Our old friend Jamie rented a house near us for his 50th Birthday party, and on a glorious English summer day, we spent a lovely 10 hours in the garden drinking bubbles, eating lovely food, playing croquet (always interesting after bubbles), talking about the weather (for we English it is a constant source of fascination) and…
Ottolenghi’s Orange and Almond Syrup Cake – a Birthday Treat
Well it has been a long time since I blogged. The last few months have been dreadful and I have had little time or inclination to sit down and write. But it is time to get back in the saddle. (Cue slightly strange pictures depicting said saddle getting) Firstly though I will give you a feel…
Baking, Blogging and Life are not always compatible
To those of you who have followed me, I just want to apologise for not posting for a while. Life has unfortunately decided to throw a few googlies my way (that is an English cricketing term for being a bloody pain in the backside) which has just got in the way of posting for a…
Rhubarb and Custard Cake – a match made in heaven
It has been many weeks since I last baked, never mind wrote about it, but with good reason. May and June are the busiest gardening months when everything bursts into life at full throttle and the garden is at its most gorgeous but most labour intensive phase. Plants that 3 weeks ago were leaves popping…
Towering Macarons with Raspberry Dark Chocolate Ganache
I had a very busy baking week last week because my brother asked me to make the cake for my niece’s First Holy Communion. You can read all about that here. Originally he asked for a Macaron Piece-Montee , which knowing my brother he did partly to see if I would be floored. In the…
Macarons – the reason for all those steps
The macaron is a beautiful but tricky little thing. It started life as an ordinary biscuit back in the Middle Ages but in the 1930’s it was elevated to the world of haute couture petits-fours to become the beautiful and complex thing we know today. You can read more about the history here, but this post is all…
Macarons – a biscuit with many ancestors
If you have read my blog before you will know how this bake came about, but to summarise I was asked to bake a cake for my niece’s First Holy Communion, with a specific request for a Macaron Piece-Montee. It didn’t quite work out that way as you can read here, but it made an…
First Holy Communion Cake
My niece had her First Holy Communion yesterday in London, and my lovely french sister in law asked me to bake the cake for the family party afterwards. This was the result after a somewhat tortuous creative process and I have to say I was rather pleased ….. in the end. Now despite my advancing years,…
Opera Cake with Kirsch Cherries – a Bake Off Aria in 8 layers
My brother and his french wife are staying along with their 2 lovely girls so the stops had to be pulled out and we decided a quick trip to the cuisine of France was needed. The hubby made a Beef Daube and Aligot Pototoes, and I decided to try these little Opera Cakes. The Opera Cake…
A Seedy Sourdough
We have my big brother and his brood visiting for the bank holiday so we are in for a houseful for a couple of days. The first port of call for getting ready for any visitors is baking bread for our breakfast toast and I decided it was time to break away from my staple mill…
Resurrection of the Cardinal
Last weekend we had to recover the house from the latest onslaught of the builders which left little time for baking. But our neighbours Annie and Stephen wanted a grand tour of the restored residence and popped round for morning coffee on Sunday. Coffee of course requires cake (actually in Germany this visit would be called…
Of Bicarb and Other Leavening Agents
The husband and I are mightily tired of having builders in the house now. In fact we hope not to have to have builders in the house for quite a while, though I must make it clear to the Gods of Hubris that is not a wish, just a statement. In the last 6 months…
The Cottage Loaf 