Celebrating the launch of PREPPED!

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited along to my first ever book launch. I was probably a little over excited about it as I'd actually been involved in testing one of the recipes for the book...oh & it was hosted in the Knightsbridge branch of Rococo Chocolate, so how could a girl say no?

PREPPED! is written by the lovely Vanessa Kimbell & promises that with a little prep, you'll be able to knock together culinary masterpieces from your own kitchen at the drop of a hat. I'm all for that!

The recipe I tested for Vanessa was the delicious Orange & Cardamon Barfi (page 233 of the book!) It was great to finally see it in all it's printed glory, especially when I saw that Vanessa had incorporated some of my testing comments into the final method. Here's a link to my original post.

It really is a lovely book, packed with beautiful photography & recipes helpfully grouped by flavours & ingredients. Top of my list to try out are Vanilla Vodka & Spiced Tomato Jam....yum!

It's published by Spring Hill & is available now from Waterstones & Amazon To find out more about the author, pop over to Vanessa's blog.

Good luck Vanessa, it surely has been a labour of love & I wish you every success with it. Rebecca x

New challenge - recipe testing!

One of the nicest things about writing a blog is that along the way you get to meet lots of lovely people who are as obsessive about things as you are! Just as I had come to the end of my baking challenge I replied to a tweet request asking for people who fancied recipe testing. The tweet came from a lady named Vanessa Kimbell, who very excitingly is launching her first cook book later this year. After a chat on the phone it was decided that I would test Vanessa's recipe for Orange & Cardamon Barfi, I would continue writing my blog & that I had an invite to visit Northampton sometime in early June (Vanessa is a very persuasive person :-) So I'm happy to say that I am now a....
The ethos of the book is to provide recipes for time short foodies, allowing you to prepare as much as possible in advance, thus being PREPPED! I get so frustrated when recipes don't quite work for me, so I love the fact that Vanessa has shared her recipes for people to test, making sure that everything works as it should. So how did I get on?

I must admit Barfi doesn't have the most appealing name! It's a traditional Indian sweet made mostly from milk, flavoured with spices, fruit & nuts. Vanessa's version adds orange zest & cardamon powder which gives it a delicious fragrant flavour.

It was really simple to make & didn't require any real cooking (other than a bit of melting!) You just need to allow a few hours to leave it to set in a pan before you can cut it into pieces. Barfi has a deliciously rich flavour & I'd recommend it as something different to have with an after dinner coffee.


Thanks to Vanessa for the opportunity to test this & play a teeny tiny part in what I'm sure will be a very successful book!

Why not pop over to Prepped to view the this recipe & lots of other yummy ideas .

Good luck with the launch! Rebecca x