Don’t you wish this was you? On holiday, sipping a glass of wine and hanging about in a gorgeous pair of silk pyjamas? We certainly do (especially with this grim weather!). We’ve raved before about them here, but these have another even more alluring appeal – free monogrammed initials.
We've written about decorative artist Cressida Bell before, see here, as we love her work. We often buy her cards and recipe posters, always long for her rugs and furniture, and once saved up for two of her lamps. But honestly, for sheer decorative pleasure, nothing beats Bell's latest project: a book of her cake designs. It's utterly wonderful and utterly bonkers – the work of a total obsessive, with sentences in it like: 'I have always loved the ceramic roundels made by Luca della Robbia in the 15th Century. They look to me as if they were made to be cakes.' So, no, you won't find swirls of pink buttercream icing here, or cakes that have been fashioned to look like other things – a tank engine, say, or a snail. These are cakes that look like what they are: absurdly beautiful, highly decorated, fantastically delightful cakes. On the other hand, Bell finds inspiration everywhere, whether it be in a detail of a painting by Klimt, a '50s swimming cap, or a Bloomsbury flower painting (Bell is the grand daughter of Bloomsbury painter Vanessa Bell and the great-niece of Virginia Woolf). Talk about the tussle between creative and domestic pursuits coming full circle, and, in the pages of this book, being given such a witty, albeit one-off, resolution.
Of course, the book is more about inspiration than instruction (though the Allsorts cake, below, looks vaguely do-able), and Bell happily admits that most people don't have the time or patience to spend hours sorting out silver balls into different sizes, never mind the skill of putting them to such inventive use – though she is particular about everything having to taste good as well as look lovely. To this end, the cake and icing recipes in the book are by the ever brilliant food and recipe writer, Rose Prince. But it doesn't matter whether you plan to decorate your own cakes or not. Rather, this book is for anyone interested in design or decoration. And if that does indeed mean an actual cake, then help is at hand. Bell has made icing toppers that you can order from her website for £20. These are her designs, printed with edible ink onto a very thin sheet of icing, that you then drape onto your cake, thus transforming it. See her website for lots of examples. But if that's not enough, then know that Bell can also be persuaded to make bespoke cakes. For us, we're happy eating up every single page of the book.
When we see photos of our mothers when they were pregnant, they always looked so cool, working a bump in a way that was neither attention seeking nor pretending it wasn’t there. Which is why, when we spotted pregnant-with-her-second child Edwina Gieve wearing a fetching 1970s-inspired forest green maxi dress with statement collar and satin sash at a recent wedding, we applauded her sartorial verve. She lamented the “shrink wrapped generation” as we seem to be now, and as it turned out, the dress was from her new vintage-inspired fashion line, the Mitford-witty monikered In Pig (slang for being pregnant in the sisters’ nonsense language), which she has just launched with NCT friend Johanna Kociejowski. The four piece made-in-England vintage-inspired collection also includes hip Liberty-print trimmed denim 1980s-inspired dungarees and 1970s-inspired smock dress (the latter is also in a glorious liberty print), plus a 1960’s round neck short crepe dress with fabulous bell sleeves. Edwina is completely gorgeous, (good genes, evidently – her cousin is Cara Delevigne) so she makes the designs look sublime, but we reckon it’s a look that’ll translate wonderfully to those of us not blessed with model looks too.
Be Awesome is awesome! Bravo, Hadley Freeman, for writing such a great book and telling the truth, without being dour or preachy, about the effort required to be a sane and healthy modern woman. Because it is quite a task, what with so many expectations to navigate and adversaries to take on. Freeman writes with pinpoint accuracy about the cultural and everyday travails women face, but Be Awesome isn’t just a series of essays about, among other things, the way women are depicted in the movies, feminism, eating disorders, and the unfairness (mostly) of sex. It is also, as its directive title would imply, a handbook full of advice. It offers a cure. It tells you how to appreciate the daily grind of office life, how to enjoy a fashion magazine without feeling anxious, and how to cope when all your friends are having babies except you. It tells you how to give a blow job. It suggests great books to read, movies to avoid and women to emulate. It’s not a memoir, like Caitlin Moran’s How To Be a Woman, but Freeman does write frankly about herself and her own experiences when they prove useful – most notably in the chapter on eating disorders, in which she describes her own anorexia with incredible clarity. It’s a brilliant piece of writing. But Be Awesome isn’t just about modern women coping with modern life, it’s a modern book all round. Freeman uses different voices when it suits her. She employs parody to startling effect. She’s resolutely un-snobbish in terms of her references, which are broad but never vague. And she can be do funny as well as she does deadly serious. This is the book we are buying for all our female friends, old and young. Especially young. If you’re a certain age, you’ll enjoy this book. If you’re young, you need it.
