A peek inside Prue Leith’s garden

October 15, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

Ever wanted to nose around the gardens of the stars? Have you wondered what Sting’s back garden looked like? Or wished you could peep into Richard Branson’s Or poke around in Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall’s veggie patch? Well, the good news is that ‘The Secret Gardeners’ by Victoria Summerley does just that. And more good news – […]

Pieday Friday – Bottomless Harvest Pie

October 14, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

After going foraging on a blackberry walk last weekend, today’s blog post is the result of that walk. I decided to combine the blackberries with apples (cooking apples are abundant in the garden at the moment) and make a bottomless pie. What does that mean? It means that I made a blind-baked pie base and […]

Hands up – Who is a fan of the Great British Bake Off?

September 7, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

Unlike other TV competitions like Strictly Come Dancing and The Great British Sewing Bee, which I have followed from the very first episode, I was a bit late to the GBBO party. Yes, I admit it. I only started watching Bake Off three seasons ago. And that’s quite late in the day really. In 2013 I had […]

Thrifty Wedding Inspiration – Homemade cake buffet

August 1, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

Wedding food can take up a hefty chunk of any wedding budget, so it’s important to consider plenty of different options when you decide how to cater for your guests. After lots of research (on Pinterest, naturally) I began to think that dessert + after-dinner truffles + wedding cake + tuckshop + ice cream cart […]

Early Pieday Friday – Baked chocolate cheesecake for Easter

March 1, 2016.Reading time 7 minutes.

It’s the 1st of March and I’m ready for Easter. Bring it on. There’s none of that lets-wait-until-April business this year. Easter falls on the last weekend of the month (I should know, my bestie is getting married that weekend!) so as soon as Valentine’s Day passed I was already preparing for the next big holiday. And […]

Baking the GBBO Schichttorte technical challenge

October 3, 2014.Reading time 15 minutes.

Or at least, I’ve tried to make the technical challenge! I was lucky enough to be sent a GBBO mystery baking box from Stork in order to bake this week’s technical challenge – the hamper included all ingredients I should need, the instructions for the bake and even utensils and a cake tin! Just like […]

My GBBO recipe for baking a giant doughnut!

September 24, 2014.Reading time 5 minutes.

This week’s challenge for the Great British Bake Off is advanced dough. I don’t know if I’d call this advanced (as I deliberately chose a recipe without yeast!) and I’m pretty sure it’ll be rather basic compared to all the extravagant flavours and shapes on tonight’s TV show, but I fancied baking a giant doughnut, […]

My GBBO pastry recipe ~ Blackberry tart

September 17, 2014.Reading time 4 minutes.

Around here the blackberries seem to have ripened earlier than they have in previous years. I’ve been picking on-and-off for the past couple of weeks while hubby and I go on our evening walks so I already have quite a lot of blackberries ready to use up in my autumn cooking. The theme for this […]

My GBBO European week recipe ~ Apple strudel

September 10, 2014.Reading time 4 minutes.

This week’s theme for The Great British Bake Off (and therefore The Great Blogger Bake Off!) was European cakes so I chose to make that German classic, apple strudel. Or Apfelstrudel if you want to order it in Germany. Although, I have some news for you – it’s not a German recipe. Oh no, the […]

The Great Blogger Bake Off ~ Apple Crumble two ways

August 27, 2014.Reading time 3 minutes.

The theme for this week’s Great Blogger Bake Off was (as always) inspired by The Great British Bake Off, and I’m pleased to tell you that it is one of my favourite things to make; desserts! I went for a stroll this weekend and picked some blackberries that have ripened particularly early this year. There […]

Pieday Friday – My recipe for Banana Bread Bites

August 20, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

In honour of #TheGreatBloggerBakeOff, which is taking place each Wednesday to coincide with The Great British Bake Off, I have decided to move my regular Pieday Friday recipe column to Wednesdays for the duration of the series. I thought that two recipes each week might be a little too difficult even for me to achieve, so […]