Last week, the lovely people at Interflora asked if I would like to try their Valentine cupcakes - as you can imagine I had to think about this for all of a milli second before saying "YES PLEASE!" Now I am not a huge fan of store bought cakes and was not expecting much when the parcel arrived earlier this week. How wrong was I!!!! The cakes arrived in a lovely Emma Bridgewater tin (my favourite and I will definitely be using this to store all my cake decorations in as soon as all the cakes are gone). There were 18 cakes all carefully packaged with spacers between them so that the cakes were perfect despite being posted - 9 chocolate fudgy and 9 white, all prettily decorated with sugar hearts. They taste so good and I had to take them to our sewing circle last night before we ate them all ourselves (which would not have been a good idea). The overall verdict was a resounding delicious! Gentlemen reading this blog, let me let you into a little secret - your partner, wife, girlfriend, will love you for buying these - they make such a nice gift, particularly with the Emma Bridgewater tin! (Sacha if you are reading this - I wouldn't object to a second tin!!!!) So there you have it - my recommendation for this years Valentine's day (unless of course you are going to bake yourself) - click here Love Heart cupcakes for a link! It goes without saying that if anyone wants me to try any more things, I would be happy to oblige!!!!

Longleat Gatehouse

I am just back from a wonderful weekend in Bath - seeing the History Boys play (the tickets were a very nice birthday present). We stayed in Longleat (can you tell I am a secret "Animal Park" fan - ahhh lovely Ben Fogle swoon, swoon) in the Gatehouse Lodge. When we booked it I thought the gate house would be somewhere on the edge of the Longleat Estate. I never imagined we would have the spectacular views of Longleat House that we had from our kitchen window! You can just see the house in the distance through the lodge archway. The decor inside was so crazy that I am convinced it was designed by Lord Bath himself (he being the great purveyor of very loud and bright waistcoats) including a snug room in the attic with billowing fabric covering the ceiling and a hallway painted in bright red, yellow and brown stripes. The Bath Arms food was delicious - our favourite being the sea salt caramel sticky toffee pudding (yum yum!) Sadly with the Safari Park closed, we didn't catch a glimpse of a single wild animal, nor of Ben Fogle! Next time!

Tangerine and Cinzano Sorbet

This is the sorbet we had on Christmas Eve as a refreshing interlude between Turkey and Christmas Pudding. I will not deny that having a juicer for this recipe is pretty much essential! Squeezing so much fruit by hand is no easy task. You can use clementines or satsumas too in place of the Tangerines.

20 Tangerines, skins removed
juice of 2 limes
juice of 2 oranges
juice of 2 lemons
100ml Cinzano Arancio or other orange flavoured spirit
180g caster sugar

Juice the tangerines, limes, oranges and lemons and combine the juices in a large bowl, making sure that there are no pips. Add the sugar and orange Cinzano and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. If you do not have an ice cream machine, place in a freezerproof lidded bowl and store in the freezer. Remove from the freezer after an hour, transfer to a bowl and whisk with an electric handmixer or whisk to break down the ice crystals. Repeat every hour until the sorbet has frozen.

We are getting excited as we have ordered a shepherd's hut for our garden and it is due to arrive soon. Actually it was due to come before Christmas but work stopped due to all the snow. It has a little log stove and a bed that I have been busy making a cushion for and will be the perfect place to read or write books or for camping out in. As soon as it arrives we are having a hut warming party (with mulled wine and hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows) and I have just ordered some lovely paper flower bunting to decorate the hut with for the party - so pretty! (from thelastdetail.co.uk in case you want some too - click here paper flower bunting for a link) Now all we need is for the hut to arrive!!!!!!!

Burns Night Supper

Last Saturday saw a Burns Night Supper in our village. We live nowhere near Scotland and very few people attending were Scottish, but 140 people celebrated the life of Robert Burns in style in a large marque (which was toasty warm despite it being January) with a glittering starry roof and lots of scottish flags. Our menu Cock A Leekie soup made by lovely Carmella, Haggis Neeps and Tatties made by Pam Tena and Susan with my Whisky gravy and no suprises here puddings made by me! Making 140 puddings (plus extras for waitresses) took me right back to the days of Masterchef! The puddings took 3 hours to assemble (although thats a rate of about 1 per minute so not too bad) - invidiual trifles comprising whisky poached pears, chocolate cake soaked with whisky, white chocolate buttons, cranberry puree, white chocolate custard, topped with cream, sprinkles and of course edible glitter. The puddings were served with shortbread made by Cathie and Alison. All in all a lovely evening and the auction of promises etc raised over £4,000 - just brilliant for a tiny village like ours. Happy Burns Night to you all and if you are having Haggis this evening, have a tot of whisky on me! The picture - although not very clear - is Andrew addressing the Haggis (following a procession with a proper piper) before promptly stabbing it with a ceremonial dagger. All very dramatic!

