All Things Dolce

2010-11-17T15:03:00.002Z

Tetra-pak Tomato Goodness

I did the classic Headwound (HW) thing last night; I got some great products to try but then came home from work starving, used them quickly then devoured them without taking any snaps. My friends call me a HW as I am forgetful; I did once receive a real headwound (20 stitches worth!) so the name is fitting and I have to admit, I am forgetful!

Hungry and craving something other than falafel (I have overdosed on this lately) I rushed home, pulled out the tomato passata that I was given by the lovely people at RH Amar and quickly chopped up some onions and garlic, browned them lightly in extra virgin olive oil, threw in some of the sauce and loaded it with oregano and basil, added a dash of salt and pepper and added a few chilli flakes for a bit of a spicy note –the final touch was one tiny teaspoon of sugar which made it complete.

The lovely red stuff comes straight from Italy and is apparently the number one selling brand there, which can’t be a bad thing! Need to ask my aunty’s what they use.

I threw the final sauce over some spaghetti for the J-Lo & I to eat. Baby Jacob watched and screamed as we ate; poor kid only gets to eat unsalted mushy stuff and we washed it down with some organic Italian juices I bought at the BBC Good Food Show the past weekend, a yummy prickly pear juice.

I only realised I didn’t take pic when we were putting all of the dishes away but thought I would take a snap of the carton which is going in the fridge for us to have more sauce this weekend. Instead of our spaghetti feast you get a pic of the romantic spaghetti eating moment from the Disney doggy movie Lady & the Tramp – awwwh puppy dog romance.

Thx again to the Cirio peeps. Will try and take pics this weekend when Uncle Duncan comes for dinner.

2010-11-12T17:03:00.001Z

BBC Good Food Show this weekend!

Winners have all been posted their tickets and here are some of their suggestions as to what they would serve George Clooney if he was coming for pudding:

THE WINNER - Jen - she would just cover herself in chocolate and that would be it!

Others:

Home made apple pie with ice cream - for the little boy in George
Zabaglione and AMOURetta biscuits -Alison wants to get to George via his Italian connection
Eton Mess - for the Hot Harry in him and Lyn from Hazeldale said she would turn up the heat slowly while cooking it :)
Chocolate fingers
Chocolate beetroot cake -interesting
Baileys infused chocolate cake - Clare was trying to get George a little tipsy !
and more....

Thanks for all of your submissions and see you at the show this weekend and to the Birmingham winners have a great time and report back!

2010-11-11T10:50:00.003Z

Inamo, Soho

Do you:

Like playing video games while waiting for dinner?

Like playing video games against your dinner partner?

Like playing Battleship?

Like seeing what is going on in the kitchen without moving from your seat at the restaurant?

Like changing the lighting above your table to various shades of the rainbow?
Like changing the look of your table to various colors and images?

Like checking out what to do after dinner via the table computer?

Like to order beers/dinner with the click of a button? Like to never have to speak to a snarky or rude waiter.

Well then go to Inamo in Soho! A must visit as it is so high tech and cool (the oriental fusion food isn't the greatest) but it is such a novelty being there. I highly recommend it and think it is good fun and very futuristic. It is hard to get reservations at this hidden gem on Wardour street so don't expect to just pop in around dinner time, book ahead!

134-136 Wardour Street,
Soho, London,
W1F 8ZP

☎ 020 7851 7051
✉ reservations@
inamo-restaurant.com

2010-11-09T09:11:00.001Z

Bitterballen -party snacks from the Netherlands

Bitterballen - the croquette-like meatballs which are very popular in the Netherlands. I don't think anyone in the Netherlands actually makes them but instead only eats them at the pub.

In case you are ambitious and want to impress some Dutch freinds try this recipe out. Thanks to Cooks.com for the recipe.

3 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
1 c. milk
1 tbsp. very fine minced onion
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. chopped parsley, fine
1 1/2 c. finely chopped cooked meat
Bread crumbs
2 egg yolks, beaten with 2 tbsp. water
Fat for frying
Mustard

Melt butter, stir in flour and add the milk. Cook, stirring constantly, to make a very thick sauce. Add onion, meat, parsley, nutmeg, salt and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Spread mixture on cookie sheet to cool. Shape into small balls (1" to 1 1/2" diameter). Roll in bread crumbs. Dip in egg mixture, making sure they are completely covered. Roll again in bread crumbs. Let them stand for 1 hour until completely dry. Deep fry until golden brown and drain on paper towels. Serve with mustard.

2010-11-08T08:19:00.027Z

Albert Cuyp Market, Amsterdam

So we were aiming for the Spui Book Market but obviously my attention to detail once again failed me and instead of reading that it was only held on Fridays. We found this out after venturing into town looking for it, to only be told by someone at the Albert Cuyp market that this was the only market open and there were NO books. Ooops!

Oh well the Albert Cuyp market was a great alternative, we had no idea what the book market would be like anyway. The market is a complete feast for the eyes and perfect for people watching; it has everything from food to tacky clothes to furniture imported from Indonesia and China. It is apparently 100 years old and is said to have over 300 vendors.

My favourite part of the market was of course, the food vendors. If my eyes weren't bigger than my stomach I would've eaten much more but instead I just had a giant stroopen wafel for 2 Euros. It was freshly made and tasted AMMMAZING, it melted in your mouth and is just the best Dutch dessert ever - two wafels hold a soft caramel centre, it doesn't get better than that.

If I had more time in the Netherlands I would've bought a load of fish and cheese and made a big feast, instead we ate bitterballen (deep fried meat and cheese balls) and drank beer at the pub overlooking the canals. Not a bad second option.

Get to the market on your next trip to A'dam (Amsterdam) -Yum!

Location: Albert Cuypstraat (in De Pijp neighborhood)
Open: Year-round, Monday - Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

2010-11-07T19:56:00.000Z

Goat's milk - fresh from source

For those lactose intolerant there is goat's milk which is a suitable alternative and tastes just as good. Goat's milk is also the blessed white substance that creates the most delicious ricotta cheese which is used in my ever favourite cannoli. That is why they taste different in Sicily, it is the goat's cheese! Ricotta sold in England doesn't always state if it is made with goat's milk but I think it is usually cow's milk - boo.

We visited this farm out in the middle of nowhere and got to see an age old style of milking goats using special gates for where the animals needed to stand, these gates were in a stone wall that must've been there for hundreds of years.

Everything was super ancient and the view from the farm where we took these pics was spectacular. This farm is very hidden, even to the locals, and is situated atop a hill overlooking thousands of acres of vineyards -just beautiful.

At the farm, we stumbled upon a barn with a hidden secret. It was a church in the 1600s. The inscription on the door said 1641 - how crazy is that?! Jake took some great photos in there of a horse and its baby and we got some great shots of the farmers for the project. I wish I could show you all of the pics but I can't just yet, they must go to publishers first!

The centuries old practice of shepherding and milking the goats was great to watch and sooo old except for one thing.... the mobile phone rang (!) and the chief milker answered it. It was kinda funny but he went on milking with one hand and chatting away - classic!

2010-11-01T07:14:00.006Z

Walnut tree for me

Did you know they come from a tree? I don't think I have ever seen a walnut tree before or even thought about where they came from but saw a walnut tree recently. I now want one in my backyard Santa.

The Latin name, Juglans, derives from Jupiter glans, "Jupiter's acorn": figuratively, a nut fit for a god.

Just some foodie education for the day.

2010-10-31T22:05:00.001Z

Watermelon Man

Job: selling watermelon and freshly pressed olive oil by the side of the road in Greece

Name: Santos

Age: 85

I love watermelon and can't get enough of it in the summer especially while trying to survive the scorching heat of Greece in the summer. We stopped, had some water, ate some watermelon and had a chat with Santos for a little while.

He spoke perfect Italian as he went to school in Greece when it was under Italian rule. He remembered the change over to Greek power and was a great person to speak to about the history of the region and politics at the time.

He's a lovely man that told us about all of his grandchildren and his life growing up in the beautiful hills that surrounded his truck - he came here each day to sell the olive oil that was produced by his family nearby and was happily listening to the radio when we arrived. He said he meets people from all around the world each day that stop to take photos of the vista and to eat his watermelon. It's always nice to meet locals and hear their life stories, he had a blessed life and was a very cheeky, happy and enthusiastic man. After purchasing some olive oil and grapes he washed them for us and even added a few extra sweet sesame seed goodies in our bag.

Kindness, a smile and great olive oil - lovely things that remind us about our travels in Greece now that the nights are getting shorter and darker and colder. I hope any of you that travel around the island of Rhodes see Santos on your next trip.

2010-10-26T15:31:00.003+01:00

What pudding would you make for George Clooney? Win, win, win

The lovely foodies at the BBC have given me some tickets to give out to you lovely blob readers – there are two events – one in Birmingham at the gigantic NEC and one in London at Olympia – the London one consists of MasterChef Live & Wine Show which I will be attending. If you are going or win the tickets we can have a taste of some red vino together.

Bring comfy shoes and some cash as am sure you will be tempted to buy some food and drink and for all of you very organised Christmas shoppers you may even tick things off your list. My only advice is to wear light clothing as you are usually hot and exhausted by the end of walking down just one aisle –and come on an empty stomach!

