The first time I moved, I was nine years old. Our family had outgrown the house where I was born and my parents had managed to find a new one just around the corner. Or three corners, less than half a mile away and still within walking distance from the local sweet shop and bakery, to be precise to my nine-year-old self. Continue reading
Category Archives: Chocolate
Crunchy Maple Walnut Butter Cups
As a child, there’s something slightly exciting about spending a day off school sick. Not, of course, if you’re seriously unwell, entirely bed-bound and unable to eat. I’m talking about those days when you’re possibly still contagious but ultimately on the mend, able to appreciate eating on the sofa, watching too much TV and your Mum (or another adult) making a great big fuss of you. Continue reading
Chocolate Chestnut Meringue Nests
A few weeks ago someone from Kenwood got in touch to see if I’d be interested in working with them on their latest campaign. The idea was to take a favourite, or secret, family recipe, update and make it my own then write up the recipe and take some pretty pictures for them to share in print and online. Continue reading
Chocolate & Hazelnut Ice Cream Bombes
Every family has a set of favourite stories in rotation, the kind you tell at social gatherings, on meeting new people or simply to each other: a kind of comfortable, if slightly repetitive, recognition of knowing each other inside out and of memories fondly shared.
When she’s feeling sentimental, my Mum loves to tell stories from our childhood holidays in Italy. The tale of choice for my brother involves a restaurant laid out for a wedding banquet, an excitable two-year-old boy, a table cloth corner just a little too enticing not to pull and . . . well, you can probably guess the rest (except, perhaps, the part where the restaurant owners forgave the devastating mess, whisked my brother into the kitchen and onto the counter, then proceeded to feed him as my mortified mother finished up her meal. God bless the Italians). Continue reading
Double Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream Cones
July has arrived and with it hot, flat beams of sunshine, the smell of sunscreen and the promise of good things to come. With my birthday just a few weeks away, this is a favourite month of mine, forever associated with presents and laughter, long light evenings and time spent with family and friends. Celebration is the order of the day and ice cream is almost always on the agenda. Continue reading
Maple Chocolate Pots with Olive Oil Thyme Crumble
Hands up if you’re the person who always orders the chocolate option for dessert in a restaurant?
Until recently, that was me. In fact I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t seriously consider something chocolate based if you took me out for dinner tomorrow. But as I’ve got older, I’ve started to appreciate other flavours on my plate, subtle sweetness, spice and seasonal ingredients like this simple honey almond cake with strawberries. Continue reading
Coffee Ice Cream Profiteroles with Hot Chocolate Caramel
Coffee ice cream, crisp choux pastry & hot chocolate caramel
Coffee ice cream will always make me think of the Caribbean.
I’m aware of how horribly pretentious that sounds, but bear with me. I’m pretty sure there’s a blog-worthy story hidden somewhere within that statement.
When I was about eleven, my parents took us on holiday to the Cayman Islands. My Dad spent part of his childhood living in Jamaica and still has some family on the islands. This holiday was the perfect opportunity to introduce us to a few distant relatives, as well as a wonderful excuse for a serious dose of sun, sea and sand.
Continue reading
Caramelized White Chocolate Brownies
Squidgy chocolate brownies packed with caramelized white chocolate
The simple magic of an oven will never cease to amaze me.
Subjected to its heat, pudgy rounds of dough become crusty loaves, liquid batter rises into golden-crowned cakes, pastry puffs, biscuits bake and incredible aromas escape around the edges of its door.
Normally baking requires some sort of skill, an understanding of the alchemy of ingredients and an ability to weigh, whisk, beat and blend. Butter, sugar and flour are combined, flavours and textures far greater than the sum of their parts created. Whether an amateur cook or a professional chef, it’s satisfying to know that baking is both a science and an art. Continue reading
Double Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream
Food bloggers – in fact most people in the food world in general – tend towards exaggeration.
Every day we’re presented with the smoothest, creamiest ice cream, the crumbliest bars, unbeatable cookies and incredible bread, each recipe a must-make, a life-changer and better than anything that’s ever been eaten before.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondants
Rich, chocolaty & packed with peanut butter flavour
Eight years ago last Friday, I met my husband-to-be. The next day I baked him brownies.
Back then, the thought of writing a food blog hadn’t even entered my head. The online world was a very different place: basic WordPress was only just up and running, Facebook in its infancy and YouTube launched that year. Blogs like Delicious Days and Seven Spoons might have just got started, but the idea of writing about food on the internet was still just the seed of an idea in the minds of Joy the Baker, Deb Perelman and numerous other bloggers we know and love today. Continue reading