Hannah's Country Kitchen

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000Z

With this cold snap of weather, I am so pleased with my latest purchase - a little red wood burning stove - which has been installed in the new snug lounge (my office has been transformed into a dining room and the old dining room has become a second lounge - it is so nice not having an office at home any more!) The stove may be small but it sure packs out a lot of heat and given this really cold weather it is one of the wisest investments I have made. With a twee wreath hanging over the mantle and a large footstool for feet toasting, it is a very inviting place indeed and has become my favourite room in the cottage!

2012-01-30T09:49:00.003Z

Some pretty white doves (at least I think they are doves and not white pigeons!)

2012-01-25T12:16:00.001Z

There has been a bit of excitement in my office today. A parcel just arrived from Paris for me. I hadn't ordered anything from Paris! Well you can imagine how loud I squealed with delight when I opened the box and saw the nice letter from the people at Pierre Herme saying that my friend Maren had sent me a gift. Macarons!!! For those of you who may not have heard of Mr Herme - he is the No 1 patissier in Paris and an utter hero of mine. Such a lovely present and they were 100% perfect - not one crumb out of place even thought they had travelled such a long way. They must have flown or taken the Eurostar!!!! They even had their own ice pack to keep them perfectly chilled and came in a super cool box! We have just eaten one and my word - it was delicious! The others will be eaten sparingly over the next few days. What a lovely start to the day and thank you Maren for your very kind present xxx

2012-01-24T09:12:00.000Z

On Sunday, Sarah from Ryland Peters and Small came to visit to make a short film of me making popcorn for the RPS website. As you can imagine, trying to film popcorn popping without a lid on was a bit of a challenge! We made toasted coconut popcorn with lovely multicolour kernels from Zaramama (the last bag left over from the photoshoot - which means that we have made a vast amount of popcorn given the size of the box of corn we were kindly given by Zaramama - thanks again Amelia). So soon you will be able to see a little clip of me making popcorn on my Aga - I will post the link when it is available!

Sarah with our coconut popcorn!

Ingredients

2012-01-18T11:29:00.003Z

I know that this blog is meant to be about cooking and not really about my new niece but I just had to share these two latest photos with you - firstly my lovely brother and Hunter asleep together - what a peaceful looking picture (shame she isn't this quiet all the time!!!!!) and also her dressed up as a reindeer in her car seat - how totally adorable does she look? Happy Days xxxx

2012-01-17T10:35:00.002Z

My bargain acquisition in the sale this year was this basket full of little bottle vases that hold just one flower each. With a few pretty narcissus and anemones it looks truly lovely on my kitchen window sill and at £10 it was definitely a wise buy. I think it will make a lovely centre piece for an afternoon tea party in the garden when the weather is warmer.

2012-01-16T09:39:00.002Z

A few things you need to know to understand my latest baking project! My Dad is Welsh, yesterday we celebrated his birthday, my Dad (I'm sure he won't mind me saying) is of a certain age where he no longer wants anything for his birthday as he says he has everything he needs. So my brother had the great idea that we would send my Dad on a stained glass window course (as he is very artistic) so rather than making him a birthday cake - I tried my own hand at stained glass and made these Welsh dragon cookies with pear drop glass. I have to say that the end result was quite cool if I say so myself and my Dad was quite impressed! You can do any shape you want in a large cookie, just place the rolled out dough on a silicon mat or greaseproof paper, cut out your desired shape and fill with crushed boiled sweets and bake in the oven for 12 - 15 mins until the sweets have melted. Don't try to move the cookie off the baking sheet until the sugar glass has set completely! Happy Birthday Dad xxx

2012-01-13T16:54:00.000Z

As a pretty and delicious alternative to fresh flower why not bake flower shaped cookies (with wooden sticks inserted when the cookies are arranged on the baking tray). Once baked and cooled, you can ice the cookies in lots of different ways - fondant icing and sweets for daisies or pipe buttercream or royal icing for more elaborate flowers. Once set, swoosh up your cookies in clear film and tie with ribbons for a very pretty gift.

2011-12-25T11:01:00.004Z

I know that at Christmas I usually post a picture of a jolly Father Christmas or something similar on my blog but I thought that nothing quiet summed up the meaning of Christmas joy and innocence as this picture of Baby Hunter - just perfect in every way. I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas with yummy food, all the presents you wished for and most importantly spending time with your loved ones
Hannah
xxxx

2011-12-23T10:21:00.003Z

I am so pleased to be able to share this joyous photo with you - the perfect Christmas present for our family - my lovely brother with his new baby girl Hunter Miles, born yesterday at about 6pm UK time weighing 6lbs something! Mum and Baby doing well. Isn't she a peach? Too cute for words. Welcome to the world baby Hunter xxx

2011-12-21T18:17:00.004Z

Well it is an exciting day - I am about to become an Aunt. My brother's wife Amy is in hospital and baby Hunter is being induced as I type. They joys of modern technology mean that my brother is sending through blow by blow photos so far of the delivery room (am hoping that these will stop during the actual birth!!!!) including the wall posters he has put up! Love the "Picture the Rose" poster which made me chuckle! Good luck guys and I will of course share a photo of baby hunter with you lovely blog readers as soon as I have one!

2011-12-21T12:18:00.001Z

I will be in BBC Radio 3 Counties at 1.30 today talking about the delights of the mince pie - there is a phone in so feel free to ask any (easy) questions!!!!

2011-12-13T11:39:00.009Z

I had never been to a baby shower before the one we attended in New York. It was such a nice party - pretty baby favours, a few pink cakes and cake pops made by yours truly and lots and lots of presents for baby Hunter - she is going to be one very lucky girl when she arrives. Gareth and Amy had asked for everyone to bring their favourite childhood book as a present to start her library. What a nice idea! There were even little rubber ducks in the ice bucket - so cute! As you will see from the photo at the bottom, Amy is now looking very very pregnant. Any day now I hope to be able to introduce you to my new niece! Good luck Gareth and Amy xxx

2011-12-12T10:34:00.004Z

We have just been on a lovely holiday to New York and Boston for the last 10 days. Firstly to visit my brother and his wife Amy who are expecting their first baby any day now!!!!! Very exciting! It was lovely to see them and to attend the baby shower (even if my brother did make me bake a LOT of cakes for it!) We then travelled to stay with friends in Fairfield (the 9th prettiest town in the USA apparently) which was truly lovely - Chuck and Martha made us feel so welcome in their home and every house in Fairfield was decorated for Christmas - it puts us to shame in the UK. My favourite decorations were the pine swags that lined most of the white picket fences (so American and perfectly quaint). On returning to the UK at the weekend I decided that I would try my own version - now the jet lag meant that I didn't go quite as OTT as I would have liked but I think the gates to our cottage are looking very festive. They were very easy to do, with just some pine branches and holly, some wicker hearts and ribbon and plenty of floristry wire to attach it to the fence. I feel like we have a little of New England Christmas at our cottage now! Now what are the odds of pursuading Sacha that we need to paint the fence white for next year....!

2011-12-01T12:18:00.003Z

My cake pop book is available to pre order on Amazon now - it is going to be a flurry of book releases in spring next year as I have 4 books coming out between Feb and March - whoop whoop! This book is published by Lorenz Books (an imprint of Anness) who have been lovely to work with and the book contains lots of easy peasy recipes for sweet things on sticks, including three of the recipes I demonstrated at the Good Food Show last weekend. Hope you like it!

Glazed Ginger Ham

2011-11-30T19:07:00.001Z

At this time of year, in the run up to the festive season, there are few more pleasurable things than cooking and serving a whole roast ham. Always decadent, with its crisp sweet glaze and glisteningly glace cherries. You can either serve the ham hot from the oven with pickles and warm potato salad, or cold as part of a buffet spread, letting your guests carve the ham themselves. If you are feeling slightly less formal you can use slices of this to make posh ham, egg and chips or in thick doorstop sandwiches with lashings of mustard. The poaching liquor also makes an excellent stock base for warming winter soups – it is particularly good in a pea and ham soup (using some of the ham in the recipe). My ginger ham has a light glaze made with maple syrup – if you prefer your ham to look a little more traditional with a dark glaze just add a few tablespoons of black treacle to the glazing mixture.
Serves 8 – 10
1.5kg unsalted gammon ham
1.5 litres ginger beer
250ml cider
1 litre water
1 tsp whole cloves
2 star anise
2 inch piece of ginger
1 orange bell pepper
1 large cooking apple
1 large white onion
For the glaze
80ml maple syrup
80ml cider
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tbsp Dijon mustard
1 heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard
85g light brown sugar
To decorate
Glace cherries
Whole cloves
Wash the ham and place it in a large saucepan with the ginger beer, cider and water. The pan needs to hold nearly 3 litres of liquid and the ham so a large jam pan is ideal. If you have not got a pan large enough simply omit some of the water from the recipe – but remember the ham needs to have enough room to float in the pan freely. Add the cloves and star anise. Peel and finely slice the ginger and add it to the pan. Chop the pepper into thick slices and remove the seeds. Chop the apple and onion into large pieces and add to the pan together with the pepper. Simmer for about 1 ½ hours, turning the ham over every 20 minutes or so to ensure even cooking. Drain the ham, reserving the poaching liquor if you are using as stock. Mix together all the glaze ingredients to a smooth paste. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F. Using a sharp knife carefully cut away the skin of the ham and discard. Score lines in a crisscross pattern into the fat on the ham. Place in a roasting tin and spoon the glaze over the ham. Roast for about 25 – 30 minutes, basting with the glaze every 5 minutes, until the ham is golden. If the glaze starts to smoke in the roasting pan add a little extra cider or water. When cooked, remove the ham from the oven and allow to cool slightly, then decorate by securing half cherries slices to the ham with whole cloves.

