Having squirrelled a dog-eared copy of the Observer Food Monthly away the other week, last Sunday seemed like an opportune time to try my hand at baking some of Trine Hahnemann’s traditional Danish Christmas biscuits.

Unfortunately I didn’t clock exactly how many biscuits the recipes yielded, so I ended up with a couple hundred; keeping me extremely busy for seven long hours in the kitchen. That was a lot of painful cookie-cutting, needless to say.

I chose to make some pepparkakor (iced pepper cookies); vaniliekage (vanilla cookies), and brunkager (brown cookies.) With the brunkager still chilling in the fridge several days later, and destined for my in-laws’ house over Christmas, I decided to make little parcels of the 300 or so pepparkakor and vaniliekage to give to colleagues and friends.

The lighting in our kitchen is very poor; please excuse the above photo. I tried going for a messy (or “home-made”) icing style for the pepparkakor, with the vaniliekage thankfully being easier to make. A light dusting with edible glitter on some of the pepparkakor finished them off nicely, before they were wrapped in baking paper; tied with string, and attached with small luggage tags to give away.

You may be surprised to hear that the seven packs of biscuits below were less than half of Sunday’s yield! If you do follow any of the recipes, I’d urge you to halve them (at the very least). Unless you don’t mind being chained to the kitchen for seven frickin’ hours…

Soho Diner’s #thoroughgood burger (shot on a Canon 500D with my news lens, Canon’s EF 50 mm f/1.8 II.)

After being stuck in the office until 7pm and then finding that both Baker Street and Marylebone tube stations were closed due to a jumper at Baker Street, I thought I was destined for a really bad night out. But as soon as I slid into Two Floors for a glass of red (45 minutes late thanks to the traffic) I changed my prediction and fell into the night of fun (and at times, mayhem.)

Kirsten sucking on a hard shake (brandy, I believe it was) and a hiding Toby. I loved her owl earrings — believe they were from Accessorize.

Celebrating Thanksgiving with Laura, Nick, Petah, Guy, Kam, Kirsten and Toby, we pigged out at Soho Diner on the disgustingly calorific #thoroughgood Thanksgiving burger, with us veggies swapping the turkey patty for a bean burger. With the cranberry relish, swiss cheese and dill pickles on a pumpkin seed bun, it was already pretty decadent, but the sweet potato fries capped it off perfectly. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Christmas lights on Oxford Street

Washed down with hard shakes (which curled our stomachs after we snuck cider and vodka into Karaoke Box for an hour’s wailing), it was the perfect night out. I feel so thankful to have such awesome friends.

Christmas lights on Oxford Street

Jim and I visited the pop-up restaurant a couple of weeks ago, and were bowled over by the friendly service, fresh decor and tasty homemade-tasting meals. Jim’s chicken thali looked delicious and was a really nice-sized portion for £6.95, and I absolutely loved the two starters I ordered, the vegetable samosas (£3.25) and pakora (£3), which are potato, onion, spinach and chili fritters served with raita and salad.

Jim had to help me out — as you can see from the pic above, they were rather large! Elephant is satisfyingly BYO, so make the most of your stroll down Atlantic Road and grab a bottle of beer on your way to the restaurant.

The indoors market is always bustling on Thursday – Sunday, with a couple of new pop-up restaurants or shops open every time we visit. I’m not sure how long Elephant’s around for, but I certainly plan on making the most of it while it’s there.

Unfortunately I only had Jim’s iPhone 4 so couldn’t take nice close-up photos of the Colefax & Fowler (apparently) wallpaper, but jiminy cricket did I want it ever so bad.

Jesse Harris’s Edinburgh College of Art project titled The Reel Catch addresses two key problems: sustainable packaging, and the poor quality of design used in supermarket packaging. The latter has been an issue addressed by The Saucy Fish Co., an effort of which has net them several awards, but personally I’d love to see Harris’s designs on the shelves at Sainsbury’s — wouldn’t you? *Jesse Harris via The Dieline via Wolf Eyebrows via Art Hound via Mint*

Brixton Village, shot on an LC-A+ with 800 ISO film

Side-step 15 minutes from my village of Herne Hill, and you have the 15 million boutiques and brunch-options available to the yummy mummies of Dulwich. But walk just 15 minutes the other side of Herne Hill, and you land in Brixton.

