I have spent most of my teenage and adult life being unhappy with my weight. Is that shocking? I don’t think so. I’m female, I like my food A LOT and I like tight jeans. Add these three things together and you have the perfect recipe for a little body wise self loathing. The last time I remember being rather happy with my body was in 1995. I was 15 and a size 10. Life was good. The tight jeans were tight, but didn’t yet threaten to cut me in half at the waist.
Nineteen years later and I am battling the postnatal bulge. I managed to deliciously eat my way to 4.5 stone extra weight during this last pregnancy. Now nothing fits. The maternity clothes have no bump to hold onto. The leggings sag. The jeans fall down. The tops sadly hang over my deflated belly. I don’t recognise myself in the mirror.
I wish, wish, wish I’d appreciated my body between the years 1996 to 2013. It really wasn’t that bad. Yes, I often sported a few extra pounds, and no, I wasn’t a size 10. But really, compared to now, I was in great shape. Sigh.
Onto the recipe. Here’s a cake that almost includes one of your five a day.
420g mixed dried fruit ( I used sultanas and figs, chopped)
20g mixed peel
50mls milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
275g self raising flour
3 braeburn apples, grated with skin on (approx 285g)
10g crystallised ginger, finely chopped
For the icing:
75g soft butter
60mls maple syrup
200g cream cheese
To decorate:
7 pieces of crystallised ginger
First make the cake. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and grease and line 3 x 20cm cake tins.
Beat the sugar, 100mls maple syrup and 125g butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Worry not if the mixture curdles. Remove 55g of the mixed fruit and blitz in a food processor with the mixed peel and milk to make a paste. Add this along with all the other cake ingredients into the bowl and mix for a 3 or 4 minutes until everything is well combined. Split the mixture evenly between the 3 tins, level with the back of a spoon and bake for 30 minutes until golden and lightly risen.
In the meantime make the icing by beating the butter with the maple syrup until soft and combined. Add the cream cheese and beat a little more until well mixed. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes before spreading to let the icing re-solidify. (Beating cream cheese makes it very loose.)
Once the cakes are baked cool on a wire rack. Once completely cool split the icing into thirds to layer the cake together, finishing with a final third on the top. Cut 6 of the pieces of ginger in half and use to decorate around the outside. Place the last piece of ginger in the middle.
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What I would do for a new oven! Mine is battered and bruised after a lot of abuse from yours truly. Argos got in touch with me and asked if they could GIVE AWAY a range cooker to the readers of the blog. Yes! I know. I was a bit speechless too. Anyway, here are the details:
There’s 1 Stoves cooker to giveaway courtesy of Argos worth £449.99 up for grabs. There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date 14th November 2014. How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 14th November 2014.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Open to anyone over the age of 18, UK mainland only. Sorry to anyone younger or further afield.
There’s 1 x Stoves cooker up for grabs as seen in the picture. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Argos who will be responsible for sending the prize to you by post should you win. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
I was very close to my grandmother, named Momma (pronounced ‘Mom-mar’) by my toddler self. She was about 5 foot nothing, obsessed with her ‘bloody hair’ as she called it and loved nothing more than taking me for an underage afternoon glass of wine at the only French bistro in Leicester. She was a thoroughly bad influence and I adored her for it. She loved food but hated cooking, and saw it as unnecessary drudgery. Imagine my surprise after she died to find a well-worn recipe book in her house with this handwritten into it. Not once did she make these for me and yet they are wonderful! Here’s the recipe translated into metric.
NB: This is a recipe taken from my book Recipes from a Normal Mum. It’s out now… on Amazon, with The Book People, at Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose (where it’s book of the month) and many smaller outlets.
1 tsp ground ginger, or more if you like a strong ginger taste
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and line 2 baking trays with non-stick greaseproof paper. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat until dissolved. Add the flour, sugar, ginger and bicarbonate of soda and give it a good mix with a wooden spoon. Leave the mixture to cool for a few minutes as you will need to be able to handle it.
