Mulled Hot Chocolate - Bakemas Day 24

It’s Christmas Eve, seriously where did the time go?

Spiced Rum & Raisin Pancakes with Rum Coconut Cream and Chocolate Sauce - Bakemas Day 20

Pancakes are kind of a rarity when it comes to my family, when I was a kid we had them twice a year Pancake Day and Boxing Day, I guess Boxing Day pancakes are kind of a tradition now that I think about it.

Gingerbread Man Granola - Bakemas Day 19

Okay I changed my mind THIS is what I want for breakfast on Christmas day! Actually I’d be perfectly happy eating this for breakfast every day. Mini gingerbread men in your granola? Possibly the best thing ever!

Garlic & Rosemary Baked Camembert with Cranberry Relish - Bakemas Day 18

Gingerbread Frappe - Bakemas Day 17

Because I have this weird obsession with eating ice cream based foods in winter.

Ginger & Orange Candied Nuts - Bakemas Day 16

Candied nuts were kind of a personal tradition for me around Christmas (yeah, I was the only one); I’d always go to London at the end of November and get nuts from a random man off the streets....that doesn’t sound fishy at all! For the past few years I haven’t been to London around Christmas, actually I’ve not been to London period and as much as love nuts off the streets (still sounds weird) street vendors...that sounds a little better, last year I finally decided to try and make my own. I was obsessed with these, now here’s the part where I start to add all the flavours into my candied nuts, seriously, it’s already begun!

Cranberry & Coconut Crumble Mince Pies - Bakemas Day 15

Christmas is all about the mince pies! Okay, It’s about other stuff to but a large part of it is the mince pies right? In any case it’s definitely not Christmas without them.

Gingerbread Man Ice Cream Sandwiches - Bakemas Day 14

This is kind of a continuation from yesterdays blog post but it 100% deserved its own post.

I actually wanted to make this recipe for last year’s bakemas, I ran out of time but I’m so glad I ending up waiting because the Ginger shortbread men made the recipe so much better, it gives them a little crunch which goes really well with the ice cream and bonus they don’t freeze rock hard if you make these early and pop them in the freezer for a few days.

Short Gingerbread Men / Ginger Shortbread Men - Bakemas Day 13

These aren’t just any gingerbread men - okay this is not a marks and Spencer advert. As much as I love marks and spencer I never really liked those adverts they always made me feel a little ill, the new Christmas one though I'm a fan of, it’s definitely up there with the coca cola advert. Okay I’m off topic.

Black Forest Ice Cream Sundae (Vegan) - Bakemas Day 12

It might be Monday, but that doesn't mean you can't eat a sundae!

I’m such an advocate for ice cream in winter, I actually prefer eating it in winter, you get to curl up with a blanket (preferably a festive one) put on a film (also, that could be festive too) and eat ice cream and you’re already cosy and warm. Also, if you’re going to do this you should do it properly and make a coffee or hot chocolate to go with it because cold ice cream and a hot drink, ahh if only I had a little free time to curl up on the sofa and do this right now. Quick note though; you should probably make sure the hot drink isn’t going to burn your tongue before you drink it straight after a mouthful of ice cream, because a burnt tongue is no fun.

Orange, Almond, Pomegranate & Dark Chocolate Fluffy Oatmeal/Porridge - Bakemas Day 11

I’m either really early for Mondays breakfast or incredibly late for Sundays, or I could just eat it for dinner because breakfast for every meal is fine by me.

Ginger & Pomegranate White Wine Spritzer - Bakemas Day 10

I guess some people would say I’m pretty boring when it comes to drinks because I pretty much only drink water, coffee and sometimes hot chocolate. It’s not that I don’t like other drinks I just don’t ever really want them, although every summer I do go through a ginger beer phase, usually when it’s actually hot over here.

If I’m going to venture into the "not coffee and water" drinking territory it’s probably a good idea to just pick things I’m obsessed with then go from there and I’m definitively loving pomegranates right now but I do have my mum to thank for the wine being added to this.

Stuffed Mini Peppers 3 Ways - Bakemas Day 9

I've been meaning to make stuffed peppers for a while now and what better time to shrink them and fill them with some ridiculously easy comfort food style fillings.

Ginger, Coconut & Dark Chocolate Truffles - Bakemas Day 8

There seems to be a couple of ingredients and flavours that I’m obsessed with at the moment and coconut, ginger and chocolate are three of them.

Brie, Bacon & Pomegranate Crostini - Bakemas Day 7

This crostini is perfect for party season and gatherings. Having something on the table that’s quick to whip up and looks like you put way more effort in than you did can’t hurt right? I mean if you think about it really this is just incredibly fancy cheese on toast.

