Bake Off Bake Along: Week 1 - Black Forest Gateau

There's nothing better than Great British Bake Off season. This year I'm looking forward to baking along with the show as part of Ala and Amanda's Bake Off Bake Along. By doing so I hope to try out lots of new recipes...in the safety of my own kitchen without the watchful eyes of Mary and Paul!

During week one Mary and Paul set the tent the cake challenge. For the signature challenge contestants made a madeira cake, frosted walnut cake for the technical challenge and black forest gateau for the showstopper.

I've never made any of these cakes before so thought it best to start off simple for week one, a madeira cake. Well, let me tell you now, madeira cakes aren't that simple, especially if you're running on two hours sleep!

I went for an almond and raspberry version, which Mary would have deemed to have been underbaked and Paul would have been ashamed to see that I hadn't even attempted any candied peel and I most certainly didn't have that signature crack.

I skipped straight past the option of a walnut cake and went straight ahead with a showstopper, all guns blazing, no half measures. 

Using a classic BBC Good Food recipe, I opted for amaretto instead of kirsch, used morello cherries in the filling and even topped with some gold leaf.

As Mary and Paul weren't available to judge, or even Mel and Sue, I invited some guests over for Afternoon Tea to judge. This cake was most certainly a showstopper and towered over the table. Unfortunately (or not!), this cake was a little wonky as I was quite generous with the alcohol soaking, it sat a little wonkily and collapsed when slicing. Either way I'm still impressed with the taste and would definitely use this recipe again.

#FdBloggers - Get To Know

There's a lot going on in the world of Twitter right now. Everything from meet ups, bake alongs and Friday GIFs.

In a bid to get to know the people behind their blogs a little better, #fdbloggers host Loriley has devised a great plan to get up close and personal with everyone.

Besides this '#fdbloggers: Get to Know' tag, Loriley hosts a weekly Twitter chat on Thursdays to discuss everything from eating out, recipes and ingredients.

Find out more here.

And onto the tag, as nominated by my beardy pal Mike from The Bearded Bakery and Ala from This Particular.

I pinched this GIF Frankie made of me because that's what friends are for...

Name: Sophie

Blog: Sophie Loves Food

What was your reason for starting a blog?

I got into baking during uni and wanted a way of categorising all the photos and recipes I'd used. It wasn't actually until I left uni that I started blogging.

I'd been reading a few lifestyle and baking blogs and one day just thought, 'hey, I can do that'. It seemed like one of those silly ideas you don't tell anyone about. So I just told a colleague and my family.

The photos were awful, the blog design was awful, but I've stuck at it since 2012 and worked at improving everything gradually.

The biggest help was probably enrolling on a Food Writing course at Leiths. It gave me some confidence to start writing and also to meet other bloggers and people in the food industry.

In terms of photography. I like science and none of this fancy flowery nonsense. After working in a photo processing lab during school years, I went on to study a BSc in Digital Imaging, and specialising in Forensic and Biomedical Imaging. I'm more au fait with labs, non-visible spectrums and have even written a zillion words in a paper on sensor noise...if that's your bag ;)!

I may be able to give you the Fourier Transform of what each adjustment in Photoshop does (tell a lie, I've probably forgotten), but I'm not very patient with food styling and I hate the lighting in my kitchen.

Seeing as I spend most of my waking hours thinking about brownies, burgers and coffee it seemed like blogging about it was a natural progression.

What's the dish you're most proud of?

Without a doubt, brownies. I'll try to avoid being too smug but people do tend to get quite passionate about them.

I first made brownies in a baking class in 2013, they flopped big time. With a lot of perseverance and practice they started to improve.

Then along came a recipe that changed everything, here. With a few tweaks and secret additions its my go-to recipe and most favourite thing to bake.

What one kitchen utensil could you not live without?

My cast iron casserole dish. Besides sitting pretty on my hob at all times, I make a lot of one pot batch meals. Either to freeze or work my way through for work lunches during the week.

You're stranded on a desert island. What three ingredients do you take with you?

Chocolate, eggs and flour.

I had to think hard about narrowing this down. As long as I can make pancakes, scrambled eggs and brownies, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Who do you take your inspiration from?