Masterchef Goes Published

For any Masterchef fans out there, a new cook book has been released this week of the 250 best Masterchef recipes from all of the Masterchef Goes Large series including the professional and celebrity versions! It contains some really lovely recipes - lots of ones that I watched on the programme and wanted to try at the time so I was thrilled when the book arrived. I can happily report that our 2007 MC series is well covered with recipes from Steven Wallis (incl his winning pear and chocolate sauce - to quote Gregg it feels like you are "floating away on an ice cream dream") and David Hall's yummy pan haggerty. Four of my recipes have made the book - chocolate cake, tiramisu, chilli stuffed squid and lamb with wild mushrooms and I am described as "Lawyer turned Cookbook author and Masterchef finalist 2007"! Hurrah!

Broccoli and Gorgonzola Soup

I have to confess I have a complete aversion to stalky vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (unless the stalky bit is cut out) - even asparagus is not my favourite thing which is a travesty for a foodie I know!) One of my new years resolutions was to try and solve this food fad so this week I brought broccoli and cauliflower in the hope that I would eat them if pureed into soup. It worked (proving that it is really a texture thing and not a flavour issue!) So here is my recipe for broccoli soup - yum yum!

Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large heads of broccoli - stalks removed and cut into small florettes
5 spring onions, finely chopped
125ml sherry
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
100g gorgonzola dolce
200ml milk
salt and pepper to season

In a large saucepan, saute the broccoli florettes and spring onions in the olive oil for 3 - 4 minutes to soften. Add the sherry and cook for a further few minutes. Pour over the stock and simmer for about 10 minutes until the broccoli is soft. Puree with a hand blender until smooth. Chop the gorgonzola dolce into small pieces and add to the pan with the milk. Season well with salt and pepper and simmer over a very gentle heat until the cheese has melted but do not boil. Serve immediately with warm crusty bread.

As you may imagine, I have a lot of equipment in my kitchen - so much so that there is not enough space in the cupboards! For my birthday I was very kindly given some vouchers to spend at my favourite kitchen shop in New York - Sur La Table (thank you Mum Dad and Gareth). It was a tough choice as to how to spend my $100 as there were so many lovely things. I think everyone thought I was mad when I settled on this pan (not least as I had to pack it in my suitcase to come home!) but I have wanted a couscousier ever since seeing one on front of Nigella Lawson's book "Feasts". The top pan has tiny holes, just enough to let steam through but not enough for the couscous to fall through. Strange though, as I have never been a fan of couscous, I think I just fell in love with the bulbous curves of the pans and the idea that perhaps if cooked in a proper pan, couscous may be OK afterall. I was so right!!! We christened the pan last night, cooking a pork and pear tagine in the bottom pan and then steaming the couscous with cumin and fresh corriander in the top pan. The result was perfect couscous, light crumbs, gently scented of the tagaine and not a lump in slight. A complete revelation and I have never eaten couscous like this before! So much so that I am making more for lunch today. So how do you flavour your couscous - I am keen to try all your recipes!

Well Ladies and Gentleman... I am proud to present to you..... the first proper glimpses of my next book - Sundaes and Splits! My lovely publisher Julia gave me my advanced copy at the end of last week and I literally squeaked with excitement! I had already seen the pictures (and loved them) but it is so much nicer to see them in the actual book. So, for all you lovely readers of this blog, here are a few sneak peak pictures. Above is the inside front page with pretty tubs of ice cream and sorbet (and my name!!!!!), the inside cover cover (one of my favourite pictures - white chocolate coated ice cream wafers with sprinkles), plum crumble sundae, sticky toffee pudding sundae and lemon meringue pie. I am soooooo pleased with it and really hope you like it too. Thank you Steve, Julia, Kate and Sunil for all your wonderful work on the book. For anyone with beedy eyes who spots the references to cups, custard sauce and Jello-o - these pictures are from the US version of the book - the UK version has grams! It is out on 8th April and I am planning an ice cream party to celebrate! It is available to preorder on Amazon (link on the right)...plug plug!

