All the dishes are made for the 'gram and beautifully decorated.
Your Girl Can Bake is the UK's first dine-in-car dessert shop, a hybrid between a drive-thru and a dine-in experience, where you never have to leave your car.
The idea is, you pull up your car and experience desserts like pancakes and waffles laden in thick sauce, washed down with giant freakshakes, mocktails and a whole host of fizzy drinks.
Image: Your Girl Can Bake
Set up in the height of the pandemic, owner of Your Girl Can Bake, Ikraa Riaz, started by selling homemade desserts on Instagram.
Like all the best lockdown success stories, Ikraa found success selling online and decided to pursue her dream of opening a dessert store and now operates from Ardwick in Manchester, which is a one hour drive from Leeds city centre.
Reimagining the dining experience in a world scarred by the pandemic, the concept keeps ahold of the intimacy of gathering and eating in small groups, but still provides the same service and food quality as a dine-in restaurant. It's certainly a far cry from the tight curbs and echoey tannoys of McDonalds drive-thru.
Image: Your Girl Can Bake
Whilst lockdown restrictions may have been the instigator for the dine-in-car idea, it's a concept that's continued to prove popular ever since.
The concept has drawn in influencers, who have taken to Instagram and TikTok to share their experiences, and there's plenty of positive reviews to choose from.
Reaching over a million views on a single TikTok video is the type of viral content any small business only dreams of: but it appears that the visual appeal of these tasty treats has kept customers continuing to visit Your Girl Can Bake long after its five minutes of fame on the social media channel.
And for good reason too. The menu includes mouthwatering Nutella-filled French toast sticks, cookie dough, fudge cakes and fondues in takeaway trays- just incase you can't finish it all in one sitting.
If that's not enough, there's those old school funfetti cakes (the ones you loved at school), giant bags of fizzy sweets, loaded brownies, mini dutch pancakes and cakesicles to try out.
Image: Your Girl Can Bake
There's even savoury dishes to balance the dining experience with loaded nachos, samosa chaat, samosas and kebabs all on offer.
To quench your thirst, there's berry-flavoured Fanta amongst other familiar and exotic soft drinks or mocktails that include a rainbow disco light ice cube for a late-night party experience.
If we're honest, it's the Easter collection that we're most excited about, even if it is only February. The Easter Madness Cookie Dough is half an easter egg loaded with cookie dough, melted chocolate and loaded with your favourite springtime treats like mini eggs and malteaster bunnies.
You wouldn't believe there's a team of three behind this incredible concept.
For more information, or to book yourself a place at the UK's first dine-in-car dessert experience, you can find Your Girl Can Bake on Instagram. Please note bookings need to be made in advance to give time for preparation.
Feature Image- Your Girl Can Bake
Eats
Grade-II listed city centre bar to open East Asian-inspired street food kitchen
Howard Assembly Room to launch new bar with permanent kitchen from Yuzu Street Food.
HAR bar, the intimate Grade II-listed space beneath Leeds City Centre's multi-disciplinary venue, the Howard Assembly Room,will now open five days a week with a brand new permanent food partner.
If you're not familiar York’s Yuzu Street Food, then allow us to fill you in.
First established in York following an enlightening culinary trip to Asia in 2019, Yuzu Street Food is now recognised as one of the north’s finest street food vendors.
Image: Supplied
Serving up contemporary takes on bao buns, fried chicken, ramen, katsu curry and much more; Yuzu are set to be the perfect addition to the Howard Assembly Room and its new bar HAR.
First launched in February, a programme of improvements saw the space previously occupied by the restaurant Kino transformed into the HAR bar.
An intimate venue in the cultural heart of the city, HAR bar guests can now enjoy fresh coffee, quality cocktails and a rotation of beers from breweries including Leeds institution Kirkstall Brewery throughout the week.
Image: Supplied Image: The Hoot Leeds
Yuzu Street Food will open at HAR on Friday 15 May.
Michael Wilkinson, Director of Strategy and Commercial, said: “We are very excited to be welcoming Yuzu to HAR bar, with their Asian-inspired street food providing the perfect accompaniment to our range of drinks and firmly establishing HAR bar as one of Leeds’ leading spots to meet and eat.
"We want everyone in the city to feel that this is their space, where great music, a welcoming atmosphere and exceptional service combine to create a truly special place that embodies the city’s creativity while also supporting Opera North’s outreach work across the north.
Chris Hargroves, Yuzu Founder & CEO, said: “We’re delighted to be back in Leeds city centre! Leeds has always shown us incredible support and energy and returning really feels like coming home. We’re excited to reconnect with the community, welcome familiar faces and introduce our new menu items to the new ones. Working with such a prestigious venue as the Howard Assembly Room is something we’re absolutely buzzing about and we can’t wait to fire up the woks!”
Popular beer festival showcasing over 35 indie breweries is returning to Leeds this month
Clementine Hall
Hop City, the long-running beer festival from award-winning Leeds-based brewery Northern Monk, returns this month for its ninth year.
Beer lovers, this one's for you.
Bringing over 35 of the best independent breweries from the UK, Europe and North America together to The Old Flax Store, Hop City will have approximately 250 different world-class beers for guests to try across one weekend of festivities.
The best part? Every pour across the weekend is included in the price of the ticket alongside a Hop City branded glass to enjoy them in, so don't worry about having to continuously reach for your wallet.
Images: Supplied
Joining Northern Monk this year are UK breweries including Brighton’s Beak, Deya from Cheltenham, Manchester-based Track and Edinburgh’s Newbarns who will be pouring next to the likes of US breweries Trillium, Root + Branch, Finback and everywhere; Canadian’s Messorem and Third Moon, and a selection of Europe’s finest indie brewers.
Seriously, this is a beer lover's paradise.
And it's not just about the booze, as joining Hop City 2026 will be joined by Leeds’ own Bundobust who will be bringing their Indian street food alongside Bonehead Fried Chicken and Hermanos Caliente, courtesy of Niko’s Comfort Kitchen.
Images: Supplied
Not a beer fan? Don't fret as natural wine bar Rinse will be pouring all weekend whilst Below Stairs will be providing the cocktails.
Russell Bisset, Founder of Northern Monk, said: “What started out as an idea to host some of our favourite breweries in Leeds has grown into something bigger than we could have imagined. From the beginning, the ambition was clear - to champion the best hop-forward breweries in the world and to create the first beer festival in Europe dedicated to celebrating hoppy beers and IPAs.
"Today, it’s about bringing some of the greatest breweries from across the globe together under one roof, creating something genuinely special for people who love beer as much as we do. Heading into our ninth year with a line-up of this calibre is something we’re incredibly proud of. It’s not just about the beer, but the community, collaboration, and spirit behind it.”
Hop City 2026 will take place from Friday 15 to Saturday 16 of May, and you can buy your tickets here.
Sophie Smith -
16th February 2022 
