Chocolate Malteser Cake

Yesterday being Wednesday meant, as usual, I spent the whole morning eating more cake than I'm sure is good for one person. Queen of the mother and baby group Laura had excelled herself once again. This time with a chocolate Malteser cake. So sensational that I think we might have an answer for the Cub's birthday cake conundrum next week.

Recipe from "Feast", Nigella Lawson (2004)

For the cake

150g soft brown sugar (muscavado sugar is best for flavour)
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175ml milk
15g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks powder
175g plain flour
25g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the icing and decoration

250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa
45g Horlicks
125g soft unsalted butter
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 x 37g packets Maltesers

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature (though it's not so crucial here, since you're heating the milk and butter and whisking the eggs.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/170C. Butter and line two 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.

Whisk together the sugars and eggs until light and frothy. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Beat the milk mixture into the eggs a little at a time. Fold in the dry ingredients thoroughly. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, by which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. Let them cool on a rack for about 5-10 minutes and then turn them out of their tins.

Once the cakes are cold, you can get on with the icing. I use a processor just because it makes life easier: you don't need to sieve the icing sugar. So: put the icing sugar, cocoa and Horlicks in the processor and blitz to remove all lumps. Add the butter and process again. Stop, scrape down, and start again, pouring the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running until you have a smooth buttercream.

Sandwich the cold sponges with half of the buttercream, and then ice the top with what is left, creating a swirly pattern rather than a smooth surface. Stud the outside edge, about 1cm in, with a ring of Maltesers or use them to decorate the top in which-ever way pleases you.

Makes 8-10 slices.

Winter Risotto

Due to bad planning and very little on offer in the local supermarket we had roast chicken in some form for practically every meal this weekend. This meant about twenty gallons of stock wanted my attention last night, so a risotto it was.

I was so tired and away with the fairies last week when we were shooting that I ate anything that was put in front of me. Majoritively carrot cake, flapjacks and Guylian chocolate sea shell truffles. Very tasty but probably not that nutritionally balanced... So this week Chaz and I are on a health kick. Not that he knows it yet. Not one of those 'only eat cabbage soup' diets or anything. Just healthy, wholesome, lots of green leafy veg, minimal red meat...

Last night I made a butternut squash, spinach, parsley and chard risotto. With a teeny tiny bit of bacon to keep Chaz happy. Mondays are bad enough already he wouldn't know what had hit him if I just produced a huge plate of vegetables.

It's very simple. Start as if you're making a normal risotto. Chop up some butternut squash - sweet potato would work just as well too. Put it on a baking tray with some salt and pepper and drizzle of olive oil and cook for half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat the stock.

In a separate pan, heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions and garlic and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring. When they've softened, add the rice and turn up the heat.

The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the wine and keep stirring.

Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, constantly stirring and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes.

Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.

Remove from the heat and add the butter and Parmesan. Stir well.

Throw in a few handfuls of raw baby spinach, the cooked bacon and the chard and stir it all in. Put the lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes.

Just before you're ready to eat it, add the squash on top, some chopped parsley and a bit more Parmesan.

Bon Apetit!

Builders from Hell

I'm hoping this time next week we will have the house to ourselves. Not a builder, a scaffolder or painter in sight. This means there are still five more days to bite my tongue, grit my teeth and think of nice, calming things to stop myself doing something I regret. I'm sorry to talk about my builders. I bore myself just thinking about them. I just don't know how they are still here. How on earth has Chaz managed -about seven times- to talk me out of giving them their marching orders? It's a miracle they haven't sent me into premature labour.

I not sure what I'm most looking forward to about their departure. Maybe not tripping over some sort of lethal tool in the middle of the night a la poor Laura Ashley. Not opening the fridge to find they've finished all my posh Illy coffee. And also opened the spare one I'd hidden in the larder. "No, Soz, Kenco just wasn't hitting the spot today", being the response when I asked if he always used the cafetiere to make instant coffee.

