Cocktail Masterclass @ BBC Good Food Show

Cocktails are a real hit with us bloggers. We attempt to try every cocktail under the sun and get extremely excited when we see a new one on the menu. How many of us have tried to make cocktails at home and actually succeeded in creating something delicious? I can't say I have. My abilities stretch to Archers and lemonade, not really a cocktail.

Whilst at the BBC Good Food Show on Friday we discovered they were running cocktails at home masterclasses every hour so we booked ourselves on to the last one of the day.

During the 40 minute masterclass we learnt how to make the basics of a cocktail - 2 parts spirit, 1 part sweet and 1 part sour. For my first drink, I chose gin, camomile tea sugar syrup and fresh lemon juice. Boy was it strong but super tasty! We got to drink our first cocktail as we delved deeper into the basics of mixology producing another drink adding juices and then the basis for a unique sangria in which we needed to add soda water at home.

Overall the session was fun and informative with the two presenters constantly making us giggle. The set up was fab with everyone having enough room to make amazing cocktails whilst having surplus ingredients readily available on the tables. The presenters talked you through what you had to do as well as having a TV showing what they were doing up on stage. I'd say I learnt a lot in this masterclass and can't wait to try some of what I was taught at home. They provided us with a little set of cards to take away which detailed what we'd learnt. On this was a link to thebar.com which shows you hundreds of cocktail combinations to try at home! I even came away with a professional mixing set (i.e the metal cup and clear glass that you shake it up in, the strainer and the spoon) and a bottle of Captain Morgan's spiced rum for £31.50.

The lemons, alcohol and juices are in so I'm off to make cocktails!

BBC Good Food Show (Summer) - NEC, Birmingham

I love to cook, I rarely bake (because I am no good at it), but I do cook and I think I do it pretty well. I like to try new recipes and since being in the house have not tried the same one twice! Cooking is something I really enjoy and I like learning different techniques and taking on board knowledge from others. Last year myself and mum attended the BBC Good Food Show and really enjoyed ourselves bringing back tonnes of food and goodies. This year we weren't too bothered about going but then Mum won tickets on Facebook from Sponge. So we decided to take Friday off to drive down to Birmingham.

At the Good Food Show, there is so much to do. They have many different 'stages' with chefs doing live demonstrations and interacting with the audience. Many celebrity chefs are present at the event with the likes of Mary Berry, Brian Turner, Paul Hollywood, Frances Quinn, Sabrina Ghaynor and John Whaite to name but a few!

We saw Paul Hollywood at the Supertheatre (in which you need tickets for) and John Whaite on the Lakeland Summer Kitchen stage which was open to everyone. Both did a live cookery demonstration, Paul making a stilton and walnut bread, and John producing a beetroot cake. It was great to see them live rather than through a TV screen as it was more real to life rather than edited like on TV programmes.

At the show, there is an opportunity to meet your favourite chefs and get them to sign their book for you. We took this up and got Paul Hollywood to sign a book for mum and John Whaite to sign a book for me! Both signings were pretty quiet so we didn't have to queue long before we got to meet them.

We then spent a lot of time perusing the stalls to see what was on offer. There were many of the same stalls as last year with the addition of a whole host of others. We picked up a few things such as Toffoc vodka, Brownie Bar brownies, Bluebird Tea Co strawberry lemonade tea and Mrs Crimbles baked treats.

We even had the chance to pop along and see some of the gorgeous flowers over at the BBC Gardeners World which is joined to the Good Food Show.

I'd definitely recommend the Good Food Show to anyone who loves a good day out. There are many of these events dotted throughout the year in various locations, check the website to see if they are near you soon! Even if you are not super into your cooking it is nice to go along, wander around, sample new foods and see what is out there.