This morning I had a 7am meeting, about 45 minutes from home so I had a VERY early start - in fact it almost feels like lunchtime and it is not even 10am yet. The mincepies (which I was making at 11pm last night) and coffee did little to improve my mood as the meeting was outside on a very cold farm. Brrrrrr....I still feel chilly just thinking about it. The upside was that we were finished by 8am and I had a stunning drive back through the frosty sunrise. Everything looked so Christmassy! If you are going out today, wrap up VERY warm!

I was speaking to lovely Steven Wallis from Masterchef the other day and we were discussing how underrated Malibu is - neither of us had had it in ages but both confessed to liking it. It got me thinking about how to use it in cooking and so I dug the dusty bottle out of our cupboard and decided to make some "Tropical" mincemeat. The result was a very yummy (assuming you like coconut) pale mincemeat and it made lovely mince pies. I also added few heaped tablespoons of the mincemeat to a 4, 4, 4, 2 sponge mix for a lovely light coconutty fruit cake.

Tropical mincemeat
Makes 6 jars

200g shredded or dessicated coconut
1kilo dried mixed fruit (sultanas, peel, raisins, currants)
200g glace cherries, halved
Juice and zest of 2 oranges
Juice and zest of 2 limes
3 apples, grated
300g caster sugar
300ml malibu
250g vegetable suet
100g pistachios, chopped

Toast the coconut in a dry frying pan until lightly golden. Depending on the size of your pan, you may find it easier to cook in batches. Place the toasted coconut in a large oven proof bowl and add all the other ingredients. Stir well with a large spoon to make sure everything is mixed. Leave to stand for 1 hour to allow the flavours to develop. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1/2 / 120/250/Aga Simmering Oven and place the bowl in the oven for one hour to allow the suet to melt, stirring half way through and at the end of cooking. Decant into steralised jars.

Sometimes when people ask me to make a cake for them, the theme they ask for completely stumps me. I know when I was last over at Fitzbillies, Pauline was making a giant (almost life size) electric guitar cake and I was full of admiration for her! Last weekend, I was asked to make a fox hunting cake - this gave me a double dilemma as 1) I don't approve of fox hunting and so ethically didn't feel very comfortable making the cake and 2) it is so far removed from my comfort zone of flowery, pretty cakes that I just didn't know where to start. Anyway - as it was for a friend in the village for her husband's 70th birthday I didn't feel able to refuse so the challenge was set. They were very pleased with the end result and I proved to myself that I can make cakes even if I am not inspired by the theme - lesson well learned!

Our annual expedition to Stevington Windmill to choose our Christmas tree took place early on Sunday morning. As usual we ummed and ahhh for ages (well I did - Sacha patiently held out each tree for me to inspect). We eventually went back to the first tree we had looked at and took that one home with us! Here is lovely Brian Pell sawing the bottom of our tree. I spent all Sunday afternoon decorating the house for Christmas - the twinkling lights on the tree have finally instilled some much needed festive spirit into this house! My usual greenery swag over the fireplace has been replaced this year with some simple decorations on a cranberry string as we are expecting the chimney man to come and fit our stove next week (fingers crossed) and with all the dust, I didn't think that a proper swag would survive the mess. The alternative swag is acceptable and was certainly a lot less work! I also made one for our dinning room with some lovely porcelain snowflake decorations and little purple stockings that I stitched!

Well imagine the smile on my face when I discovered that my raspberry and white chocolate trifle had made the front cover of this month's Delicious magazine! It was a proud moment indeed and I almost did a double taken when I read my name on the inside cover. To think that my pudding has a larger picture on the cover than Gordon Ramsey!

I don't know where the days are going at the moment and I can't understand how we are just over two weeks until Christmas - I have to confess that I am not very organised yet! The recipes for my cook book are being photographed and at the end of each day I get sent the photos to see whether I approve - it is very exciting - especially when some of the cakes look even nicer than when I made them!!!! Look out for the coffee Battenburg cake - this is my favourite picture so far!

Earlier this week was our last village sewing circle before Christmas and so we celebrated with mulled wine and mince pies. I had carols playing whilst I made the pies and for the first time this year felt very Christmassy! We had three different types of mince pie - pistachio crumble, orange and cream cheese and these cherry frangipane pies. These were the most popular!

