He liked it, so he put a ring on it...

I was so happy that Aaron and I got the chance to celebrate our engagement with friends last week!






We had our party at The Gallery in West Hampstead, which ended up being the perfect venue, with candles, comfy sofas, charm and cocktail specials.










We reserved a few tables in the downstairs bar, which was quite cozy and almost like being in someone's living room. It was definitely comfortable enough for us to stay from 7pm until the bar closed! The evening was a warm, romantic, fun, intimate and joyous celebration.








Having already toasted our engagement with my family on Christmas Day, it was lovely to have the opportunity to get friends together and of course, to introduce Aaron to some of my friends who he hadn't met.











It ended up being such a fun night I want to do it all over again! But I suppose I'll just have to wait until our wedding day...

The Naked Cowboy Rides Into London Town...

The Naked Cowboy swapped New York's Times Square for London's St Pancras Station last week, and seeing that I just so happened to be in the area, I went to greet him....








Here to promote New York Bagels, the cowboy did less singing and more posing for photos...and despite not carrying a tune, he had no problem carrying the ladies...

Birthday Boy!

In my last blog post, I chronicled the making of a German Chocolate Cake for my fiancé's birthday.

Aside from channeling my inner Nigella, to become a chocolate cake-baking, finger-licking goddess in the kitchen, I had to pull out the big guns in both the shopping and dancing stakes to ensure that the birthday boy would have a wonderful time, especially as he is away from home.

I got so into the cooking side of things, that breakfast in bed (complete with heart shaped egg) was the easy part.


Now, I find gift shopping for men to be a most arduous adventure, especially when on a budget and working within a short timeframe. Having a birthday with such a close proximity to Christmas also meant that I had just about managed to find festive gifts, and then pretty much had to start the quest all over again.

Well I needn't have worried, as I found the perfect pressies, which induced the desired reactions!




A nosey around Black Cotton Vintage in Camden produced the perfect items, which look super sharp on my sweetheart.


Presentation is key, and I just couldn't resist the zebra-print wrapping paper...




We went to The Cat's Meow for a night of non-stop dancing, featuring DJs and performances by The Piccadilly Bullfrogs (who we went to see earlier this month at the Blues Kitchen).








I secretly arranged a birthday jam for Aaron - he was soooooo surprised, and I was glad that he got to celebrate his birthday on the dance floor!








After a fantastic night, I was rather disappointed that my shoe broke on the way home! I bought a lovely pair of reproduction 1940s wedges at the Art Deco Sale in San Francisco in December, and this was only the second time I had worn them. Hmmmmpppppphhhhhhhhh! This was not some little breakage either - the whole wedge part of the shoe fell off! Needless to say I was unimpressed, especially when I went to see a man about a shoe and he told me that they could not be fixed....

Birthday Cake.

It was Aaron's birthday last week, so I decided to make him his favourite cake - German Chocolate Cake.

We don't have this cake in England, but as I had tried a slice at a party in the USA a couple of months ago, I knew it would be a delicious option, if I could pull it off....


I love cooking, but don't really bake so much. I think it's because when I cook dinner I can experiment a lot more, but with baking, you have to stick to the measurements and ingredients, and that's where I can get a bit lazy.

Anyway, I found a great German Chocolate Cake recipe online and set to work.....




The recipe called for baking three small cakes in separate tins and assembling, but I just baked one big cake and sliced it into three layers.






It came out soooooooo delicious (even if I do say so myself!) and moist and rich and chocolatey! The cake part was almost brownie-ish in consistency, and the frosting was chewy (it's a caramel, pecan and coconut frosting).




The birthday boy was happy....




The addition of fresh raspberries and cream complimented the rich chocolate cake perfectly.