Author: Sarah Kemp

Lemon olive oil cake recipe

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Olive oil cake. What’s all that about then? Well, let me tell you. I first came across cake baked with olive oil at Towpath in Dalston last year. Towpath, if you are wondering, is a delightful little café on the canal in Dalston, run by writer Lori De Mori and photographer Jason Lowe. I wasn’t brave enough at the time to try it, despite reading that it was very delicious. But ever since that day I have been contemplating baking a cake with olive oil, rather than butter. I’ve baked with vegetable oil before and been impressed with the results, but it was only when I was in touch with the lovely team at Nudo that I finally bit the bullet. I was sent a tin of Nudo Extra Virgin olive oil with lemons to try, which I decided I would use to bake a lemon loaf cake. Good choice. I found this recipe on Completely Delicious and substituted the lemons and extra virgin olive oil for my nifty little tin of Nudo. The whipped …

Riverford Organic veg box

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Thank you to Riverford Organic Farm for sending me a medium veg box last week, in perfect time for my dinner party. The box contained the following veggies: Orla potatoes, carrots, red onions, cauliflower, butterhead lettuce, brussel sprouts, sweet potato, January king cabbage, vine tomatoes and red and yellow peppers. We were able to feast on nearly all of it at the dinner party but we reserved the tomatoes and lettuce for our sandwiches with the left over beef the next day. I love the concept of the veg box – fresh produce picked from the field and delivered straight to your door. No faffing at the supermarket, no unnecessary travelling, just simple, honest veg. And delicious at that. Read my previous post on Riverford Organic Farm to hear more about why I love veg boxes. A medium Riverford Organic Farm veg box costs £15.45 – see here for the wide array of boxes available to order online.

Kaffeine

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Stepping off Oxford Street into Fitzrovia is like stepping off a packed tube train in rush hour – you immediately feel relieved. Far less busy, with virtually no lingering tourists, Fitzrovia is fast turning into a foodies paradise. It is also home to one of my favourite London cafes, Kaffeine. Yet another Australian / New Zealand owned London café, Kaffeine means business when it comes to the coffee and food that they serve. Freshly baked cakes, pastries, homemade granola, muffins for breakfast and a range of salads and sandwiches for lunch provide an excellent choice and the coffee is lovingly prepared and sourced from Square Mile. They use top quality equipment to get the best out of the beans – a Synesso Cyncra espresso machine and (for the more geeky coffee lovers out there) a Robus E 110v doserless grinder. They even pay attention to the size of the coffee cups in order to get the best possible taste out of the coffee. Each cup comes with a double shot as standard (that would explain …

InterContinental Hong Kong

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I sometimes struggle with the word luxury. One person’s interpretation of the word can can be totally different to another. So when I was told that my trip to Hong Kong would be to experience the city in total luxury, I was sceptical. That is, until I arrived at The InterContinental – the chosen hotel for our four night stay. As soon as we stepped off the bus that delivered us to the hotel from the airport, we were greeted by bell boys dressed head to toe in crisp white suits who whisked our cases away and disappeared off into the distance. Normally I would have been frightened but I have watched Home Alone enough times to know that bell boys deliver your luggage to your room so you don’t have to lug it there yourself. ‘Miss Kemp, would you like to follow me please’. I looked to my right and saw a hostess, who was on hand to personally show me to my room. I followed her through the reception area to the lift. …

Ottolenghi caramel and macadamia cheesecake recipe

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A few years ago I found myself exploring an area of London that I had never been before. It was a far cry from the areas that I had been spending so much of my time during university. As I was casually meandering down Upper Street in Islington, I stopped dead in my tracks when I caught glimpse of the biggest meringues I had ever seen out of the corner of my eye. Now, even though I don’t really care much for meringues, what was beyond the mountain of giant white rock like meringues flecked with luscious red raspberry was utterly appealing. I stepped inside, amongst the hustle and bustle and gawped at the array of freshly baked cakes that lay in front of me for a good ten minutes before I decided on which one I wanted to take away with me. I’m not very good at making decisions at the best of times so present me with a huge range of delicious looking cakes and we have a problem. Stood on a cake …