European Adventure Photo Recap: Pt. 2

Chocolate Guinness Cake

During our trip to Ireland we had lunch in this amazing little café right at the bottom of Dun Aonghasa. We followed up our lunch with a piece of the most amazing cake ever. Before we left Alex asked for the recipe and the happily gave it to us.  When we later talked to our host she just raved about the cake and how popular it was with everyone on the island. She mentioned that she makes this cake for pretty much every special occasion. I thought it would be the perfect recipe to post here on St Patrick’s day!This is one of the most incredible cakes I’ve ever had. It is dense, moist and very chocolaty. The light cream cheese frosting on top pairs so incredibly well with the cake you’ll think you’ve gone to heaven. This is the perfect cake for any sort of St Patrick’s Day celebration. I’ve used the Guinness Extra Stout for this recipe. However, we were told in Ireland that you can pretty much use whatever Stout you have on hand, but it’s better with Guinness!As you’ll notice below, I’ve left this cake in weight measurements. This is because you can get excellent, repeatable results with baking by weight. I actually prefer baking this way since the results are so absolutely predictable. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, or don’t want to bake by weight a simple google search on conversions will let you change the recipe.[amd-yrecipe-recipe:181]Source: Adapted from Nigella Lawson

Air B&B: A Review

 I thought I would give you guys a little review about our experience with Air B&B. Don't worry, there will be more in-depth posts later this month about our entire trip complete with photos!If you’re not familiar with Air B&B it is a way to book rooms or houses when you are traveling. It is an alternative to hotels and hostels. It is almost like couch surfing, but you get your own private room or home and there are typically excellent reviews on the website that help you decide where to stay. Most hosts will also include breakfast in the price of your stay too.We stayed in three different Air B&B’s when we were in Europe.LondonEdinburghAran Island, IrelandWe had an absolutely excellent time at each and every one of these Air B&B’s. If you are looking to stay in one of these places both Alex and I would absolutely recommend any of the hosts we stayed with. They each had excellent suggestions on places to visit around where they lived and they were all more than willing to talk with us.One tip I received before we booked any of these was to check out the reviews on people and only go with people who have a lot of positive reviews. I believe this helped us have an excellent experience with Air B&B since each of our locations was well reviewed.And really, just admire this view from our window on the Aran Islands: