How NOT to make a gingerbread house // cookery class at L'Atelier des Chefs with NEFF and Currys PCWorld

What is more festive than an evening of mulled wine, gingerbread house construction and Christmas canapés? This is no Christmas cracker joke or riddle.

TELL ME MORE

Earlier this month I was invited to L'Atelier des Chefs in St Pauls for a gingerbread house masterclass with NEFF and Currys PCWorld, choosing to embrace the festive feels with my mistletoe print shirt. And what a welcome. There were Christmas tunes playing in the background. There was a cheese board (always a winner!). We drank bubbly and mulled wine. And then there were the gingerbread houses we created that evening (some more festive than others).

AN INTRODUCTION

We received a warm welcome from the team and an introduction to the NEFF ovens we'd be using. Did you know that NEFF have those fancy ovens with the slide away doors that you see on the Bake Off? The NEFF Slide & Hide® oven is the only oven with a door that slides away underneath, allowing you to get RIGHT IN THERE so you can inspect your food more closely. Further more, NEFF’s patented fan technology. CircoTherm® is designed to heat up food quicker (allegedly no pre-heating required!) and distribute the heat more evenly for a good even bake. The lovely Home Economist lady who spoke to us explained how the NEFF Slide & Hide® can cook things at a lower temperature in the same amount of time as other ovens out there and yet still produce the same good result thanks to its CircoTherm® technology. The NEFF Slide & Hide® also allows you to use all four levels of your oven without fear of the flavours mixing - so you can cook a savory dish AND dessert simultaneously - and reportedly it's easier to keep clean (hooray!).

At the end of the presentation I was left thinking about the bigger question: What does this oven not do?! It was all very interesting insight. Particularly as the door to my current oven no longer closes. Maybe it wishes it was a NEFF Slide & Hide®

TIME TO GET OUR BAKE ON

We were split into teams of three where we were tasked with making and decorating a gingerbread house, as well as making some festive canapés. All with the aid of mulled wine, of course.

When cutting out the walls of our house, we'd already decided that we would be going for the "rustic" look, telling ourselves this to justify our jagged and crumbling walls. In other words, an older and dated "pre-loved" house with years of history. Sure, the walls were in need of a good plastering, but what house isn't?

We were essentially baking flat pack furniture to put together. Miraculously our flat pack house came out of the oven perfectly golden thanks to our wonderful NEFF oven which prides itself in distributing its heat evenly for a good even bake. The trick was to wait for it to cool a little before decorating it as otherwise the icing would slip clean off. But that was easier said than done in a baking hot kitchen with lots of warm bodies! The good news was that a still-warm base meant that the chocolate button roof tiles melted on, eliminating the need for any icing.

Some people ice their gingerbread houses with white icing for the illusion of snowy roof tiles and icicles dripping overhead. Not us. We had neon green and pink icing so you could see our house from space. By the end of the evening I had so much green on my hands, I felt like I'd began my transition into the Hulk.

We gingerly (ha!) constructed the house and although some of the pictures say otherwise, it was in fact standing and a complete entity at one point. Although admittedly the house did look like it was clinically depressed - perhaps a sign of its imminent collapse.

Then the roof cracked. Then the roof caved in. Then the supporting wall buckled under the weight of the roof collapsing. You get the gist.

We came to the conclusion that it was hurricane season and whilst it was unfortunate and a real shame, it's not like we can control the weather. So our gingerbread house sat there rather dejectedly, it's remaining walls supported by a plastic tub, which was in fact the punnet of tomatoes used for the bruschetta. I still maintain we were going for a more Grand Designs look with floor to ceiling glass for a panorama view of the other houses on Gingerbread Lane.

Oddly none of the other houses on Gingerbread Lane were hit by the hurricane and were all still standing.

I think we nailed it with the canapés, but not so much with the gingerbread house. As the majority of our table were vegetarian - or not huge fans of fish - we opted for vegetarian canapés and made bruscettta using the fresh tomatoes and pesto for extra flavour. I like to think they looked pretty decent. It's all in the garnish. Because artistically placed chives can make anything look fancy.

THE RESULTS

Surprisingly we came second place that evening as judging was thankfully based on team work and team spirit rather than baking and decorating aptitude (phew!). It was a right laugh and in the below picture you can see actually see me on the far left wiping the tears from my eyes.