Cookbooks and other bloggers.

You can't really have too many books and I love to flick through my cookbooks and plot what to make next. As I have such a sweet tooth, most are for baking. My absolute favourites being Konditor & Cook's and Dan Lepard's. I'd like to eventually get round to making every recipe in them

Bloggers are slowly infiltrating every nook of the internet so you're never far from a new recipe, ingredient or restaurant to try. I think its helped to make cooking more accessible to others, rather than being put off by the glossy pages of a professionally styled meal in a book.

What's your favourite social platform?

I probably spend more time scrolling through Instagram than any of the other platforms. I like seeing what everyone's had for breakfast, how many peonies people buy each week and all other the other clichés that it comes with, mostly.

Unless you're David Bailey, I think its pretty difficult to grow followers on it though.

Biggest disaster in the kitchen?

I can feel my boyfriend and family laughing at my kitchen breakdowns from just reading this!

I'm very particular and impatient at the same time which is always a loosing battle. If something doesn't go right, I'll start by just staring into thin air as an attempt to regain control. If I've not been able to rationalise myself in this time then, depending on levels of tiredness, I have been known to cry a few times...

Most recently, I made some brownies that were undercooked. They were meant to be a gift for someone so it was a true GBBO moment when they collapsed after taking them out of the baking tin.

Its probably for this reason that I enjoy those 'expectation v reality' Buzzfeed posts too much. Its always different in reality.

Favourite spot for coffee?

There's a few places I like in town: Notes, Timberyard, Flat White and Four Corners.

Favourite photo you've taken?

Either these Brooklyn Blackout cupcakes or hidden Oreo cupcakes.

There's always a battler for natural light. The Brooklyn Blackout cupcake were taken perched on the windowsill of my Mum's stairs. And the Oreo cupcakes were balanced on an ironing board in my hallway.

They got accepted onto Foodgawker so I'm happy with that.

What would you say is your most successful blog post and why?

My curly whirly brownies tend to get the most hits. I love receiving pictures when people bake them.

Now nominate three food bloggers you'd like to get to know more.

I nominate:

Persephone from Persephone H
Megan from Got to be Gourmet
Gianni from Across the Hogsback

Review: July Degustabox

Another month has flown by and its that time once again. A Degustabox* round up, featuring all the products from the July box. 

Fru Snax

Handy snack bags of freeze dried fruit and yogurt pieces coming in at less than 50 kcals a bag. I'm not overly enamoured with the name, it reminds me of childhood packed lunches. The packaging also reminds me of slimming snacks. But, real proper fruit and yogurt in portable form? I was willing to give it a try. 

I got two flavours: fig with cherry yogurt and strawberry with raspberry yogurt. The yogurt itself tastes artificially sweet and the fruit isn't too dissimilar to other dried fruit snacks out there. I'd say you'd be better off getting some Greek yogurt and adding your own fresh fruit for more flavour.

Collagen Vitamin C Drink

I'm not entirely sure where to start, without being too negative. I'm not a fan of food companies claiming their items to be an alternative to just plain eating well. Nothing is a superfood if you have a bad diet. I'd rather have fresh fruit and vegetables and get my vitamins from there. The claim of collagen in this 'drink' does sound promising if you want fancy smooth skin (depending on how much you have to drink).

But its also worth checking the ingredients. In this pouch of super sweet fruit juice are tiny pieces of collagen made from fish skin. Of course, anything jelly like contains some form of gelatine, or in this case, collagen. I don't know what I expected, but to me it wasn't obvious that a fruit drink would contain an animal product.

If you're a little sensitive, I wouldn't recommend you Google how you get collagen from animals.

Taking the Pea

On a lighter note, I love love loved these. Crunchy coated peas in a range of flavours including: smoked ham, sweet chilli salsa, wacky wasabi and cheesy peasy & onion. At 145 kcals per pack, I'd say these are a good alternative for a bag of crisps, giving you a naturally higher amount of protein and fibre. 

Tasty Little Numbers

These meals claim to be low calorie, gluten free meals. Their smaller portions helping you to enjoy your favourite meals but at a more reasonable amount. I can't remember the last time I had a ready meal, and I'm afraid I'm going to be stubborn and give these a miss too.

