old and trustworthy'. We opted for a clever middle ground with Iberica.

A few weeks ago, Lee and I had already visited Iberica Marylebone, and saw that it was wonderful. We decided Clare needed to experience the same, so opted to go to their new spot in Spinningfields. Clare's a veggie, so I like going somewhere with lots of choice for her when we go out, rather than the standard fungus burger or vegetable lasagne. Boring.

We booked online whilst on the bus, and after a quick pit stop to buy some pretty little things, we arrived at Iberica. There was no sign of our reservation and they were fully booked. After a speedy investigation, it appeared the system had actually booked us in for the day later, but this was quickly resolved by the lovely front of house staff.

Check out those lamp shades! There's a beautiful bar area which sits underneath the main dining room upstairs, and also a lovely al fresco spot at the front with branded fleece blankets over the chairs for when it gets chilly.

The menu was fully explained, and we set about deciding which dishes we wanted to sample.

Manzanilla olives and strawberry and basil gin smash (gin, strawberries, basil, sugar, lime & soda): None of us like olives, but I'm sure that others (who are considerably more grown up than we are) would appreciate these. Cocktails were more up our street. These gin based numbers were very fruity and didn't taste very strong. Probably for the best at lunch, but we are used to something with a little more kick.

Bread with olive oil: I love a bit of bread. When I was going through my awkward Michelin-star-chasing phase, I always found the pre-meal bread was generally a good measure of how the rest of the menu would pan out. This was soft, fluffy, warm and just heavenly. We ended up ordering another round. The only thing that would have improved it was (dare I say) some Balsamic vinegar.

Half and half platter: This is some of the best cured meat I have ever head. Team that up with Manchego and it's a match made in heaven. I adored the sharp quince jelly too.

Chickpea puree with chorizo, pancetta and tomato salad: This was by far my favourite item we ordered and was a perfect bedfellow for that warm bread.

Padrón peppers with Maldon salt: These are very moreish little green items. Some are very sweet whilst others are quite tangy. It also turns out they are hot as hell when they first arrive, so be careful!

Potatoes with spicy brava: These looked slightly different to the ones we had in London, but were just as delicious. All three of us enjoyed these. The potatoes were beautifully crisp, and I think I could probably drink that creamy sauce.

Ibérica’s Serrano ham croquettes: Cheese and ham fried in breadcrumbs. You're dead inside if these don't excite you. Even veggie Clare looked longingly at them. She was only put off trying a cheesy bit by the threat of potential 'ham juice'.

Asparagus, Manchego, onion confit and truffle oil toast: The poshest cheese on toast in town with a generous amount of truffle oil and cheese. Lots of flavour for a dish sans meat.

Corn torto fritter with Cabrales cheese and scrambled egg: Very cheesy with a perfectly crisp fritter. You only needed a little bit of this because the flavours were so huge.

Traditional Spanish omelette: Looks yellow and a bit boring, but this was actually one of my favourites. It was quite firm because of the potato, but was a nice accompaniment to the other dishes.

We had a delightful little afternoon in Iberica. The service was attentive and the food arrived quickly, but in several stages so as not to over-face us. The only thing that we noted was the very springy floor, which became quite distracting as the restaurant got busier. I'm sure this wouldn't be as much of an issue if you're sat in the tiled booths. We also had a slight issue with the service charge being added to the bill twice, which was quickly rectified.

We may have been defeated by the amount of food and felt very sleepy indeed afterwards, but luckily for us, it was blowing a force ten gale outside which revived us within seconds of stepping out of the door. I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

 

Review - New Joseph Joseph Spring/Summer

One of my favourite kitchen gadgets is my pink Joseph Joseph 'Pie' timer. I use timers a lot because of cooking and baking, and this is the only one which hasn't bit the dust after a couple of months. A year on and we're still going strong. When they asked me to review some of their new collection, I was rather excited, and I had an idea.

What I really like about Joseph Joseph is that their products are brilliant functionally, without looking like they should be in an operating theatre. I have a peeler from (let's say) 'a reputable competitor' which has nearly emancipated the skin from my knuckles several times because of the shiny handle, whilst their zester has twice almost made a cake unsuitable for vegetarians. Close one.

