Off seasonal baking

Second attempt at using the pro fondant mat. I LOVE the fondant mat. It is soooo irritation that it is so much more expensive in the UK than it is in the US. However, I have to say, worth every penny.

I bought the super huge version (as why not) and I kind of regret it as you only need about a 14 inch circle for a cake of two layers. Still. You never know, I might make a huge wedding cake one day.

This thing lets you apply fondant beautifully. I'm sure I might have learnt to do it normally but I don't do it enough. Oh. And I learnt. I'm actually willing to eat Tesco's own brand fondant!

The above cake is the cocoa-buttermilk cake from Dorie Greenspan's book. The third time I've baked it and I hate to say it. It is dry. I give up. Each time. I've rescued it before for applying four layers of ganache inside but I'm not willing to do it this time. I have a Peppa Pig cake for someone soon and I WILL get a good chocolate cake if it kills me. Especially as everyone seems to want chocolate!!!

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Rachel Allen's Chicken Pie

Some things should be noted. I'm not a major fan of Rachel Allen. She always seemed such a poor man's version of Nigella. Some trophy wife of a producer somewhere making a lady of leisure's living of cookery shows playing up the Irish accent in a cavernous show kitchen. Perhaps it was because all her helpful "tricks" had already been touted by others a long time ago - like getting the garlic smell out of your hands... But over the years she's kind of grown on me. The format is a little twee, the pink accessories want to make me barf, but she isn't the spawn of all things faux goddess anymore. (FYI I have no idea with regards to her personal life etc, but like my distaste for Ashley Judd, one wonders how she gets good films with little acting skill.) So here I was, tapping away on the internet last week whilst she was on tv, and there it was. A beast of a pie. It was so beautiful. Her job was done. Out I trotted to buy a huge pie dish (we don't own cera

Low carb diet plan

It's January. I've allowed my weight to grow UP with the Covid curve and somehow it still has not come down. Thanks to a large part to me using up a number of hot chocolate bomb "fails" just before Christmas I think. Wall of text alert - I don't plan on ever writing about this ever again. To be clear, I've never been a fan of carb-cutting. Cutting an entire food group seems wrong. Carbs, as we were taught at school, are cornerstones for growth. I felt like decking a "doctor" at an annual work health check when he told me to cut carbs as a way to get my weight down. The fact he then pushed a blog which was at its infancy at the time felt like a distinct conflict of interest. Anyway, I do absolutely agree I need to cut sugar, and I will never disagree that whole grains are better for you. It is also very, very effective dieting wise on me. We don't know why, I do know I have a lot of water weight which fluctuates a lot in the month and also it does

Amazon dependency

Random non-food moment, I am trying to boycott Amazon at the moment. It's monopoly and ethics don't sit well with me. I'm not one who thinks Bezos should be lynched for his money for the greater good, nor do I think taxing the company is particularly effective as they do have choices of jurisdictions and in the case of France, a smile and a "pass it on to the supplier" approach. Instead I'm just going to do my part by not buying from them. Probably not the greatest protest on earth since I'm cutting down on purchasing anyway (minimalism, where for art thou? Buried under two rooms of baking equipment that's where.) Anyway, I still want books. My favourite place in the world is sitting in Waterstones Piccadilly with a pile of books. On a few occasions I have read them cover to cover over a number of weeks like using it as a public library. Much like the occasional homeless guy having a nap in a safe space. (I'd like to say one book was on minimalism

Obsession

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