I'll take them into work and see if anyone wants to give them a try. Apparently due to how they're made and packed, they don't need to be refrigerated even though they contain meat?

Newtons Appl Fizzics

Another favourite! A blend of apple juice and sparkling water, this is just like grown up Appletizer and has 40% less sugar than regular apple juice.

Greeta's Premium Mango Chutney

Greeta has won a Great Taste award for this signature chutney. I like to add to chicken wraps for a little more oomph, or even to mix with oil and coat potatoes for extra flavour. A great fridge staple!

Weetabix On-the-go

I love Weetabix so enjoyed these after having a few early starts in the week. Perhaps sweeter than I'd have for breakfast usually, but handy for breakfasts in a rush.

Say Yes to No

Possibly the most underwhelming packaging out of the lot. But, definitely my favourite of them all. Maybe its mind trickery. You don't expect much, but these are packed full of flavour and have a great crunch. I got sour cream and onion and would have loved to dunk them in some freshly made guacamole. I'm definitely going to be buying more of these.

Lambrini

I've yet to pluck up the courage to open this bottle. It'll either go two ways: I'll love it and have a strawberry headache the next morning, or as expected, I'll hate it. I think Pinot Grigio will disown me if I succumb. Wine snob, perhaps, but I'm not sure I can #BringOnTheBrini.

I really enjoyed trying some different products this month. If you want to try your own Degustabox, use my discount code for £3 off (valid till the end of October) Find out more here.

Review: Burger Bear and Prawnography at the Magic Roundabout, Old Street

I like to think of Old Street roundabout as an octopus. All those exits are just so confusing. But with the promise of burgers, cocktails and a catch up with good friends I hopped to it and battled my way through the tube station. 

Perhaps a little disclaimer is needed. When visiting the Magic Roundabout, there is absolutely no need to engage with the battle of exits. Just head up the station steps, to the left and follow the sound of music to the entrance. Just look how happy Flick was to have made it!

The roundabout itself is home to a pop-up street food market for the summer. There you will find the likes of Burger Bear and Prawnography, some music and a bar.

The main attraction for me was Burger Bear, a shipping container burger bar funded through a Kickstarter campaign last year. A place that's been on my list for some time.  You'll find them dotted around town at Stokey Bears (Stoke Newington), Peckham (The Old Nuns Head) and in their HQ at Magic Roundabout.

Behold the Grizzly Bear: a cheeseburger topped with double oak smoked bacon and Burger Bear's bacon jam, delivered to your salivating chops in a brioche bun. As you can see, Grizzly cause quite a stir amongst the girls.

The perfect sized patty, pink, crispy smokey bacon and bacon jam that oozes out with each bite.

Flick was a little jealous that she'd had to wait for her own meal from Prawnography and had to watch me devour the Grizzly. I offered to share my chips to ease her hunger pangs whilst she waited eagerly, camera in hand.

For Flick and Gianni, a rather large Spider Crab was presented from Prawnography. Prawnography brings fresh sea food from our coasts to the trendy Magic Roundabout-goers. On the night, the BBQ in the fisherman's hut wasn't quite warm enough so the girls waited with great anticipation for things to warm and for Mr Crabby to be cooked (whilst watching the bacon jam from my burger drip down my face). As a reward for their staying power, the Prawnography bunch kindly bought over some scallops wrapped in bacon fresh of the grill (my turn to be envious).

Here, Gianni takes the first whack of a leg and splatters both Frankie and I in crabmeat. I'm sure there's worse things in life. Although I'm not sure Frankie will ever live it down.

And as for drinks, by 7pm one of the cocktails had sold out, so seemingly popular. Between us we covered the rest of the cocktails they did have on offer. At £8 each I think its a fair price for the area, just unfortunately needed a little more alcohol in.

Take a visit to the Magic Roundabout and reward yourself for braving the tube station exits.

To find out more about Burger Bear, take a look here. Or here for Prawnography.

Its probably worth noting that during the evenings you're looking at a burger-disco situation. If you're meeting a friend to have a long catch up, take a megaphone or write secret notes to each other. But either way, the food will be worth it.

