Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

Raise a glass at Cava

If you can't get to Seville for the annual Tapas Fair which runs for the month of February, but you're a fan of Spanish small plates, Cava restaurant in Galway is running a pincho menu throughout the same month, with three of the finger food snacks for €4.50. They are also hosting weekly free sherry tastings. See cavarestaurant.ie

Exceedingly good cakes

Fiona Wymes of Lou Lou Bakery makes cakes that not only look beautiful – with subtle, understated decoration and a preference for natural embellishment such as edible flowers – they also taste amazing, thanks to the organic eggs, organic flour unrefined sugar and Irish butter she uses.

“I don’t do novelty cakes because I don’t like using artificial colours. I want to make cakes that look like delicious cakes, not ones that look like a shoe, or a football,” she says.

She specialises in seasonal variations and unusual flavour combinations, such as cupcakes with blood orange curd filling, Earl Grey and white chocolate cake, rhubarb and rose cake, and the perennially popular chocolate triple layer cake with vanilla bean icing.

Apart from the quality of the cakes, it’s the icing that sets Lou Lou cakes apart. For her triple layer Red Velvet cake – an ideal Valentine’s present – she makes an unusual icing that mixes a classic cream cheese version with a vanilla buttercream made by the Swiss meringue method, incorporating egg whites whipped over gentle heat. The result is a lighter, velvet texture icing that is not as cloying as traditional buttercream. For an authentic Red Velvet, she had to bend her rules on using food colouring, but she has chosen one that is as natural as possible.

Wymes, who worked as a fashion buyer in London for seven years before pursuing her career in food through the Ballymaloe certificate course and a work experience stint at Violet Bakery in London, set up Lou Lou Bakery last November. She delivers her cakes to addresses (and restaurants) in the Dublin area, or they an be collected from her home bakery in Sandymount.

They're not cheap – a six-inch layer cake costs between €30 and €35 and eight large cupcakes are €20 – but they are utterly delicious showstoppers. See louloubakery.com.

the buzz

Jimmy Doherty @jimmysfarm: Just landed in Northern Ireland to see how Tesco produce their chicken. Should be interesting

Tim Hayward @timhayward: When I asked for books on bacon, they asked ‘Roger or Francis?’ and I had to reply 'Streaky'

Xanthe Clay @XantheClay: Mary Berry: tiny, elegant, perfect manners, and not above saying ‘sod it’. We like

Fuchsia Dunlop @fuchsiadunlop Fuchsia Dunlop: Rapeseed oil v good for Chinese cooking (and the traditional Sichuan cooking oil)

Northern lights and gourmet delights

Joe Walsh Tours is running a five-night trip to Norway on February 12th that has a lot of emphasis on experiencing the country's food, modern and traditional. You'll eat dinner with a Norwegian family, barbecue under the stars, and enjoy a lunch of local raw ingredients in the Arctic wilderness. The trip, which costs €895 full board, ex-flights, also includes a husky safari, shoe-shoeing and chance to experience the Northern Lights. See joewalshtours@travelmedia.ie