Some great chefs will be there including James Martin at both, while Gordon Ramsay and Rachel Allen will be at the Birmingham show (why are there not more top female chefs?? That’s another blog post) Details are:

• The Wine Show & MasterChef Live at Olympia, London - 14 Nov

• BBC Good Food Show Winter, NEC Birmingham - 28 Nov

How to win?? Send me your reply to this question:

• If the gorgeous and sexy George Clooney were coming to dinner next Friday what would you bake him for pudding/desert?

The most creative responses win two tickets for the Sunday sessions! Just tell me if you prefer London or Birmingham. Email answers to: allthingsdolce @ gmail.com

Be creative foodies!

Cute James Martin cooking with croutons (?)

2010-10-25T16:18:00.001+01:00

Mandorle

The lovely almond is found around all over the island of Sicily. Several years ago on my first trip to Sicily, when my uncle peeled the little, green, fuzzy pod and took out the small, white contents, I didn't know what it was. After chewing the soft nut ( it only gets hard when it is dried to be sold) with its fresh and light taste, an almost muted apple one -he told my sis and I that it was an almond! Strange how you never connect what a food item looks like at source or how it grows. On my last trip there I saw a walnut tree which again I was shocked to see as I had no clue how those little round wrinkly forehead-like nuts grew either.

In Sicily, almond trees blossom in February and are usually harvested in July. The island's almonds are used in confections, sweet liqueur and even almond-flavored wines - which are thought to be an aphrodisiac. At weddings when I was younger, there would be chocolate and sugar coated almonds in a bowl for guests to eat and with each thank you gift there were a few sugar coated almonds attached to it too.

These 'confetti' were for good luck and apparently with a little bit of research I found out that it stems from an ancient tradition in Sicily.

The throwing of the almonds at the bride (we didn't throw them at our brides- the priests didn't like that) symbolised a marriage by capture (I guess throwing the almonds were part of the tactics of capture?) Now we use paper confetti, which the priest also doesn't like, or some people are not using this tradition anymore.

On our last journey to the sunny island, the almond was present every day in our food and the trees were always visible along our travels. After Jake excitedly plucked one open that he found on the ground, I ate it as we had not seen any ripe ones since the harvest had just passed. I had some initial reservations about eating it as it was quite dark in color but I quickily ignored it and popped it in my mouth - to my surprise it was rotten and tasted vile! I tried to spit out as much as possible, gracefully of course, and my mouth proceeded to sting for about an hour afterwards (!) I was hoping I wasn't going to have some reaction to the rotten almond like one does to eating the wrong wild mushroom. I survived to tell the tale of course and ate lots of fresh almond cookies to compensate!

At the next Italian wedding I go to I hope they have some almond confetti.

2010-10-21T17:26:00.000+01:00

Winter-y hot chocolate nights are coming

Tried Nestle's Aero hot chocolate today from a package. I liked it and it doesn't taste like the crappy hot chocolate you get from a machine. Made with water it gave me the 4pm chocolate hit I needed today. I always remember burning my tongue as a child when we would have tiny white Styrofoam cups of it after skating sessions. I never did think it warmed me up, the only thing that did was getting into the car and getting home! Today is a nippy day in Londontown, frost on some cars this morning - old man winter is coming!

2010-10-20T17:06:00.000+01:00

Thankful

I missed Canadian Thanksgiving due to travels but I am hoping to still secure an invite to an American one. Considering I don't know any Americans in London I may just have to re-create a Thanksgiving dinner on any random day – like an un-birthday (does anyone remember that from Alice & Wonderland?!). I miss my annual Thanksgiving dinner as it is a time when I gather some of my great friends for a sit down meal and before the start of it we do the cheesy thing that my family always does and say what we are thankful for. I think this year we should hold hands while doing it too; mostly people’s statements are general ones relating to family, friends, health and happiness and sometimes it is something specific - some years there have even been tears. Once the sappy sharing of love is over the big bird emerges, it's not always a turkey, but it is carved like it is. There usually is lots of wine for us to forget how cheesy we were at the star of the meal and everyone goes home like they were a stuffed turkey, which you are not to do anymore due to health and safety reasons (boring).

I am now turning into Calogera Snr (my mother) who usually serves a 'turkette' (a fat chicken), this was always disappointing as children since the other kids at school always boasted about their big turkeys and came to school with dry turkey sandwiches for the whole week after the holiday, but since my parents were a bit foreign to the whole Thanksgiving thing, they served chicken and told us it was turkey!

Our turkette was served with lasagna and Italian wedding soup and a whole host of other things that were traditionally Canadian thanksgiving-y but we didn't care. The pumpkin pie would always be bought, sliced up for everyone to eat, but the plates would all return to the kitchen un-eaten except for my sister who bizarrely is the only one that acquired a taste for it. The rest of us ate something like my mother's amaaazing tiramisu.

My travels this year have been weird, wonderful and always full of sunshine, love and laughter, the one thing that all of them did was remind me how lucky I am and to this I am very thankful. I have been blessed with love, luck and happiness coming from some of the greatest friends and family around the globe. Thanks to my favourite sisters in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, London and my real sister in Toronto for being part of the reason for this sappy post. Ok enough sap! Smell ya later readers! Off to make friends with an American to snag an invite to eat some real turkey – I’ll bring the tiramisu!

2010-10-04T09:58:00.000+01:00

I heart Asia

Asia is such a magical place with weird and wonderful sights, sounds and smells at every corner. Every day, the goal was to have a fresh coconut water which revitalizes and hydrates the system and comes with a long list of health benefits (apparently Madonna is a now a big fan and has bought shares in a coconut plantation).

But for us we just LOVE the fresh, cool, crisp taste and needed to have at least one freshly cracked open for us a day, if not two! The picture below shows one of our yummy coconuts - a heart shape was created when it was hacked open.

In Singapore you can get the best street food for under five Singapore dollars or eat at a Michelin starred restaurant for $500 on the same street. Trying out the street food at local hawker markets is an experience, they are hustling and bustling places with Indian, Malay, Thai and Chinese foods all being sliced and diced and served up under one roof. There are stalls for every type of food imaginable and even some interesting market traders selling delicacies that we were curious about but never seemed to get around to trying - next time!

We took a pass on the pig's organs this time.

The above is from an award winning Hawker stall called Thunder Tea rice - the dish is made with green tea and packed with extremely healthy ingredients like fish, beans, basil leaves, green tea leaves, mint leaves, parsley, coriander leaves, okra, cabbage, tofu, long beans, and spinach. It is amazingly yummy and you can feel the goodness go into you while you are eating it.

Check it out if you are in Singapore any time soon. There are 3 locations.

Thunder Tea Rice
China Square Food Centre
51 Telok Ayer St.
#01-31

Amoy St. Food Centre,
7 Maxwell Road
#-01-11

Food Republic @ Vivo City
No. 1 Harbour Front Walk
#03-01

2010-08-26T11:57:00.000+01:00

Taking indoor bars outdoors

Trendy bar alert: ANGEL CLUB - Rhodes, Greece.
In the back streets of the old walled town of Rhodes, in an amazing setting with cobble stones below and the warm walls of the ancient buildings all around, the bar had 3 large chandeliers hanging outside, they looked like they were suspended from the sky!

The music was also piped outside the bar which made it feel like an outdoor club in the middle of a few winding residential alleys. Unfortunately the night we visited it was very empty, maybe it was too early as the Greeks go dancing at 1am. Check it out as a place to have a late night after a day out in the hot, hot Greek sun.

2010-07-30T07:48:00.003+01:00

Garlic trick

So you don't get stinky breath from eating your favourite garlic laden dish, take out the green bit that is inside the garlic. This piece is the one that makes you burp (eek!) and is the one that makes the lovely garlic smell linger.

That is what a chef just told me - am going to try it out and see if it works!

If you already know this then just act surprised when you read this post :)

2010-07-29T16:47:00.000+01:00

Spaghetti throwing contest?

No, it is not a pasta explosion, like my several icing sugar explosions that my kitchen has witnessed.

Here is a mini trick to see if your spaghetti is cooked – if it looks like it is getting to the point of being ‘al dente’ – grab a piece of spaghetti and throw it against the wall, if it sticks without immediately falling down or sliding down the wall then it is ready.

2010-07-23T12:06:00.000+01:00

T for Tapas

The Tapas Revolution has started & two fresh faced Spanish chefs (Omar trained at the famous El Bulli in Espagna and Danny his quiet and sweet sidekick) are at the helm of it. With a big leg of jamon serrano (cured ham) in hand; they are making their way across the UK –in the shape of a big ‘T’ with only a motorbike and a few cooking utensils.

Chef Omar said that he is going to cook for anyone that crosses his path and with only the ingredients they have in their kitchen (err…that might be tough, as if he came to mine he’d only find a pineapple, popcorn kernels and cupcake supplies!).

Before their grand departure for first stop, glamorous Liverpool, the charismatic chef and his sidekick invited a few peeps to a farewell dinner in Westbourne Grove at the lovely El Pirata Detapas for a send off. After this dinner I remembered how much I love Spanish food and how I don’t have it enough!

The menu consisted of the loveliest foods ever. First up was my favourite of the night - Ajo Bianco, a drink made with ground almonds, milk & garlic. Divine! Then there were piquillo peppers with the tastiest and softest baccala (salted cod) served on toasted bread – I think I hogged the whole platter of this; following that, there was a lovely salad with chick peas, orange, sultanas and veg served with a thick red pepper dressing –yum. And, yes there was more, a large rice dish was carried out that had a bit of fish, sausage, rabbit and other meats and treats inside –yum again. All served with sangria that was drunk too quickly on a hot evening and on an empty stomach; the Burger warned me that there was alcohol in there (you could only taste fruity goodness!) Well, with a light head and full belly we bid the energetic chefs off and skipped off home to meet the visiting Dutch and Czech visitors.

