Other than cycling and swimming, the weekend was still a busy one. It started Friday night with Ben getting a sports massage from our local friendly sports therapist Kyle.
I must say, there was an element of pleasure in watching my husband get a deep massage, rather than it being me this time! He bared up well – no major swear words or serious grimaces.
Then, after swimming and parkun on Saturday, we got ourselves nice and dapper ready for my mum’s birthday. What better way to celebrate than to take my parents for champagne afternoon tea?
We went to the fairly local MacDonald Botley Park hotel. 
It was very posh. We had little dainty sandwiches, two (two!) scones each and small dainty cakes. As I’ve had my fair share of afternoon tea and I feel I can judge these things quite well now 😉 I must say it was very nice. The scones were superb. Personally the cakes, though tasty, weren’t the best I’ve ever had. I much prefer a big slab of one particular cake rather than tiny portions of different cake (there was a chocolate coffee thing, slices of lemon poppy seed cake, plain sponge and fruit cake).
Can we just continue to talk about cake a moment? I’ve fallen off the wagon and into the dessert trolley it seems. My previous one week without cake only heightened my need for it. Things weren’t great last week.
Well obviously they were great taste-wise, but not great for my sugar consumption!
I went to Wagamama’s with work friends and after feeling rather saintly (but still a tad hungry) after my chilli chicken salad and miso soup I was persuaded to look at the pudding menu – well, I hardly need persuading! This then resulted in two of us ordering a stupid amount of different puddings. It was being expensed by work and some people weren’t having pudding…so it all evened up. In the end I had the above chocolate fudge cake, half a white chocolate cheesecake, I had some coconut ice cream, raspberry ice cream and a try of the passion fruit cheesecake. Needless to say I felt a little full afterwards. It was rather funny to watch people’s faces as my work colleague and I demolished a table of puddings.
But I think I fully put to bed my incessant craving. Obviously I then had afternoon tea on Saturday but I’m in a good place now with my cake love – it’s manageable 😉 Though I did have a baking fail on Monday when I attempted to make a chocolate peanut butter brownie to take into work the next day.
I think it’s probably safe that I can’t really bake very well. Who knows how many cakes I’d try to make in a week otherwise? Dangerous for both bank account and waistline.
To be fair, after I scraped the burnt bits off it looked a little better. A bit of melted chocolate drizzled on top sort of livened it up as well. But cutting it the next morning was a proper arm workout. It was a brick, there’s no denying it.
But can I just say: there was none left on Tuesday evening. Not such a fail after all? Or maybe my office are that desperate for baked goods…
Jumping back to Sunday, Ben and me had a lot of shopping to get done. New trainers, new trail shoes, a tent (for our upcoming 24 hour race in June – I’m trying not to think about that right now), camping chairs and walking boots.
We both successfully got the new trainers (Mizuno Nirvanas for me). It’s funny because I went with the intention of changing from Mizuno’s as that’s what I’ve always had and I thought I might need a change. I’m a serious over-pronator so always have to go for a stability shoe. But out of all the ones I’d be advised to try and had a little run in, the Mizuno’s felt the best. Saucony’s felt very rigid and the Brooks were second best but just not as good.
We got the walking boots done and dusted too.
These are for our upcoming trip to Snowdonia to see my grandad (who is a qualified British Mountain Guide and used to do crazy amounts of rock climbing, mountaineering, and still goes mountain biking and lots of walking – as well as the slightly less exciting golf ;-)). He’s taking us up Snowden (or at least pointing the way) so we needed to be prepared. We’re very excited!
And other than Monday’s cycling and Nando’s extravaganza, that’s pretty much it!
What’s been a recent baking fail for you?
Have you ever ordered more than one pudding off the menu? It felt so indulgent and extravagant!
Have you been hiking before? Anywhere nice?
Your brownie cake made me laugh. Hey! We can’t all have success in the kitchen 24/7.. however, it sounds like it was still a huge hit. I mean can you really ever go wrong w/pb & chocolate anything even if burnt? 🙂
Jessie recently posted…#fuelyourbetter: Vega Sport Performance Protein + Recipe
Haha well I think everything I’ve ever baked has had at least one disaster, whether big or small!
It tasted fine to me 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
What an amazing jam-packed time you’ve had recently Anna! That wagamama cake looks divine, I always order lots of sides to go with my main so rarely have room for dessert, may have to rethink my strategy next time 😉
Sorry about your baking fail but glad to hear it was salvageable! I like the idea of having a slightly crunchy, burned topping 😉
Your new trainers are so pretty!
