Today is my friend Lucy's birthday so I have baked her a cake to have at our village harvest supper this evening. I am working on the assumption that she will not pop and look at my blog this afternoon so ruining the suprise. The cake is actually one of the recipes from the gluten free book - pecan and apple (I am secretly hoping that they will decorate it like this in the book but I think the odds of that are about 0% as it doesn't really fit in with a rustic, wholesome gluten free image). If you are ever baking cakes for someone with a wheat allergy you need to be very careful when it comes to icing sugar. Regular icing sugar usually contains anti caking agent which can contain wheat. I use fondant icing sugar powder as this doesn't contain anti caking agent and gives a nice glossy finish. Now just the casseroles for the harvest supper and jacket potatoes to cook - it is a busy day!

Cook book writing is progressing (I dread to think how many kilos of sugar I have used in the last few weeks!) 25 recipes done now and 67 to go (although put like that it sounds like a huge number of recipes still to cook...). As much as I was enjoying the gluten free baking, I have to confess that I am LOVING making teeny tiny cakes and puddings for the other book. The only problem is that they are too cute to eat! My brother, who is visiting from the US (yippee!) described them as "Just a little bit naughty" and I kind of like that. Eating cake without the guilt factor!

Saturday was Joshua's birthday party - enter blue food colouring, blue lustre spray and Sonic the Hedgehog! The Sonic figure was the most bendy and jointed one ever and therefore had to sit on the edge of the cake so that he wouldn't fall over. Technically speaking I am not sure that someone with super lightening speed like Sonic would ever sit down, but noone at the party seemed to mind/notice. The sugar stars on wires and foil streamer wands gave the cake quite a cartoon effect I think and the sugar toadstools were super cute. Happy Birthday Josh!

Work starts this evening on my next new book. Thought you might like to see my new equipment - mini bundt pans, mini madeleines and teany tiny loaf moulds, mini muffin cases and moulds, mini ring pans.....anyone spotting a theme? My lovely editor Julia sent me the final recipe list last night - very pleased with the selection - and can't wait to get cooking!

Lovely Marny of the RPS New York office did an interview with me a few weeks ago and it is now on the RPS blog if you would like to read it. There are some other lovely articles on there too and beautiful pictures to look at from their design books - pop on over if you have a minute - link here

I thought I would share with you my latest sewing project. Even though it is far from finished, I am so pleased with how it is coming on. It is a reproduction of a sampler stitched by a young girl called Mary Busby whilst at Ackworth School in 1804. There is something enchanting about making the same stitches with my hand that Mary made over two hundred years ago. I know she must have loved doing it as almost every inch of the fabric is to be filled with motif after motif. It feels as if she never wanted to stop stitching it. Below is the picture of how the sampler will look when it is finished so I know it will be a long while yet until I am done (it is stitched on miniscule 36 count and in silks so v slow going) but I can't wait for it to be framed and hung up in our cottage.

I need some assistance from any readers with bird knowledge! There was a chirping outside my window which sounded like a baby chick. I looked out of the window expecting to see something quite small (although it is not the time of year for chicks of course) and this is what I spied. I imagine that perhaps this is a pheasant chick? Can anyone tell me if I am right? Either way it was very cute and spent a long time pottering in the grass and stones outside our back door. Recipe testing is going well and I have now completed 18 recipes which have all been given the thumbs up by Lucy (and David, Sacha, Jess, Josh and Rosie - but as Lucy is the only one with wheat intolerance she gets the final say)! Yesterdays treats were some walnut brownies made with very finely ground walnut instead of flour (I liked these a lot) and a lovely summery loaf of bread with herbs and tomatos. Only 70 more recipes to go......

