Places to eat in Edinburgh.

Having now lived in Edinburgh for the four years of my degree I thought I should write a review of my favourite places to eat.  I feel I must also mention the ones which I think are over rated. I like to work in cafes rather than the library as working around my peers stresses me out, they all seem to whined each other up into a permanent state of panic. Consequently I have visited and spent a fair amount of time in a number of cafes in and around central Edinburgh.


Cuckoo's Bakery:


Cuckoo's only opened in my third year but it was just round the corner from my flat. I have spent an awful lot of time in there as it is a great place to work as they don't mind if you sit there all day. They have no internet which I must admit I kind of like as it prevents procrastination. It is a fantastic place to stop for lunch, tea or to grab a take away from. Cuckoo's is loverly and light but on it is also very open and slightly lacking in atmosphere. If you are looking for somewhere to camp out with a book for the afternoon I can suggest better places. However it is undoubtably my favourite place to meet friend for tea in edinburgh.

Their sandwiches are delicious and they have different specials of quiches and soups everyday. But what cuckoo's is really known for is its baked goods. The shop has developed around it's cupcakes, they have a list of standard flavours everyday and then they experiment ontop of this to supplement the menu. They also organise specials to coincide with important dates on the calendar St Valentines, Burns Night and Christmas just to name a few. The cup cakes range in price but on average are about £2 in general I think that they are very reasonable priced establishment.

Rotato:

Rotato is joined to and part of Press Coffee. It is a somewhat student lunch place but that is probably because it is right outside the University Library. Up stairs in Press Coffee they serve very good drinks, sandwiches and soups but it is downstairs in Rotato where the best food is in my opinion. Rotato sell as the name would suggest jacket potatoes they always have very crispy skins and are filled with a generous helping of whatever you happen to choose. This again is not somewhere you would want to settle down in to read a book but it a great place to stop off for a quick lunch. They range in price between £3-£5 for a potato and fillings.

Leo's Beanery: 

Leo's Beanery is a basement cafe on Howe st that I discovered last year. It is the perfect place to hole up for the afternoon with a good book. As it is in a basement it is quite a dark place but very cosy.They have a selection of books and board games which you are welcome to borrow and they are very child friendly. There are a couple of tables outside for when the weather is good. 

Their food is usually local and seasonal. I don't think that their sandwiches are very good but everything else is delicious. The above photo is of a feta and roast vegetable quiche, all their main courses come with a loverly side salad. My favourite thing when they have it, it is one of their daily specials, is venison burger. They make all their cakes on site and have a particularly good carrot and parsnip cake. The prices range from £5-6 for a main course and £2-3 for a cake. All of the places I have reviewed so far serve the most delicious coffee which is from Artisan Roast a coffee shop on Broughton street which roasts its own beans on site.


I will continue to edit this as the year continues and I have time to go in and get some photos.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Marshmallow Icing.

It is the musicians 21st birthday so she and a friend thought it would be a good idea to throw a party. Subsequently 60 bottles of cava have arrived in our flat to help the festivities along. Now an occasion such as this cannot pass by without cake, however, I have visions of 100 portions worth of cake crumbs being liberally spread around the flat not to mention the icing. I wanted something to make an impact when carried in with cake fireworks on the top so a tray bake or the like was out (this turned out to be a bad idea as the fireworks set off every smoke alarm in our flat). I contemplated cupcakes but they have been done now and only really look good when displayed on cake stands which we don't have. So I settled upon whoopie pies. These seem to be the new thing. If you have never heard of them before then the easiest way to describe them it that they are like the top half of two muffins sandwiched together with some form of icing.

I decided to make three different flavoured varieties chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter and red velvet. I am only going to write up the chocolate ones at the moment but I will make the other ones again at another time. I will say though that they batters of each of the three varieties behaved slightly differently.

I followed the basic recipes in the Hummingbird cake book but have deviated with the icing as I didn't want to have to spend a fortune on fluff for the filling. I made one batch of the icing following the recipe and must admit that it was the best. I do love fluff it is just that it is £2.40 a jar in England and each batch of icing needs a whole jar. My attempts to replace fluff with melted marshmallows needs some more experimentation I fear. I would also suggest trying the marshmallow icing from the Primrose book as an alternative.

The photos of the ones I made for the party aren't very good as I suddenly realised I hadn't taken any pictures just as we were about to sing happy birthday. They were such a success that I have had to make another batch this weekend as my flatmates didn't manage to get to them in time. I had been reading about new ideas for valentines day and thought that as I was having to make another batch anyway I might as well have a go at piping them into hearts. I also added pink food colouring to the icing. They looked fantastic if I say so myself and I would advise piping all whoopie pies in the future. They looked much neater and it was much easier than trying to spoon out a sticky batter.

I have entered them into Cake Boule valentine baking ideas and Valentines hearts ideas on very good recipes.

Ingredients: For the Sponge

1 large egg

150g (5.5ozs) Caster Sugar

125g (4.5ozs) Plain yoghurt

25ml (1fl oz) whole milk

¼ tsp vanilla essence ( I used nomu paste)

75g (2.5oz) melted unsalted butter

200g (7oz) Plain Flour

80g (3oz) Cocoa Powder

¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

¼ tsp baking powder

Filling:

170g (6oz) unsalted butter

280g (10oz) icing sugar

220g (8oz) vanilla marshmallow fluff

Method:

Using a mixer cream the egg and sugar until fluffy. Pour the milk, yoghurt and vanilla essence into a bowl and mix together. Then add this mixture in with the beaten egg an sugar. Finally add in the melted butter and mix. Sift together the remaining dry ingredients, add them to the creamed mixture and mix well on a medium speed. Place the batter mix in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes this is important I don't know the science behind it but i imagine the raising agents are reacting and it changes the consistency of the batter. Pre-heat the oven to 170C Roasting oven with a cold shelf. Once rested, spoon or pipe onto the baking trays making 8-10 mounds per tray. These need to be 2-3 cm spaced apart and around 3 -5 cm in diameter. A tsp full is about the right amount if you are spooning.

Bake for 10-13 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Cool before filling.

To make the filling beat the butter and icing sugar together. Once this is blended add the marshmallow fluff and then mix on a high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes as this will firm up the mixture slightly.

I made them the day ahead and they kept very well. They are quite robust so would travel well if need be I imagine they could be posted as well.


I have entered them into Cake Boule valentine baking ideas, Valentine Hearts ideas on very good recipes,Baked with love bakeoff and What Kate Baked's Tea Time Treats.

Very Easy Roast Vegetable Tart.

This is so easy you almost can't call it a recipe but it is great for girly lunches or sunday night fridge scrapes. You can use raw vegetables or cold left overs, either works just as well. In our flat we love spicy food and add chilli to most things. Partly because we genuinely like hot food and partly because we are mean and it means that our flat mate who is from wales has to eat everything with milk while his nose runs and tears poor down his face. Mean I know but somehow still funny. If you like spicy food you can add harrisa paste to the tomato and pesto or you can sprinkle chilli flakes onto the top. In our case it was both.

I have linked this to fuss free flavours frugal friday.

1 packet ready rolled puff pastry
Tomato paste
Pesto
vegetables of your choice
Cheese of some kind I would advise goats or mozzarella.If you like spicy food you can add harrisa paste to the tomato and pesto or you can sprinkle chilli flakes onto the top.


Simply spread pesto and tomato paste over the pastry. Then pile on you choice of fillings. Drizzle with olive oil and season. Bake for 30mins at 200c if you are cooking in an aga for the last ten minutes put it on the floor of the oven which will crisp up the base nicely.