Carrot Cake Cupcakes | Emily Bakes

Every year for my birthday I make myself a killer three layer carrot cake that if i do say so myself is one of the best things in the world. But this week I couldn't wait the other nine months until my birthday so I adapted the recipe into cupcake form and they turn out so god damn cute!

Ingredients:

300g Soft Light brown Sugar

3 Large Eggs 

300ml Vegetable Oil 

300g Plain flour

1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 Tsp baking powder

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Tsp ground Ginger

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/2 Vanilla Extract

300g Grated Carrot

100g Roughly Chopped Walnuts

300g Sultanas

280g Cream cheese

100g unsalted butter (Room temperature)

600g Icing sugar

24 walnut halves to decorate

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Method:

Whisk together the sugar, eggs and oil with an electric whisk until combined.

Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt and beat until well combined.

Stir in the vanilla extract, grated carrots, chopped walnuts and sultanas until incorporated through.

Divide the mixture between 24 cupcake cases and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean.

Leave the cakes on a wire wrack to cool.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Using an electric whisk whisk, whisk the butter until it becomes fluffy and pale.

Add in the icing sugar one half at a time and whisk until a sandy consistency is achieved. 

In a separate bowl briefly whisk the cream cheese to loosen it slightly then add to the butter and sugar mixture and whisk until the icing is light and pale - usually take about five minutes. (Do not over whisk as icing will quickly become runny)

Fill a piping bag with a large circle nozzle and ice all of you cupcakes.

Finally topping each cake with a walnut half.

Emily

The Tables a Computer?! | Inamo Soho

Asian food is probably my favourite cuisine so when Zoe told me about a pan Asian restaurant with interactive tables I headed straight to Soho.

When you enter the restaurant it's very dark, but you soon see this is because there are images being projected down onto each of the tables. when you are seated you are shown how to use the 'table' and to be quite honest my friend and I were both amazed. You have a mouse pad in the corner of the table to control the screen and then a computer menu with different tabs; one to order drinks, one for food, games and entertainment, a map of the restaurant (so you don't have to awkwardly ask where the toilets are) and even a live chef cam!

We looked through the drinks menu and quickly order some cocktails... of course! I had some sort of blackberry mojito which you selected off the menu then chose to send your order when you're ready. 

The drinks were then promptly delivered to our table while we looked through the food menu. As you looked at each item on the menu a picture of it was projected onto the plate in front of you, which I really liked as you actually got to see what you were ordering. The dishes in Inamo aren't bought out in courses like starter main and dessert they are just bought out as they are ready in the kitchen, so we just started off ordering a few items.

The first thing that arrived was the dragon roll sushi. I personally had never tried sushi before as I'm not too keen on fish but I was really excited about this dish as it had tempura prawns in the sushi and was topped with avocado and mayonnaise. These were absolutely delicious especially with the crispy prawns in the centre we finished these so fast and ended up ordering another portion because we loved them so much.  

The next dish to arrive was Ebi Tempura, this was just pieces of tempura prawn with some garlic aioli with a chilli on the top. These were really simple but also really nice.

Then arrived the chicken gyoza. Gyoza are one of my favourite foods and the best I've ever had are from Myung Ga which is just off of Carnaby street and sadly I think they've set my expectations too high as i didn't really like these ones in Inamo the filling was alright but the dumpling skin was thick which made them really chewy.

While waiting for all our dishes to arrive we played around with all the other features on the table, playing pop the balloon and battle ships (which I absolutely smashed) it was so much fun! We ordered even more food and it gradually began to arrive.. 

Yakatori was the next dish to arrive which was 5 different skewers; beef with ginger, chicken and sesame, pork belly, salmon and mahi mahi. These were really dry and some were quite bland like the beef skewer was just really chewy, I just kept dipping them all in soy sauce. The best was the salmon it had some mayonnaise on it and black sesame seeds. We also got some kimichi because it would have been rude not too!

Finally we got shrimp and vegetable dim sum and some Korean chicken wings. The dim sum was fantastic! There's really not much else to say about them, we finished them so fast and ordered another portion straight away (I would return to this restaurant for these alone!). The Korean chicken wings were good they were covered in a sweet spicy sauce and dusted with desiccated coconut. 