Using your hands, form handfuls of the warm mixture into balls about 4cm across; you should make about 15. Place them on the lined trays, making sure that there’s plenty of space for them to spread in the oven. I leave a 5cm gap between each.
Bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes until the dough has spread into cracked looking biscuits. If you like your biscuits with a bit of ‘chew’ (more cookie-like) then take them out when only the sides are brown. If you like them crunchy then let the whole biscuit get a suntan. Let them cool on the baking tray for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
It wasn’t that long ago that baby showers were just for the rich and famous. Now they’re as much a part of having a baby as hen do’s are an obligatory precursor to getting married. A baby shower is your send off into motherhood, whether it’s your first time or you’ve already popped out a few babies.
If you’re organising a baby shower for a friend or even yourself there are a few questions to ask before you even book a venue:
Is the Mum to be needing her bed at 9pm every night? The end of pregnancy can be exhausting for some so think about a weekend daytime party if she’s in her PJs by the Eastenders credits every night.
How does the Mum to be feel about others drinking alcohol? For some, giving up the booze can be the worst part of pregnancy, so watching others enjoy it is torturous. For others, even the smell makes them feel nauseous. Bear this in mind when booking a venue and remember that most sober Mums to be will have less tolerance for loud noise. A private room in a bar/restaurant, a tea room or even someone’s house are likely the best options.
Who are you inviting? If it’s a surprise for the Mum to be, consult with a couple of her closest friends and her partner. In my experience smaller gatherings of really good friends can work better than inviting everyone on the Mums Facebook friends list.
If you’re inviting lots of people who don’t know each other well, you might need a game or two to help break the ice. Guessing the weight, gender and birthday of the baby is a good starter. Or buying some cheap white baby gros and some fabric pens and setting everyone to work creating a masterpiece fit for a princess or prince gets everyone chatting too.
Presents can be a tricky one. Some people are superstitious and prefer to only buy for the baby once he or she arrives. My advice is to keep present buying Mum focused. All too soon every gift she receives will be baby related. What about a voucher for a relaxing foot massage and pedicure (I’m assuming she find reaching her feet difficult by now!), a delicious smelling candle or some super soft PJs for making those night feeds a little more enjoyable? For the Mums who already have children practical help is often what they crave most; maybe some IOU vouchers for babysitting, making an evening meal or doing a load of washing and ironing? Just make sure she uses them.
Last, but in my opinion, most importantly, the food and drink. An afternoon tea party is a treat whether pregnant or not so it’s a great place to start. Perhaps kick things off with a mocktail like a virgin mojito and follow with fine leaf tea served in beautiful china tea cups with saucers.
Bear in mind any cravings the Mum to be might have had and try and incorporate them into the catering if they’re not too weird and wonderful. (Gherkin ice cream anyone?) Small, dainty bites like tiny crustless finger sandwiches filled with ham and mustard, slivers of cucumber or poached salmon and mayonnaise always go down well. Follow them with miniature scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, little fine French macarons, heart shaped lemony shortbread biscuits and of course, a chocolately treat. Like these brownies.
Lucky for readers of the blog I have a giveaway from Pink Lining for those looking for a smart changing bag used by normal Mums and also celebs too. They have a fine selection of baby shower gifts if you find yourself organising or invited to one.
There are 2 Woodland changing bags worth £79 each up for grabs. There are lots of ways to enter – see the Rafflecopter form below. The first way is just to leave a comment on this post. Easy peasy. Closing date 12th September 2014. How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
This giveaway will close on 12th September 2014.
Please read the rules below.
Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after the prize has been claimed by the winner.
If no form is showing, hit refresh and it should appear.
Complete the form – or your beloved entries will not go into the draw. And that would be such a waste of time.
Mandatory entries need to be completed first – so leave a blog comment before you try and complete any of the other methods of entry.
Want more chances to win? Come back daily after tweeting about the giveaway and fill the form in again.
If you are viewing this by email you will need to click through to enter.
Rules and things:
Open to anyone over the age of 18, all of UK. Sorry to anyone younger or further afield.