Find my gorgeous gal pals here: Flick, Frankie and Gianni, they're a mega talented bunch and Frankie's review is a good laugh (here).

Food in July

Bakes Box: salted caramel chocolate cake

Right in time for the new series of Great British Bake off, the new Bakes Box* launched last week. Each month, Amanda will send you a brand new recipe with the ingredients you need to make a showstopper cake. Not only does it come in letter box friendly form, everything is measured out ready, and the step-by-step tutorials on her blog take you through exactly what you need to do. 

Its like an online cake club community, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's salted caramel cakes over the coming weeks. 

Burger Bear: Grizzly Bear burger

Inspired by Mike's spreadsheet of London restaurants...I've been meaning to put my own list together. I have a more informal approach: Zomato bookmarks, Bloglovin' saves and a few notes on my Evernote app. But this is a very serious business and I need to merge all of this into one place to navigate a little easier.

But enough of burger-admin and onto the good stuff. Burger Bear has been on the burger-list for a little while and when the girls suggested heading to the Magic Roundabout to visit Prawnography...I was swayed only by the idea that I could go against the flow and get myself a burger.  Meat over seafood for me please!

Burger Bear's Grizzly Bear ticks all the boxes; messy, brioche, pink, mustard, crispy bacon, melty cheese. Perhaps a new winner on my existing burger list. 

Marshmallow brownies

When a colleague threatened that my brownies (in lieu of a shift swap) would have to be better than 'so-and-so's wife's', I threw my apron into the ring and pulled out all the stops. I often find it hard to persuade the average person that modern brownies are so much different (read: better) than those from supermarkets that we're used to. Brownies should be fudgey, gooey and very rich and not the cakey, firm nonsense people are used to. 

I rustled up this batch of brownies with giant jet-puffed marshmallows which created lots of air pockets. This ultimately lead to my favourite, post-oven brownie flop. Sounds bad, right? Wrong. You need those bad boys to puff up in the oven, form a shiny crust and then to flop as you remove them from the oven. The result: SUPER gooey extravaganza. 

For this batch, I used my favourite recipe (here) and added 12 giant marshmallows, evenly spaced into the bottom of the tray before baking.

Image courtesy ofRachel Phipps: gin and watermelon juice with fresh basil.

A blog I've been enjoying recently is Rachel Phipps'. It refreshing to read an honest opinion of something, and that is exactly what her review of Dinerama is. 

There's a notion that people blog to get free meals in exchange for a few Tweets or writeup. In reality, its not that glamourous. You'll spend more time in front of a computer screen than you realise. But when you enjoy writing and eating out, why not? 

An article I found this week talks about taking your passion and spending every evening and weekend on it. If you weren't passionate about it, then you probably wouldn't have enough to write about it/could give up all the time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, paid or free doesn't really make the difference. Honesty does. Why spend time giving a false review of something? 

And more importantly, how good does Rachel's gin and watermelon juice with fresh basil look?!

Some extra links:

To get your first box for £10, use the discount code 'MYBAKES'. Find out more here.

And a little shameless plug, for any of you that have ever met me - you'll know exactly how much I love to share the brownie love. Stay tuned on Twitter, I'm looking to send out some brownies to some friendly Twits...because that's how much I love you all!

Review: Hide and Seed, Putney

This review is perhaps a little overdue. But I've been thinking a lot about my favourite burgers recently, naturally, and realised I'd missed this gem. 

Alex from Zomato kindly offered me voucher to try Hide and Seed in Putney knowing full well how much I love burgers.

Located just 5 minutes walk from East Putney station on the district line, or 15 minutes walk from Putney High Street, Hide and Seed is part of Lodge Hotel. The restaurant itself is situated on the ground floor, just off the lobby. The elegant dining room has a relaxed library style and a wall of black and white sporting photos, all very modern (if a little dark).

Whilst perusing the menu I ordered a cocktail from the bar. I'd like to say that it had bourbon, raspberry and prosecco in, but since I have the memory of a goldfish and there's no trace of their cocktail list online, I can't say for certain. The drinks list is quite substantial in terms of the bar's own cocktails and some classics.

