Coconut Crumbles Biscuits

So, it’s my boyfriend and my 2 year anniversary in a few days. His favourite biscuits are NICE ones – not nice the adjective, but those delicious coconut biscuits which no one really knows if they are pronounced NEECE like the town in France or NICE like the adjective. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I wanted to make them but finding a recipe for them proved impossible. So I just made these coconut biscuits – I took a shortbread recipe and just added coconut. Worked very well and they were both crunchy and fluffy!

A Weekend of Food

Last weekend was my grandmother’s 80th birthday celebration! We had a tea party with cupcakes and vintage tea cups… followed by a delicious dinner with Ottalenghi salads, salmon en croute, sri lankan chicken curry, beef stragonoff and much much more. An interesting but delectable combination. This was all prepared when my Nana fell down the stairs and broke her wrist, poor her! She had to be in hospital and it was all a bit sad. But, silver lining the food was very good at cheering people up and I took her a nice box of cupcakes to the hospital.

Top top photo is of cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegar amassed with delicious herbs from the garden. We baked them and at them in a puy lentil salad with gorgonzola and red onions. I would very much recommend everyone buying Ottalenghi’s salad book – it makes a Caeser salad look laughable! The salads really are delicious and healthy but without making you feel empty inside… like the normal pile of leaves!

Mini Peach Bundt Cakes

So.. you may have realized that peach, like rhubarb is one of my ultimate FAVOURITE fruits – particularly to bake with. I love the way the flavour goes all sweet when baked – it reminds me of school desserts. Don’t worry, I loved my school dinners. The cooks were ACTUALLY called Mrs Cook and Ms. Pie… I know whenever I tell people this, they laugh and say… “you were in primary school and you were gullible.” true, but I still don’t think it was a lie. WHY would they lie about it, just WHY? I still hope and pray that it was one of those rare but amazing comic coincidences that are just awesome. Or maybe their names got them into cooking?!

So, here is the recipe, and it can be applied to any cake size – cupcakes, muffins or even a whole cake! Mini Bundts are not necessary – even though they are awesome.

Ginger and Dark Chocolate Cookies

My big sister Selina turned 29, so I thought I would bake her cookies based on her favourite flavour combo: ginger and dark chocolate. I know dark chocolate is a bit like marmite, but we are a family of serious dark chocolate lovers… guzzling it down (me in particular), while reassuring ourselves that it is really healthy…because it is dark.

As far as the consistency of these cookies goes, they are fairly soft and gooey rather than extra crunchy. This is because, one thing I have often thought about traditional gingerbread and ginger biscuits is that they can sometimes lack that hidden gooeyness or creamy texture that really make me squeal with delight. So, rather than just using dried ginger powder…. I used stem ginger. If you like ginger, you will love this. If you don’t really like ginger… give it a go. It really is scrumptious.

Mini Black Forest Cakes

Happy Tuesday! So, I am writing from my bedroom in my ridiculously sexy flannel pjs. I am ill at the moment and have been written off work… I have something similar to chicken pox… I know… rather disgusting! Thus why I have been off the baking and blogging recently! But there is only so many series I can watch before I start to go a bit nutty. So, I thought I would dig up some baking I have done over the past few weeks and edit the photos for a post – I took lots of photos for this so I had been leaving the editing until I had some spare time which never happened. They are delish – really rich sponge! I think one right now would be just what the doctor ordered… oh.. I forgot NO CHOCOLATE OR NUTS for me until the rash has gone (hahah.. I’m such an awful whiner and matyr… I know). This is slightly more time consuming than many of my recipes, but easy none the less. They are my adaptation of Black Forest cakes, in mini form.

White Peach and Blueberry Smoothie

As I mentioned in my last post, I am on a bit of a health kick at the moment. So no baking for me… at least for one day. And no sugar either. I had that feeling of lethargy that only avoiding sugar like the plague can cure. So, I bought these beautiful white peaches from the market and some blueberries. At a banana and some milk (or yoghurt) and Bob’s your uncle  – you have a smoothie that proves Marge Simpson’s proclamation that fruit is “nature’s candy”.

So, I won’t insult your intelligence by giving you ingredients and methods… just choose your favourite fruits add something that will give a more milky and less juicy consistency like milk, banana, yoghurt (or ice cream if you are treating yourself..).

Rhubarb and Peach Crumble Recipe

I have been feeling crazily exhausted recently and pretty weak. I put it down to a lack of sleep and nutrients. Not that this recipe isn’t full of sugar, but I thought stewed fruit is a fab way of getting some of your five a day. I chose peach and rhubarb. Not only are they full of tang and rich sweetness but the colours they both exhibit when raw and stewed are so unbelievably bold and dramatic that I thought it would be a treat for the mouth and the eyes!

I would also say that this is the easiest recipe I have put on here yet. Here goes: