When my son was young I used to make lunch boxes for him daily as he doesn’t like the food from his school canteen. I actually wanted him to try more different kinds of food so I joined him to the school meals list. It only lasted a couple of weeks!

However the school actually has a menu of what is being served daily. Once a week we were given a menu and the boy and I have to tick what he wanted for 5 days (weekly). Typical English food like fish fingers, spaghetti Bolognese and such. As my son was not too keen on a lot of the food offered and also he wanted to gobble up his lunch quickly just so he could play footie, he much preferred to have lunch boxes.

There was a year when I forced him to join the school Christmas lunch with all the other students before the school Christmas pantomime. When I went to the school to collect him that day one of the canteen lady told me, “Mrs Olive your son said our gravy is like brown drain water” I was so embarrassed, extremely embarrassed that I did not know where to put my face or how to begin to apologize! We still reminiscent about it to this day with a chuckle. I think he was 8 or 9 years old then.

Anyway one of his favourite lunch box food is my savoury muffins and of course his favourite is none other than cheese and bacon muffins. Sometimes I add in a bit of sweet corn or grated carrots. You do the basic mix and add anything you like within reason. If course common sense is not to overload with vegetables. Let children enjoy a bit.

Use this basic ingredients and adjust add or minus stuff to suits your taste.

The only one golden rule is mix the wet ingredient to the dry and do not over mix the mixture!

Remember when you scope onto your tin, make sure it’s like a mound in the middle and not flat. This si so that your muffins baked like a round ball, prettier.

I would have added chives to today’s bake but I have non at home so I decided to add some larger pieces of bacon on top.

Enjoy and don’t forget to tag me or post your pics here.

I have never hidden the fact that I prefer my cake naked. If it has to have a filling then I prefer it with fresh cream. I do not like a lot of icing, fondant, marzipan etc etc. However I like a bit of butter with dry cakes, ok a lot of butter with dry cakes such as tea cakes, which will be my next cake recipe. I love the tea cakes my mother in law makes for me every time I see her. I am also partial to a bit of crème anglaise with my cakes.

Besides very rich butter cake I have a love for Marble cakes. I can’t even remember where I got the original butter cake recipe from but I love old school and old world recipes. I have accumulated through three decades a large amounts of cookery books and some very old ones too. Over the years I have tweaked the butter cake recipe to just how I like it.

The other day I was enjoying my butter cake and thinking it’s time I tweak it into a marble cake but I do not want to lose any of the buttery goodness. I went and bought a fridge drawer full of butter intending to start experimenting and using my the family work colleagues, neighbours and friends as guinea pigs but to my surprise I like this cake on first try!

So I better write down my recipe pronto else I forget. I have also promised some people to write this out.

I fell the most important thing to remember is not to use different setting when beating egg whites. This is to ensure that all the air bubbles with be same size, stable.

Second most important thing is to make sure your baking powder is in date. Nowadays I prefer to buy those sachet ones but for heavy cakes like this it is better if you have double action baking powder.

Thirdly you need to bake your cake according to your oven’s idiosyncrasy. Get to know your oven. Each oven works with a slight different and mine is a fan assisted oven. I also live in the UK and inside my home temperature is never above 23*C in winter.

Lastly for a marble cake to look good the brown part should be less than the plain batter. Only then will it look good. (My opinion)

When we were growing up, my sibling and I, the five of us enjoys my mother’s butter cakes and often we have to fight over the last few pieces. Now I can laugh about it but I remember then there were even tears! This is my 3 parts Rich Brandy Butter Cake.

I also recollect that my mother used both brandy and vanilla essence. My mother had forgotten which recipe she used. However I have over the years tweak this recipe a bit by bit and I am now satisfied with the taste. I used a good vanilla paste so I can use 50ml of brandy.

I am sure if I wait 24 hours before eating it, the brandy taste will matures a bit and I was going to wait for 24 hours before slicing but hubby came home from work and was giving me his best ‘I am hungry’ look.

Now half the cake is gone so I will bake another tomorrow to keep for 24 hours!

I actually love to eat cakes naked. I do not like icing, fondant and such. A good old school butter icing made with butter, icing sugar and ice cubes like how my mother used to make by hand is not too bad. since living in UK I am partial to fresh cream and crème anglaise on cakes. My repertoire of cakes is just about a dozen. I guess I am extremely fussy.

I bought a baking tin with a bit of groves at the sides the last time I was in Milan. It was made in Italy. Collecting baking tins and cookbooks is my ‘must do’ when I travel.

The best butter cake to me must be extremely buttery, extremely dense, sweet without being too sickly sweet but RICH. Above all else it must be perfumed with butter. Perfect with a cup of black freshly ground coffee or plain tea. This is such a recipe.

Note – Please use the best butter you can afford. It makes ALL the difference in my honest opinion. If you use a salted butter then omit the generous pinch of salt. If you are using unsalted butter then use at least a tsp of salt.

I made this chicken pie for dinner. I am not one of those Chinese who maintain the tradition of fish, meat, vegetables and soup aka the 3 dishes and one soup per meal type. Maybe I have been in UK too long. Tonight’s dinner – a pie and beer is all we need. Chicken and leek pie.

Please feel free to add in anything you like to your pie.