I have a friend, Kat, who is very fit and extremely health conscious. I know she’s fit because every morning when I check my Instagram account, there will be a photo posted by Kat of the morning’s sunrise. Kat rises early and power walks along our coastline and I stay home in bed and judge […]
Dark Chocolate and Sour Cherry Cake
April 21, 2015 By 38 Comments
This is the cake I made for our Easter Sunday lunch. But remember someone ‘tinkered’ with my camera altering the white balance and so the photos I took were all having a hot flush. So I made the cake again for a Saturday night dinner party and baked the cake the night before, mentally planning […]
Individual Chocolate Pavlovas and…The Chocolate Game
March 27, 2015 By 37 Comments
When I posted a fig and prosciutto salad a few days ago, there was a reference to all the cousins at the party sitting down to play ‘the chocolate game’. I had many comments from people asking, ‘What is the chocolate game?’ It seems only Claire and I grew up playing this fantastic game and […]
A Christening Cake
January 4, 2015 By 20 Comments
A few days after Christmas we had the Christening of Em’s little boy, Freddie. The Christening had been delayed to allow for it to be in Sydney and so sadly, he had outgrown the Christening gown that has been in our family for five generations. But he did look very smart in a white shirt […]
Dark-Chocolate and Sour-Cherry Panforte
January 2, 2015 By 21 Comments
One of the other Christmasy treats I made this season was this Sienese panforte. I made this to serve after the Balmoral Carols when we were all back at our house and looking for something sweet to enjoy with a cup of tea or a glass of red. I do love panforte as it’s not […]
Sour-Cherry and Roasted-Almond White Christmas
December 30, 2014 By 23 Comments
On the last Saturday night before Christmas, we met up with a group of friends for the Balmoral Carols By Candlelight. The plan was to arrive early, stake out some territory then have a picnic dinner before the carols began. Everyone brought something savoury and then after the carols, they all came back to […]
Flourless Double Chocolate Cake
October 15, 2014 By 36 Comments
So far in this series we’ve made a vegetarian tart, baked some melt-in-the-mouth cookies, braised some ribs cooked in rum and coke and pickled some watermelon rind. Today we’re half-way through this series and by way of celebration we’re indulging in a dark, double chocolate, chocolate cake that also happens to be gluten-free. The recipe […]
A Dud Dachshund Cake
September 29, 2014 By 51 Comments
Not every day in the Hotly Spiced kitchen is a happy one. In the lead-up to Arabella’s birthday party I set about making the cake she had requested, a dachshund. What could go wrong! Pretty much everything. But not the baking-the-cakes part; that went very well except for being too heavy-handed with the tint. I […]
Candied Citrus Peel
September 10, 2014 By 24 Comments
When I was growing up my mother loved to host dinner parties. This was in the 70’s and not the era of dialling in a caterer, ordering in pre-cooked meals or even driving to the local deli for an antipasto platter. That isn’t to say that some didn’t take a few shortcuts. I remember being […]
A Cake of Joy
May 6, 2014 By 36 Comments
Prior to sculpting the Titanic cake, I had no idea of exactly how much cake I would need to make. Just to be safe I made four very large cakes that were 30 x 40 cms (12 x 16 inches) and stored them in the freezer. Running out of cake turned out to be not […]
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