Lime and Blueberry Buns
Makes 8
115g/4oz butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
115g/4oz self raising flour
3 tbsp soured cream
zest and juice of 2 limes
200g/7oz fresh blueberries
1 tbsp icing sugar plus extra for dusting

Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190/375. Whisk together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, whisk again and then sift in the flour. Gently fold in the flour with the soured cream, lime zest and blueberries. Place 8 muffin cases (just in case you are interested my green cake wraps came from the States but you can get them in the UK from Make a Wish cake store here) in a muffin tray and three quarter fill each case. Bake for about 15 minutes until the tops are golden and the cakes spring back to your touch. Heat the lime juice with the icing sugar and spoon a little over each cake whilst still warm. Leave to cool and dust with icing sugar to serve if you wish.

I am sorry for the lack of posts this week. I have had a lot of work meetings (although I did manage to sneak in a little cooking at one of the meetings and served my colleagues with roast lamb and salads and a yummy plum and blueberry crumble cake - they were impressed! Recipe for the cake to follow when I have a little time to write it up). I also went and tried archery for the first time and loved it! The course was held in a wood with giant life sized rubber bears that I shot at (and missed!!!) with my bow and arrows. I enjoyed it so much that this evening I am going to pick up my new bow so that I can practice in the garden - let's hope my shot improves and I don't hit anything I am not meant to! The other exciting news this week is that I have been asked to take part in the new Masterchef goes Live Show as part of the BBC Good Food Show. I will be doing cookery demos at the Birmingham NEC on 25th and 26th November and helping out with the live invention test where members of the audience can take part to try and impress the judges with their cooking skills under timed conditions - no pressure!!! I have no doubt that it will be lots of fun and I am very much looking forward to meeting some of the contestants from other years of the competition. Anyone wanting to come along, tickets are available if you click here.

For super quick and easy canapes, buy little croustini tart cases and fill with 1/2 tsp of fresh mayonnaise, a tsp of white crab meat, a squeeze of lemon, a little black caviar and a dusting of gold or silver leaf. I find that putting the mayonnaise into a pipping bag means that I can fill 50 cases neatly in no time at all. If you do not like caviar, you could always top with a small prawn or a thin slice of avocado.

I couldn't leave the Alice in Wonderland Extravaganza (this is the last post I promise!!!) without saying a HUGE thank you to Simon and Kathy for asking me to take part in the event with them - it is a day I will remember forever and I enjoyed every minute of it. Here they both are - cool, calm and collected - just 10 minutes before the guests arrived, looking splendid as the King and Queen of Hearts. I on the other hand, at this time was completely frantic and definitely not cool calm and collected with all the last minute preparations!!!

When we wrote on the tickets "Dress as your favourite character or come as you are" we assumed that most people would come as they are and not dress up. How wrong we were!!! The costumes were spectacular and people had gone to so much trouble. I was standing at the kitchen window at 2pm when our guests arrived rapidly assembling peach melba scones at the last minute when people in hats and costumes drifted on the lawn. It was a lovely sight to see and took me completely by surprise! Here are some of the wonderful outfits!

The setting for our Tea Party - with long tables, bunting and wonderful paintings of Alice in Wonderland (my dad painted these for a birthday party for me when I was little (a long time ago now) and they still looked wonderful today), a real Humpty Dumpty made by Neil perched on top of the wall. Kathy had even painted white roses red for the tables! Pictures and extracts from the book were displayed around the garden too!

Some of the treats from our Mad Hatter Tea, Flamingo biscuits, delicious jam tarts made by my wonderful mum who helped out so much (thank you Mum xxx), edible playing card millefeuilles, Eat Me cakes which were on each persons plate as they arrived, looking glass mirrors, pocket watch cakes, tiny meringues, down the rabbit hole cupcakes (inspired by one of the entrants in Slice of Cherry Pie's Easter Bake Up), cupcakes with playing card sprinkles and gravel cakes with edible pebbles and oreo mud. The Looking Glass Biscuits were my favourites! I probably don't need to tell you how much fun I had designing and baking all these goodies - a LOT! You would think after baking for 60 people I would be all baked out but I am now merrily thinking about next years theme - Wind in the Willows? Winnie the Pooh? Magic Faraway Tree? Harry Potter.....so many possibilities. Magic Faraway Tree is my favourite idea so far - saucepan cookies, toffee shock biscuits and things from the land of sweets.