Pecan Swirls - Bakemas Day 6

Quick recipes seem to be my go to at the moment and you can have these ready to eat in 30 minutes or less. I mean it is December, peoples to-do lists get significantly longer and the time literally disappears, don't we all need a few more quick recipes in our lives? 'Tis the season to rush around like a headless lunatic, but a headless lunatic with a pecan swirl in their hand that only took 30 minutes to makes is significantly happier!

Apple, Red Quinoa, Walnut & Feta Salad - Bakemas Day 5

Just because it’s December doesn’t mean you can go crazy, actually it kind of does but the one thing I’ve been craving recently is quinoa, well, that and chocolate but that’s a given.

Christmas Pudding - Bakemas Day 4

Now that this Christmas pudding recipe is part of my life it might just be the best thing about Christmas, give me some socks and a Christmas pudding and I’ll be happy!

20 Minute Garlic Butter Spaghetti with Pesto Roasted Cherry Tomatoes – Bakemas Day 3

Sometimes you just need a big ol’ bowl of pasta and today is definitely one of those days.

Spicy Mulled Pineapple Juice - Bakemas Day 2

What's cosier than spicy mulled juice in front of the fire after a long day? Maybe with a little once upon a time or even a Christmas film. This is all just wishful thinking on my part, it has been a long day and after I'm done writing this I'm going to collapse into bed because I'm wiped.
If you want to be warmed from the inside this winter then this is definitely the drink for you. I've been thinking about making mulled pineapple juice with chilli in for about a year now, the time has finally arrived and it is everything I imagined it would be.

Cranberry, Orange, Dark Chocolate & Coconut Cookies - Bakemas Day 1

Here we go again, bakemas 2.0 and just like last year I’m still not mentally prepared and I’m already incredibly sleepy, probably my own fault for trying to fit too many things in. So instead of curling up in bed and watching a Christmas film I have coffee, one of these cookies and a hot lamb on my lap because it is pretty darn cold at the moment. I mean if you can’t be asleep coffee and cookies isn’t a bad second option, especially these cookies.

Blackberry, Goats Cheese & Onion Tart with Balsamic Glaze

My blackberry picking has been mostly nonexistent this year, we did pick some while we were camping , one of the best things about cycling around country lanes is finding fresh fruit and people selling homemade jams and marmalade outside their houses. Having fresh blackberries on your breakfast outside on a sunny morning while camping, best thing ever!

Coffee Oatmeal/Porridge with Cherries, Chocolate & Coconut

Warm, cosy, wholesome caffeine-filled breakfast on a chilly morning topped with cherries, chocolate, blueberries and seeds; count me in.

I am 100% the definition of “it’s the little things”, I get excited about the most ridiculous things. I started writing this list around midday to put down as a caption for my daily photo but I thought it might be nice to add it on here too and it's kind of perfect for this recipe.

Rhubarb, Ginger & Orange Cake with Fresh Cream and Candied Rhubarb

The sun is FINALLY out, after a week of hot weather then two-three weeks of misery it finally came back and I’m so ready to share this cake.

It is still rhubarb season right? Because full disclosure this cake has been sitting in a folder for about a month now and I just kept putting off going through the photos. I probably should not be admitting that, but let’s do this!

Apple Cider Pancakes with Sautéed Apples and Toffee Apple Cider Syrup

Today I have apples on apples on apples and maybe just MAYBE it’s slightly the wrong season for this, but I don’t care! Hey, maybe I’m just really prepared for autumn, 4-5 months overly prepared, okay let’s be honest I’m more likely to be half a year late than half a year early but still. Yeah, it’s four and a half months till October, crazy, but I’ll shut up about that now.

Can we focus on this being apple cider rather than anything else because to me, cider is a summer thing. Okay, it’s an all year round kind of thing but summer is definitely a time I crave cider. Ice cold cider on a hot summer’s day is sort of something I’ve grown up with from summers in France drinking 0.2% alcoholic cider as a kid and then bringing bottles of it home on the ferry to being a teenager drinking cider with friends in the sun and having barbeques in the middle of fields.

Strawberry, Yogurt & Granola Parfait and a little waffling.

Breakfast and a chat?

I don’t know if this is a bad idea or not but I might start doing something a little different on Sundays. I guess I’ll see how I feel after I post this because I’ve kind of been wandering around the house for a few hours umming and ahhing about it, but what's life without a little risk?

I apologise in advance for the mass amount of writing and I'll put a disclaimer now that this is not supposed to come off as depressing in the slightest but if you want you can just skip ahead to the recipe because this breakfast is so delicious. It’s one of those foods where you almost feel like you’re being bad but it’s healthy for you and it kind of tastes more like dessert than breakfast which is a win win in my book. What more could you ask for on a Sunday morning? Anyway, onto the waffling.

