The register is being called.

‘Giselle?’

‘Yes Miss’

My heart is racing, it feels like it’s beating out of my chest.

‘Himesh?’

‘Yes Miss’

My palms sweat. I’m very conscious of my vocal cords, my throat feels so dry.

‘Imogen?’

‘Yes Miss’

What is my voice going to sound like? Will it come out too loud? Everyone is going to look at me.

‘Kim-Joy’

‘…’

‘… yes miss’

I said it. It comes out a whisper, no one heard me. The teacher makes (what feels like) an exaggerated show of looking around to find me. Inside, I’m anxious and annoyed. On the outside, nothing, I’m blank.

A couple of other kids chirp up, pointing.

‘She’s here Miss!’

I shrink inside. Please don’t pay any attention to me. I want to be invisible.

The teacher looks at me.

‘If there was a fire, no one would hear you’, she says.

It was okay her saying that, I’m not upset. I’m NOT upset. I’m fine.

But then the other kids start.

‘That was deep, Miss’

‘Look, she’s crying’

Am I crying? I feel a tear silently drop down, everything else static. I’m only crying because they made everyone look at me. And now everyone IS looking at me.

This is my worst nightmare.

The teacher looks sheepish. I think she must’ve asked if I was okay, but I don’t remember from this point onwards. I get it together and stop crying. I hate myself for showing emotion, I just want to be a ghost, just exist without anyone noticing me.

This was one day in my life of having selective mutism. It started near the beginning of secondary school and continued until the end of it.

The myths:

Let’s start with the myths, because there are so many. This isn’t something that many people speak about (pun unintended), and I want to clear up all the misunderstandings.

It’s just shyness

Shyness is a personality trait, whereas selective mutism is something that paralyses you, causes suffering, and significantly impacts your social skills and communication.

I’ve never identified with feeling ‘shy’, in fact I see myself as the opposite, then and now. Shyness is different to social anxiety, and different to selective mutism. Shyness is a normal personality trait where you have difficulty initially warming up to people, apprehension, fear of making mistakes - but it’s mild and doesn’t impair your life.

It’s just a phase, you’ll grow out of it

Without proper support, selective mutism can continue into adulthood. And whilst some people do improve as they get older, and indeed I did with a lot of hard work, it’s not a switch where it’s suddenly turned off. It has long term effects on how you feel about yourself. And I still feel moments where my throat feels like it closes up and I have to fight that feeling.

It’s manipulation and control, you’re choosing not to speak

From the outside-in, it’s easy to misinterpret in this way. What people don’t see, is the terror of speaking. The anxiety gets so bad, that your throat feels like it’s physically cut off. You also don’t know what volume your voice will come out, I often worried I was accidentally shouting, because it felt that way inside my body. It’s not a choice, it’s like being in a cage and you can’t quite reach the key. It’s a phobia.

You can’t speak at all

It’s called selective mutism because it’s select to certain social situations, often school, but also some people experience it with specific relatives and in other situations. For me, it was school, plus any time I was in a situation where, for instance, I was talking to my mum and there was someone from school within earshot. At home, I was a different person to school. I was loud and enthusiastic and just my real self. There was my school self, and then my home self.

Also, many people with selective mutism can still whisper, it doesn’t mean you have to be completely mute. But that whisper causes extreme anxiety, and is only used if you have no other choice. And I would be able to speak very quietly and only as much as needed if in a specific situation in a closed room with just me and a teacher and nobody else, but I’d still struggle. I actually found a small unused room during lunchtimes so I wouldn’t need to be in the loud playground around everyone, where there were 1 or 2 people in at a time, and always the same people. This was my retreat in school, well, the best out of a bad bunch. Nobody put pressure on me to speak, there was an unspoken rule that they didn’t speak to me outside of that room in front of others, and we played boardgames. I guess the closest I got to having friends, but not quite because I still couldn’t be myself.

It’s only to do with speaking

For some people, the anxiety is solely around talking. But for many, and for myself, it’s also just any attention on me at all. And so my movements were robotic and un-expressive, my face was blank, I just didn’t react. Which was why in my example at the start, where I started crying, was an absolute nightmare for me.

One time another kid kept talking to me, in the hopes I guess to see if I’d speak back. I kept rolling my eyes, because at the time I thought people can’t see when you roll your eyes!! Then he started saying to his friend, ‘look, she keeps rolling her eyes! Look!’. I was mortified, I didn’t know people could see you were rolling your eyes. I stopped, and the friend was like ‘What are you talking about?’ to the first kid - who was adamant he saw it happen. That sounds funny now, but at the time it wasn’t.

Another time, a kid said ‘I bet she talks all the time at home’ - I felt outed, that was awful, I didn’t want anyone to know my secret.

It’s only in young children

It usually does occur in young children, but in my case it started around the age of 12 or 13. A big transition can trigger it, and for me that was moving from primary to secondary school. I think this is where it tied to my autism - suddenly everything was loud and there was sensory overload, and at this age social nuances and expectations kicked in. I just didn’t know how to engage in the way I saw everyone else doing so, and so I stopped doing it. And then gradually, I became known as the one who didn’t speak, which then made it harder to speak.

It’s a form of autism

In my case, it was tied to autism. However it’s not a form of autism, they’re separate conditions which can overlap, not all the time, but sometimes. Just like anxiety and autism often come hand in hand.

Actually, in the past there was the belief that having one meant you couldn’t have the other. But more recently, that’s been found to be wrong.

You can be autistic and have selective mutism. You can also have selective mutism and not be autistic.

You need pressure and tough love

Don’t do this, this does the opposite of helping! The teacher in that fire example I described at the start probably thought she was doing the right thing, that I needed that tough love to break out of it. But it only solidified my fears.

It’s extremely rare

It’s uncommon, but not as rare as once believed. It’s around 1 in 140 kids, but that’s a lot when you think it’s roughly 1 child in every 5 classrooms. And many go undiagnosed, so I think the number could be more. I was mostly left to be, with no intervention or help, because I did well academically.

It’s caused by trauma

Studies show there is not a higher occurrence of trauma in people with selective mutism. For some people, the two could be linked, but for most, it is not. It wasn’t for me. It’s more to do with anxious temperaments and a phobia of speaking.

It’s associated with low intelligence

Selective mutism is a severe anxiety disorder, it has nothing to do with intelligence . I might have had no social skills, but I was in the gifted and talented programme in the UK (it was a thing back in the 2000’s) and in the top set for everything. A spiky profile - really good skills in one area, and terrible in other areas. I also always handed in any homework on time as that meant there wasn’t going to be attention on me.

What IS selective mutism:

I’ve talked a lot about what it really is whilst busting some of the myths!

But I just wanted to add, selective mutism isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. My experience is unique to me, everyone experiences it differently.