Cue the clever little folk at Joseph Joseph. Grippy handles and space saving ideas. Your peelers come with a friend; in this case a scraping tool, zester, potato eye remover or a channel knife for flourishes. All come with a blade guard too, which is handy for cack-handed people like me. A chopping board with built in knife sharpener? That's clever.

My friend Lee loves nothing more than to stick on a bit of country music, don a pinny and cook up a feast. Ok, so I made the pinny bit up, but I found the mental image mildly amusing. Since she was planning an Easter roast-fest (not a euphemism), I asked her to put these products through their paces for me. Here's what she had to say...

So when Dolly asked if I would like to try some new Joseph Joseph products I literally snatched her hand right off. Where Dolly is the Queen of sweet treats I am more of a savoury fiend and love nothing more than locking myself in the kitchen with some good music and a new recipe to create a feast!

I am already a huge fan of Joseph Joseph products and my most treasured kitchen item is my Index Advance with knives set (when I asked my mum for this as a Christmas present she looked at me quite strangely, but it was something I had lusted after for so long!).

From the new products I have tried three of the new multi peel tools; Serrated peeler with zesting tool, Julienne peeler with channel knife and Straight peeler with scraping tool. I also tried the wooden Slice and Sharpen board.

I found all the peelers very easy to use, with comfortable handles (especially important when spending thankless hours peeling potatoes for a large family roast dinner, which seemed such a good idea when I invited everyone....). The scraping tool on the straight peeler came in very handy for dealing with potatoes and was much less dangerous than my usual scraping method of hacking away with a sharp knife. The Julienne peeler helped me to easily deal with a mountain of carrots and the serrated peeler dealt with some very rough parsnips with ease! All the peelers have lovely super sharp blades and the different colours on the heads of each of them makes them easy to spot in my menagerie of utensils! At £8 each these peelers are a bargain and the blade guards that come with each of them are a great idea (my cutlery utensil drawer is an accident waiting to happen when I go rifling for something).

The Slice and Sharpen wooden board is an item of beauty, I LOVE a wooden chopping board on my sideboard. The non slip feet are a great idea and meant I could get really stuck in without worrying about flinging my lovingly prepared food all over the floor! he built in sharpener is really handy and sharpened up my existing Joseph Joseph knives a treat. It is easy to clean and care for, and will retain it's lovely colouring with regular oiling.

Overall I loved all these products and they have made themselves very at home in my little kitchen. The only downside is they have reignited my desire to purchase everything on the website... there goes my bank balance!

A massive thank you to Lee for being a willing guinea pig and such a fabulous guest blogger! She can come again. 

Filthy Cow, Manchester

I love burgers. They are one of the things that bring little pieces of joy to my life. Granted, I'm generally rubbish at finishing a full one and I usually end up wearing them. Little disappoints me more than a terrible burger. Luckily for me, Manchester is still in the swing of a full on burger takeover. Whilst some have been critical of the ever expanding scene, I am quite happy to celebrate it in all its beefy glory.

Burger feet

I'm not into the silly ones (I'm looking at you doughnut burger), and I can take or leave the witty names; but I do love a meaty, pink burger that oozes juice down my fingers. I even have burger trainers. Loser.

I love getting our friends' perspectives on new restaurants. I dread to think how many burgers I have eaten in different cities around the world... I home in on them like some sort of sniffer dog. I sometimes worry that my love for burgers makes me a little biased when sampling new ones, so it's always good to get fresh tastebuds in on the game. So to the newest calf on the block, Filthy Cow.

We were greeted by a delightful blonde lady who suggested that we may want to make ourselves at home in the nice booth upstairs (complete with neon pink S&M cow) and quickly ran through the ordering process. The rest of the decor can only be described as bovine themed cheekiness, and we did wonder how long it's going to take for someone to get stuck in those handcuffs... I'm just glad it wasn't one of my lot... My money's on two weeks, max.

It's kind of a fast food vibe similar to Five Guys. You place your order downstairs at the counter, but are given a little buzzer which informs you when your food is ready. It was fairly quiet when we went so they brought ours up for us. They serve half decent booze too. Although the choice is limited, what they do have is not bad at all. The boys had the Pale Ale from Runaway Brewery, and us ladies had a few Pinot Grigios. The only odd thing? They came served in a tumbler - we weren't sure how we felt about this, but drank them all the same!

