When I was small, picking blackcurrants was a big job. My Nana had several large, old bushes in the orchard under her apple trees. Every year, little fingers were pressed into service to strip the bushes of their black bounty so that she could make, or supervise the making, of the pots and pots of blackcurrant jam that were to see the household through the winter. Although I tried a couple of blackcurrants every year, at the time I didn't much like them as they seemed too bitter to my childish taste. The jam was another matter, however. When we would call to see Nana and Grandad after school, a doorstep of bread, slathered with butter and spread with inky goodness kept us fed till suppertime. When we bought the cottage, I was delighted to discover a threesome of blackcurrant bushes out... Similar posts

Birthday cakes are, almost inevitably, chocolate-based in my family. It is undoubtedly the default option, beloved by everybody, not least by the birthday celebrants. This year, however, we were to celebrate the mother's (January) birthday on an unseasonably bright February day and - unusually - I wasn't in the mood for chocolate baking. After a discussion with my normal cooking-partner-in-crime, the Little Sister, and inspired by the amount of citrus fruit in the shops, I went down the orange and almond road instead, making a light but very moist cake. It seemed, at the time, to be the season for lighter cooking - an idea promptly destroyed by subsequent appearances of hail, ice and snow. With things warming up this week in North Cork, it might be time for the cake to make another... Similar posts

After I had been busily extolling the virtues of slices and bars available in New Zealand cafés while at work last week, my German Colleague asked if I had a recipe for Lemon Bars. Tan Slice and Ginger Crunch are things that I bake regularly but I had to admit that I had never tried to make the ubiquitous Lemon Slice as a lot of recipes involved separating eggs (I'm a lazy cook, I don't do separated eggs given half a chance or another recipe) or condensed milk or too many lemons at a time when I didn't have them. Monday morning, after four eggs arrived back from the girls and I realised, post-cold recovery, that I had a bowl of lemons in the house, I decided to try out Julie Biuso's recipe for Sticky Lemon Slice. This fitted all the criteria – easy to make, uses up plenty of eggs... Similar posts

Black Forrest Gateau was one of the joys of a '70s childhood. With its layers of chocolate cake, punctuated by cream and tinned cherries, then decorated with chocolate curls, it always stood proud on desert trolleys of the era during the infrequent times my family went out for dinner. My attempts at assembling my own variation on, what was for the time, perfection, were made with the assistance of a small cookbook that purported to show you how to cook everything possibly needed for Christmas well ahead of time and freeze it. I took this all very seriously and well remember myself piping trays of cream rosettes for freezing (and forgetting) in advance of the festive season. That Gateau wasn't too bad but a recent attempt to bring the cake into the 21st Century was even more successful.... Similar posts