Four local North East foodie favourites

I love to visit local farmer's markets, food fairs and festivals. Discovering and supporting new independent businesses that operate from within the North East makes me really happy. I visit my local farmer's market at Stewart Park, have been to the Bishop Auckland food festival and also Living North live twice now. I want to get out and visit more so I can see what great foodies we have here in the North East.

I've picked out a few businesses to introduce you to that have become some of my favourites! A few of them I've mentioned before on my blog or on twitter. I've bought their products numerous times now and would go back again for more.

Pudding Parlour - I've written about these lovely cake makers before in my Living North Christmas haul post in which I bought the Ferrero rocher cake. It's delicious, so chocolatey and fluffy. There have so many amazing sounding cakes, I'm going to have to try them all.

The Gingerbread Mam - I first came upon the Stockton-based Gingerbread Mam when I attended the Butterwick Hospice's Ladies Afternoon Tea. At this she sold her products but also gave a small talk about how she got started and her future plans, it was really interesting. Best of all she passed around free samples! I picked up a ginger syrup sponge and loved it! When I saw that she'd be at the Living North Spring event I made sure to pick up another.

Geordie Banger Co. - When I'm at food fairs, I can't resist some local produce. I've had Geordie Bangers before after winning a twitter competition and I really enjoyed them. It's hard to get these as they are based in Newcastle but at the Living North Spring fair, I decided to stock up! I've tried all the packs I picked up now and they were very tasty.

Spicy Monkey - Based out of Durham, this company makes many curry sauces and chutneys that you can use at home. They are made with fresh ingredients and taste amazing. I've tried the medium monkey curry and mango chutney and they are both winners!

Have you tried any of these? Which ones do you like? Any others you'd recommend that I try?

Festive Afternoon Tea at the Vermont Hotel

Earlier this month I attended a festive edition of the blogger cake club, kindly organised by Chloe. For the Christmas special she booked us in at The Vermont Hotel in Newcastle. This is a posh hotel hidden away in the centre of Newcastle. I can say this as I got lost trying to find it, it's hidden in plain sight. All I will say is look up and you'll see the sign, don't make the mistake I did and walk down to quayside and back. At least I worked off a bit of cake before I'd eaten it!

We'd all decided before we got there that we'd don our cheesy Christmas jumpers. As I'm known for gingerbread men, that's the jumper I had to go with! The seven of us, all in our festive best, were seated in the Redwood bar which was very cosy and elegant.

Soon after we sat down our food came and there seemed to be loads of it, they even gave us all a glass of mulled wine to accompany it. What was brilliant about this afternoon tea was that they brought us as much tea as we wanted! This is what us bloggers, and I'd have to say us British, love! There were plenty of yummy sandwiches including a festive brie, bacon and cranberry one. Everyone had two scones each and then a plate FULL of desserts. I didn't get the chance to try them all but the ones I had, which included a chocolate mousse and a chocolate truffle, were definitely satisfying.

During our afternoon tea, we exchanged Secret Santa presents. At first, it was very tense to see if the person I'd bought for, Shivani, liked her present then I was nervous to see if I would like mine! Everyone has that feeling, don't they? Just in case they don't like their gift. It's safe to say I LOVED my present from Kayleigh, she got it spot on with my gingerbread themed gifts. She gave me a knitted gingerbread man for the Christmas tree, a gingerbread bath bomb and a ginger-spiced candle! Perfect presents for the gingerbread obsessed. Just in case you are wondering, Shivani seemed to like her gift which was a mug shaped like a camera lense. She likes taking photos so I thought this was a quirky but relevant present. I also got her a chocolate S from Amsterdam.

Overall it was a brilliant afternoon with a superb afternoon tea which I'd recommend to anyone for £14.95 as it was great value for the amount you get. Although this was the festive afternoon tea in sure their normal one would be just as good! I can't wait to see what amazing places Chloe picks for next year's blogger cake club.

Let There Be Crumbs - Blogger Cake Club Review - Roker Sunderland

Us North East bloggers LOVE cake! Any reason to eat some and we are there. Luckily, Chloe (New Girl in Toon) has started to organise a bloggers cake club in which she sets up a time and venue for us all to meet and gorge ourselves on all sorts of baked goods! I didn't get to go to the first one as it was too far North, so when she announced the next meet would be in Sunderland, I was up for the 50-minute drive.

The venue she picked was called Let There Be Crumbs and it was part of the Best Western Roker Hotel on the seafront. Although it wasn't a very nice day we sat at the window to get some sea views. The girls that attended were Chloe (obvs), Caroline (Notes from Caroline), Kayleigh (I Dream of Coco), Lisa (Is it Me Me), Shivani (Cloud in a Teacup) and Julie (Julie and the Knits).

The venue was great. Large space with lots of seating and great quirky touches such as large tea sacks as blinds and cushion covers as well as wooden boards on the counter covered in tea prints. We all got sat down and started to wonder what cake we should pick. There was a lot of choice. We even got up to go to the counter so that we could decide which one to pick. A few people got just tea and cake, whilst three of us got cream tea AND a piece of cake. When it came it included two large scones, a cheese one and a fruit one which were very yummy. I picked Mississipi Mud pie for my cake which was so tasty but very rich.

The food was lovely but we didn't get enough tea! Us Northern Bloggers need copious amounts of tea but we were sharing teapots between three and scraping by on sips. Also, the service was a bit poor. Although I understand there were a few of us, it doesn't take that long to get pieces of cake and then for some to be forgotten. A bit all over the place but we enjoyed ourselves laughing at how English we were for wanting more tea but not speaking up because we were so polite. This was a nice place and although the cakes were lovely I wouldn't rush back to visit because the service was quite poor. Hopefully, they will sort it out and then I'd love to go back! Has anyone been?

Love Niche London Collection Fashion Preview - Newcastle

Last month I was invited to the preview of a collection called Love Niche London put together by fashion entrepreneur, Nisha Vedhara. She'd put on a gorgeous spread of treats including cocktails, fruit, popcorn and sweets which we munched on whilst we waited to go into the studio.

The studio was amazing. It was filled with lots of clothes, sorted by colour, on racks around the room accompanied by lots of sparkling jewellery. I felt like I was in Kim Kardashian's walk-in wardrobe! We all started browsing the clothes and picking our favourites. As we did, Nisha announced there would be an outfit competition so we all raced around the room picking items we loved that would go great together.

I fell in love with this gorgeous blue jacket, so I had to try and find items that would go with it. I found this pretty simple top with an accompanying necklace that I thought went perfectly underneath. The trouble came from me when I had to find trousers! I personally think this would go great with jeans but there were none to be seen so I tried out some white trousers with them.

Unfortunately, I didn't win, fashion blogger Tasha Steel scooped first prize and got to take her chosen outfit home with her! We all took numerous pictures and browsed the clothes for potential buys. Throughout I got the chance to chat to my blogger friends who I don't see unless we are at blogger events; Chloe (New Girl in Toon), Lisa (Is it Just Meme) and Kayleigh (I Dream of Coco). I also met Alexis (Newcastle Sparkles) which was great as I love meeting other local bloggers. It was a brilliant night spent with some lovely bloggers and gorgeous clothes. I think the plan is for Love Niche London to appear online shortly so you will be able to have a browse at the clothes yourself!