The Platinum Jubilee inspired me to made a classic Victoria sponge. I think this is the first time I have ever made one which is surprising. I am not royalist and I truly believe we would be better off without them but I loved having the extra time off work and an excuse for more cake and tea in the day. So much cake and scones with jam and cream were consumed this weekend. We should have more 4 days weekends please! ,Skip to the end for the recipe! Cakes are by far my favourite thing to bake. I love the science and the precision of it all. Sadly, since we moved home last year I have been a b ..read more

These sweet, buttery and tasty cardamom buns are to die for. They take a bit of time but are completely worth the effort. The first time I ever tried a cardamom bun was during my PhD where a Swedish postdoctoral Scientist in our department baked some and brought them in. I was so impressed by them and they were so damn tasty. I never really knew that cardamom could be added to something sweet, I had always associated the spice with savoury curries. Since that first try, I have been hooked. I’m not normally a huge pastry lover but this buttery bread dough with butter and cardamom spice is just ..read more

My Mum turned 60 in December and to celebrate I decided to bake a special birthday cake. I made a vanilla layer cake with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam. It is not often you get to make such a decadent cake and this was probably my favourite and most impressive bake to date. ,Click here to jump to the recipe I decided to design this cake from scratch myself without a proper recipe for the first time. This cake recipe was a 3 layer vanilla cake, with each layer sandwiched with American buttercream and strawberry jam. The buttercream was then used to cover the cake and decorated with a ..read more

We started homebrewing beer back in February 2020 and I can't believe a whole year has passed! We have wanted to brew beers for years and finally started just before the first UK coronavirus lockdown. I imagine it would have petered out while trying to balance full-time work and social engagements but the sudden need to stay at home meant that we had plenty of time to brew and we brewed a lot. A total of 14 beers by the end of 2020! Generally, we do small-batch homebrews between 10 and 12 litres, which means we get around 25-30 bottles per brew. Not bad when your brewhouse is a small London fl ..read more

So simple to make with only 4 ingredients, these tasty almond macaroons are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They are packed full of sweet almond flavour and are so so quick to whip up. Perfect with a cup of tea for a lovely treat. Also with only a few days to go until Valentine's day these make a quick and easy edible gift to give that special person in your life! If you are a fan of macaroons, also check out my coconut macaroon recipe. You can even give both types of macaroons together as a gift as I did last Christmas. ,Click here to jump to the recipe! WHAT ARE MACAROONS? Acc ..read more

I saw this NYC style cookie recipe posted on Jane’s patisserie‘s blog a couple of months ago and I have wanted to make it ever since. I am so glad I finally got round to baking these beauties. These cookies were sweet, soft, seriously packed full of chocolate, and oh so delightful. They reminded me of Ben’s cookies and good memories of celebrations while I was a PhD student in South Kensington which was a while ago now. If your a cookie fan, also check out my recipe for coconut macaroons. ,Click here to jump to the recipe! TIPS FOR AMAZING COOKIES Bring your ingredients to room temperature: Ma ..read more

A quick, no-nonsense beetroot, goats cheese and walnut tart. Tasty and super easy. I think I am a little obsessed with simple savoury tarts. This is quite similar to my roasted butternut squash and goat's cheese tart but this time with beetroot and goats cheese. When something ain't broke why fix it? Check out my roasted butternut squash and goats cheese tart recipe. Click here to jump to the recipe! What ingredients do you need to make the tart? This tart is so simple and only has 9 ingredients and that includes the seasoning. Puff pastry I am a huge fan of ready rolled puff pastry. It is qui ..read more

I made this tasty cake just before Christmas when I was feeling pretty Christmassy and before London moved into Tier 4 and our big family Christmas was cancelled. Very 2020. Obviously, a stout cake is not just for Christmas it would make a lovely celebration cake for a birthday cake, St Patrick’s Day, Valentine's day or just any Saturday. Pick any occasion and it works a treat! ,Click here to jump to the recipe You can use any stout beer for the cake. The original Nigella recipe used Guinness but I wanted to use our own homebrewed beer. We brew beer at home in our London flat and have made qu ..read more

A light refreshing American pale ale homebrewed to be shared with friends. This was our Christmas beer that we brewed to share with friends. Sadly because of the coronavirus lockdown, this was not possible but it did mean we ended up with many bottles of this lovely light beer. We based our beer on a recipe from the book, Brew better beer by Emma Christensen and adjusted it to our small-batch brewing needs. We used the ‘Very Good American Pale Ale’ recipe on page 71 as our guide. Check out some of our other brews here: American wheat beer Juicy fruit pale ale v2 Citrillo WIP IPA v2 Simcoe S ..read more

Coconut macaroons are one of my absolute favourite treats. Packed full of coconut, crisp and golden on the outside but gloriously soft and chewy in the middle. What more do you want from a biscuity treat? ,Skip to the end for the recipe One of my earliest memories of these biscuits was buying coconut and cherry macaroons from the Tesco bakery section as a teenager. They came in packs of two and were the best. I was gutted when they discontinued them. After their disappearance I would regularly get my macaroon fix by eating the choc macaroons from Mrs Crimble's. Yum! While store bought macaroo ..read more