We had a fun cake to make this week, one we were looking forward to as soon as we knew what they wanted. We are both fans of the films of Hayao Miyazaki, so a cake based off of Ponyo his latest, more child friendly, film excited us. They wanted the main focus to be [...]

Saint Patrick’s Day is a National holiday in Ireland, I can’t explain it’s phenomenon worldwide however. It is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. It’s apparently one of the leading days for consumption of alcohol in the US, and is typically one of the busiest days of the year for bars and [...]

There are times when a simple chocolate chip cookie just isn’t enough, more chocolate is needed. That’s when these babies are needed! A pound of chocolate, and cocoa powder too, these definitely scratch that chocolate itch. As a bonus, they’re barely any harder to make than regular cookies. Cream the butter and sugar together and [...]

Back in December I made peppermint shortbread, it’s a variant on Millionaire’s shortbread. I felt certain I had already waxed lyrical about the wonders of millionaire’s shortbread but when I went to look for it I found that I had not. How could this be, it had to be remedied… a month later. I can [...]

So, last Wednesday we talked about the basics of chocolate, how the beans are processed. Obviously, it’s not necessary to know all of that before you head into playing with chocolate but I like to think that understanding the ingredient a little better can help you towards a better finished product.. Or it just helps [...]

“There are four basic food groups:  milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles” Chocolate – Theobroma Cacao, the food of the gods. Roughly two-thirds of the entire world’s cocoa is produced in Western Africa. Production costs can be decreased by reducing cocoa solid content or by substituting cocoa butter with another fat. Cocoa [...]

Firstly a Happy New Year to you all, we’re back and ready to start 2011 with a bang! We hope your holiday season was everything you wanted it to be. – As we have done the past couple of years we decided to treat our guinea pigs… er.. um.. I mean friends, with a selection [...]

Millionaires’ Shortbread is something that I never realised was a British thing, until I wanted to make some and nobody had any idea what I was talking about! It’s a thick layer of buttery, moist, melt in your mouth shortbread with a layer of caramel on top of it, finished with a thin layer of [...]

S’mores are an entirely American thing. Back in Enlgand we just toasted marshmallows over the fire, you guys made it all extravagant! The first published “recipe” for s’mores was under the name Some Mores, in the 1927 book “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts.” They’ve been associated with camping ever since. The marshmallow is [...]