It has been a bit of a mad week! Sadly I can't say why (I have been sworn to secrecy) but you will get to know in a while and believe me it will be worth the wait for any Masterchef fans! I have also been busy testing gluten free recipes (which so far have been really good and Lucy is enjoying tasting them all) and last night gave a cookery demonstration to the WI. I am soooo glad it is Friday. I finally managed to prise the pictures of Maren's birthday tea from Steven Wallis this week so here they are - it was a very english affair. Lots of bunting and china tea cups and dainty pink meringues and a huge number of cakes. My favourites were the tea cup cakes in the teacup silicon moulds. Poor Maren was meant to be coming to stay today but is poorly so has had to cancel her trip. Such a shame - Get Well Soon Maren xxxx

It has been a delightful foodie weekend, although I am a little shattered today after the events of the last two days. On Saturday I judged the Sharnbrook show confectionary class. I have done this for the last three years and it is a pleasure to see the large number of entries every time. I have to say I was a little daunted at the start by the prospect of tasting 10 chocolate fudge cakes and 8 victoria sandwich cakes as well as a huge number of scones, rock cakes, meringues, loaves of bread, quiches and jars and jars of jams, marmalde, chutneys and pickled onions (trust me pickled onion and chocolate fudge cake do not go!) First in class went to the most gorgous chocolate and hazelnut cake - it was like eating a spoonful of nutella but even better and a very deserving winner. Yesterday was exciting too as I gave a cookery demonstration at Clarence House at Prince Charles' Start Garden Party to make a Difference. It was so much fun - even if the flames of my flambeed prawns almost licked the roof of the tent! At least it made everyone laugh. The Princes' gardens were filled with great ideas for sustainability - Virgin's pledge tree (where you wrote on a leaf what you pledged to do to save the environment) looked stunning in the breeze, giant enviro friendly paint pots and insulation sheep. I was preceded on stage by none other than Chocolate Willie who made the most amazing chocolate mousse cake from his new book - it was so nice to meet him and also lovely Valentina Harris who was hosting the stage. I feel truly honoured to have been asked to take part. When John and Gregg were yelling during our filming "This is going to change their lives" I never dreamt that I would end up cooking in a royal garden! I hope you all had lovely weekend too xxx

I received some lovely news yesterday afternoon - Ryland Peters and Small have very kindly offered to publish two more of my book ideas! One on gluten free baking (my friend Lucy is so thrilled at the thought of tasting all the recipes for me - I think she is more excited than I am about the book which is saying something as I am VERY excited) and another baking one which is slightly quirky and very me (will share more details when I am allowed to). I can't quite believe that this means I will have three new books coming out next year with Whoopies in Spring and these two in Autumn - I think I can call myself a food writer now! How lovely to be working with Julia from RPS again and to whip up some new delicious recipes for her. She is just one of the nicest people to work with! I have told the hens that they are under strict orders to lay well for the next month or so as I will be needing a lot of eggs. As always, dear Blog readers, I will keep you posted with progress - nearly a hundred recipes to be prepared in the next few weeks and months - its going to be a little hectic!

Imagine my surprise and delight when looking through Delicious magazine's essential guide to baking this month, I found one of my recipes f0r Chocolate Peanut Crumble Cookies. It is one of my favourite cookie recipes and I definitely recommend them! The recipe is here - click link - if you fancy giving them a try. Very touched to see my name on the back page.

Last week I made some cute little bird house cookies - gingerbread with royal icing and white chocolate buttons and little sugar birds. The birdhouses were sprayed with baby blue lustre spray which really brought them to life.

Like many women I'm sure, to me a car is usually just a colour. I am completely useless at makes of car. This blog is also not a place to talk about cars but I will make one exception to this to introduce you to our new little "baby" who arrived late last night after Sacha had picked her up - a shiny red Karmann Ghia (see look I even know the make - a sure sign that it is true love). At 39 years old the car is even older than me. It is to be our car for pootling out on picnics, and going to country pubs and air shows (how very decadent!) I can't wait for the weekend to go for a drive. Any name suggestions for the little car gratefully received! Thanks to my Uncle Geoff for going in my place with Sacha to look at the car before we bought it - you chose well!