Cherry Frangipane Pies
Makes 20, preparation time 20 minutes cooking time 15 - 20 minutes

500g sweet shortcrust pastry
400g/14oz mincemeat
200g/7oz self raising flour
85g/3oz ground almonds
200g/7oz butter
100g/3 1/2 oz glace cherries, chopped
55g/2oz caster sugar
1 tsp almond essence
icing sugar for dusting

Grease two bun tins with butter. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thickness and cut out 20 circles using a 2 1/2 inch cutter. Press a circle of pastry into each hole in the tin and fill with a spoonful of the mincemeat. Place the flour and ground almonds in a bowl, cut the butter into small cubes and rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips. Add the cherries, caster sugar and almond essence so that you have a soft dough. Place a spoonful of the cherry dough onto each mince pie and bake in a hot oven Gas Mark 5/190/375 for 15 - 20 minutes until the topping is golden and the pastry is crisp. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

In the spirit of saving money this winter, we decided a while ago that we would invest in a log burning stove for the lounge to heat the house (and particularly my office) during the day so I didn't need to have the heating on. Our oil bill last year was astronomical! Our new stove arrived yesterday and we are very pleased with it. Having shopped around for a while we finally heard about some stoves that had chips in their enamel and had £450 off!!!! We took a gamble and bought the cream one without seeing it, on the promise that it came with some enamel paint and we would be able to repair it. The stove arrived and it is perfect - if you didn't know it was there (bottom of the right hand door hinge if you want to play "spot the chip") we wouldn't even have noticed the tiny bit of missing paint and are wondering how on earth there was a £450 discount for such a small amount of damage. We are very happy! The chimney man is coming in two weeks to fit it (there will be a lot of dust so sadly no Christmas decorations for us until he has been)! I love our dear little stove and have a feeling it will become my new best friend over the next few months!

I made this cake for a meeting last week - I had not really planned on making a cake so just used what I could lay my hands on - the result was a rather unusual flavour combination, but it worked! Eager to try the cake, a slice was cut before I yelled at everyone to stop cutting as I needed a photo for my blog - I think everyone at work must think I am crazy!

Nectarine and Coconut Cake
Served 6 - 8

Preparation time 30 minutes Cooking time 35 - 45

Serves 8

250ml coconut milk

100g/3 1/2 oz shredded coconut

225g/8oz butter, plus extra for greasing

225g/8oz light brown sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beatenjam

225g/8oz self raising flour, sifted

100g/3 1/2oz plain chocolate, grated

2 ripe nectarines, stones removed and thinly sliced

1 tbsp peach jam

1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Soak the coconut in the coconut milk for 2 hours until the milk has been absorbed. Grease a 20cm/8in ring tin.
   

2. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F. Whisk the butter and sugar together with a mixer or whisk until light and creamy. Add the eggs and whisk again. Add the flour, soaked coconut and grated chocolate and fold in gently to incorporate. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the nectarine slices in a ring on top of the batter and bake for 35 - 45 minutes until the cake is firm to touch and a knife comes out clean with no cake batter onHeat the jam and lemon juice in a pan until the jam has melted and then brush over the warm cake using a pastry brush. Leave to cool in the tin.
   

My book is currently being edited. There is a team of about 10 people working on it which is staggering - spotting typos, checking methods, planning photographs, design and layouts. I must get about 50 emails a day with questions ranging from "Do I think that the fairy toadstool meringues would look good displayed in a basket as though someone had picked them whilst out foraging for mushrooms" to "on the duck pond cookies do the sugar ducks lie flat or sit upright". No stone is left unturned by my lovely editor Allee. It is lovely to think that my little book is being given so much care and attention. I will definitely never look at a cook book in the same way again - I had never realised just how much work goes into it. A few of you have asked when the book will be out and the answer is next Autumn in the UK and the USA and a bit later I think in Australia, Germany and France - such a way off, but hopefully it will be worth the wait!

Oh me, Oh my...I have been graced with not one, but two awards - you are too kind. This first is a Kreativ Blogger from Jonathan at AroundBritainWithAPaunch - if you haven't popped by to visit Jonathan and Sarah's blog - it is definitely worth a visit. One of his recent postings is about his day making macaroons at L'Atalier - they look as good as Laduree macaroons and I am very impressed. The other Hard Working Food Blogger award is very kindly from Bellini Valli
of more than burnt toast whose most recent post of Mexican Chicken Soup literally made my mouth water - I will definitely be making this. Rightly Bellini Valni has already received both of these awards already, otherwise I would have passed one back to her.

