Nutty about cronuts

By now you should have heard of the notorious 'cronut': the flakey, sweet, soft croissant/doughnut hybrid. It's taken New York by storm  and hundreds of New yorkers have been queuing around the block from as early as 6am to get their sticky mitts on one of Dominique Ansel bakery's sweet treats. Famous fans include Heidi Klum (yeah, like she's ever eaten a pastry in her life) and Emma Roberts (who got sent to the back of the queue after much 'don't you know who I am behaviour with the bakery's door staff).

So popular, Cronut inventer Dominique has even trademarked the name which has led to an emergence of cronut siblings, bakers desperately trying to recreate the perfect pastry whilst avoiding the 'cronut' moniker. Duck and Waffle have come up with the 'Dosant' but today's post is about the Cro-Dough, created by Whitechapel bakers, Rinkoff.

I was delighted to discover that Rinkoff is just a mere 10 minute walk from my flat so this morning at 9am (not quite up to a 6am start) I dragged my boyfriend out of bed and off on a Cro-dough hunt.

We eventually found the bakery and we're delighted to find we were the only people there and that the Cro-Doughs were fresh out of the oven. Rinkoff currently do three flavour Cro-Doughs; raspberry, custard and fresh cream with chocolate chunks. Eager to get a taste of them all we bought one of each and a coffee to go.

Not being able to resist opening the box before we got home we decided to sit down in the park and enjoy the first one; please excuse my greedy cronut face.

The raspberry one was so tasty and was covered in cinnamon sugar and went down an absolute treat. We decided to save the other two until we got home, armed with a glass of milk.

Each flavour tasted better than the last but we we're both in agreement that the fresh cream was our favourite; surprising, as I imagined I would have liked the raspberry best. The cream was so fresh and oozed out of the pastry with every bite and the chocolate chunks we're just a bonus.

If you want to get your hands on one of these bad boys I recommend going early, we got there at 9am on Sunday and only one other person came in while we were there but they sell out real quick as the morning goes on. Run home, put on the coffee and stuff your face with cro/dough/nutty goodness.

http://www.rinkoffbakery.co.uk/

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What's in a name?

A lot apparently. After creating my blog a few months ago, I ummed and ahhed over a name for so long I eventually went for something so inoffensive I found myself feeling detached from it. Trying to combine food and beauty (the main crux of the blog) to think of a witty pun-worthy named and all I could come up with was SugarBlush (sugar = food, blush = make-up - geddit?!)

I've had another go, guys. I've come up with something I'm much happier with, Beauty on a Bun*. It feels less like a girlie, fluffy nothing name to something that encapsulates what the hell is actually going on over here. So, now I have a blog name I'm happy with I can hopefully get back in the blogging swing of things.

*(I actually came up with Beauty and the Feast first but some bastard had already taken it).

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Made in Milan

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and I'm pretty sure my friend Ro gave me the bestest present I could have asked for - a surprise visit to Milan! I grabbed my passport, euros and just one holdall (the lightest I have EVER travelled) and we made our to Milano.

We got there on the Tuesday evening so I woke up to the sunshine on my actual birthday - amazing.

We started with breakfast where I got serenaded by the hotel staff and given a little birthday tart *prepares for comments about me being a birthday tart* 

After breakfast we were all about the shopping. I'd done some quick browsing of Trip Advisor and was told 10 Corso Como was Milan's shopping mecca. 

A huge bazaar full of unusual (and expensive!) clothes, perfumes, beauty, candles, bags and shoes. All designer and all completely lust-worthy. 10 Corso Como also has a cafe, bookshop, gallery, gardens and hotel but we made a beeline for the shoes.

Being a  devout Louboutin lover, I found Ro amongst the red soles...

But I was completely taken with these babies!

How amazing are these sparkly ice-cream cone heels? They're designed by Karl Lagerfeld for plastic shoe brand Melissa as part of their A/W 2013 collection. I loved both immediately and couldn't decide which ones I liked best, luckily for me they only had my size in the classic vanilla which made my decision a lot easier. After man-handling them for a while I noticed the shoes had a kind of smell about them... I was told by the shop assistant to take a whiff; not only do these shoes look like ice-cream, they smell like it too! *ICE-CREAM SCENTED SHOES KLAXON*

So, I'm now the proud owner of some Karl Lagerfeld ICE-CREAM SCENTED shoes.

After about an hour of creating mental wishlists of everything in the shop and spritzing ourselves with Tom Ford perfume we we're ready for some sorbet refreshment.

So while Ro was busy with her THREE PHONES... (she's very busy and important, dontcha know?)

I made friends with this little woof sitting beside us.

After some serious perving on all the Italian men in suits we had some lemon sorbet, delish.

Sitting in the sun for what seemed like forever we thought we should really take advantage of some of the culture and visited the cathedral (and did a bit more window shopping.)

Always time for pizza. Which was also accompanied by some Tiramisu and another birthday serenade by the lovely waiters.

It was an amazing trip and such an awesome birthday present, It's Ro's birthday in October so now I'm just wondering what the hell I'm going to get her?!

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Bubbles and Dawgs

If there is one thing I love more than hotdogs, it's posh hotdogs and that's exactly what you get at Bubbledogs. Bubbledogs is the champagne bar with only one food stuff on the menu, the not-so-humble hotdog.

