Last weekend, Sacha ran the Leicester Marathon - in 4 hours 10 minutes which was a brilliant time and his 4 marathon so he was rightly proud of himself! The weekend was only slightly marred by the slightly overzealous conduct of the Marriot hotel in locking our mini bar. Sacha had bought himself a treat of his favourite Indian dessert Ras Malai to have after the marathon which we stored in the mini bar overnight. To be organised so that we could get to the marathon on time, I paid the bills before breakfast. Sadly, as soon as you pay the bill the hotel lock your mini bar and the poor tub of Ras Malai got locked in! The hotel said they would send someone up to unlock it but they didn't arrive in time and we had to leave the poor tub of ras malai behind. Luckily the wonderful "Cook in a Curry" site came to the rescue with a delicious recipe and I managed to make Ras Malai at home to make up for the lost tub. If you haven't had this dessert before it is curd cheese, cooked in a fragrant sugar syrup and soaked in a thick milk syrup flavoured with cardamom and saffron. I think Sacha was in shock that I had actually managed to make his favourite dessert myself and I feel I have gone someway to compensating him for all the washing up he has been doing during the recipe testing for the book. If you want to try this recipe for yourself the link is here - the only change I made was to add a tablespoon of rose syrup to the sugar syrup and another to the milk mixture as I really love the flavour of rose and cardamon together. Thanks Cook in a Curry for saving the day!

My lovely publishers have said that I am allowed to share with you a few of the snap test shots from the two books I am working on at the moment. These are just the photos I take whilst testing the recipes here at home that are then sent to the food stylist and the book designer so they can plan how to style the photos and make my little creations look elegant! I have absolutely no doubt that the real pictures in the book will look 100 times better than these but thought you would like a quick sneak peak - mini carrot and pistachio muffins, mini summer tarts, mini rocky road cupcakes, mini profiteroles and mini tiramisu roulades (all from the mini patisserie book) and walnut and cinnamon macaroons (from the gluten free baking book). The name for the mini patisserie book is still undecided so any suggestions gratefully received! 42 recipes done, only 43 to go! I am half way - hurrah!

If you are ever looking for somewhere for a special meal in central England then I heartily recommend the Olive Branch at Clipsham near Stamford. I have been wanting to go here for a long time and this weekend with Maren visiting from Germany and my cousin Charlie over from Australia, we had the perfect excuse for a celebration lunch. The food was all delicious - anywhere that serves homemade pork pie as a starter has got to be a very special place. The nibbles board we had whilst we ordered our food was devine with giant green round olives the likes of which I have never tasted before. If any of you know what type of olives are in the picture I would be very pleased to know! Rabbit terrine (with pickled carrots and parsnip crisps - heaven) and beetroot cured salmon, pork casserole, crispy plaice (that resembled schnitzel) and silky mash. The puddings were delicious too (although the blackcurrant treacle tart was an acquired taste). With the set lunch menu at £19.95 for three courses of such yummy food, we thought the Olive Branch was good value and definitely recommend a visit. I am already planning my next trip!

I am happy to say that I have been invited to appear at the Good Food Show again this year so will be at London on 13th and 14th November on the Masterchef stage and also on the hot tips stage demonstrating custard, ice cream and pastry (lumpy custard here we come!) and at Birmingham on 24th November where I will be demonstrating Whoopie Pies on the British stage, some Christmas recipes on the Magimix stage and also hosting some Masterchef masterclasses - pear frangipane tarts and calvados creme anglais - more custard (I must have a death wish for stressful demonstrations this year). Do come and say hello if you are there as it is always lovely to meet fellow bloggers!

Last night was our village harvest supper - casserole and jacket potatoes and apple pie and cream for 80. The good thing is that everyone helped out and it was a real village affair. After supper, the lights were turned off and I wandered through the darkness with Lucy's cake, candles twinkling, whilst everyone sang Happy Birthday (the fact that I didnt trip over a chair or dinner guest in the process was nothing short of a miracle). Next was the auction of produce. I don't know whether it is the recession or an increased interest in gardening but the level of home grown produce was up on last year and also included some very interesting vegetables - red sweetcorn, jerusalem artichokes and a selection of squashes and pumpkins, all from the allotments in our village. Lucy won the largest pumpkin of the night for a princely sum of £10 and I know she is looking forward to carving it for Halloween.

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!