Have a watch of their videos and if you live along the ‘T’ in the UK – get out there and ask Omar to cook you a meal – you won’t regret it! http://www.tapasrevolution.com/

And a big thanks to Niamh at Eat Like a Girl for the wonderful photos!

2010-07-22T16:38:00.000+01:00

Today's snack 'o the day!

Am sure they are extremely unhealthy but they taste good and are a nice treat for an afternoon pick me up! I won't even try and look at the nutritional values of these little parcels.

2010-07-21T16:35:00.004+01:00

Cooking for dummies

At a certain lunchtime spot I have frequented a few times due to freelance work I undertake, I have on occasion tried the lunch in the staff canteen (cafeteria). Each time, I have looked at the yummy offerings, filled a plate at the lunch bar then eagerly got back to my desk to chow down to then be extremely disappointed. The salad bar wasn’t cheap either and each time I paid for an overly salted, terrible meal – I swore to never go again! This has gone on for a while, so it was boycotted altogether and the predictable Prêt or Eat sandwich was then consumed in greater quantities.

I am not sure when the ball dropped but someone must’ve complained to the canteen manager (not me!) and the food has had a major overhaul since – people around me started saying mmm...and yum and the salad bar became popular again. There are now wonderful salads made with mushrooms and tofu, spinach and feta cheese salads with lentil, cold meat offerings, pasta salads, thai noodle salads and lots of freshly cut veggies that you can load onto your plate. It is almost unrecognisable as the same place that I had salt overdoses from. So, what was the secret to the food quality overhaul?

Simple cooking lessons!! A few simple cooking lessons were given to the staff. How to toast croutons with day old bread, how to make light, fresh simple salads that are filling and healthy (rice and lentils are cheap) how to taste what you make – so it is not like licking a salt shaker anymore but it is yummy and delicious.

SO for those of you who say you can’t cook – here’s proof that it can all be turned around with a few short simple lessons by an expert, or just pick up a Cooking for Dummies book, ask your mum (if she is a good cook) or just try(!) recipes that aren’t hard to follow, or even watch a YouTube video on how to make a stir-fry - it isn't that hard.

Good luck to the cooking challenged!

2010-07-01T17:19:00.000+01:00

Taste of London

It's been busy in the kitchen but here are a few pics of the wonderful Taste of London food festival that I recently went to. I saw Heston Blumenthal speak, tasted the wares of some of the city's great chefs, ate some fresh New Zealand apples, tasted some lovely organic sparkling wine, won an evening of even mmore yummy tastings and wine at Whole Foods (next week!) and generally filled my tummy with lovely baked, broiled, boiled, salted and cured meats, sweets and treats. What a delightful festival! A must attend for any foodie.

2010-06-24T07:36:00.003+01:00

Sweet evening with Canderel

The lovely ladies from Canderel invited me to an afternoon tea party to test out some recipes and after being stuck in London traffic for one hour - to go a distance of 4 miles, I finally made it to their lovely and peaceful kitchen! When I finally made it I was treated to lovely cocktails, amazing olives and a mini cooking lesson with Canderel. For those of you that enjoy sweetners instead of sugar (less calories for those of you watching your weight), Canderel has some great recipes that you can make (that are very easy!) I missed the walnut bread making but made it for the brownies, mini strawberry trifle pot, (easy & yummy) and the chicken tagine (divine).

Below is the recipe for the uber delicious walnut bread. I think I am just big fan of bread and anything with added nuts or seeds is always a healthy bonus. Thanks to the Canderel peeps for such a lovely evening and check out their site for more recipes and vids. Bake away!

Walnut Bread (Serves: 8)
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40-45 minutes at 180C or Gas Mark 4

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons Canderel
225g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate soda
Pinch salt
50g half fat sunflower margarine
1 large egg
Grated zest from 1 medium orange
150ml fresh orange juice (use the juice from orange in this recipe and compote recipe)
100g roughly chopped walnuts
4 tbsp skimmed milk

Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with non-stick parchment paper or pre-formed liner.
Put the Canderel, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and stir together.
Beat the butter and egg with orange zest until creamy (the mixture will look curdled, this is OK). Add the orange juice and stir well. Add the dry ingredients and walnuts then mix until just combined. Add the milk to give a soft consistency. Spoon into the tin and bake in pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with jam or butter!

2010-06-23T11:54:00.002+01:00

It's Brownie Month!

And we have been busy working with lots of lovely chocolate in our kitchens! The lovely peeps at Hackett were treated to some of our brownies last week and more lucky recipients are getting deliveries -maybe you are on our list?!

2010-06-17T18:11:00.004+01:00

My next stop - Tom's Terrace

I personally think Tom Aikens is quite cute and have been to his restaurants and always had a great time, my ex-boyfriend even had to stop me from staring at the cute chef in action (he was reading his boring Sunday newspaper so I had to entertain myself, non?)

Somerset House is one of my favourite spots in London with the lovely water fountains and fab architectural beauty that surrounds it so how fitting to haev a great and cool patio restaurant with Tom at the helm. I walked by it the other day and was definitely impressed, the pics on the Somerset House website don't do it jsutice but check out Mathilde Cuisine's blog for her review and some great pics! And check out my review that will be posted soon as when it finally gets warmer I would love to sit on the patio and enjoy some delights from Hottie Tom and co. The maitre'd said that they close, 'well whenever, depending on the evening and the weather' my kinda place indeed.

2010-06-07T07:54:00.000+01:00

Shop shelf latte

I got one of these cold Starbucks lattes from Sainsbury’s and once again my attention to detail failed me. As I ripped off the lid, peeled off the foil and unpeeled the straw, I realised that at the end of the straw there was a sharp end meant for poking through the lid and the foil. Oh well, it just wobbled a little in its nice packaging until it was fully consumed. I was curious to taste this and compare it to the real thing you get in store and also to the famous Canadian Iced Capp from Tim Hortons. It was very nice indeed and has just the right amount of sugar. I think they need to create a soya version of this or a lactose free version (maybe they should team up with Lactofree!) but it was a nice treat on a sunny afternoon!

Thanks Starbucks for being there for those important times in life when a little pick me up via caffeine is needed. I had to share the rest with my favourite bear James but he was happy to sip up the rest; another problem is that my eyes are always bigger than my stomach!

2010-06-04T15:03:00.000+01:00

Oranges, olive oil and black pepper

This may sound like an odd combination but it is a Sicilian favourite! I can recall my grandfather eating this in his garden on sunny summer afternoons. He always had a little paring knife he would use to carve at fruits and vegetables he would pluck from his garden. The sun is shining in Londontown and everyone is outside enjoying picnics in the park, pints on the patio and eating lots of lovely fruits and ice creams. I have had this little combo a few times with some lovely oranges from Spain. Long live summer….

Try it yourself, you will be surprised. Happy Weekend x

2010-06-01T22:33:00.000+01:00

Organic meatballs

Dear Bloggies, the cookbook project is back on and above is a pic of Momma Dolce's secret meatball recipe made with organic ground beef. That is the only way I like ground beef!

The lovely Jake spent a day with All Things Dolce to take photos of 14 dishes I whipped up for him. He left with a bag of food and a full tummy as usual and we in return got some amazing shots (the above is from my dinky camera).

More photos to follow and more blog posts to come now that a very busy period has passed. Le Dolci has been very busy, we just had a fantastic Cupcake Masterclass this past Friday - see photos here

It was a wonderful evening with cappuccinos and cupcakes and lots of lovely ladies making cakes for their children and husbands (who were babysitting!). Another cupcake class date will be set shortly. Thanks to our lovely friends at our favourite Italian deli in London - we heart Alimentari!

Off to bed bloggies. I hope Londontwon is less soggy tomorrow for my mini purple broccoli plants to get some much needed sunshine.

2010-04-27T22:02:00.000+01:00

This weekend foodie gathering at Hampton Court Palace!

I have been keen to get to Hampton Court Palace for years and I think this is actually the best motivation to go to the palace. Combining food with a lovely grand palace and some King Henry the 8th history sounds like the perfect way to spend a day out of big bad London. The organisers of the festival have a 2for1 voucher going on so click here and download yours and go and see Michelin star chefs work their magic with a beautiful backdrop.

Use special code: foodies241 when booking online at www.foodiesfestival.com or on 0871 230 5573.

2010-04-26T08:39:00.006+01:00

Decorating saviours

The abundance of good quality decorations is not very easy to find in Londontown, in Canada you can go to several bulk food places and find tonnes of cake decorating items at bargain prices but in the UK you have a SMALL selection and it is super expensive. I will never understand how these things work sometimes?

Anyhow, the good old supermarket and cash and carry where I buy my supplies for Le Dolci does carry my favourite decorations made by Silver Spoon. The brand carries the best decorations at a reasonable price and the lovely people at Silver Spoon also contact me every once in a while to see if I would like to trial their products, yes please!

So, I received a little package in the post and used their decorations for a batch of cupcakes to go to some sweet little 5 year olds! The best part of this job is seeing cute kiddies enjoying cakes. And also the adults too! I did have 4 cupcakes for breakfast the other day (all for quality control purposes, of course!) but do think that this job could get dangerous as my metabolism starts to decrease. I will have to go to D's personal trainer soon to get me some abs of steel like he is getting - wow - a personal trainer does work and I have witnessed real abs on a non-gay man!