Doughnut Croquembouche

2011-11-29T13:01:00.003Z

My doughnut book, which will be out next year published by lovely Ryland Peter's
and Small has been in photo shoot over the last few weeks and it is now finished. The pictures are lovely and I am thrilled with how the book is looking. Here is a very tiny sneak peak to tempt you into my wonderful world of doughnuts - a dainty pale pink and white doughnut croquembouche, decorated with cute flowers. I just love how it looks and think it would be the perfect centerpiece for a girlie party or a wedding! With the deep fat fryer packed away for a few weeks now and I am beginning to get withdrawl sypmtoms for doughnuts - not good at all. Perhaps there will have to be a Doughnuts volume 2!!!!

2011-11-28T14:45:00.002Z

I have had a lovely weekend as on Saturday I was demonstrating at the Good Food Show in Birmingham. I did three demos - Gluten free stollen and a christmas cake and then some cute cake pops (Christmas trees, Christmas puddings and Snowmen) taken from my cake pop book which is out next year. There were two moments which things could have gone slightly wrong - the first was when I broke one of the fresh eggs I had been given for my stollen and it was hard boiled and black!!!!! Luckily everyone saw the funny side!!! The second moment was when I pressed the on button on the blender I was using and at the same time all the lights in the hall went out, other than on my stage - I am sure it was just a coincidence but it was quite strange to be the only person under lights in a whole arena even if just for a few minutes. All in all a super fun show and lovely to catch up with Masterchef allumni. Highlight for me was watching John and Gregg doing a cookery demo - I was so proud of Gregg making a chocolate log!

2011-11-10T17:26:00.002Z

This weeks Hello Magazine has a Christmas food supplement which features two of my books - 10 whole pages of recipes written by me! How super lovely is that. They even describe me as a "Baking expert" - what an honour!

Soul Cakes

2011-11-02T07:21:00.003Z

Today is All Souls Day and if you have a little time to spare you may wish to make some Soul Cakes to remember loved ones. Now the purists amoung you may see that the recipe below is not quite traditional. I have a good reason for this - I have no eggs - my poor hens have obviously gone on strike and are refusing to lay (actually they are malting and also are getting a bit old now so the lack of eggs is to be expected). Anyway, whilst the below recipe may not be traditional, they were quite scrummy. The children handed them out after Sunday School at our village church at the weekend, wrapped in pretty bags with ribbons and they were gratefully received.

Soul Cakes - Makes about 25
60g/2oz caster sugar
115g/4oz softened butter
170g/6oz plain flour
1 tbps milk, plus extra for brushing
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp christmas cake spice (or mixed spice)
1 tsp ground ginger
a large handful of sultanas (you will need about 200)
maple sugar or caster sugar for sprinkling

Cream together the sugar and butter. Sift in the flour and whisk together with the milk, spices and vanilla until you have a soft dough. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes (if you are short of time you can omit this step and just use lots of flour for rolling out to make sure the dough doesn't stick). Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350F/180C. Roll out the dough to about 1/2cm thickness on a clean flour dusted surface and cut out round discs using a 5cm cutter. Place on lined baking trays and press 8 sultanas into the top of each cookie as shown in the picture. Lightly roll over the tops of the cookies with a rolling pin to press the sultanas in. Brush the tops of the cookies with a little milk using a pastry brush and sprinkle with maple sugar (a delicious baking ingredient - if you see it buy it!) or caster sugar. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes until golden brown then leave to cool on a rack. Enjoy!

2011-10-31T08:37:00.003Z

I cannot believe how beautiful the autumn colours are this year - perhaps they are always this beautiful and I never noticed it before. Driving around the countryside this weekend it was such a breathtaking to see the orange, yellow and red hues on every tree. I was spoilt on Saturday as my lovely Mum treated me to afternoon tea at one of my favourite teashops - Teapots in Olney. What a feast with had with sandwichies, cakes, macaroons, scones and fresh berries and cream - and of course lots of tea to wash it all down with. What a treat!

2011-10-28T10:34:00.002+01:00

Our village is holding a children's halloween party tonight and as I have finished all my books (hurrah!) I had time yesterday evening to make a halloween cake for them - well a halloween gingerbread house to be precise. I used a pattern from the internet and had not realised quite how large the house was going to be when assembled - it is certainly a monster house! I put lights inside and used halloween cupcake wrappers to make little fences around the edge of the board. All very cute. When Sacha came home from work last night, I was busy tiling the roof with Golden Graham ceraeal - I think he thought I was slightly crazy but I was having so much fun!!!! Happy Halloween everyone

2011-10-18T15:31:00.002+01:00

In addition to working on my lovely doughnut book I have also been working in the last few weeks on a fab children's book which is being published by Cico Kidz next year (our in Spring and available to pre-order on Amazon now - click here for a link). It is a joint book by several authors and I have done the cake pop chapter. So much fun and I am so pleased with the pictures of the pops that came through yesterday! You will have to wait a while to see all of them (the sheep pops are my absolute favourite all time picture from all of my books!) but in the meantime here is a sneak peak at the goldfish pop - complete with fish tank setting! Thanks Cico for the lovely opportunity to work on this super cute book! So thats book 10 now - when John and Gregg said Masterchef would change my life, they had no idea how much!!!

2011-10-12T08:56:00.002+01:00

I am in the final stages of my doughnut book - only 5 recipes left to go - hurrah - it will be so nice to get it finished! My favourite recipe so far has been the doughnut croquembouche - sneak peak of my home photos of it (not how it will look in the book I assure you!!!) - but I am quite pleased with it! It would make an unusual wedding cake or birthday cake, don't you think?

2011-10-11T12:51:00.002+01:00

This is the sampler I stitched on holiday - Lizzie Kate's Halloween ABC. It was such a fun project to stitch. I loved the little owl and pumpkin in the middle the best! I impressed myself by how fast I stitched - just goes to show what you can achieve if there is bad weather and very little else to do!

2011-10-10T14:01:00.003+01:00

I am just back from a lovely week's holiday staying in a cottage at the very southern tip of Scotland on the Rhins Peninsula. I can safely say that the weather was dreadful - it rained every single day and was very stormy (see photos below for evidence)! That said, the bad weather meant that we had no choice but to stay in our lovely cottage and watch DVDs, sew and cook yummy suppers. We managed to watch all 6 Starwars films (I am slightly ashamed to admit this) and I stitched a whole Halloween sampler (picture to follow - it is very cute).

2011-09-29T16:46:00.002+01:00

Today I am proud to introduce you to not 1 but 2 of my upcoming books - Popcorn and Milkshakes. I do hope that you approve of the covers - my favourite bit is the old fashioned school milk bottles on the right hand side of the Milkshake cover (I found them in a shop in Suffolk and was very pleased when they made the cover)! Both books are available to pre order on Amason although you will have to wait a while for delivery - release dates are March and April 2012!

2011-09-26T08:21:00.002+01:00

My Dad is just back from a holiday to France. He is well trained! Wherever he goes he takes pictures of cakes and desserts for me and has just sent me this picture of a french patisserie for inspiration. I have to say I just want to dive in (like the Priest who ends up asleep in the window of the chocolate shop in the movie Chocolat after eating all the chocolate!)

2011-09-20T05:07:00.004+01:00

Well you could have blown me down with a feather when I was told that my Gluten Free book was Delia Smith's Book of the Month on her website - what a true honour! I love Delia and have all her cook books so was amazed when my little book got a mention and such a nice review too - you can read it on the website by clicking here

"Book of the Month: The Gluten-Free Baker by Hannah Miles (Ryland, Peters & Small, £16.99)
There are, seemingly, increasing numbers of people who have an intolerance to certain food groups, and it always seems a shame that they have to miss out on enjoyable foods as a result. This book is invaluable for those with a gluten intolerance - and the recipes sound so good that those who can eat wheat will also enjoy the fruits of your baking!

I'm also impressed by the price: at a time when many hardback cookbooks cost £25 or more, this beautifully produced and photographed book by former MasterChef finalist Hannah Miles costs just £16.99. Baking - because it relies so heavily on wheat flour - is one area of cookery that's particularly difficult for coeliacs and those with a gluten intolerance to overcome. Hannah lists ingredients that contain gluten - even things like soy sauce and glace cherries are culprits - and she uses gluten-free flour in the recipes. These will appeal just as much to those who don't have a gluten intolerance: I loved the sound of Buckwheat and Cherry Cake; Pumpkin Scones and Raspberry and Chocolate Profiteroles."

What a lovely review!

2011-09-19T09:49:00.006+01:00

A few weeks ago I reported on my brothers planned trip to the BBQ competition and the orange cakes he was planning on the BBQ. I thought you might like to see the final product and also pictures of the "Big Fatty" which appears to be some sort of meatloaf. Also the need for curly parsley also became clear - it was for pretty presentation and of course flat leaf parsley would not have done the job (well done Tracy - you were right on both counts of course!) Sadly a travesty occurred and they didn't win a single prize - I just can't believe it as those little cakes look delicious and given the fact that they were baked without an oven is really something! The bottom photo shows the orange cake production in full swing - they must have made a lot of cakes to get these 6 perfect ones to serve! I will ask my brother for the recipe so that it can be posted in time for next summer!

2011-09-18T09:39:00.000+01:00

This is a recent Royal Navy aircraft carrier cake I made - not the easiest of topics I have to admit but with a bit of silver lustre spray and some rice paper propellars it looked a bit like a ship! I was particularly proud of my royal navy flag which you can just about see next to the plane!

2011-09-12T08:55:00.003+01:00

Doughnut recipe testing is in full swing. I now only have about 10 more recipes to do and in the words of a song from Eliza Doolittle ("By Jove I think she's got it") light fluffy doughnuts are now being produced in my kitchen - they even have the traditional white line around the centre. To say I am proud is an understatatement particularly given that my first weekend of doughnut making was a bit of a disaster - think stodgy balls of greasy dough and you wouldn't be far wrong! Luckily with a few hints and tips from a very kind man who works for a certain world famous doughnut company, I believe I have perfected the home doughnut! On yesterdays menu were rose petal doughnuts, coffee doughnuts, pecan pie doughnuts and coconut doughnuts. Luckily we were joined in our mamoth tasting session by Bree (who competed with me on Masterchef and I am sure would have got to the final had I not beaten her!) and her lovely boyfried Mark, some friends from the village and Mum and Mike. We also had pumpkin scones, pistachio meringues and coconut brownies - all new recipes being tested - talk about inviting people round to be guinnea pigs!!! Everything got the thumbs up which is good news! Can you hear the table in our new dinning room actually groaning under the weight of the food?

