I was going to write about my OU experience thus far, now that I’m about half way through the module. But the snow this morning has rather thrown my ability to study or think about studying. Also there was a dentist. Instead, I’ve been looking up rocky road recipes, for adapting to Easter flavours. I’m… Continue reading Planning Easter Baking
Category: Kitchen
Recipes
Christmas Fudge
My normal go-to homemade festive gift is truffles, but this year I thought I’d branch out and try something else. Partly, this is because in the November Tesco magazine there was a recipe for what they called Microwave Speculaas Fudge. (If you don’t have a microwave, though, don’t worry: this can be made just as… Continue reading Christmas Fudge
Banoffee Granola Flapjack
It’s been a while since I last shared a recipe. I haven’t baked much in the last year – or since I was back to working full time after furlough – and most of the (few) cakes made recently have been of the cheat’s variety: packet-mixes. Don’t get me wrong, very handy for a quick,… Continue reading Banoffee Granola Flapjack
How to Cheat at Baking
One of my favourite recipe books is Delia Smith’s How to Cheat at Cooking, first published back in the 1970s. The main point of the recipes is about making packet-foods or ready-made components taste “home-made”. Or, at least, not like they’ve just come out of a packet. It’s about adding or combining flavours from actually… Continue reading How to Cheat at Baking
Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake
It feels a bit – odd; insensitive, maybe – to write about light-hearted, essentially fluffy things at the moment, with the news so full of the horrors of war and man’s inhumanity. It’s part of the reason why I’m late today, with my talk of easy, lazy chocolate fudge cake. But sometimes, when all is… Continue reading Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake
Delia’s Squidgy Chocolate Cake
I had meant to write about a printing-press cover I have plans for making today. But I’ve had those plans since the beginning of the year, and though I’ve measured the press and dug some fat quarters from my stash, I haven’t got any further with making it. Nor, it must be admitted, have I… Continue reading Delia’s Squidgy Chocolate Cake
Christmas Cake for the Disorganised
Sometimes I manage to bake a Christmas cake well ahead of time, in October, and then feed it regularly with more brandy. Other years, I fail entirely and then get to mid-December and wonder about quick recipes which don’t need months to mature or regular feeds. Or hours in the oven. But even Delia’s Quick… Continue reading Christmas Cake for the Disorganised
The Simplest of Simple Cheese Puffs
This follows in the grand tradition of Delia Smith’s How to Cheat at Cooking. It’s one of my favourite recipe-books, partly because there’s no shame in being lazy and using ready-made ingredients like pastry. This recipe does not, specifically, come from it, but I doubt I'm the first to have made cheese puffs in this… Continue reading The Simplest of Simple Cheese Puffs
Adapting Marvellous Creations
When it comes to chocolate, I’m normally fussy. I don’t much care for the overly sweet mass-produced stuff, though sometimes desperate times call for quantity over quality. Except for one: I am quite fond of the Cadbury’s Marvellous Creations bar. If you haven’t come across it, Marvellous Creations is Dairy Milk with extras: jelly beans,… Continue reading Adapting Marvellous Creations
Millionaire’s Flapjack
I can’t remember where I found this recipe. I might have cobbled it together from a flapjack recipe and a caramel recipe. It’s based on millionaire’s shortbread. Shortbread isn’t my favourite, though, hence the flapjack base. It’s simple and quick and doesn’t involve much thinking. Which is the sort of recipe I’ve needed while there’s… Continue reading Millionaire’s Flapjack
Life Ever Crafting 