We opted to get stuck into the mains straight away and both went for burgers. For boy, the hide burger (£14.50) and for me the seed burger (£12.50). Boy's hide burger was an 8oz patty with homemade BBQ sauce and a brioche bun. I managed to steal a few bites! It was cooked perfectly medium with a good balance of BBQ sauce. There was no doubt this patty was freshly made and hand formed. I'd definitely go back to enjoy one to myself.

In order to try something different (I do love my beef burgers) I opted for the veggie equivalent. The 'burger' itself was a little disappointing; breaded potato, carrots and peas. But the toppings made up for it. The burger was covered in a generous serving of melted cheese and the bun loaded with some fresh leaves, avocado slices, onion and gherkins. There was some of their homemade BBQ sauce but I feel that it could have done with something punchier, like a chilli jam. Not necessarily a bad thing, but when I say the bun was loaded with extras, it really was. This is the first burger I have ever eaten fully with a knife and fork, far too messy to pick up. Perhaps the bun could have been bigger to allow for the generous amount of toppings?

Onto dessert, we both had our eye on the same thing; chocolate textures (£7.50). But, in the name of research, I ordered the Pink Panther cake (£7.50) for myself allowing Boy the chocolate honour.

Boy's chocolate textures was served on a small slate tile, scattered with a few different components: layered chocolate mousse, a chocolate profiterole and chocolate crumbs and was decorated with fruit and chocolate work. There was a lot going on! Again, I stole a little taster. The mousse was a good balance of light and rich between the layers and the presentation was great.

I have mixed feelings about my Pink Panther cake. Again, the presentation was outstanding. There was plenty of fresh fruit, a drizzle of coulis, some shortbread crumbs, a scoop of homemade ice cream and even some spun sugar. The cake itself was a gorgeous looking 3 layer sponge, sandwich between fresh cream and had a pink frosting topping. The sponge perhaps wasn't as light and fluffy as it could have been; perhaps had been stored in the fridge and had left it a little dry. The pink frosting was a little too sweet but there wasn't too much of it and the ice cream always helps.

We visited late in the afternoon, 5pm, on a Friday and it was completely empty. I'd have expected a few people to be at least seated for Friday afternoon drinks, but there was only a small group sat at the bar itself just round the corner. I'm sure it would have picked up as the evening went on, especially with restaurants south of the river becoming increasingly more popular.

It did mean that, as hungry as we were, we got through our meal quickly and enjoyed an early evening stroll through town. The waiter was very friendly and attentive with just us to serve.

I'd definitely recommend Hide and Seed to anyone looking for cocktails and/or burgers in the area. The hide burger in particular. I should imagine its also a good restaurant for hotel guests fancying some of their small plates, or perhaps a wine and cheese board night cap.

Zomato kindly offered me complimentary vouchers to go which was a lovely gesture. All views are my own - I was not asked to feature this on my blog, just wanted to recommend cocktails and burgers!

Recipe: Speculoos Carrot Cake

When lacking in inspiration its always good to take a step back, go back to basics or even to have a short break. Sometimes the never ending amount of talent on my social media feeds can be a little overwhelming and off-putting. How do people even manage a full time job and to post several times through the week?

I can't remember the last time I baked a cake just to enjoy it. Rather than thinking, how can I make it different? How will I photograph it? What ideas can I get from Pinterest? In all honesty, I can't even remember the last cake I did make. 

For each family birthday I try to make a cake, something they'd like and something different each time. With work responsibilities and my brother's wedding in Finland, I've been a little delayed with these birthday bakes. So, with a little time off over the weekend, I set out to make one. I didn't worry about presentation, photographing, just on making something my Mum would love; her favourite carrot cake. 

Forgetting we're 'meant' to be in the height of summer. This weekend called for warming comfort food. For Sunday lunch we enjoyed baked red pesto chicken, roasted marrow and to finish, bread and butter pudding. A slice of this cake also went down a treat...

It was only fitting that I used Signe Johansen's Scandilicious carrot cake recipe as a base. Omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg for a speculoos spice mix to create a cake that I knew my Mum would love...even if it was a little belated.

Fuss-free with no frills, this is a good, honest, back to basics cake. No coloured frosting, layers or fiddly steps. I think this was exactly what I needed to get back in the kitchen!

