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Swedish cinnamon buns kanelbullar

Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)

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I love making these delicious, soft cinnamon buns when I’ve got a little time at the weekend. There’s nothing nicer than a bit of gentle kitchen pottering, and the smell of these beauties baking scents the whole house with heady spiced sweetness. Sooo good! I originally wrote the recipe for Nordic Style - the gorgeous coffee table book we created for Viking Cruises. The one in the book is a bit more authentic, using fresh yeast in the dough, but when I’m just making them for us on a Saturday morning, dried yeast is more convenient. Sometimes I just use butter and sugar and add dried fruit, or when Charlie’s at home I make them with cocoa as he’s a cinnamon hater. This soft sweet milk dough can also be used for soft iced buns too.

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Nordic Christmas shortbread - perfect for gifting

Nordic Christmas shortbread

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I’m a bit addicted to these gorgeous Nordic Ware tins. I’d totally forgotten that I’d even bought this one until I was looking back on my Christmas posts from last year. This Nordic Christmas shortbread is better, I think, baked slightly thinner, so this recipe actually makes two lots. You can stuff it all in if you want to, but it makes some pretty mammoth slabs of shortbread, which I don’t think are quite as nice as these thinner, more delicate ones. If you don’t have a fancy schmancy tin, press it into a loose bottomed cake tin, then mark the slices out with a knife, cutting about half way through the mixture.

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The best cut out Christmas cookies

The best cut out Christmas cookies

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I always do a ton of batches of these cute iced Christmas cookies - they’re such a fun thing to do to get you feeling festive and they make a lovely gift too. The best cut out Christmas cookies need a really good dough that won’t spread too much and ruin your shapes, and this one is just about perfect. I’ve added to my collection of cutters this year with these little shapes that allow you to hang your cookie onto your cup, but you could also just cut a little notch out of your shapes before you put them in the oven too. If you don’t have vanilla syrup (just the kind you put in coffee) just add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

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How to make a Christmas cake 2018

How to make a Christmas cake 2018

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I love this time of year. I’m a sucker for scented candles, frothy hot chocolates, snuggly blankets and cosy afternoons in the kitchen baking things that smell delicious and scent the whole house with clementine and spice. If you fancy making your own Christmas cake, whether you’re an old hand at this sort of thing, or whether this is your first time, I’ve got the perfect recipe for you. I guess it’s a bit intimidating thinking about making a Christmas cake, but this one is all just weighing and stirring - nothing complicated at all (and stirring is really therapeutic, trust me). Anyhoo, if you’ve been wondering how to make a Christmas cake, or have been looking for an easy recipe, here goes!

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Lemon curd drizzle cake

Lemon curd drizzle cake made with real tears

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So this weekend it was Mr E’s birthday. If you follow me on Instagram, you will probably know all the drama that went with this cake, but if not, and if you’ve got five minutes, I’ll fill you in. The day started well, with pressies and that sort of thing, and as usual, being the birthday person, he got to choose his dream birthday cake. When the kids were little they always chose chocolate fudge cake, then when they turned into teenagers, they would spend hours trying to come up with the most difficult, complicated thing they could possibly think of (we basically invented the technical challenge long before Bake Off was around). I particularly remember a whole day spent constructing a black forest gateau, and another layering up chocolate fudge brownies with buttercream, which was both the most delicious, and the most sickly cake I’ve ever eaten. Anyhoo, Mr E likes a lemon drizzle, which is easy enough, but wanted it layered up with whipped cream. Again, no problemo. But then it all went wrong, and that’s why his lemon drizzle ended up being lemon curd drizzle, but actually tasted really nice anyway, even though it was a bit of a disaster. Let me fill you in…

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Cinnamon skeleton gingerdead men

Cinnamon skeleton gingerdead men

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So you might know that I’ve been working with Belvoir to create some deliciously warming autumnal recipes. These spooky cinnamon skeleton gingerdead men are perfect for Halloween and such fun to make, plus the ginger icing is a delicious accompaniment to the cinnamon and chocolate biscuits. Be warned, the recipe does take a little bit of getting used to - the gingerbread mix is very short which means it takes a while to bring it together in order to roll it out. If you really feel like it’s not coming together (especially if you’re doing this with kids), you can add a tablespoon or two of the cordial into the actual gingerbread mixture, which will make it much easier to work with, although you might find that the cut out gingers spread a little in the oven. Make sure the icing is really thick – if it’s too runny, it will be a nightmare to pipe with!

