Having finished my ice cream book I have had a fair few people suggesting that I should get an ice cream van to peddle my home made ice creams. It was on the news this morning that, although people buying ice cream from vans in the street is declining in the UK (due to the rise in freezers at home!), the rise of music festivals and events has seen an increase in ice cream vans and it therefore seems the industry has a stable future. Perhaps it is something I should consider after all!!!! My brother sent me these pictures of a New York ice cream van to inspire me - it looks so lovely and is exactly the sort of van I would love to have! The menu is just beautiful with its pretty drawings of the plants the ingredients come from and I love the fact that they have Michel Cluizel hot chocolate sauce and also serve banana splits! On the Sundae book front, I have now received a copy of the draft book jacket and I can safely say it is looking LOVELY! Steve has done a better job than I could ever have imagined - very pink and blue with a stripey neopolitan sundae on the front cover and a banoffee split on the back. The book has a new title "Sundaes and Splits" and I have added a new hot rum and raisin banana split recipe which we liked a lot - and I don't even like bananas! One of the recipes is printed on a polka dot pink page - I love this effect!!! Sadly the pictures are still under wraps at the moment but I will share with you as soon as I am allowed to!

Tuna Niçoise with Truffled Duck Eggs

Serves 4 Preparation time 20 minutes, cooking time 20 minutes

500g charlotte or baby potatoes
180g green beans
600g tuna fillets
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
1 large spring onion, finely chopped
6 duck eggs
2 tsp truffle salt
Juice and zest of 4 limes
2 tsp Dijon mustard
3 tsp clear honey
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Marinade the tuna in the juice of 1 lime, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper whilst you prepare the vegetables and eggs for the salad. Place the duck eggs in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes for soft boiled eggs. Immediately place the eggs in a bowl of cold water and when cool enough to handle tap the shells with the back of a spoon and unpeel. Cut the eggs in half and sprinkle each egg with a little truffle salt. Simmer the potatoes in boiling water for about 20 minutes until cooked – a knife will come out easily when inserted into a potato when cooked. Chill in cold water. Blanche the green beans in boiling water for 3 – 5 minutes, drain and chill in cold water. Whisk together the juice of the remaining two limes with the lime zest, mustard, honey, remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the salad leaves in a large bowl with the beans, potatoes, chives, spring onion and duck eggs. Heat a griddle pan until it is very hot, then sear the tuna fillets for 1 – 2 minutes on each side. The tuna should still be pink in the middle. Slice the tuna into thick slices and add to the salad, drizzle with the lime and honey dressing and serve immediately with crusty bread.

I have been in Bavaria for the last few days on a work trip. Now although not quite as nice as being on a holiday - it was lovely to be in Germany and see the wonderful countryside. I have never seen hops growing before and the area we were in was the main hop growing area of Germany. They looked almost like something from Day of the Triffieds - enormously tall and covering huge areas of the countryside. Hops meant delicious local beer and it was the Pfifferlinger (Chanterelle) Mushroom season so we feasted on delicious mushrooms with schnitzel, mushrooms with dumplings - so many mushrooms that I could almost be turning into one - washed down with Radler (Shandy!!!)! We had been booked into a very strange hotel - so strange that our rooms we in the attic of the next door hospital so we had to climb three flights of stairs past the wards to our rooms. I opened my bedroom door to be greeted by a long corridor with several rooms of beds off - there were even two beds in the little kitchen room and one made up in the corridor - it was VERY strange, but made us laugh a lot - I am sure it was a hospital ward!!! The only downside to the trip was that my tickets for Harry Potter on Wednesday had to go to waste as I was away and so I am very much looking forward to seeing it this weekend! Have a good weekend everyone xxx

I had a request for another garden cake last weekend but this time I made it with two tiers and I did like the result - I love the terrace effect and had found some very pretty sugar daisies which set the garden off nicely, together with my new twisted pastel candles that my brother bought over from America. The cake was for Kate who likes Ladybirds so there were lots of sugar ladybirds dotted throughout the garden! With some little gluten free garden cupcakes as well for Lucy, Kate "almost" sister in law and my friend - they looked very pretty together. Happy Birthday Kate xxx

This morning I awoke to the loudest Hallabollu coming from the chicken pen. A nasty fox snaffled one of our hens from outside our back door in broad daylight last week in our full view and since then the hens have been kept in their pen so that they are safe. With the very loud clucking this morning, I went out with some trepidation convinced the fox had returned. Imagine my surprise at the intruder bothering the hens - a Grey Heron (thanks Celia for the correct identification!) sitting quietly on the lawn. Not quite sure what the hens were fussing about as the heron didn't seem interested in them at all and I was very glad to catch a glimpse before he flew away!