I am so proud of my baby brother - not only is he living the dream in New York City but he has just acquired an emormous US pagent style trophey for his culinary skills. Last weekend he entered a BBQ competition - the Pensylvania 11th Anniversary State Barbeque Championship to be more precise! 72 teams competed and Gareth's team came in second in the chicken category - totally awesome! I can't begin to imagine how large the first place trophey was if this was the second place trophey. They came in 8th place over all the categories which is such a good result. Obviously we share the same cooking gene. He also sent a few photos of some of the other more "professional" teams - "R2BQ - May the sauce be with Que" is inspired and as for the whole pig Pig Pen BBQ - that surely must class as extreme BBQing. Well done Gareth xxxx

Sticking with a shephard's hut theme, we had a lovely bank holiday with my Aunt and Uncle who popped in for lunch which we enjoyed in front of the shepherd's hut, complete with bunting and the wonderful shade sails that Maren kindly bought for her tea party - I haven't taken them down since! A simple ploughmans lunch with home made bread and a gingerbeer ham followed by scones and plum and almond cake - we were soon fit to burst. We then set up camp outside the hut to make flower arrangements - my Aunt is an excellent florist and Mum and I became her willing assistants. The results were very pretty indeed we thought. Can you see the drift of smoke coming from the chimney on the hut - quite cute don't you think? The stove kept us nice and warm whilst sitting in the hut. A perfect way to spend a bank holiday Monday!

Our cat Muffy made a "star" (aka "miniscule"!) appearance in the Sunday Times this weekend without us even knowing. She is one crafty cat! An article featuring Shepherd's hut had a picture of our hut in - imagine our suprise when we got a call from my Dad saying "I think your hut is in the paper this morning"! We had no idea! The man who built it must have supplied the paper with a photo he took when he delivered the hut. Can you see the little white spec sitting on the BBQ under my office window - thats Muffy!

It has been raining non stop here for 2 days. Is it the same where you are? Where has the summer gone I wonder? In order to pretend it is still summer I thought I would share with you a picture of a recent summer baking project - little sandcastle cakes and seaside biscuits. The sand is made with crushed digestive biscuits (watch out for an appearance of this edible sand in my whoopie pie book too - the oyster pies have their own little beach!!) The sandcastles are constructed using an inverted muffin with a marshmallow on top all covered in buttercream and then rolled in the edible sand. So easy but quite effective don't you think?

There are days when I enjoy the perks of my job! I have been over in Suffolk for meetings and was late leaving last night so popped into our company hotel to see if the lovely chef, Chris Lee, had something that I could take home for supper - I had a two hour drive ahead of me and wasn't going to be home until 9pm so was hoping for a short cut supper! Chris has been super kind to me ever since Masterchef and provided me with lots of training in between filming in an attempt to get my cooking skills up to scratch! I don't think "short cut supper" can quite describe what Chris kindly packaged up for me - home made burgers with truffle mayonnaise, home made picallili, fois gras, home made muffins, a home grown tomato, lettuce and some delicious cheese to melt on top of the burgers. I think my husband thought all his Christmases had come at once when I arrived home carrying my crate of goodies. 10 minutes later we were eating the best burger I have ever eaten! So if you are ever passing the Bildeston Crown in Suffolk (link to the hotel here) I can most definitely recommend the truffle burger!!!

Very excitingly I have been asked if I would like to do a cookery demonstration at the Prince of Wales' "Garden Party to Make a Difference". As you can imagine I had to think about this for all of 1 second before saying yes! So on 12th September I will be doing a cookery demonstration in the Gardens of Clarence House (so so exciting) - the event looks lovely with lots of live music, delicious foods plus the lovely gardens to visit (that don't often get opened to the public) and a central and very important theme of sustainability. The garden party is on between 9th and 18th September. Tickets are available from www.startgardenparty.co.uk - hope that one or two of you might like to go along and support a very worthy cause. Now, what to cook in a Prince's garden...decisions, decisions (and suggestions very welcome!)

Pretty toadstool cookies!

Sometimes it is the simplest of lunches that are the most delicious. My husband Sacha has been away on a silent retreat for 12 whole days - personnally I could never imagine be silent for one day let alone 12 but he managed it and I am very proud of him. As he had been eating very simple food for the duration of the trip, I wanted to make something fairly plain for his return so I made stuffed peppers. Stuffed peppers always remind me of throwback 80's lunches but these were really delicious and I would definitely make them again.

