Curly Hair, Who Cares

  Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is an afternoon tea classic and an all time favourite: Lemon Drizzle Cake. Curly Cooks: Lemon Drizzle Cake My mum used to make this tasty treat a lot when I was younger, with a few fundamental differences: she did it as a traybake, and she called it 'crunchy top' lemon cake. This was thanks to the tasty layer of lemon juice and sugar that she would pour on the top when it was hot. So, my version of this recipe is a mixture of her recipe and the classic one.             Jump to Recipe First of all you want to cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and stir it until it is all mixed in. Next, add the self raising flour to make

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is another memory of Paris: Pain aux Raisins. Curly Cooks: Pain aux Raisins Jump to simple recipe Way back in 2019, when I lived in Paris (did I mention I lived in France) I used to eat Pain aux Raisins All The Time. I couldn't get over the amazing flaky, buttery pastry, the smooth creamy filling and the tasty scattered raisins. My coworkers would often laugh at me for saying the word 'raisin' in a very English accent compared to the first two words in the name of this pastry, but I didn't care, I'd just laugh and eat another! It's a bit of a trickier recipe as it involves making your own custard, but it's worth it in the end.

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is a childhood favourite in my family: Honey Biscuits. Curly Cooks: Honey Biscuits Jump to recipe When I was young, my mum (I'm assuming) made up this recipe for biscuits with cinnamon and honey and they've always been a family favourite. They're soft, cakey, delicious biscuits and everyone will love them.  To start off, mix up your caster sugar and butter together. Once cohesive, add the honey and the egg: Then all of the dry ingredients (self raising flour and cinnamon): Until you have a thick batter that looks like this: Grab a teaspoon-ful of dough and roll it into a bowl like so:  Roll it in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar until coated: Then place the balls on a baking tray. Do try to make them a bit more

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is another pastry from my days in France: La Tresse au Chocolat (or Chocolate Twist). Curly Cooks: La Tresse au Chocolat Jump to recipe Full disclosure, I didn't eat this a lot in France - if I had a choice between chocolate or almond filling I'd always go for almond. But, it is a French classic and a friend of mine requested that I try it, so, here we are! It's basically what it sounds like: pastry, chocolate, twisted together. You only need two ingredients: premade puff pastry and chocolate spread (of your choice, I used plain but I'd recommend Nutella or whatever brand you like best).  First things first, roll out the puff pastry to a large-

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. Today's recipe is one I invented as a child: Booboos. Curly Cooks: Booboos Jump to recipe When I was younger, I used to enjoy watching my mum bake all manner of sweet treats for my brother and me. At maybe three years old, I decided to invent a recipe of my own, which ended up being named Booboos. Now as a three year old I obviously didn't understand the necessities and intricacies of baking, so I just wrote a bunch of random baking words that I knew and my mum interpreted it to create these biscuits. This is my original recipe card:  Shocking penmanship and spelling I know, and a flawless method. If you can't read my handwriting (unsurprising tbh), it says Resapy for Boo

Since we're all stuck inside for lockdown, many people are currently baking to pass the time, including me! So, Curly Cooks is a series on the various items that I'm making while on lockdown, most of which will carry personal stories. A year ago this week I went to the French city of Lille for the day, where I partook of their specialty sweet treat: Merveilleux. Curly Cooks: Merveilleux Jump to recipe Merveilleux are a French pastry which originated in Northern France and Flanders in the 19th century, consisting of meringue and cream. The recipe was updated in 1985 by Frédéric Vaucamps, who founded the now international bakery Aux Merveilleux de Fred . Traditionally, they are plain meringues with plain whipped cream, but Vaucamps developed multiple flavours and varieties, his masterpiece being a meringue with chocolate whipped cream and covered with chocolate flakes.