We all received NEFF aprons and oven gloves to take home with us, which I was really chuffed about as the NEFF oven gloves were really thick and a delight to work with, compared to my ones at home which have holes in them and are as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Although our team are unlikely to appear on The Bake Off any time soon, we had an incredible time. Cookery classes like this are for people from all walks of life - not just baking experts! - so if you are a baking numpty like me, fear not! It's still good fun and a great way of meeting new people. L'Atelier des Chefs have cookery classes ranging from 30 minutes long to 3 hour masterclasses where you can learn skills such as pasta making, pastry, sushi making and specific types of cuisine such as Scandinavian, Brazilian, French, Thai and so on. Cookery classes start from just £15 and a full list of courses and prices can be found here. Alternatively why not treat someone? Vouchers are available here and make for a unique and unforgettable gift.

If this piece has inspired you to make your own gingerbread house (trust me, it's not physically possible for you to produce something worse than ours!), please find the link to the recipe and template here along with the full nitty gritty on the event.

A huge thank you to NEFF, Currys PCWorld and L'Atelier des Chefs for a fabulously festive evening. As for me? I'll be leaving gingerbread house making to the professionals!

#NEFFchristmas

My experience of We Heart Mondays and things to be mindful of with blogger events

I'll be honest, this is something I never expected to write about. Well, not in this way at least. But due to the lack of transparency and also the lack of information available, I felt compelled to spread awareness. As a blogger, you know the deal. Some days your inbox is fairly quiet (*cue the tumbleweed*), but on other days you may get an exciting opportunity or three. And this is how this story begins.

THE CONCEPT

We Heart Mondays had been on my radar for a little while. The concept of We Heart Monday? Celebrating women. Specifically providing work spaces and networking events for meeting entrepreneurial women with workshops designed to empower women. We Heart Mondays founder Layla Rivelino was quoted saying this in an interview*

* article no longer available for reference but was originally found via Lady Like You 

"Our aim is to create work spaces and services that equip female entrepreneurs with everything they need to approach Mondays with confidence. I listen to a lot of podcasts by female entrepreneurs which inspired me to create an environment where like-minded business women could come together, be themselves, be productive, network, and make new friends"

Sounds good, right?

I was some how signed up to their mailing list (a mystery still to this day) and would get emails about events at their venue in Hackney Wick (supposedly a really, really beautiful venue)

THE EVENT

Then early April this year they announced their next event. The email came through with the subject line "Midsummers Night Dream Dinner Party Invitation" and I was initially excited because I thought it may have been with a brand (I have been invited to blogger breakfasts with brands before). When I clicked into the email and saw it was with We Heart Mondays, it was that initial uncertainty of a company I hadn't had dealings with before, nor did I know anyone who had attended one of their events before. But clicking into that email with pictures like the below...  it grabbed your attention instantly.

I would photo credit all the images used in this post, but honestly have no idea where We Heart Mondays found these...

Please contact me if you are the owner of these images and I'll be more than happy to co-operate and credit your work!

No word of a lie, but being a massive foodie, it felt like the event was made for me. An evening of unlimited drinks, massages, manicures, a three course meal and to top it all off, a goody bag at the end of it (on reflection, it now all sounds too good to be true..). The email detailed the food as being from The Meringue Girls' savory menu, followed by a picture perfect dessert and these are the types of pictures they used in their email.

Good so far, right? This is when things start to get gnarly.

We Heart Mondays was asking for £50 for this event. I did initially question this as I have been blogging for over 8 years now and usually events are complimentary in exchange for coverage in the form of a written review. There is sadly this generalisation that bloggers and influencers are freeloaders and want everything handed on a plate to them for free (not true for all of us!). I went in with good intentions. Always wanting to see the good in people, I figured that renting an office space in London must be expensive, and that maybe the cost was to go towards the decor for the event, as well as the food and wages for those working that night. I saw it as a supper club type event (and supper clubs are never free!) and for everything it included, I didn't think that £50 was a horrendously outrageous ask.

But before I parted with my money I did do a bit of research first. Their email worked (I had actual human contact and spoke to a lady called Erica from We Heart Mondays via email), their website was professional looking enough, and I found blog posts about people who had gone to their events before. I established that trust, so I clicked through and paid via PayPal, knowing PayPal has a degree of buyer protection through my dealings with eBay.

RED FLAG

The first red flag was that I never received a confirmation email, receipt, or proof of purchase. Fortunately because I paid through PayPal, I had something I could refer to. On the lead up to the event, I didn't receive any emails from We Heart Mondays confirming the time, place or date. On the morning of the event I emailed the team. And the email bounced. As in, the email account could not be found. I went onto the We Heart Mondays website... also gone. And likewise both their Instagram and Twitter accounts had been deleted. On Google they were listed as "permanently closed", and I went onto PayPal and noticed that my payment to "We Heart Mondays" was now a payment to "CLOSED".  I contacted the supplier who was meant to be supplying the food at said event that day, but they had no knowledge of this and in fact believed to be working with them on an entirely different date later that month.