There are two Woodland changing bags worth £79 each up for grabs as seen in the picture. There’s no cash alternative to the prize and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
Instructions form part of the terms and conditions. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will obviously be disqualified. The winner will be picked at random using software and then contacted by email. If you win and then don’t respond to this email within 7 days then another winner will be picked so check your emails and your spam! The goodies will be delivered to the winner as soon as possible after you have sent me your delivery address.
I am running this giveaway on behalf of Pink Lining who will be responsible for sending the prize to you by post should you win. Their decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
This is where I get all stern – please don’t say you have liked the post and followed me on Twitter and Tweeted away like a Tweety thing if you haven’t as guess what? If you win I will check you did do the things you said you did. It’s only fair after all. And I do like fairness.
My publisher has given the okay to blog another recipe from my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum. With 100 recipes to choose from it wasn’t an easy decision. I wanted something sweet as I know readers of the blog are partial to the odd sweet treat. After a little ask about on Facebook I had the answer.
These florentines are delicious and really very easy. The crunch and all important brushing of chocolate make them a big hit amongst the smaller people in our family. Add to this already heady combination some marshmallows and sultanas and this could well be treat heaven. Obviously exercise caution should any of your children’s friends have a nut allergy.
P.S. If you like this recipe you can order the book for delivery to your door by clicking here.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and line 2 baking trays with non-stick greaseproof paper. Heat the honey and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat until the mixture is molten and the sugar has nearly completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the flour and almonds using a wooden spoon. Leave to cool for 2–3 minutes and then place heaped tablespoons onto the baking sheets about 3cm apart, this will allow for a little spreading. Do not use your fingers to get the mixture off the spoon as it will be extremely hot. As you go squash them down a little with the back of a spoon, you do not want heaped mounds. Bake for 10 minutes until they are lovely and golden and have spread. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure that the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until it has completely melted. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of chocolate onto the top of each Florentine and press a few cherries, marshmallows, biscuit pieces and sultanas into the chocolate. Repeat for each Florentine and if there’s any chocolate left over, drizzle it over the top of the Florentines in a zigzag pattern. Leave the chocolate to set for 2 hours.
Hands up – this is a giveaway only open to those who have already bought my book. It’s a thank you. If you wish to take part then you’ll need to buy the book – it’s currently available from Sainsbury’s, Waterstones, Amazon, Waitrose (from August) and of course lots of lovely smaller independent book shops. (You can click on the words Waterstones and Amazon to buy.)
Here’s how this giveaway works. I have SEVEN recipe books, all brand spanking new for one lucky person to win. The combined RRP of the prize is just under £125! Here’s a picture of the books:
You must include the Amazon link to the book in your entry otherwise it won’t be counted. And if you make more than one recipe then you can enter again… in fact you could enter 100 times using every recipe in the book if you wish. What you can’t do is enter the same recipe more than once.
I will pick a winner at random on 14th August using a random number generator from the web. So it doesn’t matter if the kids get involved and your dish doesn’t look picture perfect. This isn’t about that – it’s about making something, anything from the book. (And if you’ve already made something and sent the pic to me just re-post it with the wording above.)
Good luck!
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We’re back from our summer hols. We went to Suffolk. Southwold to be precise. We always holiday in Suffolk; it’s my attempt at creating childhood memories the boys can bore their own kids with. I regularly irritate them with rose tinted tales of crabbing in Cornwall. It’s only right I allow them the same pleasurable adult pastime.
Did I have a nice holiday? Can I be honest? It wasn’t great. It felt more like an endurance test. (And yes, we’re lucky to have a holiday, I know that some people won’t go on holiday this year, or any year – so really my moaning is unnecessary, but hear me out, I’m a terribly sleep deprived woman and I don’t see many adults. This is my version of a pint and a chat at the pub).
