Not since the photo shoot for my book in October had I made any macarons and I thought it was about time. Usually when I make macarons I give the ground almonds an extra grind in the food processor and sieve the icing sugar several times. Not so today, these were deliberately rustic and I […]
Nigella chocolate cake from Feast
This may be the Easter Egg Nest Chocolate Cake from Nigella’s Feast but aside from the addition of some mini eggs, there’s no reason you couldn’t try it all year round. It’s indulgent, I admit, comprising 6 eggs, 375g chocolate and lashings of butter and cream to boot. Sadly the Easter Egg Nest Nigella Chocolate […]
Frankie and Benny’s Chingford
The web is awash with parent blogger reviews of Frankie and Benny’s right now so I apologise if this is the eleventh review you’ve seen this week. Enticed with vouchers to sample the new menus, I embraced the chance to visit Frankie and Benny’s Chingford for the first time in a decade. “Ilford? Beckton? Gatwick?” […]
Cake decorating and baking books: April round up
A mixed bag of baking book reviews on my pile this month; some are inspirational and essential, one is going straight back to Amazon. Can you guess which? Top row from left: 1. Cake Pops by Helen Attridge and Abby Foy (Octopus £8.99) Food on sticks never fails to capture interest, never more so than […]
Easter Bunny Pops – Homemade Chocolate Treats
Easter Bunny Pops are quick and easy to make with candy melts (buy them at Hobbycraft) and an Easter Bunny mould. Post originally commissioned by Lakeland who sent various items from their Easter range at the time. There’s more to Easter goodies than giant eggs and a colourful delivery of Lakeland’s wide range of Easter […]
Spring has sprung new changes on “Forever Nigella”!
After a couple of months with open entries we’re going back to having a monthly theme. I think blog events work best when there’s a fresh angle each month and after my breather of keeping Nigella just ticking along in the background, I thought it was time to get her up and running again with […]
Amelie Poulain’s Paris
This is the last of my three part series about last year’s spring trip to Paris. After viewing Paris through the eyes of Simone de Beauvoir last week, today it is the turn of Amelie Poulain as in Le Fableux Destin de Amelie Poulain – to give Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film comedy its full title! At […]
Discovering Ladurée in Paris
Maison Cupcake in Paris Part One Is it Easter already? Twelve months have passed yet it feels like yesterday my husband and I escaped by ourselves for a holiday weekend in Paris by Eurostar. As I was preoccupied with a tight deadline for the first photo shoot of the book I never got around to blogging […]
Easter Baking Class at Leith’s
Cooking courses at Leiths are sadly something I’ll probably never get to do. But for one evening at least I find out what cooking classes at Leith’s are like. Extra special need not mean expensive and affordable need not mean sacrificing taste. An ongoing partnership between Leith’s School of Food and Wine and Asda to […]
Walthamstow Bake Off
Walthamstow is but a ten minute drive from the official home of The Great British Bake Off at its filming location Valentine’s Mansion, Ilford so I was intrigued to see who would take part in The E17 Bake Off. East End home bakers presented their wares upstairs in an East End pub to compete for […]
Daffodil Cookie Pops
The perfect spring, Mother’s Day or Easter sugarcraft baking project to make with kids. A bunch of daffodils epitomises this time of year however my google searches failed to uncover any easy Daffodil Cookie Pops quite like these. Take one basic roll out cookie dough, cut out stars, cover them with something yellow and dot […]
All Star Lanes, Westfield Stratford City
Westfield Stratford City is dangerously close to home. I can be there door to door inside 15 minutes. I have my own parking space outside Waitrose and am not far off from doing a Tom Hanks à la The Terminal and moving in. With much delight, joined by a bunch of other bloggers on the […]
