The Scilly Treat Part Two

Staying at Samson Hill on Bryher in the Isles of Scilly was a perfect, tranquil, idyllic retreat to celebrate my birthday. In Part One, I posted photos of our trip over to Bryher from St Martins, a spot of island hopping on the whizzy boat that I love so much, and photos of our arrival at the glorious Samson Hill and our day of meandering and pottering in the Scilly sunshine.

After a truly delicious meal at Fraggle Rock in the evening, with this for a view …

the walk back to our B and B was magical in the last of the evening sun.

We had an amazingly comfortable bed, with crisp white linen. In our room, in addition to the usual tea and coffee making facilities, was a Nespresso machine. Oh yes! Mr Daisy loves the pale mellow pods and I adore the dark strong ones so we drank our way through several cups of delicious proper coffee before retiring.

Complete silence meant a blissful nights sleep, uninterrupted by traffic or street lights, and we woke to birdsong and a glorious sunrise over the sea.

The delicious aroma of pastries baking signalled we should prepare for an eagerly anticipated breakfast. Issy and Gareth bake all their own bread and pastries and use as much locally grown food as possible including their own eggs so we knew we were in for a treat.

This must possibly be the finest view from a breakfast table -

Home made granola, espresso cups crammed with neat, tiny pieces of delicious fresh fruit and prunes soaked in Lady Grey tea, with a dollop of natural yogurt was our first course -

A warm, freshly baked pain au chocolate was to follow ….. oh my days, this was glorious, sod the diet -

Now normally, that would have been more than enough breakfast for anyone, but when offered the cooked breakfast menu, we thought it rude to refuse

Perfectly well cooked St Agnes bacon served with Samson Hill poached eggs, the yellowest yolks you ever did see, scrumptious, and a cafetiere of coffee. Heavenly.

Messing about with a Richard Pearce table mat, a mini butter dish and a napkin ring makes me happy -

Isn’t this the prettiest seat?

As we were about to leave, we were given a gift. How thoughtful and unexpected and so touching.

Fresh out of the oven, to accompany us on our travels that day, ginger cookies …..

And we ate them on the beach, back on St Martins, in the glorious sunshine.

Thank you Gareth and Issy, we will be back very soon.

Enjoy your weekend folks, we will be watching the World Pilot Gig Championships on St Mary’s, an amazing event involving over 120 gigs and their teams of rowers from all over the world.

With love, Daisy Cupcakes x

A Birthday Treat Part One

My birthday is always in April, funny that. And it usually falls about the time we go on the first of our bi annual visits to our spiritual home, The Isles of Scilly.

So it has become a tradition that during our stay on our beloved St Martins, we island hop and have a rather indulgent night on one of the other inhabited islands.

This year we went to Bryher and stayed at the glorious Samson Hill Cottage. The weather was perfect – blue sky, hot sun, light breeze – as we set off for our adventure.

Hopefully my photos say it all and need no explanation, other than we had a fabulous time. Part two, the breakfast, follows tomorrow. Highly recommended, if you need a getaway to paradise, get in touch with Issy and Gareth at Samson Hill, you will adore it.

We had such a good day ….. whizzy boat ride, cream tea on arrival, long walk round the island, coffee and lunch at Hell Bay, natter with our friend Richard Pearce, finishing with a delicious dinner cooked by Kim at Fraggle Rock. We walked back to Samson Hill along the beach as the sun was setting ready for the best night’s sleep in our super king sized bed …. luxury.

Will tell you about our fabulous breakfast tomorrow.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine, Daisy Cupcakes x

Bryher for the day

It’s been a fabulous week.
The first Tresco and Bryher Food Festival has been a resounding success.

So many talented local suppliers, bakers, creatives, fishermen, brewers, cheese makers, cake makers, cafes, fudge makers, chefs and so many more, all in one place, showing their wares and enticing visitors with delicious samples.

I have so enjoyed running Daisy cake decorating and baking workshops and demonstrations and hope very much that we will be invited back next year.

Yesterday, we spent the day on Bryher, which is a beautiful small island very close to Tresco. Mr Daisy took us across in our little punt and outboard.

and we arrived at Anneke’s quay (built as part of the original Challenge Anneke Rice TV series). I always admire this pretty beach house with blue windows framed with glorious Red Hot Pokers.

