The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
These look very complicated to make but actually are very, very easy. It’s a basic fairy cake, rolled in hazelnuts and then topped with a wonderful, velvety frosting which goes so well with the sweet strawberry. You’ll need For the cakes 175g caster sugar 125g soft unsalted butter 2 eggs 3 tbsp milk 3 tbsp […]
I made this cake for the WI tent at the Diamond Jubilee Pageant in Battersea Park on 3rd June 2012. It was part of a 12 ft tower of a 1000 cakes. Lovely to have been a part of these amazing celebrations in this way. It’s an easy sponge recipe and you can adapt the […]
This cake is a lovely moist everyday cake. The kind you want to make on a Sunday and keep in the tin for a little slice to cheer you up when you get home. You’ll need 200g self raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 100g ground pistachios 100g caster sugar 2 eggs 250ml plain yoghurt […]
I got a beautiful non stick madeline tray from my babies this year and I’ve been waiting for a really authentically French recipe. I found it in Michael Paul’s Sweet Paris. The addition of cardamom is my little bit of decadence and Indian-ness. I also added brown sugar for a slightly more caramel taste. This […]
This is a recipe I tried from the Great British Chefs website by Vineet Bhatia. Instead of the walnuts, I used pecans. I’ve made this a few times now with different coffees. Last time I used a Union Coffee Espresso as I’d been to the London Coffee Festival. I’ve also tried it with Cafe Direct […]
My little Amy loves carrots. She’ll eat them pretty much any which way they come. She’s been asking to bake cupcakes and as we only had these orange cases left on Election Day when their school was closed, I decided to go with carrot flavour. Carrots are a great source of beta carotene which is […]
This recipe is inspired by Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo from their wonderful book Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy. You can find their recipe in the book or on the BBC website. This cake is rich and filling so don’t do what I did and cut yourself a huge slice because you will struggle to […]
This recipe looks complicated but it honestly isn’t. You can even buy the pastry cases if you really want to. I found this fabulous supplier on Amazon who does all sorts of shapes. Personally I make pastry in batches and freeze it so there is always some handy. You can do this pre-baking which is […]
Loaf cakes are brilliant everyday cakes because they keep for ages and you can serve them in so many different ways. A cold slice with hot custard, a warmed slice with ice cream or crème fraiche, cubed pieces with a chocolate fondue are some favourites in our house. I struggled to get this cake right because the […]
If you’re a fan of easy desserts like me then you’ll love this tart adapted from Alain Ducasse’s book called Nature. Life is too short to make puff pastry on a regular basis so this recipe uses a good ready made one. You’ll need 1 pack of ready made puff pastry 600g rhubarb stalks 200g […]
I always have a pack of puff pastry in the fridge or freezer and these are brilliant and super quick for breakfast if you’ve got some lovely rhubarb compote sitting in the fridge – or any other compote for that matter! Equally great for individual puddings with custard. This recipe makes four turnovers. You’ll need […]
If you received a beautiful bunch of roses for Valentine’s Day, they should still be going strong. If they are starting to wilt, re-cut the stems on a diagonal and then pop them back into a squeaky clean vase with freshwater. You only need about 2 inches worth of water. Any more than this will […]