Worthing's Piglets Pantry afternoon tea launch event at i360 in Brighton attended by influencers including Amy Hart

So, you probably want to know what I’ve been up to, right?

Well, that’s easy. Having a lot of fun, is the short answer, thanks to the weather gods looking favourably upon us this year.

The slightly longer answer is that we had loads of fun family adventures – we went to Knockhatch Adventure Park, Weald and Downland Living Museum, Paultons Park, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portchester Castle, Gunwharf Quays, Chartwell, the cinema, swimming, saw a Dinomania show, spent a week in Wales, saw friends, had barbecues, went to the beach and so much more. Basically, summer 2022 was a massive success.

Even though I’m not thrilled about jumping head-first into the back-to-school chaos this week, the fact we had such a fantastic summer season has made the return of a morning routine slightly easier to bear.

And so was the fact I had a few grown-up nights out (although the one where I learned prosecco, lemon gin and tiramisu Baileys don’t mix well is probably best forgotten).

The absolute highlight of my mummy nights out came after a gem of an invite dropped into my inbox: ‘Hi, it’s Piglets Pantry here. We’re celebrating the launch of our new seaside-themed afternoon tea with an evening event at the i360 in Brighton. Would you like to come? There will be cocktails, some of our delicious food, the theme is pink and you can bring a couple of friends.’ Erm, YES PLEASE!

The event was held in the middle of one of our gorgeous heatwaves, and my friends Lynsey, Tugce and I arrived as the sun was starting to set, creating the most gorgeous and on-brand pink sky.

As we walked in, a glass of champagne was thrust into each of our hands, and we were invited to help ourselves to a vast array of cakes and sweet treats. If Carlsberg did nights out… they’d be hard-pressed to better this one!

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Started by Joanna Hunter and Steve Cusack, Piglets Pantry is a family owned and run, award-winning supplier of cakes, bakes and savoury treats based right here in Worthing.

They supply a large range of hand crafted pies, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, cakes and sweet treats to venues across the UK, as well as at stadiums across the country, including Brighton & Hove Albion’s ground the Amex.

The brand soared after Covid hit, thanks to some quick-thinking and hard work, and continues to go from strength-to-strength. And if you wanted to know more, that’s good, because in the next week or two I’m going to be touring their Worthing operation to find out more about what it takes to run a national brand.

But back to the launch night. Give me a table of cakes and tell me I’ve got free reign, and I will take that challenge seriously!

I tried pink lemonade loaf cake, Piglet cake pops, chocolate lifebuoy doughnuts, popcorn cupcakes… and that was before they brought out platters of the savoury food! Let’s just say the fish and chip tarts and their signature sausage rolls are something to behold.

At this point, they announced we were about to board a ‘flight’ on the i360 and I started to panic that I might now exceed the maximum recommended weight for the attraction (just kidding, there isn’t one, but it’s safe to say I was now carrying a couple of extra stone in ‘delicious treat weight’).

At the top, as we marvelled at the views across Brighton and beyond, while Joanna talked about the success of the business and thanked everyone who had supported the brand.

It was so nice to hear of a business in our fantastic town doing so well. It definitely felt like something to celebrate (which we did, with a fab pink gin cocktail – cheers!)

My friends and I had the best time. We said because we were away from Worthing for the evening, and it was so warm and we went on a ‘flight’, it almost felt like we’d been abroad for the evening. It was completely magical, so thank you Piglets Pantry.

Now, are there any other Worthing ventures that feel like they need to celebrate? I’m a very enthusiastic party guest…!