Gin and Crumpets

Popcorn, pretzel and M&Ms cake

ginandcrumpets — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:03:28 +0000

Popcorn, pretzel and M&Ms cake

Some people can decorate cakes. They swirl buttercream, twirl floral wires and fiddle with sugarpaste until what you have before you is not a jam sponge, but a rose garden, a pirate ship or a dragon.

I can’t decorate [...]

Sour milk, chocolate and ginger cake

ginandcrumpets — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:13:26 +0000

There’s something smugly pleasing about turning an inedible lump of food waste that was destined for the bin into a slab of tasty sponge cake. Albeit, only smugly pleasing if I ignore the fact that I allowed some food to go rotten in my fridge in the first place. I gloss [...]

Baked Alaskas

ginandcrumpets — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:54:53 +0000

Baked Alaska all for me

The trouble with having curly hair is that I wake up most mornings looking like a Bichon Frisé that’s licked a socket. I have a halo of brambles that neither comb, mousse or hairspray can control.

This Medusan tangle is at its worst [...]

Valentine’s Day recipes for Belazu

ginandcrumpets — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:55:22 +0000

Goat's cheese and orange salad with balsamic pearls

Sound the alarms! The official Most Romantic Day of the Year is nearly upon us and if you have a partner then it’s not yet too late to get them a moderately humourous card and flowers / chocolates / cufflinks or whatever [...]

Coffee and cake in the desert, The Sahara, Tunisia

ginandcrumpets — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:04:29 +0000

Last year I decided to swap London’s drunks for a 100km trek across the Sahara. Strapped into my boots and with a bag of bare essentials slung across a camel, I was going to spend my new year sober..

Crispy cheese pancakes à la Findus

ginandcrumpets — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 08:45:21 +0000

It's the 23rd December and I know exactly what you're thinking: I've got the presents, put up the tree, secretly eaten all the good ones out of the tin of Quality Street and put the sherry in the fridge, but NIGHTMARE! I've forgotten to make the crispy cheese pancakes in the manner of Findus! Christmas is RUINED.

The Dish and The Spoon is 6 months old

ginandcrumpets — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:48:29 +0000

Cheers The Dish and The Spoon

I’m a tiny bit late on this one, so let’s pretend it’s the 6th November. Because on the 6th November The Dish and The Spoon was 6 months old – a momentous occasion that deserves party hats, balloons, cake and a timely [...]

Bacon and egg pie revisited

ginandcrumpets — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 22:44:45 +0000

The bacon and egg pie is under attack

Back in 2009, when it was all fields and forests around here, I posted a recipe for bacon and egg pie. It was a recipe I used to make every week when I worked in Greenwich market, selling cake and [...]

The Band of Bakers in delicious. magazine

ginandcrumpets — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:09:19 +0000

This is a great issue of delicious. and you should all buy it

Do you like baking? Do you also like Christmas? How about Christmas-related baking – do you like that? You do? Then this month’s issue of delicious. is for you.

On page 65, past the features on homemade [...]

Speculaas men

ginandcrumpets — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:00:29 +0000

Speculaas men

Of all the vices that spatter my soul, like toothpaste across a mirror, buying secondhand cookbooks is the one I find the hardest to give up. It might not seem that terrible a habit to you. Noble even – the pursuit of knowledge and social good at a [...]

Cauliflower cheese

ginandcrumpets — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:51:03 +0000

Cauliflower cheese is ready for its close up

A reason to be pleased about the change in seasons, apart from all the leaves that need kicking and the hot chocolate that needs drinking, is cheese sauce. Plain old butter, flour, milk and Cheddar cheese sauce. The sauce that, when I [...]

Eating chicken in the garden

ginandcrumpets — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:51:36 +0000

Garlic and chilli chicken thighs

Due to the unique way the London rental market works (my landlord is putting the rent up), I have to move house. Which means that between now and the end of the month I need to eat or throw away everything I own so I [...]