This evening was all about baking butterscotch tart for my husband's birthday meal tomorrow. I make cakes so pastry is not my thing. I did what any good wife would do in this situation and bought ready made pastry from the supermarket! I did roll out the sweet shortcrust pastry myself to line my new tart tin...

As recommended I popped the pastry case in the freezer for 20 mins, lined it with baking paper and baking beads then blind baked for 15 mins.

And this happened... Shrunk pastry. Why!!! I don't understand why it has slid down the pan side and given me this weird, uneven edge. Clearly I am going to say I'm going for the rustic look but I'd like to know why this happened for future tarts. Someone is probably tutting as they read this muttering & 'this wouldn't have happened if you'd made your own pastry'...

The butterscotch is now cooling after I completely winged it over the hob (I can't stand the stuff so have no idea how to make it and for the first time in the history of man the internet appears to only have 3 recipes for butterscotch tart and each one is different. So i went for the one with the least ingredients) I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Today I spent the afternoon at The London Bridge hotel setting up for a journalist event. We took the journalists up the wonderful new Shard building (73 floors up above the London skyline) then back to the hotel for cocktails and canapes.

Now, whilst this was quite exciting we all got very distracted by the wonderful tea and hot chocolate served in the bar! The tea was a beautiful little tipi of fresh tea leaves which brewed a delicious cuppa. The delicate little tent had a little leaf handle to dunk your tea and looked so cute in the cup.

The little bag came with a ceramic rest to perfectly place your tea bag between cups. It was so pretty and fun it took tea to a whole new level.

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better the hot chocolate came out - a mug of hot, frothy milk with a cube of rich milk chocolate on a stick on the side for you to melt and swirl in. This wasn't breaktime, this was theatre (or maybe playtime). All we needed now was some cake...

Pancake day! Not usually a big deal in our household but now we have a 2 year old it seemed a great time to start a tradition.

Possibly I was a little overenthusiastic allowing Eloise free reign during the mixing process... Despite the chaos they taste good and after I had spent an hour cleaning the kitchen post apocalypse I made savoury pancakes for the grown ups (me and Chris) filled with peppers, onions, ham and cheese. Topped with fresh tomato and cheese and baked in the oven they were delish.