Posts Tagged “afternoon tea book”
This is another in the series from My Kitchen Table, offering good-value volumes of easy-to-make recipes, and in the case of 100 Cakes and Bakes those recipes have been penned by none other than the queen of cakes, Mary Berry, who has inspired a generation of would-be home bakers. We have a royal wedding approaching…
I was expecting a great book from this well-respected chef, Will Torrent. I wasn’t expecting the volume to have that overwhelming feel-good factor. That comes from a reminder of traditional sweet treats in the recipes, bringing comforting memories. And contemporary innovations bringing the realisation of ‘I can do that’ dusted with a smug ‘won’t the…
Baking is, thank goodness, enjoying something of a revival. We are reconnecting with some old-fashioned culinary values – the kitchen filled with tempting aromas, a cake on a glass stand, some home-made chocolate treats. But much of the appeal of the candy is the fact that it is also eye-candy. They look beautiful. Perhaps these…
The world loves chocolate, and combine that with a dashing chef with a rich French accent and recipes for goods that have graced many a French patisserie window, and one has the makings of a successful cookbook. Yes, it’s true that one can’t actually hear Eric’s Gallic tones but one can imagine. Eric has impeccable…
Pierre Hermé is the fourth generation of a family of bakers from Alsace in France. He has been working and learning his trade since he was just 14 years old, when he started as a lowly apprentice. He was in Paris with the celebrated pâtissier, Gaston Lenôtre, who was to become Pierre’s greatest professional influence….
It’s a feel-good cookbook in every regard. It’s in support of The Ben Kinsella Trust, which was set up to raise awareness of knife crime after the death of young Ben. It has the comforting feel of a good old-fashioned cookbook with attractive and slightly retro graphics and simple recipes for things that one would…
Surely we have all licked out the bowl after mum has made cookies. But let’s make it clear what we mean by a cookie. A cookie is a biscuit if you are an American. A biscuit is a cookie if you are British. Something like a scone is a biscuit if you come from the…
It’s no surprise that I love cooking. I bake bread, make pies, curries, casseroles and roasts but, to tell the truth, I have never managed a great repertoire of desserts. Perhaps it’s because I don’t want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen confectioning a fiddly sweet creation. I might have a passion for…
There is cooking. There is baking. And then there is culinary alchemy. There are several dishes that fall into that mysterious category. There is cinder toffee – you will likely know this better as honeycomb or the filling for those Crunchie bars, a tooth-achingly sweet confection made from sugar and raising agent that produces golden…
As a kid I didn’t have The Golden Book of Desserts but I would sit next to the radiogram (yes, there were such things and yes, I am that old), listen to Two-Way Family Favourites and leaf through my Mum’s big old cookbook. It had thousands of pictures but all of them in black and…
It’s just the time to start getting anxious about Christmas. All that shopping …and all that cooking and baking. It’s a special season, when we want to make an extra effort for family and friends; our usual delicious food but with a little more care taken over presentation. Sweet things and large cakes can provide…
Food, like clothes, has fashions and trends. We have had cupcakes and macaroons and now it’s the era of the Whoopie Pie! The name is amusing and nobody is sure where exactly that name originates, although it’s said to mimic the exclamation of joy as lunch boxes containing the aforementioned cakes were opened. They are…
(This hotel has now closed) Londoners love London. Tourists love London. It’s a city that is vibrant but with nooks of tranquillity, historic with a veneer of contemporary, a city for the young and young at heart. A magnet for families and couples. A dream destination for the discerning. And now London offers one more…
London is acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It’s been a magnet for tourists for generations. Plenty of celebrated museums, and all free, galleries to admire, and then there is always retail therapy, and that has never gone out of style. Yes, we have famous buildings by the score…
There cannot be many who would not enjoy a luscious slice of cake. Cupcakes are popular even as replacements for wedding cakes, and macaroons seem to have taken the world by storm. We all love something sweet to help down a cup of tea or coffee, or to finish a meal. Baking is enjoying something…
Henry VIII dissolved all of England’s monastic properties in 1540, because he couldn’t get his way with the Catholic church and the ‘Bishop of Rome’ with regard to his divorce. Much of Westminster Abbey’s ‘Convent Garden’ was granted to John Russell who was the 1st Earl of Bedford. The area has changed name to the…
This book is fun. Sandwiches are not by nature a serious food group. We make them for picnics and parties. The bread keeps our fingers free from exotic fillings or last night’s left-overs, and quite honestly everyone loves sandwiches. What would a traditional posh afternoon tea be without its spread of crustless cucumber sandwiches? This…
This truly is a ‘Secret Garden’ and much less celebrated than Kew in West London, although Chelsea is London’s oldest botanic garden and a unique living museum. Situated in the heart of London, Chelsea Physic Garden has long been a centre of horticultural education. It was founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London…
They are becoming ubiquitous. Those colourful chubby discs are showing up in smart patisseries across the land. They have long been popular in France and we are all very ready to state that French food is best. Well, I would not go that far (although I am driven to admit that the French make the…
Here it is. The Golden Book of Baking. A chunky golden ingot of a book. A gleaming brick of a tome. Another metallic and gift-quality edition in this series from Apple Press. A Christmas pressie that hardly needs wrapping. Gold edges, silken book-mark and gleaming belly jacket all shout “Pick me” …and you probably will….