Claire @ Flake and Cake recently posted…Birthday cake for breakfast
I like the idea of ordering lots of sides. Probably better than ordering lots of puddings!!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Well, I’m sure your blog will come up if someone randomly searches for cake porn…that’s for sure. I’ll be honest: if I could eat cake and still look as amazing as you, I wouldn’t worry about how much of it I was eating. It’s not going to be detrimental to your running, as you have a healthy diet otherwise. I know enough male runners who exist on absolute junk (and I mean junk – we’re talking pizzas, kebabs and Rustlers burgers here, punctuated by hundreds of cans of energy drinks and the occasional sugary, bought, processed excuse for a flapjack) and yet still a) never seem to get injured and b) run ridiculously good times considering the crap they put into themselves. I don’t know if guys can just get away with that, but I just see no reason to really stress over your love of cake. I am one of those ‘look at a cake crumb and put on weight’ people, so I have to stress over whether dare to eat a banana before a marathon (seriously…it’s that bad at this point), so maybe leave all of the worrying and anxiety to us 😉
Sadly (or perhaps fortunately, in my case) I can’t bake for shit, so everything is a fail by default. I do enjoy hiking, particularly with my Dad. He can’t walk as far as he used to, but it’s still nice to go for a wander every now and again.
xxx
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Thanks, Jess. I must say though that eating a lot of cake for weeks on end does make me feel rubbish and also bloated! And I’m definitely not immune to weight gain. I try and manage my addiction (?) by balancing it the next day with something other than cake! Luckily I think my metabolism is healthy so I just ‘rebalance’ again. But if I do it constantly the balance will definitely tip.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Jealous of your Snowden trip, despite living in Wales for 22 years of my life it was not something I ever did, definitely need to rectify this!
Lauren (@PoweredbyPB) recently posted…London 2 Brighton 56k
It was FANTASTIC. The views, the hiking…such fun and breathtaking (literally!)
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Yay for afternoon tea! Such a lovely treat for your mum. Your brownie cake sounds delicious even if you think it didn’t turn out so well.
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Afternoon tea really is the perfect way to spend an afternoon with your family I think 🙂
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
I had a baking fail the other week, for my cake club meeting! Not so good, but at the end of th day it is just a cake so it does not really matter, and as you found out people aren’t that fussy! 🙂
I have Mizuno’s too- I got the same model as last time but the upgraded/ new version, but they are much stiffer and I don’t like them as much. I have asics trail shoes which I love so I might try some of theirs next time.
We did some great hikes in the american national parks last year, and had some lovely walks in the lake district at Easter.
All that cake looks good! When I go for afternoon tea I tend to go for the scones and cakes and not the sandwiches- I am not too fussed about them usually.
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…Hill repeats!
Hehe I must say I am not fussy with baked goods. I’ll eat anything!
I really want to go hiking in the US. Looks AMAZING.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Oh no! Your cake! I have to admit I giggled a bit when I saw it…it’s pretty funny looking. I have baking fails all the time. It usually involves cookies or some other baked good where I swapped out too many of the ingredients and then they either didn’t rise, tasted gross, spread all over the pan, etc.
Chelsea @ Chelsea Eats Treats recently posted…Easy Finance Tips for 20-Somethings
It did get some abuse I must say. But it happens to the best of us (I hope!)
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Those trainers look great, I’ve been getting some serious footware envy from the blog world recently! I’ve never ordered more than one dessert, but I have forced James to order one so I could eat most of it 😉
Hahaha! Yes I’ve done that before – made Ben get a dessert so I could try it. But he’s done it to me before too so it’s all fair 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Your Grandad sounds pretty cool! I’d love to hike up Snowdon. I hiked along the ‘Jurassic Coast’ from Weymouth to Lulworth Bay on a work outing last year, it was great.
I’ve never had an afternoon tea, but to be fair I don’t drink tea, and I’m not really a fan of sandwiches or cake! (yes I must admit I don’t really like cake, it’s too sweet for me!)
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Oh wow that sounds great – I’ve just got a book of 100 good British walks so I will be having a look at what we can do over the years.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? You don’t like cake? This shocks me.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
Yes that does look a little crispy! I totally failed at my broccoli pizza base last night but it tasted awesome just looked like poop!
Tamzin recently posted…Happy June 2nd!
Haha crispy is the right word!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap
I used to work as Assistant Manager at Frankie & Benny’s and one night on a night out in Birmingham with another Manager we went into the restaurant and ordered every dessert off the menu for a dessert tasting session (thankfully we made use of our staff discount!) and luckily in the end, the manager on shift joined us to help demolish the desserts, otherwise I would have had to be rolled out of the restaurant! Good times!
Hope you’re having fun up Snowdon. This is something I must add to our to-do-list for next year as I think Dan would really enjoy it.
Ohhhhhh wow!!! Sounds like my kinda evening!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Running ain’t cheap