29 June 2015

5 Ways with Rose Water

For many years and in many countries, rose water has been used as a wonderful natural perfume, its gentle floral scent being used to refresh and revitalise.  Its benefits are also widely extolled as a health essential: in its diluted form as a skin t...

17 April 2012

Pretty Little Rich Cake

It was Sophie’s birthday the other day.  We went out en famille for a Chinese meal at Sweet Basil in Kirk Hammerton.  Sophie wanted a strawberry cake, so I felt like trying something a bit old-fashioned.  Before Bird and Dr Oetker independently came...

14 October 2010

Perfecting A Carrot Cake Recipe

17 September 2010

Recipe For Yorkshire Fruit Tea Bread

We have always loved teabreads here at home like those made by Elizabeth Bothams of Whitby, but I reckoned that some of those homely, comforting cakes could not be too difficult to make.  So this weekend I set out to make a traditional Fruit Teabread...

03 September 2010

Recipe For Luxury Chocolate Gateaux Or Pavé

This is another recipe that I have followed from Pierre Hermé's inspirational cookbook "Chocolate", which I have reinterpreted for a British audience.  The only tweak I have made to it was in the use of edible gold as a garnish on top of the chocolat...

07 August 2010

Recipe For Almond Cake

This recipe began with a blog post from David Lebovitz, who wrote that his desert island food would be Almond Cake.  So with great anticipation, I tried his recipe several weeks back, but while Sophie and I loved the marzipan-almond luxury and the ol...

29 June 2009

The Healing Powers of Home Baked Cakes

I (Sophie)  was recently convalescing at home and by about the second week (apart from getting frustrated about not being out and about and having very little voice) I was very privileged to receive three delicious home made cakes.