Chocolate orange birthday cake recipe (perfect for Halloween)

I woke up this morning and realised it’s the blog’s birthday … and I had forgotten to make a cake. But I had to make a cake for a Halloween party I am attending later today. So, that’s the story of my spooky blog birthday cake! This is a chocolate orange cake: orange zest in […]

GBBO week 3 – double chocolate and cinnamon Chelsea buns

Bread week is never one of my favourites on the Great British Bake Off, as I always have trouble getting my dough to rise when I make anything which has yeast in it. But greed prevailed, and I got a craving for chocolate Chelsea buns (replacing that boring dried fruit with chocolate), so came up […]

GBBO week 2 – pumpkin spice latte traybake

I have never, ever, ever had a pumpkin spice latte. My coffee of choice is a flat white, or a skinny latte with caramel syrup if I need a sugar boost along with my caffeine (quite often, as it goes). But, I am sure I am not the only person who has heard of this […]

GBBO week 5 – caramel apple steamed sponge

I rarely had school dinners when I was younger, as my friends and I used to eat our packed lunches together in the ‘Quiet Green’ rather than bother with queueing for lunch. However, I definitely fondly remember stodgy school puddings from primary school: jam and coconut sponge with pink custard, chocolate pudding with chocolate custard […]

GBBO week 4 – caramel: salted peanut millionaire’s shortbread

I watched the GBBO caramel episode from our cabin at Centerparcs, drooling over the different varieties of millionaire’s shortbread. But of course I am trying to be healthy, so how can I munch on millionaire’s shortbread? Well, luckily my friend Lucy had been looking after the cats while we were away, so this seemed like […]

GBBO week 2 – sandwich biscuits: cobnut and chocolate viennese biscuits

Once again I enjoyed the new series of Bake Off – ultimately the format is winning out, regardless of whether the new presenters are still finding their feet. I am becoming a big fan of Prue (can I be honest? I never really loved Mary Berry …), and Noel and Sandy are growing on me. […]

Week 37 – more celebration cake

2 weeks and 2 celebration cakes. The first for Evie’s christening, and the second for Geoff’s 60th birthday party. Phew, I will be happy to get back to evenings of just cooking dinner and letting Ioan fling it all over the place, instead of baking and icing cakes! It’s been fun, but exhausting, and I […]

GBBO week 1 – illusion cake: Arsenal football shirt 60th birthday cake

So the Great British Bake Off (GBBO) is back? Like, I think, most people, when Channel 4 announced that the Bake Off would move away from the Beeb this year, I was a bit gutted, but I knew I would have to keep watching it. When I heard that Noel Fielding and Sandy Toksvig were going […]

Week 36 – a rainbow christening cake

You know how they say that all the best laid plans go to waste? Well that’s kind of what happened with me last week. On Monday lunchtime I ate my pre-made couscous with roasted veggies, and on Monday night we all had homemade fish pie for dinner. But by 11pm I was vomiting my way […]