For me, it felt like an extreme version of social anxiety, basically a phobia. And I’ve later learnt after being diagnosed, also a part of my autism. Autism often  comes hand in hand with anxiety. Selective mutism is just one anxiety condition that can co-occur. But again, having selective mutism does not mean you also have autism. It’s different for everyone.

I could speak easily and be myself at home, but I had a phobia of speaking at school. And that meant I didn’t have friends, I didn’t have a social life, I felt terrified going into school every day. It was a horrible time for me, and it felt like it went on forever. But I always knew one day, eventually, I’d be out, and maybe I could have a fresh start where nobody knew that I used to not be able to talk.

Don’t put any pressure!

This just backfires. It’s like being really unfit, and being scolded for not being able to exercise enough. Negative reinforcement doesn’t work in the long term.

A change of scenario

Not always, but for me, I felt like I had a chance once I left secondary school and could start afresh, like a new person. I’d been observing everyone for so long, I felt like once I was in a place where people didn’t know the version of me who didn’t talk, I had developed skills to be able to socialise like a ‘normal’ person.

When I changed schools for college/6th form at 16, I started trying to talk more, but I was still extremely socially anxious and just kind of one of those kids you look at and think, they’re weird. And I was still living in the same area and might come across people who knew the old version of me. Then I went to university and got to start completely afresh. Definitely still considered socially the weirdo, but I managed to find people who liked that in me, and I gained more social skills over time. And now I’m where I am now! I guess I got used to this feeling of starting anew, that going on Bake Off felt like that again.

Early intervention

I never had this. I think I might have benefitted if I did. Just a small environment, maybe 1 on 1, where I could work through what was going on. And then expand it gradually from there. Graded exposure. I don’t think it would ever have fixed me unless it happened very early on though. But I guess I never know!

Ask yes or no questions

Take the pressure off speaking. Be okay with just a slight nod or shake of a head. Never put someone on the spot. Wait for an answer.

I hope this was an interesting read, whether selective mutism is something you currently have, used to have, or if you are supporting someone with it (thank you so much for just being there!).

Kim-Joy x

The penguin is optional but it just makes it that little bit more cute when you’re having a party or social occasion!

Plus there’s a vegan version too, if you scroll further below. 🌱

SERVES 15

SPONGE

240g salted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

2 Tbsp neutral-tasting oil (such as sunflower or rapeseed oil)

260g sugar

4 medium eggs

240g plain [all-purpose flour] (or use a gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum)

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

60ml whole milk

60g bake-stable sprinkles

Note: bake-stable sprinkles are ones that don’t totally melt in the oven and lose their colour. Most UK ones aren’t bake-stable, but the ones from Get Baked I recommend, also most strand sprinkles I find in the US are perfect.

ICING:

220g icing [powdered] sugar

Water

extra sprinkles

PENGUIN (OPTIONAL)

2 mini Oreos (or use gluten-free)

edible eye sprinkles

orange sweets or sprinkles (for nose and feet)

2 Tbsp desiccated or flaked coconut

METHOD

1 / Grease the base and sides of a 20 x 30-cm (8 x 12in) baking tin, then line the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C fan.

2 / Add the butter, oil and sugar to a bowl and beat until soft, fluffy and light in colour. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. It may look a little curdled after the last egg - that's normal!

3 / Add the flour and baking powder, and mix until just combined.

4 / Add the vanilla bean paste/extract and milk, and mix again until just combined.

5 / Add the sprinkles and gently fold through.

6 / Scoop the batter into the prepared baking tin and spread into a roughly even layer. Bake for around 30 minutes. It's ready when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

7 / Leave the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes, then place a cooling rack on top and flip it over so that the cake tin is now on top. Remove the tin and peel off the baking paper lining. Leave to cool completely.

Tip: For ease, if you like, you can just leave this cake to cool in the tin and then ice it while it's still in the tin.

8 / Meanwhile, make the icing. In a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and 2tbsp of water. Then gradually add more water until it is of a spreadable consistency. Not too thin that it will just run off, but not too thick that it’s hard to spread. Test it on something flat first, if you like.

9 / Once the cake is cool, transfer it to a serving plate (unless you're keeping it in the tin or on the cooling rack). Now the fun bit - spoon the icing on top and spread it into an even layer, then cover the top with sprinkles!

10 / If you have an extra 5 minutes, stick a mini oreo into the cake/icing, and use a little leftover icing to create the white penguin face. Stick on edible eyes and an orange sprinkle for a nose.

Cut a second mini oreo in half and stick this into the cake/icing for the arms. Place orange prinkles (or balls of fondant) for the feet. Use coconut flakes for the penguin belly, then sprinkle on a few more sprinkles. Sometimes I dust with a little extra icing sugar. Just follow the video!

Serve just as it is, or with custard!

VEGAN VERSION

DRY INGREDIENTS

340g plain [all-purpose] flour

250g caster or granulated sugar

1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder

WET INGREDIENTS

375ml plant based milk

150ml sunflower oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)

1½ tsp white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract

¼ tsp salt

PLUS

60g bake-safe sprinkles

METHOD

Prepare your baking tin and preheat the oven as for the main recipe. Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl, then add all the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Add the sprinkles and distribute through. Pour immediately into the prepared tin and bake for around 35-40minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. This takes a little longer than for the non-vegan version as there is more liquid in the batter! Avoid opening the oven too early so it doesn't sink. Cool and decorate as directed in steps 7-10.

Note: it may seem like a lot of baking powder, but it's needed because there's no self-raising flour, and you can't taste it in the end result! Trust the process because this really does make the fluffiest vegan cake.

A little closing note for you

Sorry for being a little slower on the recipe videos. I’ve been working on a VERY exciting cookie book which is going to come out in 2028 so feels like forever, but so so exciting.

Doing these recipes and videos take a long time cause I want them to be just right!! Though this one I did film a while back I must confess, writing up the recipe still takes time.

Thanks so much for following along. Hope you enjoy! Keep it meowgical friends 🫶

Kim-Joy 💖

Is it autism?

I’m aware I usually come across as socially okay, and like I’m getting by. However, internally, and if you saw me day to day at home, that is so far from the truth.

Growing up with selective mutism, part of it was always feeling like an alien. Like if I spoke, what’s the point, people aren’t like me. They don’t get me. I studied people like they were a different species.

That feeling continues now I’m an adult, even now. But I’ve become very adept at masking. Years of studying people, then literally studying sociology, then a masters in psychology - part of my obsession with understanding why people are the way they are. If you’ve ever caught yourself doing this too, cataloguing how other people seem to just know things socially that you have to work out on paper, you’re not the only one.

I remember one of my first jobs, a Christmas temp at Early Learning Centre while I was at uni. Nobody bonded with me. They jelled with each other and I looked at them and didn’t understand. But I also didn’t really want to bond with them, I knew they were different. And I wasn’t interested in talking to customers like they were. Customers they’d ask me what toys are good for a 3 year old and I’d have no clue - except point to the boxes clearly labelled for that age range. I didn’t get the point of the question. Now I understand, they wanted my individual opinion, they wanted to hear it from a person. I was more interested in lining up the shelves, bringing the products forward so they nearly lined up with the front of the shelf.