Keep the cake addictions going people of England, just make sure you work it off by dancing or walking or doing the London Marathon (a fabulous event that happened yesterday!) Next year I should make cupcakes with little medals on them and hand them out to runners - they deserve it!

Thanks again to the Silver Spoon peeps for sending me sweets - my customers have given it the thumbs up as have I.

2010-04-25T20:38:00.000+01:00

Grouchy at Gaucho Grill

We took some friends from Toronto to Gaucho Grill on Charlotte Street last week and it was probably the worst service we have (we were 7 at the table) have had in ages!

I could do a whole rant about how poor the service would be but it would be a pointless waste of time.

Needless to say we pulled the manager aside and told her the problems we were having and from then on we had new servers allocated to us (the trainees were banished) and we got a very large discount on our meal. I would've rather had no discount and good service but it did help as we were there for a big night of dinner and if we had more attentive staff they could've easily sold a few more bottles of vino to us too.

After our chat, the manager watched our table all night and made sure we were well taken care of after the rocky start. It was still not a great meal but it was probably the first time that a manager actually cared about a complaint and did everything they could to rectify it. So bad points for the horrible service and then a few good points for the manager salvaging some of the restaurant's reputation. The embarrassing thing was that we were raving to our friends at how great this place was and then our poor thirsty tourist friend waited about 40 minutes for someone remember he ordered a beer (after being reminded about it 4x).

So steer clear unless you have patience and want to eat meat that has a zillion carbon footprint miles stamped all over it.

2010-04-06T11:54:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday to me

After having a horrible birthday this year, I decided to change the date to make sure that my new birthday was with people that I loved. So indeed it was post-poned a few days and I spent it with some of my favourite people in a small country cottage with great food, wine and a lovely home made birthday cake.

The simple things in life are the best things and I am glad I moved my birthday date a few days forward! A dirty seagull swooped down and ate some chips from my plate on my birthday this year -gross (that was only one of the bad bits!). My special Easter/Birthday lamb dinner was prepared with love and was probably better than most 5 star restaurants and my banana birthday cake with one candle (to signify turning 21, of course!) was just what was needed for a great birthday.

Thanks to the Bunny for making my special cake and to the D&E for a fantastic weekend!

Hope everyone had a happy Easter with loved ones.

2010-03-19T13:00:00.000Z

TGIF

The big apple! I luv it and can`t wait to eat some big, fat American food. The things I love about my friends in Can, US and the UK is that they all seem to have a bottle of champers in the fridge. That always brings a smile to my face. So along with my duty free Piper Heidsieck pink champagne that was bought to celebrate upcoming birthday`s weddings and more there is also a lovely bottle of Veuve that I spotted in the French Fry`s fridge.

It is sunny and warm in NYC, the cupcake factory is being managed by the Kiwi in London and the Lady Gaga is on the radio so all seems to be going well! We`re popping into a few key NYC eateries and bars so will have lots of foodie pics to post when back!

Happy Friday Bloggies x

2010-03-11T21:46:00.000Z

Chocolate chip cookies with a pinch of salt!

I recently had a baking assistant and we happily made cookies for Friday Cake Club. Once all the lovely little shapes and sizes were cooled and all of the dishes were washed we sat down to enjoy a few. At once, my fast talking, cookie making virgin, management consultant - who thought using an ice cream scooper was a better way to drop the cookies on the sheet, noticed an odd white speckle in a few cookies.

We picked it out, did a taste test and sure enough the rock salt that I use for cooking and that I used for baking this one time (as I ran out of the other stuff) was intruding on 90% of our lovely cake club goodies. We tasted a few and at first the salty sweet combo was nice but then it was like gargling with salt - gross!

Note to self, never use rock salt in baking and always stick to the recipe - never divert unless you have lots of time for trial and error. The second batch came out fine but after a long day I just wanted to make the last batch and watch a bit of ITV player!

My assistant is soon to be leaving for Singapore where I think she should start a cookie empire. She now knows what not to do!

x

2010-02-28T16:47:00.000Z

Apple goodness muffin

Nicky's apple muffins filled with yummy seed and raisins. A great morning treat!

2010-02-21T12:36:00.000Z

Polpo - 41 Beak Street. Soho

I don't think I have read a bad review about this place yet and after a visit there myself I also had nothing bad to say about it. It was wonderful, the buzz, the food, the service, the set up - it does feel like you are in a tiny bacaro in Venice! Go there and try the tapas like food and the spritz (Venetian drink with Capari)

Excellent!

Polpo

2010-02-06T18:21:00.000Z

First gift of 2010

Hand sewn by my favourite Kiwi mother on the sunny farm in NZ. This lovely tea cosy was delivered by snail mail and brought a big smile to my face. It is even lined with cupcake imprinted fabric! I love it and so will my teapot!! Thank you Momma Hale xx

2010-02-02T22:32:00.000Z

Obamitas

Wars continues to be waged, and ten percent unemployment persists, but at least we can console ourselves with the thought of Obamitas, the artisanal chocolate cookies out of Spain that feature the likeness of President Barack Obama.

Cute cookies -go Obama-rama! The website is soo cute too! Thanks to Diana for spotting this and sending it to me.

2010-01-23T13:25:00.000Z

Busy Bee

Many apologies bloggies, there has been a lack of posts due to me being a being a busy, busy worker bee - although I would like to feel like the Queen bee (doesn't the queen sits there and have everyone fluttering around her, trying to mate with her?)

There has been a lot of baking, caking and PRing so not lots of time to write down the musings of food and life. I will return shortly, I just need to catch up on sleep and get some free time sorted to write some interesting and engaging posts for your lovely eyes!

Back soon........xxx

2010-01-19T00:00:00.000Z

Compromise

"A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece".
Ludwig Erhard

2010-01-17T22:52:00.001Z

Cake

"If the people have no bread, let them eat cake." Marie Antoinette

2010-01-13T07:18:00.002Z

The funniest David Letterman cupcake video!

I love David Letterman - he looks like Mr. Diab and love his antics on his show. Watch him driving the crazy-ish Cupcake Car around his set. Hilarious! And I love this new food site I found, check out Eat Me Daily.

Watch David here:
http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/12/david-letterman-drives-the-25000-cupcake-car-attempts-to-destroy-christmas-tree-video/?so=f-s

2010-01-12T21:13:00.000Z

My ~~sister's~~ (well her nanny's) potluck creation

2010-01-11T20:43:00.001Z

Feedback from this week's cake club deliveries

"Your brownies are very rich and moist - some of the best brownies I've had.

The biscotti are just right. Everyone at work was envious."

Phew! Looking forward to this week's boxes going out.

2010-01-09T12:29:00.000Z

Toothpick art

After you make your next frothy cappuccino or any milky drink, dip your toothpick into the coffee bit and then use the dark liquid on the toothpick as a pen to draw a smiley face or design on the froth. My Fairy Godmother made us these lovely cappuccinos. While doing our Christmas visit little JJ decided he didn't want to wear a shirt so wandered around her house topless (how classy) and PM was playing various tunes on the piano (with no training he did quite well!). The fabulous Nicholas was a great host and we had a lovely afternoon with the best friends and sisters. Thanks Fairy Godmother and Nicholas for the friendship, love and for feeding us more biscuits!

2010-01-08T07:39:00.002Z

Pasta making with the kiddies

It is as easy as 1-2-3 and then you have a yummy fresh lunch!

Boil pasta only for a few minutes, add some fresh petit pois a little bit of butter or olive oil and voila! Of course, you need a pasta maker and a strong arm. But if a 6 year old can turn the pasta machine crank, so can you.

Pasta recipe
200g Flour (00 Type)
2 eggs
1tbsp Olive Oil
Make a little volcano with the flour and add the eggs to the crater. Mix all together into a moist dough, let sit in the fridge covered in cellophane for a half hour or so. Roll out in your pasta maker (going down each number until you are on the finest setting) or by hand (like my Nonna used to) and then boil as per usual.

2010-01-06T07:15:00.000Z

PM& PJ's rainbow cupcakes

Having the kids mix the food coloring in little bowls with white butter cream frosting is a great activity that they loved. They were also good at spreading the icing on and also very adept at eating many of them in the process!

2010-01-05T06:58:00.000Z

Afternoon tea

A spot of tea with the Queen - Jake had an old copy of the Daily Telegraph from the Queen's coronation knocking around on the day of the shoot.

2010-01-04T07:07:00.003Z

Cute food marketing

What the stickers say:

Seedless Greetings ~ Elf-Sized Treat ~ Happy Juicy Days

These cute little stickers on the tangerines made everyone have a look closer at them & gave them a smile. Great marketing but they missed a step on their branding as you didn't get the supplier's name or website where you could go look at more stickers or learn more about the product. I kinda like that they didn't do that as it is simply a cute gesture.

2010-01-03T04:06:00.000Z

Momma Dolce's Tiramisu

It is a work of exquisite art and the taste is to die for! My sister still thinks we should sell her recipe on eBay! I think the divine taste is due to the talent of the maker not the recipe. She has a specific way she dunks the biscuits! The secret will never be revealed.

Happy New Year all!

x

2009-12-30T15:01:00.001Z

The Metro loves Le Dolci

Here is the piece that was in the UK edition of The Metro on 14 Dec. written by Chloe Scott. The girls at the Metro were very pleased with their box of goodies, which was good news for us, phew!

