Food Network UK Doughnut Week

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I was lucky last week to be invited to a Food Network party to celebrate the 20th anniversary of National Doughnut Week. I was really excited because I love doughnuts! I also made Banana Bread Donuts to celebrate at home!

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To celebrate Food Network are having a month of doughnuts. There is a doughnut calendar with a different doughnut every day for the month of May.

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There were plenty of doughnuts from Dunn's Bakery to eat! The sale of a doughnut will benefit The Children's Trust. There were plenty of Jam Doughnut Cocktails too! Sweet chocolate raspberry drink with a sugar rim.

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MD for the channel Nick giving a speech. Food Network UK is the fourth fastest growing channel on Sky! Pretty impressive since they've only been on the air about a year.

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Here's me trying to eat a doughnut without licking my lips! I managed to do it but it's not easy! I did end up with jam all over my dress (it came out though)!

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Tristan Welch (head chef at Launceston Place) managed a double decker without licking his lips

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Ainsley Harriott was there. I used to watch Ready, Steady Cook all the time when I was a student.

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Jun Tanaka, frequently on TV in the UK and Executive Chef at The Pearl. I also spotted Eric Lanlard, Ed Baines and Reza Mohammed.

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I managed about three donuts and three cocktails before I was over come with all the sugar!

I had a really great time and everyone was super nice! I also met Abby from The Exquisite Cake Company. She made the doughnuts from the first day on the doughnut calendar.


Here is a video from Food Network UK you tube channel with me trying the doughnut challenge! Eating a doughnut without licking my lips. I'm very briefly here at 8 seconds (making a stupid face) and at 17 seconds.

· awesome, donuts, fruit, london, tv

Simmer Down

How To Accessorize With Tiny Birds: Take a load off and let them choose tonight's movie.  They'll even make fresh popcorn, if you're so inclined.

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Market Kitchen!


Don't forget that I'll be appearing on Market Kitchen Big Adventure this Wednesday, March 30th. If you live in the UK you can catch it on Good Food Channel 249 at 7pm or Channel 250 at 8pm.

I'm wearing a green shirt and sitting near Matt's hob. I don't say much and sit there and smile a lot. Don't make fun of me too much!

Check out my round up here.

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American Cupcake in London on Market Kitchen Big Adventure


Market Kitchen Big Adventure is a food show in the UK on The Good Food Channel (Sky channel 249). Somehow they found my blog or someone sent them my blog and they asked me if I wanted to be in the audience of the show. Of course I said yes! The next day they phoned and said one of the diners dropped out and asked me to fill in! What luck!

The photos are a bit grainy as they're from my Blackberry. I didn't bring a camera as I didn't think it would be a good idea. We had to leave all our things in a seperate room anyway.

The studio has the brightest pink doors

The show is basically about regional and seasonal food. The recent shows have been about different regions in England. The show I did was about Lancashire. The two chefs have visited the area and the show is peppered with clips from their "adventures".


The set is a U shape. The host stands in the middle and the two chefs on each side with their hob/stove. Three guest sit by each stove on stools. I got to sit there. The other guests for the day were a herb farmer, Dale a medicinal cook (he's got a book coming out in April), a Northern Food expert, Emma from The Little Welsh, me and Olly (for you non UK people, Olly is a food presenter and specializes in wine mainly. He also hosts Iron Chef UK on Channel 4).


A little bummed they introduced me as Kelly, Cupcake Queen, instead of saying the name of my blog but at the end of the day I did get to be on TV.

They put a microphone on me. I was really nervous the day before, worried I would something really stupid.


Emma and Olly. Emma (who's been on the show before) will be on 3 shows March 30th - April 1st.


On to the good stuff! What did Matt and Simon make? Penny sure looks happy!


The first "ingredient" of Lancashire they did was goat! They visited a goat farm so Simon made goat cheese fondants with pesto and an almond coating. They were seriously amazing. The goat cheese was so soft and I can't believe how well the almonds went with it.

Matt went with something a little more interesting and made goat chops! They were so tiny I felt bad tasting them. They looked like they came from a baby goat they were so small (they weren't though I asked). They tasted exactly like lamb however and he made them in a nice anchovy sauce.


We tasted some mint hard candy from the region. "Boiled Sweets" as they call them in the UK. The one I had was nice. It tasted sweet and minty. The others were less fortunate and they didn't taste so great.


Olly mixed up some martinis for everyone! At 10am...


The second "ingredient" of the show was fish. Matt made "versatile" herring. Penny asked my opinion on herring and the best I could manage was "versatile" as I don't know a single thing about herring. He pickled it and made a horseradish and beetroot sauce on top. Not my favorite dish of the day but it was a lovely pink and not fishy tasting at all!


Simon whipped up some queen scallops which are smaller than King Scallops with some Salsa Verde. These were so good. I've never had queen scallops before.

To wash it all down we all had gin and vermouth martinis!

Thanks so much to Lucy and Abbi at Optomen for contacting me! I had a great time and they really did a great job of making me not feel like a lemon sitting there with all those proper foodies. I'm so glad I went I made some new friends and tasted things I never though I would!

The show I'm on airs March 30th on The Good Food Channel.

· tv, yummy places

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