Allow 1 pepper per person, cut in half and deseed and rinse in cold water to make sure any loose seeds are removed. For each pepper half, thinly slice three baby plum or cherry tomatoes. Place in the pepper and top with a few thin slices of fennel, 1 tsp of pesto, slithers of garlic and some torn basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and a good sprinkle of salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven for 30 - 40 minutes until the pepper is soft. When cooked, top with some more shredded basil leaves and a good grate of parmesan cheese and serve with the oil from the roasting pan spooned over. The pepper are particularly good with warm brown rice.

My latest article in Country and Town House is a pear chutney. We have been tucking into this over the last few weeks since I made it - Steven Wallis (Masterchef winner) used it to make our pastrami sandwiches on the day of Maren's birthday and gave it a thumbs up! Praise indeed, so I thought I would share with you in case any of you are in a preserving mood.

Golden Pear Chutney
Makes two 500ml jars
Preparation time 15 minutes Cooking time about 1 hour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, peeled and finely sliced
800g.1il 12oz ripe pears
150g/5 1/4 oz dried apricots, finely chopped
250g/8 3/4 oz golden sultanas, such as Orange River
300g/10 1/2oz caster sugar
300ml white wine vinegar
100ml marasla wine
1 cinnamon stick
1 stem ginger preserved in syrup plus 2 tbsp of the ginger syrup
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Equipment: Large saucepan, 2 jam jars, wax paper discs, jam funnel (optional)
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy saucepan and gently fry the onions until soft and golden. Peel and core the pears and chop into small chunks. Add the pears to the pan with the choppped apricots, sultanas, sugar, vinegar, marsala and cinnamon stick. Finely chop the stem ginger and add to the pan with the ginger syrup. Heat the pan over a gentle heat for about 40 - 60 minutes until the pears are cooked and the chutney has a thick syrupy consistency. The actually cooking time will depend on how ripe the pears are. If the chutney still seems thin add anouther 50g of sugar and simmer for a little longer. Whilst the chutney is simmering, sterilize your jam jars. Wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water and rinse well. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1/140C/275F place the jars on a baking tray and heat for about 20 minutes. Remove the jars carefully from the oven using a clean tea towel. Season the chutney with salt and pepper to taste and then carefully soon the hot chutney into the sterilized jars, using a jam funnel if you have one, and seal with a wax paper disk and lid. The chutney can be eaten straight away but the flavours will develop if left in a cool dark place for a month and will keep for a year provided that the jars have been properly sterilized.

My friend Lucy, who is allergic to wheat, is off on holiday to Scotland. These are some cookies I baked for her to take in the car with them, adapted from my anzac biscuit recipe. I should point out (thanks Twilth Night Knitter for the prompt) that not all people who are allergic to wheat can eat oats so you need to check before serving them. You can substitute regular flour if you prefer.

Oaty Gluten Free Cookies

150g/5 1/4oz butter

3 tbsp golden syrup

170g/6oz porridge oats

85g/3oz dessicated coconut

60g/2oz flaked coconut

115g/4oz caster sugar

115g/4oz gluten free self raising flour (I use Doves)

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and grease and line three baking sheets. I use silicon mats for biscuits like these as they ensure the biscuits don't stick at all. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan. Mix together all the remaining ingredients and pour over the melted butter mixture, stiring well so everything is incorporated. If you want your biscuits to spread out quite a lot (we liked these best as they were buttery and very thin) make 24 small mounds (about walnut size) on the trays whilst the mixture is still warm and bake stright away. If you prefer a more cookie type biscuit (we still thought these were yummy) then leave the mixture to cool completely before making the 24 mounds on the trays - these do not spread as much as the warm cookie mixture. Bake for about 10 - 15 minutes until the cookie are golden - watch closely towards the end of cooking as they can go brown very quickly. Leave to cool on the trays and then transfer to a tin to store. Lucy gave these a thumbs up - she is my gluten free food barometer!

Pretty sweet peas and sunflowers in our neighbour Gary's garden. Just a perfect snapshot of summer!