After some digging on Twitter and Instagram, I managed to track down other individuals and small businesses who had also been affected (because don't forget, when it comes to events, suppliers also feel the impact!). Many of these complaining about having tickets to an event the previous weekend, paying for the privilege, and turning up to find NOTHING in said venue and then upon emailing We Heart Mondays, having emails bounce back like mine was. Some of the small businesses had lost out on £600 which is horrible for any brand or business, but especially despicable for smaller businesses and new businesses where every penny counts. As annoyed as I am to have lost money, I can't help but feel even more angry on behalf of all the small businesses that were targeted and taken advantage of.

STRIVING FOR BALANCE

Whilst really frustrated, I don't know the whole story - it's merely speculation at this stage -  and I always try and write in a balanced way and present both sides.

Maybe they have re-branded with a new website, new email, new social media account and new premises. But how are people paid up to their events to know that? The most frustrating part of this all has been the lack of communication. I can't say for sure that We Heart Mondays are a scam business. Maybe they were a legit business and went bust. Or maybe they played the long game, built up a reputation for themselves, starting charging for events and that's when it all begun. I honestly don't know. But if I have paid for a product or service, I expect an order confirmation or receipt, and if there is anything potentially in the way of getting said product or service I have paid for e.g  bankruptcy I expect to be kept informed.

So with their mission statement of entrepreneurial women and trying to empower women, I guess they have both failed and succeeded here. If this was all indeed one big con, designed by one women (there is talk of "Layla Rivelino" being a fake name) to get people's money, it's entrepreneurial of sorts, I'll give them that. However if a woman is taking advantage of lots of young women and women in business... it's not at all empowering and embracing of the sisterhood. It's easy to be angry at someone and play the blame game, but ultimately I'm angry at myself. For falling for it. For not questioning things more. The real shame is that this whole experience has shaken my confidence in blogger events. There is an event in November which is asking for tickets to be purchased in advance, and now I'm shaken to get involved with any events that involve payment. Can you blame me? The whole experience has been a lesson learnt and I will be more careful in the future.

NEXT STEPS

What's next? In an ideal world, I hope that the people behind We Heart Mondays do the right thing and come forward and try at the very least to explain their side of their story rather than leaving us left to fill in the gaps and naturally thinking the worst. I am hoping I have a degree of buyer protection through paying through PayPal, and fingers crossed I do get my money back. I am signed up to a wonderful support group with everyone that was affected and together we are fighting to find out more, get the answers we deserve, and get everyone's money back. If you have experienced something similar, do reach out to me and I''ll pass on the details for the support group.

In summary, it has been a learning curve. Not only did it fool me and small businesses, but imagine new bloggers to the industry who don't know any better. I want to ensure that something like this never happens again, and here's how we can achieve this:

RESEARCH THE COMPANY

Yes, I did my fair share of research on the company but looking up social media accounts and previous blog posts are not enough. We live in an age where things can be glossed over and dressed up on social media. It's so easy to deceive others.

Do the social media accounts have a good amount of followers that inspire confidence? Even if it did, the followers on the account could be bought or mostly bots. If any money is involved, Google the company and try and find out about their financial history etc etc.

Some of the blog posts may have been written by We Heart Mondays' people, or even commissioned by them. A lot of these blog posts are still live and if they are genuine blog posts and if the person in question really did attend and have no complaints about the company or how they were treated, that's only fair. However what baffles me is that knowing what I know now, and with the widespread knowledge that the company may have screwed lots of people over, if I had written one of these blog posts, I wouldn't want to associate myself and my blog's branding against a potentially corrupt organisation and would delete the post instantly. But that's just me.

CONTACT THE SUPPLIERS

The email I received told me who'd be supplying the food that evening so in future, I'd contact some of the suppliers and double check that a) they have indeed been booked and b) that the dates line up. Because if not, that's a red flag. I learnt this far too late.

CONTACT OTHER BLOGGERS

I shouldn't have been complacent with seeing the blog posts and taking these as proof as trustworthiness. In future I know to reach out to the bloggers and get their take on it. In this case, it wouldn't have necessarily helped because all the bloggers I contacted about their We Heart Mondays blog posts say they had genuinely good experiences and weren't compensated to write the reviews. But you never know. It's always worth a shot. Alternatively reach out to the blogging community on Twitter and ask around. Through talking to people, I learnt about issues dating back as early as June. Which had I known earlier, I wouldn't hit "book".