They were hesitant to give me the job in the first place. I was desperate for money at uni, applied for so many jobs, but always failed in interviews when they actually met me, because I gave rote memorised answers and didn’t get that mostly people just want a vibe and a laugh and smile, they want to know you’ll fit in not that you know all the answers.

I get it now. To be honest, I cringe looking back. And I feel bad that I cringe, because why does it matter that I was different. But it’s a complex feeling, wanting to fit in because life is easier that way, but also wanting to give yourself grace and honour being true to yourself when you don’t. Then Bake Off came along and made a massive difference - people saw my quirkiness as something to admire rather than avoid. And now I also mask a ton more. Which I don’t know how I feel about. I see it as necessary, but also draining.

I’ve always known there was something different. Getting that confirmed with an autism and ADHD diagnosis last year was a relief, knowing it isn’t just my imagination. Though I like to say I’m first and foremost self-diagnosed, because I put in the research myself before any professional confirmed it. Self-diagnosis is valid. Whatever you feel, you feel.

So, some aspects of my autism that help me, and hinder me. We all experience this differently, no one is the same, but maybe you will relate to some.

Sensory Sensitivity

A massive one for me, which has taken me a while to accommodate myself with (and I still don’t always manage it).

Cons:

Everything is too loud, too bright, too itchy, too hot or cold, food is too textured and sloppy. Everyone has preferences and gets irritated by this stuff from time to time, but if you have autism you may know how deeply we feel it. It physically hurts for me. Hard to describe but I feel it in my brain, like a fuzziness. I need to wear AirPods whenever I’m out. And sunglasses even at home, because the light actually hurts my eyes. I’ve yelled at cars for their engine noise (I mask that now, but I internally am agitated by how unnecessary it is). If I hear music I don’t like it actually reduces my ability to mask. I feel like I’m regressing. The more sensory challenges I have, the less I can mask, and the more energy it costs. Sometimes I feel like a fussy child. Or at least, before I knew I was autistic, I felt like that.

A lot of this overlaps with my chronic migraine too - chronic migraine is neurological too, and it co-occurs with autism a lot. In both, the visual cortex is hyperexcitable. It doesn’t filter well and notices everything.

Autistic brains notice everything. The cushion that’s fallen on the floor or the lightbulb that’s slightly brighter than the others. None of it gets filtered out. It’s like your brain keeps reporting the same information over and over again as though it’s brand new, and it’s tiring.

Pros:

When I love a sensory moment I feel it with my whole body. Music is beautiful, I communicate so much better through it. Magical, sensory lighting I love. Galaxy lights, coloured bulbs, jellyfish lamps, layered lamps everywhere, lava lamps. My house has every lamp on a timer, fully customised for me. I am that girl.

And the hyperexcitable visual cortex thing - yes it’s exhausting when it pays attention to the superfluous, but it also means I notice things when I’m focused. When it’s working well it just locks in. Helped me so much with baking design and interior design. Gonna boast for a second (we should, sometimes)… I’m a master of comfort. Everything I love comes from wanting to feel comfortable, because I am so averse to discomfort. I want my surroundings beautiful and peaceful. Life’s too short not to be comfortable.

Executive Functioning

Cons:

Ugh. This one’s a nightmare, probably the most cons out of anything here. Where do I even start - actually, more like where do I NOT start, because starting a task is like looking up at a mountain. Stopping one, is like walking back down it. Sometimes I just rot. Yes this overlaps with perfectionism and the bottom-up thinking (next section), also with chronic illness brain fog and dizziness, but even accounting for all that - there’s underlying dysfunction.

I need a lot of motivators and plans to function, I love plans, and I still don’t do what I should and end up rearranging my bookshelf instead. It looks organised from the outside, but it’s really because I fall apart without a plan.

I also work way fewer hours than most people - no full days, I fit hours in whenever motivation strikes. I’m self employed which really doesn’t help cause I have no structure and no one telling me what to do. If any of this sounds familiar and you’ve spent years quietly assuming it’s just laziness - it isn’t, by the way. I don’t even think laziness exists, but that’s a whole other topic.

Side note, if anyone enjoys baking (you don’t need to be amazing, I’ll do the decorating, you just need to follow simple steps), is tidy, loves cats, creative, patient, maybe has editing skills (bonus), lives in Leeds, and wants to be my part time assistant - message me. Not a joke.

Pros:

Not tons to be honest. I can stick with a task to the end. Not always. Multiple tasks at once are a no no. But one task, genuinely interesting, maybe someone helping me - I’ll go all the way!! Especially with a deadline. Maybe I’m less rigid too, more fluid, figuring it out as I go?! And while I do work fewer hours, I like to think that the hours I do work are hyper-focused and efficient.

I don’t really know. I find it hard to see the positives here. Maybe you guys have more of your own that you can think of!!

Detail Orientation

Everyone’s a mix of top-down and bottom-up thinking, moving between the two. Maybe you know what yours is, I find it really fascinating.

I lean bottom-up - it’s the details first, then bigger picture eventually (if I’m lucky and even start the task). Bottom-up thinking is common in autism, though we’re all different.

Best example I can think of is flat pack furniture building. (You learn so much about yourself from flatpack, it’s basically a personality test - joking but maybe kind of not). I start step 1 without reading the whole leaflet first. I don’t look ahead at the next steps. Nabil’s the total opposite, he comes over and goes “is that the top or the bottom you’re doing?” and I say “no idea, doesn’t matter.” Neither of us gets the other. But as a team it works. His top down thinking means he’s a good task initiator, but hates the minutiae towards the end.

Cons:

I can’t see the wood for the trees most of the time (and yes - sometimes we do understand idioms like that, despite what people assume). It makes starting things hard, because if one detail’s wrong I can’t move past it.

Also I talk and write in too much detail generally, every single detail feels important (trying not to do that here, this is the edited-down version - you’re welcome). And I get lost when other people don’t give me enough detail. And they probably stop listening half way through me explaining all the details - but I know not to do that because MASKING!!!

Curveball though - sometimes ADHD means I miss details completely, if I’m bored or overwhelmed. Like a walking contradiction.

Pros:

I don’t usually miss things (unless adhd gets involved and I’m bored so I miss everything). I was tiling the kitchen and needed a tiled threshold flush with the wood floor, before the wood floor was even down. I got the mortar, googled the exact trowel depth it needed and how much it would be compressed down by the tile (got lost in so many builders forums where they’d dispute the right way to do things), then tested it with a sample tile. Then did the same for the wood. It took forever but it’s worth it though, the transition is so satisfying and smooth on your feet.