I think how much you enjoy this restaurant  would really depend on what you order, I did find a few dishes that I really loved and others that I wanted to try but just wouldn't order them again. I loved the whole interactive experience and it was just so easy to get carried away with what you were ordering because you could just ordered more whenever you wanted so it can end up quite expensive (especially when they add the service charge which made us laugh seeing as the table did most of the work) but I really want to go back and try some other things off the menu.

Emily

7/10

Rocky Road Cookies | Emily Bakes

Recently I've been playing around with some new cookie combinations and I've just discovered an absolute favourite! These cookies are chewy, gooey and moreish so the recipe just needs to be shared...

Ingredients:

250g Salted Butter (Room Temperature)

375g Caster Sugar

1 Large Egg

350g Self Raising Flour

95g Cocoa Powder

3 Tbsp Milk

100g Mini Marshmallows

16 Glace Cherries (Roughly Chopped)

100g Sultanas

100g White Chocolate Chips

100g Milk Chocolate Chips

Makes roughly 20 Generous Cookies.

Method: 

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

2. Beat in the egg.

3. Sift the cocoa powder and flour together into the mixture and combine - you might have to use your hands at this point to get it all to come together.

4. Add the milk in small amounts making sure the mixture does not become too wet (you may not need the full 3 Tbsp or you may need more) you just want it to combine without crumbling apart.

5. Add in the marshmallows, chopped glace cherries, sultanas and all the chocolate chips, using you hands to make sure they are combined throughout the mixture (it can be quite difficult to get the marshmallows to stay in the cookie dough just keep smooshing them into it)

6. Line three large baking trays with grease proof paper and form around twenty evenly sized balls off cookie dough.

7. Space the balls evenly apart on the baking trays, leaving them enough room to spread.

8. Gently push down on the balls to flatten them into patties shapes.

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 170°C for around 12-14 minutes.

The cookies should still be soft when the come out of the oven and will firm up after cooling for about half an hour.

Best enjoyed warm while the chocolates still melted with a glass of milk... Enjoy!

Emily

You Didn't Go Naked?! | Lifehouse Spa Day

Hannah: My birthday present to Emily was a spa day, so obviously we invited Zoe & Ben (duh) so we packed our backpacks and headed to Clacton-On-Sea to Lifehouse Spa for a day of relaxation and pampering. 

Zoe: Mate if you enjoy doing nothing all day this is the ultimate day! Jacuzzis, steam rooms and cocktails. 

Katherine: I was awoken to Zoe face-timing me to "GET UP!!!!" not a pretty sight but hey, I rolled out of bed and collected all the girls along the way.

Hannah: Ben rolled round to our house at 7am (an unusually early and punctual start for them I must admit) and we jumped into a very lively car considering the time of the morning. We swiftly decided that McDonald's was the first stop as it can't be a decent road-trip without a McDonald's breakfast. 

Emily: A trip through a drive through with Zoe and Katherine is always eventful with Katherine panicking and ordering loads of extra hash browns which were later thrown in a bush for some squirrels because she didn't want them to stink out her car and Zoe singing along to Rita Ora at the top of her lungs while we wait at the window for the food.

Hannah: Let's all admit that Zoe can smash Rita Ora like no one else, that's a fact! After consuming our breakfast, for Zoe it was her second we headed off again.

Katherine: A little sing song along the way to wake us up, and to embarrass ourselves to the other drivers and an hour and a half later we arrive, turning into a nice little lane and we see a big grand building. Very posh.

Hannah: We arrived at the spa which was not what we expected, all glass and opened planned and very modern as all of us thought it would be an old manor house style spa, totally too fancy for us but we made it work!

Emily: It looked amazing it was surrounded by nature there was rabbits running around the field it was all very quite and peaceful.

Hannah: Emily, why are you talking about nature?! You don't even like nature!!

Katherine: We was greeted by a lovely woman, who gave us a little tour around, and so we didn't get lost. As we all have pretty awful sense of direction, especially Hannah! We was given a cheeky robe/dressing gown/naked blanket which ever you wish to call it! Some slippers... which was a one size fits all, which I kept tripping over, bloody things!

Emily: The robe that I found in my locker was a weird blue colour and had some gross yellow stains on it but one of the staff members in the changing room heard me say about it and quickly found me a replacement.

Katherine: We made our way to the bar/restaurant to collect our FREE (yes FREE you heard correctly) tea/coffee & a selection of pastries, which by the way were super nice I ate the leftovers of the girls as well. Sorry not sorry.

Emily: Well not quite free pastries, more like just include in the £75 package price.

