I am starting to discover that I quite like breaking the rules every now and then with baking. Only using plain flour instead of self raising in a cake – how wrong! Swapping Maldon sea salt flakes for rock salt – sacrilege! Adding pepper and an egg to a basic shortbread mix – just get…
I hate fussy cocktails. Sometimes I come home from work and all I want is a Cosmopolitan. Yet craving just one glass means traipsing to the shops to buy vodka, Cointreau that costs £20 and squeezing around three limes in order to get the right capful of liquid required. Then remembering I don’t own a…
I have a confession to make: I am not an overt fan of traditional fruit cake. Chastise me all you will but give me a sponge cake with a swath of frosting any day. Of course, stick a slab in front of me and I probably will eat it, but given the option, my Christmas…
I can remember the first time I ate lebkuchen. Sadly it wasn’t wrapped up warm against a biting chill in Berlin, a glass of mulled wine in my hand sampling one offered to me by a curly-moustached German man, but in language class in primary school. In between renditions of ‘O Tannenbaum’ and ‘Silent Nacht’,…