Things have suddenly got a bit hectic in this house over the last few days. I’ve mentioned before how my partner’s 89-year-old mother has been living with us since she suffered a stroke almost exactly twelve months ago. We had settled into a regular routine, but then on Friday she fell over in her bedroom, …
Author Archives: David Burbidge
The joy of group baking
Bake Off is done for another year. First, there was the expectation that like so many of our annual highlights, it just wouldn’t happen this year. Then a few brief weeks of anticipation once we’d heard it was going ahead. Followed by ten weeks of baking challenges that feel as if they’ve gone by in …
Great British Bake Off 2020 week 9
It doesn’t feel long since I was anticipating the unexpected pleasure of a new Bake Off series, yet here we are at the semi-final stage already. Somehow this sums up 2020 for me. Long spells where time drags and nothing much happens, followed by fleeting pleasures that are gone far too quickly. Only a week …
Great British Bake Off 2020 week 8
We’re down to the last five contestants in the Bake Off, this was quarter-finals week and the challenges were all desserts. For me, dessert is a catch-all title which can include gateaus or even pies, as long as they’re of the sweet variety. For Bake Off, it gets a bit more specific, as the ones …
My phone is having more fun than I am.
Our phones met across a crowded room. They reached out, shared memories and in a matter of moments were having the relationship which should have been ours. Somehow that’s the way of things these days, a world we’ve become willing but unknowing participants in. Each shrinking into of our own spaces, counting friends, loving likes, …
It’s the little things that keep you going.
It’s the little things that keep you going at a time like this. My last post was al about the sort of baking which takes a few hours to complete and feels like quite a project. This time around it’s the quick and easy option, the sort of baking where you barely have time to …
Continue reading “It’s the little things that keep you going.”
Great British Bake Off 2020 week 7
This season’s Bake Off has reached the point where the weekly themes start to go a bit off-piste. In previous years we’ve been served vegan and Danish baking, this time around we’ve had Japanese followed by the Eighties. When I saw this theme listed I was desperately hoping the show might include a Black Forest …
Back through the looking glass
So here we go again, UK lockdown 2, the sequel no one wanted to see. It’s been pretty obvious for a few weeks it was coming, but it still doesn’t make the thought of shutting the doors and hibernating for the next four weeks anymore appealing. If that wasn’t enough, there’s a certain election to …
Great British Bake Off 2020 week 6
Bake Off entered a whole new world this week. The world of Japanese baking. If my knowledge of Japanese food is at best limited, my knowledge of their baking is even less. This was the sort of week where contestants who’ve managed all that’s been asked of them so far suddenly started to falter. A …
Great British Bake Off 2020 week 5
Of all the baking basics, the one I struggle with most is pastry. On the face of it things should be easy, most pastry ingredient lists are even shorter than bread making, but somehow it never quite seems to work that way. It never has quite the shortness or crumbly texture I’m looking for. I’ve …
David in the kitchen. 