Hannah: After our second breakfast (for Zoe her third) we headed to the swimming pool! It was a lovely warm pool and we swam for a bit,  a really little bit and then decided to try the hydro therapy pool, which had a shower jet to massage your back and 5 massage seats and also a full body massage section all of which were amazing, they basically just tickle and make you laugh! Luckily by the time we had got there we realised it wasn't a bunch of stuck up people so we could be ourselves and it wasn't a 'sshh sshh' kind of place.

Emily: The hydrotherapy pool was amazing the best part was the massage seats, they make your back feel amazing I pretty much spent the morning sat there.

Katherine: The swimming pool was massive we wanted bomb straight in that but it's not the right kinda place to do that, so we restrained ourselves. The pool was full of people doing lengths, so we didn't really fit in. We went off to find the jacuzzi with tons of jets, and it was super chilled. We spent a good hour chilling and letting our skin go wrinkly.

Hannah: I spent most of the time there trying to get the girls to try the really small pool of freezing cold water and get back in to the warm pool as it was what I had been told to do in Mexico, I have literally no idea what it does but I just thought it would be hilarious to see their reactions and I was not wrong! Zoe was the bravest and went first and it was hilarious, other people were watching and laughing at her! She screamed for a bit ran back into the warmth and decided she really liked the tingling feeling it gave her! Me and Zoe then went and tried the steam rooms and suana but on our way there we found these showers that had different types of rain, me and Zoe have a running joke about rain so obviously we had to try all of these settings out; tropical rain, rain rain and fresh rain. The fresh rain being our favourite we spent ages half under it laughing our heads off and saying how nice it was! 

Zoe: Oh and I can't forget the relaxation room or another words " nap room" just when things couldn't get better. Napping is life. 

Katherine: We found the "relaxation room" which can I just say whoever invented this.. I salute you. It's basically a room where you are free to nap and sit there and do nothing. So standard procedure I napped, one of the girls will say I snored..... but I so didn't..... well possibly.

Zoe: After a pretty awesome nap we each had 2 treatments to choose and we all went for a back massage and body scrub - because of the sweet sun burn and some major pealing, my arse and back would've thanked me.

Katherine:  Both treatments were super cool, the lady I had was so welcoming and made it seem normal that it was OK to get naked infront of her. The scrub was so good it let my skin feeling so smooth and fresh - I would defiantly recommend both.

Hannah: I loved both treatments so much... The scrub was definitely my favourite though, it proper felt like it was doing something and I felt so smooth after, it was like new skin! I definitely want another one of those. The back massage was also good but I would have preferred a harder pressure but I was too scared to say, either way I was so relaxed I fell alseep through both of them.

Emily: I really enjoyed both treatments, I liked the body scrub but my skin can be sensitive sometimes and my legs did go a bit red, hot and blotchy after so I don't think I would get that again. The back massage was amazing and my whole back feels so much better I even felt like I was standing with better posture. What we did notice once we were all finished and was chatting was that the treatments did seem to vary depending on the person you got, for example Katherine had her hands and feet scrubbed in the body scrub but my lady only scrubbed up to my ankles and only did one of my hands.

Zoe: There's me thinking it will be a whole massive awkward fest. Surprisingly getting naked in front of a complete stranger for an hour wasn't at all, the woman made me felt so at ease with my horrible snake like skin. It did the job though. BRAND NEW SKIN!!

Hannah: HA HA HA HA Zoe ended up being completely naked for hers! Which had us in hysterics, seeing her face when we told her that the rest of us either kept our bikinis on or had disposable underwear, but it's Zoe, she don't care!

Katherine: After a hard day we headed back to the restaurant to get our afternoon tea, with a cheeky cocktail to pass the time, I got one called "Rainforest" which basically was a green concoction of stuff which I enjoyed.. for £8.00 - £9.00 it was decent.

Zoe: I appreciate a good cocktail, so it's no pressure for the bar staff if they bring over a Dodgy cocktail... Hell will break loose. That's a joke I will still drink it. I hate complaining. Luckily these cocktails were awesome. I ordered an aperol spritz mainly because I know my friends don't like it and I know they won't wanna "try some" however it come in the biggest perfect cup I was there for about 3 years drinking this well made aperol! Done well.

Emily: We then sat at the bar for a while waiting for our afternoons tea which was at half two.

