Welcome

Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Wednesday 2 March 2011

I recently spent a lovely afternoon with budding young cook, Kate. She is only 8 and yet is such a good cook that I am sure she could give some of the Masterchef contestants a run for their money. Kate bake two cakes (with a very tiny bit of help from me) - a cute teddy bear cake that she iced and decorated all by herself - don't you just adore the little necklace with the ladybird locket in the centre and the cute iced paws. We also made her dad a birthday cake. Kate was very good and planned out the design of the top of the cake by laying the decorations out on a plate before she put them on the top of the cake - John Torode would have been so proud of her. I held the icing bag and she piped all the green grass on top of the cake herself. What a lot of work for little hands! The cake looked very lovely when it was finished. Her Dad has since reported that Kate decided to cook again last week but this time took her planning to a new level designing her presentation layout for the dish (Haddock Mornay) on the computer! I was seriously impressed! Everything was plated up perfectly and everyone was ready to tuck in when Kate said she had forgotten the last detail - she then sprinkled a little edible glitter over the fish for extra decoration - a girl after my own heart - you can never have too much edible glitter, even with fish! Well done Kate for your wonderful cooking!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who is this KATE ?Her work is quite remarkable for an
8 year old . Can we see more please ?

Anonymous said...

Hi Hannah ,

I hope you're well. I'm working on a food & drink-related campaign that I
thought might be of interest to you. It's called Discover the Origin and
it's designed to promote Protested Destination of Origin (PDO) -stamped
food.

The campaign was created by the EU to make consumer more knowledgeable
about what they are buying and where it comes from. They want to support
local artisans who use traditional methods that have been handed down from
generation to generation to create delicious food. These are people who
care passionately about what they do, and it means natural products
containing no artificial additives or preservatives, simply good honest
food and wines that have not been tampered with. In short buying protected
destination of origin stamped food (PDO) supports honest trade, craft,
tradition and means you get to eat and drink better! You can find out more
at www.discovertheorigin.co.uk.

If you would like to know more about this, then please send me an email at oonagh@all-leo.com, as it would be great if you cover this on your blog.

Katrina said...

So pleasing to the eyes and definitely pleasing to taste. Love it!