Although the food arrives wrapped in waxed paper on a tray, the service is attentive and they do provide decent disposable cutlery for folk who fear picking up a burger like my homie Lee...

We ordered a Filthy Cheese, which is a standard burger rammed with beef, salad, 'filthy' sauce and cheese, two Filthy Beasts (one plain for my salad hating husband) which is basically the same as the cheese burger but with bacon, and one of the specials, which was a pork and chorizo version of the Beast. We also sampled the fries, onion rings and coleslaw.

The burgers needed that reassuring squeeze to flatten them into an edible state, but were not so tall that this became mission impossible. At £7.50 the Beast is an absolute bargain. Remember when Burger King's Bacon Double Cheeseburgers were actually good (or you were at least too young to know better)? It took me back to my days of pink hair and piercings when these were my staple diet because my boyfriend worked there. Either way, these burgers are a little piece of happiness in my humble opinion.

The sides are no afterthought either. The chips were crispy and deliciously salty, the onion rings were firm on the outside and soft on the inside (armadillo) and the coleslaw was crunchy without so much onion that you would knock your friends over with the potency. For the first time in ages I ate everything in front of me. Gone. I was pretty proud and disgusted with myself, all in one go.

Desserts are simple yet effective. Our options were a brownie or a choice of Ginger's Comfort Emporium ice creams (go and check her out in Affleck's Palace). I'm a big fan of that Ginger one, so opted for the ice cream. Poor Phil was dying to try the salted caramel and peanut butter milkshake, but they didn't have enough of the ice cream left - bad times. Who ate all the ice cream dammit?

I tried all three that we ordered - research. I think my own was my favourite though; the simple golden syrup. There's no milk powder, fillers or muck in these pots of delight.

I'd had a little Twitter chat with these guys prior to our visit, so had already warmed to them. However, I didn't expect to love it quite so much. They might be a bit cheeky, but in reality the staff were very sweet, and the food was cracking. Less than a tenner for a proper burger and fries in the city centre is not half bad. We weren't mad keen on having to order downstairs at first, and there were lots of suggestions around tweeting orders to the kitchen etc, but you know what? It just works for them. Plus, we sent the boys down to order so it didn't affect us...

Yes it's another burger gaff. Owner Jordan's done her homework and is keeping it simple. If you want some fancy shmancy, mile high, cleverly concocted recipe, stick with the likes of Almost Famous and Solita as they have their own place in the Manchester burger scene. Fancy a quick bite without breaking the bank? Head to Filthy Cow.


Like burgers as much as I do? Check out my other burger posts...

 

Duck Egg Bundt Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Cake Mart to see if I would like to review an item of their baking range. Those of you who read my blog and Twitter feed regularly will know that I'm a one brand girl - I'm all about the Nordic Ware. This is purely because it is so good, not because they pay me to be nice/have my arm twisted up my back. 

I was just about to turn down the offer when I realised that they sell Nordic Ware. I decided to review the Rose Bundt tin, as it was rather fitting for Easter. They dispatched it from their German warehouse and I received it a day later - well speedy!

Earlier in the week I saw a gorgeous picture of some white hen's eggs from America, which made me think of the beautiful pale blue duck eggs we get here. I've never baked with duck eggs before, so I thought I'd give it a shot. 

This recipe is a very simple one, and makes a beautifully fluffy cake. The duck eggs just seemed to trap more air when mixing for some reason. The yokes were vibrant orange too. What I did find was that the edges of the cake weren't quite as smooth as usual, however I think this was due to the amount of air trapped in the cake. The cake still released perfectly from the tin, as I would fully expect from Nordic Ware. 

I dressed mine up like a very camp Easter bonnet for my mum - she's all about the kitch! 

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 duck eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 350g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 250ml lemon yoghurt 
• Zest and juice of one large unwaxed lemon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the extracts.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices.
7. Pour the yoghurt into a jug and add the zest and juice.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
9. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
10. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
11. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
12. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
13. It's up to you whether you decorate this one. I only made it so pink because it was Easter! Horrendously naff rabbits with bow ties are wholly optional. 

