The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
This is a really great way of using up slightly over-ripe apricots. They are perfect for breakfast because it literally takes a maximum of 45 mins – even faster if you take a tip from my friend Jo who measure everything out the night before! 10 simple steps and you’ve got a delicious breakfast […]
Soda bread is brilliant! It’s such an excellent ‘rustle up’ bake. Five everyday ingredients, a bit of loose mixing, a quick spell in the oven and you have a delicious loaf ready to be scoffed. Most recipes use buttermilk but I never have any so I use yoghurt and milk. Instead of the chillies you […]
Whenever I go to an Indian function, there is always an egg free cake which is dry and smothered in UHT cream. I have experimented with a few egg and dairy free recipes and settled on this one. It’s beautifully moist and wonderfully chocolatey. The measures below make two thin 12 inch sponges, 12 large […]
This is a really easy variation on traditional hummus and you could substitute the sweet potato with butternut squash for an equally lovely accompaniment with the cumin bread rolls. You’ll need For the hummus 2 large sweet potatoes 4 cloves of garlic 2 heaped tbsp tahini 2 tsp ground cumin 4 tbsp extra virgin olive […]
This is a basic white bread roll recipe and instead of the cumin seeds on top you could use poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or even oats. I use my KitchenAid to make bread because I’m usually short on time. If you don’t have a mixer then just mix everything by hand and allow […]
I never made pastry until last year. It all seemed a bit of a faff with all the waiting around – while it’s resting in the fridge…while it’s blind baking…while it’s cooling…blah blah. I’ve learned now that it’s best to make when I go running. I’ll whizz the pastry up in the processor and then […]
These muffins are my take on Nigella’s orange breakfast muffins – mine are healthier in my view and you can make them even healthier by sprinkling some oats on the top before they go in the oven. Now I’m not a morning person so I only make them for breakfast on the weekends. Generally I […]
Having two little girls in primary school means I make A LOT of cupcakes. They had their summer fete recently and duely placed their requests for flavours not realising Mummy stays up rather late to make it all and Cherry the Cake Fairy doesn’t just come along and deliver them! Anyway, these are very “grown […]
I first had a taste of lavender when I lived in Aix en Provence. My weekly treat was a whole morning at the Saturday market. I would go from stall to stall practising my French with the traders and sampling their wonderful wares – yeah OK – I was a student so it was a […]
When I first took this in to work, most people gave me a funny look and said “Lavender?!” But it works and tastes really lovely with Earl Grey tea. If a whole cake is too rich for you, then just divide the mixture into 12 cupcakes. you’ll need For the sponge 120g plain flour 140g caster […]