Sugar and Grain-Free Banana Bread Recipe

It's been eighteen months now since I gave up sugar. Yeah, you heard it right; this previously cake-obsessed afternoon tea addict gave up sugar. Actually, that's slightly misleading. I gave up eating all sugar except for a couple of small bits of fruit a day. I had realised I was just eating far too much of the sweet stuff, either in cakes, biscuits or desserts, but also, more insidiously, in the supposedly healthy things I was eating: dried fruit, maple syrup, honey and even an abundance of fruit. It's shocking how many equivalent teaspoons of sugar you're eating when you tot up a few day's worth. Many of us are busting the WHO's guidelines on daily sugar consumption by the end of breakfast time without even realising it. The time came when I didn't feel happy ignoring my spiking and crashing blood-sugar levels so I just cut my sugar-eating right down.

Sugar and Grain-free Blueberry and Banana Muffin Recipe

Well hello there. This poor old blog has been languishing for quite some time (but thank you to the people that have continued to stop by). Partly this can be explained by the blog fatigue that seems to have affected me, like so many of my favourite bloggers, in recent times; but also by something of a lack of afternoon tea in my life. In September I gave up eating refined - and many natural - sugars. I was becoming increasingly concerned that eating sweet things was becoming the norm rather than a treat for me and I wanted to reverse that.

Very Easy Oaty Biscuit Recipe

I'm not sure what's going on but just lately I've been craving food with crunch. It's not the flavour of things I've been thinking about but the texture. I'm sure this has some deep psychological reason but there seemed only one thing to do: bake some biscuits. I'm not talking about soft crumbly cookies or biscuits containing a buttercream centre but an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness crunchy biscuit.

Clementine Cupcake Recipe

Yesterday I made some pretty amazing cupcakes. Okay you're thinking, calm down with the arrogant claims; but I'm telling you, I can hardly stop myself stuffing my face with the lot of them. Lovely and moist, with a distinct but subtle - almost marmalade - flavour they are pretty much everything I like in a cake.

The Perfect Scone Recipe

Much as I love baking there has always been one sizable chink in my armour: the ability to make good scones. On the occasions when I have decided that nothing but a homemade cream tea will do I have attempted to make scones, but something always goes wrong. They're either too small; too hard; or too biscuity - always edible but just not right. More often than not I just throw in the towel before I even begin and opt for rock buns instead. Yesterday though I had the most delicious homemade cream tea and this time the scones were perfect. OK, I need to fess up. I didn't make them. It was actually my supremely talented sister but I have been given step-by-step instructions and I'm pretty sure I could replicate their deliciousness all on my own.

Espresso Coffee Cupcakes

Do you ever get bored of chocolate? No, neither do I. When I'm in the mood for a spot of cupcake-making I generally find myself drawn to either a chocolate cupcake or chocolate buttercream. But last week I fancied something a bit different: I had a craving for coffee cake.

Spiced Maple and Pecan Muffin Recipe

I really feel like I've been duped. How can I have got this far in life without discovering just how simple muffins are to make?

For someone who considers themselves a fairly enthusiastic baker, I recently realised I've never made a muffin in my life. This thunderbolt hit me when my lovely friend R bought me Muffin Magic by Susannah Blake as part of a rather wonderful housewarming present. I suppose I had always assumed that muffins would be much more difficult to make than, for instance, cupcakes as they have a more bready texture. But how wrong I was. The first muffins I tried were a savoury cheese and onion batch which turned out amazingly well. Frankly it came as something of a surprise as throughout the mixing process - which took all of about 10 minutes - I kept thinking, this can't be right; it's just too easy.

Green Tea cupcakes

Recently I decided to indulge two of my favourite things at once: tea and cakes. But not in the usual way: you know a lovely cake with an accompanying cuppa. No, this time I planned to enjoy both in one creation. Luckily, the lovely Rachel that I met on my cupcake course last year had sent me a recipe for green tea cupcakes that I adapted a little. In truth, although I loved the way the matcha frosting turned out, the tea flavour in the cupcake was a little bit too subtle for me. But then I do love my tea... I might be tempted to up the tea content in the cakes in future and lose the cocoa powder altogether. Still, they went down very well with everyone else so here's the recipe I used.

Lavender & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Much as I love cupcakes – and in fact cakes in general – there are times when biscuits are called for; one such time was the other day. I had arranged to go to Miss O's for lunch and it wasn't until about an hour before I was due to leave that it hit me – I hadn't made anything sweet to take along. Never one to let an opportunity for baking pass me by I started searching for a recipe. What did I have in the cupboard? All of the usual basics: flour, butter, sugar etc. But what could give these biscuits a taste of the unexpected..? Chocolate – never wrong but hardly a shocking choice. And then it hit me: my old favourite, lavender. Perfect. I could make a sweet biscuit with lavender and chocolate chips.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla & Rose

I was giving a dinner party recently and wanted to be all thoroughly planned and organised. But in my more typical style it wasn't until a couple of days before that I got a chance to sit down and plan the menu. I quickly settled on the starter and main course but couldn't make up my mind about dessert until I stumbled upon Maison Cupcake's recipe for Chocolate & Raspberry Trifle: it sounded perfect as it could be prepared in advance thereby taking the pressure off on the day itself. The other big bonus was that the base of the trifle required chocolate sponge. I had an old friend coming for tea that day and hadn't made anything yet - chocolate cupcakes would offer a double whammy of delight!

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

I really hate wasting food; it just feels wrong on every level. But there are some things that no matter how infrequently I buy them, I seem to find myself tossing, mouldy, into the bin a week or two later. One such culprit is the black banana. Truth be told I'm not the world's biggest banana fan. Oh I like them and everything, but if I'm reaching for a piece of fruit it's generally fairly low down on my list of preferences. Coffee Boy purportedly loves them though, so from time to time I buy him a bunch. But clearly he doesn't love them quite enough as I often find them hanging sadly upon the banana stand (yes, yes, I know I have far too many kitchen gadgets) looking black and pretty yucky.

The Perfect Mince Pie

I've always enjoyed cooking and especially baking. But in recent years the relentless treadmill of work means there's been little time to do much more than throw together dinner at the end of the day. My decision to become a freelancer, and specifically my decision to take more time off to try and achieve some kind of work/life balance, has changed all of that. Now I'm constantly looking for excuses to cook. Visiting a friend for tea? Quick make some cupcakes. Sister coming over for the day? Get that breadmaker fired up. Upcoming dinner party? Trial some recipes. Well, you can imagine that hosting Christmas gave me the perfect excuse to spend some time in the kitchen.

Christmas Gingerbread Cupcakes

I have been going fairly cupcake crazy since my course last month but I've been struggling to find events to bake for. With my family coming for Christmas I had the perfect excuse to bake some Christmas Cupcakes. I had previously made some for Miss O's party that were like little mini Christmas cakes topped with fondant icing and florist paste Holly leaves, as well as some double chocolate ones decorated with stars, but this time I thought I'd try something different.

Rock Bun Recipe

Much as I love going out for tea there's plenty of pleasure to be had in creating a lovely afternoon tea at home. With that in mind I thought it was about time I let you in on one of my favourite recipes. As you're probably aware by now I am quite a scone fan, but I find they're hardly worth bothering with if you haven't got great jam and clotted cream to go with them. An easier option is the good old Rock Bun (no sniggering from our US readers) - or Rock Cake if you prefer. They are a bit similar to a scone in flavour but can be served just as they are. Better still they can be made with the kind of ingredients you might well already have in your kitchen.