Brixton, the south London hide-away gem that with every step closer to it makes you feel more and more like you’re on holiday. It could be the piles of tropical and foreign fruit, veg and fresh fish piled high in the snake-like roads and arcade rows; the wafts of incense as you walk past stalls selling oversized calculators and bejewelled phone cases; breezes of chilly aircon as you enter an African wax fabrics store to fondle yards of brightly-coloured material; snatches of Caribbean music as a car screeches to a halt at the traffic lights; greetings from the fishmongers as they whistle along to a pounding dance track; the incredible amount of eateries spread over the bustling mini-metropolis, each offering a different oral and aural experience you’ve not tried before, or maybe it’s the meandering locals and visitors who never seem to have anywhere pressing to go.

Franco Manca pizza, shot on an LC-A+ with Fuji Velvia 50

It was a rare day off that led my feet Brixton-way today, first to Franco Manca for a sourdough pizza and frosty apple juice as I read my book all on my lonesome, and then on to The Bread Room for an iced coffee and a catch-up on some laptop work. Perhaps it was the mild heatwave and high humidity London experienced today, but my summery feeling is always heightened the further down Railton Road/Atlantic Road I walk.

Federation Coffee, one of the more permanent pop-up shops/cafes in Brixton Village, shot on an LC-A+ with 800 ISO film

Over the last couple of years there’s been an obvious gentrification of Brixton, but I don’t think the heart and soul of the area has been lost — if anything, it’s encouraged more local businesses to spring up (particularly thanks to the Space Makers’ work); along with a thriving creative industry. This has obviously driven house prices up and brought along the trendies (which may explain why I only seem to wear my coral pink jeans on trips to Brixton), but with it has brought a new lease of life to the public spaces of Brixton, such as Windrush Square and in the future, a revamped Raleigh Hall.

Jim in the new Windrush Square; shot on a Diana Mini

The people of Brixton and those attracted to Brixton always put me at ease — at least, on the backstreets behind the high street, around Atlantic Road, Electric Avenue, and of course Brixton’s two indoor markets, Brixton Village and Market Row. There’s a slight smugness, or just plain ol’ togetherness, that you experience in Brixy — where stall-holders and waiters recognise you, and other locals almost do a head nod in the style of Larry David’s secret bald-man’s group. Everyone’s in on the secret, and woe betide the North Londoners who pass Brixy off as being “too South London.”

Young Brixy dog-walker, shot on an LC-A+

It’s on the backstreets that people have time to chat with you as you mop up some garlic olive oil with stretchy sourdough crusts, or as you reacquaint yourself with an ex-local hairdresser who now moonlights in a cafe, and passes along the contain details of your old local bikini waxer (Gemma — you’ll recall my story of this infamous waxer!) and her new salon. Or wait patiently and kindly as you dawdle over which cupcakes to buy as a treat for dessert that night. Or offer cooking advice for that random fillet of fish you’ve bravely bought on a whim. Or hum along to an unknown, made-up be-bop song behind you in a queue as you buy some organic cashew nuts and rye bread in the wholefoods shop.

I simply love Brixton, and the way I feel when I’m there.

It’s rather funny — I spent my last five years growing up in Australia avoiding Cherry Ripes and other similarly gelatine-laden foodstuffs, but since moving to London I just can’t get enough of the nostalgic chocolate bars. I guess I’m willing to overlook a bit of hooves ‘n bones for the sake of feeding my homesickness.

So you can imagine my glee when I saw online last week that my favourite baking writer (and fellow Aussie) Dan Lepard had made Cherry Ripes for Saturday’s Guardian paper. Of course I needed an excuse to be able to bring that many calorific ingredients into the house, and thankfully our friends Tim, Sarah and baby Ava were all too willing to take one for the team, as it were.

Aussies will recognise that it’s a small twist on the old favourite — in order to make the Cherry Ripes more slice-like that chocolate bar-like, Lepard added a chocolate base to the bottom, the texture of which made me recall my Mum’s Christmas rumballs, minus the rum.

I think I’d follow Lepard’s suggested addition from his Facebook page, and add brandy or rum to the base next time…if I can just find some more willing friends to help me out with demolishing them. Wherever might I find them?!