2011-08-26T08:26:00.003+01:00

As some of you may know, my brother Gareth is a fellow foodie and Masterchef contestant. Last year he took part in American BBQ competition in Penslyvannia and this weekend - despite the predicted hurricanes in New York he is off to take up the challenge again. This year the preparation has been far more serious with recipe testing and endless planning - see the emails below - I have no idea what half the things being referred to are - not sure what a "fatty" is but I like the sound of it!!!! And are they going to BBQ the cigars? And why is curly parsley so essential and what are they going to do with the Christmas tree lights???? I guess these are things I may never know the answer to! Anyway this little picture shows my brother's dessert entry for the competition (I take some credit for the suggestion of these cakes so I do hope they win) - BBQ orange marmalade drizzle cakes - scooped out orange skins filled with orange cake batter, wrapped in foil and baked on a BBQ. This has been practised over and over to perfect the recipes except they have been practising indoors by cooking in a saucepan filled with coals and foil (how my brother's wife Amy puts up with this I don't know) - I do hope it works as well cooked on an actual BBQ! Good luck Team Miles at the competition this weekend - hope you win a trophey!
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Murphy
>Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:50:49
>To: Muzyka, Kenneth F
>Cc: ; Andrew
>Kanemori; Gareth; Bryan
>
>Subject: Re: Final BBQ Details - List of stuff to bring!
>
>Drew, I have the Weber kettle for cooking the fatty.

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Michael >> Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 11:15 AM
>> To: kane
>> Cc: Andrew; Gareth ; Muzyka, Kenneth F; Bryan; Richard
>> Subject: Re: Final BBQ Details - List of stuff to bring!
>>
>> U Ken - do you have one of those pop up tailgate canopies like we
>> used last year?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 25, 2011, at 9:33 AM, kane wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Bryan - make sure you get curly parsley and not flat leaf... I f'ed
>> that one up one time and don't want to see it happen to you.
>>>
>>> I have not washed my shirt from last year, hopefully it brings us
>>> good
>> luck!
>>>
>>> -Drew
>>> ------Original Message------
>>> From: Michael
>>> To: Andrew Kanemori
>>> To: Gareth
>>> To: Kenneth F
>>> To: Bryan
>>> To: Richard
>>> Subject: Final BBQ Details - List of stuff to bring!
>>> Sent: Aug 24, 2011 10:02 PM
>>>
>>> Hey all! Sorry I'm a bit slow getting this out this year. Been
>>> traveling all this week...
>>>
>>> So, we have a BBQ competition to win. Here's how we're going to do
>> it...
>>>
>>> Getting there:
>>> We should be in the same spot as last year. Address is: 400 E
>>> Jackson St, New Holland, PA 17557. Google Maps:
>>>
>>> Gear/Equipment:
>>> At bottom is a list of things that folks should bring. Not too many
>>> surprises - we've all talked about most everything there. Most
>>> important are the things marked 'All'. That is, we need as many of
>>> these things as we can get! If you have it, bring it. We need it!!!!
>>>
>>> Thanks everyone! See you on Friday!!!
>>>
>>> -M.

>>> ALL:
>>> Beer
>>> Sleeping bags/Foam Pads
>>> Team Shirts from last year if you have them Water Coolers
>>> Flashlights
>>>
>>>
>>> BRYAN:
>>> Dixie cups
>>> Munchies
>>> Soda
>>> Ice
>>> Plastic Tablecloths
>>> Fresh Parsley
>>>
>>>
>>> KEN:
>>> Cigars
>>> Picnic Table
>>> Quates, ladder toss
>>> Garden hose and nozzle
>>> Rope light/Xmas lights
>>>
>>>
>>> DREW:
>>> Radio and tunes
>>> Sleeping Tent
>>> The Big Fatty
>>> Gore Tex
>>> Small tailgate table
>>>
>>>
>>> GARETH:
>>> Team Shirt Materials
>>> Dessert Entry
>>> Left-handed smoke shifter

2011-08-25T18:34:00.003+01:00

How I wish I could say that my absence from this blog was due to nice things but alas it is lawyering that has got in the way. We have just bought two new businesses out of administration and the work involved has been staggering. However there is finally light at the end of the tunnel - such a relief as the last 4 weeks have been exhausting! In amongst all the work a few nice things have happened - I have received some of the advanced pictures for my milkshake book - sneak peaks here for you to see. I am super pleased with it and hope you like it to. RPS have also kindly agreed to publish another book for me - this time on doughnuts - I can feel the waistlines of my tasters in the village groaning already at the though! Frying starts this weekend in earnest with lots of delicious filled and decorated doughnuts in store. I have also been asked to do some demonstrations at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC on Saturday 26th November - need to decide what to cook! I will be doing an "ice-along" workshop so you can come and join in with some step by step cake decorating - what fun. Anyway lovely blog readers - thats all the news from here - I do hope you are all well and looking forward to a hopefully sunshine filled bank holiday weekend
Hannah
xxxx

2011-08-06T05:24:00.000+01:00

My gluten free book is now available to buy in the shops and on Amazon - all very exciting! The book is featured (4 pages - can you believe it?!!!) in this month's Good Food magazine which is out now - with recipes for the lemon caramel cake, gluten free choux pastry, banana and brazil nut cake and amaretto crumble - yum yum!

2011-08-05T08:20:00.001+01:00

I have recently discovered these Smoking Bags - if you like smoked food then you simply have to try these. The bag is a double lined foil bag with the outer layer filled with either Alder or Hicory smoking chips. You simply pop your food for smoking inside the bag and bake in the oven or on top of a BBQ. Fish and chicken work really well but my favourite is new potatoes, with olive oil, whole garlic cloves, a few sprigs of rosemary and some freshly ground salt and pepper. Baked for about 40 minutes until the potatoes are soft in a hot oven and then tip the contents of the bag into a roasting pan and roast for a further 20 minutes to crisp the skins. These are roast potato heaven!!!! At £3.25 a bag these a such good value for a reall different food tasting experience. They are available on line and in outdoor type shops - I found mine in a department store in Holt in Norfolk! I cannot recommend them enough!

2011-08-04T22:15:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I received a message from Radio 4 which made me smile. I have put the whole message below to share it with you. I am staggered that someone in remote pakistan tried making my scones! I have sent Zalwund our family recipe for Welsh cakes (almost scone like) which can be cooked on a griddle on a fire and hope that helped! Zalwund if you ever read this message, you made my day!!!!

Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4
Room 2119, New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester M60 1SJ

Someone has completed a form on page:
Sender's name: zalwund

Sender's Topic
How to bake scones in the absence of Oven

Sender's message:
hello, I live in the remote area of Pakistan and I daily listen to bbc
radio programmes on the internet. I really love every programme of bbc.
Yesterday I tried to bake scones after taking notes from your cooking
programme but I failed to bake it well because I have no oven facility and I placed the tray of scones in a large cooking utensil that I filled with sand
and then placed a cover on that utensil and placed it on fire. I placed
scones in it for 8min due to the fear of burning them.
Instead scones were unbaked from inside while they had brown exterior.
Is it possible to bake Scones without any oven or the way that I tried to
do?

2011-07-29T08:17:00.005+01:00

This morning I have to confess to having butterflies in my stomach. I am sitting at the Manchester Palace hotel as today I am making scones live on air on Radio 4's Womans Hour. It is a proramme I have long admired and it is such an honour to be invited on. I have a large tray of scones with me - cherry, sultana, cheese, plain and lavender and on the journey up to Manchester people kept asking if they could have one - must be a good sign. So if you have time this morning tune in to radio 4 between 10 and 11am to hear me hopefully making the perfect scones! Or Scon - depending how you pronounce it! Click here for the recipe webpage. (Photo William Reveal from my Gluten Free Baker book!)

2011-07-22T14:18:00.005+01:00

Today my lovely Mum retires. Oh how I wish it was me retiring!!! These are some pretty pink cupcakes that I made for her retirement afternoon tea. I already have plans for her to do more recipe testing for me in all her free time!!!!! I have also just received the advanced copy of my Mini Cakes and other bite-sized treats book published by lovely Ryland Peters and Small - it was nice enough to have my Gluten Free book just a few weeks ago and having a second in such a short space of time just seems a little indulgent!! Still I am definitely not complaining!!!! Here are a few of my favourite pages from the book - I just love the cute Chocolate Pixie Cakes, pecan pielets and baby eclairs. And of course there had to be some of my trademark gold leaf raspberries!!! The book should hit the shops in a few weeks - hope you like it! It is available for pre order on Amazon - link here

2011-07-15T12:18:00.001+01:00

Summer sweet peas!

2011-07-07T15:02:00.002+01:00

The advanced copy of my latest book The Gluten Free Baker has just arrived - It is so pretty that I haven't stopped smiling since I opened the parcel. These are just a few of the recipe pictures - lavender shortbread, cream slices (with gluten free puff pastry!), macaroons and stollen. I do hope you like it! It will be available in the shops in a few weeks time I imagine - hurrah!

2011-07-06T09:23:00.002+01:00

More 4th July festive fun - LOTS of puddings, Elderflower punch and Pandora the Dog with an American bandana - so cute!

2011-07-04T11:35:00.002+01:00

Happy 4th July readers. My brother and his lovely wife Amy are visiting and yesterday we had a 4th July party. Lots of delicious ribs, burgers, pecan pies, apple pies - it was a feast fit for a king. We also had a 4th July cake (with a few USA and UK flags on - not quite sure that the uk flags are really appropriate for independance day but hey ho!) If you are celebrating today, have a very happy 4th!