Katherine: The afternoon tea, wasn't something I would choose as I'm a plain eater and happy with a hamwich (Ham Sandwich) which is basically all I had... You'll be proud - or at least I am - I tried the salmon sandwich, it's safe to say I won't be having that again. But I tried OK! 

Emily: It wasn't the best afternoon tea I've ever had the sandwiches and the scones were nice but the other cakes were a bit funny flavours the the chocolate eclair had an orange flavoured cream in it which no of us were a fan of and there was a small mouse with honey comb on the top which we all assumed would be a honey comb, caramel or chocolate mouse but it was a very sharp lemon mouse that didn't really go with the honey comb on the top. 

Hannah: Yeah I would say it was one of the worst afternoon tea's I've had but me and Emily had been the best one the day before so were totally comparing it. It was just plain and average and the cakes were super dodgy, just like trying to be fancy but not. 

Emily: But while we were eating all the other food coming out of the restaurant looked and smelt amazing they had burgers and pasta and all different things like that so I think if we went back we would probably not book on the afternoon tea and just get the normal menu in the restaurant. I would definitely go back to this spa in the future it was a wonderful day the staff were very attentive and it was lovely to relaxed and have a two hour long nap in the middle of the day. 

Hannah: I would definitely go back to the spa, it was so relaxing and such a good deal for £75 per person, it was just something different and a fun way to spend time with my friends. Next time I would try out different treatments just because... but also not have afternoon tea and some more cocktails because being drunk at a spa seems super fun!

Katherine: The place was full of goodies so me and Emily decided a cheeky purchase of an OPI mini nail vanish set in New Orleans themed colours was in order to finish the chilled day. All in all, I would so go back and I suggest you all go and have a day off nothingness as it's so awesome! 

7.3/10

Cake Heaven | Crumbs & Doilies

Last week I went on a little trip up to Carnaby Street so I just had to visit my favourite bakery on Instagram... Crumbs & Doilies!

After quite a bit of trouble finding the shop (Google maps failed me) we arrived in the bakery to see the selection of cupcakes for the day. I wanted to try all the flavours so I got a box of 12 mini cupcakes for £17 which may seem a bit pricey but after tasting them they were totally worth it. 

The pictures I got aren't the best as I took them on the go because the cupcakes were getting a bit damaged where I'd been walking around London all day. I love the packaging it was a mint green box with a cardboard sleeve with a little ditsy white pattern on it, simple but beautiful; but I do think the box might have been a bit too tall for the mini cupcakes as they were able to fall around everywhere and when I first opened the box they were all jumbled together some upside down so some where slightly squashed.

Going through the flavours from top right to left (I should have taken photos of the descriptions of each cupcake in the shop but I was too excited and forgot...My bad!):

 

• Peanut Butter cupcake - a chocolate sponge with chocolate chips, with a peanut butter cream centre and icing on the top with some melted chocolate drizzle and half a mini Reese peanut butter cup on the top. This was lovely, the sponge was light and chocolatey and I was worried the peanut butter taste would be really strong in it but it was just the perfect amount so you could taste all the flavours. A Lovely cupcake that I would like to try and recreate at home. (I got two of these)
• Red Velvet cupcake - a vivid red velvet sponge with cream cheese icing. Simple, classic and really good. (I got two of these)
• Party ring cupcake- vanilla sponge with sprinkles in, a butter cream that tasted like party ring icing with white chocolate drizzled over and topped with a party ring. So good and filled with nostalgia.
• Carrot cupcake- simple carrot cake sponge and cream cheese frosting. These were nice and carrot cake is probably my favourite type of cake but I prefer chunky carrot cake I like there to be big bits of walnuts, I add sultanas, and I like to see the grated carrot in the cake. (I'm probably just being a bit bias to carrot cake I make- these were still really good) (I got two of these)
• Cookies and Cream cupcake- This was my absolute favourite! Similar sponge to the peanut butter cupcake. with a lovely filling in the centre I'm not sure what it was maybe white chocolate of some sort or similar to the cream inside of an Oreo with a vanilla butter cream with crushed Oreo biscuits mixed in topped with a piece of Oreo. This cupcake was amazing and I'm not particularly a fan of Oreo's but I'm going to try and create something similar this week.
• Summer Fruit Crumble Cupcake- This was a spiced quite dense sponge with a custard filling with a berry butter cream top with some sort of crumble. This wasn't as fruity as I thought it would be the custard filling was really good though. (I got two of these)
• Bourbon Biscuit cupcake - A chocolate sponge with the lightest chocolate butter cream I have ever tasted and topped with a piece of bourbon biscuit. These were one of my favourite biscuits when I was little so I was so excited about this one and I was not disappointed. I cannot understand how the butter cream was so good it can’t have been a normal chocolate butter cream, I can’t figure out what it could have been but it was amazing. 
• Eaton Mess cupcake- vanilla sponge with a strawberry filling with a vanilla butter cream topped with crushed meringue and drizzled with the strawberry concoction. One of my absolute favourites, classic flavour combinations and the strawberry drizzle was just delicious. 