As I had more than half a tin of condensed milk left over, I had to quickly follow the recipe from its side for millionaire’s shortbread; lest I dip a spoon in and discover 10 minutes later that I’ve guzzled the whole lot…

When in need of something sweet, especially something that takes just 15 minutes to whack together, consider this raspberry coconut slice.

After my Nana passed away, my Grandad became quite the dab hand at baking, with this slice being our favourite. Little did I know that it was so easy to make! Perhaps that’s why he made it pretty much every time we visited…

So, if you want to whip up this simple slice in 15 minutes, using just one bowl; a spoon, and a measuring cup, hit up the recipe down below.

Note: I actually double this recipe to get 16 squares, but if you follow the recipe below, you’ll get eight squares.

Ingredients for the base

3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self-raising flour
2 tablespoons sugar
90g butter
1 egg
1/2 cup raspberry (or any) jam

Ingredients for the topping

1 egg
2 tablespoons sugar
1 and 1/4 cups coconut

For the base, combine all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl, and the rub in the butter with your fingers. Crack one of the eggs into the bowl, and mix it up with a spoon.

Spread it into a greased tray, and then spoon the jam over the top.

Next, whack the coconut, sugar and the egg into the bowl, and stir together until mixed. Spoon it over the jam, so it’s evenly distributed. Put it in the oven at around 180 degrees, and keep an eye on it, pulling it out after 20 minutes or so — or until brown.

Snaffle a square while it’s still piping hot, otherwise leave to cool and cut up into about eights (or 16 squares, if you doubled it.)

Having been handed Violet Cakes’ recipe book for my birthday, my first venture into these strange Amish cake-sandwiches was a complete disaster. I set about trying to make the strawberry ones, but as the shop didn’t have strawbs, I substituted them for blueberries. One big, gooey mess later (I had no idea how much they grew in the oven!) I vowed to stick to cupcakes for the time being.

That was until I tried Violet’s salted caramel whoopies, and my god, if they weren’t the tastiest baking I ever did make! The caramel swiss buttercream was incredibly smooth and subtle; I could’ve eaten the whole bowl if I wasn’t expecting friends ’round for tea.

Ingredients:

300g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter
120ml whole milk
200g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method and buttercream recipe below the jump…

Don’t preheat the oven yet, as there’s some chilling involved first.

You’ll need three bowls of varying sizes for the whoopies. In your middle-sized one, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, and set this aside. Next, melt butter in with the milk in a small saucepan, careful that it doesn’t boil. Remove from the heat once mixed, and pour this into your smallest bowl.

In your largest bowl, beat the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until it’s all fluffy. Add the middle-sized bowl’s contents (flour, baking powder and salt) and mix. Then, pour in the buttery milk from your smallest bowl, and stir. Put this bowl into the fridge for half an hour.

Violet says this recipe makes 9 large or 24 small whoopies. I’d recommend you go for the small ones, because even they turn out to be quite larger than expected (see my first paragraph, above!) So, get a teaspoon, and drop tiny dollops (making them as highly-built up as possible) onto a greaseproof paper-lined tray. Make sure they’re not too close together, because they will grow larger than you think.

Bake for close to 10 minutes; keeping an eye on them so they don’t go any further than golden brown.

While you’re doing this, you can get started on the caramel swiss buttercream for gluing them together…

Ingredients:

40ml double cream
75 caster sugar, and an extra 50g on the side
2 tablespoons water
175g unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1/4 vanilla extract

In a bain-marie (small saucepan on top of larger saucepan, which is filled with water), mix 75g of caster sugar with the water. Don’t stir much; just keep at a low heat until it’s mixed. Then, rack the heat up higher, and boil it until it goes dark caramel-ish. Quickly turn the heat off before you burn it, and pour in the double cream, whilst whisking frantically. Pour it into a bowl, and let it cool down.

Meanwhile, wash your smallest saucepan and whisk, because you’ll be using that bain-marie again.

In your large-sized bowl (you may need to wash it by now!), mix 50g of the caster sugar with the egg whites, until foamy. Pour it into the smallest saucepan, and put it atop the larger one which should be filled with simmering water, and get that whisk into it until the sugar’s all dissolved, and the consistency is positively frothy.