Maybe being able to go for a pee in peace. Cub's newest game is to fling the door open as soon as I sit down on the loo and run off laughing.

As I write, it's 8am on Sunday morning and I'm making yet another cup of tea. This one is for the lovely Andy from Aberdeen. A Sky technician that we've had to call out because, guess what, the builders have smashed our dish and we need another one. Not only I am going to have shell out another million pounds but presumably all my recorded treats will have vanished too. The last Downtown Abbey, New Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries.... All gone. Don't even think of mentioning this week's Celebrity Juice with Ant and Dec...

I've promised myself not to get wound up by them anymore and writing about them is getting me all a fluster. Time to stop. Instead I'm going to go and take some photos of our new beautiful, hand painted bathroom to show you and think nice calming thoughts. Maybe even start writing Christmas lists.

My Office

Hallway

Kitchen

Pompoms and Panamas

If I was a car, the red light would have been on for the last week. The Cub has been ill since thursday and now Chaz is tucked up in bed too. All thanks to the delightful builders who have kindly passed on their man flus.

I'm not allowed to be ill until at least friday. We are shooting part two of my book, 'Pompoms and Panamas' this week, so I have to be on my most sparkling, clever, full of ideas behavoiur. I am dosing myself up with everything I possibly can. Not a lot of choice when you're this pregnant. Hot honey and lemon being the most potent...I thought I'd perk myself up with my heavenly This Works Energy bath this morning. Even that's not allowed so I had to empty and re-run one without the magic energy burst. Good start.

I think adrenalin and excitement of the shoot will get me through and come the weekend I can collapse.

Until then, wish me luck, I'll be back on friday!

xx

Jurlique at the Sanderson

I was honoured to be invited to a swanky lunch at the Sanderson Hotel last week to celebrate the launch of Jurlique into their spa. I thought it would be a very casual, typical press day and nearly fell over when I walked into the very glitzy, proper sit down ladies lunch. Being there on behalf of a spa meant that lunch was a (very small) plate of health. Lots of special sprouting seeds, steamed fish etc. Very delicious but thank god I'd eaten half a kilo of pick'n mix from the massive Topshop en route.

Skincare wise, it couldn't have been more perfectly timed. I usually love it when a moisturiser comes to the end of it's life but this time, with every penny we have being thrown at the builders, I couldn't quite face coughing up another £100. So when I was sent home with a bag of Jurlique creations I was completely over the moon. It's only been a week so obviously no drastic results yet but I have to say, I think Dr Weil is already getting a good run for his money.

The table in the conservatory at the Sanderson

Dr Chloe Delevigne, Actresses Clara Paget and Flee Brudenell Bruce

Host Yasmin Le Bon

Health on a plate

www.sandersonlondon.co.uk

www.jurlique.co.uk

Bedroom Blues

I've been waiting for this moment for weeks. We have finally made a decision on what colour to paint our bedroom. And today is the day. With all the other rooms I've felt fairly certain with our choices. They were all easy decisions, nothing too drastic. But with this one, we've practically gone gothic. Couldn't be more un-me if it tried. At the moment it's a lovely, safe, cream and blue spot wallpaper. We could have lived with it happily for a few more years. But no, change is good.

So we've been living with six different options splashed on our bedroom walls for the past two weeks. Each time I think we've got it and then one of us goes off it...

Looking at them now in that photo above I still cant quite believe that we've gone with the one we have. Surely it'd be nicer and prettier to have gone with the bottom middle lilac-y blue one?

Below is the state of the room as I write. Luca the painter is jumping into his overalls, brush in hand.

No turning back now..

Until tomorrow.

Knitwear Edit

I am getting slightly fed up of having only two jumpers that fit me at the moment. They are rotated one after another and i'm getting in a a bit panic that they're going to collapse any day soon and then I'll have nothing to wear. And then I'll freeze to death. Maybe a bit drastic but you get the picture. On rotation are my beloved Madeleine Thompson, navy wool jumper dress and then another, quite a similar sensation from DKNY. But this one's black and slightly longer. Both have so many hideous bobbles all over them that I could probably knit myself another dress with them alone. Not a bad idea given the state of my funds after six weeks with a house of builders.

