It was my friend’s birthday last week and instead of trying to think up an idea for a present I decided to treat her and take her to the relatively new Patisserie Valerie in Edinburgh. I pass it regularly on the way to work and it has such a glorious display of pastries and cakes that you feel as if you are gaining weight just looking at the window:
She hadn’t been in there since it opened so it seemed like a good excuse for a nice birthday treat, plus as I told Mel cakes eaten for birthday celebrations contain no fat or calories, that’s a true (made up) scientific fact. I had the chocolate mousse you can see on the left in this pic (complete with a small profiterole on the top – decorate your cake with another, smaller cake! I like their thinking) and a huge mocha:
With displays like this you can see why so many passers-by, locals and tourists alike, stop to gawp in the patisserie’s window:
How fantastic does this cake look? My darling cookie cat Cassie would have gone crazy if she saw this, that kitty loved a bit of pastry or cake. Never worked out where she developed her taste for them, she didn’t care for them when younger but by middle age she was a furry demon for them, if I came home with several bags of heavy groceries she would mieow loudly and unneringly go straight to the bag that had the parcel from the bakery in it. She would have loved this. Anyway, we had a good cakey treat then a nice wander around some of the art galleries afterwards, which as both of us have been dealing with ill relatives a lot recently was a nice, relaxing way to spend a day off and something the pair of us haven’t had time to do lately.
