“Point me to the nearest garden, beach and tea shop” May is the most liberated of months. It throws off all restraints to burst voluptuous into blossom and leaf. It’s also the month of bank holidays, when we migrate towards green space and … [Read more...]
Dobosh torte step-by-step
Dobosh torte is a Hungarian speciality, a virtuoso show-stopper of a cake. Budapest confectioner Jozsef C Dobos developed it in 1884 to be both spectacular and transportable, as he was an entrepreneurial chap who wanted to send his exclusive … [Read more...]
October in Cambridge: apples and squashes
"All this colour and crunch. It’s better than living in an Impressionist painting.” October is the golden month, its honey sunlight on a blue-sky-day giving even ordinary scenes a radiant glow. Grasses, leaves, nuts and berries: everywhere there … [Read more...]
Rose geranium sponge cake
If you are a fan of the edible rose geranium, as I am, this is a beautiful cake with a herbal, floral note, supported by Cognac and the flavour of good butter and eggs. The leaves of this scented pelargonium add prettiness and a complex flavour. … [Read more...]
Elderflowers: champagne, cordial and a cake
There’s just time to make one more batch of elderflower cordial and champagne, with their inimitable fragrance of English summer – floral, yet also a little wild and very slightly musty. Nothing drinkable is more evocative of our hedgerows and … [Read more...]
Seed cake and story
‘I don’t mind some seed cake, if you have any.’ ‘Lots!’ Bilbo found himself answering to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off, too, ... to a pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his … [Read more...]