Someone was even going for a swim as we arrived …. mad – the sea is freezing!

The new community centre on Bryher was full of stalls showcasing the huge amount of talent on the island. For such a small island, it was so very impressive and exciting.

We tasted lots of lovely food and drink and bought lots of things to take home as gifts.
We watched a demonstration by the chefs from Hell Bay Hotel making lobster ravioli.

Sampled delicious Cornish cheeses

Amazing breakfast pastries from Samson Hill Cottage (I ate the best pain au chocolate ever)

My favourite fudge in the whole wide world from Veronica Farm Fudge – the Cornish Sea Salt flavour is genius.

Fraggle Rock Cafe is the first place we visit if we land at Annekes Quay and Kim makes glorious cakes, meringues and this fabulous lemonade ..

Bryher Shop has been recently rebuilt and is amazing, a tiny little version of Fortnum and Mason! They stock fabulous food and home made bread and meals, perfect for self catering holidays. They have a speciality Mexican food menu too, delicious.

After a wonderful couple of hours chatting and nibbling and being amazed, we wandered off to have lunch at Hell Bay. The special food festival menu did not disappoint and we tucked in to Tresco Rib Eye Steak with blue cheese in a ciabatta with chunky chips, and this view …

Along the very quiet road (track – no cars on Bryher) we passed our favourite vegetable shop ….

Always stocked with beautiful, organic Bryher grown vegetables, it always pleases the eye as well as the palate. The flowers were a particular pleasure …..

And before heading back to the beach and our boat back, no trip to Bryher is complete without a visit to see Richard Pearce, who not only has a fabulous studio on the beach, flooded with the most gorgeous Scilly light and perfect for his particularly stunning art, but also has a studio shop selling just the perfect (for me) kind of beach and sea inspired trinkets and keepsakes and I always just have to make a few purchases.
This time, we bought a distressed wooden sign (perfect for our kitchen at home), a very pretty heart shaped tin (love tins, not sure what will go in it yet but had to have it), and a journal (delicious fabric cover, divine handmade paper, tied with raffia). When I say ‘we bought’, I really mean ‘I chose’ and Mr Daisy agreed.

The journey home was scary for a townie, he took me round the back of the island in the tiny boat where the waves are at least 50 foot high. Claiming it was like a mill pond, I simply moaned and closed my eyes, not wishing to appear too woosie. However, a little later, I heard from several local women that they all hate it too …. it’s obviously a man thing to enjoy a bit of danger. And it’s why I don’t like the big rides at Alton Towers and the like, am just a scared thing.

Oh I do love it here.

Daisy Cupcakes x

Lunch at Hell Bay, Bryher, Isles of Scilly

It’s Friday and we have been on holiday for nearly a week … time really has flown by.

I don’t have a ‘Something For The Weekend’ for you today as I don’t bake on holiday …. mainly because Mr Daisy’s mum is a wonderful cook and as she is just down the road, a tin of Scillonian heavy cake, butter shortbread and flapjack is never far away. And just up the road, we have Polreath Tearoom, the home of the St. Martins cream tea, and St Martins Bakery, baking Cornish pasties, quiches and a whole range of delicious cakes and breads. So it’s fair to say we are spoilt for baked goods and I can have a rest!

So instead, I thought I would introduce you to Hell Bay on Bryher, a short boat trip away from ‘our’ island. We spent the day on Bryher on Wednesday, a gloriously sunny day, a perfect day. Our treat on Bryher is to have lunch at Hell Bay Hotel, the most fabulous hotel in an amazingly remote, rugged part of the Isles of Scilly.

Our day started with coffee at Fraggle Rock Cafe and then a walk round the island, all half a mile of it, to work up an appetite!

We met friends for lunch at Hell Bay … we ordered local crab salad, Tresco beef burger, and ricotta and spinach pancakes, some cheesy chips (of course) and a round of iced drinks as it was particularly warm and sunny.

Hopefully, my photos will whet your appetite!

We spent a very relaxed couple of hours chatting and soaking up the rays before heading off to visit two other very special Bryher people, more about them on Monday.

A short stroll to the quay to get the boat back to St Martins earned us a gorgeous Eccles cake from the beautiful new Bryher Shop

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A perfect day …. more from the magnificent Isles of Scilly on Monday, until then, have a wonderful weekend, Daisy Cupcakes x