Bees!

A while back I'd seen this recipe for 'Bienenstich' cake, a traditional German cake that translates as Beesting cake. It sounded interesting and I wanted to give it a try, so had a go for my Dad's birthday.

Bienenstich is a yeasty cake, that needs rising time and doesn't have much sugar but does have an amazing honey and almond topping. I was pretty nervous as it was made quite differently to your average Victoria sponge, but the results were better than expected although I did have a little trouble with the filling.

Bee's my own addition (guess which one is Jimmy's!)

Cats and cake...ohhh Viennaaa!

Shortly after our visit to Prague, in fact the very next week, we spent 5 days in an amazing apartment in Vienna. It felt almost luxurious to not try to cram everything the city had to offer into 2 days!

Vienna was the ideal holiday due to the copious amounts of cats and cake! Vienna is home to a cat cafe...which is basically what it sounds like - a cafe with cats in. Probably our favourite was Moritz below.

We stayed in an apartment just above 'Grimm's Bakery', supposedly the oldest bakery in Vienna so it was important that we sampled some of their breakfast pastries. However, a rainy day was spent in search of the best Sachertorte in Vienna (the cake that was invented in the city), and we spent a silly amount of time queuing at 'Demels' for this. Jimmy unfortunately couldn't save his sachertorte in time for the photo!

We also found time for lots of statues of composers, palaces and the excellent Schonbrunn zoo in the grounds of the palace. Vienna didn't feel quite as 'Austrian' as I was expecting, although I feel that my many, many viewings of The Sound of Music may have influenced my views on this! Lots to do however in the city as well as schnitzel and strudel!