USE PAYPAL OR A CREDIT CARD

If you choose to part with your money, try and use PayPal or a credit card as both offer you some coverage / buyer protection. I luckily used PayPal and have submitted a claim already. Because like with an eBay purchase, if a company doesn't provide you with a product or service you paid for, you are entitled to claim and get your money back. Apparently the company has 20 days to dispute or get in touch, and after that, PayPal will escalate the case. We Heart Mondays is now down as "Closed" on my PayPal account so I'm not expecting to get any sort of response or dispute in the next 20 days. So watch this space.

REPORT FOR FRAUD

If you experience any problems, research your options. I'm still figuring out what to do (I'll update this section once I have learnt more about my rights), but there have been talks of getting fraud departments involved and the police and the press.

LET'S TALK

Let's talk to each other. The big problem here was the lack of communication and information available. Both from We Heart Mondays and also the individuals and suppliers who trusted them. Before I started asking around on Twitter, I didn't see anything on Twitter about this, nor any blog posts expressing concerns. Let's get chats going on Twitter and hopefully my blog post is the first of many where we can spread the word, get the answers we deserve, and ensure something like this never happens again.

La vie en rose // Celebrating Rose Festival with Cyprus Tourism

I love a festival. Whether a celebration of music, food, or 'other' (read: all else in-between!), I love the community aspect. When I was invited to celebrate Rose Festival with Cyprus Tourism, I was intrigued to learn more.

Turns out this is a festival that is celebrated every May in the rural village of Agros, built on the Troödos Mountains in south west Cyprus. A rose festival is as you would expect - a celebration of the rose. Roses have long been seen as a symbol of promise, hope, and new beginnings, but certain colours have additional layers of meaning. For instance, red roses can represent love. And the Rose Festival for the local Agros community really is a labour of love.

The venue for the event was Alice in Wonderland themed which as you can imagine, I was pretty excited by! With a grass croquet lawn outside, a white rabbit, and roses galore, it was the perfect place to host a rose themed event.

Myself and a few other lucky bloggers were welcomed with the prettiest of cocktails (a rose bellini if you're curious!). We walked through a rose archway into what I called the 'library' with seating and a modern, whitewashed book shelf. But upon closer inspection, the 'books' were in fact staff lockers. Pretty neat, huh?

With a chessboard inspired ceiling AND floor tiles, and the dreamiest chesterfield grey sofa with a hedge backdrop, I immediately wanted to know when I could move into this building and live there for good. No joke.

First on the agenda: a warm welcome from Mario from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation who gave us some background on the Rose Festival and the village of Agros, and then welcomed us into another room (equally dreamy and filled with roses and hedges and greenery), where we were invited to take part in several activities in celebration of the rose.

First stop: flower arranging. I am by no means an expert, nor am I good enough to become a florist any time soon(!) but that being said, I was pretty chuffed with what I created. Peonies were available, but they were a little too big and didn't work in my particular bouquet. Instead I used white and cream roses and used bright pops of pink and sunny yellows to add some vim.

On the other side of the room - behind more rose bushes and hedges - was a makeshift beauty salon where we were offered beauty treatments inspired by Cyprus's Rose Festival.

It all started with a hand and arm massage where rose oil was lovingly massaged into our skin. Forever hunched over a desk and working on computers 24/7, I do experience a bit of RSI and I really feel it in my right hand (my mouse hand!). So having that all massaged out of me was an absolute dream. The rose oil smelt amazing and you know? My hands are still super soft days after. I usually use hand cream in colder weather, but this has made me consider using essential oils going forward.

Feeling deliciously soporific, I then moved across to the nail station where we had the chance to have some nail art done. Embracing the rose theme, I opted for soft pink nails and the clever nail technician delicately painted intricate purple roses on one finger on each hand (we ran out of time!)

In between each activity we were spoilt with a delicious spread of sweet treats. Many were Cyprus delicacies (love how some of these were presented in tea cups!), but there were also rose cookies and some really realistic looking rose cupcakes which had many of us fooled

Now, I thought the welcome drinks were amazing, but the rose mojitos were even better! Some people said they found them strong but I personally thought the rum measure was perfect ;) Although admittedly I was regretting my choice of heeled ankle boots after a few of these!

My only slight criticism of the event... the time went far too quickly! It was really sad to go home, but the lovely team let us take our bouquets home and also gave us each a beautifully presented box of rose orientated goodies.

As you can see, I had a bloomin' good time. Having never been to Cyprus before, it was lovely to learn more about a village and festival that I might not have otherwise heard of. I would love to visit Agros and the Rose Festival in the future -  so am really happy this is on my radar now!

What I really loved about this event was the clever choosing of activities and refreshments which complimented the rose theme well. Thank you so much to the Cyprus Tourism and Baillie for inviting me!

#VisitCyprus #RoseWater