So now it falls to me to pass these awards on to the well deserving

Hard Working Food Blogger
Jonathan and Sarah at Around Britain with a Paunch
William Leigh at Theboydonefood - who has just been put in the top 10 food blogs by the times and is also writing a food blog for Hello Magazine - so pleased for you on both these counts Will
Katrina of Shes in the kitchen who has some truly scrumptions cakes on her blog
Marie at Oak Cottage - I don't know how you manage to turn out some many delicious recipes every day Marie - you put me to shame
and of course fellow Masterchef foodie David Hall - there is no other more hard working food blogger out there in my view

Kreativ Blogger
Gareth and Amy for their inspiring rid the debt story
Lucy of the Smallest Smallholding with lovely stories of country life
Tammy of Wee Treats By Tammy - who is a fellow lawyer and cupcake queen after my own heart
Joanne at Joanne's Food who shows that eating carefully can still be creative
and I Heart Cupcakes whose obsession with cupcakes puts mine to shame

Well done one and all!

Now you are going to have to trust me on this one as the photograph doesn't really do these sausages justice. These used to be our favourite thing when we were little and we always begged my mum to make them for us. They are nice served hot but also good cold on picnics. I made them a few weeks ago for my husband who had never had them before and he loved them as much as we do!
Welsh Rarebit-ish Sausages
12 chipolata sausages
12 slices of bread, crusts removed
125g butter, softened
125g cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper to season
cocktail skewers

Preheat to the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F. Mix together the butter, cheese and mustard and season well with salt and pepper. Use a rolling pin to flatten each slice of bread. Spread a thick layer of the butter mixture onto each slice of bread. Place a sausage at one end of each slice and roll up so that the sausage is wrapped in the bread. Secure each one in place with a cocktail stick and place in a roasting tin. Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes until the bread is golden brown and the sausages are cooked through.

It is that time of year again when my neighbour Ros kindly arrives with a bag of fresh walnuts from the tree in her garden - they are delicious and I immediately had to cook with them! Sadly we ate it all before remembering to take a photo!

Orange and Walnut Polenta Cake
Preparation time 30 minutes Cooking time 50 - 60 minutes

Serves 8

55g/2oz/heaped ¼ cup light brown sugar

250g/9oz/1 cup and 1 tbsp/2 sticks plus 1 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing

2 large oranges

225g/8oz/1 scant cup caster sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

115g/4oz/1 cup ground walnuts

1tsp ground cinnamon

115g/4oz pre cooked grain polenta, cooked according to packet instructions

Grease and line a 23cm/9inch round cake tin. Grate the zest from the oranges and set aside. In a small saucepan, heat the brown sugar and 30g/1oz of the butter and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the caramel syrup over the base of your pie dish. Remove the peel from the oranges and cut the fruit into thick round slices, removing any pips. Place the slices in rings on top of the caramel sauce in the dish and allow the caramel to cool. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F. Using a mixer, mix together remaining 225g/8oz butter and caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs and whisk again. Add the ground walnuts, cinnamon and polenta and whisk again. Spoon the cake batter over the fruit and bake for about 50 - 60 minutes until the cake is firm to touch and a knife comes out clean with no cake batter on it. Allow the cake to cool, then invert onto a serving plate. Serve with cream.

Lemon Dainties

These tiny cakes are just a mouthful really but are perfect as a sweet canape or for afternoon tea.

115g/4oz butter, softened
115g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
115g/4oz self raising flour, sifted
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 heaped tbsp lemon curd
1 heabed tbsp creme fraiche
155g/5oz icing sugar sifted
yellow food colouring
yellow and white sugar flowers
36 mini muffin cases

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180/350 and place the muffin cases in mini muffin pans (you can cook in batches if you only have one pan). Cream together the butter and sugar until light and cream. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each egg is added. Fold in the flour, lemon zest, lemon curd and creme fraiche gently with a spatula. Place heaped teaspoonfuls of the cake batter in each cake case and bake for 8 - 12 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and spring back to your touch. Allow to cook on a rack. Mix together the icing sugar with a few drop of yellow food colouring and the lemon juice to make a thick icing. Spread over each cake using a knife and top with a sugar flower. Leave the icing to set before serving.

Sometimes it is hard to blog when you are feeling sad and you may have noticed that my posting has been rather remiss over the last week or so. My beloved Grandma passed away the weekend before last and we all miss her very much. I hadn't wanted to write about it for fear of making everyone sad, but, having had time to reflect, I have so much to be grateful to my Grandma for that it feels wrong to not mention her as she was such a big influence on my life.

