I do love biscuits. My favourites, in no particular order, are chocolate coated malted milk biscuits, chocolate coated digestives, hob nobs, and boaster cookies. If we’re talking homemade then I love custard creams and shortbread (I don’t like shop-bought versions of these unless the shortbread is the proper buttery stuff), my nutella-stuffed chocolate chip cookies […]
Baking
GBBO challenge week 1 – Cake: Gin & Tonic madeira cake
I do love a bit of Bake Off, and Andrew even lets me watch it … although he only managed approximately 40 seconds of it before he stuck his earphones on. I genuinely don’t understand why he hates the show so much – it’s so relaxing to watch, and of course a great way to pick […]
Week 31 – August already?
I can’t believe it is already August. Where is the year going? And where is summer? Apart from a few boiling hot days here and there, we haven’t seen a proper summer yet, so I am hoping one appears soon. The year seems to be flying by and before we know it we’ll be buying […]
- Baking
- ...
40th birthday cake – drunken Welsh dragon vanilla cake
Yes, you did read that correctly: I made a 40th birthday cake of vanilla sponge and it was decorated with a drunken Welsh dragon. Sound strange? Well, it actually was completely suitable for Andrew: it was his 40th birthday, he is Welsh, and he loves getting drunk, so voila! Actually I can’t take credit for the […]
Healthy (kind of!) wholemeal pizza
I thought this pizza was going to be super healthy, mainly due to the fact that I made the base with wholemeal flour. It turns out it’s not that healthy after all, coming in at just under 1,000 calories per pizza. However, it’s a HUGE pizza, and much nicer than supermarket versions (or even Pizza […]
Week 27 – meeting Rachel Allen and coping with a hangover
This is going to be a short post as I am feeling tired and hungover after Andrew’s birthday celebrations last night (his actual birthday is next weekend but he had a party last night, for which I made this amazing – even if I do say so myself – cake!). As you can imagine, the […]
Week 18 – May the 4th be with you
Happy Star Wars Day! Okay, I am not a Star Wars geek like my brother Jason, but I did grow up watching the original films (and remember a mad hunt around London in the early 80s to try and find the Princess Leah toy … her wearing the white dress and buns was much sought […]
Week 15 – an All Blacks themed 40th birthday cake
It has been a busy old week this week with some birthday baking for our friend Danny, who just turned 40. His wife Monika asked me to bake him a birthday cake for his party, something chocolate-y, and as I had the perfect chocolate cake in my repertoire from Henry’s christening cake, I was happy […]
Cookbook Challenge – James Martin: Lancashire hotpot and apple pie
I have been thoroughly enjoying these Cookbook Challenges, where Andrew chooses a cookbook each week (and usually a recipe) so that I can finally make use of the hundreds of cookbooks I own and rarely use. But I am struggling to write up each recipe straight away, and so I really need to be a […]
Week 11 – and a custard cream spread ‘incident’
Okay, let’s get the confessions out of the way first. This happened: I am not proud, but in my defence I had come down with a cold at the start of last week, and was stuck at home waiting for my new sofas to be delivered. I was […]