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Curly Cooks: Booboos

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...

Curly Cooks: Merveilleux

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. ...

Curly Cooks: Victoria Sponge

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 the simplest of simple British bakes: Victoria Sponge. Curly Cooks: Victoria Sponge Everyone knows and loves victoria sponge: it's a classic afternoon tea staple, and if you've never made it, now is the time! It's super easy and it's an instant crowd pleaser. Let's get into it. Jump to recipe First, gather your ingredients: In order: sugar, margarine, vanilla extract, baking powder, eggs, self-raising flour Measuring the ingredients is easy, if you don't know the exact amounts, or if you want to increase or decrease the quantity, then weigh the eggs, and use about the same weight of everything else. For example, my four eggs weighed around 235g: So minus the ...

Curly Cooks: Chaussons aux Pommes

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 the French pastry known as chaussons aux pommes, or apple turnovers. Curly Cooks: Chaussons aux Pommes Literally translated, the name of this pastry means 'Apple Slippers', but in the UK they are generally known as apple turnovers. They are super tasty and another of the amazing treats I used to eat (probably too) frequently when I worked in Paris. They're a bit trickier than some other bakes but they are definitely worth the effort as they are delicious. So, onwards to apple heaven!  Jump to simple recipe For this recipe you're going to need to start with apple sauce, the kind you'd have in an apple crumble. When I made these I used sauce that I made ...

Curly Cooks: Palmiers

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 the French Palmier. Curly Cooks: Palmiers Palmiers are a simple French biscuit made of puff pastry, and, like most French sweets, they are delicious. They were something I ate fairly frequently living in Paris, as they were one of the pre-made packaged goodies that were provided where I worked. Recently I was reminiscing about my time abroad and I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making some of the treats that I miss eating, just like these tasty little cookies.  Not only are they simple in taste, but they are also super simple to make. If you use pre-made puff pastry like me, there are only two ingredients needed: the pastry, and brown sugar. Personally I don't kno...

Curly Cooks: Chocolate Brownies

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. First up: Brownies! Curly Cooks: Chocolate Brownies The Final Product If you know me, you know that I'm very proud of my brownie recipe, and if you've had them, you know it's for good reason: they're amazing. I've made them for my friends plenty of times, for birthdays or parties or just because I wanted to bake something. So, since I've not seen anyone in so long, the only way to share my brownies is to share the recipe. It's super easy and very sweet, which means it's always enjoyable.  Jump to simple recipe First you should preheat the oven to 180 C Fan. Next, you can get together your ingredients: ...

Be More Chill: Broadway to West End

You've seen Page to Screen, you've seen Screen to Screen, now it's time for Stage to Stage! Specifically, Be More Chill, the musical sensation nobody is talking about. Be More Chill: Broadway to West End My standard bathroom selfie So, if you remember my series on New York , you'll remember that I went to see Be More Chill on Broadway, and I loved it. While in London to get tattooed, I decided to take a detour out of Victoria Station, and decided to head to The Other Palace theatre to see if I could bag a cheeky last minute ticket for their production of Be More Chill. It happened to be literally the second preview when I went, and I manage to grab an excellent seat for the low low price of £35 (I don't even want to think about how much I paid for my adequate Broadway seat). I really wanted to see it in the West End, but had resigned myself to saying that I saw it on Broadway and nothing could live up to that. I was very wrong about that. I LOVED this pro...