This chocolate layer cake has been rolled in Coco Pops puffed cereal – it was made for Easter featuring a sugarpaste white rabbit and orange chocolate candy carrots. I thought the presence of a bunny made the Coco Pops seem like rabbit poop! You don’t need to make it for Easter but it’s a good […]
Judith Blacklock Flower School
Floristry for beginners is about my level and these easy flower arranging tips from floral expert Judith Blacklock are sure to inspire you to make your own flower arrangements too! I am what you might call horticulturally challenged. Gardening and foliage really aren’t my strong point. My boss once gave me a bonsai tree for Christmas […]
Lavender Cake with White Chocolate
This pretty little lavender cake is an easy recipe to make for visitors or give as a Mother’s Day gift. The decoration requires only very basic piping skills that any beginner could manage. It’s a basic sponge recipe with an icing made from white chocolate, sour cream, flavoured icing sugar and butter. My mother was […]
20 Easy Tips to Keep the Fridge Clean and Tidy
A well organised fridge is one of my obsessions. A clean tidy fridge will help you avoid food waste and save money. Here are 20 tips for fridge organisation brought to you in this post commissioned by Homebase. Find out at the bottom of this post how you can win a silver or black Bush fridge, a […]
Jamie’s Italian Review Canary Wharf
Visits to Jamie’s Italian have evaded me until now for some reason. The branch at Canary Wharf is in the middle of a traffic roundabout slightly out on a limb from the rest of the subterranean shopping area. We pass it in the car on every visit but never walked past the outside as we […]
Chocolate Chestnut Cake With Hazelnuts
This chocolate chestnut cake with layers of sponge and hazelnuts is easy to make and serves 8-10 people. Thank you for bearing with me, as I was saying on 1st March, February’s shortness always catches me out and I am now republishing this post with the finished three layer chocolate chestnut cake instead of the […]
Thai Prawn Curry with Clams
A quick and easy Thai prawn curry recipe using frozen seafood. My freezer is a TARDIS in more ways than one. Not only do its 3 small drawers appear bigger on the inside than out but it has the ability to quite literally freeze time. When I did my food safety course a couple of […]
Toad in the Hole with Bramley Apple
Last time I wrote about toad in the hole I told a tale about a manic frog throwing contest and I’m not sure I can top this today. When I introduced Ted to Toad in the Hole, you can imagine he found the name very funny and it’s been pencilled in on the menu for our next […]
Turtle Bay Walthamstow: Happy Hour on the menu!
Turtle Bay Walthamstow is a new Caribbean style restaurant which opened recently in The Scene at the top end of Walthamstow Market. Walthamstow’s new entertainment hub has been a source of much excitement locally. The borough has been without a cinema since 2002 when Alfred Hitchcock’s local screen closed. The campaign to bring a cinema back […]
Simple and In Season January Round Up
Winter has really kicked in now it’s February so you’ll be much in need of this winter recipe selection as submitted to last month’s Simple and In Season. I’ve divided them up into soups, main courses and sweet things. Enjoy! Soups Vitamix pea soup with cheese and chives – Maison Cupcake (top) | Super simple roast beetroot soup […]
Ideal World TV Studio Visit
Have you ever bought anything from a TV shopping channel? More to the point, do you ever watch TV shopping channels? It was a world I was largely ignorant of until I received an invite from Ideal World TV to visit their Peterborough HQ and come behind the scenes for the day. Laughably I had […]
Ham Vegetable Pasta Bake
An easy pasta dish to feed the family for under ten pounds with plenty of leftover cooked ham whilst also providing two out of their five a day! Updated 2026 · Originally commissioned by Go Compare A pasta bake topped with cheese takes barely any longer than the one pot variety but always feels much […]