2009-12-29T23:42:00.000Z

Mouldy Chestnuts - still good for you?

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....yes they were on Christmas Eve but now a few days later I have eaten some and think that I ate some mouldy ones! Not that I am scared of a little mould, it makes us stronger but I think that it might offset the nutritional values of the other chestnuts. I didn't know how healthy they were until today - while googling 'eating mouldy chestnuts' I found out that they are quite good for you. Cholesterol-free, low in sodium, a good source of dietary fibre, high in water content and high in carbs they are a healthy snack - they are also good for their calcium content, iron and protein offering. Put them on the shopping list next week!

Get some from that roasted chestnut vendor next time you see him -as long as he doesn't dunk them in oil or salt. Or buy some shiny ones at the shop and roast them for 20-30minutes and eat them nice and warm -they don't need any salt or oil as they are sweet, crumbly and moist all at the same time.

I still like them cold and a few days old but not sure the mouldy ones will like my stomach in a few hours :)

2009-12-28T05:58:00.001Z

More Cakes

I love these bug shaped vanilla cakes -perfect for a kids' birthday party!

And I love Jake's photography for Le Dolci.

2009-12-24T14:30:00.001Z

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Hope you have a lovely day with family, friends, food, wine and good cheer! Here's to health and happiness for the New Year!

Am looking forward to some yummy food and hearing my favourite little violinist play a song for us this Christmas.

Lots of love xx

2009-12-23T15:58:00.002Z

The Deviled Egg Debate

I personally think bringing eggs to a party is wrong. But that is just me as I think eggs can cause gasesous substances to emit from the other party goers. I also was scarred for life when an ex-girlfriend of my friend was a co-host at his party and opened the door to greet us with a tray of stinky tuna and raw onion hors d'oeuvres. It was a very odd combo for me as EVERYONE that night then had tuna and onion breath. It was awful! I know I may be a bit of a stickler for food but let's stick with less offensive smelling things to bring to a party peeps! Luckily my sister didn't bring deviled eggs to my party last night, ~~she~~ (errm...her nanny made) a bean salad with the loveliest flower rosettes made of tomatoes.

Back to the egg-spectations of party goers, I would've liked it if someone brought me this from Japan. I loved boiled eggs (when I am not entertaining) and though this is a super cool idea - it is probably a little too scary GM for my taste. Read my friend Rahul's blog post about Food, Glorious Food here! Thanks for the photo RP x

http://www.RahulPanchal.com/2009/10/egg-tube/

2009-12-21T22:42:00.000Z

A bit of Christmas cheer

Back in warm-ish Canada, well it is warmer than freezing London. So for people without kids, beware as when you do have them your day can go something like this. Wake up at 7am, make and eat french toast, play and make rainbow cupcakes by 9am, wonder what the hell to do for the rest of the day for about 30 seconds in between more playing of Hungry Hippo, kids Monopoly and tag.

Hmm....it was only 11am and I was already exhausted. So at 1pm it was bowling time, then more playtime and more cupcake eating.

Cousins of the children's age came over after bowling so that eased the play requirements, snuck in a bit of Oprah watching, Le Dolci emails and a bit of pub action tonight with the Adopted Lebanese sister and the real Italian fiery one. I have done very little walking as this is the land of the vehicle so Momma Dolce's home made pasta and veal have gone down a treat and it keeps on coming.

Today's cupcake making had a 'rainbow' theme and each cupcake was a color of the rainbow (well we tried as best as we could!) It's great to be home for xmas, more food adventures to come. Bring on the Christmas feast.

2009-12-20T19:12:00.001Z

Interesting Job Application

Although I am not hiring, I do everything from packing boxes to licking the bowl myself :), this pic came via email with the note, 'Hire me! I think I would make a pretty good employee.......'

I do like the direct approach and love the pic and the decoration, although I suspect the frosting may not be all natural but this is a good starting point. Unfortunately the applicant is in Canada so they will have to wait 'til a Le Dolci Toronto branch opens. Then they are hired! And her two little angel-looking children can do the taste testing. Little Andrew would be good at that am sure!

2009-12-19T07:39:00.002Z

Chana daal with cucumber raita

From Leith's wonderful archives

For the cucumber raita:

225g cucumber
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 pint of Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp chopped mint
1/4 tsp black pepper

Wash the cucumber and pat dry, grate the unpeeled cucumber and sprinkle with the salt. Drain the grated cucumber in a strainter or piece of muslin, getting out as much water as possible. In a bowl mix the yoghurt, mint and pepper. Prior to serving add the drained cucumber and mix. Deliciously served on top of the Chana dhal to bring some cool to the spicy dish.

For the Chana Dhal:

225g Chana dhal (lentils)
5 cups cold water
1 medium onion, finely choppped
3 green chillies, chopped
1tsp peeled and grated ginger
2 tbsps of oil
1/2 tsp each of: coriander, cumin, tumeric
1tsp masala
1tsp tomato puree
salt

Wash the lentils in several changes of water, soak for 2hrs in 3 cups of water. Drain and put remaining lentils and water in a saucepan with the chillies, ginger and half the onion. Bring to the boil and cover and simmer for 50 minutes. Sirt from time to time and if the water has evaporated add 1/2 cup of boiling water. The lentils hould be soft but not mushy when pressed between your thumb and forefinger.

In a small pot heat oil and fry the raminign onion until brown, add the rest of the spices add salt and ppeer to taste and mix. Pour this spicy mixture into the mixture and bring back to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve as above- it is divine!

2009-12-18T06:46:00.000Z

Babushka's coconut coat...brrrr

Made with coconut milk in both the base and icing, I think the coconut cupcake is my favourite flavour -that is because I feel like I was born in the wrong place instead of the Great White North, I think my ancestral blood (Arab/African?) means I should be roaming the desert or living on a tropical island. I am not a fan of the cold (I think I am getting frostbite INSIDE my flat - THANK YOU lovely thin English windows) and thrive in the heat so love anything from the tropics including: coconut, mango, passion fruit, bananas, lychee, pineapple, papaya and taro. I think I need to get into the sunshine soon as my body is starting to look as white as that cupcake!

2009-12-17T13:17:00.000Z

Cannoli and coffee

Eaten in front of an open fire, while some chestnuts are roasting and Christmas carols are on - perfect! A few more days until I am in front of a crackling fire, looking forward to it immensely. Another pic from Jake Green and Le Dolci's cannoli. We don't make coffee.

2009-12-16T17:10:00.002Z

Photo shoot fun!

My wonderful friend Jake at Jake Green.co.uk was kind enough to host a photo shoot at his cool studio this past week. He usually does celebs and other fun stuff but he has a sweet tooth so the very cooperative subjects for the afternoon were cakes! Resulting phtoographs from the day are AMAZING.

If you ever need a photographer please call him and tell him I sent you (you may get a discount or a clever East End comment!) Jake has a creative eye and managed to make the cupcakes, cannoli and brownies look fantastic. More pics to be uploaded soon but for now enjoy these two and also read today's review of Le Dolci on Londonist.com written by the lovely Food & Drink editor Chris.

The greatest thing about starting a new biz is all of the interesting and kind people you meet, a lot of people are willing to help newbies and I am sure karma and time will allow me to help them one day too. A big thanks to all of you who have pointed me in interesting directions and have offered me your time and advice!

x

2009-12-15T11:50:00.000Z

This is what is making me hungry today!

This reminds me of burgers and chips in the summer served after a day at the beach or from Simmy's snack bar! I need to now have a boring bowl of museli cereal. Read more about this cult favourite burger joint in San Diego on the following blob: Cheese n Biscuits The place is called In & Out - I am now craving a big burger for dinner.

2009-12-13T12:21:00.001Z

Easy Mulled Wine Recipe

Get two bottles of red wine and dump them in a pot on the stove -add the following:

slices of clementines, lemon rind, sliced almonds, cinnamon or a cinnamon stick, a dash of nutmeg, some vanilla and a handful of sugar. You can add cloves and anise but I am not too keen on those, basically add whatever lovely Christmas-y spices you'd like to the wine.

Let simmer on the stove **do not boil** as that will boil the alcohol off. Serve steamy warm while wearing an embarrassing Christmas sweater that your gran gave you and crank up Step Into Christmas by Elton John! Only 11 days to go xx

*pics from the amazingly decorated Carnaby Street

2009-12-12T12:08:00.004Z

12/12 & The Queen's Christmas Cake

Today is the 12th day of the 12th month - only 12 more days til Christmas Eve!

Have had some mulled wine and Christmas music and getting very excited about a snowy white winter wonderland and family in the Great White North. I also made (well steamed) a Christmas pudding for the first time. It was a gift from the Queen, yes Liz and I are mates. I did attend a lunch with her once but that was a few years ago and I was one of another 100 people but let's just pretend it was her and I chatting about life over a cuppa tea and some biscuits.

Anyhow, before I digress any further, Queen Lizzie gave these puds out to each of her staff as a Christmas gift in 2007. And one of her lovely employees gave it to me!

I steamed it for 1.5 hrs yesterday and served it up on a plate with lots of spoons, which to everyone's dismay is not how you serve it. It is supposed to be served with custard or ice cream but there was none of that at our place, just mulled wine and minced pies. I had a spoonful of the Queen's pudding and one was not amused as there are so many raisins and fruity bits!! Dried fruit and brandy is not a good combo for me, our Christmas dessert is usually Tiramisu.