When I was on Masterchef, my Grandma was sooooo proud and told everyone that she had taught me everything I know. Now although I am not sure that my Mum would agree with this (as she taught me everything I know), I certainly learnt a lot of cooking tips from my Grandma and thought that I would share a few of these with you now:
1. When you have cooked bacon, drain the fat into a tupperware box and store in the fridge. Cook scrambled eggs in a spoonful of this fat for the most delicious eggs ever.
2. Simmer peeled whole onions for 10 minutes and then add to your roasting tin with your roast. After an hour they have a delicious caramel flavour.
3. Grandma's Christmas pudding recipe is the best I know but I am of course biased - the recipe is here on an earlier post. I know that when we stir it and make our wishes this year, we will all be thinking of her
4. Roast halved red plums in the oven for 30 minutes with a few tbsp of water and a drizzle of honey. These are lovely hot with custard or cold with natural yoghurt. A super easy pudding
5. Rose and Violet creams are the food of the Gods - it was my Grandma who introduced me to these and I use rose and violet a lot in my cooking now so this is definitely down to her.
6. Grandma's rock cakes - these were scrumptious and made it into my book. I am so pleased now that the publishers have let me call them Grandma's rock cakes!

Although I am not a huge fan of supermarket cakes, I just had to smile when I saw this cake last week and of course had to buy it. A giant french fancy!!!! Can you imagine anything nicer? Obviously now I have the idea, I will be able to recreate this at home myself but good old Mr Kipling for being so clever! Happy to report that the fondant fancy was yummy!

It has got me wondering what the difference is between a French Fancy and a Fondant Fancy - sadly Wikipedia has no listing for either. I imagine there is no difference but if anyone knows, I would love to hear!

Our village fireworks party

My latest article in Country and Town House December edition is out and is very festive - is it too early to be talking about Christmas at the beginning of November?

The sweet scent of freshly baked mince pies and Christmas puddings steaming on the Aga - this is my favourite time in the kitchen. If you are making a Christmas cake this year, try replacing brandy with amaretto for a lovely almond flavour. Decorate a wreath for the door with holly, fresh clementines and red ribbons to welcome arriving guests. For warming mulled wine, simmer 2 bottles of red wine, a carton of orange juice, 3 tablespoons of caster sugar, 250ml brandy, 3 cinnamon sticks, 15 cloves, a bayleaf and orange and lemon slices for 10 minutes. Serve with a slice of Christmas gingerbread, flavoured with orange, lemon and Cointreau and topped with festive cranberries – a perfect offering for guests and carol singers.

Cranberry Gingerbread

Preparation time 30 minutes cooking time 1 hour

Serves 10

170g/6oz sultanas

100ml Cointreau

500g/1.1lb plain flour, sifted

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground mixed spice

1tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

zest of 1 orange and juice and zest of 1 lemon

255g/9oz butter

3oz treacle

8oz golden syrup

2 heaped tbsp ginger jam

200g/7oz dark brown sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

142ml sour cream

150g/5¼oz cream cheese

400g/14oz icing sugar, sifted

dried cranberries and silver balls

Soak the sultanas in the Cointreau for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and grease a 25cm/10in ring tin. Mix the flour, ginger, cinnamon, spice, baking powder, bicarbonate, zests, sultanas and Cointreau in a large mixing bowl. In a saucepan, gently melt 170g/6oz of the butter, together with the treacle, golden syrup, jam and brown sugar. Allow to cool, then stir into the dry ingredients, adding the sour cream and eggs. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for one hour until the cake is firm to touch and a knife comes out clean with no cake batter. If the cake starts to brown too much during cooking, cover the top of the cake with silver foil. When cooled, whisk together the remaining 85g/3oz butter, cream cheese, icing sugar and 1 tbsp of lemon juice. Cover the gingerbread with the icing and decorate with dried cranberries and silver balls.

My lovely brother has sent me this picture from New York for inspiration - what a clever idea to make a flower arrangement that looks like a cupcake as a birthday present! I will definitely be trying this!

I thought I would share with you our Halloween celebrations! A ghoolish night was had by all! Baby pumpkin lanterns lit the fence. Rosie and Lily were scary witches. Josh was a spider and Miles a skeleton. Baby Zara, a pumpkin princess - how cute do they all look! We played pass the spooky parcel, had a Halloween pumpkin pinanta and ghost races and then feasted on some chocolate pumpkin nest cakes, spooky marshmallows, ghost cakes and a halloween cake with witches hat candles! After all that, the ghoolish revelers were rather sleepy and wandered off home up the lane with their torches and buckets of candy. What a fun evening!