Same with designing a room - I’ll start from one detail, a wallpaper I’m obsessed with, build everything out from there. And I measure obsessively. The picture is built from the ground rather than down. Though like I said before, none of us are purely bottom up or top down thinkers, we do switch, we just have tendencies towards one. So I do look at the whole picture sometimes, especially when I’m very interested.

There’s obviously so much more. But that’s enough for today (and I’m thirsty and forgot)! Let me know if you saw any of this in yourself. 💖

Stay meowgical,

Kim-Joy 💖

Great for those non-coffee fans, like me! And the home-made lady fingers make all the difference. You can use shop bought ones too, but I highly recommend making them.

I racked my brains dreaming up a design idea for this one. Bats? Nah, too Halloween. Constellations? No, needs more cute! In the end, i thought swirls of blueberry are quite like the night sky, and we all love a stargazing cream cat. This is one of those recipes that if I could turn back time, I’d include in my Bake Me a Cat book - I love how magical it turned out! 🐈

Tips:

• Make sure not to overmix the lady fingers, and definitely don’t forget that icing sugar.

• Take your time piping the blueberry puree for the cat face, it can be tricky to control. You could always use icing, but I like the ease of simply using the blueberry for everything in this recipe.

• This will work in different container shapes too, don’t worry if you don’t have an exact 23 x 23cm one.

Ingredients:

Blueberry puree:

500g blueberries

2tbsp cornflour

80g sugar

1tbsp lemon juice

Lady fingers: (makes about 22-24 fingers)
4 medium eggs, separated

120g sugar, divided
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4tsp salt
130g plain flour
2tsp cornstarch
icing sugar for dusting

Blueberry mascarpone cream filling:

300g double cream

400g mascarpone

150g icing sugar

1/8tsp almond extract

1tsp vanilla extract

200g of the blueberry puree

Plus:

50g double cream for cat face

Edible silver dust, sprinkles, chocolate stars (optional)

Method:

Blueberry puree:

1 / Put the blueberries in a blender, and process until smooth. Sieve into a pan. Transfer 2tbsp to a small bowl and mix in the cornflour with this. Return this mixture to the pan. Add the sugar

and lemon juice.

2 / Bring to a simmer and stir regularly over medium-high heat, until the mixture thickens and coats the back on spoon.

3 / Leave this to chill fully. I put it in the freezer for speed, about 2 hours.

Lady fingers:

1 / Line three medium baking trays with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C (fan).

2 / Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, putting the egg whites into a grease-free large mixing bowl (stand mixer bowl if you have it), and the egg yolks into a separate large bowl.

3 / Weigh 60g of the sugar into a small bowl. Beat the egg whites on high until foamy, then add 1/3 of the sugar. Beat until increased in volume, then gradually add the rest of the sugar. Stop mixing when it reaches medium-stiff peaks. Set aside.

4 / Add the remaining 60g sugar, vanilla and salt to the egg yolks. Beat on high until pale in colour, increased in volume, and thickened. This will take around 3 minutes.

5 / Add a third of the egg white mixture to the egg yolk, folding in. Keep folding a third at a time until combined. Be careful not to over mix and knock out too many of the air bubbles!

6 / Seive over the flour and cornflour. Fold in again until there are no pockets of flour visible, being careful not to overmix and deflate too much. It will seem a little lumpy - that’s normal.

7 / Transfer the mixture to a large piping bag, fitted with a 1/2 inch piping tip (or you can always snip the opening of the piping bag). Pipe the batter into 4 inch lines, about 1 inch thick. Leave about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of space between each.

8 / Dust with icing sugar right before baking. Be generous with the icing sugar, it’s important, don’t skip this. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden. Allow to cool completely on the baking tray.

Blueberry mascarpone cream filling:

1 / Whip the cream to medium peaks. Set aside.

2 / In a large bowl, whip the mascarpone, icing sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the blueberry puree (it’s important that it’s cool!), and fold in until combined.

3 / Fold in the whipped cream until combined.

Layering up:

1 / Transfer 3tbsp of puree to a small piping bag and set aside for later. Mix the remaining puree with enough water to dilute a little for soaking. Put in a shallow container for dipping. Dip each lady finger for a few seconds on each side, then arrange so that it covers the base of a 23 x 23cm dish. Drizzle a little on top.

2 /  Cover this layer with half the blueberry mascarpone cream. Spread until even. Repeat with another layer of soaked ladyfingers, drizzle, and the rest of the filling.

3 / Cut a small opening on the piping bag of puree set aside earlier. Pipe blobs of this all over the top, then use a chopstick or similar to swirl. Leave a gap at the bottom for the cat! Make sure you still have a little puree left to pipe the cat features later.

4 / Whip the additional 50g cream to soft peaks. Put in a piping bag, and use to pipe the shape of a cat, then smooth with an offset spatula. Do the same to create a moon.

5 / Chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours. Just before serving, pipe the cat face with the blueberry puree - it’s harder to control than icing so work slowly and carefully! Use more blueberry puree, sprinkles or similar for the whiskers. You can also pump silver glitter dust and scatter sprinkle stars for more of a night sky effect (optional).

Enjoy!

Kim-Joy 💖

Ps. Sorry for being a bit slower on recipes lately, I am (very excitingly!) working on a cookie baking book with Sarah Becan - who is illustrating the whole thing! So lots more exciting things to come! Thank you for being here and supporting as always 💖

This is the ultimate pistachio and cardamon cake, and made even tastier with the addition of burnt honey cream for a unique flavour that just complements the pistachio and cardamon. The cake is moist, soft and fluffy, with just the right balance of cardamon and pistachio. I’ve spent quite a while perfecting this recipe!

There’s a few steps to the cake but trust me it’s so worth it. I’ve written this in what I think is the easiest order to do things and broken it down into sections as I find that easiest with my brain - I hope it helps you too! But rest assured, each step doesn’t take long. In fact you may be surprised that the mochi only takes ten minutes to make as you’re just mixing together three ingredients, microwaving and stirring. Then maybe another 10-15 minutes to shape.

So start with making the burnt honey and get it chilling in the fridge (you’ll use it later in the soaking syrup and cream), then make the mochi and set aside - then on to making the cake and assembling!

Main tips:

-Don’t over whip your egg whites

-For the cake, only use the electric mixer for whisking the butter, oil, sugar, egg yolk at the beginning. Don’t use it when you’re mixing in the flour and milk mixtures. And gently fold in the egg white mixture in stages.

-I HIGHLY recommend using damp cake strips for best results.

Burnt honey:

140g honey

40ml water

Mochi: (makes a bit extra which you can serve alongside the cake!)