Anyway, it all felt like very hard work indeed. The routine my sons thrive on was shot to pieces so they were all a bit tetchy and out of sorts. It was hot beyond hot which was deliciously unexpected (I had packed rain coats), but made keeping a 4 week old comfy difficult. I kept looking about on the beach and wondering when the cavalry might arrive (aka The Grandparents), then remembered we’d left them all in Leicester. Fools. Amateurs! You’d think we’d have this lark licked by the time we were on baby number three. Not so.
Here’s a delicious and very good for you bread recipe. I love rye but find too much of it in a loaf makes it heavy and reminiscent of bread sold in shops that sell natural deodorant. This uses a little rye for flavour, some spelt for a quick rise and a slight nuttiness and white flour to pad it out and make it palatable. Enjoy!
Oh and psssst, my book is out! If you fancy buying it click here, it already has SIX five star reviews. And none were by my Dad. Promise.
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, then knead until smooth and elastic. You can use your KitchenAid to do this too – use the dough hook at speed 2 for about 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky – if it isn’t add some more water. (NB: It is very hard to give exact water mls for bread recipes as all flours absorb water at a different rate, plus the humidity in the atmosphere makes a difference.)
Cover the sticky dough mixture (still in the bowl) with clingfilm and leave to double in size. This will be speedier than standard dough as spelt flour rises quickly. Grease and flour a loaf tin and once the dough has double in size, knock it back with your hands or a few turns of the dough hook. Shape into a sausage using some extra flour then place in the tin. Sprinkle the top with flour, cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to double in size.
Bake in a preheated 220C/Gas mark 8 oven for about 30 minutes until well browned. Remove the bread from the tin 5 minutes before the end and finish off directly on the oven shelf. The bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Some ovens may take more or less time to bake bread – timings also depend on the flour you used so keep an eye on it.
Leave to cool on a wire rack and slice once cold.
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I saw a friend this week. We went to school together many years ago. She gave birth to her first born child just two days before my third son arrived.
We descended on her, all 5 of us, snotty nosed and covered in germs. The way you are when you have a 3 and a 5 year old as well as a baby; there’s no time for antibacterial hand spray. I promised myself I wouldn’t do it, really I did, but then I couldn’t help myself.
I committed the mortal sin of trying to impart my knowledge on her. It’s exactly the kind of thing that used to drive me to distraction as a first time mother. Some friend who just happened to have won the prize for reproducing sooner and with more vigour than me would rock up, pronounce everything was actually really easy once you have a few kids and advise I basically slightly ignore my baby and let him cry a little sometimes. Oh and sleep when the baby sleeps. I’m as bad as all the others. It comes from a friendly well meaning place of course, but really it’s just plain annoying. (Note. To Self.) Next time I see her I will make her these brownies as way of an apology and stop being such a know it all.
Makes 12 little brownies but you can cut them up smaller or bigger
Ingredients:
325g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
125g butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
175g light brown sugar
65g castor sugar
3 large eggs (at room temperature)
100g ground almonds
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a 20 x 20cm square tin with non stick paper. Place the chocolate and butter into a medium saucepan and heat on a very low heat, stirring all the time until dissolved and molten. (If you are too scared to do this and worried about the chocolate going all grainy then use the bain marie method).
Add all of the other ingredients, mix well until well combined and pour into the tin. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the top of the brownie has formed a crust but there’s still a little squidge left in the middle. (The sides will be a little better cooked.) It may have puffed up a bit but will sink after removing from the oven. Cool on a wire rack still in the tin until completely cool. Slice with a hot knife (dipped in boiling water) for perfect little squares that happily accompany a nice cup of tea.
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So, not sure if I’ve banged on about it enough yet (!) but I have a proper recipe book coming out this month. 17th July to be precise, that’s this Thursday. I am very, very excited and feeling rather nervous too. To read all about it take a look here and also here for details of how many recipes are vegetarian friendly. Here’s the cover:
I have had a lot of contact from other bloggers and keen cooks asking how I went about getting my book published. I thought the best thing to do was tell you a little about the process that led to Recipes from a Normal Mum being published in the hope it may help someone else.