These Cupcakes were amazing I am dying to go back to Crumbs & Doilies and get the normal sized cupcakes of the ones that I loved.

Emily

10/10

What's your favourite dessert? Know any good London Bakeries? Comment below!

These Milkshakes Brought Us To The Yard | Molly Bakes

Recently myself and my boyfriend took a little trip to Molly Bakes in Dalston, a cute little, bakery, that sells freakshake milkshakes and delicious cakes! I must admit I do have a very big sweet tooth and these were making my mouth water as I stalked them on Instagram (come on admit it, we all do it!) I had been bugging my boyfriend to drive there for weeks and once I showed him the pictures he was immediately in.

What do you do before you consume 5 billion calories you ask?! You go to the gym first so you don't feel guilty about it of course! I always need some form of motivation to get me to the gym and this was the best I have found so far! 

Surprisingly when we arrived we walked straight in and managed to get a table (I had been told that sometimes you have to queue and after looking at reviews I found this was true.) The place itself was tiny with only about 10 tables inside and was very simply decorated.

We ordered two freak shakes and drooled over the delicious cup cakes, brownies and slices of cake on display! I went for the chocolate freakshake and my boyfriend went for peanut butter, so we could try two different ones! They also offered a caramel and raspberry one, so a selection for everyone!

We sat eagerly watching the freakshakes being made; they had about 10 lined up on the counter being made and it definitely took some skills and precision! Everything was done so perfectly, every aspect had be thought out and carefully placed. The cup were even stuck down to the plate so they didn't move on route to tables. I definitely want to try making my own at home and hopefully perfecting it! I have seen a video online showing you how to make a bailey's freakshake and who doesn't love baileys?! I know I do and I know the girls do too!

They were finally brought over to us and oh my! They were amazing, mine had Nutella smothered around the top of the glass, a deliciously smooth chocolate milkshake, with whipped cream on top and the most mouth watering moist brownie I have ever tasted, it literally fell apart in my mouth, on top of the brownie was a marshmallow that had been toasted and finally the whole thing was covered with chocolate biscuit balls. My boyfriend's one was similar but the glass was smothered in peanut butter and it had a peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwich on top instead of the brownie. Both of which were delicious but I must say I preferred the chocolate! I'm a huge fan of peanut butter but it just didn't compete with the deliciousness of the chocolate one. I would definitely true a different flavour next time though just to say I have tried them all!

After consuming the amazingness that was the Freakshakes we went to get some cakes to take away. There was so many to pick from, red velvet, chocolate and Guinness, peanut butter, Oreo, salted caramel, and then there was the brownies; chocolate chip brownie, cookie dough, salted caramel, just too many options! I eventually picked the red velvet cupcake and my boyfriend got a selection for his family of the peanut butter and salted caramel cupcakes and a chocolate chip brownie! And wow! They are amazing, so moist and light and fluffy with sweet cream on top! I would so highly recommend going to Mollyh Bakes, it is unreal, I want to go back just thinking about it! Go go go go...

Hannah

10/10

Where have you had your best sweet treats? Know any other awesome bakeries in or around London? Let us know!

Sunburn City | Barcelona Trip

Mate. Barcelona had everything ,and I mean everything, from quiet ice cream shops to vintage shops to restaurants on the beach. We were only there for a few days but we managed to do so much yet so little. We must have shopped for a good three days solid, went over board. But I can't explain to you how pretty this place was the buildings and the views alone were worth the money. Not gonna go on for 400 hundred years about each and every shop we went because just walking around the shops was an experience.

However, you need to experience the cable cars, something so simple yet incredible you could see for miles. After being in a cramped space for 10 minutes (didn't really matter because we were so distracted about how awesome this place was.) We reached this massive cliff with the most stunning cactus gardens, it was like another world. It had a rather nice restaurant/bar overlooking Barcelona and of course ordered I had an Aperol spritz, However, this time it wasn't nice, mainly because he filled a pint glass up with straight Aperol. It's all about the fizz mate don't make me go blind!!

