Fruisana recipe of the month Chocolate Almond Cake

After the excesses of the festive period, and the general cutting back on rich food during January, we start to regain our appetite for the occasional treat. Here from the Fruisana Kitchen is a quick and easy recipe which uses store cupboard ingredients.
Chocolate is always a favourite and this delicious cake, with its soft, rich, gooey centre makes a perfect dessert perhaps for Valentine’s Day?

Spice up Valentines day with Thorntons new limited edition chocolate block

Thorntons have added to their hugely successful range of Chocolate Blocks with a limited edition honey & chilli bar launched for Valentines Day. If you fancy spicing things up on the most romantic day of the year then the chilli chocolate block in its colourful packaging is ideal. The fruity overtones of the intense, single origin 66% Mexican dark chocolate, perfectly complement the subtle warmth of the real chilli infusion.

A pearl of a feast at Moti Mahal

Moti Mahal, in the heart of Covent Garden, is offering love birds an Indian feast fit for Gods and Goddesses. Head Chef Ani’s recipes are derived by fusing styles and flavours from many different regions of India. For Valentine’s Day, Chef Ani has created a set menu, with the cuisine plated and displayed in European style.

Moti Mahal’s Golden Kiss

Come fall in love with Moti Mahal’s Golden Kiss Cocktail. On 13 and 14 February 2009, Moti Mahal, the chic Indian restaurant located in the heart of Covent Garden, will be offering the deliciously romantic cocktail. The cocktail is a floating vision of romance, as it will turn guests’ lips gold after sipping. The Golden Kiss Cocktail, priced at £9 each, is an innovative love birds special. It will combine Rémi Martin Coeur de Cognac, Chambord and rose syrup, shaken with fresh cranberry juice, lemon juice and gold flakes, and garnished with rose petals and golden passion fruit caviar pearls.

Veggie Valentines will find a feast at Tibits

Tibits, the vegetarian restaurant in Heddon Street and Westfield is quickly becoming a capital favourite for the energetic, bright-eyed, healthy crowd. To make sure vegetarian lovers have a romantic place to dine on Valentine’s day, Tibits is offering a set price menu including one bottle of Prosecco, one plate of lovely food, a dessert and coffee for £50 for two.

Want to do it up right on Valentine’s? Stay all night!

This Valentine’s Day, whether it’s with a spouse, a lover or an exciting new fling, Bonds Restaurant in the 5* boutique hotel, Threadneedles, is opening its doors for the first time on a Saturday with a specially created three-course menu for just £45 per person*. Start with ravioli of ‘native blue’ lobster with Armagnac bisque, followed by slow cooked ‘Pyrenees’ pork belly with pearl barley and chorizo ‘like risotto’ and caramelised onions and finish with warm chocolate pudding with peanut butter ice cream. For a real surprise, the full Romance Package costs £160 per person (an extra £115pp).

Valentine’s Day at the Red Lion Inn

The recent winner of the ‘Best Local Produce Menu’ award, have dreamt up a great menu for this special day for lovers with delicious morsels which can be offered directly to your loved one, such as oysters, scallops, prawns and passion fruit.The Red Lion Inn is situated in the Vale of Belvoir, the very heart of the lovely English ‘shires’ countryside. The atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming, with a traditional bar that serves real ales, lagers and speciality bottled beers, plus an informal lounge with magazines, newspapers, comfy chairs and sofa.

A Lebanese lovers’ feast at Fakhreldine

If you want to save the chequered tablecloths and candles stuck in bottles of wine for a spring movie date, plan something more grown up for Valentine’s at Fakhreldine in the nation’s capital. One of London’s favourite Lebanese restaurants is laying out a lovers’ feast to include roasted prawns, kafta skewers, sea bass fillets, lovely saffron rice, and Halawat el Jibn, a cheese and cream of milk dessert, topped with strawberry and honey flavoured with zalou, Lebanon’s legendary aphrodisiac root. While enjoying your meal in a sparkling, romantic setting overlooking Green Park, you will sip from a bejewelled bottle of Love H2O from Wenlock Springs.

Crunch Time with Cameo

Cameo at L’Atelier de Chefs? I dig out my best red codpiece and hurry along humming ‘Word Up!’ to myself. On arrival all I can see are apples everywhere and a bit of paper that explains that Cameo is a type of apple and not an 80’s rap group. Blast, I got all Afro’d up for nothing.

Kettner’s Restaurant

I do miss seeing Mel Smith smoking cigars in the Champagne Bar, maybe they should have him stuffed and brought back? Maybe they should have us all stuffed and brought back? No, you can’t preserve the past you have to move on.