Andrew Edmunds...

Andrew Edmunds is a romantic restaurant in Soho complete with candles and a daily changing menu. We sat downstairs which was good because although we went at 6:30 we still got the dark candle-lit ambience.

We got the recommended bottle of red wine (which name escapes my memory at this time but you may be able to recognise form the photos) and received a great bread basket of sourdough and wholemeal bread.

This photo below makes it look like the restaurant is huge but it is actually a mirrored wall, in reality I would say it could seat maybe 25 people maximum downstairs.

On the day that my boyfriend and I visited, this was the menu:

It is handwritten everyday so excuse the photos if you are unable to read them.

For picky eaters this may be quite a hard restaurant to pick because you do not know until you arrive what you are going to be able to order but I personally think it is a great menu catering to all tastes and so you should be able to find something. (or just have 3 puddings *heart eyes emoji*)

For starters, we shared a plate of the Wood Pigeon Breast.

It was the ultimate comfort food style course and it tasted amazing. I definitely would recommend this if it is on the menu when you visit.

Then for main courses, we got the duck breast and the lemon sole. We had half of each dish each as we like to taste as much as possible. The portion sizes were really good, especially the size of the lemon sole.

Sorry about the quality of these photos, the candles casted so many shadows that it was hard to keep them out the photos.

All the food tasted fresh and very flavoursome, I was very impressed with the quality of the ingredients.

As a chocolate lover, I simply had to order the chocolate and cherry tart for us to share for pudding. Unfortunately it was so good that it was devoured before a photo was taken...

I can say that it was very rich so the perfect pudding to share (although I definitely had more than my fair share).

This restaurant is definitely worth the slightly higher prices as you can tell that the food is of a great quality and tastes amazing.

After dinner we walked down towards Leicester Square and visited the Comedy Carnival for some light laughs to end the night. Despite arriving late (we got a little too attached to the food at Andrew Edmunds) we were quietly shuffled in and had a great time.

It was very dark but you get the jist from these photos that it was situated in a dark underground room with a little bar at the side for the breaks. As one of the comedians put it, it was the sort of the place a comedy show would have to be if comedy was illegal. 

Bear in mind the drinks prices are extortionate so take my advice and have drinks with dinner before visiting to lubricate your comedy receptors. (everything is funnier when slightly tipsy)

For £12 for a concession ticket and some well known comedian headliners I think this show is a great option if you want to end the night on a high of laughter.

Date Day...

We took the tube to London Bridge to visit Borough Market. We had a few nibbles here including scallops, a duck wrap and a glass of peach wine spritz. I would recommend sharing everything you get at the market as then you get to try more without getting too full.

For dessert (and because our feet needed a break) we got a Bread Ahead Doughnut and a coffee from Monmouth coffee. We were lucky enough to get a seat in the small coffee shop.

We had previously tried Bread Ahead's popular Sea Salt Caramel Honeycomb doughnut so this time we went for the chocolate ganache flavour with cacao nibs on top.

I would definitely have to say the caramel one is a lot better as the chocolate ganache did not have a very strong flavour. Then again maybe it is so the doughnut is not so heavy but as we were sharing it could have done with more flavour.

The cappuccino I had was of course as amazing as one would expect from Monmouth Coffee with a queue always out of the door. Bear in mind they do not have skimmed milk on offer but so not let this or the queue stop you from ordering a coffee here!

From Borough Market we walked to Swingers Golf Bar which is situated right next to the Gherkin.

There are a lot of cool pop up food joints at the bar including Pizza Pilgrims, Patty&Bun and Le Bab. Unfortunately we had just eaten so stepped straight onto the course to begin our mini golf session.

There are "Caddies" on the golf course to fetch drinks for you as you play so we gladly ordered a glass of rose for me and a bottle of Corona for boy. 

The nine holes went faster than expected. On the eighth hole, my amazing skill (luck) landed me a hole in one and with it a free shot of limoncello which was downed eagerly.

After finishing our round we moved upstairs to the bar.

We ordered two cocktails from their extensive cocktail menu.

The cocktail in the champagne glass is "The Albatross" which was Cordon Rosado Cava, pear saffron puree and cassis.

The cocktail on the left is a "Clover Club" which was Tanqueray No.TEN, Noily Prat Vermouth, fresh raspberries, lemon and egg whites.

As you can see from the photos I drank most of the "Clover Club" as it was definitely the better, and sweeter, of the two.

It was such a good day and such a great date idea to do both Borough Market and Swingers in one day as you can walk between them. I would 100% recommend both to anyone.

Mocha Cake Recipe...

For Father's Day this year I decided to bake dad a Mocha cake. A compromise on everyone's favourite, a rich chocolate cake, and dad's favourite, coffee cake.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake

50g cocoa powder

175g self-raising flour

1 rounded teaspoon baking power

275g caster sugar

60ml milk

3 eggs

100g butter

Method

Firstly, grease 3 20cm sandwich tins. You can use baking parchment but I simply sprayed them with spray light.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the cocoa powder with a tablespoon of boiling water to form a paste.

Simply add all the remaining ingredients into your mixing bowl and mix to form a thickish batter.

Divide this mixture between the 3 tins. Tap each tin on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and put the tins in the oven for 22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

The next step is to make the coffee glaze to go on top of the cake.

Mix 2 tablespoons of instant coffee powder with 2 tablespoons of boiling water to form a paste then mix this paste with a cup of icing sugar. If the glaze is too thick you can add more boiling water.

Buttercream is a popular choice so to make a coffee buttercream to spread between the cake layers mix 
100g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons of coffee granules dissolved in 1 tablespoon of boiling water

Finally, assemble your cake by firstly spreading the buttercream across 2 layers.

Spread the coffee glaze over the top layer of the cake. I like the messy drip look but for a neater looking cake you can add more icing sugar to the glaze and you will be able to avoid the drips.

You can decorate the top of your cake with anything you like.

I chose walnuts and grated dark chocolate for my cake.

I hope you enjoy making and eating this indulgent Mocha Cake!