When we go on holiday to France, there are always so many beautiful fields filled with poppies and wild flowers, nestled in amongst the vineyards. Imagine our delight that similar fields of poppies are now appearing close to our village. They just take your breath away with their sea of red bobbing heads swaying in the wind.

On my recent trip to Austria, I discovered pumpkin seed oil. It has a delicious nutty flavour and is perfect drizzled on pumpkin soup topped with a few toasted pumpkin seeds. It is also lovely as a base for pesto, replacing traditional olive oil, blended together with basil, parsley, lemon juice and zest, some pumpkin seeds for crunch, a garlic clove and of course a good few spoonfuls of parmesan. So if you see some pumpkin seed oil, why not give it a try!

The weekend saw our village fete! As we are a fairly small village it was held jointly with two other adjoining villages. Perfect weather, lots of lovely stalls and a candy floss machine - yum yum! I was put in charge of manning the cake stall (what a surprise) with lovely Jane where we dutifully sold cupcakes, cakes, flapjacks and punnets of fresh redcurrants for two hours until everything was gone - allowing us to pack up our stall early - what a result! My new enormous cake stand made its first appearance and I thought it looked lovely adorned with pretty cupcakes! The cherry cupcakes were my favourite - with their fizzy cherry decorations - closely followed by the yellow bee cupcakes! We left exhausted but happy and had raised lots of money for a good cause.

PS - sorry for the lack of posts - my internet has decided not to work properly this week : o ( and just won't upload photos...

I was busy clearing out one of our bedrooms last night (finally putting the Christmas decorations in the loft - shocking I know as it is now July!) and I spotted some unusual birds on the river bank in our garden. This is the latest area we are working on in the garden and it has been stripped and cleared ready for us to decide what to put there. I quickly got my camera and discovered that it was a family of 3 owls. They were all hopping round a hole that had cheeping coming from it so I think they might have some babies - although I wonder whether owls actually nest in the ground (hopefully one of you is an avid birdwatcher and will know the answer) or perhaps the fluffy owl is actually the chick. Anyway - it was a very special treat to see three of them together and I thought I would share it with you. If anyone knows what sort of Owls these are I would love to know - they look a little like a Barred Owl when I search on Google.

On Sunday we celebrated my Mum's birthday and had a lovely lunch at Flitwick Manor. My brother was visiting from New York which made the day perfect (I am biased as he bought me a giant parcel of cake decorations from Fancy Flours and Alice in Wonderland Hats for our tea party). My Mum has recently been diagnosed with diabetes and therefore told me that she absolutely didn't want a cake. Of course I completely disregarded this, but was cunning and made her a flower "cake" on oasis! Not an ounce of sugar, butter or flour in sight but just as much fun as a real cake. I think it took me longer to decorate this that it would have to ice a cake and the cake ended up being far bigger than I expected. I love the picture of Gareth carrying it over to my Mum - it looks ENORMOUS!!!!! My little birthday candles had to be replaced with dinner table candles so that they looked in proportion. Happy Birthday Mum xxx

Friday's trip to the Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons was a delectable affair. Such an amazing setting - the lovely manor house nestled in amongst abundant lavender and a walled vegetable garden that supplied the restaurant. We feasted on seared tuna with melon and vodka soup, roasted pork with crackling, summer vegetable risotto and the most heavenly chocolate and raspberry dessert - quite the nicest thing I have eaten in a long time and imagine my excitement when the dish arrived at the table and there was a gilded raspberry as decoration - just like the ones I made at the photoshoot for my book! Either Raymond Blanc is a follower of this blog (unlikely) or great minds think alike!!!! Anyway if it is good enough for "Le Manoir" it is definitely good enough for me! Thank you Paula for a wonderful day out xxx

I have been invited today by my friend Paula for lunch at the Manoir aux Quat' Saisons to celebrate her birthday - we are off shortly to meet a Champagne filled limosine to take us there. What a treat! As it is a special birthday - I wanted to take Paula a nice present. I always prefer to give a homemade gift on the basis that they require love and time being put into them, so this is the sampler I have made for Paula. I have charted a new poem for the sampler "In friendship's freagrant garden, there are flowers of every hue, each with its own fair beauty, bringing love and joy to you" as I thought these words fitted well with the garden and Paula is a garden designer! I also recorded our special lunch venue at the bottom of the sampler! I hope she likes it. I am working on another sampler at the moment and thought that I would show it to you in this stitching post - a red barn garden sampler from Just Nan. Although it is a long way from finished - I just love the colours and little birds and butterflies. It is progressing well as I am stitching it whilst watching Wimbledon - come on Andy Murray!

