Cake club at 'Let There Be crumbs' and 'The Boilershop Steamer'...

Hello lovelies!

Since I started to blog, I've been fortunate enough to meet some really lovely people and after our first little blogger's outing to 'The Vintage Powder Rooms' in August, we decided that it would be a great idea to make cake club a regular thing!  We try to meet up at least once a month at an arranged cakey location (usually hand-picked by Chloe as she is the Queen of cakey destinations!) for a good old chinwag and well, to eat cake!

Our September meet up was somewhere a bit closer to home for me than the last, the fabulous 'Let There be Crumbs' in the newly renovated Roker hotel.  On this occasion it was Caroline, Danni, Chloe, Lisa, Shivani, Julie and I partaking in the cakey feast (I can't stop saying cakey!).  'Let There Be Crumbs' has a real  homely, rustic feel to it with its open fireplaces, cosy leather armchairs and exposed brickwork.  I've been to the Roker Hotel prior to the renovation and was gobsmacked at how beautiful it looked.  The day was blustery, so our window table was a little bit wasted but on a sunny day I imagine that the sea view is amazing.  I love Roker beach and every visit there always takes me back to my childhood and memories of long happy summers playing in the sand.

For all there are a million (slight exaggeration!) tasty sandwiches on the menu, the order of the day was cake-so cake we did!!  I ordered a berry cheesecake and a decaffeinated tea, but some of the other girls opted for scones as well as cake and everyone's food looked delicious!

Happy girls now we have tea and cake! (Above photo courtesy of Chloe!)

 

Although we really enjoyed what we had, the main let down of the day was the service (sorry LTBC!).  Our order was repeatedly mixed up even though it wasn't very complicated and we waited ages for our pots of tea.  When it eventually came there were only two pots between six people, which I thought was a little bit stingy; it's barely a cup each!  I had my decaff so I was okay, but I thought the rest of the group should've at least been offered another pot between them because anyone who eats cake like we do knows how important it is to have lots of tea to wash it down with!  Nevertheless, the day was far from spoiled; the setting was lovely, the cake was exceptional and the company was even better!  I would try LTBC again, but as a word to the wise, if you want your food in a hurry choose another location.  I really hope it improves because the potential is amazing!

Our October meeting had a bit of a different theme-eating in general!  This time, we chose to meet at Newcastle's Boilershop for their monthly event 'The Steamer'.  You may remember I visited the Boilershop with Lisa back in June for 'Tea and Cake Planet', so I was really looking forward to seeing how it would be set out for this event.  'The Steamer' sees loads of local eateries come together under one roof so punters can buy tokens and get a chance to taste what's on offer.  The blogging line-up this time was the same as before, but in place of Danni and Caroline who sadly couldn't make it, we had the lovely Emma.  It's always lovely to catch up with Emma as our conversations seems to always sway between Paris and our pooches-two of my favourite things!  Just before this event, I started going to Slimming World (more on that in a later post!) but I was determined to have a day eating what I wanted as there was some lovely stuff on offer!

 Lovely blogging ladies at 'The Steamer' (courtesy of Chloe!)

My first purchase was a 'Bananarama', a Nutella and banana crepe.  I probably should've gone for something savoury first, but the sweet-tooth in me took over and I couldn't resist.  The crepe was super filling and so delicious and only set me back 3 tokens (the equivalent of £3).  The only problem was I still had another 7 tokens to spend and I wasn't sure that I could make room for anything else!!

 My mouth-watering Crepe being made!

There were lots of other places to choose from such as 'The Fat Hippo' with their amazing burgers and 'Utter Swine' with the best smelling sausages I've ever sniffed, to name a few.  The girls chose from a variety of stalls with every cuisine from French to Indian being on offer!  After a little rest, I managed to find room for some amazing chips from 'The Hip Hop Chip Shop' (best name of the day by far!) for just 1 token and they really were delicious!  But after that I decided I couldn't squeeze in any more, so I got my tokens changed back to cash and called it a day.  That's the good thing about the set up, if you get full you always have that option!  Next time we go I'll be sure to starve myself for a week so I can find room for one of everything!!

After filling our bellies, we ended the day in the Eldon Gardens cafe with some refreshing lemonade and tea (and a little bit more gossiping!), a great day all round once again.

I love our Cake Club days! our next one is going to be a special Christmassy affair with a bit of secret Santa thrown in the mix...watch this space for that one!

Have you been to 'Let There Be Crumbs' or 'The Steamer'?

xxx