Yesterday was our Mad Hatter's Tea Party at Stevington. We were blessed by fine weather - thank goodness (although the heavens did open half an hour after everyone left and we got drenched). We put on an Alice in Wonderland play (the costumes were amazing), had an Alice in Wonderland Quiz, a yummy tea and flamingo croquet on the lawn. I think that our guests really enjoyed themselves and the comments when they were leaving were just too kind. I thought over the next few days I would share with you a few of the photos from the event - there are so many lovely ones that I hardly know where to start. This was the centerpiece cake - with a sugar dormouse and snail that my dad made for me and also dear little snail candles that Rita who reads this blog posted to me (thanks so much Dad and Rita xxx). There were four guests who were celebrating their birthdays (and by some miracle I had put four snail candles on the cake) so we sang Happy Birthday and each person blew out one of the candles. By the time this cake was cut people had eaten a LOT of cakes and I really didn't think they would have any room for Amaretto fruit cake - but they managed to squeeze in a slice!

This is one of the wonderful hats we have for our teaparty that my brother brought over from America. Kathy has organised some local actors to put on a short Alice in Wonderland play - apparently I have a role as the cook complaining that there is not enough pepper in the tarts - although I have a feeling that I will be too busy cooking to appear in a play!!!!!

I am now in full swing preparing for our Alice in Wonderland Tea at the weekend - 60 guests - what a lot of baking to do! These are the little golden sugar pocket watch cake decorations I have made this evening - now I know that they pale into insignificance compared to Heston Blumenthal's real gold watch soups he made on his Feast programme - but I am proud of these all the same. They are coloured by my edible golden lustre spray from America - soooo cool! I have also made 60 "Eat Me" boxes to contain the mushroom and popping candy cupcakes that will be on each guests plate as they arrive. It is all getting very exciting! The menu is as follows:

Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Dodo egg delights
Eat Me Stuffed Mushrooms
Old Father Williams Relish toasts
Fish footman “Dear Little Crab” tarts
Not enough pepper beau-ootiful soo-ouup
Mustard Mine Ham Sandwiches and Cucumber Sandwiches

Down the Rabbit Hole Cupcakes
Pocket Watch cupcakes
Eat Me Cakes
Looking glass biscuits
Treacle Well Biscuits
The Duchess' Melba Scones (with clotted cream home made peach preserves and raspberries)
Queen of Hearts garden fancies
Playing Card Millefuilles
Mouse in the pool of tears cupcakes
Stolen Jam Tarts – Off with their heads if anyone eats them
Cheshire Cat Cakes
Garden seedling and gravel cakes
Mock Turtle cakes
Flamingo biscuits – Anyone for croquet?
Maids of Honour Tarts
Flower Meringues from the Queens Garden of Live Flowers

Drink Me Lemonade
Sorry No Wine Available – but Pimms
“Twinkling Tea” (dormouse excluded)

I think the tickets are all sold but if anyone is interested in coming you could check with Kathy whether she has had any cancellations

Sometimes coming in through the window just requires too much effort for Peapod - she literally stopped half way through for a rest!

Rather than buying any new sewing stash (I literally have drawers full of sewing things), I have been "persuaded" (ordered!) by my stitching friend Susan to complete some of my Works in Progress before I buy anything new. My list of Works In Progress is very long!! But I am pleased to report that last night I finished one of my WIP list - this lovely antique effect "Home is where my heart blooms" sampler. The fabric is dyed to make it look old and I think it works really well. I really love this little sampler and although the 2008 date is a stark reminder of when I started this project rather than when I finished it, I can't wait to get it framed and hung on the wall. Susan does this mean I can buy something new now??!!!!

There is something about the heady fragrance of almonds and frangipane that I love. The smell as these came out of the oven did not disappoint!

Cherry, Almond and Pistachio Muffins
Preparation time 15 minutes Cooking time 15 – 20 minutes
Makes 12 muffins

250g/9oz self raising flour, sifted

1tsp baking powder

100g/3½oz caster sugar

150g/5½oz butter, melted

3tbsp buttermilk

150ml/5floz/scant 2/3 cup milk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

100g/3 1/2oz preserved or fresh cherries, chopped and stones removed

60g/2 oz pistachios, coarsely ground

60g/2oz ground almonds

1 tsp almond essence

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F and place muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin pan. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, pistachios and ground almonds in a large mixing bowl and stir well with a large spoon. Whisk together the 100g/3½oz of the melted butter, milk, buttermilk, almond essence and eggs in a separate bowl. Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and fold in with a large spoon. Stir in the cherries. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and firm to touch. Leave to cool.

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!