Halloween tomorrow - is it me or does every shop seem full of halloween goodies this year - far more than I can ever remember. We are having our Halloween party for Josh Rosie Lily and Zara tomorrow evening. Lili's Mum says that she is looking forward to it as much as Christmas given the number of cakes there were last year. I hope she isn't disappointed! I have found some wonderful halloween finger puppets for parcel the parcel and curly halloween straws for supping on bats blood.
This is the table from our Halloween party - the invitations were whole pumpkins, with a green leaf attached to the top with green raffatia and a note saying please carve me and bring me to the party. There were some wonderful creations. We had great fun decorating the table with lots of orange berries, cobwebs, halloween crackers, streamers and flying pumpkin place names one of Martha Stewart's wonderful ideas.

Treacle Roast Pork with Spiced Red Cabbage

Preparation time 30 minutes, Cooking time 4 – 4 ½ hours

Serves 4 - 6

1 red cabbage, shredded

2 peeled red onions, one quartered, one sliced

2 cooking apples, cored, one cut into rings, the other grated

1 cinnamon stick

50ml sherry vinegar

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 red chilli, chopped

1 star anise

60g/2oz butter, cubed

1 tbsp treacle

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

2.25kg/5lb loin of pork, skin on

2 tbsp olive oil

450ml port

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark2/150C/300F. Place the cabbage, sliced onion, grated apple, cinnamon, vinegar, caster sugar, chilli and star anise in a large casserole dish. Add the butter to the dish with 200ml of port. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours stirring occasionally until the cabbage is soft. To cook the pork, preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7/425C/220F. Mix together the treacle, brown sugar and mustard, score the fat of the pork and cover with the treacle glaze. Place the quartered onion and apple rings in a large roasting pan and drizzle over the olive oil. Sit the pork on top of the apples and roast in the hot oven for 30 minutes. Pour over 250ml of port, reduce the oven temperature to Gas Mark 5/375F/190C and roast for a further 1 ½ hours until crisp and golden.

The feathered friends in my life have been giving me cause to smile this week. Whilst every chicken I have ever had has enjoyed dust bathing, I have not have hens before who sunbathe. When I went into the garden the other day they we all lying under the apple tree basking in the sun, some even lying on their side with their legs streched out. Now there must be a reason for this 1) they suffer from S.A.D. and were making the most of the last summer days of autumn 2) they have all eaten too much porridge to be able to wander round the garden and now just lie around all day 3) they were trying to make the pheasants jealous by demonstrating what a lovely and relaxing life they have. This is Cerys (the name sake of David Hall from Masterchef's little Cerys) basking in the sun. Perhaps this is just normal chicken behaviour and I have just not spotted them doing it before!

The peahen is also becoming very tame and now sits at my office window all day, occasionally tapping on the glass for something to eat. With the window open, she looked ready to come right in!

Spot the difference!!!

Our new woodland lawn!

One of the nicest things about living in a village is that you know everyone and everyone knows you. Now, I can imagine that if you liked a lot of privacy or had secrets you wished to keep, a village wouldn't be the place for you. Luckily, I don't fall into either of these categories. I have often borrowed a cup of flour or sugar or other baking ingredient from one of my neighbours and there is a very nice community feel. In true village spirit, this morning the postman knocked on my door (he has recently been having a few samples from the book so knows I like to bake) to ask whether I could help him with cup conversations in a recipe he had. Having just "cup and stick" converted 365 recipes, I proudly knew the answers without even looking it up! In return I asked for the recipe and was so intrigued by the limited list of ingredients (no flour or butter?) that I made them in my lunch break today and can happily report that they are yummy, although very sweet! I added chocolate to the recipe in the hope that they would taste like my favourite Reeses peanut buttercups. Not quite...but they were nice all the same

Postman Howard's Peanut Butter Cookies

200g/7oz caster sugar
340g/12oz crunchy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g/7oz milk or plain chocolate, chopped into chunks.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C/375F and grease a large baking tray. Cream together the sugar and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. Stir through the chocolate. Place small balls of the dough on the tray and press down. The cookies do not spread very much. Bake for 7 - 8 minutes until golden brown.

As you have all lived through the last three months of me writing the book, with many of you testing recipes and proof reading, I wanted to share my celebration with you that yesterday I submitted the final part of my book (on time!!!). What a huge relief! I am one happy bunny today - although I imagine by 5pm I will be twiddling my thumbs and wondering what to do with all the free time I now have on my hands!