Apple, lemon and chocolate cake

The cake in the picture with this post may not be the best-looking thing I’ve put on here, but it just might be one of the tastiest. It’s the sort of cake I know would hardly register with me if I saw it on a bakery counter. My gaze soon moving to the more cream-laden, …

Comfort food from my favourite cookbook.

My cookbook library is extensive and will soon need a larger bookcase to house it. Lockdown may have stopped random buys resulting from bookshop browsing, but it’s still grown over the last 12 months. I keep feeling now should be the time to pull out some of those which don’t see the light of day …

Apple, cardamom & buckwheat muffins

One of my regular Google searches is to check just how much notice I need to take of the ‘best before’ or BBE dates on food items in my pantry. Now we’re back into a full-blown lockdown here in the UK I’m once again going through the shelves to see what we’ve got and more …

Now doesn’t feel like the time for abstemiousness

Everywhere I look at the moment I’m seeing references to #dryJanuary or #veganuary. Even to the extent that spellcheck just found veganuary for me when I misspelt it. If ever there were frequency illusions I didn’t want to be happening at the moment, it’s these. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against the principles …

Getting back into the kitchen

If this year has taught me anything it has to be the importance of concentrating on the small things. At a time when so much feels to be out of our control, we’ve all learnt the hard way that making grand plans or trying to look too far ahead is a fool’s errand and bound …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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