In a middle bowl, beat the butter and salt together until fluffy. Grab that large bowl again, and pour the sugary egg whites mixture back into it, beating it until fluffy. Ensure it’s cooled down, and then add the butter and salt mixture you’ve just made. Beat together until mixed, and then pour in the butterscotch which you made first.

The next bit is easy. Grab two like-sized whoopies, and smoodge them together with a good slick (and I mean good) of buttercream. Eat with a tea or a glass of prosecco — both of which should be served with a hugely-satisfied smile.

Everyone’s got a go-to recipe when they need something quick and easy to take into work the next day. For me, it’s Hummingbird Bakery’s frosted brownies — a delicious, cake-like brownie with walnuts and cream cheese frosting that always gets rave compliments. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had such an overwhelming response to a brownie before — and I’ve made it my life’s work to find The Ultimate Brownie Recipe, believe me.

Actually, I lie, there was one time I bought a ready-made box mix of Betty Crocker brownies under extreme duress of impending visitors, and passed them off as my own (we’ve all been there, I’m sure). Hearing someone exclaim that they were the best brownies they’d ever tasted definitely brought a smile to my face for more than one reason.

But back to the non-cheat’s version. This is a really simple recipe that you can trot out in 15 minutes, leaving you plenty of time to lick the bowl. Click over for the recipe…

Ingredients:
5x eggs
500g caster sugar (my trick is to just buy a new 500g bag of caster sugar, to avoid weighing out sugar from the jar — saves a lot of time)
120g plain flour (the brownies in the picture above were actually made with wheat and gluten-free flour, for a friend. Truth be told, I barely notice a difference — perhaps some additional crumbliness, but certainly no change in flavour)
100g cocoa powder
250g melted unsalted butter (like the caster sugar trick from above, I also just buy a brand new 250g stick to avoid weighing and chopping from different bars. Easy!)
30g shelled and chopped walnuts (I quite often add more, but it’s up to you)
30g chopped dark chocolate

Frosting ingredients
200g sifted icing sugar
75g melted unsalted butter
30g sifted cocoa powder
150g cream cheese

Turn the oven on to 170 degrees. Begin making the brownie mix by creaming the 5x eggs and caster sugar in a large bowl, with an electric beater. Add the plain flour with the cocoa powder, and mix until everything’s combined. Pour the melted butter in and mix up, chucking in the walnuts and chopped chocolate.

Grease up a suitable tray for the brownie mix (I use a medium Le Creuset, plus a smaller one), and bake for around 30 minutes. Slide a knife or other tool into the middle when finished, to see if it slides out clean. If it’s done, bring it out and let it cool down.

Meanwhile, start on the icing by beating the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder together. It will be quite dry, but don’t add milk or water — this will make it too sloppy once the cream cheese has been put in. Slop the cream cheese in and beat it until mixed, and then slather it over the brownies — I tend to cut them first before icing them, for greater control.

Like the cake tin or potholder behind the brownies? The tin is from Emma Bridgewater, and the potholder from Anthropologie.

Now, I may be a vegetarian (or pesky-pescetarian, if you will), but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my dairy. I practically live on cheese, and would die without semi-skimmed milk for my tea. Saying that, I couldn’t even tell that new Brixton neighbour Ms. Cupcake’s wares were lacking in eggs, dairy and other animal products.

Her new bakery, on Coldharbour Lane, sells over 70 different flavours, but it was the coconut one that caught my eye at the market. Scurrying home, I had it with an earl grey whilst watching Effie-cat playing in the garden — it was such a treat. The cake bit was as light and fluffy as any other cupcake; yet I couldn’t work out how she got the buttercream to taste so, well, creamy. Not to mention the luxurious coconut taste, which bizarrely reminded me of the snowball chocolate treats we used to eat in Australia.

Ms. Cupcake has some serious wizardry skills going on in that fancy cupcake-laden hat of hers.

It’s not just me who’s fallen head of heels for vegan goodies after one bite of these cupcakes — my good friend Libby of London Baking went to her store opening the other week, and was equally enthralled with what she found. I have a feeling this is going to be the start of a very dangerous relationship between me and those 70 cupcake flavours Ms. Cupcake sells just 15 minutes from my house…