My nearly nine year old son Ted has been undergoing preparations for his first communion over the past six months. The big day was two weeks ago and I made a suitably ecclesiastical cake to celebrate. Not being one to keep life simple I wanted to try out the hidden surprise inside technique and aimed […]
Dairy Free Chocolate Smoothie With Pumpkin Seed Butter
A dairy free chocolate smoothie with lots of oats, coconut and a dollop of pumpkin seed butter. I was originally gifted a Vitamix by their PR company but this post was not commissioned by them and written a couple of years later. I’m pleased to report in 2025 that the Vitamix has been going strong […]
Easy Summer Menu for Six
Easy summer menu with Mediterranean flavours – with a few ready made frozen items you can feed six people in around 30 minutes. This post was commissioned by Iceland for their #PowerofFrozen campaign. Is it me or is everyone just crazy busy these days? I’ve reached the conclusion I work pretty much 7 days a week throughout […]
Mardi Michels – interview
Today’s Baker’s Dozen interview is with one of the first bloggers I “met” when joining Twitter in 2009. Mardi Michels of eat.live.travel.write is based in Toronto, Canada so we were in completely different time zones. But I knew immediately she was an early bird and online when I was because she always seemed to be tweeting about […]
How to make focaccia in a stand mixer
An easy Italian bread recipe for focaccia you can make in a stand mixer. Perfect for bruschetta or dipping in olive oil. I am not very keen on kneading dough by hand so the less effort required the better. Although I have had success with my bread maker. I do grow tired of loaves always being the […]
40+ Tomato Week Recipes for Everyday Cooking
As well as Vegetarian Week 16-20 May 2016 also sees Tomato Week so here are 40+ tomato recipes from the Maison Cupcake archives and other British food blogging friends. There’s a bit of overlap between this list and the one I just compiled with 40+ vegetarian recipes but many extra pescatarian and carnivore tomato recipes […]
40+ Vegetarian Week Recipes for Everyday Cooking
May 16-20 2016 heralds National Vegetarian Week so I have scoured my archives and those of my food blogging friends to pull out over 50 (yes it’s more than the image says, I got carried away) – mostly savoury – vegetarian recipes. 50+ Vegetarian Week Recipes to Cook Everyday Of course the majority of sweet […]
Iced Raspberry Green Tea
Quench your thirst this summer with this refreshing cocktail mocktail idea: iced raspberry green tea. It’s a quick and easy summer fruit cup drink including lime and basil. By the jugful, it’s perfect for parties and barbecues. Post commissioned by PG tips. Well it’s a civilised way to start the week isn’t it. A pleasant […]
White Bean Hummus with Homemade Pesto
This easy white bean hummus recipe can be made with either butterbeans or cannellini beans and you can used canned beans or dried pulses. For ultimate speed you could used canned beans and jarred pesto but lately I’ve taken to batch cooking half kilo bags of beans and eating them over the course of a […]
Crunchie Rocky Road Bars
These easy no bake recipe chocolate rocky road bars include chopped up Crunchie bars to add a shimmery golden topping of broken up honeycomb pieces. This recipe was commissioned by Oxo to demonstrate their new squeeze and pour jugs. I won’t pretend this recipe is nutritionally advantageous to anyone but if you’d be eating a […]
Easy Apple Cake Recipe
Today I am sharing an easy apple cake recipe that’s so easy you can make it at home or away. Post updated 2026: This recipe was originally a collaboration with a holiday brand who are no longer around. I’ve removed references to them but this remains a favourite recipe you can make with minimal equipment. […]
Banana Waffles with Biscoff and Chocolate Sauce
Make these Belgian banana waffles with crushed speculoos (Biscoff) biscuits and chocolate for a fun weekend breakfast or dessert. Ready in under ten minutes, the waffles can be made with gluten free flour. I found a supply of Dove’s Flour gluten free self raising flour in my baking drawer recently. I won’t embarrass myself admitting […]