2011-06-29T01:36:00.002+01:00

Last week I held an afternoon tea party for some work colleagues to celebrate a deal that completed quite a while ago. It was a very overdue celebration but I hope they thought it was worth the wait. The menu comprised smoked salmon and nasturcium flower tarlets, welsh rarebit crumpets, cucumber sandwiches with micro herbs, vanilla meringues, lemon and lavender drizzle cakes, almond fondant fancies, a plum and cherry cake, white chocolate brownies and raspberry scones with clotted cream! What a lot of goodies!!! All washed down with champagne and elderflower liquour and pots and pots of tea - it was a very nice end to the week.

2011-06-28T06:02:00.006+01:00

Last weekend we went to a lovely Strawberry Fair at Yelden - lots of lovely stalls, a jazz band and of course lots of delicious strawberries. It was a classic English Country Village Fair with stalls in all the villagers' gardens - including knock the rat and nails in a haybale and a traditional coconut shy. What a lot of fun we had!!! There was also a classic car show and it was the first time our little car was shown! Sacha was very proud. What a lovely setting next to the old church. There was also a wonderful acrobatic air display, just as we arrived - death defying spins and drops made by a very talented pilot! We will definitely be returning next year!

2011-06-27T08:49:00.004+01:00

A few little cakes baked this weekend - some rather yummy almond fondant fancies (with cute sugar toadstools and leaves and pretty sugar flowers) and a cake for for a work colleague who likes fishing. It was very easy to prepare with a large grass nozzle and some green buttercream for the lake bank and I used blue edible lustre spray and some edible glitter for the top of the "lake" which made it quite shimmery. If you have not tried edible lustre spray yet, do - you will love it!

2011-06-13T08:44:00.004+01:00

People often ask where my creative side comes from. It most definitely comes from my Mum and Dad - they were both art teachers and are hugely more artistic than I am. This is a picture that my Dad did at the weekend for an art exhibition - it is for a charity exhibition of tiny pictures in CD cases. Some famous people are taking part and also some less famous people like my Dad. This is his picture made with shredded bank notes (it is my Dad's favourite art medium - he gets them from the Bank of England - shame they have to be shredded first!) The picture is called 21st Centurary Banker and the portrait is of Fred Goodwin (aka Fred the Shred - for his leathal cost cutting - shredded bank notes - get it?) former CEO of RBS in the UK. Anyway, irrespective of your political views of banks, I hope you like my Dad's picture! Very proud of him xxx

2011-06-09T07:46:00.000+01:00

This is probably a sad confession to make - I love Glee and I particularly love the Warblers. Imagine my excitement when I spotted this CD in the service station on my way back from Suffolk yesterday. Ok, Ok - I know I am a completely sad case, but for any Glee fans out there, I can definitely recommend this. I sang along all the way home!

2011-06-08T16:29:00.005+01:00

My lovely brother Gareth recently gave me the cutest of presents - this little japenese toy box call Bread and Butter - you don't know what's in the box until you open it - a bit similar to Kinder Suprise toys but soooo much better. Mine was from "Uncle Will Famous Cookie shop" and contained, two trays, 9 different cookies (including some very topical cookie pops) and a bag to put the cookies in. OK so I know this was just plastic but my word it is just the cutest thing! Perfect for a dolls house or toy shop! If you see one of these boxes, buy it - the contents are sure to make you smile!

2011-06-06T08:29:00.005+01:00

The perfectly situated Castle Menzies where the wedding was held. It doesn't look haunted at all, does it? It is just near the village of Aberfeldy - which has one other very important claim to fame - JK Rowling of Harry Potter Fame has a house there ( one of her three houses!) We took a short detour past her house but no sign of her or any witches or wizards! Still we were excited just to see where she lived and I imagine it is the perfect quiet spot for writing.

2011-06-03T13:08:00.008+01:00

Finally!!!! I have been able to get back onto blogger again. I don't know whether any of you have suffered similar problems but an upgrade in Internet Explorer was incompatible with blogger and despite my best efforts I just haven't been able to log on for ages. I had almost given up but the problem finally seems to have resolved itself and I can happily get back to blogging again. In the intervening time I have finished and submitted my final book - hurrah. Popcorn was such a lovely book to create recipes for that I ended up doing 4 extra recipes - I just found it a bit hard to stop once I had got into the swing of popping corn! It now seems very strange not to have to be cooking all the time but I must admit that it is nice to have a bit of a rest and catch up with friends and housework (very overdue)! Last weekend we went to the Highlands in Scotland for my friend Sonya's wedding. She got married in a castle (Menzies Castle - apparently the second most haunted Scottish castle - I turned up to help with the flowers the night before the wedding and was asked if I was there for the ghost hunting tour!!!!!) It was a truly memorable day and Sonya even arrived in a glass carriage with white horses and her wedding dress was worthy of a princess. Kate Middleton would have been proud! Happy Wedding memories Sonya and Dan xxxx

2011-05-12T18:03:00.001+01:00

Ever since I ate at the wonderful Soho restaurant Bob Bob Ricard, I have been dreaming of their seductive sweetcorn mash. Who would have thought that the addition of some golden creamed corn to mashed potatoes could create what is in my view the ultimate comfort food. Rather than just dreaming about the mash until my next visit to Bob Bob, I decided this month to try and recreate their recipe. Whilst eating it at home doesn’t quite have the restaurant atmosphere (they have blue leather banquettes and very plush wallpaper!), this mash tastes almost as good as theirs, and for a girl who doesn’t travel to London that often, it will do me just fine. Served here with some lip smackingly good lamb, cooked in treacle and mustard for a “tex mex” feel, this dish is perfect for a casual supper with friends, with a large bowl of tortilla chips, soured cream and guacamole served alongside.
Blackened Lamb with Sweetcorn Mash
Serves 2 Preparation time 20 minutes cooking time 30 minutes
2 small racks of lamb, French trimmed (approx 200 – 300g in weight each)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 heaped tbsp treacle
1 heaped tbsp muscovado sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
200ml red wine
Juice of 1 lime
For the sweetcorn mash
500g potatoes
50g butter
285g sweetcorn, drained weight
Salt and pepper to season
Equipment: Food processor
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6/200C. For the mash, boil the potatoes in a pan of salted water until softened, then drain. Whilst the potatoes are cooking, heat the sweetcorn in a separate pan with the butter and cook over a gentle heat for approx. 5 minutes. Blitz the sweetcorn and butter in a food processor until you have a smooth puree. Add the cooked potatoes and blend again until the mixture is smooth and has no lumps. Return to the pan, season with salt and pepper and keep warm until you are ready to serve. To prepare the lamb, heat the oil in a frying pan, then brown the lamb rack for about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. Mix together the treacle, mustard and sugar and spoon over the lamb to glaze. Pour the red wine into the pan around the lamb and cook for 15 – 20 minutes if you like your lamb rare to medium and 25 minutes if you prefer your lamb well done. Remove from the oven and stand the lamb for 5 minutes to rest. Whilst the meat is resting, heat the juices from the roasting pan with the lime juice, adding a little water if the sauce is too thick. Cut the racks into individual cutlets and serve with the sweetcorn mash and sauce spooned over.

2011-05-05T08:56:00.002+01:00

Ryland Peters and Small have very kindly said they will publish another of my book ideas - this time its "Popcorn"! If I had a £1
for every popcorn kernel I have popped in the last week I would be a very rich woman indeed! It has been a while since I made popcorn and I had forgotten how fun it is waiting for the popping to start and then when it stops lifting the lid to see all the delicious white kernels. Sadly I had also forgotten how addictive popcorn is - we have eaten rather a lot!!!! The inspiration for the book came from the wonderful Zaramana pop a cobs that I posted on my blog a few months ago (whole dried corn that you pop in the microwave and the little kernels pop off the cob - so much fun). Amelia from Zaramama has very kindly given me lots of hints and tips and has also sent me an enormous box of popping kernels - pop by her website and have a look if you have a minute http://www.zaramama.co.uk/ . I took 6 bowls of popcorn to our sewing circle last night - Raspberry and white chocolate was the most popular as that bowl was the first to empty! The book will be out in Spring next year - what fun!

2011-05-04T08:44:00.003+01:00

The bluebell woods near our cottage are in full bloom. Everytime I pass them, they take my breath away seeing the bright blue carpet underneath the trees. It is one of our long term plans to plant bluebells in our woodland but we never seem to find the time - perhaps next year! This lovely photo of my Mum was taking by her friend Linda in the bluebell wood at Coton Manor not far from where we live. What a pretty picture! The bluebell season never lasts long so if you haven't been out to a bluebell wood yet, you'd better be quick!

2011-04-28T22:59:00.003+01:00

Like many of you I'm sure, I am so excited about the Royal Wedding tomorrow. I have spent this evening hanging bunting and flags ready for our Royal Wedding Brunch tomorrow. What fun! I have baked a little cake (with sultanas and coconut soaked in gingerbread liqueur - delish) and have lots of other goodies on offer. I will be making red white and blue popcorn tomorrow for us to munch on whilst waiting for Kate's dress to appear! Have fun with your celebrations xxx

2011-04-15T17:29:00.004+01:00

It seems to be not just raining but pouring cook books in my life at the moment. This is definitely not a complaint and something I welcome with open arms! Sadly it means that the other loves in my life, blogging, sewing and seeing friends are all taking a back seat at present. In addition to having to finish Sweetie Pops and Milkshake bar by early May (I only have 7 recipes left to do before writing everything up - woohoo) both my Gluten free and Mini cake books are also in the final stages before going to print. I am spending every hour that I am not lawyering, working on books. I can't complain as it is so much fun to see my little books coming to life! I am pleased to be able to share with you the cover of my Mini cake book which is now available to pre-order on Amazon - I do hope you like it, particularly the little sugar strawberry decorations on top of the cakes which I made and sent by courier down to London wrapped in bubble wrap for the shoot!