For dinner there's was a place Marmalade, it literally does everything. I ordered some pepper pasta and my god, my mouth was well and truly loving life. However, my belly just couldn't eat no more! I don't know what the matter was but I just couldn't eat. Perhaps the heat and just having an overall awesome time meant that I couldn't finish my dinner but it was one of the best pastas I've had! Switched it up though didn't I! I had a strawberry daiquiri and wolfed that down!

Can't stress to you how good it was. You just need to witness it. Perfect company! Perfect views! Perfect city/beach holiday!!!

Zoe

10/10

What's the best destination you've been to? Let us know below.

Shoreditch Adventures | Reds True Barbecue & Bounce

Hannah: This week we ventured to Shoreditch for food, lots of cocktails and a friendly game of ping pong, what more could you want from a weekend?! After being recommended Reds True Barbecue by a friend I was super excited to go and try it out; cocktails and American barbecued food YUMMY!!

Katherine: So after a long day at work I had the excitement of Reds True Barbecue and ping-pong to look forward too. What a hard life aye. We got to Reds and was sent downstairs to the bar whilst we waited for our table. It was super awesome and I want it for my bedroom (please and thanks).

Zoe:  MATE. I love customer service and this was on point. When we arrived it was
30 minute wait and due to past experiences with waiting for tables (not mentioning any names...Harvester cough) we were slightly worried but in London you pay for what you get; this awesome waitress politely explained "sorry ladies, if you go downstairs to our bar and get yourself a few cocktails we'll be with you shortly"' that's all it needs to keep us happy!

Emily: The place was dark and rustic with loads of fairy lights and mismatched chairs... I loved it! Sweet Home Alabama playing from the speakers as we sat at the bar waiting for the table.

Zoe: I completely forgot about the wait as I was amazed by the decor. It was better than I imagined... Underground trees with fairy lights, an awesome bar and A LOAD of candles.

Katherine: We were greeted at the bar by the friendliest guy who was banter... what more could we ask for. He didn't even have time to finish pouring our drinks before we were greeted again by another banter/friendly waiter who said he would bring our drinks over and showed us to our table. 

Emily: The cocktails looked amazing loads of fruity citrusy gin based drinks. The first drink I got was the 'Basil Bramble Sling' which was so good and then an 'Alexis Texas' which was also amazing it was like passion fruit, vodka and prosecco so pretty much everything good.

Zoe: We were quite happy and chilled the cocktails were what I can only describe as f*cking amazing, I started off by getting "Cloth Hall Cooler" aka the pengest drink that will make you go blind (it was so strong).

Katherine: The selection of cocktails to choose from was something else, I would spend about 10 minutes just looking because I wanted EVERYTHING.. sadly my bank account couldn't afford that.

Emily: The food menu was a leather bound book, I think it was meant to look like a bible- they call it 'The Good Book', it was really cool how they kept the theme running throughout the restaurant with small details like this. Sweet Home Alabama had started to play again for probably about the forth time but it was quite funny, all the food sounded amazing.

Hannah: We promptly ordered our food and were informed the kitchen was backed up which was fine, we weren't going Bounce till 11 so had loads of time to kill and a menu full of cocktails to try, I had already fallen in love with the Honey Berry Smash. 

Zoe: I finally got what my mouth was watering for all that day...The beef brisket sandwich!

Emily: I decided to go for The Dirty Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich with a side of mac and cheese because Hannah said we could share our sides if I got that and she got the bbq pit beans, which didn't happen in the end when she decided that she didn't like the mac and cheese.

Katherine: We was basically pretty drunk before we got our food, which was pretty daym good but it was so spicy and I can't handle it. I'm not complaining the cocktails made up for it.

Hannah: Hahahaha, Katherine your mouth was on fire, it took you a billion years to eat it! 

Emily: The food looked amazing it came on a metal tray with the Mac and cheese in a little pot on the side all very in keeping with the theme they were going for. 

Hannah: I must admit I was slightly disappointed as my chicken burger was cold and the 'pulled chicken' on top was more like a chicken breast and was also cold, but despite that it tasted nice. The barbecue beans I had on the side were to die for though and I would order them again in a heartbeat, beans with pulled pork in them, AMAZING!