My lovely Publisher Julia and I with my book at the party in London! Photo kindly taken by my other lovely Publisher Grace! So nice - thank you both for a lovely evening xxx (photo taken on my mobile so sorry for the not so brilliant quality)

Quite a few of my friends and family have given copies of my cook book to people for Christmas. It was so nice to think of them on Christmas day unwrapping my book from their Christmas stockings. I have been receiving some lovely letters and messages about the book and particularly loved Emma's drawing of her cakes and the photo of Taran and Dillon with their checkerboard cookies!

New York Lights!

Pear and Walnut Galettes

Makes 8 galettes Preparation time 30 minutes, cooking time 15 – 20 minutes

100g/3½oz walnuts

85g/3oz butter, plus extra for greasing

85g/3oz icing sugar

45g/1½oz self raising flour, plus extra for dusting

1 egg

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

1 tsp vanilla essence

500g/1lb1½oz puff pastry

3 ripe pears, cored and thinly sliced

1 tbsp apricot jam

Pre heat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F and grease two baking trays with butter. Soak the pear slices in the juice of one lemon to prevent discolouration. Place the walnuts in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped. Add the butter, icing sugar, flour, egg, lemon zest and vanilla to the processor and blitz to form a smooth paste. Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to ¼ cm thickness, cut out 13cm/5in circles and transfer to the baking tray. Using a sharp knife, score in inner circle on each pastry disk about 1cm from the edge, taking care not to cut all the way through. Place a large spoonful of the nut butter in the centre of each pastry circle and spread out using a knife. Top each with pear slices in a circle. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and bake in the oven for 18 - 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the pears are cooked. Remove the tarts from the oven and allow to cool. Heat the juice of the remaining lemon in a saucepan with the apricot jam until the jam has dissolved. Use a pastry brush to brush the apricot over each tart to glaze.

One of my favourite parts of our trip to NY was a visit to Alice's Tea Cup - an Alice in Wonderland Themed Cafe. The only downside was having to was 1 1/4 hours for a table but the wait was worth it as the food was delicious. My favourite were the spiced pumpkin muffins with toffee glaze - I am planning on attempting these myself soon so will post the recipe - and I also loved the dear little teapot drip catchers/lid holders decorated with birds cats and butterflies. Needless to say I now have a little cat on my tea pot at home as they sold them in the shop. If you are ever in New York and want to visit they website link is here - the Mad Hatter Tea was $19 per person for two people sharing. Booking recommended unless you don't mind waiting as long as we did. I don't think the food and rooms were quite as imaginatively decorated as Kathy and My Tea party last summer but then I am biased!

As you may have noticed from the contents of this blog, I make a lot of birthday cakes. It has been a while since I have had a birthday cake myself but last week on my birthday my brother (bless his little cotton socks) managed to rustle up a birthday cake for me, on the first day of his honeymoon! It was made from two enormous chocolate marshmallows he had had made (they were seriously heavy) - sandwiched together with my favourite marshmallow fluff! I bet you have never seen a Marshmallow this big in your life - I certainly haven't! The chef in the restaurant struggled to cut it with his knife, we struggled to eat it as it was so sticky it stuck to the spoons and I laughed and laughed until I cried - definitely the best birthday cake I have ever had!

Well I am back from a lovely trip to New York (although sadly with a New York cold) - flying Delta airlines on Boxing Day after the incident on one of their planes on Christmas Day was perhaps not the most enjoyable of timings but we all got there and back safely. So...my brother and Amy got married and I managed to legally marry them! City Hall accepted my paperwork and I have a nice license with a gold seal on and a registration certificate and am now legally able to marry anyone in the State of New York for the rest of my days - open to invitations if you need someone to marry you! Anyway, enough with my Officiant qualifications and moving on to the wedding, far more importantly! I can safely say that there has probably never been, and will never again be, a wedding quite like it. Monkey Town in itself was a strange enough venue (scaffolding, murals, toilets that talked to you and 4 giant film screens) but it was Gareth and Amy's own touches that really stole the day - giant rock that you had to smash with a hammer wearing goggles, a table covered with sweets and cupcakes for everyone to decorate - their own personal "Freak Show" (the photo shows two of the stars of the show with Gareth and Amy) it was all very strange - two headed babies, merbabies and sword swallowing to name but a few highlights - although I felt the need to leave the room when Johny Vomit was performing...) snowball flights, a photographer's studio installed in the attic, film screening, a giant wedding quiz shown on the 4 film screens, pinatas in the shape of Gareth and Amy hanging from the roof, toasted marshmallows, coke float bar. As for the wedding breakfast - the food was delicious - wagu ribs, savoury truffle bread and butter pudding (sooo yummy) although I think even I drew the line at the curried creme brulee with saffron marshmallows! Amy looked stunning in her dress and they were both so happy that they cried all the way through the ceremony (I am sure this had nothing to do with my performance as officiant) Congratulations both of you - may your days be long and happy xxx

Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2010. As you read this I will be in New York, attending my brother's wedding and depending on how brave we are, possibly visiting Times Square for New Years Eve (I am not convinced of this later idea). I will post about my brother's wedding on my return - it is sure to be a mad affair - they are getting married in a place called the Monkey House, being legally married by ME, with a camp fortune telling genie, a singing dwarf, snowball flight, midnight film showing with popcorn, coke float bar etc etc. It is going to be a wedding like no other. Happy Days Gareth and Amy xxx

With all this chilly weather there is nothing I like more than slow roasted food. Red cabbage is one of those dishes that improves the longer you cook it. Delicious with this slices of roast pork and baked savoury apples.

Cranberry Cabbage
Served 8 - 10

1 small red cabbage, finely chopped
4 small apples, peeled cored and sliced
2 small onions, finely sliced
2 handfuls of fresh cranberries
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground allspice
250ml red wine
100ml sherry
3 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
100g caster sugar
60g butter, cubed

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 2. In a large casserole dish, layer the cabbage, apples, onions and cranberries so that they are evenly distributed. Add the cinnamon, spices, wine, sherry, vinegar and sugar and stir well. Place the cubes of butter on top of the dish, cover and bake for 2 - 3 hours until the cabbage is soft. This cabbage freezes well.

This is a really lovely wintery ice cream. We served it with our Christmas pudding but it would go equally well with a bread and butter pudding. 2010 is going to be my year for ice cream!

Brown Bread and Amaretto Ice Cream
Makes approx 600ml

5 egg yollks
100g caster sugar plus 2 heaped tbsp caster sugar
400ml double cream
200ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod
60g sultanas
200ml Amaretto
5 slices brown bread
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Whisk together the egg yolks and 100g caster sugar until light and very creamy. In a large heavy based saucepan, heat the cream, milk and vanilla and bring to the boil. Pour the hot cream over the whipped egg yolks and whisk again. Return to the pan for 2 - 3 minutes to thicken. Leave to cool completely then add half the Amaretto. Blitz the bread in a food processor to fine bread crumbs. Place the crumbs in a large saute pan and toast with the cinnamon and remaining 2 tbsp caster sugar until the bread is crispy, taking care that it does not burn. Heat the sultanas in a saucepan with the remaining Amaretto until the sultanas are plump and the alcohol has evaporated. All the crumbs and sultanas to cool completely. Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream maker until almost frozen and then add the sultanas and toasted crumbs. Churn until frozen and then store in the freezer until you are ready to eat.

In addition to cooking Christmas lunch on Thursday I just about managed to rustle up a birthday cake for lovely Joy in our village who was celebrating her 70th birthday. I know this is similar to cakes you have seen on this blog before but just thought that I would share the pictures with you for a change from all the Christmas festivities around at the moment. I love the dainty yellow birds and the floppy pink bow!

As readers of this blog will know, every Christmas I sew my Mum a sampler. I can now reveal this year's present as she has gone to bed and won't see this post until after she has unwrapped it! It contains lots of my favourite drawn thread work and if you click on the picture you can see a close up. I have to admit that when I collected it from the framers I was very tempted to keep it for myself as I am sure it would look lovely in my cottage - but I know my Mum will like it as much as I do so it will be going to a good home - Happy Christmas Mum xxx

In a very European fashion, we have just finished our Christmas dinner - even though it is Christmas eve. We were joined by my Aunt and Uncle who are tomorrow morning flying to New York for my brother's wedding in a few days time - I am flying out on Boxing Day (I am so not prepared and am now legally registered to conduct the wedding ceremony so need to get practising my wedding vows!!!!). We just ate for 3 hours - I am not sure whether that is something we should admit to and we are all feeing very full. A trio starter of crab and smoked salmon gateau, prawn cocktail and bloody mary cocktail made by my Aunt (see picture below), Roast turkey with all the trimmings (7 different vegetables which is a personal record), Clementine sorbet (very refreshing and I will post the recipe soon) and Christmas Pudding made by my Mum served with my brown bread amaretto ice cream, mince pies, mulled wine, raspberry cocktails - I feel ashamed just writing it all down! My Aga went on strike after all the cooking and turned itself off in protest this evening - thankfully it is now alight again - otherwise Christmas lunch tomorrow would have been a sad microwave affair. So now to bed with the wrapping of presents all finished - ready for tomorrow morning. I hope that you and all your families have a wonderful Christmas and that wherever you are celebrating you have a peaceful and happy day together xxx