160g glutinous rice flour, plus extra for sprinkling

60g caster or granulated sugar

220ml water

Blue and green gel food dyes

Pistachio and cardamon cake:

Mixture A:

90g pistachio

1tsp cardamom

250g plain flour

1 1/2tsp baking powder

100g salted butter, room temperature and cubed

20g vegetable oil

1/2tsp almond extract

150g caster sugar

2 medium egg yolks

120ml milk

60g sour cream (or plain Greek yoghurt, though sour cream will give best results)

A tiny bit of green food dye (optional)

Mixture B

2 medium egg whites

1/8tsp cream tartar

50g caster sugar

Burnt honey cream:

500ml double cream

90g burnt honey (see method)

Burnt honey syrup:

30g burnt honey (see method)

1-2tsp water

Plus:

A few mint leaves

Some Smiski figures, or any figures you like!

METHOD

Making the burnt honey:

1 / Pour the honey into a small pan, then heat on medium-high until it becomes a deep brown-amber colour. Do not stir, but you can gently swirl the pan if needed so the colour is even. This should take 3-4 minutes so keep a careful eye on it so it doesn’t go too brown. Once it’s reached the desired colour, pour in the water - stand back a little bit as it will spit initially! Then stir it in. Place this in a small bowl and refrigerate until cold so you can use it later.

Making the mochi:

1 / Add the glutinous rice flour, sugar and water to a microwaveable bowl and whisk by hand until combined.

2 / Transfer 1/3 of the mixture to a separate microwaveable bowl. Stir in green food dye to this mixture, and stir in blue food dye to the larger mixture. The colours will deepen slightly after microwaving.

3 / Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and whisk. It will still be very liquid at this point so won't be too difficult to mix. Cover again and heat for another 30 seconds. It will be thicker/lumpier now; whisk again and return to the microwave. Keep heating in 30 second bursts and whisking or stirring after each. When the mixture becomes thick, switch to stirring with a spoon. Once the dough looks slightly translucent, thickened and very sticky - it’s ready. Repeat this with the other bowl.

4 / Sprinkle a very generous amount of glutinous rice flour on your work surface, then scoop the mochi on top (careful! It will be very hot). Sprinkle more glutinous rice flour on top. Leave to cool for a bit until you can handle it (about ten minutes) - then work it into balls little balls (you can make a slight variation in sizes). I try to focus on creating a smooth top surface, and then pinch to bunch everything else underneath. Make sure your hands and the dough is covered in glutinous rice flour at all times to prevent sticking!

Making the pistachio cardamon cake:

1 / Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease 2 x 18-cm cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.

2 / For Mixture A, add the pistachios to a food processor and blend until they resemble fine crumbs. There may be a few slightly coarser bits - that’s fine! In a mixing bowl, mix this with the ground cardamom, flour and baking powder.

3 / In a separate bowl, mix the milk and sour cream together. Set aside.

4 / Place the butter, oil, almond extract and sugar in a stand mixer (or use a handheld electric whisk) fitted with a balloon whisk attachment, and whisk on medium speed until the butter is smooth, then whisk on high until it is fluffy and pale in colour. Scrape down the sides occasionally so that it mixes evenly. Add the egg yolks one at a time, whisking well after each addition until fully combined. You can also add a tiny bit of green food dye for a little more colour, though this is optional.

5/ Add the flour mixture and milk/sour cream mixture alternately to this, mixing by hand (do this bit without the electric mixer) until just combined.

6 / For Mixture B, add the egg whites to a clean stand mixer (or use a clean handheld electric whisk) with balloon whisk attachment, and whisk on medium-high speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whisking on high until white and expanded in volume, then gradually pour in the sugar in a steady stream, while continuing to whisk. Stop when the mixture has reached medium peaks - when the beaters are removed, the meringue should lift to a peak and slightly flop over.

7 / Now gently fold Mixture B into Mixture A, one third at a time, using a flexible spatula. Divide the mixture evenly between the two cake tins, and bake for 25 minutes until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Note: I really recommend using soaked baking strips (or just tea towels torn into strips and soaked in water, then tied round the baking tin) during baking for a better rise, even baking and height. It makes a massive difference! I used the baking strips and you can see what they look like in my video when the tins are being put into the oven.

8 / Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the cakes and flip onto a rack. Peel off the baking paper.

Assembly and decoration:

1 / Mix 30g of the burnt honey with 1-2tsp of water to loosen. Poke holes all over the cooled cakes and brush with the syrup, letting it soak in.

2 / Next, make the burnt honey cream. Whip the double cream until slightly thickened but not yet soft peaks. Fold in the burnt honey. Then whisk again on slow to medium speed until it reaches soft peaks. Best to under-whip slightly than to over-whip. It does go a little grainier with the addition of the burnt honey but that’s okay.

3 / spread a generous amount of cream on top of one cake, then sandwich with the second. Cover the sides and top with more cream.

4 / Decorate with Smiski figures (or anything else you like), mochi and mint leaves!

Best served straightaway and at room temperature! But it’ll also keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

Enjoy!

Kim-Joy 💖

It’s not an edible cake, but you get to keep it forever. And you can pull tissues out of it and cry with happiness that it’s so cute. And when you cry from sadness, it’s your instant emotional support cake box.

If you want to make one of these at home, here’s my guide. And I’m still writing it like a recipe, of course! You don’t need many materials, and it’s functional AND decorative!

I did the piping in stages across a few days, letting the previous layers set first, but you might be braver than me. But also, don’t be worried about taking your time on this.

Here’s what you need:

• A plain tissue box (I bought one but you can repurpose an old one)

• Polyfilla (I live in the UK so this is what’s available. You guys in the US can use spackle).

• Paint (to colour it)

• Cornflour (you might not need this. Though it has a very very long shelf life and I think mixing it in with the Polyfilla just makes it last forever. You might be able to find some other kind of thickener though)

• Some disposable bowls and spoon

• Fake cherries (or other fake fruit, bows etc)

• Piping bags

• Piping tips (good ones are shell tips, a 1M, and a leaf tip)

Plus fake cherries, tissue box and cornflour

Method

1/ First you’re going to mix up your colours. I used paint and mixed it in with the polyfilla to get all the colours I wanted. I used quite cheap and liquid-y paint which made my mixture too runny, so I mixed in cornflour to thicken it. Do a tester to check the consistency. If you use thick paint you may not need the cornflour. Put your colours into piping bags, with your chosen tips attached. Leave some mixture in a bowl for the next step.

2/ Place the tissue box on some cardboard to protect your table (or the floor, that’s where I work best!). Spread polyfilla all over the tissue box using an offset spatula. I let this set overnight before piping.

3/ The next day, pipe the bottom row. Maybe I needed to stiffen my mixture more, but I found the piping slipped down a little. So I did two sides at a time, let them semi-set, then did the other two sides. I didn’t need to do this so much with the with the layers above, it was just the bottom one.

4/ just repeat what you’re doing for the rest of the box! You might need to switch some tipping tips around. On the top, press in your fake cherries.

Tip: if you look closely, I piped around the inner circle of the box (where the tissues get pulled out). I wouldn’t recommend this - because sometimes the tissues get torn on the scratchy piping as they’re coming out! Do not recommend - 8/10 for aesthetic, but 0/10 for practicality.