But I'm a little busy to learn to knit at the moment so have been hunting for some new potential additions online instead. Below are my options so far.

Quite a contrast to the very sombre blacks, greys and navys that are hiding the bump very well at the moment. But I think a bit of colour might be just what I need on an icy November morning. Seriously pricey though for a poncho. On the maybe list.

Balkhash Shawl, £238

www.anthropologie.eu

Not quite sure why i'm even pretending that this is an option. It's skimpy at the best of times, so less than ideal when 6 months pregnant. I just adore Chinti and Parker so much I couldn't not put it on the list.

Contrast pocket sweater

£285

www.netaporter.com

Some glitzy Day Birger numbers for an evening outings..

Both £199 from my-wardrobe.com

My hands down favourite is the Madeleine Thompson exclusive for Liberty. Navy or soft grey cashmere with flowery Liberty elbow patches. I don't think even the builders are going to get in the way of this one. Liberty's site isn't letting me drag off a good image but they're in their online shop now if you want to have a look.

www.liberty.co.uk

£280

Too Many Women at Petersham Nurseries

I spent Thursday night at one of my all time favourite places in the World, in Petersham Nurseries. My great friend Harry Becher had organised a huge dinner for his charity Too Many Women to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. It was being hosted by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson so was always going to be a glitzy affair from day one. The outfit dilemas obviously started the moment Harry first mentioned the party. Getting dressed while six months pregnant is tricky at the best of times but then chuck in a few Hollywood actresses, a couple of supermodels and a handful of rockstars....disaster. I ended up in a floaty floral one shoulder number which, I hope, didn't make me look too much like a Cath Kidston tent from Millets.

Dinner was served in a magical jungle. In the actual nursery, 200 of us sat down to a three course feast, surrounded by heavenly scented trees and plants and zillions of twinkly fairy lights. There was polenta and white truffles to begin, followed by filet of beef with some kind of horseradish deliciousness. There was an auction half way through. The aim of Too Many Women was to raise one million pounds in a year and before the auction there was only another £180,000 to go. Half an hour later, a cookery session with Gwyneth, guitar lessons with Ronnie Wood and some swanky Spanish holidays had magically produced another £140,000.

Bidding War... Sienna Miller, Ronnie Wood and Lily Donaldson

Harry Becher, Charles Delevingne, Me and Poppy Delevingne

Savannah and Jo Miller being sung Happy Birthday to by Ronnie Wood

The magical dinner

Dancing queens Pippa Middleton and Katie Redman

Pumpkin table settings

Jackson Scott from Manos de Dios

www.toomanywomen.co.uk

Crazy for Kempton

I've been trying to get to Kempton antiques market for years. There's always been something stopping me until yesterday when I finally went for the first time. I cannot believe that I've been missing out on this for so long. Hundreds of stalls - 700 to be precise- of people selling antiques, furniture, jewels, taxidermy, old glass. Anything and everything. I could have filled the whole house from top to bottom. If i'd been wearing my clever hat I'd have taken a massive van with me and stocked up on bargain furniture. Instead I went in my tiny car already full with baby car seats, suitcases, creme eggs... No room in the inn.

Anyway Ned and I did very well nonetheless. Antique mirrors and huge glass jars filled with cotton spools being the order of the day. I'd be so happy just to go and potter even if I wasn't hunting for any specific. I love the atmosphere of huge markets like that. The early early start - we were there at 6.30am, the eccentric sellers, the sausage and bacon baps.... It feels a bit like being on holiday.

I'm making it my mission to go at least once a month from now on. At least until I'm too fat to get behind the wheel. But then I guess I'll be in a van so there'll be more than enough space for me too.

www.kemptonantiques.com