2011-04-05T06:37:00.000+01:00

You may remember my German friend Maren who regularly features on this blog. Maren loves all things English and has now bought herself a cottage in Norfolk - isn't it pretty! Just a few miles from Wells Next the Sea with its lovely beach huts - I know she will get to spent many happy holidays there. She picked up the keys this weekend and we went with her to help her "move in" (this consisted of unpacking a kitchenaid mixer, blender, kettle and some beautiful strawberrry crockery - a woman after my own heart). Happy Housewarming Maren xxx

2011-04-04T13:01:00.001+01:00

Channel 4's food website now has a few of my whoopie pie recipes on if you want to give them a try - click here for a link to the recipes - popcorn caramel pies, ice cream pies and classic chocolate marshmallow fluff whoopies!

2011-04-01T10:17:00.003+01:00

Earth to planet Hannah...Earth to planet Hannah...is there anyone out there? Yes is the answer - I have not disappeared but I am snowed under with recipe testing at the moment. I don't think I have mentioned it but in addition to my Milkshake book I am also writing a book of "Sweetie Pops" - yummy cakes and biscuits and sweet treats on sticks. Baked alaskas and jam tarts and profiteroles as well as some cute decorated cakes and biscuits! I have just reached the half way stage in recipes - 37 done, only 33 more to go (what a relief). These are some little carrot cakes I made last week with piped icing leaves and fondant carrots. This is now my 7th book which is still quite hard for me to comprehend - 7 books!!!! - if you had told me this when I was on Masterchef I would never have believed it! The book is being published by Anness and should be out later this year or early next year - will keep you posted!

2011-03-18T01:39:00.001Z

Today I can give you a quick sneak peak of my lovely Gluten Free book - The Gluten Free Baker - which is just about to go to print! I am so, so thrilled with the wonderful pictures that Megan, Joss and William have taken and I really hope that this will give people suffering from Coeliac disease some nice new recipes to try! It is a book that I am very proud of - achieving puff pastry and bagels that work without gluten was no mean feat I can tell you - I am sure Heston would be proud of my lower bagels into a jug of boiling water on a spoon technic! Out in August 2011 and available to pre order on Amazon now - plug plug!

2011-03-17T08:20:00.004Z

For the last few weeks my life has been taken over by Milkshakes - one of life's greatest pleasures. What a hardship it has been (not!) It is the topic of my next book (The Milkshake bar) and I don't need to tell you how excited I am to be working on this project. Lots of lovely thick shakes, thin shakes, fruit cocktail juices and ice cream floats! Last weekend I made 32 drinks - by Sunday evening we were all feeling just a little sick! The problem with a good milkshake is that you think you will just take one sip to taste but somehow one sip becomes three and before you know it the glass is empty! I dread to think how much ice cream and milk we consumed. Luckily I had some helpful milkshake tasters on hand - Sacha (pictured here with a mango lassi - it is his recipe and he was very proud!) tasted every single one (that is true dedication to your wife!) and our other neighbours tried lots too - including baby Josef who was keen to try the watermelon cooler! I have one milkshake left to test - a doughnut milkshake - and the recipes to write up and then the book is finished - out new spring published by lovely Ryland Peters and Small, hurrah!

2011-03-03T09:05:00.001Z

I suppose this tale could start something along the lines of "you can't consider yourself to be a cake decorator until you have made a compost site cake" except that would probably leave me in a category of one as I can't imagine that there is much call for cakes in the shape of compost sites! Jason was however delighted with his cake - what a beaming smile. The "compost" was crushed oreo cookies and even had aeration pipes made with liquorish tubes and litter netting. It was a far cry from my usual pretty flowery feathered cakes but fun to decorate all the same!

2011-03-02T18:55:00.002Z

I recently spent a lovely afternoon with budding young cook, Kate. She is only 8 and yet is such a good cook that I am sure she could give some of the Masterchef contestants a run for their money. Kate bake two cakes (with a very tiny bit of help from me) - a cute teddy bear cake that she iced and decorated all by herself - don't you just adore the little necklace with the ladybird locket in the centre and the cute iced paws. We also made her dad a birthday cake. Kate was very good and planned out the design of the top of the cake by laying the decorations out on a plate before she put them on the top of the cake - John Torode would have been so proud of her. I held the icing bag and she piped all the green grass on top of the cake herself. What a lot of work for little hands! The cake looked very lovely when it was finished. Her Dad has since reported that Kate decided to cook again last week but this time took her planning to a new level designing her presentation layout for the dish (Haddock Mornay) on the computer! I was seriously impressed! Everything was plated up perfectly and everyone was ready to tuck in when Kate said she had forgotten the last detail - she then sprinkled a little edible glitter over the fish for extra decoration - a girl after my own heart - you can never have too much edible glitter, even with fish! Well done Kate for your wonderful cooking!

2011-02-28T09:07:00.002Z

This weekends baking projects - an 18th birthday cake for our niece Devina decorated with mad feathers, orange birds, tiger ribbon and chocolate crunchies (the only orange and brown sweets I could think of. She celebrated with a crazy bollywood party - complete with dancing - soooo much fun! When wrapped in film for transporting to London, the cake looked enormous and I don't think the staff at the venue had ever seen anything like it! I also made a pretty little cake for my friend Tina who came to visit this weekend - not quite as flamboyant but still a few feathers and I think Tina liked it very much. Both cakes were made with toffee yoghurt to keep them moist (I had a moment of inspiration in the supermarket) which gave them a delicious caramel flavour and I packed them full of milk, white and dark chocolate chips too. Yum yum!

2011-02-24T04:42:00.001Z

Are you following the new series of Masterchef this year? We have been avidly watching! Tomorrow is our "previous finalists" episode which I am on (don't think I will dare watch in case I say anything wrong - watch out for the pomegranate ice cream - it was STUNNING!) This is what the Radio Times says about the episode "The remaining 12 contenders face a daunting challenge as they cook for previous finalists and winners of the competition, working under head chef John Torode in their first restaurant-style service. They are asked to design a stand-out dish for the three-course menu and have just 30 minutes to deliver their food once the orders have been taken. The diners include Dhruv Baker, Mat Follas, James Nathan, Steven Wallis, Peter Bayless and Thomasina Miers." [and me too!] So tune in at 9pm on BBC1 tonight to watch us all! The below is a snap shot in the hotel the night before filming. We had a lot of fun and it was so strange to meet people for the first time who I felt as if I already knew personally.

2011-02-23T08:05:00.006Z

I thought I would share with you my February article in Country and Town - we liked this article as we got to eat all the macaroons at the end of the shoot - yum yum!

Hannah’s Kitchen
My first encounter with macaroons was whilst filming on Masterchef. One of the other contestant’s had bought a box of colourful Laduree macaroons for his girlfriend as a present – I was immediately transfixed with the delicately coloured meringues nestled between layers of tissue paper. To me, macaroons remain one of the most romantic gifts – the perfect way to say “I Love You” – so why not treat a loved one to some home made macaroons – flavoured with rose, the flower of love. Macaroons are not as difficult to make as you might imagine – it is just a question of getting the right consistency to the meringue as you fold the almonds in and letting the meringue shells rest for an hour before baking so that they develop their classic crystallised “foot”. Macaroons store and freeze well so these are the perfect make ahead present.

Rose Macaroons
Preparation time 30 minutes, setting time one hour, baking time 15 - 20 minutes
Makes 12
For the macaroons
120g ground almonds
150g fondant icing sugar
90g egg whites (approx 3 eggs)
85g caster sugar
Few drops of pink food colouring
1 tbsp rose syrup
pink edible lustre spray (optional)
For the rose cream filling
50g butter
200g fondant icing sugar
1 tbsp rose syrup
1 - 2 tbsp soured cream
A few drops of pink food colouring
Edible rose petals (optional)
Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and blitz to a fine powder. Sieve into a bowl and return any pieces that do not pass through the sieve to the blender, blitz, then sieve again. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks using a stand mixer or electric whisk and then add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time and whisk until the meringue is smooth and glossy. Add the almond powder a third at a time with a few drops of pink food colouring and the rose syrup folding in with a spatula. The important thing is to get the right texture to the meringue. It needs to be folded until it is soft enough that it just does not hold a peek. Drop a little onto a plate and if it folds to a smooth surface it is ready. If it holds a peak then you need to fold it a few further times. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe 6cm rounds onto two baking trays lined with silicon mats or greaseproof paper. If you do not have a piping bag, place rounds of mixture on the tray using two spoons. Leave on the trays for 1 hour so that a skin forms on the macaroons. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/170C/325F and bake for 15 - 20 minutes until firm. Leave to cool on the trays. If using, spray the macaroons with the edible pink lustre spray. For the icing, whisk together the butter, icing sugar, rose syrup, a few drops of pink colouring and add the soured cream gradually until you have a stiff icing. Whisk for a further 3 – 5 minutes until the filling is very light. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Slide a pallet knife under the macaroons to release them from the mats or baking parchment and pipe a swirl onto half of the macaroons. Top each with a second macaroon and serve, decorated with rose petals if you wish.

2011-02-16T20:52:00.003Z

A few photos from our Christmas day "take 2" last weekend - we all felt very festive and listened to Christmas music all day - I have been humming "Simply...having.. a wonderful Christmas time" and "Do they know its Christmas"! Poor brain is a tad confused that it is not my birthday and New Year in a few days! Thanks Mum for a lovely day!

