Pies and tarts were the subject of this week’s Bake Off, and Norman (who practically dredged the entire studio in icing sugar when he ‘dusted’ his tarte au citron) was booted off, despite the fact that they are one baker down now that Diana has pulled out of the series due to illness. I think the […]
New recipe
A feast of Pink Lady apples
The other day I was sourcing some new recipes and happened to mention to a lady who does the PR for Pink Lady apples (I hadn’t realised that apples needed their own PR, so you really do learn something new every day) that I needed to find some apple recipes, as puddings made from apples […]
GBBO 2014 challenge week 4 – self saucing lemon pudding
Oh blimey, what was going on with the Bake Off this week? #Bingate made for fantastic viewing, and I am sure that the programme-makers were delighted to see how Twitter went ballistic over ‘Dirty Diana’ and her apparently sabotage of Iain’s baked alaska. Has a baking show ever had so much fuss? I doubt it […]
GBBO 2014 challenge week 3 – filled bread
I am running late with my Bake Off challenge this week, as I spent the bank holiday weekend in Paris for the Rock en Seine music festival. So instead of baking bread, I was eating sausages, aligot, Paris-Brest and confit duck, and watching Arctic Monkeys, Prodigy, Queens of the Stone Age and Blondie rock Paris. Oh […]
South African Bobotie
I like to think of myself as being quite adventurous in the kitchen (by which I mean that I am adventurous as a cook, not that I have a climbing wall in the kitchen or abseil down from the bathroom each morning), but there are a few food combinations that just leave me cold, and […]
GBBO 2014 challenge week 2 – savoury biscuits: oatcakes
I had high hopes for this week’s GBBO challenge – but I had a few kitchen disasters, so what I eventually ended up making was not what I had planned. But first the show – I was glad to see the return of the historical segment this week: this time about why ice cream cones […]
A lighter meal with Quark
I came across Quark a few years ago when I was doing Weightwatchers to shed some pounds. All the other ladies I met were shouting about how wonderful it was because it tasted creamy despite being almost fat free, and so I found myself experimenting with Quark on their recommendation: making cheesecakes and eton mess […]
GBBO 2014 challenge week 1 – cherry cake
I am, like many, so excited and delighted to see the Great British Bake Off back for another series … and this time on BBC1! Poor Andrew detests the show – he just cannot understand why anyone would be interested in watching people bake – but he does like to sample any goodies I make, […]
Why I love … Clarence Court eggs
As I explained in the introduction to this ‘Why I love …‘ series, I wanted the opportunity to shout about some brands, products and services I love. The motivation for writing this series is because I think what I am writing about is a good thing, and I want to share my views with you. The […]
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Nothing says Happy Birthday like a cake covered in Maltesers
I may have mentioned before (once or twice) that I am quite a fan of chocolate. I really like Hotel Chocolat (and think that because it is quite expensive I won’t inhale it so quickly as ‘normal’ chocolate, although that doesn’t always work) but I also love the usual brands you can find in the […]