One of my very first memories of Australia involves cheesecake. Recently immigrated to Australia in the 80s, mum, dad, my little bro and I would go to the local Woolworths to get our weekly groceries, filling our shopping carts with all the goodies of the new country: family size packs of chips, loaves of Country Split white bread, Hundreds & Thousands (for fairy bread), pelican-endorsed Fruit Loops cereal, and from the frozen food section, there were always a couple of boxes

May in many places around the world means it's Mother's Day. What will you be doing for your mum? Will you be passing an afternoon or evening with your special lady? Lucky you. I made these chocolate almond and cherry mini bundt cakes thinking of my mum who is far away in Sydney. I know she would love them, and I know your mum will love them too. Even if they don't end up coming out perfect, she will still love them. So make her feel special, do it for me. The recipe is an ad

Oh, what's in a name, Hummingbird Cake? This is a cake that you definitely want to try if it's not one of your favourite cakes already - in my years of cake eating experience, hummingbird cake definitely takes one of the top 5 greatest hits. It's not difficult to make yourself either, it's a homely cake more than a fancy bakery cake. Speaking of names, Hummingbird cake is said to take its name from the national bird of Jamaica - also called 'doctor bird' - and was a recipe pu

The sun peeked out a couple of times last week in Milan - literally, twice, briefly. And here's what's been going on on my side in the last few days: I made this wonderful coconut chiffon cake, roasted a whole chicken for the first time for a dinner at mine for my mates, made hummus without a blender, met a few amazing musicians from Belgium including the very talented Charlotte Adigéry, got to squeeze in a good chat sesh with 2ManyDJs at a party, ate KFC (an event since we r

Plum cakes (pronounced 'ploom cake' in Italian) have always caused great confusion in me - 'a ploom is a fruit, no?' 'why is there nootella (that's 'nutella' in Italian again) in the plooom cake?'. Even after all these years, juicy, plump, violet plums still swim around in my head every time I hear the word 'plum cake'. In actual fact, here in Italy, loaf cakes are simply called 'plum cakes' and come under the same category as breakfast cakes because they are easy to prepare,

It's February and the world just seems to be in deep hibernation. We're all just trying to beat the last cold snap of the seemingly never-ending winter, every second person I speak to seems to be on a diet (freeletics seems to be the app of choice right now), fashion week in Milan is approaching and there are all these tall lanky-looking guys and girls everywhere in the city (only just extra motivation for us common people to work out), and honestly I'm just looking forward t

'Living in Italy is like a holiday that never ends, right?' It's what a friend of mine from NYC said to me when she came by Milan a few weeks ago. I guess from the point of view of an outsider, especially one from NYC, the slower pace in this country, can make it seem so. Do I believe it? Maybe, but based on the idea of 'holiday' being something different to merely being the opposite of 'work'. If holidays are about having the luxury of time to stop and enjoy all the little t

As an avid baker, the question I get most frequently by friends is how my boyfriend and I don't look like reality TV weightloss show contestants. We aren't blessed with those crazy-fast metabolisms - we are both past the tender age of 30 after all. We love to eat, and him, being Italian, has a great sweet tooth like most folks here whether they are one or 70 years old. He's super goloso. (BTW, don't trust any Italian who says he/she doesn't like sweets - its a BIG FAT LIE. Be