We went to visit the Monocle Café last week in Marylebone and came across the most delicious Swedish cinnamon buns. Being half-Swedish ourselves, we are more than a little picky about cinnamon buns, but these were pretty close to perfection – fresh, sticky, not too sweet and just doughy enough. Even our Swedish mother was impressed. When we asked where they came from, they confessed that they didn't actually make them on site but ordered them in from new Swedish bakery Fabrique. Located under a tunnel arch by Hoxton Station, Fabrique has only been up and running for four months but already Signe Johansen, author of Scandilicious Baking, has declared in the Financial Times that it is one of the five best bakeries in London and that 'it's cinnamon buns are the best this side of the North Sea.' The buns though turned out to be only the icing on the cake, as Fabrique really specialises in artisanal sourdough bread cooked in the traditional way: by hand, around the clock, in a stone oven and made using only natural ingredients. (They've already perfected their baking with seven bakeries in Stockholm). We tried the rye bread, which was deliciously light, and couldn't keep our eyes off the sandwiches, Swedish chocolate balls and muffins too. The bakery also serves as a café, with industrial white tiling and brick walls, and come the warmer weather you can sit outside. Be warned though – you're unlikely to come away empty handed!
We were sorting our tender perennials from our annuals this evening, a lovely spring evening at Clifton Nurseries to have our very first A-LittleBird event.
Sarah Glenny gave an hour's lesson on how to make a spring planter including herbs and flowers, sunny or shady. We took notes, drank wine and afterwards everybody had a goodie bag complete with beauty products, seeds and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Many thanks to Clifton Nurseries and Orion Books. And keep your eyes peeled for the announcement of our next event!
This is a wonderful book. It’s a cookbook, yes, but in fact we read it cover to cover, as it’s also something of a memoir, full of stories and anecdotes. Lucy Boyd is the daughter of River Café founder Rose Gray, who died in 2010, and not only has she inherited her mother’s recipes, but clearly many of her gifts both in the kitchen and the garden (Boyd works at Petersham Nurseries and created the kitchen garden there), as well as on the page. Boyd writes wonderfully well – about food, yes – but also about family life, and the work of cooking and gardening, as well as the pleasures both deliver. She can also be very funny. Her passage on breakfast rituals made us laugh out loud. But as well as all this, Kitchen Memories works fantastically well as a book to cook from. Boyd is not out to impress, but is a home cook who juggles children and work with wanting to eat simply and well, day in, day out. Her mini essays, peppered with careful and useful advice, and her recipes, which are mainly Italian in inspiration, are about achieving just that. And boy do they work. We made her spaghetti in the bag with prawns last week. We had all the ingredients, save the prawns, in our store cupboard, it didn’t take long, cost very little, and tasted sensational. The flattened chicken with herbs and lemon was equally quick, easy and transformative. Her raspberry and hazelnut meringue cake is a showstopper. But honestly we want to cook every single recipe in this book, and have just ordered two more copies to give away, we love it so much.
Mmmm. Not bad, eh? Another week, another fab holiday rental, this time in Cornwall. (To read about the others, see here and here). And yes, this one too, has been featured in Vogue magazine, as you can see from the photos below. We have our standards. The house, once a fish store, but renovated ten years ago, sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking St Agnes beach, and is the last property before the National Trust coastal path begins, so has amazing coastal walks beginning on its doorstep, as well as endless opportunities for swimming, surfing, kayaking and fishing off and among all the wonderful nearby coves and beaches. (Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant is on neighbouring Watergate beach). The house is lovely, with a big open plan sitting room and four bedrooms. It sleeps 8-10, is brilliantly equipped with everything you could ever want (including a proper wet room), is decorated to Vogue standards, and best of all boasts breath-taking views from every room. Dreamy. We’ve posted a couple of photos below, to give you an idea of the house, but to see lots more, and to get all the details, do email Rosie Drew at rosie@dellal.co.uk.
This is the easiest, quickest, most fail-safe bread recipe in the world. That’s not the reason to make it however. The reason to make it is, it’s totally delicious. The recipe comes from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York. It’s already got a cult following, mostly in the US, on YouTube and various foodie websites, and no wonder. We haven’t given it to a single person who hasn’t then passed it on. There are two things about it that you have to know if you are going to make it. One, you need to mix the ingredients together the night before you want to eat it (this takes all of five minutes). Two, you can’t cook it unless you have a good, heavy cooking pot with a proper lid. We use a 24 cm Le Creuset casserole dish which works very well. It isn’t the best bread in terms of keeping well, but it’s so good that we generally get through a whole loaf in one afternoon.
No-Knead Bread:
3 cups or 430g all purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon or 1g yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon or 8g salt
1 1/2 cups or 12oz water
In a large bowl, mix the flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and stir, using either your hand shaped into a claw or a wooden spoon, until it is blended together. It will be shaggy and sticky. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it rest for at least 12 hours in a warm room.
