Well, here we are. A tall cake, full of flavour and texture: there’s chocolate cake, a coconut filling that is better than a Bounty bar, salty-sweet pecan-feuilletine crunch, and mellow Ovaltine frosting. Each layer is delicious on its own but makes the most sense together. It’s a lot of work and I’m very proud of … Continue reading
A bigger batch of these cranberry-studded biscuits with the addition of pistachios. I love the gold, green, and deep red together. These are my favourite holiday cookies because I find them well-balanced and not too sweet. Sweet-tart dried cranberries and fragrant clementines always evoke the holidays for me, and here they perfectly brighten up a rich shortbread. A handful of pistachios … Continue reading
The original banoffee pie is perfect as it is, but for this year’s Easter lunch I wanted to make something that was familiar and very welcome but also a bit different. I’m hesitant to call this a straight-up chocolate banoffee pie because the chocolate doesn’t actually dominate in the way that such a name would suggest. The aim was for the chocolate … Continue reading
Miss South posted this recipe recently and I tried it a couple of days ago, transforming the shame I felt towards the leftover mincemeat lurking in the fridge into vaingloriousness for being so thrifty. Perhaps you, too, still have leftovers, or want to save this for later this year. Flies graveyard is a good place … Continue reading
With cranberries, sweet plums and tender pears warmed by spices and made lively with clementines, this is truly Christmas jam. It’s bold and red, shimmering like any festive ornament, and tastes wonderful. This was one of those recipes where I was reminded that I’m a beginner striking out on a more ambitious project, and that … Continue reading
I worry occasionally about what’s been pushed out of my head to make room for all the food thoughts I have. This isn’t how brains work, obvs, but… you know. Sometimes, it’s not really my fault. Take Catherynne Valente’s ‘Fairyland’ series–her language is sensuous as always, and there is SO MUCH FOOD. In addition to … Continue reading
Yeah, I went there. Or rather, Nigella Lawson went there first in ‘Feast’, which is one of my favourite cook books. I think she conveys quite well the sort of feelings I have towards Valentine’s Day: she talks about her all-round cynicism (and it’s this darker side of Nigella which comes through in her writing … Continue reading
Obviously the solution to the wind and sleet is to consume more cold things. This is my first and so far my favourite weekly special from Chin Chin this year. Every flavour comes through clearly–fresh banana, little melting bits of dark chocolate, the starchy-sweet middle of a doughy pancake. We chose salted caramel sauce to … Continue reading
It’s been really very busy for me to the point that I have no idea what to do with my free time now–except to turn some photos and thoughts into a blog post, perhaps. I hope the holidays are treating you all well, or at least, not any worse than usual. This year I have … Continue reading
This is a good biscuit to make if you’re bored by the ubiquity of saccharine goods–the dough itself is just barely sugar-sweet, carrying the flavour of orange zest, chocolate and dried cranberries very well. They also have a good crunch and crumble to them before melting in the mouth. To add to these virtues, the … Continue reading
The Furious Pear Pie 
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