Posted in Appetizers, Desserts, Recipes, Side dishes, tagged baking, classics, cooking, dinner, food, party food, recipes, side dishes, vegetables, vegetarian on November 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »
It’s November – so I can officially start obsessively planning my big Thanksgiving feast. Although if I’m honest I may have looked at a few recipes in October or even September… I love the planning almost as much as the actual night, and if you’re feeding 15+ people you need to plan!
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, tagged cooking, dessert, food, gluten-free, recipes on June 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Sometimes I’m really glad that I like cooking so much. Not on the days when I spend hours making dinner only for it to be a big fat fail. But definitely on days when I get back from a long weekend of camping and partying at Glastonbury festival and it’s hot and muggy and I’ve barely got enough energy to wash all the mud off. And then I remember that I’ve got homemade ice cream in the freezer. Big. fat. yay.
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, tagged baking, chocolate, classics, cooking, dessert, dinner, food, recipes, vegetarian on April 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve been loving the amazing warm weather this spring and spent lots of time out and about with friends on the beach or on the bikes – but we’ve also had quite a few friends round for dinner. I’m loving testing out the new flat and kitchen on everyone and we’ve had a few tasty meals along the way. But this salted caramel-filled chocolate fondant was easily my favourite dish so far. Who can say no to oozing caramel with that subtle salty twist surrounded by a gooey chocolate cake??? Not me. And not you either once you see how easy it was to make!
Posted in Desserts, Preserves, Recipes, What to do with..., tagged baking, cooking, dessert, food, leftovers, party food, pastry, preserves, recipes on February 14, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Is this a problem other people have? Possibly not, cause I’m a bit weird and I don’t really eat much bread so I don’t eat much toast and jam. But I’ve gotten really into making preserves over the past couple years so I end up with jars and jars of the stuff. Of course I give most of it away to friends, but you feel like you ought to keep one jar of each variety you make and even that ends up being loads more than I’ll ever eat. So here I am about to move house and trying to clear out the fridge – there are jars and jars of condiments that I refuse to throw away because I really love my condiments ok? So I decided to find some tasty recipes to finish off all those jars of jam instead!
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, tagged baking, classics, cooking, dessert, food, party food, recipes, vegetarian on February 2, 2011 | 4 Comments »
It’s February already holy heck. So no more boring New Year’s resolutions about diets and not drinking and not eating delicious buttery tarts covered in cream and sugar… Right??
I hope so. Because this is totally worth the calories. I don’t usually care about desserts, I’d usually be happier munching on cheese to be honest. But then I tried a cream brioche tart from the amazing Cocoa Patisserie in Brighton and everything changed.
It’s French brioche dough, rolled into a circle, then filled with cream and sugar and baked until it looks a bit like a flatbread with a golden crust. The creamy center just seems to melt when you bite into it and the crust has this beautiful crunch of sugar on the outside of a beautifully light, fluffy dough. So yeah, buttery dough, plus cream and lots of sugar equals very tasty. Funny that. I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing this tart was (insert bad joke here). And I knew I had to recreate it at home…
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, tagged baking, classics, cookies, cooking, dessert, food, recipes on January 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I know it’s January and everyone’s avoiding rich food and dieting and blablabla but I am somehow still in the holiday-season-baking-non-stop-zone. And everyone knows if you make food from scratch then it’s real butter not preservatives and that’s practically healthy right?
This recipe was inspired by some cranberry shortbread biscuits I ate while having a meeting at The Grand Hotel in Brighton not long ago. As a charity worker I don’t often have meetings at fancy hotels but these biscuits made me wish it happened more often…
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, What to do with..., tagged baking, christmas, cookies, cooking, dessert, food, gifts, italian, leftovers, recipes on January 2, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Answer: Definitely not throw it away! I am not a massive fan of Christmas pudding so I knew I wouldn’t eat any more of it. So I tried a couple recipes and I think I found a winner for using up the leftover pudding, or whatever dried fruit and nuts you’ve got in your cupboards…
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, What to do with..., tagged chocolate, cooking, food, gifts, gluten-free, leftovers, oranges, recipes on December 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Make orange juice? Nah, too simple. I chose to make some slightly more complicated (but very tasty) things of course!
Posted in Desserts, Recipes, tagged baking, christmas, cookies, cooking, dessert, food, gifts, party food, recipes on December 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Last year I gave a few people boxes of homemade brownies for Christmas. They went over pretty well so this year I thought I’d give homemade gingerbread instead of the usual Christmas cards. No big deal, just a bit of baking and then I’d have the perfect present for all my lovely family and friends. Of course in the end this was a bigger project than Christmas shopping! But it was worth it in the end… I think!