Well the pudding has been saved for the Brits to eat 'properly' with their custard and ice cream. Let the countdown begin to Momma Dolce's tiramisu xx

2009-12-10T06:00:00.001Z

Chocolate Fudge bars with Jordans Country Crisp - yum!

The lovely people at Jordans sent me some chocolate Country Crisp and although it isn't as good as my childhood favourite, Count Chocula (which was covered in sugar!) This chocolate cereal is yummy and I can bet much healthier than the Count and his marshmallows!

Here's a recipe for some chocolate fudgy bars!

Makes 18

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

150g dark chocolate

120g unsalted butter

2 large eggs

150g soft dark brown sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

50g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

240g fresh or frozen pitted cherries, defrosted if frozen (unless you like cherries, I would leave these out - icky!)

100g Jordans Chocolate Country Crisp

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/160C fan. Line a 20cm/8” square baking tin with non-stick baking parchment.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, using an electric hand whisk, until light and doubled in volume. Stir in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture.

4. Fold in the cherries, and Jordans Chocolate Country Crisp. Pour into prepared tin and smooth the surface with a spoon. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the cake is set and no longer wobbles when the tin is shaken slightly (it will still be quite sticky, but will firm up once cooled). Leave to cool completely in the tin, before cutting into bars.

Enjoy! And hint, hint, ladies who don't know what to bring to the potluck - here's an idea!

Also, if you love Country Crisp join the appreciation society for invites to cool events and news on exciting new food stuffs. www.welovecountrycrisp.co.uk

2009-12-10T05:25:00.002Z

Jesus sightings in food

Thought this might be interesting in the run up to the birth of baby Jesus.

Marmite Jesus
BBC News, May: Claire Allen, 36, said she was the first to notice the image on the underside of the lid as she was putting the yeast spread on her son's toast.

Kitkat Jesus
The Metro, April: ' "I was amazed. I just took a bite and then I saw the face of Christ in it," the finder told the NU.nl Dutch website... Other witnesses are less impressed.'

Burger grease Jesus
The Sun, July: 'Builder Oliver Bellerby discovered this incredible image of Jesus in a baking tray… He said: "I went back to the kitchen after having dinner to get a drink and I just saw it straight away - the face of Jesus."'

Source: Daniel Finkelstein's Times Online column

2009-12-09T05:07:00.000Z

Chili Squid

I can now clean, collect the black ink, season with chili and deep fry a giant squid for you! Oh the love of Leith's cooking school. Here's Steve with his big tentacled friend.

On another note, one of the Christmas activities with the kiddies will be pasta making, they'll love that and their Mum will love the flour-y floor! I made tortellini the other night; they were filled with 3 cheeses so only ate a few which is unfortunate as the three I had were delicious.

2009-12-08T07:08:00.000Z

Periodic table

It's a periodic table made with cupcakes, very geeky cool! Thanks A for the spot.
I wonder what the Alkaline earth metals ones taste like?? Spotted on Geekologie.com

2009-12-07T01:40:00.001Z

Light bar with the Aries gal!

While I waited at our table and admired the lovely enlarged funny face portraits hanging from the high, white ceiling, the Aries girl made two friends at the bar (a lovely couple from Scotland) and before we left they hailed us over and gave us a kiss and a hug and wishes for a merry Christmas. How nice was that!? Only an Aries girl could get on like a house on fire with someone in the span of time it takes to order a drink! What star sign am I?

We had a quick bevvy at the Light Bar at St. Martin's Hotel before heading off for a burger in Soho. I absolutely love the decor in the Light Bar and the wait staff and door staff were also very pleasant; once again I was shocked but oh so pleased! Explore their website for more amazing pics of their bar, restaurant and hotel, it's oh so cool and modern. When you go, try the Strawberry Cheesecake Collins (drink) or snack on nibbles from Asia de Cuba, the restaurant next door. Oh so delightful. A nice place to take a break after a long day of Christmas shopping.

2009-12-05T12:43:00.000Z

Christmas Cupcakes

It has been a busy week with the Christmas party season starting. I've been busy baking Christmas cupcakes (and brownies!). Blog post to follow soon, just delivering a few cupcakes today to the east end.

Back soon x

2009-12-01T07:06:00.010Z

Party at the 'White' House

Party at the White and York House was fab, the hosts fully kitted the house out in the theme. There were empty milk cartons hanging like patio lanterns, there were sliced beer cans hanging like wind chimes (see pics), CDs dangling from the ceiling, old fashioned cassette tapes unraveled in the toilet, and recycling bag stuff hanging artistically everywhere. Can you guess the theme?

Well it was - RUBBISH. So everyone was asked to dress in rubbish. I had an egg carton tiara with a home made t-shirt with pink paint on it that matched the pink dots I painted on my egg carton hat. Ms White was lovely in her rubbish themed ballet outfit - lots of rolled up plastic bags made into frill and flowers adorned her outfit to make it look like something out of the ballet. And member no. 1 of Alter Ego Diaries - (above) made her tea party outfit using tea bags that she had dyed earlier this week. She even made the tea pot out of paper mache. The tea bags looked great (my pic may be too zoomed out); they were arranged as colorful shoulder pads and decoration for her bustier. Member no. 2 of Alter Ego Diaries was also wearing a stunning Financial Times outfit made of the FT newspaper. It was fab! She made the bustier out of FT paper mache and even had little FT snippets on like nail polish! Love it. You can check out their blog for more fun dressing up stuff.

As usual some peeps didn't wear costumes so donned a Sainsbury's bag or two as a hat or a diaper. It was visually very entertaining. Oh so many great costumes. So, your food waste does not need to just be rubbish: egg cartons, plastic bags, tea bags and more can be transformed into works of art! x

2009-11-30T00:03:00.001Z

Cute cakes from Cake International

Some people are very talented in regards to what they can do with sugar paste. My skills are improving but just need more time and sugar paste (I dropped a large chunk on the floor tonight and had to bin it). I watched a few workshops at the show in Birmingham a few weeks ago and learned a few tricks too. Maybe over Christmas my nephews and I will experiment. Stay tuned!

2009-11-28T11:50:00.000Z

Apple pie, cinnamon and hot chocolate

...with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, eaten in front of a wood fire under a big, woolly blanket is just what the doctor orders for a chilly and windy day like today. Now for that fireplace, we have one but don't think it is fire-safe - boo.

2009-11-25T07:07:00.002Z

The Candy Haul

Our little pumpkin went out for trick-or treating a few short weeks ago. Is it already November 25th?! Look at all the loot he collected. They counted his big brother's candy and there was about 350 pieces of candy! Almost one for every day next year; oh how the dentist must love Halloween. I think a large quantity has already been squirreled away for a children's charity or a big birthday party.

Below: some creatively carved pumpkins along the route. I do love freshly roasted pumpkin seeds with a little bit of salt. Not a fan of the pumpkin pie though, it always just sits at our table and people take a tiny piece of it then it gets left in the fridge for a while hoping to be eaten, Italians don't really do pumpkin unless it is in ravioli, and even then I think that is a recipe from the north.

It is Thanksgiving this weekend in the Excited States of America so am sure there will be a lot of pumpkin pie consumed. Enjoy the holidays to our friends south of the border. Renee, I want a pic of your bird! xo

2009-11-24T08:44:00.015Z

Happy Burfday!

Happy Burfday Big Sister Dolce! Although it is frowned upon to lick your spoon at cooking school, she got away with it as she was a guest for the evening. Big Sister Dolce's birthday gift was a night of cooking: chocolate roulade with a ginger and cream filling and sea bass with gremolata and cannelini beans with a white vinegar and caramelised onion sauce (my favourite part of the meal). We even de-scaled and filleted the fish, now we are ready for a fishing trip!

It was a great evening and she even got to wash the dishes too - that's what happens when you are a guest of honour! Thanks to Leith's Cooking school for being so wonderful.

2009-11-23T08:44:00.000Z

Camden calling

Cute seats in Camden Market for you to eat your food purchased from one of the food stalls; sweet little Vespa butts. We had great dinner at Gilgamesh a while ago for Burger's birthday and Sat. night had some great Indian at Masala Zone for big Sister Dolce's last night in Londontown. All was great at Masala Zone, they have the friendliest staff in all of London - we had the nicest and smiley-ist waiters ever!!

It was a great evening followed by La Clique (get tickets!!!) and some dancing in Soho with Quinn Snr who was also in town. The only thing was there was a disgusting display of Booze Britain when the two jerks at the restaurant were sleeping and falling off their chairs at the table behind us, they were a such a horrible display of drunkenness - they couldn't speak or keep their eyes open. Why go to a restaurant? Go to a bar and sleep in the corner there dumb-asses!

I haven't been to Masala Zone in ages but will surely return shortly as their Thalis are scrumptious and those lovely smiley waiters were such a treat!

2009-11-22T19:05:00.000Z

No bribes! Cupcake feedback

I wish everyone would be as nice as this and take their time to email me feedback! And I didn't even have to pay him! Thanks Anthony, will slip you that tenner via Paypal ;)

From: Anthony Hawgood
"Kate gave me one of your cakes to try yesterday with my mid-morning cup of tea and I can honestly say it was heaven! I thought of the ad where the whole world stops because the person is eating a piece of cake...that’s how I felt! The cake itself was substantial without being heavy (there’s nothing worse than “too doughy”!) and the icing was real melt-in-the mouth (made with real butter?)

The other great thing about these cupcakes is that they’re not too sweet!