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Grain free coconut and almond bread

Coconut and almond bread

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So recently, we’ve been thinking about what we eat quite a bit. Mr E has a very stressy job and also a very sweet tooth. Combine the two and you get someone who spends the whole day snacking on sweet stuff and not eating properly. At a recent check-up, his doctor mentioned that some of the cause of the tiredness he’s been experiencing recently could be down to the amount of sugar he eats. As far as I understand it (disclaimer: not a doctor and repeating this third hand!) when he’s busy and stressed, he reaches for a sweet treat as a quick ‘pick me up’, but then the body releases insulin, which helps to use up the sugar, making the blood sugar levels crash again. It’s a flippin’ sugar rollercoaster than can cause problems with your hormones, your sleep and your energy levels. It turns out that a diet high in carbs can also play havoc with your blood sugar, so we decided to try and cut down our sugar, and go a bit easier on the carbs, concentrating on eating more vegetables, lean protein and healthy fats. I’m not a diet person. I want to eat lovely food and not feel like I’m missing out, but I’m also very keen to be supportive and help Mr E live healthily, so the first thing that on my list was to try and create a good, lower carb bread. This coconut and almond bread is wheat and gluten free, much lower on the carbs, and our current favourite.

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The best vanilla cupcake recipe

The best vanilla cupcake recipe to celebrate 12 years of blogging

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12 years, though. 12 whole years! I can’t actually believe it’s been that long since I sat at my enormous, clunky computer in that little house down a long drive in County Dublin and listened to it making that weird, warbly dial-up sound connecting to our bloody awful internet connection. They say the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and for me, my journey really began when I started writing down my thoughts about moving our young family to Ireland. This led on to being a part of the very early blogging community in Ireland, and from there - well, you know the rest! And what better way to celebrate with you than with cake and sprinkles, and to give you, dearest reader, the most precious of gifts: the best vanilla cupcake recipe I own!

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My elderflower recipes for Belvoir

My elderflower recipes for Belvoir

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It’s no secret that this time of year is my favourite. Wandering through the Chiltern Hills with Lyra, the bees are buzzing, the grass is emerald green and the air has finally warmed up enough for me to discard my parka. We always look out for the first elderflowers: for me, they’re a firm favourite - the scent reminds me of early summer weekends at the cricket club, making elderflower crowns with the clusters of tiny, star-shaped creamy yellow flowers. We’ve spotted some over the last couple of weekends, and Mr E and I are dying to make elderflower tempura with the new blooms. To celebrate elderflower season, I’ve teamed up with Belvoir Fruit Farms to create some delicious elderflower recipes using their lovely range of delicious cordials: some pillowy soft elderflower marshmallows, fragrant elderflower scones and an indulgent elderflower and ginger cheesecake. Read on for the recipes!

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Step by step easy chocolate cake recipe

Step by step: easy chocolate cake recipe

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This is my favourite chocolate cake by far. The sponge is chocolatey and squidgy, and the ganache is really light and fluffy, the combination of which makes for a light, non-sickly but still indulgent dessert, perfect for a celebration. When I made this cake for Sam’s birthday a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by how many people that said ‘wow, there’s no way I could make that’, and ‘you’re so clever’ (I’m really not - if things go wrong, I just smother them in chocolate and nobody complains - I dropped a block of cheese on this one getting it out of the fridge, but I covered it up with more ganache), so I thought I’d write this easy chocolate cake recipe up in a step by step way so you can see just how simple it is to make. And then you’ll all be making it for everyone’s birthday from now on, and everyone will think you’re really clever too. Here goes!

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Easy mini bakewell tarts

Easy mini Bakewell tarts

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I had some pastry left over after wildly overestimating the amount I was going to need for an apple tart, and decided to try my hand making some mini Bakewell tarts. I kid you not, these babies are delicious and were completely demolished in less than five minutes. If you want to go all Mr Kipling, feel free to slather them in really thick icing. I prefer just a drizzle and - of course - a cherry!

