Last Thursday, as usual, I got the urge to bake when I didn’t really have enough time! I had a look in the ever well-stocked cupboard and decided I fancied something sweet and spicy. I adapted this recipe from a basic one found on cupcakeblog.com - if you have a sweet tooth, definitely check that blog out! Anyway, I ended up cooking a large batch of mocha cupcakes and the family meal at the same time, and of course then I didn’t manage to get to my tap class on time…

Update: The painting sold on ebay for £1019, but the bid was upped to £5000 and bought by Theo Paphitis (from Dragon's Den).

Black current jam trees, marmalade pavements, mint sauce buildings and a tartar sauce sky all feature in a mouth watering new painting set to raise funds for The New Children's Hospital Appeal.

I bought some bargain, better-than-half-price cherries from the Co-op, but disapointed they weren't as tasty as glace cherries I decided to add them to a chocolatey concoction.

After a quick trip back to the Co-op I had myself 150g of fruit and nut chocolate, 150g of dark chocolate and some condensed milk, with the intention of mixing them all together...

I'm getting to that point where a big shop is needed to fill the fridge, but as ever life's distractions pull me away. So, this evening I picked the last thing out the of bottom drawer of the freezer: Quorn mince.

Many of my friends mock the contents of my fridge-freezer, but I make no excuses for the stuff I buy! Why would I have George-Forman'd chicken strips on plain white bread every night (like my old flatmates) - when there is so much stuff out there!

Everyone I've spoken to about Kefir has just been grossed out. Usually because when asked what it tastes like, I respond with "Fizzy cheese!". It doesn't really taste like fizzy cheese, but I just can't think of a better way to describe it!

Basically, it's is a fermented milk drink, made by leaving Kefir grains in milk for 12-24 hours. These grains look like cauliflower and will grow with each batch you make. Once you have too many grains and are producing more kefir than you can drink, you can just eat them!

Here is the equipment you need to make the stuff...