Planet Vikki Recommends: The Ship, Barry

Hey Guys!!

I haven't done a Planet Vikki Recommends in such a while so thought I would do one for you today. I must admit I haven't really gone anywhere new for a while either so was nice trying somewhere new.

A few Sundays back me and the husband decided to go for a little walk and to have some food, trying to think of somewhere to go we decided Barry as we haven't been in ages and its somewhere different. Llewellyn knew of a restaurant called The Ship and we decided to eat in there.

It was so cosy in there and was pretty busy as there was a Birthday gathering in there when we went. It's quite spacious when it comes to the way the tables are set up so you're not on top of everyone else eating which is nice. The booth we sat in also had a little tv, which you can see in the picture above, not that there was any volume and that we wanted to watch it.

To be honest it took me ages to decide on what to eat as I can be quite fussy and I wanted to try something different, usually I say that then have the same. I did know what dessert I was going to have though!!

I ended up having a Korma as I absolutely love it and haven't had a curry in ages. It was beautiful, I didn't eat it all as it came with chips, onion bahjis, naan bread, poppadoms, mint dip and mango chutney. What was really good was that the curry had actually a decent amount of chicken in as a few places I have been to haven't really had a lot of chicken in them.

I then had for a dessert a Salted Caramel Chocolate cake, now I am obsessed with salted caramel and if it's on the menu I will eat it. To be honest though I wasn't to impressed, for me I didn't think the caramel had a strong enough taste compared to the chocolate. I know you have to have the right balance as you don't want the caramel to overwhelm the rest of the dessert, I just like a strong caramel.

After our food then we took a lovely little stroll along the beach and watched the gorgeous sunset. We can be a romantic couple sometimes!

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Let me know in the comments if there are any restaurants you love that I could try!!

See You Soon!!

Chocolate Chip Brownies

Hey Guys!!

I decided to do some baking as I haven't baked in a while and I am starting to try at least 1 or 2 new recipes a month. 

This week I tried a Chocolate Chip Brownie recipe I found on BBC GoodFood.

So first I weighed out the Butter and Caster Sugar. Then mixed it together until soft.

I then added in the Cocoa Powder and Vanilla Extract. It didn't say how much exactly of the Vanilla Extract so I just put a tbsp in.

I then added in & mixed 3 eggs, sifted in the Plain flour and added the Baking Powder. Again it didn't say how much Baking Powder so just added a tsp.

Once all that was mixed together nicely I added in a 100g bag of milk chocolate chips.

I then put it into a silicone baking tray and then into a larger baking tray as I wasn't sure if it would rise over the edges. I baked it at 165 degrees for about 30mins.

I let them cool then overnight before trying them. They are gorgeous, so soft when you bite into them and there's just the right amount of chocolate chips in each square, I think I haven't ate them all.

I definitely recommend you try this recipe if you like baking. Tag me in photos or leave links to your blog posts in the comments if you do try it.

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

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Planet Vikki Recommends: Maenllwyd Inn

Hey Guys!!

I love food, and we have decided to try somewhere new every month if we can. Other than that I like writing posts on places I've been and who doesn't love reading about food?

This pub was actually recommended to Llewellyn by someone he works with and I'm so glad we went. It's about 20 minutes from where we live so it's relatively easy to get to, we live in Newport. It is situated in such a lovely place as the views were gorgeous and you can go on a little woodland walk as well.

The name of the pub is the Maenllwyd Inn and this was the food we had.

Isn't the plate gorgeous? I wanted to take it home. Anyway I had the Chicken, Pancetta and White Wine Pie and it was gorgeous. The pastry was so soft and the chicken was delicious. Llewellyn tried getting me to try the Leeks but I don't like them. Even Llewellyn tried a bit of the pie and he thought it was nice to. I didn't finish it though as it is quite filling.

Of course I couldn't not have a dessert and I chose to have the Millionaire's Cheesecake. It looks amazing doesn't it? I never used to like cheesecake but I tried it a while ago and found I liked it. It was so creamy and the ice cream was so nice. I definitely recommend this if you go.

This was Llewellyn's dessert of Vanilla & Mint Choc Chip ice cream and Mango Sorbet with a Mint Leaf on top. He really enjoyed it and I must say the Mango Sorbet was delicious.

The three pictures above is the way some of the pub is decorated, it seriously gave me such pinterest feels, gave me ideas for my home. We were sat in the conservatory part of the pub and it was so nice. It did get a bit warm in there and a wasp decided to fly around and drink my wine!! 

Now I will share with you pictures from our walk, there's not many as it was nice to just go for a walk. Also please ignore the way I stand in the outfit post, I seriously need to work on my posture. Do you look at photos and hate the way you stand sometimes?

Hope You Enjoyed This Post!!

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Panda Cupcakes

Hey Guys!!

I love baking and I haven't baked in a very long time now, so as you can see from the photo above that's what I decided to do last week.

I found these little cupcakes on Pinterest and wanted to try and do them myself. You can find the original post HERE and this is the recipe I followed HERE.

So let me show you how I did them.

So first I measured all the powder ingredients as you can see, which were:

100g Plain Flour

140g Caster Sugar

20g Cocoa Powder

1 1/2tsp Baking Soda

I then weighed out the butter which was 40g and added the egg. I then added the liquids to the mix which was:

1tbsp Vanilla Extract

120ml Whole Milk

I also had to add in a pinch of salt and then mixed it altogether in my trusty mixer.