Thank you for the best cupcake experience I’ve ever had.

2009-11-19T11:46:00.000Z

Today's Le Dolci News

We spent a lovely morning (nice and early!) at the Covent Garden Flower Market buying supplies and on our way picked up a copy of the Wood & Vale newspaper and LeDolci's Lisa was the pg. 3 girl! Our story was on page 3 with a snap of me and some cakes and cupcakes. The journalist and photographer were super lovely!

x

2009-11-18T23:18:00.002Z

Check out Springwise.com!

Le Dolci had a piece on the new biz on the world famous newsletter, which I read religiously. Along with George the Greek (in Toronto!), who spotted it on there before I did. It is a great weekly read and everyone should sign up! Thanks Springwise! Check out the piece here!

2009-11-16T20:45:00.002Z

Kate & Armand's Cupcakes (that they didn't get to try!)

Kate was in a meeting and her team devoured them, she only found out later while on the train when one of her colleagues said, 'yummy cupcakes' and Armand from Brands2Life was sick so I sent his batch to Jake at Response Photographic to be photographed professionally. Even Kevin there was tempted to eat them before Jake photographs them tomorrow morning!

Kate's Cupcakes (that she didn't get to try!)

2009-11-13T17:28:00.001Z

Launching today - Le Dolci.co.uk !

Le Dolci, London's newest cupcakery and its only weekly Cake Club! After a few months of doing cupcake towers for friends' weddings, I decided to start my own business making cakes and cupcakes!

Le Dolci offers London's only weekly cake drop service (large and small boxes filled with cakes, scones, brownies, biscotti and more) and I do cupcake treats! I do specially tailored cupcakes for corporate clients/journalists/musicians - e.g. A PR agency recently sent a box of our cupcakes tot the Guardian and they gave us a 9/10!

I make homemade sugar decorations of guitars, stilettos, handbags, beer bottles, hearts, baby booties and more! So cakes/cupcakes can be tailored to any occasion.

There is a gallery with some images on the brand new site www.ledolci.co.uk and more to follow in the next few weeks. Enjoy and please pass the word on to other cake addicts or give our cakes a try!

2009-11-11T14:54:00.000Z

SIGEP in January

Looking forward to this trade show in Rimini, Italy and seeing family that live there. My favourite baking cousin and lovely wife from Toronto are also joining in the fun. I think all those Saturday's hanging around in my uncle's bakery (Tempo Bakery) watching the cake decorating, eating gelato, testing pastries and being a pest to my Aunt had had a deeper effect than I thought. The did let me use the cash register if I was extra well behaved, oh what a treat that was!

SIGEP is the International Exhibition - Artisan Production of Gelato, Pastry,
Confectionery and Bakery - I hope I can taste test!

2009-11-09T22:44:00.001Z

Exeter Street Bakery's Chocolate Bread

Did I already blog about how delicious the chocolate bread is from Exeter Street Bakery? It is a simple pleasure! And their slogan is parfait - TRADITIONAL BAKING, PERFECTLY DONE. What more could you ask for? I have brought a few customers to the place and they are all regulars now.

2009-11-05T07:20:00.003Z

www.LeDolci.co.uk Cupcake photos! Our new website coming soon (hopefully tomorrow!) but call for any cake addictions that need to be satisfied! 077 3292 3331

Thanks to Shoot Experience for the Shout out today!

New Website coming soon!

2009-11-04T16:10:00.001Z

More www.LeDolci.co.uk products for your cake addictions-website should be up today!

Banana and chocolate gift - unwrap and eat!

A double dipped (Dairy Queen style!) chocolate cake! Or, the giant turd (as Bunny calls it!)

Banana loaf - this is like a meal - 6 bananas per loaf.

Everyone needs to donate their ripe bananas to me now.

2009-11-03T23:57:00.002Z

Two of Le Dolci's latest cakes

Chocolate coconut

Double chocolate brownie

2009-11-02T07:03:00.000Z

East Side

Another trip to Quinny's favourite place - the East Side! She loves hanging with the scensters there in her gold trainers, indie t-shirts and funky haircut. I love her vintage wardrobe too, although sometimes it smells a little ;)

This time it was dinner at Red and Green Mexican - excellent Margaritas! I usually don't like Mexican drinks as in my experience you get one at the start of dinner and there is usually so much alcohol in it that on an empty stomach I can get quite tipsy even before the tortilla chips and salsa arrive. But this one was made to perfection. Mr. B is the Mexican expert, having lived in Mexico, well Southern California but close enough and he said the food was great; I agreed and I am not a Mex-pert. One thing to highlight was that it was served by the friendliest waitress ever.

Seriously she must have just arrived in London or won the lottery that day as she was so attentive, kind, sweet and very lovely. We had loads of little tapas: mexican fish cakes, chili chicken wings, calamar fritto (fried calamari) refried beans (!) and freshly made tortilla chips with spicy salsa and guacamole. It had to be topped off with Dulces (dessert); we ordered the Ancho chili and Valhorona chocolate pot dessert! Divine and such a nice combination. A must visit if you are hanging with Ali at some obscure pub off of Brick Lane.

2009-11-01T19:45:00.001Z

Jack of all trades

When starting a business you have to be a jack of all trades and try and do all of the things needed to get it off the ground. With Le Dolci I am reading a few books to help but one thing that I have had to brush up on is my photography skills for website photos. Luckily I have learned a few tricks along the way from people who are great photographers -Erin, Faraz -thank you! So here is my chocolate cake photographed in 2 ways. There have been lots of photo shoots and lots of cakes made in my humble home all for the sake of building imagery for the website.

In turn, there have been a lot of leftovers for visitors to enjoy. I wish I could drop them off at the local school but am sure if I dropped off cakes at the school I may be put on some 'special list' for crazy child thieves or something. I guess my friends and I will just have to get fat; all in the name of helping the website look good!

Hope you all had a great Halloween, my nephew counted and he got 210 candies in his little trick or treat round last night. That is almost one candy for every day next year!!!!!!

Enjoy thea pic of my favourite Czech Republic resident in her Halloween gear. She is the ghost of a semi-decapitated 18th C. chamber maid. No Jack-o-lanterns this year only some pumpkins on tables at the wonderful venue for our grand Halloween party which was held at The Troxy, a 1930’s art deco Grade II listed building. An amazing space!

2009-10-31T19:45:00.000Z

You won't be hungry after this - introducing the Yankee Doodle Noodle Casserole!

The Creative has been here enjoying the sights and sounds of LondonTown this weekend. She gave me this horrifically trailer park trashy recipe from her days working for Old Dutch potato chips. Needless to say, this recipe came down from their website when the Creative got her hands on the account.

A classic to keep for that special romantic din din when you need to impress.

Ingredients:

Cooked macaroni
Can of sweet corn nibblets
Beef Jerky cut into bite sized pieces
Shredded cheddar cheese
Cheese puffs/ Cheesies
Coat all of the above in a whole lotta Ranch dressing, pour into a casserole dish and crumble a whole bag of Old Dutch Potato chips on top -no need to bake! Serve at room temperature. MMmmmmmmm........TPT dinner.

Ok, back from being sick in the toilet!!

2009-10-30T00:01:00.000Z

The Christmas collection

A snowy cupcake with a little snowman! Only 9 weeks til Christmas. I think we should worry about Halloween first. Mr. B is making a Halloween themed dinner on Sunday, I think there was talk of 'Bloody' Marys and a Witches Beef Stew...yum!

2009-10-29T15:59:00.001Z

Today's lunch

MENU DU JOUR

SMOKED SALMON AVEC CARAMELISED ONIONS, BROCCOLI

WITH CHILI AND GARLIC OIL
LE CREATIVE AND I ENJOYED IT WITH HOMEMADE CHICKEN LIVER PATE AUJOURDHUI

ALL FRESHLY MADE IN THE KITCHEN LAST NIGHT

2009-10-28T07:10:00.002Z

The Perfect Smoked Salmon and Dill Twice Baked Souffle

It is delicious and I could've eaten 10 of these but I only made two. Next time I will make more and eat them all myself. These ones were filled with smoked salmon and dill and cooked in a bain marie (a roasting ray of water in the oven). They were the perfect accompaniment to the duck I made, yes I made duck and it was delicious. I am now officially a duck fan. Here is the recipe for anyone who wishes to try them at home, more on the duck later...

Twice Baked Souffles:

55 g Butter
45g Flour
290ml Milk
3 eggs -separated
110g -Smoked Salmon - chopped
2 tbsps freshly chopped dill
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the cream sauce

55ml of dry white wine
50ml double cream
1 tbsp freshly chopped dill
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180degrees
Melt the butter and brush the timbale moulds/ramekins (I think you could also use a cupcake tray), allow the butter to set and then brush again
Add the flour to the butter left in the saucepan, cook for 1min. Remove from the heat and gradually add the milk, sirring all the time. Retrun to the heat and bring to a boil, sirring continuously, simmer for 1 minute on lower heat. Tip it in a large bowl and let it cool slightly.
Add the egg yolks, salmon and dill to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
Whisk the egg whies in a separate bowl until peaks form on your beater and then fold into your first mixture. Fold gently so it remains light and fluffy!
Divide the mix to the individual timbales/ramekins (or maybe the cupcake tin - I will ask if this is doable?!) and bake in a bain marie (roasting tin half filled with hot water -which cooks the eggs slowly) for 25min - or until they have puffed up and are brown on top - kinda golden brown like when you are making a cake.
After you remove them from the oven, let them sink down and cool down. Run a knife around the edges and turn hem upside down onto a ovenproof dish (do this while they are still warm-ish)
Cover and put them aside until you are ready to serve them. Then when you are you bake them a second time for 15 min to cook them through/warm them up again.

