The Tiger Club invited us along to the launch of their Powder Keg Diplomacy earlier this year, and along to The Lost Society to celebrate and review their re-launch. (Writing for le cool since I moved to London has been ace.) For people with an apathy towards afternoon tea, a love of bunting, and a penchant for mini steak sandwiches and cake.

A few shots from my awful iPhone camera (apologies). It’s an adorable place.

These are adorable, aren’t they? We found ourselves at a loose end at the Brunswick Centre near Russel Square in search of a big gingerbread house (which turned out to be for children – some flawed research). Surrounded by children and French Connections, the square didn’t strike me as somewhere to find gorgeous cakes. I’d been spying at a lemon meringue recipe recently – it might be time to acquire an over the top mini-blowtorch and get cooking. I’m going to try and do little piped peaks like this when I do, I think they’re quite wonderful.

I have an exciting new Kenwood kitchen tool. It makes mixing and blending things lots of fun, though I’m not convinced I’ve fully mastered it yet (see pictorial evidence).

My shortbread that did not taste like shortbread. Recipe to follow when I’ve actually mastered it..

As with most baking, baking bread conjures up images of spotless surfaces save for a dab of white flour and a rolling pin, and more recently, bread machines that hum overnight. The reality in my hands is less pristine. During university, my first and only attempt at making sophisticated bread – by which I mean bread with peppers in – involved a crunchy outcome that didn’t make me want to put the time in again.

Luckily my memory is kind, and has turned this three year old memory of ‘let’s not do that again’ into ‘gosh, that was jolly wasn’t it?’

I was excited when I came across this bagel recipe whilst hunting out new and interesting things to cook. This was very well and good because they turned out absolutely fantastic. And I like that you boil them. It’s all rather silly and they taste great – even if they do look like a five year old’s made them. We’ll call that charm for now.

Find the New York Style Bagel recipe via SophisticatedGourmet.com, who is a disgustingly talented teen chef type.

I’ve saved the recipe here for my own peace of mind.

I make a lot of cakes but these by Rozi at work are lovely and inventive and completely adorable. The cooing is deafening, I must stop.