Some Like It Hot

It's been really boiling hot this week and often without as much as the slightest breeze. Temperatures will easily soar above 30 degrees (86F) every day... and what makes it particularly unbearable is that it doesn't start getting cool until at least 10pm at night. Normally I like standing in the kitchen, spatula in hand, …

Summer’s Here With A Strawberry Genoise Cake

I find the concept of food blogging quite awkward. A casual food blogger is not a professional chef, nor is he or she a recipe-writer. (Unless you have the patience to test each recipe until it has reached perfection, e.g. David Lebovitz.) I personally don't have that kind of dutiful patience. For example, as much as …

Taking a Tart for Labour Day

"Hey Emma, you remember we're leaving at 10am...." whispers the boy, "... well, it's almost 9am and you still have that cake to do!" The done thing in Italy on the 1st May (Labour Day) is to organise a day-out in the countryside. It doesn't matter if you're already living in rural countryside, surrounded by vineyards.... …

Spotlight On: Chausson au Speculoos

The croissant is so passé. My social media feeds this week (I'm looking at you in particular, Facebook) have been clogged with supposedly scandalous chatter of straight vs curved croissants. It's pure semantics. Anyone who knows their butter from their margarine knows that the croissant was not created equal. So while we wait for the online …