When the dough is ready its surface will be dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour your work surface and tip the sticky dough out of the bowl onto it. Fold it over onto itself once or twice, then cover loosely with clingfilm and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
Then, using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface, gently and quickly shape it into a ball. Generously coat a tea-towel with flour (or use wheat bran or cornmeal) and put the dough, seam side down, on the towel. Sprinkle a bit more flour over the dough and cover it with a second tea towel. Then leave it and let it rise for about two hours. When it is ready, the dough will have doubled in size. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 230ºC/ 450ºF and put your pot, with its lid on, into the oven to get really hot.
When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Slide your hand under the tea towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. It may look like a mess, but that doesn’t matter. Shake the pot once or twice if the dough is unevenly distributed. It will all come good as it bakes. Make one or two quick, sharp slashes on the top of the dough with a very sharp knife or better still, a razor blade. Put the lid back on and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 15 to 30 minutes until the loaf is lovely and brown. Cool on a rack.
Just when you thought Marylebone couldn’t get any hipper, along comes The Monocle Café, the first UK opening from the international magazine’s founder Tyler Brûlé (it’s a hot street – Andre Balazs is opening a hotel in the nearby old fire station later this year). It follows on from the success of the Monocle café in the Hankyo Men’s department store in Tokyo which opened back in October 2011 and accordingly, the new opening will be in the style of a Tokyo café, albeit serving a selection of Brûlé’s favourite snacks. There’ll be Swiss-inspired bircher muesli, toasties and a Midori salad together with macarons, green-tea-roll-cake and strawberry gateau from Lanka, Masayuki Hara’s shop (the Japanese chef, formerly of Le Gavroche). Open seven days a week, the café has a Japanese/Scandinavian minimalist design with seating for 15 (think Ercol chairs and vintage tables). You can book and reserve a table in the basement where there’s an Epson projector and screen for presentations, but only if you’re a Monocle subscriber. The café officially opens on April 15th but it has a soft opening next Monday 1st April (7am-4pm), when you’ll be able to pick up a coffee and have a look around.
We saw this recipe, part of Felicity Cloake’s ‘How to Cook the Perfect…’ series in The Guardian about a month ago, and immediately tore it out because though we’d never made it before, every time we’d eaten aubergine parmigiana, either at a friends house or in a restaurant, we’ve hoovered it up. Boy, does it hit that comfort-food spot without being white and stodgy. And so not bland! When the cold weather hit this week we made it just as Cloake dictates in her recipe, below. Our verdict: it’s a winner, being both easy and delicious. One for the recipe file.
Aubergine Parmigiana
Serves 4-6 (main course/side dish)
Cut the aubergines lengthways into 5mm slices, sprinkle with salt and leave in a colander to drain for half an hour.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a medium pan over a medium-high heat and add the garlic. Fry for a minute, then tip in the tomatoes and wine. Bring to the boil, mashing the tomatoes, stir and then turn down the heat slightly. Add a pinch of sugar, a little seasoning and the oregano, and simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Puree until smooth.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put a large pan of water on to boil if you’re feeling healthy. Rinse the aubergines well, and dry thoroughly with kitchen paper.
Pour enough oil into a frying pan to coat the bottom well, and put on a high heat. Fry half (healthy) or all (not), of the aubergine slices until golden brown on both sides, working in batches. Put the cooked slices on paper towel to drain. Blanch the other half, if necessary, in the boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain well.
Lightly grease a baking dish and spread with a thin layer of tomato sauce, followed by a layer of aubergines (packing them tightly).
Then add mozzarella, Parmesan and seasoning. Add another layer of aubergines, followed by tomato sauce, the cheeses and seasoning. Repeat this order until you have used up all the aubergine, finishing with a layer of sauce (you may not need all the sauce) – keep a little Parmesan back for the top.
Toss the breadcrumbs with a little olive oil and Parmesan and sprinkle on top. Bake for about 30 minutes, until bubbling and browned, then allow to cool slightly and sprinkle with torn basil before serving.
A great plantswoman friend of ours swears by this plant fair and we’ve had it booked in our diary for weeks now. Of course Chelsea is the ultimate garden show, and we love going there – though it’s a nightmare getting tickets – but the bit we love most about Chelsea is the giant pavilion where the nurseries display their plants and flowers to spectacular effect. Whenever we’ve been there, this is where we’ve spent most of our time – talking to the growers, getting advice, buying seeds and taking home catalogues to then order plants or bulbs that are hard to find anywhere else. So this plant fair, in Victoria’s St. Vincent’s Square, sounds like a perfect scenario to us. i.e. loads of nurseries exhibiting their finest plants, imparting advice, and selling everything on the spot too. OK, so there won’t be the same kind of displays you see at Chelsea, but nor will there be the same kinds of crowds. And we want to take actual plants home with us, which we can do at this fair, rather than just bundles of tempting catalogues, so for us, it’s win win.