Also I did a tester one of these first and the piping looks exactly the same a couple years later, in case you’re worried about how it lasts long term.

That’s it! Happy fake caking. Eat at your own peril.

Kim-Joy 💖

The dough takes 10 minutes to make and it's actually difficult to go wrong! The extra difficulty is due to the shaping, but all frogs are cute so whatever you do it will look good, so just go for it!

And a little secret: their legs are swishy when you jiggle them in the water. Check out my video on instagram/tiktok/youtube shorts to see the swishy-ness on video.

I have just this moment put up a YouTube video for the full how-to on making these!

You can make loads of different shapes with this recipe. I did a purr-maid version in my Bake Me a Cat book:

photo by Ellis Parrinder

SERVES: 3

Naturally vegan and gluten-free (‘glutinous rice flour' deceptively sounds like it contains gluten, but it doesn't. The name comes from its glue-like consistency when cooked.)

TANG YUAN DOUGH:

130g glutinous rice flour

25g icing sugar

4 Tbsp (60g) boiling water

4 Tbsp (60g) room temperature water

black gel food dye

FILLING:

(optional, and double this quantity if you also want to fill the frog tang yuan as well as the balls)

15g roasted black sesame seeds (you can buy these already roasted, or toast them yourself in a frying pan over a low heat)

15g icing sugar sugar

10g (2 tsp] butter, softened (or vegan butter - use one that's close to 80% fat content)

BROTH:

1 litre water

200g caster or granulated sugar

knotted pandan leaf or ginger slices (or vanilla bean paste)

3 Tbsp blue spirulina powder, or a tiny drop of blue food dye

METHOD:

1 / For the filling, grind the sesame seeds and icing sugar in a food processor until they turn into a paste. Add the soft butter and mix with a spoon until combined. Chill in the fridge for 15-30 minutes until firm enough to handle. Divide the filling into pea-sized balls, then chill in the fridge again.

2 / To make the dough, add the glutinous rice flour and icing sugar to a medium heatproof bowl and stir to combine, then, while stirring, pour over the boiling water. Add the room temperature water, 1 tbsp at a time, using a spoon to mix in.

3 / Turn the mixture out onto a work surface and knead by hand until the dough is smooth and soft. It should feel like playdough - not sticky but not dry or easily cracking either. If it's too dry, just knead in a little more water until smooth. If it's too sticky, knead in a little extra glutinous rice flour.

4 / Knead in black food dye into a golf-ball sized piece of dough (this is for the little black balls in the water). Then set aside about a marble sized amount of white dough. Knead in green food dye to the remaining dough.

5 / Shape the frogs - you need to shape a smooth bigger piece for the body (you can fill this with a little filling if you like). Then add on the legs, eyes (using white and black dough) and mouth (white dough). If you need more visuals, go check my YouTube video - (and please give it a like and follow if you can! Struggling with getting the views on YouTube lately because my executive functioning gets in the way!)

6 / Using the remaining black dough, shape into small balls (filling with the pea sized fillings).

Tip: You can also fill the frogs, just keep it to the main body and don’t use too much.

7 / Bring a large pan of water to a gentle boil, then add all the shaped tang yuan dough, giving them a little push at first to stop them sticking to the bottom. You know they are cooked once they float to the top. The balls will float quickly, and the frog shapes will take around 10 or more minutes as they are larger.

8 / Meanwhile for the broth, in another saucepan, add the water, sugar and knotted pandan leaf (or sliced ginger). Simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the blue spirulina or blue food dye, and whisk in until dissolved. You can add in vanilla bean paste at this point if you like.

9 / Divide the soup between 3 serving bowls. When the frogs and balls are ready, divide them among the serving bowls and enjoy straight away.

Have a ribbeting day! 💚🐸✨

Kim-Joy x

Welcome back friends!! I’ve been travelling quite a bit lately so now getting to catch up on baking!

And I’m so excited to share this mini matcha custard tart recipe with you. These are strictly for the "more is more" crowd. 🍵 they are ultra rich, made with double cream and egg yolks for that creamy, silky finish.

You could swap some cream for milk... but why would you? Treat yourself to the full on luscious version. 🤤

Technically the decoration is optional, but let’s be real - how could you leave them out? They’re like the main character!!

Makes: 12

Sweet pastry:

230g plain flour

150g salted butter, room temp and cubed

80g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1tbsp milk

Matcha custard filling:

10 egg yolks

100g caster sugar

600ml double cream

1tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

1 1/2tsp matcha powder

Matcha chocolate eyes:

80g white candy melts (or white chocolate cause it’s tastier, it just sets a little softer as we’re not tempering it here)

1tsp matcha powder

Icing:

30g icing sugar

About 1tsp water

Extra icing sugar and/or water to adjust consistency

Black food dye

Pink sprinkles (optional)

Method:

1 / First, make the pastry. Add the flour and butter to a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Don't overwork. Stir in the sugar, then add the egg yolk and milk and beat with a fork, gradually combining it with the rest of the mixture. Use your hands to form the pastry into a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2 / Roll out the pastry on a generously floured surface (or on a sheet of baking paper) until nice and thin. Use 10cm round cutter to stamp out 12 circles. Grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Gently guide each pastry circle into each hole. Try to guide the pastry into place rather than stretching it (as this can increase shrinkage). Prick the base with a fork a couple of times, then place in the fridge to chill for 1 hour, or in the freezer for 10 minutes.

3 / Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C fan. When the pastry is chilled, place cupcake/muffin paper cases into each, then fill with baking beans (or you can use lentils or rice). Blind bake for about 10 minutes. Remove baking beans and paper, and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and turn the temperature down to 130°C fan. Leave the tart shells to cool while you make the custard.

Tip: Baking the tart case in this way ensures the pastry is crisp before the custard is added, meaning it will maintain its texture and contrast against the soft filling.

4 / Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Put the cream in a pan and heat until just before it starts to simmer. Pour the hot cream over the egg yolk mixture, whisking as you pour it in. Spoon two tablespoons of the custard mixture into a small bowl. Sieve the matcha powder into this, then whisk until well combined. Pour this back into the main custard mixture. Use a hand blender to mix everything, this will help evenly combine the matcha. Keep the blender submerged in the custard, this helps reduce the amount of air bubbles created (you want as little air bubbles as possible).

5 / Strain the mixture twice, into a pouring jug. Straining helps reduce air bubbles.

6 / Pour the custard over the pastry cups, filling as close to the top as you can (without spilling it on the way to the oven!). You can also fill the pastry cups in the oven if you’re worried about any spills. Bake for around 25 minutes, or until the custard still has a slight wobble in the centre but appears set.

