Cooking 9/10ths of the time

I am going to share the easiest muffin recipe in the world, nay the galaxy, with you. Why do I do this, possibly opening the culinary culture up to appalling mutant muffin creations? Why? I do it in the name of adventure, in the name of experimentation, in the name of all that is good and right. Make your weird muffins, baked foodstuff lovers, make them. Steer clear of dung though. Even dung with ganache. We love imaginative combinations in muffin format, but we are not coprophagous. This really is an excellent recipe, it tolerates all sort of additions, the only thing to be wary of is if you are changing the ratios of wet to dry ingredients significantly. Example: if you want to make banana and passion-fruit muffins, then you are adding two liquidy ingredients. Reduce the amount of milk a little bit, or take it easy when adding the milk and when you get a good consistency cease your milk adding. I'll elaborate more on consistency later.  Zest for life This lemon zest is a day...

Yes, lets just say straight up that it's a packet mix, I was curious to see if a packet mix could be any good. Frankly if Donna Hay couldn't pull it off then no-one can. That woman is a goddamn marvel. The Macarons looked good on the cover too, virginal white with some exceedingly naughty looking ganache in between. Oh Stop it! What is the difference between a macaroon and macaron, is it just fancy pretentious spelling? Or is one actually correct and the other some bastardised Anglo version, it's generally the way it goes. The box is sort of gratifyingly heavy too, with an expensive look matched only by it's price. I forget what it cost, but more than White Wings. I have wanted to make macarons before but they look fiddly and like you need a piping bag and I find that the more that eggs are involved the higher the bad mojo for me. So actually this was a blessing in a blue box. There are three packets inside the box, the "egg mix", the almond mix and...

Sometimes I bake for the challenge. Sometimes because there is a deep need in me. Sometimes because the muse calls. And sometimes, just sometimes, because my son says "Make that!". The pink marble slice is just such a recipe. Whilst we watched "Miniscule" this morning, and the various bugs went through their antics, I thumbed recipe books.  Keen to take a little something to a friend we were visiting in the afternoon and also to try something new. Gabe was immediately much more interested in what I was doing. Gabe : You read this one and I'll read that one Me : I was reading that one. Gabe : Read this one. Me : (Sigh) Gabe : What's that one you have? Me : The one you just had. Gabe : I want it. Me : You just had it! Gabe : Look at that picture! That's pink! Make that one! I have to say, the power of pink is overwhelming. The recipe is easy and frankly, kind of boring, but, but.... it's pink. Pink and white - marbled. I'm a wee bit o...