Recently on a trip to London, I visited the holy grail of Italian delicatessens - Lina Stores. If you haven’t been and you love Italian cooking, then add it to your list, you won’t regret it! A little treat that I buy myself when I am there are the small Italian chocolates called Baci, translated as “kisses” in Italian. They are nutty, chocolatey and very moreish and being that they are not easy to come by often, I thought I might have a go at making them. There is no bakin

And just like that we are about to celebrate the New Year! I hope that you all had a lovely time over the festivities with your loved ones. I don’t know about you, but my fridge is crammed full of cheese and left over vegetables, not to mention all the stashes of chocolate. So in the spirit of eating up all the left overs I have come up with a fun New Year party idea that will help use up some of the excess! I’m sure the last thing you want to be doing is too much cooking,

I hope you enjoyed the spooky spider biscuits from last week? I am finishing off the Halloween theme with these delicious chocolate milkshake sundaes. I don’t know about you, but I want my chocolate milkshake to taste intensely chocolatey, not just a hint of flavour. If you're like me, then you are going to love this recipe! The key, after much experimenting (one does what one must!!) was to use high quality chocolate ice cream along with an intense homemade chocolate fudg

I have had a lovely week having my 7 year old niece, Sahai, come and visit in Brighton. Along with A LOT of ice-creams (what are Aunties for, if not to be a constant supply of ice cream) we have had a lot of fun crafting, chatting and collecting shells on the beach. We even did this week's blog together (payment in the form of a Mint Chocolate Chip ice-cream) as I have wanted to share recipes this month that little ones can join in with whilst they are on their summer holida

These cookies are buttery and nutty and with the addition of dark chocolates, they have a slightly bittersweet flavour to them. Now when it comes to cookies, the question is - do you like them chewy or crunchy? My answer would be…both! The centre has got to be chewy but the edges crunchy, for me that is the ultimate cookie goal. The main factor in determining the texture outcome is the length of time in the oven - the longer they are in, the crunchier they become. So if yo

The other day I was in Pret A Manger, which if you don't know, is a coffee/sandwich place in the U.K. I had popped in to grab a quick snack and my eye was caught by their version of a bar of tiffin. I love tiffin, which also goes by the name of 'fridge cake'. It is immensely chocolatey, dense, chewy, crispy and delicious. So my mission this week was to set about figuring out how to make it - which in hindsight may have been a dangerous thing (they are now within easy reach

Gosh - there is so much chocolate in the shops!! With all the Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies packing the aisles of the supermarket, it has been hard to avoid (not that I try!). If you fancy making something chocolatey yourself, maybe even to give as a gift, then this recipe has to be it - hazelnut chocolate spread. I know there are a million chocolate spreads available, but this one is the best I have ever had. Fact. The roasted golden hazelnuts and quality chocolate ta

I remember having these as a child when my Grandparents used to buy them from Marks and Spencer. I used to think they were so exciting, partly because of the shiny blue foil they were wrapped in, but mainly because of the huge dome of marshmallow balancing on a yummy biscuit base. I added a small blob of jam to the centre of mine, just to add even more flavour and you could experiment with different fillings. I chose raspberry jam as I like the slight tang against the sweet

Like most delicious buttery treats, Sables come from France. Sable translated is sand, which describes their beautifully crumbly shortbread texture. When I was last in France I saw a beautiful packaged up bag of Sables being sold in a pâtisserie, which is not an unusual sight in its self, but I was drawn to the size of them. Normally Sables are a standard biscuit size, (two to three mouthfuls if you’re being dainty!) but these were tiny, just an inch square or so. Now I am

I first made these when I was in school and I still have the recipe! I have treasured it because they always go down a storm when I give them as gifts. To be honest, they can be made all year around, but they do have a snowball quality to them which makes them seasonally appropriate. They are similar to a well known ‘bountiful’ coconut chocolate bar, so if you are a fan of them, then these will be right up your boulevard. The recipe only calls for a few ingredients and it m