Tip: Make sure to keep your oven temperature

LOW for this bake - so that the custard doesn't puff up! It shouldn't really budge at all. Sometimes ovens aren't actually the temperature they say they are - so if you've got a temperamental oven or one that runs hot, keep an eye on it and adjust the temperature down a notch if needed. I like to check on the custard around the 15 or 20 minute mark, then check it every 5 minutes from there.

7 / Leave at room temperature to cool for 30 minutes, then gently remove the tarts from the tin. Place the tarts in the fridge to cool completely, for at least 3 hours.

Tip: remove that tarts from the tin after cooling at room temperature, and BEFORE refrigerating them. After fully cooling/refrigerating, the sugars can make the pastry stick to the pan.

8 /While the tarts are chill, make the frog eyes. Melt the candy melts or white chocolate in the microwave - start with a ten second burst, then stir. Then keep microwaving in 5 second bursts and stirring after each one. Don’t overheat! Once melted fully, remove a teaspoon into a separate bowl, and mix with the matcha powder. Use a mini drinks blender to combine, then return this to the main mixture, mixing again to fully combine.

9 / spread this thinly on to a sheet of baking paper. Leave to semi-set at room temperature if using candy melts, or leave to set in the fridge or freezer if using chocolate. Then use a small round cutter (I used the other side of a piping tip) to stamp out 24 little circles. It’s easier to stamp out when the candy melts are mostly set but not fully set.

10 / make the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and water, adding a little extra icing sugar or water to adjust as needed. You want a pipeable consistency and it should hold a trail for around 20 seconds. Leave half white, and stir in black food dye into the other half to colour. Put in piping bags, cut a very small tip, then use to pipe the eyes. Place these eyes on the tart (like in the video), using a little icing to secure it. Then pipe on the smile, and you can add little pink sprinkles for the cheeks if you like.

Tip: you can also sift matcha powder on top of the tart before adding the eyes and smile, this will up that matcha flavour.

Enjoy straight away! You can also store these in the fridge - just be aware the icing will kind of ‘melt’ in the fridge so you may want to remove the eyes first unless you want scary frogs the next day (maybe you do, I don’t know!).

Where it started

The Bake Off tent was the first time I’d been around so many people with a shared interest in baking. And if you’d told me during those long, hot and humid days in the Bake Off tent that one day I’d be 4620 miles away from home in Seattle, standing in a baking club surrounded by amazing bakers and bakes made from my recipes from my cookbooks… then I’d tell you no way, stop it.

Actually I’d say ‘don’t distract me, I have to make a perfectly spherical chocolate globe and that must melt perfectly to reveal a family of space turtle choux buns’

And by the way, turtle buns did make their appearance at the baking club too! These are the melonpan version (the choux version was definitely there but I don’t have a picture), but still!! 😻 don’t they look so happy all piled up like that?

No judges, no clocks ticking down - just cake

The other week, the Seattle Baking Club gathered 100 bakers, and 50 bakes from them. No judges, no clocks ticking down, and zero stress. Just a room full of people as cake obsessed as I am. If you rewound time to pre bake off, and it was some alternate reality where I lived in Seattle, this is where I’d be hanging out. Although I don’t know if I’d be organised enough to get tickets, they usually sell out in minutes.

the whole gang!

Turtle bread…

And it’s serendipitous too, as I wrote a graphic novel a few years ago called Turtle Bread - in which the main protagonist, Yan (yes named after Yan from Bake Off but based more on my own experiences growing up - by the way Yan loved it, she said ‘it’s weird, but it wouldn’t be you if it wasn’t’) has social anxiety and joins a baking club. I wrote about that fictional baking club because it’s something I would’ve loved myself. A community of people, all just wanting good vibes, good cake, bread and pastries… just wanting to hang out with a common interest and make friends along the way.

A collection of just some of the bakes 😻

So much talent and cuteness in one room!

The secret ingredient is connection

When I was signing books, I was chatting to two people in the queue who I thought they’d known each other for ages. Turns out? They just met. One of them was going to give the other a lift home. The power of a baking community for sure.

This is the reason why I write recipes and keep doing it. It reminds you that baking isn’t just a load of measurements and instructions, it’s something that brings people together.

And as someone with social anxiety and grew up with it being very severe it felt like a cage, it’s just so healing to see this kind of community.

If you relate, go find your ‘baking club’! It doesn’t matter what it’s about, it could be baking, it also could be birdwatching or muay thia, or even quilling (I just learnt about this one recently)! Take risks, and maybe it’s a step towards change for the better.

More bakes because there’s so many I can’t resist sharing. It goes from cute…

…to frogs and a poisoned apple level of creepy cute. 🐸

Seeing my baking characters in the wild was total magic. From the cute Pigfiteroles, to the creepy Cursed Apple cake, the level of skill in that room was high. But also, the best thing about the club is that it’s not about skill, that’s just sometimes a byproduct of loving baking lots. It’s about people coming together and spreading good energy and vibes. It doesn’t matter if your bake is wonky or you turned your genoise sponge into a brick. It’s just about the fun and the people.

Thanks to Carlos (and Lorena!) who created the Seattle Baking Club and make this happen. They do events regularly - here’s their instagram.

and Lorena does the design and made these super cute stickers!

Here’s us having taiyaki ice cream - because apparently all the bakes wasn’t enough sugar for us.

We also have a shared interest in board games, so we played a game called Quacks of Quendlinburg. You’d think mine and Carlos’ experience with temperamental ovens would give us the upper hand, but no, my partner Nabil won. If you haven’t played it, it’s basically a game about brewing up potions without blowing up the pot. Boardgames and baking = one of the best combos. Also boardgaming is another community which I recommend getting to be a part of if you’re interested - boardgames helped me with socialising because of the structure. It takes pressure off you, as the focus is on the game.

I’ll leave you with some more pics of the bakes, and check the video for a few more, but I can’t fit them all in, I wish I could because each and every one is made with love.

Stay sweet, and maybe you’re a little bit salty sometimes but you know, it balances the sweet. And bake joy!!!

Love,

Kim-Joy 💖

You will love the crackly caramelised top on this cheesecake. It’s such a happy contrast with the soft cheesecake and crumbly biscuit base.

You could also make this with other biscuits like digestive biscuits or graham crackers, but biscoff biscuits are just my favourite in general - and especially for this bake because the caramelised flavour in biscoff matches the caramelised brûléed top. And these caramelised flavours just perfectly complement the orange zing in the cheesecake.

Really easy to make (no bake!), and tastes like absolute caramelised orange-y cheesecake perfection. Plus maximum cuteness with the bees, because all the golden brûléed sugar instantly makes me think bees belong there.

Biscuit crust:

350g biscoff biscuits

60g caster sugar

170g butter

Cheesecake:

700g cream cheese

100g sour cream

100g caster sugar

Zest of 3 medium oranges

Zest of one small lemon

200g double cream

Brûlée topping:

4tbsp caster sugar

Marzipan bees:

150g marzipan

Handful of flaked almonds

2tbsp icing sugar

A little water

Black food dye

Making the cheesecake:

1 / First, make the biscuit crust. Add the biscoff biscuits to a food processor and blend until fine. Melt the butter in a microwaveable bowl. Mix together the crushed biscuits, caster sugar, and melted butter in a mixing bowl. It should resemble wet sand.