Speculoos carrot cake with cream cheese speculoos frosting and walnut crumb

N.b. I used a sample of speculaas spice mix (from Amsterdam), but Dan Lepard has a recipe here.

(9" cake, serves 12, recipe adapted from Signe Johansen's Scandilicious Baking)

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

125g soft light brown sugar

200ml vegetable oil

250g plain flour

2 tsp speculoos spice mix

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

350g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

Frosting:

125g butter, softened

150g icing sugar, sifted

150g full fat cream cheese

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp speculoos spice mix

Handful of crushed walnuts for decoration

1. Heat the oven to 170 degrees and grease a 9" springform cake tin. Alternatively, use a 20 x 30cm rectangular tin.
2. Gently mix together the egg and sugar in a mixer until the egg is broken up.
3. Set the mixer to a medium-high speed and pour in the oil as slow as possible. It is important to pour in as slow as you can so as not to split the mix.
4. Fold in the flour, spices, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
5. Add the carrots and mix just a few times until just about incorporated.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf. When cooked, a skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean.
7. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
8. To make the frosting, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and speculaas and continue to mix until smooth.
9. Whilst the cake is cooling, pop the frosting in the fridge to firm up.
10. To frost the cake, use a palette knife to smooth over the top and finish with a scattering of walnuts.

And for a little more inspiration:

How about Kate's carrot cake protein balls? Or in fact any recipe from her blog - yep, who knew you could make a cake out of cauliflower or peas?

Zucchini/courgettes laying around after making some zoodles/courgetti? Try Diana's zucchini bread.

Or some snack friendly, healthy berry and carrot muffins from Grace.

Review: Afternoon Tea at St Paul's Cathedral

Its not often that you go for Afternoon Tea and take more photos of the surroundings than the food itself. Unless, you go to St Paul's Cathedral where the views are breathtaking. 

The Cathedral sits up on the highest point of the City of London, on the top of Ludgate Hill. St Paul's as we see it today is the product of a complete rebuild to its 17th Century Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. 

Until the '60's, St Paul's was the highest building in London's skyline, reaching a whopping 365 feet and is still, to this day, one of the highest domes in the world.

When you step inside, look up. An interior dome, archways and mosaics span across the whole site. Everywhere you turn there's something else to look at. 

Down in the crypt you'll find more than 200 memorials and crypts including the Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Alexander Fleming and Florence Nightingale. 

As you stroll around feeling like you're in the middle of Hogwarts, you'll find in the south-west bell tower you really are. This is the staircase featured in the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Being super fans, both Katy and I squealed a little and took our time photographing absolutely every single step to savour every moment of being so close to Harry and co. 

And, after all that exploring you'll need to take a seat beneath the cathedral, collect your thoughts and enjoy finger sandwiches and scones.

In the restaurant, head chef Chris Terry uses local suppliers and seasonal produce in his menu; breakfast, mains, sharing platters and afternoon tea. 

A selection of finger sandwiches including smoked salmon, egg & cress, cucumber & cream cheese and ham & mustard. Freshly baked scones with Cornish clotted cream and chef's homemade rhubarb jam. 

And for sweets, lemon meringue pie, chocolate delice, rhubarb & ginger cheesecake and my favourite, cherry bakewell battenberg. 

Plenty of tea and English sparkling wine with russet apple.

I think chef knew we were about to embark on some more exploring and needed some fuel for the road!

30-ish feet above ground, now feeling like a giant, we set off to explore the cathedral from above. See the ground here...

...and the window in the ceiling?

Just a 'few' steps and now we were on top of the cathedral, almost...

Climbing 300-ish steps up, the top of St Paul's Dome offers spectacular views of London's skyline. Definitely worth it. 

And, if you want to experience even more of what St Paul's has to offer, don't miss the 5pm choral Evensong. Pretty impressive how a seemingly small choir can fill the entire cathedral.

Afternoon Tea is served in the cathedral restaurant Monday to Saturday, 3.00pm - 4.15pm. For £21.25 you'll get the full tea with sparkling wine, just £15.95 without or £9.95 for cream tea.

Buy tickets and book online here.

Huge thanks to the lovely Ed from the press team who spent the day before moving house giving us lady bloggers an expert guided tour.