I spooned 1 small spoon of mixture into each cupcake case and baked them at 170 degrees for 20-25 mins.

Once they had cooled down it was time to decorate them with Buttercream Icing. To make the icing I needed:

280g Icing Sugar

140g Butter

1-2tbsp Milk

I then put a 'blob' of icing on 12 cupcakes and then dipped them all in Granulated Sugar, so they appeared white.

Then it was time to do their little faces, I used:

Plain Chocolate Chips

Chocolate Strands/Hundreds & Thousands

White Icing Pen

Chocolate Icing Pen

The most fiddliest part was doing the mouth as I had to pick out individual strands, I should've used tweezers it might have been easier.

And that's it, it was pretty simple to follow and I really enjoyed making these. I think they look so adorable, more than one is rather sickly though!!

What have you baked recently?

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Planet Vikki Recommends.....Harvester

Hey Guys!!

As you know it was our 2nd Anniversary on Monday and last year we had a big family BBQ so this year we wanted to do something just the two of us. We wasn't sure if we were going to go anywhere as I wasn't feeling to well in the morning.

I was fine though and we ended up going out for dinner and to the cinema to watch Spy. We were going to go to Cardiff Bay but decided to stay local and try somewhere that I'd never been to, Llewellyn has been there before but not for a long time.

We decided on the Harvester in Newport Retail Park as it is situated right by the cinema, which is handy if you are going for food before or after the film. It's not a huge building but it is a nice size, I love the inside as it feels quite home-y and has a really great atmosphere. If it is sunny you can also sit outside but it rained a little so we couldn't do that.

I didn't take photos of the menu or interior as it was quite busy and I didn't have a camera on me just my phone. You can see here what is on the menu though.

It took me a while what to have for food as I didn't know what to eat and when I decided our Waiter, Tom, was such a help.

As you can see I went for Chargrilled Chicken with Rice, Peas & Chilli, Ginger & Spring Onion sauce. The sauce was Toms' recommendation and I'm glad he did as it was gorgeous, I'm not one for trying new things I can be quite fussy but it was delicious. The whole meal was gorgeous, the chicken was just right, it wasn't to hard or chewy and I love rice and peas together. It was that nice I literally ate it all and I never usually eat all my food.

Of course we also had Cheesy Garlic Bread, I love it, especially with cheese.

Overall it is a gorgeous little restaurant and for what we had it wasn't badly priced either. I will definitely go again whether it be for breakfast or lunch next time. I will get better pictures next time as well.

Also if you would like to see what Llewellyn has let me know in the comments below as I usually only take pictures of my food.

Do you have a local Harvester that you enjoy?

Hope you enjoy todays post!!

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Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Hey Guys!!

Another baking post for you, it wasn't until I was sat writing my posts that I realised I have done a lot of baking this month!! So I do apologise for the cake filled posts lately. I will also say I have not been 'sponsored' to do these posts it just so happened I had a few Betty Crocker mixes in my cupboard to make!!

This time though instead of making cupcakes I decided to make brownies as I haven't had brownies in what seems like forever.

All you need is:

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix

40ml Vegetable Oil (2tbsp)

75ml Water (5tbsp)

1 medium Free Range Egg

So like I usually do I put all the ingredients into my mixing bowl and mixed it together for roughly 2-3 minutes.

Until it looked like this.

What I didn't picture is that I used an oil spray to grease the tray and then tipped the mixture in. I used a wooden spoon to spread it out evenly, then I baked it in the oven at 160 degrees for 25 minutes.

The mistake I made was I forgot to let it cool before taking it out the tray so it kind of came out in pieces rather than even pieces.

It was so delicious though, especially with a cup of tea. I will definitely make these again and maybe try them with pink custard!!

You can get the recipe here or again from your local supermarket!!

Also you can see me make these in this Vlog!!

See You Soon!!

Lemon Cupcakes

Hey Guys!!

Lately I have been loving baking so much and have been baking something new every week. I have been cheating though as I have been using a mix, rather than baking from scratch. Between work, blogging and Youtube I haven't had time to bake from scratch, but it's calming down so will have plenty of time.

This time I decided to make some Lemon Cupcakes as I had not used this mix before and I've not tried Lemon Cupcakes either.

All you need is:
Sunny Lemon Cupcakes Mix

30ml of Vegetable Oil (2 tbsp)

60ml of Water (4 tbsp)

2 medium Free Range Eggs

I put all the ingredients into my mixer and mixed it on number 2 for 2-3 minutes.

Until it looked like this.

I then spooned the mixture into 9 cupcake cases and baked them for 16 minutes at 160 degrees as I have a fan assisted oven. As you can see from above there they are before and after.

Once they had cooled down I then mixed together the Icing mixture with 60g of soft butter, I use Stork butter, and 10ml (2 tsp) of water to make the icing.

I then iced all the cakes with a butter knife and sprinkled them with rainbow sprinkles to add some colour rather than the sprinkles provided.

I must say these cakes were delicious and you could definitely taste the Lemon in them. It wasn't to Lemon-y which was nice as I think it would be to 'sour' otherwise, they were also very soft and chewy which I like in a cupcake.

You can find this recipe here or you can go into any local supermarket to have a try yourself.

You can also see me making these in this Vlog and icing them in this Vlog!!

See You Soon!!