2011-02-14T08:00:00.002Z

Many men I know complain that Valentine's day is just a commercial gimmick. Personally I think this is just an excuse for not having to bother buying anything!!!!! The sentiment of showing someone you love them is however a nice thing to do and I admire Valentine's day for that. So lovely blog readers - he is my home made Valentine for you all - a heart gingerbread cottage that I made at the weekend. I used this recipe for the gingerbread - click here - but added 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and the zest of an orange. You need to wait for the mixture to cool down before being able to roll it out (it doesn't say this in the recipe but if you try before it is coolish, the dough is way too sticky and you are tempted to add more flour which would make the gingerbread quite dry). To decorate I used 900g royal icing sugar whipped up with 150ml water and 1 tsp vanilla extra and then decorated it with lots of lovely pink sweets. I cut a little triangle in the back house panel at the base and inserted some fairy lights so that when you plug it in the windows light up. The peppermint glass was made with 10 glacier minuts crushed in a blender to a fine dust. Cut out window shapes in the gingerbread before baking and fill with peppermint dust which will become glass like during the baking. It is best to bake on silicon mats so that the glass doesn't stick!With the sheets of gingerbread only taking 12 minutes to cook, you still have time to bake one today! Have fun if you do!

2011-02-11T08:33:00.004Z

We have a very nice postman in our village. He is super helpful (perhaps because if there are spare cakes or cookies on offer I give them to him) and always smiling! Yesterday he made me smile with an arrival of two unexpected parcels - both presents for me - hurrah! The first was this lovely pictures of ice cream sundaes that my super kind agent Heather Holden Brown had seen in a shop and "had to buy for me". It goes perfectly in our kitchen although I think it would look equally good in our sheperd's hut too - decision decision! It is totally kitsch and I just adore it! The other parcel was from lovely Bree who competed in Masterchef with me - she is such a brilliant cook and I know would have give me a run for my money if we had not met in the first round when unfortunately only one of us could stay. She had been on holiday to St Agnes and found these floral chocolates - so very me! I have to confess that the pink one disappeared not long after opening the parcel - rose geranium chocolate - it tasted superb. Thanks Bree and Heather (and Elly toox) for such lovely thoughtful gifts.

Tomorrow my brother arrives from New York. I haven't seen him in ages and I am so excited. As his flight was cancelled at Christmas due to the snow, this weekend it is Christmas again in our household. Roast turkey and all the trimmings and a gammon ham is simmering on the Aga ready for glazing this evening. Mum has redecorated the Christmas tree which they have kept in water since Christmas. I think we are just a little mad but Christmas is such a wonderful day, why not have it twice? I am contemplating putting on the Christmas carol CD but our cleaners are about to arrive and I think they might question my sanitity if when they open the door Hark the Herald Angles sing is tinkling from the lounge! Perhaps later!

2011-02-10T06:46:00.000Z

For any fans of Masterchef, the wait for the next series is almost over and there are big changes afoot with a whole new format - auditions in front of John and Gregg and then 20 contestants are chosen to compete - I would not have stood a chance! If you can't wait for the show to start on 16th Feb (9pm BBC1), there is a preview trailer on you tube - click here to see - you will catch the tiniest glimpse me in it towards the very end with all the previous Masterchef finalists as we are involved in one of the tasks! I am sure you will spot quite a few faces you know in the above photo. I am not sure if I can say yet what we got up to but our episode airs on 24th February at 9pm BBC1 so only a few weeks to go now! You can't miss me in the photo as I am wearing bright pink!!!! Needless to say being in a room with the other finalists for the day was amazing if slightly surreal for everyone involved!

2011-02-09T09:47:00.002Z

Well the cookie pan worked - although I am not sure this is the most exciting looking cake in the world, it was certainly a large cookie, don't you think? I resisted putting any decorations on (as it would have lost its cookie look) much to the disappointment of our nephews and nieces who are very fond of the odd sweet or two on a cake! The recipe on the box was in French and I just about managed to translate it. It seemed to have a HUGE amount of melted chocolate in (perhaps my translation was a bit wrong) and the result was rather similar in taste to a chocolate fondant pudding (yum yum)

2011-01-28T12:50:00.003Z

Earlier this week I was invited to Kathy Browns for a tea party. Regular readers of this blog will know how fond I am of Kathy and her passion for cooking with edible flowers. Needless to say when I arrived, the table was set with many yummy things to eat - after the day I had had at work it was like stepping into a really nice dream! Delicious hazelnut, goat's cheese and fennel pate, chorizo bread, two different types of jelly - blueberry and violet and orange jellies served in orange skins like we used to have when we were children and ginger cake. I took a gluten free plum and blueberry cake and it got the seal of approval (which is a good thing as it is going to be on the cover of my gf book!) My favourite of all was of course the violet jellies - they looked so pretty in the elegant glasses topped with violet flowers and fresh blueberries. Kathy had just used a blackcurrent jelly and had flavoured it with violet syrup - so simple but utterly delicious and I had forgotten how nice it is to eat jelly! Served alongside was fresh cream flavoured with violet liqueur. Heaven! Thank you again Kathy xxx Kathy has been making honey marmelade with her own honey and has a lovely post about it on her blog if you want to drop by and have a look http://www.kathybrowngarden.blogspot.com/

2011-01-27T08:55:00.003Z

I am sure that shop owners sometimes have things on their shelves that they imagine noone will ever buy. I am sure that was the case with the biscuit pans I bought at the weekend. To be fair the box was in the sale at a bargain price of £8.65 and I just had a feeling that it would be useful one day. So here are my new giant sandwich cookie pans - aren't they cool! I love the instructions on the side that 1 cookie + 1 cookie = a sandwich cookie (sadly they missed the filling out of the equation - I did A Level maths you know and am quite good at equations!) Anyway needless to say I am itching for a reason to christen the pans - it is our nephews birthday at the weekend so he may get a large cookie as a treat!

2011-01-21T10:18:00.003Z

If you love sweet things and are going to buy yourself one cook book this year (other than mine!) then it has to be Laduree Sucre - oh my word - if it is possible to be in love with a book, then I am head over heals! It is packaged up in a Laduree macaroon box, nestled in tissue paper, with a velvet cover and gilt edged pages. It is so beautiful to look at, even without opening the pages! Inside are all Laduree secret recipes for perfect patisserie - macaroons, tarts, cakes. This is definitely a book to drool over. Whilst it has a steep price tag - £28 - it is definitely worth it as a special treat!

2011-01-20T18:26:00.002Z

With the mini cake book photoshoot at the fore front of my mind, I was extra delighted when the postman delivered these divine mini cakes which Maren had kindly send to me from Germany - the flavours were delicious - with exotic combinations such as fig and almond, thyme and raisin, and chocolate and berries. I took them down for a meeting with my lovely editor Julia on Monday and we munched out way through the box (with a little help from Megan and Steve too). The slogan is something along the lines of "Happiness should be small, but please 9 times" I can certify that they definitely lived up to their claim on the happiness front - we thought they were delicious and how amazing that they posted so well all the way from Germany with not a crumb out of place when they arrived. Thanks Maren xxx

2011-01-17T10:31:00.004Z

It is hard to put into words the thrill when an envelope drops through the letterbox and I know it contains my first copy of my book. Although I have always seen the photographs before and proof read black and white pages, nothing quite prepares you for seeing the actual book. A few days go my Whoopie Pie book arrived - and to say I am pleased with it is a HUGE understatement. Steve and Maxine have done such a lovely job and all the pies are completely OTT and very me - lots of glitter and colours. So I can finally share with you a few of my favourite pages. The one I am proudest of is the rainbow tower as I made these pies and carried them on a 3 1/2 hour journing to Hastings for the photoshoot - it is suprising that they still look nice after such a long journey including two changes of trains! The other pictures are pumpkin pies, perfect for Halloween; Oyster pies (not fish flavoured I hasten to add) on their own little beach and Vanilla Dream pies complete with jammy spoon (the photo just makes me want to pick the spoon up and lick it). I hope that you like my little book - out quite soon - hurrah!

2011-01-14T06:52:00.000Z

For weeks now I have been wrestling with what has become my nemesis - gluten-free puff pastry. It was the last recipe for the book that was still outstanding and my lovely publishers gave me a bit more time to try and make it work. All attempts were seeming fruitless - more "brick like" than delicate leaves of pastry. I have to admit that I was close to the stage of throwing my hands in the air and declaring it a culinary impossibility but one evening earlier this week a miracle occurred and with a few tweeks to the recipe suddenly we had puff lift off. I tried it again twice just to check it wasn't a fluke and low and behold the recipe worked again and again. It was one of those Eliza Doolittle "By Jove I think she's got it" moments - think sitting on the kitchen floor and weeping tears of baking joy! So here is my gluten-free puff - just some snap shots and not the proper photos for the book I hasten to add - but look - you can actually see the layers and the bonus is the recipe is really easy and much easier than normal puff! So my book is now finished - the photo shoots are underway and the pictures so far are lovely. The book is going to be called "The Gluten-Free Baker" and will be out later this year. Can't wait!

2011-01-13T08:42:00.002Z

These are some of the lovely hand knitted presents I had from Lucy for Christmas and my birthday - a delicious strawberry teacosy and some very very cute Christmas decorations. Isn't she clever! I am seriously impressed as my knitting skills never get me beyond the straight rows of a scalf! I think a tea party is called for to show off my new tea cosy!

