What takes your Christmas fancy?

With howling winds and incessant rain this weekend the wintry atmosphere you could be forgiven in thinking that we were heading into a northern rather than a southern hemisphere Christmas.  To cheer us up we cooked up a batch of a wonderfully spicy biscuit that has a...

The illusions of building

The illusions you get during a building project are deceiving and can make your dream project into a living nightmare. I recall the sheer panic the first time I saw the house foundations and saw we were building something the size of a sports stadium.  It...

The rituals of rushing

I’ve traditionally created my own ritual of stir up Sunday for my Christmas Cake baking.  This usually involves staying up late on Christmas Eve to take the cake out of the oven, stashing the cake until Boxing Day and then icing it just in time for people to...

Bitten by the early bug – not for this Domestic Executive

Nature has a habit of spoiling things on a regular basis.  But then it pays you back with more wonderment and bounty.  I know logic tells me that nature’s way is to balance things out, there are some winners and losers.  Losing is not something I enjoy but...

Fat Rascals – a scone dressed as a cake

If there was ever a name to grab my baking attention – Fat Rascals has to be up there at the top of the list.  It’s cheeky and fun yet describes perfectly this scone dressed as a cake. How this name came about is a mystery but the cakes have been made...