10 Minute Jacket Sweet Potatoes with Curried Tuna and Feta

Lazy food is something I’ve been loving recently. I’m very good at putting off eating a meal because I’m so indecisive eventually I just end up hangry and need to eat. Even if you don’t do that I’m sure you’ve been in that situation where you’re too lazy to cook but you want to eat something relatively healthy. At the moment my answer is jacket sweet potatoes, they’re so simple and I can guarantee if you’re making for one you can have this on the table in 10 minutes, or on your lap on the sofa, whatever floats your boat.

Watercress & Rocket Soup With Garlic, Ham & Feta Welsh Rarebit

I’ve had an odd craving for green leaves recently. There’s something about green food that’s ridiculously appetising to me, I love a good salad but even though it’s spring, most days it feels way too cold for salad. Soup is kind of like a hug in a bowl and you have no idea how happy it makes me to have a bowl of green food in front of me and I get the added bonus of sort of stomping on those leafy cravings.

I like soup but honestly I tend not to eat it that frequently, I always find a bowl is too much because it makes me feel all sloshy; you know like when you’re really thirsty and you down a glass of water and then it feels like there’s a river in your belly, it’s kind of like that but a little more ...swampy. I probably shouldn’t say stuff like that, I think I’ve really perfected the art of saying things that potentially put people off eating, never mind, this is obviously called waffle and whisk for a reason! This soup is delicious though and you know it's good when I still eat two bowls regardless of the potential stomach sloshing.
Also, I can’t sing the praises of this Welsh rarebit enough; I’m all but drooling thinking about it. Do you know what Welsh rarebit is? No? Well we’re on the same page then! I Googled it about a week ago when I decided to make this and apparently it’s sort of like cheese sauce on toast.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m going on about seeing as I made it but this is another one of those “how my mother makes it” kind of things where that’s all I ever knew Welsh rarebit to be. Turns out, not that much like Welsh rarebit at all, although I only briefly looked it up and it seems relatively open to interpretation.

I’m not sure why I’ve never thought it switch it up before and add garlic and different types of cheeses but I just opened myself up to a world of possibilities, next stop anything I can find in the fridge! For now though this is the best Welsh rarebit I’ve had and I’ll still stand by that fact you can’t really go wrong with cheese and garlic, add in a little ham and I’m about ready to get back in the kitchen and make more of this.

Grilled Pineapple, Lime and Chilli Quinoa Salad

I’ve had a pineapple sitting in the kitchen for a while now, don’t worry not too long it’s only just ripe. The pineapple originally was for a recipe that I just cannot for the life of me get right, it tastes amazing like addictively amazing but it always looks completely horrible so I figured I should take a step back for a few weeks and tackle it again some other time, it will be revisited though and it’ll definitely be worth the wait.

I was looking through last year’s diary writing down all the ideas I ended up skipping because they weren’t fully formed or I wasn’t in the mood to make so I could have them all in one place and came across spiced pineapple salad, yep, not fully formed, I get easily distracted. Anyway, I’ve been on a bit of a chilli kick recently, got a lot of those in the fridge too also involving another recipe I won’t be posting yet because I might look a little bit obsessed with chocolate cookies which side note: I kind of am.

Anyway back to chillies; I don’t dislike spicy food, I just sometimes don’t see the point in it but ever since I went to Devon and pretty much everything vegetarian I picked up involved chillies, especially this chickpea roll from some nice lady in a little market in Dartmouth, this market basically sold honey, meat, rugs, pastries and fish, I have had dreams about it ever since and definitely need to try and re-create it, but I’ve kind of been converted to adding a little spice to my food so there is no better time to make a “spiced pineapple salad”.

With the time change, lighter evenings and the random bouts of sun in England my brain has definitely been tricked into thinking it feels like spring outside so I’ve already started craving green leaves and all things salad related. I seriously love a good quinoa salad, I feel like I make more quinoa salads than I do other mains but that’s probably not true, I probably just think about quinoa salads more than anything else.

This quinoa salad is sweet and spicy and tangy and I’m not sure what more you could ask for. The pineapple was the perfect ripeness it almost didn’t make it in the salad because I was picking at it while I was shooting, although that would have been a pretty sad pineapple salad minus the pineapple. I refrained and finally grilled it which just made it even more delicious and add the tangy lime and spicy chilli dressing on top while still hot and I could probably just eat a bowl of the pineapple on it's own as dessert. Dessert-like elements in salad can't really be a negative.