2011-01-05T08:31:00.003Z

Lying in bed with flu was not quite the start to 2011 I had in mind - my birthday and New Years Eve passed me by in a swathe of sneezes and coughs - very sad but luckily I am on the mend now - I think I will have to take a leaf out of the Queen's book and celebrate a second birthday later this year. I think my cooking genes must have left me to as I have not cooked a single thing since 23rd December - that is two weeks with no cooking and surely a record for me. Anyway - to nicer things and Christmas presents - a few of which deserve a special mention. My friend Lucy decided that we would all make home made presents this year - this seemed like a great idea in October which she suggested it but not so great the week before Christmas when I had to try and pursuade Sacha to make his presents. In the end he made jars of home made Garam Masala and we attached his curry recipe to each with a ribbon - they looked great and were well received. For our homemade gift from Lucy's partner David we received a most special present - a piece of music which he had composed for us - a Christmas lullaby for harp, which I will enjoy learning to play. David used to be the organist at York Minster so is super talented and the piece is beautiful. Lucy had been clicking her knitting needles very rapidly and made some lovely socks and Christmas tree decorations and for my birthday - a beautiful strawberry teacosy for my collection. Thank you so much Lucy and David so such very thoughtful presents xxx

2010-12-25T13:17:00.005Z

Happy Christmas One and All. I hope that you are all having a very festive day with friends, family and loved ones. The snow has caused a few problems for us over the last few weeks in the UK - Sadly my brother should be here with us today with his wife Amy and they are stuck in New York as their flight was cancelled due to the snow - we miss them very very much. Secondly we have had no internet for nearly two weeks - naughty snow. It is such a relief to be at my Mums and online again! Anyway, despite my brother not being here we have had a lovely morning - lots of chocolate and our traditional bacon sandwiches and bucks fizz. I must have been good this year as Santa bought me lots of lovely presents. I have just given my Mum her Christmas present - a 12 days of Christmas sampler although I have given her so many samplers already that there very little wall space left in her house! I must remember this next year! This is a long thin one which I stitched in 3 weeks (a record stitching session as I had very little time with all the gluten free baking - I have never ever stitched so much so fast!) I think I may have to stitch one for myself next! Hope you all have a very special day and stay warm xxxx

2010-12-09T09:29:00.003Z

Some people collect shoes, my weakness is Christmas tree decorations - not quite sure that I have my priorities right! Having bought our decoration boxes down from the loft, I realise that I have enough to decorate at least three large trees. Sadly I am restricted to one so it is always difficult to pick my favourites. I know I really shouldn't buy any more but each decoration was bought somewhere special and reminds me of a holiday or a friend. Here are a few of my favourites - from Suffolk and Hamburg in case you want to know where they came from - see I honestly do remember each one! Tomorrow I am off to the Christmas Market in Hamburg (mulled wine and chestnuts here I come). Maren if you are reading this - please don't let me buy any more decorations!

2010-12-07T11:13:00.003Z

I love the run up to Christmas - no more so than opening an advert calender every morning in December. This year as a treat for surviving the Good Food Shows I bought myself a gnome advert calender. I have filled it up with presents for Sacha to open every day (not quite sure that this was what I had in mind when I bought it - I think I was hoping it would be filled up for me - hey ho!) He is just so cute and festive with little parcels in each pocket - I think I will miss him when it is time to pack the decorations away! Did I ever mention that my brother used to work as an elf in lapland? That's another story!

2010-12-06T12:00:00.004Z

Oh blog.... it has been a while! With all the ice and snow, hibernation has been the only option. It has been so cold that we have not one but two patchwork quilts on our bed and the electric blanket is cranked up to max. Brrrrrrrr - I hope you are not feeling as chilly as we are - the frosty picture was taken just now in the garden - this is how cold it is here!! Last week we had a much needed short holiday to Bath - lovely Christmas markets and yummy food (although I failed to pursuade Sacha that going to the roof top spa would be enjoyable - I guess as it is open air and it was snowing he probably had a point). I have just four gluten free recipes left to do (what a relief it will be when it is finished) and this weekend was our niece Serena's birthday. Every year she only has one request - a strawberry cake, even though strawberries are not in season in December! Far be it for me to deny a request - so yesterday I made a victoria sponge with wild strawberry jam and strawberry tartlets filled with creme patissiere and brushed with a peach and lemon glaze. All very simple but served on a cake stand together they looked quite pretty. It seemed slightly strange to be serving these alongside more seasonal mince pies but everyone enjoyed them all the same!

2010-11-25T13:56:00.003Z

Yesterday I gave four demonstration/masterclasses at the Good Food Show in Birmingham - my last set of demos before Christmas - can you hear my whooping with joy that they are all done! Finally I can start to think about Christmas! The show was really good fun - I was on the British stage in between Rachael Allen and Gary Rhodes so felt very priviledged, demonstrating whoopie pies (the recipe for my pear and walnut whoopies is below if any of you want to have a try yourselves) and also demonstrated some christmas recipes and held two cook along masterclasses making pear galettes with calvados custard (which I am pleased to report didn't go lumpy!) Tim Kinnaird - who was a finalist on this years Masterchef - had a stand selling his delicious macarons - we ate far too many of these as they are seriously addictive and yesterday evening before leaving I took part in James Nathan (MC Winner 2008)'s scallop masterclass - I have never shucked a scallop before so it was good to learn a new skill - and the fried brioche bread (with a quails egg dropped into a hole in the bread and fried) was delicious, if a little naughty! All in all a really memorable day (highlight being that I managed to "acquire" a Masterchef mug!)

Toffee, Pear and Walnut Whoopie Pies
Makes 12 pies
Preparation time 30 minutes, cooking time 15 - 20 minutes

For the pies
125g butter or vegetable shortening, softened
200g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp maple syrup
320g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
250ml soured cream
1 ripe pear

For the toffee glaze
30g brown sugar
50ml maple syrup
1 tbsp butter

For the walnut cream
75g walnuts
100g caster sugar
300ml double cream

Equipment: Mixer or whisk, 2 Whoopie Pie pans greased with butter or two large baking trays greased and lined with silicon mats or greaseproof paper, piping bag with large round nozzle (optional)

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350F/180C. For the pies, cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl for 2 – 3 minutes until light and creamy using an electric or hand whisk. Add the egg and maple syrup and mix again. Sift the flour and baking powder and add to the bowl together with the salt and soured cream. Whisk again until everything is incorporated. The mixture will be quite stiff and if you are mixing by hand you will need a strong arm. Add 100ml of hot, but not boiling water, and whisk into the mixture. If using Whoopie Pie pans, place a large spoonful of batter into each hole in the tin. If using a piping bag, spoon the batter into the bag fitted with a large round nozzle and pipe 12 rounds on each tray (about 6cm in diameter) leaving a gap between each pie as they will spread during cooking. Thinly slice the pear, removing the core and place two slices on top of 12 of the whoopie pie halves. Bake each tray for 10 – 12 minutes in the oven, turning the trays round half way through cooking to ensure even baking until the pies spring back when pressed lightly with your finger. When cooked, remove the pies from the oven, cool slightly then turn out to cool on a cooling rack.
Heat the ingredients for the toffee glaze in a saucepan over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted and then drizzle over the warm pear topped pies. This is best done on a cooling rack with foil or greaseproof paper underneath to catch any drips.
To prepare the walnut cream filling, sprinkle the walnut halves on a silicon mat or sheet of baking parchment. Heat the caster sugar in a pan over a gentle heat until it melts and goes a light golden colour. Do not stir the sugar whilst it is melting but watch very closely as it will burn easily if you are not careful. As the sugar starts to melt, swirl the pan to ensure even colouring. When the sugar has all melted, quickly use a spoon to drizzle the caramel over the walnuts, cool, then blitz to a fine dust in a food processor. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold through the walnut powder. Spoon the cream into a piping bag fitted with a large round and pipe circles of cream onto the bottom pie halves. Top with the toffee pear pie halves. As these pies contain fresh cream, they should be served immediately or stored in the fridge.

2010-11-22T10:19:00.002Z

I wish to lodge a formal complaint on behalf of my poor hens. Our philandering rooster has packed his bags and moved next door. My poor hens just seem so sad. The reason behind the move is that my neighbour Pam has just got some new hens so the naughty rooster obviously decided he wanted a change of scene. Honestly! I am so cross with him. How could he leave my poor lovely girls (not to mention my home cooked porridge!!!) I imagine that he might come home in a few days or weeks - I have to say I hope so as I miss his quirky crow waking me up every morning.

2010-11-19T10:30:00.003Z

Having done 8 cookery demos in the last 7 days, I am understandably feeling a little frazzled and am so glad it is Friday! Just Birmingham NEC next Wednesday (do come say Hi if you are at the Good Food Show) and then I will be able to relax! The third part of my gluten free book has had to take a back seat for the last week or so but baking resumed again before work this morning. I am now feeling all festive as there is a yummy warm spiced stollen loaf cooling in the kitchen. It gave me the perfect excuse to use the present my Mum gave me earlier in the week - a stollen pan - did you even know such things existed? I didn't! You fill the pan with dough and then invert it onto a baking sheet so that as the dough rises and bakes, the pan rises on top of the loaf giving the stolen its traditional shape. I wasn't expecting it to work too well with the gluten free dough (as it is very sticky and unkneadable) so imagine my delight when I took it out of the oven and it looked like a proper loaf. Thanks Mum for the lovely present and hurrah for being back on track with the book - only 17 more recipes to go - the end is in sight!

2010-11-16T16:36:00.003Z

If you need a gift for a foodie who has everything, you may want to look at the delightful pinnies at http://www.poshpinnies.com/ - completely lovely with velvet bows on a variety of thick cotton prints. I bought the grey stripy one below with bright pink velvet trim at Olympia and love it (although within 30 minutes of the purchase I had managed to cover it in chocolate ganache during one of my demos - luckily it has washed out well). They have kids and mens aprons too!

2010-11-15T08:53:00.007Z

Well I am just back from Masterchef Goes Live at Olympia. It has been the most exhausting but amazing two days! So lovely to see all the Masterchef peeps (especially Tim, Alex and Dhruv from this years series, John and Gregg and of course the lovely Andi Peters - pictured below with Alex, Andy and Chris eating one of my cupcakes from my cake decorating demonstration) and a big thank you to all from Haymarket and Shine for looking after us all so well. My "Talent" badge got us access to the VIP lounge which made us feel very special! My Mum and Aunt entered the pairs Live Invention Test cook off and beat 15 other pairs to take first prize. I was so proud of them and John and Gregg had nothing but praise for their trio of desserts. All in all a wonderful weekend and roll on the Good Food Show at Birmingham next week. I am there on the Wednesday so do pop and say Hi if you are there! (With many thanks to http://www.meemalee.com/ and @mastercheflive (twitter) for the borrowed pics as I didn't have a chance to take any)

2010-11-10T10:40:00.002Z

My latest Hannah's kitchen article is out today - cute little gingerbread birdhouses to decorate your tree with. I am feeling all Christmassy already - only a few weeks until I can get the decorations down from the loft and plan buying our tree. I know it is only early November but you can't blame a girl who loves Christmas for getting a little excited (although of course I haven't even started to think about Christmas shopping yet - that will have to wait until my book is finished!)

