Exploring Prague: Brews and Views tour with Eating Prague

Prague is famous the world over for its beer so when I was offered the chance to try Eating Prague Brews and Views tour, I was very excited to see what they had in mind. Brews and Views is a brand new 3.5 hour tour celebrating the country's proud history of beer and local food specialities. Partnering with international beer expert Evan Rail, the company has made it their mission to introduce visitors to the hidden Prague.

Starting off at the wonderful Letna beer garden, we all admired the stunning view over the city as we learnt about the history of Czech beer. After we finished the first drink, we headed down the step to start exploring the city. Our guide was absolutely fantastic - so knowledgable and so friendly. It makes things so much more interesting when you're listening to someone so passionate about what they're talking about. I don't want to spoilt to much about the tour in case you go on it yourself but I will give you my highlights. And insist that you most definitely book it if you ever find yourself in Prague! One tip I will offer is, make sure you go hungry as there's a lot of food to be enjoyed!

The food. Oh the food. We stopped off to try a hotdog at Nase Maso - right next to their butchers shop. Oh my word, it was so delicious that we went back a second time after the tour. Try their meat loaf too!

My favourite bar was T-Anker. Located on top of the Kotva communist department store, it's totally hidden away. But once you get the lift to the top, you're greeted with some of my favourite views of the city. With outside tables, it's a great place to whittle away a few hours enjoying the atmosphere.

As a Brit, I'm pretty fussy about my scotch egg but my taste buds were won over in Prague. Maso a Kobliha has a shabby chic cafe vibe but is owned by a famous chef named Paul Day. The scotch eggs were perfectly cooked inside juicy sausage meat and encrusted in crispy bread crumbs. I really wish I didn't have to share them! The beer was pretty tasty too and complimented the food well.

Thanks for such an amazing few hours guys!

Tours run Tuesday to Saturday and kick things off at 2.30pm before ending at around 6pm. Tickets cost €65.

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OOTD: Red dress

Outfit:
Red sleeveless dress: Tu at Sainsbury's (similar)
Leather espadrilles: H&M (similar)
Yellow and blue canvas watch: Timex* (similar)

Happy Friday! I just don't know where this week has gone, it's been so busy that I feel like I haven't had a chance to breathe. I feel so out of sorts and not quite sure where my head it at. With On Blackheath music festival planned for the weekend, its not going to slow down any time soon. But we sleep when we're dead eh?

A little throwback to my four days in Prague with this outfit post. I really can't believe I've been back nearly a month. It's funny how quickly you settle back into a routine! This was taken at Prague Castle as we wandered down Golden Lanes. A cute collection of wonky multi-coloured houses with lovely little shops inside - I ended up buying a Christmas decoration. In August. I think I ended up wearing this dress about 3/4 times during my two week break. It's just so easy to throw on and thanks to the thin material, drys out very quickly if the heavens open. In fact, I haven't really stopped wearing it at home while it's been sunny either! Keep an eye out for an abundance of Prague posts coming soon as I slowly make my way through photos - it was a beautiful city!

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Recipe: The ultimate chocolate cake

Hobbycraft got in touch and told me they had a challenge for me to undertake. I'd seen these gravity defying cakes all over Instagram so was very excited to try and attempt one for myself. I used a Nigella recipe for the chocolate cake and decided to go for a mixture of white and milk chocolate for the decoration. It didn't come out as neat as I had wanted but I like to think it has a bit of rustic charm! The kit was quite fiddly and it takes a lot of patience to make it work - definitely set aside a few hours for the decorating. In hindsight, maybe white chocolate was not the best shout because I used milk chocolate to stick them to the pole and it showed up. But the end result looks so cool and it's such a showstopper so it's well worth the time and effort.

Ingredients
200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 tsp of baking power
1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
40g cocoa powder
175g baking margarine
2 large eggs
150ml sour cream

Icing
75g unsalted butter
175g at least 60% dark chocolate
300g icing sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
125ml sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
2 bags of white chocolate buttons
1 bag of chocolate buttons
1-2 pack of white chocolate fingers
1-2 pack of chocolate fingers

Method
1. Line and grease two round cake tins with butter and baking parchment. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

2. Put all the cake ingredients into a food processor and pulse into a thick batter.

3. Divide the batter evenly into the two cake dishes. Pop in the oven and cook for around 10 minutes before covering with tin foil and cook for a further 15 minutes,

4. Once you have checked it is cooked, take it out and let it cool down.

5. Meanwhile, make the icing. Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan on a low heat. Once melted, leave to one side to slightly cool down.

6. Sieve the icing sugar into a large bowl.

7.  Add the golden syrup, vanilla extract and sour cream to the chocolate mixture. Pour the mixture into the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.

8. Once the cake has cooled down, follow the instructions on the gravity defying packet. Once it has been put together, cover the entire cake with icing.

9. Using alternative fingers, cover the edging with chocolate fingers before topping it with the white chocolate buttons. Using both the different colours. Keep one of the empty packets.

10. Using the leftover icing, carefully dot some on the back of the button before sticking to the tube, making it look like they're falling down.

11. Using the icing, smear a line around the top of the empty sweet packet and secure to the top of the tube so it's slightly covering the line of chocolate buttons. Hold tight for a while so it sticks.

12. Stick in the fridge for a bit if you want to help harden the icing. Then tuck in!

I would love to know if you attempt this so please do tweet me. Happy baking!

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