Last week I had the fun opportunity to attend a pizza making class at La Cucina Caldesi, in Marylebone, with I Just Love It. IJLI are a website offering a wide range of unique gift ideas and personalised gifts for every occasion. Since I have begun to offer more recipe posts on my blog, I was keen to attend a more lifestyle focused blogger event and take part in a cookery lesson.

The event itself was a fantastic opportunity to get to know IJLI better, and see a collection of their beautiful gifts up close – their LED letter lights are simply the cutest! It was also a great chance to meet a variety of bloggers who I had not had previously spoken too.

Photo credit -  Luke CareyWith a glass of bubbles on arrival and some focaccia bread to nibble on, we soon began chatting and mingling, getting to know all of the guests as well as the staff. Before we were let loose to test out our pizza making skills, we were given a step by step instruction on how to create the perfect tasting pizza. La Cucina Caldesi gave each of us a ball of dough, dusted down the work bench and passed around a collection of bowls filled with delicious toppings. Once the dough was rolled out into a circular shape (kind of) and covered with tomato sauce, I instantly headed to the cheese bowls. They had 4 or 5 different cheeses on offer and I was struggling to think of the perfect combo. With a little help I eventually went for one of the strongest cheeses (I LOVE cheese!) and so I needed to balance the flavours delicately. I was told salami would be a great shout, and then a sweet pepper would round things off.

(Unfortunately neither of the pizzas above our mine. Mine was far less photogenic!)

Once in the oven, after a difficult task of mastering the giant spade type utensil to get the pizza off the table (it was way harder than it looked), they baked at a high temperature for around 10 minutes and then were topped off with a healthy bunch of rocket, and cut into slices.

There was a competition for the most inventive but unfortunately I didn’t win. However, my pizza tasted SO good. The cheese and salami went together perfectly. I was very happy!

As it was time to say our goodbyes the lovely team at I Just Love It had organised a personal goody bag of treats. I couldn’t wait until I got home, so began rummaging through on the tube home. Inside were a number of homewares and kitchen bits that I will definitely be using. All of which had a personalised touch, making them the cutest!