Country and Town House - December 2010
I love Christmas with a passion and enjoy every minute of the run up to the big day, shopping for presents, wrapping, decorating the house, carol singing and enjoying warming mugs of mulled wine. Most of all I love all the Christmas baking - mince pies, stollen, indulgent champagne truffles and Christmas cake. There is no other time of the year when so much culinary indulgence can be justified and the scent of cinnamon and spices in the kitchen warms the heart. To get us in the Christmas spirit as early as possible, we always put up our Christmas tree on the first weekend of December. It is the perfect excuse to get baking and these spiced gingerbread cookies make delightful decorations with snowy icicles and a sprinkle of edible glitter. If you do not have a birdhouse cutter, make a template from cardboard, then cut out the cook dough using a sharp knife. I am sure these pretty cookies will delight any children you have visiting this Christmas, particularly if you make them together – I don’t know a single child who doesn’t love icing cookies!

Christmas Tree Birdhouse Cookies
Preparation time 30 minutes Cooking time 12 - 15 minutes
Makes 8 cookies
115g/4oz butter, softened plus extra for greasing
55g/2oz dark brown sugar
1 tbsp treacle
200g/7oz plain flour, sifted plus extra for dusting
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
300g royal icing sugar
Approx 50ml water
silver balls and edible glitter to decorate
white ribbon for hanging

Whisk together the butter, brown sugar and treacle. Mix in the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon to form a soft dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and grease and line two baking trays. Roll out the dough to 1/2 cm thickness on a floured surface and cut out 8 birdhouse shapes using a birdhouse cutter or cardboard template. Using a 1 inch round cutter, cut out a hole in the centre of each birdhouse. Carefully transfer to the baking trays using a spatula. Bake for about 12 – 15 minutes until the cookies are firm. Allow the cookies to cool completely. Cut 30cm lengths of ribbon and tie into a loop. Poke one end of the loop through the hole in the centre of the cookie and secure by passing the other end of the loop through the first loop ensuring that the ribbons lie flat. Mix the royal icing sugar with the water and whisk for about 2 - 3 minute until the icing is stiff. Put the icing in a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle and pipe icing along the top of the roof of the bird house so that it looks like icicles. Pipe a ring of icing stars around the hole of each bird house and allow the icing to set before hanging on your tree.

2010-11-09T10:02:00.004Z

These are my latest take on fairy cakes. Dainty cupcakes topped with whipped buttercream and decorated with edible paper wings. Simply cut out a pair of wings from two sheets rice paper and pipe thin icing lines around the edge in wing shapes to decorate. Top with a few sugar stars and hearts and lots of edible glitter and, once the icing has set and you are ready to serve (if the wings are left too long on the buttercream they will start to soften so it is best to assemble just before serving), press the wings gently into the buttercream. All very simple to prepare but effective looking and I have no doubt that these would delight any fairy princesses!

2010-11-08T09:43:00.002Z

It is a while since I found any time to write on my blog. I have been very upagainst it with deadlines for the last few weeks. The good news is that "Mini Cakes and other sweet treats" has been submitted and I have almost finished 2/3rd of the gluten free baking book. I look forward to the day when it is finished and I can relax a little like peapod in this picture. Have you ever seen a more contented cat - lying upside down legs in the air and fast asleep. I now have to prepare for a cookery demonstration on Thursday and then the Good Food Show on Saturday and Sunday - trying not to get nervous.... I am going to be demonstrating pastry and cake decorating and also whoopie pies - hope I can remember how to make whoopie pies - it has been a while! Do come and say hello if you are at the show!

2010-10-27T08:36:00.001+01:00

This chocolate sandcastle, spade and bucket were from a lovely chocolate shop in Little Walsingham in Norfolk which we visited on Saturday. If you are ever in the area I definitely recommend a visit as the chocolate was really yummy! I love the fact that the chocolate flag is even blowing in the breeze

2010-10-26T09:32:00.005+01:00

My first bit of Masterchef news that I am finally able to share with you is that there is now a new Masterchef Academy Application launched for the iphone, featuring quite a few winners and finalists - including yours truly making ice cream, custard, strawberry scones and pastry! It was great fun going back to the studio for filming and Tim Kinnaird (finalist 2010 and excellent dessert maker - seen here making gnocci and tasting my strawberry scones) was there on the same day as me. So you can now have us to help you in the kitchen - "cook-a-long Masterchef". I have to confess I haven't dared to watch the footage back and remember cringing at the time with lines like "Delicious custard - perfect with hot apple pie or cold in trifles" but it was a super fun day and really nice to meet Tim. The other Masterchef news will have to wait until next year sadly!!! If you have an iphone and want the app the link is at http://www.masterchef.com/

2010-10-22T16:11:00.004+01:00

I am very proud to be able to show you the cover of my new book - the blad arrived last night and I was very excited! Still a while to wait for the book yet as it is not out until March next year although is available to pre order on amazon - click here for a link. As they say "good things come to those who wait"! I hope you all approve! Steve Painter has done such a fab job of styling the book and there are some real gems on the inside pages - little oyster pies on their own "sand" beach complete with cocktail umbrellas and bright pink flamingo pies with pink feathers! Have a good weekend everyone xxx

2010-10-20T15:04:00.003+01:00

I wondered why the postman gave me a wry smile this morning as he handed over our post. I think he had noticed the ER frank and the Buckingham Palace Postmark on one of my letters! How cool is that! Inside was a thank you letter for my appearance at the Clarence House Garden Party. It will join my letter from 10 Downing Street after cooking supper for Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern in 2007 - quite a collection and I feel very honoured! The Whitehouse next perhaps??!

2010-10-19T13:39:00.001+01:00

Another little teacosy has joined my Mum and my's joint teacosy collection. I gave this to my Mum recently and it looks so cute in her kitchen. I love the little red ladybird buttons on it.

2010-10-18T09:23:00.004+01:00

Last weekend, Sacha ran the Leicester Marathon - in 4 hours 10 minutes which was a brilliant time and his 4 marathon so he was rightly proud of himself! The weekend was only slightly marred by the slightly overzealous conduct of the Marriot hotel in locking our mini bar. Sacha had bought himself a treat of his favourite Indian dessert Ras Malai to have after the marathon which we stored in the mini bar overnight. To be organised so that we could get to the marathon on time, I paid the bills before breakfast. Sadly, as soon as you pay the bill the hotel lock your mini bar and the poor tub of Ras Malai got locked in! The hotel said they would send someone up to unlock it but they didn't arrive in time and we had to leave the poor tub of ras malai behind. Luckily the wonderful "Cook in a Curry" site came to the rescue with a delicious recipe and I managed to make Ras Malai at home to make up for the lost tub. If you haven't had this dessert before it is curd cheese, cooked in a fragrant sugar syrup and soaked in a thick milk syrup flavoured with cardamom and saffron. I think Sacha was in shock that I had actually managed to make his favourite dessert myself and I feel I have gone someway to compensating him for all the washing up he has been doing during the recipe testing for the book. If you want to try this recipe for yourself the link is here - the only change I made was to add a tablespoon of rose syrup to the sugar syrup and another to the milk mixture as I really love the flavour of rose and cardamon together. Thanks Cook in a Curry for saving the day!

2010-10-13T12:05:00.006+01:00

My lovely publishers have said that I am allowed to share with you a few of the snap test shots from the two books I am working on at the moment. These are just the photos I take whilst testing the recipes here at home that are then sent to the food stylist and the book designer so they can plan how to style the photos and make my little creations look elegant! I have absolutely no doubt that the real pictures in the book will look 100 times better than these but thought you would like a quick sneak peak - mini carrot and pistachio muffins, mini summer tarts, mini rocky road cupcakes, mini profiteroles and mini tiramisu roulades (all from the mini patisserie book) and walnut and cinnamon macaroons (from the gluten free baking book). The name for the mini patisserie book is still undecided so any suggestions gratefully received! 42 recipes done, only 43 to go! I am half way - hurrah!

2010-10-12T15:08:00.006+01:00

If you are ever looking for somewhere for a special meal in central England then I heartily recommend the Olive Branch at Clipsham near Stamford. I have been wanting to go here for a long time and this weekend with Maren visiting from Germany and my cousin Charlie over from Australia, we had the perfect excuse for a celebration lunch. The food was all delicious - anywhere that serves homemade pork pie as a starter has got to be a very special place. The nibbles board we had whilst we ordered our food was devine with giant green round olives the likes of which I have never tasted before. If any of you know what type of olives are in the picture I would be very pleased to know! Rabbit terrine (with pickled carrots and parsnip crisps - heaven) and beetroot cured salmon, pork casserole, crispy plaice (that resembled schnitzel) and silky mash. The puddings were delicious too (although the blackcurrant treacle tart was an acquired taste). With the set lunch menu at £19.95 for three courses of such yummy food, we thought the Olive Branch was good value and definitely recommend a visit. I am already planning my next trip!

2010-10-08T08:36:00.002+01:00

I am happy to say that I have been invited to appear at the Good Food Show again this year so will be at London on 13th and 14th November on the Masterchef stage and also on the hot tips stage demonstrating custard, ice cream and pastry (lumpy custard here we come!) and at Birmingham on 24th November where I will be demonstrating Whoopie Pies on the British stage, some Christmas recipes on the Magimix stage and also hosting some Masterchef masterclasses - pear frangipane tarts and calvados creme anglais - more custard (I must have a death wish for stressful demonstrations this year). Do come and say hello if you are there as it is always lovely to meet fellow bloggers!