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Chocolate fudge cake with salted caramel icing

Chocolate fudge cake with salted caramel icing

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I love it when my birthday comes round and I get to make exactly the cake I want. I’ve been planning this chocolate fudge cake with salted caramel icing for a while as I’m a bit obsessed with everything salted caramel at the moment and knew I wanted to make this frosting (icing? I never know what to call it). You can buy the tins of caramel ready made now, which saves you boiling a tin of condensed milk for three hours the old fashioned way and risking first degree burns into the bargain. Take it easy when you’re salting the caramel icing. Start off with a little bit of salt and keep tasting until you get the required balance of sweet/savoury. Too little and it’s just caramel icing, but then too much and the whole cake will taste salty and yucky. This chocolate fudge cake recipe is SO easy - I’m not claiming it as my own, sadly, as I’m pretty sure I copied it down from a magazine years ago, but it’s one I make a lot and it always comes out soft, moist and delicious. I recommend using muscovado sugar as it has the proper, fudgy taste, but use whatever you have.

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American style double chocolate muffins

American style double chocolate muffins

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You know I absolutely love baking, and one of the recipes I’ve been trying to perfect for ages is for proper American style double chocolate muffins. American style muffins tend to be denser and less sweet than cupcakes, and I wanted to make ones that really erupt out of the case like the muffins you buy in bakeries in America. After a fair bit of twiddling, I’m pretty sure I’m there with this one. Oil definitely seems to work better than butter (no, me neither), and as usual with muffins, you need to remember the golden muffin rule: wet into dry and mix as little as you can possibly get away with to avoid developing the gluten (nobody wants a tough muffin). Don’t use huge muffin cases either - you want to fill the cases about 2/3 full so you get the proper volcano-erupting shape.

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The Meg Rivers Cake Club

The Meg Rivers Cake Club, and win a cherry cake!

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This week, we had a very special delivery. I’m one of those really sad people who always gets excited when the postie knocks, and this week it was completely justified as we got cake in the post! I know! Meg Rivers is an artisan bakery from the Cotswolds who send all sorts of delicious goodies by post, and they very kindly sent me one of their fabulously retro cherry cakes. It’s deliciously moist, studded with glistening red glacé cherries and a lovely texture too. It’s one of the cakes that they send out as part of the Meg Rivers Cake Club (I mean, forget beauty boxes, I’d much rather get a monthly cake, wouldn’t you?), the perfect pressie and just in time for Mother’s Day too.

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Healthier oat and cranberry cookies

Healthier oat and cranberry cookies

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When I’m cooking for the family, my intention is always to nourish (I know, I’m just so new age). I want to choose foods that will fill our bodies full of good things, so that kind of excludes all the delicious stuff like cakes and biscuits, right? Well, maybe, but sometimes you just really need a biscuit with your cup of tea, so I started to think about creating a little sweet treat that still has some good stuff in it. Oats are so good for you: a great source of fibre as well as lots of important vitamins and minerals, and oat bran is high in protein (although if the taste of bran is too ‘knit your own yoghurt’ for you, feel free to replace it with wholemeal or rye flour instead). I’ve tried to keep the butter to a minimum by adding banana (but hey, I’m a fan of full-fat dairy) and they’re not too heavy on the sugar either, so if you’re desperate for a sweet treat, why not reach for one of these cookies instead of that packet of biscuits? If you’re calorie counting they come in at about 120 kcal each which isn’t bad for a nice, fat cookie. I’m not going to go so far as to say they’re healthy, but let’s call them healthier oat and cranberry cookies instead.

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Three ingredient brownies with 83% less sugar

Three ingredient brownies (with 83% less sugar)

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If you’ve ever looked at recipes on Pinterest, you’re bound to have seen those ‘three ingredient brownies’ recipes that use just chocolate spread, eggs and flour, right? I keep meaning to have a go at cooking them, I mean they look like they work, don’t they? And then a lovely friend of mine gave me the heads up about Jim Jams - a chocolate spread with 83% less sugar than Nutella, and I thought - wait, then that would be three ingredient brownies with a fraction of the sugar, and well, being January and all about the healthier choices, I gave them a go.

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