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.

This was a review for www.meincupcake.de. I was not paid for the post, but did receive a tin to play with. I have since gifted said tin to a Nordic Ware deficient pal. 

Hawksmoor, Manchester

Oh Hawksmoor. Although I am utterly thrilled you have opened in Manchester, this poses me with two problems - my waistline and my bank balance. I love you so. 

My first experience with Hawksmoor was their London Air Street restaurant for my birthday a couple of years ago. We ordered a massive porterhouse which reminded me of the magnificent rib-eye we had at Bourbon Steak in San Francisco. Then last summer I went to Guildhall for breakfast with the girls, pre-Harry Potter. They got us drunk on absinthe at 9.30am. It was great, and as promised - our corpses were truly revived. Then came the news of the Manchester site. 

After a couple of false starts, we finally made it to Hawksmoor Manchester on my birthday. I'm dying to do their Sunday roast (it would complete the collection, and scratch an itch), but I really want to save that and go with our friends. A burger was the the other missing puzzle piece - so I did that. 

I clapped eyes on the iconic logo, and the excited belly-ache began. It somehow reminds me of a bygone era of city-slicker opulence, as does the amazing bar and dining room inside. Booths are clad in teal leather, the lights are 1950s antiques shipped from across the pond, and the sun blasts through the massive skylight over the dining room.

The other diners appeared to be having business meetings whilst I was sinking an absinthe cocktail just after 12pm (it was a damn site later than last time). I've decided that I need a job where meetings are held at Hawksmoor. Yes, this is now part of my five year plan.

I am unapologetic about the size of some of these pictures. If I'm feeling the pain of not having this food in front of me now, then you shall too. Sorry.

Drinks: 'Wild Boar' beer by Buxton, 'Ginger and Juice' and the rather splendid 'Concealed Weapon', which was absinthe shaken with Chambord, lemon and raspberries.

This time we resisted the urge to order every starter and side in the world. We kept it sensible, yet I still felt like I needed a snooze immediately after.

Hawksmoor hamburger with cheese, bacon and shortrib: Behold. Look at it. It's a thing of utter magnificence. It oozed juice, tasted like the beef had double the potency of a regular burger, and made me very very happy indeed. I had worn my burger shoes* in readiness for this moment. I felt epic.

Yes, I did have to make the picture this big

Fillet steak: At £34 this has to be one of the more expensive steaks in Manchester, but I can't think of one that rivals it in terms of taste. Whether it's the meat itself (sourced from the legendary Yorkshire meat men, Ginger Pig) or the way it is cooked, I can't say I really care. I just know that a Hawksmoor steak is always perfection. It's those little charred bits on the outside... Hell.

Sides - triple cooked chips, peppercorn sauce and macaroni cheese: At the risk of sounding a bit dramatic, these are the best effing sides I have ever had. They even top trump the Air Street ones. This macaroni cheese is the kind of thing that I would love to have a massive bowl of watching Step Brothers in my PJs. Like a massive edible cuddle. The chips too were just perfect.

Sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream: Look at its glossy handsomeness. This is exactly how puddings should be. Soft and saturated with plenty of sauce. God it was wondrous.

Custard tart with Yorkshire rhubarb: I may have blushed a bit when this arrived! This was a soft set custard tart, more like a creme brûlée really after the top had been crisped up with a blow torch. This is more Paddy's thing than mine to be honest, so I pulled the 'birthday card' and swapped desserts with him! 

It's worth also mentioning that the service we received was exemplary. Our glasses were never empty and even a slight bacon shaped misdemeanour was rectified with speed.

I cannot actually wait to return to sample the Sunday roast and complete my Hawksmoor bingo. I know our friends will adore it here, and have nothing to fear that the food would be anything other than perfect.

'It won't work' they said. 'People won't pay for it' they barked. 'We already have steak houses in Manchester' they bleated. Well, it looks like every man and his dog have been so far, and utterly loved it. Wind your necks in doubters. Welcome to Manchester Hawksmoor.


* A genuine article - shoes with burgers on them. No, I do not live on a ward.