When I shipped off all my clothes and paraphernalia last week, I have to say I felt very liberated. I did a massive purge of stuff that was past it’s sell by date and bits that I rarely use. I was feeling very Zen and minimalist. This week, however, I began to feel a tad lost and bereft of my things. Continue Reading…
Madeira cake is one of my favourites. It seems wholesome and homely, even if it is full of butter and sugar! My grandad used to love a hunk of Madeira with a piping hot tea, sweetened with half a bowl of sugar. I made these little cakes for the OH, as he too likes a plain and simple cake. I came home that evening and found him spreading butter onto the Madeira cake . I had to laugh, as that’s exactly how my grandad ate his. It turns out that’s how the his Dad ate his too. I personally like mine just as they are without extra butter. Continue Reading…
The Olympics is starting this week and I can’t wait for it, especially the opening ceremony. We just returned from a weekend away in London and I couldn’t help but get caught up in all the excitement. The whole city is awash with colourful flags and all the store fronts are creatively themed for the Games. For some reason it reminded me of The Hunger Games, with all the pomp and ceremony. That in turn got me thinking about the amazing fire dresses that Katniss wore for the opening Tribute Parade. So, with the whole idea of parades and flames on my mind, I decided to create a flaming torch cupcake. Continue Reading…
It all started with a brown piece of LEGO®. To me it looked like a shiny cube of delicious milk chocolate. Wouldn’t it be great if it actually was chocolate? The cream coloured pieces could be sweet white chocolate and the glossy black pieces a rich dark chocolate. If only that were possible, I thought. Well, with the help of some magic blue stuff, I made my chocolate LEGO® dream come true. It was pretty simple to make them too. Continue Reading…
Today marks my 75th post on the blog and also S’tasty’s very 1st Birthday. It’s hard to believe that a whole year of writing, cooking and creating has passed by so quickly. Through writing the blog, I’ve met a whole host of new people and have discovered some other amazing food blogs at home and beyond. The Irish Food Bloggers Association have arranged lots of great events and linked together a whole community of enthusiastic food bloggers from all over the country. When I first started my blog….my traffic consisted of me and the OH. Then it increased to three (me, the OH and my Dad). Next a few other family members started checking in and one day I had a whole 20 visitors! Then with the help of Erno Rubik, Rusty Blazenhoff @Laughing Squid and Vidya Rao @Today.com my audience began to suddenly increase. For the amateur food blogger – it doesn’t pay, so it really helps when your efforts are at least seen and appreciated. Continue Reading…
The Arctic Roll is back. This cake and ice-cream concoction was the Ben and Jerry’s treat of the 80’s. It prempted the Vienetta and was that little bit of luxury when times were tight. It was the Sunday best and had a similar mystique to baked alaska. At the height of its popularity, more than twenty five miles of Arctic Rolls were sold every month in the UK alone. The original arctic roll is essentially vanilla ice cream wrapped in a thin layer of sponge cake to form a roll and bound together with a layer of sweet sauce. Continue Reading…