For the sauce

Put the wine into a pan and reduce it by boiling it (you must always boil alcohol when you are cooking with it). Once it has boiled, remove from the heat and add the double cream, dill and salt and pepper. Pour over your souffles or even your duck - it is yummy!

2009-10-27T07:27:00.010Z

Fantastic Formosa

My favourite part of the evening, apart from the food, at Formosa Dining Rooms is when my Cupcake Pimp (he has got me 3 orders so far!) was moving around the lentils on his plate scrunching his face, squinting and asking, 'what are these things, are they vegetables?'

I was laughing a bit as I think he said that in his culture vegetables are for the poor - a sign of wealth and prosperity is a meal with lots of meat! Fair enough, but I guess he may need more pulses in his life. Well thanks to the CP I am now supplying a few places in NW London so am excited about that. Perhaps I can make him a meat-inspired or lentil cupcake as a special thanks ;)

The Formosa Dining room is connected to one of my favourite pubs, the Prince Alfred -which we call the Alice in Wonderland pub as it has so many little rooms with doors that you have to bend down to get into and out of. It is another classic London pub, in a gorgeous listed building and the food at the Formosa was divine. I had the sea bass with a savoury cabbage and cream sauce with carrots, CP had the lamb steak with lentils and we were both completely satisfied. We ended the meal with the best Sticky Toffee pudding in London. It was a very filling meal and again service was great, maybe the winds are changing in LondonTown?!

My photographs above are terrible but if you are in Little Venice and want a nice meal in a great restaurant and then want to pop into a great pub for a few drinks afterwards then you shall head in this direction. Only one stop from Paddington peeps and they have a fabulous photo of the canal stretching along the whole back of the restaurant!

From their website: Built in 1863 with a beautiful exterior, the Prince Alfred is a classic example of the traditional plate glass & wood favoured by the Victorians. The inside of the pub is no less striking with the bar area being divided into 5 separate atmospheric "snugs" by original listed wooden panels.

2009-10-26T07:21:00.013Z

Art & Oriel

I have had a great week and weekend, especially for a foodie as I have been out almost every day trying a new restaurant. It is not good for the pocketbook but I am sure that food critic job will come along soon!

One of my stops this week was a visit to the Saatchi Gallery - a must see when in London and lunch with the lovely Dane, Mrs. B at Cafe Oriel on Sloane Square. Stepping into Cafe Oriel is like stepping into a French Brasserie in Paris, I loved it. I am definitely going there when I feel like I need a little bit of Paris love. Even our waitress gave us a little bit of French attitude. I had a crab salad, which I loved (I love fresh crab) and Mrs. B had the soup of the day which was a lovely tomato one.

I didn't take any snaps in Oriel, I was most likely too hungry but close your eyes and pretend you are in Paris wearing a red, French beret having just been to the Louvre (you skipped the 3 hr queue in this imagination) and stepped into one of their quaint corner brasseries in the trendy Le Marais district, you're with a mysterious and handsome French man who is smoking a cigarette and stares at you with smoldering eyes from across the table while you both sip on some delicious Bordeaux - (errm....back in the room) it is just like that. Although this one is full of Sloaney Ponies with very large diamonds draped on them and we weren't speaking French, although technically we could be.

Merci pour un grande jour ensemble Mrs. B!

2009-10-24T07:43:00.001+01:00

What do you think? Feedback please?

Le Dolci -Menu

Cupcake Classics

• Viva Vanilla –our best seller - a smooth and creamy vanilla cupcake

• Ciao Coco –classic, rich chocolate cupcake

• Limone L’amour– everyone loves luscious lemons and when in season, we use Sicilian lemons

Le Dolci ‘s Cupcakes with a twist

• The Hangover Cupcake -cupcake with crunched up pretzels, chocolate chips, coffee grinds and a hint of Tabasco - topped with a coke bottle or optional bacon bits (for a severe hangover)

• The Ladies Who Lunch Cupcake - champagne infused vanilla bundles of goodness

• The SAD Cupcake – add a bit of sunshine to your day with this bright yellow cream cheese frosted cupcake filled with natural sources of pick me tryptophan (serotonin booster) from bananas and nuts with a sprinkling of vitamin D

• The Sicilian Cannoli - a fresh ricotta and chocolate chip infused cupcake with a hint of pistachio, Palermo style (a homage to the Mafia Motherland)

• The Better than Botox Cupcake - a soy infused cupcake with blackberries, blueberries and pomegranate

• The Gym Bunny - a bran and granola cupcake with raisins and honey perfect for after work-out revitalization, no frosting equals less calories

• The Break Up Wake Up - white and dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chunk, almonds and hazelnut with a sprinkle of fairy dust to change your luck in love!

• Great White North - crunchy apples, fireplace roasted cinnamon, mini marshmallows and Canadian maple syrup cupcakes with a sprinkle of snowy white icing sugar (a homage to my Canadian homeland)

2009-10-22T07:38:00.000+01:00

Granite We missed the pistacchio granite while we were in Sicily. A told me last night that they had the most amazing ones on the island of Salina. I guess we will have to sample them next time. Here's some sunny Sicily pics for a grey and cold-ish day!The car park - they are only allowed to use golf carts on the island of Panarea.

2009-10-21T11:41:00.002+01:00

Pizza East, Shoreditch Went there last night and it was great. I didn't know it only opened on Friday. We are way ahead of the trend, non? Trev is always the cool, Italian speaking dude who knows where to go. We were celebrating Le Jedan's opening night of her new show 'Women of Manhattan' get tix and go!

From VisitLondon.com
Soho House Group's new venture – Pizza East – opens on Friday in the Tea Building, Shoreditch. With concrete walls and steel refectory tables, the restaurant pays homage to the building's industrial past. You can get everything from a basic margherita to a duck sausage pizza with shaved artichokes, boschetto al tartufo and parmesan. There's also a takeaway service and a shop selling sauces, oils and branded merchandise. Visit their website to see some fab photos click: Pizza East.

Go there and sample all of the appetizers - especially the ricotta with honeycomb I had the clam and garlic pizza and it was divine. They make a thin pizza with a puffy crust -I think that's their signature way of doing pizza. Yum!

Pizza East, Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1

2009-10-20T07:07:00.000+01:00

Red Velvet myth Everyone in London seems to be crazy for red velvet cupcakes as they taste soo good and are so silky and velvety and different.

FACT: they are made with chocolate and RED FOOD COLOURING, and bicarbonate of soda so the color and the fizzy soda is the only thing that makes it look and taste slightly different. They are actually prob not that good for you either as they have so much food coloring in them. Regular cupcakes have only a few drops in the icing but red velvet has a large qty in the actual cake part.

I just had to explain this to all the people out there who so luurrrve red velvet cupcakes! Sorry to burst your bubble peeps.

Rant over ;)

2009-10-18T07:28:00.000+01:00

Boys shopping for dinner

A hungry little boy

We sent the two boys to get dinner for two hungry families. They were been bro-mancing all day; talking sport, drinking beer and golfing - it is a bit of a Paris Hilton and Nicole scenario minus the purse dogs.

Well not sure but perhaps they got carried away, lost track of time and then went to buy food that is not very kid friendly. But all that would've been fine if the George & Brad Pitt duo came back with the food before dinner time or brought something we could eat right away like pizza. George Clooney or Bradley Pitt? I guess him and Quinn Snr need to decide who's who in the bro-mance.

All the ladies and chitlins were anxiously awaiting a meal as we were starving after a day at the beach. While waiting we cracked open a bottle of wine with the Sting lover and then dinner enters the door. But the food (lobster, steak and seafood) needed to be cooked! Very boy-ish non?

Luckily Momma Dolce came to the rescue and fed the kids some spaghetti with tomato sauce and we all nibbled on some crackers until the boys grilled our suf and turf dinner. It was delicious and yummy but no more bro-mance shopping or if they are sent out again, it should be done during the day!

Secret: The boys spent their birthday last year together at......the Spa?! hmmmm.....

It was lovely and yummy and we were thankful after we were able to recover from our hunger pains ;)

2009-10-17T07:55:00.000+01:00

Sugar Paste flowers -easy!Very simple to make! I bought some supplies at www.Jane-Asher.com and got making some flowers the other day. You just need to buy sugar paste - white, then color it to the color that you want with food coloring and voila! You roll it out and with these little stampers you cut out your flowers and then use a little tool that rolls the petals into little curves.

Let them dry upside down and once they are hard you can use them for up to 2 years! They are edible but sooo sugary so only recommended for kiddies to eat. My nephews love the decoration but I think most adults nibble on it and then decide that there is enough sugar in the cupcakes and frosting to give them a normal sugar rush.

2009-10-16T07:46:00.000+01:00

Tomato goodness Slice some fresh and ripe tomatoes, bread them in egg and bread crumbs, fry in a fry pan until the tomato is soft-ish (or to the softness that you like) and then top with sour cream, chives and parma ham/prosciutto -this is the Quinny Snr. recipe. Chives were from the garden.

Yum!

2009-10-15T07:48:00.000+01:00

After months of toil After months of toil and care and water and sun and extra soil and love and attention - this is what resulted from my chili plant! Maybe next year!