Coconut & Seed Dark Chocolate Bark topped with Mini Eggs

This should probably be starting with something like “Easter’s coming up soon” but no, in true fashion Easter is in two days and I am late to the having an organised life party! If you could call eating copious bags of mini eggs preparation though I am definitely overly prepared. Lateness aside this is definitely something you can make last minute, it's really easy to whip together and I might be tempted to say I’d take a bowl of this over an Easter egg, well, unless it’s a G&B 70% Easter egg then it’s a pretty tough tossup, better yet just make this with green and blacks 70% chocolate.


There seems to be a little bit of a theme running in my bakes right now in the form of chocolate, seeds and coconut, and when I thought about making bark all signs pointed to it needing seeds and coconut. The best part about adding seeds to bark is the crunch; I love crunchy food it’s incredibly satisfying to eat not that I had much chance to eat this because it all but vanished in 24 hours. While staring at hundreds of photo of this (yes, I got a little snap happy, note to self: don’t do that) I managed to forget about the fact it was sitting in the kitchen ready to be eaten, I’m not really sure how that works but by the time I got to the box there was only 4 pieces left. If this hadn't have been inhaled a few days ago this would have been the perfect thing to have out on Sunday bear that in mind if you're planning on keeping it a few days, if you have a chocolate hungry family you might need a few chains and a padlock.

I guess I have to mention what I have in the last couple of posts but just a quick public service announcement: if you didn’t know seeds are healthy! If you make this with a really good quality, high percentage dark chocolate with only a few ingredients (I’ll always sing the praises of green and blacks) and take off the mini eggs this has the workings of an indulgent and healthy vegan snack. Although side note you could also add reese’s pieces, if big bags of those were widely sold over here I would be all over that.

Seedy Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This might be a little bit of a bold claim but I think these might be my favourite cookies.

I went away last week and my obsession with these cookies went as far as me acquiring the ingredients, which was a little bit of a mission because supermarket are lacking around those parts, cute fishing villages and soggy beaches (okay, they weren't that soggy) but the most you’re going to get is a quaint little village shop and a metro/express/local version of a supermarket that probably stock the weirdest combinations of food that make entirely no sense. Case and point, no dark chocolate and only dark brown sugar.....of all the brown sugars I don't quite believe that dark brown sugar is the most versatile, what's the deal Tesco metro! I'm going off point; the point is I went out of my way all because of my love for the cookies....and maybe a little because I have a slight issue with chocolate at the moment.


One of the reasons I'm so incredibly happy with this recipe aside from the fact that they’re the yummiest cookies I've ever had is that I've finally worked out how to make double chocolate chip cookies so they're moist (I apologise for the word choice) and cookie like and don't need a kilo of chocolate in them. Nigella Lawson’s double chocolate chip cookies are the bomb but 400g of chocolate is not something I have casually laying around the house to make cookies with and melting chocolate to stir into cookies just means more washing up and I mean l believe in things being worth the wait but I don't particularly want to have to wait for my cookies please and thanks.

I am all about making recipes with things you always have in the house because who knows what you're gonna do at midnight on a Sunday evening when all of the shops are closed and there is no chocolate, well you make chocolate cookies obviously. Also can I mention, there's something that goes on in my brain when I add seeds to things it’s like that "practically a salad" quote although more like...there's seeds in this....they're good for me....and really how bad is dark chocolate....that's good for you....and I mean all that balances out the bad stuff right? Anyway, I'll stop waffling and get on with the recipe.

Pistachio & Coconut Dark Chocolate Covered Bites

Easy, quick, simple and healthy; a lot of boxes that make me very happy to tick when it comes to a recipe and knowing something that is ridiculously tasty is healthy just makes it that much more enjoyable.

I actually made these for Mother’s Day and over a week later here I am with the recipe. Yes, I am terrible I get it, it bothers me more than it bothers anyone else but the real reason this is late is because I can’t make decisions. I realise you’re probably sitting there thinking what’s that got to do with food but when I’m editing photos and can’t decide which combination of shots look best together I literally have to walk away from the computer. If I talked about how much decision making, usually about insignificant things, is an issue for me you would probably think I was a little crazy.

I think it was probably two years ago that I made coconut bites, fake bounty, mock mound bars, whatever you choose to call them and my mum couldn’t leave them alone. They disappeared in a matter of hours so I thought something similar would be a good thing to make for Mothers Day, I added pistachios because well they’re pistachios what more do I need to say but it was national pistachio day recently and I actually love photographing green food.
These are so simple to make, I apologise you have to wash up a food processor after you’re done, I swear having to wash kitchen appliances is the worst, the most time consuming part is waiting for them to freeze and then impatiently waiting for the chocolate to set before you can devour them. Also if you want a deeper pistachio flavour there’s a note at the bottom of the recipe about toasting the nuts before blending them.