We’ve had sunshine and showers this bank holiday weekend but no matter what the weather, weekend afternoons are perfect for watching old movies, and popcorn is the perfect accompaniment. I remember watching my Mum make popcorn when I was a little girl. She used to have a saucepan with a glass lid so we could [...]
I’ve been making lots of delicious caramel lately, whilst testing recipes for my forthcoming book. Caramel is made by heating sugar until it melts and takes on a deep amber colour. There are two ways of making it: wet and dry. Wet is heating sugar and water together and dry is heating just the sugar. [...]
Yesterday I got to do the thing I’ve been looking forward to doing ever since my little god-daughter Hannah was born: bake fairy cakes with her. I love the child’s play element to baking; the puff of the flour, the stirring of the mixture, the lick of the wooden spoon, and I’ve been so looking [...]
Last week I joined a group of Guardian Word of Mouth readers for an ‘Easter egg taste test-cum-festival of chocolate-celebration’. Like the children who followed the pied piper we followed the call of chocolate and the scent in the air all the way to deep inside the Guardian offices. We came out of the goodness [...]
I was excited by the ingredients for February’s ‘In the Bag’ event – pomegranate, passion fruit and white chocolate – and decided to celebrate the exotic flavours of the pomegranate and passion fruit with these jellies. Extracting the juice from the fruits was messy and not especially easy, and I was rather disheartened by the [...]
Well my friends, the nights are drawing in and the mornings are chillier; summer has its back turned and is on its way home. As a final farewell I made a summery crumble tonight with one of the last punnets of strawberries we’ll see for a while. I’ve never made a crumble with strawberries before [...]