1) Get yourself an agent
The first thing you need is an agent. They are basically the facilitator between you and the publishers who actually commission the book. You agent is a combination of your friend and the hardest task master teacher you ever had at school. They should make you push yourself to the limit of your best ability.
Now it’s not always easy to get an agent to take you on. I was lucky in that I had been on the Bake Off and had also had success with self publishing my ebook. So the proof was already there for an agent to see. You can find a list of agencies who represent authors through the Writers and Artists Yearbook. Just to let you in on a secret of how long I’ve wanted to be a writer, I first bought this book in 1996. Yep, writing has been a lifelong obsession of mine.
Oh and by the way, just to confuse things, some agents only represent for literary work and others for any commercial work such as TV, radio, appearances etc. I am greedy and have a literary one and a non literary one. You need to like and respect your agent. Kind of goes without saying but if you don’t get it’s akin to having both a boss and colleagues you dislike. And unhappy people don’t tend to create the best work.
2) What if I can’t get an agent?
Well, it’s a tough world out there in agent and literary land. Some great writers struggle for years to get an agent to take them on. You can approach some publishers without an agent but the really great ones don’t tend to take submissions directly from authors. An agent tends to take about 15% of any money paid to the author for a book, but given there are no guarantees in getting work some agents work for years for no gain.
If you’re struggling to get an agent to take you on I would ask yourself a few questions – firstly do you feel your work is definitely commercially viable, as in, will it sell? You could be an amazing writer, but if your subject matter is too niche (100 prune recipes anyone?) an agent might be reluctant to take you on given you may not get a book deal, or even if you do, you may not sell many copies. Secondly – if you definitely feel there is a market for your work, push yourself to test the water. Think about self publishing a shorter story or smaller amount of recipes than the full book you have in mind and pop it on Amazon. See how it does. Get yourself a Twitter account, make a Facebook page and have a go at promoting your work. I honestly don’t think I’d have got a book deal without this blog and the ebook I self published and promoted through social media. Sometimes you just need to show people the proof.
3) Write a proposal
My literary agent must have been a dominatrix in a previous life. She’s such a hard task master. So it went a little something like this – she gave me a brief of what I needed to write into a book proposal. A bit of blurb about why the book was a good idea, who the target market might be, a bit about me and my background and then a chapter by chapter synopsis with 5 or so recipes fully finished and tested as a taster. Easy I thought.
So I diligently beavered away over about a week and sent her my little essay of a proposal. The email I got back was pretty blunt; she said I was on the right lines but a long way off. I think I re-wrote that proposal about 7 times over the next 4 months. Yes – it was a lot of work, and I admit to wanting to give up at times. But she was right, you really need to get the proposal spot on as you only get one chance of making a first impression. I feel like I lost a little bit of myself to that proposal, it was such a hard slog, but ultimately it worked.
4) Your agent sends the proposal out to publishers
This is the waiting game. Your agent sends out the proposal and makes a few phone calls to her publisher pal contacts, and then? Nothing. You sit about and wait whilst your proposal mostly languishes in some very important people’s inboxes. You call your agent every day, irritating the hell out of him/her. You start to consider self publishing again. You give yourself a stern talking to. You calm down. You decide that maybe book writing isn’t your path. Maybe you’re destined for other things?
Then you have 3 missed calls and an email saying ‘CALL ME IMMEDIATELY’ from your agent and you sit down, take a big gulp and make a phone call that changes your working life forever. What I am trying to say is that publishing does not work like a lot of industries. I worked in advertising where decisions regarding million pound campaigns were made over a couple of days. Publishing seems to be more considered shall we say. Unless you’re very famous like Jamie or Nigella in which case I am sure your proposals get snapped up in seconds. For the rest of us, it can be a bit of a waiting game.
5) You get a book deal!
So you have your book deal. It’s done! Or so you thought. Actually the contract needs to be ironed out, the money negotiated and lots of little things agreed. Will hair and make up be included in the costs covered by the publisher? Will they insist on a food stylist or will you cook and style the food yourself? How many photographs will be included? Will they all be colour? How many recipes will the book include? How many chapters? How many pages will the book be? When will it be published? Will the photos be shot on location or in a studio? All this needs to be agreed in writing before you get any money.
