After taking my mother to work, we decided to stop off in Town for breakfast. We chose Caramello's by virtue of there being a parking space right outside the restaurant.






















The thing I like about this restaurant is that they have a coffee plunger option. This was really the best coffee that I've had in a long time - I had the Medium, it was yum.

















Here's G's enormous breakfast...

















... and my white chocolate muffin. I was really looking forward to this - and, when I received it, I was terribly disappointed because it had been mis-labelled. So, in fact, it was an apple muffin.

















The Caramello's interior is not terribly exciting, but it does retain a sort of farm-stall/food-boutique feel that is quite nice.

















I particularly like their humorous food quotes that are set willy-nilly into the decor.

I miss tea with Operation Camomile terribly. It was our once-weekly opportunity to gather around savoury muffins and treats with coffee or tea and gossip about the past week. And so, at my first available day, we gathered around the greatness of Starlings tea tables in Claremont.

















The decor is still the same (very eclectic and pretty) and the tables are still inviting with their interesting bits and pieces on display.

















Isn't it odd how a little bit of rose goes a long way? There's something so terribly indulgent about having real flowers on your table that have been put there specifically for your visual pleasure; and if you don't appreciate them, it's as if they were grown for no reason whatsoever. Either way, they're beautiful, and a welcomed addition to our tea table.

















Starlings now has a beautiful outdoor seating area complete with sun umbrellas and bench cushions. We would have sat outside but it was far too windy and we'd have to protect our cups from flying bits of nature.






















Here's Bekah looking highly amused that I was photographing absolutely everything around us.






















Here's Rebecca, equally amused by my photograph-taking.






















Here's my organic Orange Rooibos tea. It's yummy. I love this teapot, I desperately want one. You can buy them here for about R500 but that's way too expensive for a teapot. I especially like that this design has a special space in the lower compartment for a tealight candle to keep your tea warm.

















This is my breakfast: brioche slices dipped in egg and topped with cinnamon, sugar and chopped pecan nuts, served with a side of syrup. I could only eat one of them - they were very filling! This is a winning dish.

















Here's Bekah's breakfast: French toast with bacon and honey (if memory serves me correctly).






















... Rebecca's spinach and feta muffin (served with butter and tomato chilli jam).

I'm very happy that we managed to get to Starlings, and I'm so pleased that it's still there after all this time!

I decided I had to have a new giant rock-bead so I could make a new necklace to take back to London, so I picked up Lauriane and we headed V&A-wards.

















It was a spectacular day. We happened upon this happy lego-like man, made entirely out of Coca-Cola Crates. Apparently his name is Elliot and he's not a Coca-Cola Crate Man, but rather a Crate Fan for the World Cup.






















Here's a close-up of Elliott. A similar version was done in Newtown in Jo'burg, and was made from 15,000 crates. A quick Google search doesn't bring up much about Elliott, but at least he has a nicer view.

It has been exceptionally windy in Cape Town over the last week. A few days ago I picked my mother up from work and while I waited, the car rocked from side to side as it was caught by gusts of wind (even though I was sheltered and parked next to a wall!) and people leaving the building were clinging to poles to stop themselves from being blown away.






















Here you can see that while the sea looks rather calm, the South African flag has been whipped around itself and the V&A flag blows rather well in the wind.

















We found some stones inside the Blue Shed Craft Market, but they were too small for my purposes.

















Then we walked up to the Scratch Patch, and they had millions of beautiful stones but there weren't many with holes through them. I prefer to knot a cord through a hole in a stone, rather than glue a stone cap on (they tend to fall off eventually).






















We gave up the search for stones and settled for Mugg&Bean instead. This is a Rocky Road Mocha - it's new(ish). Yum - hazelnut and vanilla with espresso, topped with foam, marshmallows and a sprinkling of chocolate.

















And just in case the first photograph didn't leave you salivating, here's a close-up.

















This is the food counterpart: potato skins filled with an array of interesting things. Guacamole and sour cream in one, savoury mince in another, macon and cheese in the last. Mm. This makes me feel like I need to run around the block a few times!

We've been planning on starting a book club when we get back to the UK (this Saturday!) and, after much deliberation and umming and uhhing, I think I've finally found our first book:

Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale.






















It has a beautiful cover, and it seems to meet all of our criteria:
- easy to read
- contemporary
- not overly complicated or steeped in literary theory
- not Lord-of-the-Rings thick
- not something I've taught previously :)

I'm trying to find out about Book Club discounts at Waterstone's or other book shops - it could be promising. Also, I'm struggling with the idea of owning two copies of the books we read for book club, although I guess we can always donate our additional copy to a library, charity or even to someone else who likes to read. Hm.

@ Wendy: You should join us - Skype in, or we can correspond in bloggerings?

On Sunday, we baked.

















Some oats, some flour...

















Some butter ... some syrup...






















Some icing sugar... some cocoa...






















Add a bit of fun, and some messiness...

















... and voila! Chocolate covered crunchies!

















No baking magic is complete without a few stars.

















... mm, delicious.

















See how tired I am? That's because this all took place waaaaay before I am usually awake! We were done and dusted by 11.15: including the baking bits!

















Then we went on to the chocolate-making. Here's a chunk of chocolate that was massive! I put my mobile next to it so you could get a size comparison. It's like a brick.

















This is white chocolate ganache - which is essentially Lindt White Chocolate mixed with Cream. Yum!

















How can you not dip your finger into that? We had to restrain ourselves :D

















We made tiny little dark chocolate cases...

















... and piped them full of deletable ganache.






















We then did some amazing things with cake and chocolate-wrapping.






















Which resulted in lemon drizzle cake wrapped in sheets of chocolate, covered in piped white chocolate ganache and topped with a filigree chocolate topper.

















We used paper to wrap the chocolate and not plastic, so the chocolate collars weren't neat and straight. I like the wavy look though. Mmm. They were really delicious!

















We then rolled out and coloured some plastic icing to test out the new Flower Press Punches I brought back from Lakeland.






















Everyone had a go. Some were more interested in the icing than in the flowers, but it was all fun.

















Punch, press, layer!

















... and add edible glitter, for sparkle, and a silver ball for the middle bits. I improvised a leaf, too.

















Just to give you an idea of the size comparison.

They dry up rather quickly, and then they're perfect to add to the top of cakes, cupcakes, biscuits or other edibles. So much nicer than buying ready-mades, methinks.