There’s too much Italian food on the high street. Spanish cuisine has long been overlooked in the mass market (I won’t mention one certain Spanish chain restaurant as no one I’ve spoken to admits to liking it). But that could be about to change. Chances are you’ve not yet come across Tapas Revolution yet – […]
Cherry Meringue Pie
You can use either canned cherries or pitted fresh cherries in this Cherry Meringue Pie, or as you see here, a mix of the two! On this occasion I used pre-rolled ready-made shortcrust pastry as another baking short-cut but you can make your own pastry case if you prefer. Updated 2026 Why is it always […]
Mini bakers clean up with Mr Muscle
I’d be lying if I said we were a messy household. My husband has inherited a cleaning gene from his mother and it looks like it’s been passed on to Ted too. We keep an old Mr Muscle squirter full of water (and marked as such) for Ted to play at “cleaning”. Which he does […]
Hampton Court Visit with Experience Days
Treating someone to a special day out can solve the problem, what to give someone rather than material “stuff”.Dare devil stuff like rally driving and paragliding is often associated with experience gifts however more every day activities such as beauty treatments and cookery classes are often offered too. We were invited to try out using […]
7 Classic French eclairs challenge round up
A couple of days late and it’s the Classic French eclairs round up! Nazima at Franglais Kitchen was quick off the mark with these raspberry eclairs. Caroline Makes joined in with lovely sounding mini apple and chocolate eclairs – I would love to try these as they’ve reminded me of my beloved apple doughnuts that […]
Bitesize Bits Summer Special
As well as cooling down with iced coffee recently I made these rhubarb and custard popsicles. They’re made from IKEA rhubarb syrup (and a few of those pesky raspberries for colour) topped with tinned custard. The plastic lolly mould from Sainsbury’s however gets the thumbs down for being dead impractical for removing one lolly at […]
Realistic Sugar Flowers at Squires Kitchen Exhibition
Realistic Sugar Flowers at Squires Kitchen Exhibition These are such realistic sugar flowers, you might be forgiven for thinking you’ve arrived at RHS Chelsea by mistake. But this is a cake and sugar craft exhibition. Everything in this post is made from sugar. Neither botany nor flower arranging are my forte. A friend once said […]
Baking queens to reign over Cake International
Mary Berry and Mich Turner have been announced as headlining baking acts at this autumn’s Cake International – The Sugarcraft, Cake Decorating and Baking Show at the NEC, Birmingham from 8-10 November 2013. The fairy godmother of baking, Mary Berry demonstrate favourite bakes in the Cake International Theatre. Sugar craft supremo Mich Turner MBE of […]
Yes I now drink coffee. It’s official. But only if it’s iced.
Fellow Walthamstow resident, Gail, has converted me to iced coffee. Remember how I blogged about not having given up on finding a way to drink coffee that I liked, well it turns out that I’m a skinny iced latte kind of girl. Which makes sense considering I like coffee flavour but just don’t like hot drinks. […]
Why being paid for creative work should not be pie in the sky
I may mutter and roll eyes at my inbox regularly but taking to my keyboard to complain I should probably do more often. Twice in the past 24 hours commercial brands have asked to republish my content (recipes and prose) within their Facebook apps. Both claim they have “no budget” for these projects. We have […]
Royal Baby Cupcakes (Easy Step by Step)
We may not know the name yet but the arrival of HRH baby Cambridge on Monday night means I can finally share with you my royal baby cupcakes! They’re dead simple to make without any specialist sugar craft tools and can easily be adapted for non royal babies too. Follow my step by baby steps […]
Quick Raspberry Tart with Custard Filling
This is a really Quick Raspberry Tart using two cheats: firstly a ready-made pastry case and secondly an alternative to crème patissière using custard and thick Greek yogurt. Topped with fresh raspberries, and a hidden white chocolate layer, this low-effort dessert is one you’ll use again and again. Updated 2026 · Recipe originally made using […]