The first 3rd of your advance comes when you sign the contract, another 3rd when you send in the manuscript and the last 3rd when the book is published. For what it’s worth I was obsessed with every recipe having a colour photo and that the style of the book was real – in that I didn’t want the photos to look like something only a chef could achieve. (Anything else was negotiable for me including the cover which you’ll notice does not have my mug on the front – quite unusual for anyone who’s done the Great British Bake Off/Mastershef rounds.) So I made every recipe for the book in my domestic oven and everything was shot here at my house, with no food stylist or home economist to help. I even did all the washing up. We were blessed with lovely weather which is why the pictures may look more South of France than South Leicester.
6) You agree a photographer and a brief
Okay, so we’re all happy and everyone’s pleased to be working on the book. Next everyone needs to agree about a style of photography and art direction. The head Art Director and her/his team put together a brief and a mood board of images and make sure the author is happy with them. Then they get in lots of photographers books to decide who might be right for the job.
I was VERY lucky that David Loftus (him of best pals with Jamie Oliver and Pippa Middleton fame) agreed to take the photos for my book. I was a *little* nervous when he turned up to our semi for the first day of the shoot. David is photography royalty and I am a housewife from Leicester. My anxiety levels were pretty high. Here’s David looking dapper with Pippa:
7) You deliver the manuscript
Okay I may have got a bit ahead of myself… whilst the photographer is being searched for you have to actually write the book. You will be given a deadline and you must adhere to it. This is a deadline for final recipes and any extra writing describing the chapters and recipes – it must all be written perfectly. Ie/ the recipes have to work.
The recipes comes from a variety of places; some are memories of food eaten as a child, some inspired by amazing food eaten in restaurants or cooked by friends. Some ideas come from little comments I hear from adults and children alike. For example, the chocolate gingerbread barn birthday ‘cake’ idea came to me after hearing more than one parent complain their child didn’t enjoy their own birthday cake. The sad truth being that some (especially young) children don’t like cake that much – yet! I wanted to create a birthday centrepiece that they might enjoy that also looked visually appealing. A flat cookie just doesn’t stand up against a big chocolate birthday cake in my book – but a gingerbread barn complete with piggies, well, I think that’s a close contender.
I toiled pretty much night and day to make sure every recipe worked; it was a real labour of love. The relief when I pressed send on the manuscript was immense. To write a recipe book (and I imagine any book) you need to be tireless in striving for perfection. You’re pretty much working alone, there’s no one to jolly you along when a recipe goes wrong 8 times in a row. If you’re not good at being alone don’t write a recipe book.
8) Your editor edits
Every author has an editor who work for the publisher. They basically correct all your mistakes and make your writing the very best it can be. They read through any blurb you have written about a recipe and make sure it’s not too verbose, is accurate and doesn’t say anything that might make you end up in court! (They even make you get written permission from anyone you mention in the book or whose recipes you use.) They also spell and grammar check everything.
As for the recipes – well they don’t make them all, but there are special editors who deal with recipe books who can spot when there’s an egg missing or if an oven temperature looks wrong. But really, it’s up to you as the author. BIG names have recipe testers who will go through every recipe and correct it for them – some BIG names don’t even write the recipes themselves, they just give them their stamp of approval. People like me have to test recipes themself. That’s a huge responsibility and one I don’t take lightly. (I say that in my best and most serious school mistress voice.)
9) The photos get shot
The manuscript has been handed in, edited, corrected, primped and preened to within an inch of its life. The photographer has been booked. Next we need a shot list. Now my book was shot over 3 days at my home in Leicester with just me doing all the food buying, cooking and cleaning up. So yes, that’s about 33 recipes per day! And I have one oven and a small kitchen with 2 metres of clear work space.