Everyone and their dog (pun ruefully intended) is talking about Bubbledogs, and with good reason - the food is bloody delicious and the drink isn't bad either.

We turned up at 3.15pm on Saturday and was greeted with a queue of about six people. A very friendly waiter came out (I think his name was Luke) and told us that they actually close at 3.30pm for a couple of hours so there was a possibility we might not get a table. We prayed to the hotdog gods that everyone would clear out and luckily our prayers were answered and we managed to get a really nice table tucked away in the corner.

The atmosphere in Bubbledogs is really lovely, the staff are friendly and chatty but not intrusive and the whole place just feels really relaxed. The decor is modern but cosy and they have some pretty impressive lights.

On to the drink, there is a HUGE champagne menu, and you can share a bottle (like we did) or just order by the glass. They also have some pretty tasty yet classic cocktails on offer. I'm not a massive champagne drinker (I usually think it tastes like a flannel) so I was happy to let my fellow diners choose the bubbles and I just sipped along happily.

I was more preoccupied with the hotdog menu.


There are 14 hotdogs on the menu and they all sound so delicious I would have had one of each if I could have stomached it. I eventually plumped for the New Yorker, (and was delighted at the opportunity to practice my New York accent 'New Yoiker dawg purlease') a pork hotdog with grilled sauerkraut and onions. I'd never had sauerkraut before and I was a little wary but I loved it, it was so tasty and kind of reminded me of dry coleslaw - not a bad thing in my book.

Ro also got a New Yorker (minus the sauerkraut - she's not as much of a food pioneer as I am), and The Greek and The Italian both got The Caesar! (The Greek and The Italian were our dining partners, not food items).

We also got two lots of coleslaw and two lots of sweet potato fries. I'm a big fan of sweet potato and eat it at least twice a week and like to think of myself as something of a sweet potato connoisseur, but I was still mightily impressed with the fries, cooked to perfection; my compliments to the chef.

We all agreed that the food was amazing and we would all definitely return. I even enjoyed the champagne, which says a lot for me, I usually pour it in the nearest plant pot at weddings.

My only advice would be to turn up at early lunch or early dinner time as they get VERY busy at peak times, so you can expect a bit of a queue. Although, they do say good things come to those who wait and Bubbledogs is all good.

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Tourist Information

It's been nearly six months since I moved to London but I just haven't had time for a proper touristy day. I've done all the main things before, London Eye, Big Ben etc but when my friend, Ro, said she had a couple of Italian and Greek friends coming over and did I want to help show them around I jumped at the chance. Not literally, I don't jump much.

We started off at Buckingham Palace and we were most amused that one of the guy's reaction was 'is this it?' Soz Lizzie.

I, on the other hand, was loving it.

We carried on to Trafalgar Square, did some red bus spotting and then went for a quick walk around the National Portrait Gallery.

After all our sight-seeing we were suitably famished so we moseyed on down to Bubbledogs. Bubbledogs is a restaurant with only two things on the menu - champagne and hotdogs, a beautiful partnership I'm sure you'll agree. I enjoyed it that much I'm going to do a separate post about it this week so I can ramble on about it to a greater extent.

After all this fun (and champagne) I needed a lie down, so, I went home for a nap. Many hours later I made my way back to meet everyone for more merriment. We did a bit of tactical pre-drinking which of course led to drinking games. I can confirm that Fuzzy Duck becomes even more hilarious when the people you're playing with don't have English as their first language.

Our nightclub of choice for the night was Mahiki. Unfortunately, we were busy having too much fun to take loads of pictures but we did LOTS of dancing and I fell in love....with a drink called Blue Hawaiian. I think it might be the start of something special. However, I did do a bit of taste testing of everybody else's drinks...

And in the morning woke up with an almighty headache, the sign of a good night.

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Speckled

I am a big fan of mini eggs, so when I found out there was a nail varnish available to disguise my talons as the tiny, tasty treats I was sold.

Illamasqua nail varnish in 'Fragile', £14.50

This nail varnish is one of the five speckled nail varnishes in Illamasqua's Imperfection (I'm-perfection) range - encouraging lovely ladies to embrace their imperfections. The names are just as cute as the colours - 'Freckle' must be the cutest nail varnish name EVER.

Despite what the name says, I think they are perfect. The speckled blue colour I'm wearing is called 'Fragile' and I absolutely love it. The colour glides on really easily and this is the finished article after two coats. Getting the speckles off is a different story though, nail varnish remover worked okay to get most of it off but I did have to pick a few bits off. I've got my eye on the lovely lilac 'Speckle' next.

NB: Apologise to your boss now - you're gonna be far too busy staring at your own hand to do any work.

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A blog is born

So, I've done it. I've created a blog.

After agonising after a name I've plumped for something totally inoffensive and quite girlie. I didn't really want a completely generic girlie name but it's going to be a pretty girlie blog so why the hell not. I'll let my inner powder puff princess shine through (she can be a bit annoying but she knows all the best mascara.)

I like make-up, and clothes, and food so expect to see a lot of that here. I also like bitching and moaning so I wouldn't rule that out either.

Lets see what happens shall we?

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