Zoe: My food was so good, however after ordering a few more cocktails it was one of them moments where you have to undo your jeans because your having way to much fun enjoying belly bloating cocktails. So in the end I only ate half of this mouth watering beef concoction ... but somehow my coleslaw seem to have disappeared. Don't know how that happened. I inhaled it! (I'm very picky when it comes to coleslaw) not quite my dads but it's up there.

Emily: I wasn't a fan of the Mac and cheese it was a bit floury but I'm not a big pasta fan anyway. The burger tasted alright but it was so spicy and I like spicy food but this was really spicy and it didn't warn you of that anywhere on the menu. It was so spicy you couldn't really taste anything else and the chicken was quite cold so that was disappointing but I think I might have just ordered wrong because everyone else's food in the restaurant looked really good.

Hannah: After finishing our meal we still had loads of time so we headed to the bar where we had some banter with the bar guys who decided to make up some cocktails for us to get us super drunk!

Katherine: We got free shots from them...I even managed to get two because I'm a boss and banter.

Emily: I like both of the cocktails the bar men made up; the first was raspberry vodka, grenadine and some other bits so was quite strong but really sweet and the other was loads of lime cordial and maybe rum or vodka which was really strong and no one else would finish it so I just had to drink them for them.

Hannah: Basically we just had to cups of vodka with a hint of flavour, they were gross! 

Zoe: All the staff were so polite which made our stay even more awesome. In my mind it doesn't make sense you can pay a slightly lower price to go to a dingy restaurant down the road from you, you can go to London pay a few extra pound (its really not a lot of difference in price compared to the change in quality) for the wonderful service, delicious food and bloody good cocktails. 

Katherine: After a short stumble down the road singing When We Were Young, (Nailing all the notes I may add because we are pretty sick singers) we arrived at bounce. We were greeted by a bouncer who didn't even ID us... so that means we finally look old. Don't know if I should laugh or cry. 

Hannah: I had booked a table for us already so we walked in and were shown to our table and ordered more delicious cocktails (mine was proper holiday like and tasted like a big Porn Star Martini) and then it was game on! My cocktail was rudely knocked over by a boy on the table next to us and after informing him that he had spilled my entire drink he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away, RUDE! The waitress was lovely though and when I told her she immediately brought another one over for free!

Zoe: Ping pong with cocktails is the perfect combo. However if your sh*t before a couple of cocktails down you... Your even more sh*t after. Sorry Em but come on it's not called wave your bat and see where it gets you in life it's table tennis.

Hannah: We played in pairs and I have never laughed so much as I did watching Emily drunkenly hitting ping pong balls at the ceiling, the rest of us might as well have gone home, she was just playing with the ceiling.

Katherine: EMILY YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED PING PONG AGAIN, you'll only allowed on the sub line. I know you said you had bad hand and eye co-ordination but oh my word, you hit practically everyone around us and the ceiling a fair few 100 times.

Emily: I was tipsy but I'm just not good at sports anyway okay! I did warn you all! Wait until you see me bowling...

Hannah: Tipsy is an understatement there Emily! After a team talk excluding Emily we managed to keep the balls away from her and 'send her long' and actually get some back and forth rhythm going and turns out the rest of us were pretty decent at ping pong, who'd have known! We laughed, we drank cocktails and we hit some ping pongs. It was an awesome night.

Zoe: My god it was amusing. Obviously cocktails I had a elderflower spritz I love a spritz me. It was so refreshing and again friends don't like my spritz sh*t so I'm winning.

Katherine: Apart from Emily killing everyone in the place the staff were super friendly and got us cocktails whilst we was playing. At one point I had a cocktail in one hand and a ping pong bat in the other, living dangerously and loving life.

Hannah: Despite the food at Reds True Barbecue I would definitely go back I would just order differently and I would always go back to Bounce it's something different to do over the weekend and a guaranteed laugh!

Emily: I would go back to Reds True BBQ but for cocktails but not for food and the others have informed me that I'm not allowed to return to bounce but I would happily if allowed.

Zoe: Overall cocktails awesome. Food way to much but who complains about to much food that's just silly. May I just add I was awesome being netball captain in school I had table tennis covered.

Katherine: I would recommend these two places to anyone would loves a drink and also an awesome night. Don't knock it till you've tried it.

                                                                                                                               

REDS TRUE BBQ 

6.75/10

BOUNCE 

                     8/10                                    

Where should we go next? Know any good cocktail bars, BBQ places or just different thing up London? Comment Below