I was not expecting anything in the post yesterday. A large brown envelope arrived from London and I opened thinking it was the proof reading for the Sundae book. However inside lay an even nicer surprise - the advanced copy of my cake book! Seeing all the recipes together in an actual book brought memories of all the hard work flooding back and I shed a few tears of happiness at the achievement in my hands! You will have to wait a few months yet before it goes on sale but I thought you might like a sneak preview of Gregg Wallace's lovely foreword and my acknowledgments as you readers get a mention! Click on the photos to enlarge! There are a few more pages of the book on Duncan Baird's website - click here for a link.

You will recall the birdcage cake that travelled the monumental journey from Bedfordshire to Carslile in May. A few of you asked whether it made it there in one piece and I am pleased to report it did. Here is the lovely message I received from Lucy's Mum...

"I jennifer, was the recipient of the delicate expression of art displayed in the creation of my 60th birthday cake which traveled to Carlisle held by my daughter Lucy. The cake itself was delightful and melted in the mouth.The decoration of white and delicate pink lovebirds displayed a serene beauty ,which motivated compliments to flow in abundance,as it sat at a focal point during the celebrations. The birdcage,in the centre of the cake, which contained two birds appearing relaxed and peaceful which I hope is a symbol of what my future holds. Thankyou Hannah for the love,patience and care you created it with.
Jennifer"

Nectarine and Vanilla Jam

Makes 2 small jars

400g/14oz ripe nectarines, chopped and stones removed

400g/14oz preserving sugar

1 vanilla pod, split lengthways

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp butter

Place the chopped nectarines, sugar, vanilla pod and lemon juice in a saucepan with 200ml of water and simmer until the fruit is soft. Pulp the fruit using a metal hand blender or a masher and then bring to the boil. Boil the jam until setting point is reached and the jam is thick and syrupy, stirring to ensure it does not burn. To test for set, either use a jam thermometer or place a saucer in the freezer to chill and then drop a little jam onto it and leave to cool for a few minutes. If a film forms forms and the jam wrinkles when you press with your finger, the setting point has been reached. Add the butter to the pan and stir until melted, then decant the jam into sterilised jars, seal and store in a cool dark place. The jam will keep for about one year but once opened, must be store in the refrigerator and used within a month.

The lovely people at Abel and Cole (website here) have sent me one of their organic fruit and veg boxes to try. It arrived yesterday morning and was perfectly timed as I needed to write an article and hadn't been to the supermarket. The joys of home delivery shopping is definitely something I could get used to this. Gem lettuce, lovely cabbage, apples, fresh broad beans in the pods, a tiny melon, nectarines - so what to cook....I settled on some nectarine and vanilla jam and if I say so myself, it is rather yummy. We had it for supper last night with soda bread. Thank you Abel and Cole for the wonderful treat.

Last night I was searching through the files of photos on my computer with a friend as she wanted a picture of her children for a father's day card. We stumbled across the sample pictures of the cakes and cookies from the book and boy there were soooo many of them - 365 to be precise! It is easy to forget how much work went into that book. We then found this photo and it made us both laugh out loud so I thought I would share it with you. This was a weekend when I had made so many cakes that we ran out of homes for them and so the chickens had the biggest treat of their lives! I promise they do not eat like this all the time!

At the risk of demonstrating that I am a "one trick pony" this is the cake I made yesterday for friend's little girl Rosie who was three. The garden cake made a second appearance but this time as a round rather than ring cake, topped with a unicorn, transforming it into a magical meadow cake! I am sure that this shows the versitility of the cake, rather than demonstrating that I was being lazy and using up the sweets from the last garden cake!!!! Anyway Rosie loved it and it looked perfect for a whole 5 minutes while she blew out the candles and then almost all of the sweets and most of the icing were gobbled! Happy Birthday Rosie-Pea xxxx

An early morning (6.30am) visitor to our garden this morning. How I wish I had been more awake and focussed the camera properly but I thought I would share with you anyway! It was a lovely start to the day!

A nice little article appeared in Woman magazine last week about female Masterchef finalists - Emily, Caroline and myself as part of the lead up to Celebrity Masterchef (are you watching?) If you click on the photo you will be able to read the article. I am not convinced that I said Tony Blair wasn't "too fussed" but hey ho!

You will have to forgive the lack of posts at the end of last week - lawyering got in the way of nice cooking things. I finished work at 11pm on Friday and then had to ice three cakes ready for Saturday. Needless to say, they were very rushed as I was tired but everyone seemed happy with them - a christening cake for George, a tractor cake for Niall (the tractor is a bit small for the field and the enormous carrots in my view but Niall is 4 and didn't mind and at midnight I really didn't have anywhere to magic a larger tractor up from!) and a chocolate extravaganza cake for our nephew who was 13. The idea for the chocolate cake came from Rachel Lucas who reads this blog - thank you so much Rachel for the inspiration! The bottom layer was a ring cake so there was a hidden cavity of sweets and lollipops when the cake was cut and the kids were very excited about that (although you would have thought that with the huge number of sweets on the cake they wouldn't have needed any more)!