How did I do it? By being unashamedly organised in a girlie swot style. It helped that the shoot days were staggered so I could spend 2 days prepping before each shoot. I was also obsessive about how I split the shot list. So at least half of each day was filled with shots of pre-baked recipes. It was still incredibly hard work. My back and legs paid for each day for up to a week afterwards. Wine may have been employed as a reward at the end of each shoot day.
As for David Loftus – he’s an incredibly nice man who works very hard, harder than most people do when they first enter a profession, let alone when they’re at the top of their game. I think the secret of his success is the combination of natural talent and the work ethic of an ox. He’s also quick. We had lots of props delivered for each shoot which were then laid out by the Art Director from the publisher. David would come along, move a few things about, point his camera and shoot. No lighting, no tripod, just a man and a (very expensive) camera. It was a joy to watch. It wasn’t such a joy when he then sat and waited for the next dish as I ran about like a headless chicken. He even found the time to take a few pics on his iPhone, yes his iPhone – using the Hipstamatic with his Loftus Lens. Here are some grapes from my garden. They were sour but look gorgeous, no?
And an apple from next doors tree that dropped on David’s head:
Oh and a quick shot of my Man Quiche from the book – a kind of meaty, manly mushroom quiche with no meat in it at all:
Just when you think it’s over you have to shoot the mug shots for the back of the book and for publicity. So a lovely hair and make up artist called Katy Short was called in (who happens to be the sister of one of my old colleagues) and frankly, she did something magical that may well be witchcraft. She worked all morning to make me look like this:
Amazing. She even got a shot of the complete and utter carnage that was my dining room. I have no idea who brought the fruit shoot along – possibly not David’s tipple of choice!
The photo shows the coffee and walnut cake being finished off as well as the mix it up muffins patiently waiting for their moment of glory.
(NB: All photos, apart from behind the scenes one, copyright David Loftus.)
10) You go on a diet
There’s a lot of spare food hanging about after a shoot. We gave a lot away, we froze as much as we could and we also ate a lot. I think the recipe development and shoot days resulted in 3/4 stone of extra weight for me – I’ve never been good at throwing food away. I never did quite get rid of the weight before getting pregnant in September. My third son was born mid June and I am ashamed to say I weighed myself 5 days after the birth to find I have 4.5 stone to lose. So I will be eating like a chic Parisian for the rest of the summer and hopefully my jeans will fit again by Christmas.
10) You correct the layouts
There’s more waiting and it feels like nothing is happening, but actually it is. Everyone is beavering away back at the publishing house. Then one day a huge envelope arrives for you with what I think are called ‘spreads’ – basically layouts of all the pages with the pics – a kind of huge floppy magazine style version of the book. You make a very large cup of tea and take a red pen and start to mark up any corrections you have. This is as close to being a teacher as I am likely to get and I found it very hard work. This is your last chance to get it right before it goes to print. Altogether now… silent scream!
11) You tell the world
After months of keeping your book secret you get to shout about it. So shout about it I did. I remember posting it on facebook and worrying maybe 3 people might like the news and I’d feel like a prize fool for thinking anyone might be interested in a book written by me. But they did like the news. People seemed very happy for me and it made me cry. It also went to number 1 in the Amazon charts by that weekend. That made me cry too. (Pregnant hormones have a lot to answer for.)
12) A copy arrives in the post and you cry
13) You cross your fingers very very tight and hope and pray
It’s all very well and good getting likes on facebook and retweets on Twitter but if no one buys the book then really, all this work will have been for nothing. So I have been making pacts with myself. If the book does well I’ll never shout again/always be kind to strangers/give way to any car who looks in a rush/only eat sitting down at a table/be a better wife and listen to my husband’s day properly.
So how long did all this take? About 18 months from proposal to publication. A true labour of love.
I really hope you enjoy the book. If you do buy it and you do like it please do leave a review on Amazon by clicking here. It would mean the world to me and it would help someone else decide if they fancy buying it too. Thank you.
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I’m a mum of 3 boys, a cookbook writer and also a finalist on the 2011 Great British Bake Off.
I’ve decided to record the recipes I use, partly to save them somewhere and partly in case someone else might like to use them...
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Holly Bell 