2 / Lightly grease an 8 inch round non-stick springform tin. Pour in the crust, then use a small glass or object with straight sides to firmly press it down. The straight sides will help you with packing the crust firmly against the sides. Bring the crust about 5cm up the sides of the tin. Make sure you compress everything as tightly as you can, as this will ensure the crust holds together when removed from the tin. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

3 / Meanwhile, make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric whisk to beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, caster sugar, orange and lemon zest until combined, about 15 seconds or so. In a separate bowl, whip the double cream to soft peaks. Fold this in with the ingredients you mixed earlier.

Tip: you can add the double cream straight to the first mixture, rather than whipping separately then folding in. You just need to whisk until the mixture is very thick, like how you’d expect a cheesecake to be. You will notice it rapidly thickening as you mix. But there is a risk of overmixing with this technique, so just keep a careful eye if you choose to do it this way!

4 / Scoop the cheesecake mix on top of the biscuit crust. Smooth out the top. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours (I usually just leave it in there overnight for best results!).

5 / While the cheesecake is chilling, you can make the bee decorations. First, make a small amount of icing. Mix together the icing sugar and half a teaspoon of water, then gradually add a tiny bit more water, mixing again after each addition, until you have a pipe-able consistency. Add black food dye and mix again. You can add a little extra icing sugar if it gets too runny, and more water to thin it. A little goes a long way as it’s such a small quantity. Transfer to a small piping bag, knot the top, and cut a small opening.

6 / Shape the bees like in the video. They are a slight oval shape, with the flaked almonds stuck in the sides for the wings. You’ll need to select the nicest oval-shaped almond pieces for the wings, and avoid the broken ones. Pipe the icing for the stripes, and a little to stick on the edible eyes. Then add a little smiley (or sad) face.

Tip: I put some of the icing into a second piping bag with a smaller opening cut for piping the mouths - as these are a bit more delicate than the stripes.

7 / When your cheesecake is fully chilled, carefully remove the springform tin ring (I do this slowly, and use a knife down the side to separate if it gets stuck anywhere). Once the ring is off, use something flat and thin (I use a cake lifter) to slide underneath the cheesecake - work your way around all the edges. Transfer the cheesecake to a serving plate.

8 / When you’re ready to serve, sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top of the cheesecake, then use a kitchen blowtorch to caramelise the top. Decorate with the bees you made earlier.

EAT!!! And enjoy!!!! 🐝💛💛💛

This keeps for a few days in the fridge. The caramelised top will soften in the fridge though as it absorbs moisture - it’s best eaten right away. It’s still delicious either way though!

Hi friends! This is my extremely rich and delicious miso caramel ganache tart. A biscuit-y caramelised crust, miso adding that touch of saltiness and umami to the caramel, and a luscious generous layer of ganache on top. And the marshmallow pigs enjoying the chocolate are the cute little touch!

This has taken me so many tries to perfect, but finally happy with where it’s at now!! If you see any inconsistencies in the video, it’s cause some bits were filmed on one attempt and some on another whilst I was perfecting it. Be warned, extreme tastiness and richness may leave you unable to move from the sofa.

You can serve this straight from the fridge where it will be firmer, or a leave it out of the fridge for 30 mins to an hour for a softer set.

Have some magical baking!

Biscuit crust:

180g biscoff biscuits (or graham crackers or digestives)

90g salted butter, melted

Miso caramel layer:

260g granulated sugar

110ml water

140g double  cream

2tsp white miso paste

110g salted butter, room temperature

Chocolate ganache layer:

210g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

100g double cream

1/2teaspoon freeze dried strawberry or raspberry powder, for sifting the hearts

Marshmallow pigs: (optional)

Pink marshmallows, medium and small

30g icing sugar

About 1tsp water

Extra icing sugar and water to adjust consistency

Pink food dye

Edible eye sprinkles

Method:

1 / First make the biscuit crust. Add the biscuits to a food processor and blend until it is like fine sand. In a mixing bowl, stir together the biscuit crumbs and melted butter. It should resemble wet sand.

2 / Lightly grease a 9inch round tart tin, with approximately 3cm high sides. Pour in the crust, then use a small glass or object with straight sides to firmly press it down. Use the sides of your glass and your fingers to pack the crust against the sides in an even layer. Make sure you compress everything as tightly as you can, as this will ensure the crust holds together when removed from the tin. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

3 / while the crust is chilling, make the caramel filling. Add the sugar and water to a pan. Stir for a few seconds just to hydrate the sugar. Place on the hob at a high heat, and do NOT stir. When the sugar starts browning, you can start giving the pan a little swirl (don’t stir though) just so that it browns evenly. You’ll find that it takes a while to begin to brown, but when it starts it gets more caramelised it starts browning really quickly, so keep a careful eye! Don’t stir because this will encourage crystallisation causing a grainy result.

4 / Once it is a deep brown colour (you want it rich and dark, but don’t go too far as it will burn and become bitter), add in the cream all in one go. Be careful because it WILL bubble up and spit straight away. Stand back and keep hands away for a bit until it calms down! When it’s not bubbling as much, stir until properly combined and smooth. It can seem like it won’t come together when you first look at it, but don’t worry it will!

5 / take off the heat and add the butter and miso paste. If the butter separates, it’s probably that it was too cold or not stirred enough - if this happens just bring til it’s bubbling again, stirring constantly. It will recombine! Let cool for ten minutes or so (so that it’s not so piping hot anymore), then pour into your pastry tart. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Note: I like to take the tart out of the fridge after two hours and push up the base to separate the crust from the edges of the tart tin. Then let it sit right back in the tin (you’re just loosening it, best not to take it out before everything is set completely). You can use a little steam to help with this (when the crust is too firm it will be hard to remove). This is optional but is peace of mind - just means you’re not struggling worrying about removal later on! Put it back in the fridge after this, while you quickly make the ganache.

6 / meanwhile, make the ganache. Add the cream and chopped chocolate to a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 20 seconds then stir. Microwave for another 10 seconds and stir. Repeat until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Don’t overheat as this can cause splitting. The residual heat should gently melt the remaining chocolate without overheating it, just be patient when stirring and only microwave if it’s definitely not all melting in.

Note: You can also do this on the hob, heat the cream til it’s just before bubbling (if it starts bubbling a bit, let it set aside for a few minutes), then pour over the cream. Let side for a minute, then stir until all the chocolate has melted in. Lately I’ve been finding the microwave method much simpler though.

7 / pour the ganache over the tart and spread out evenly. Decorate with these optional pigs if you like (see below)!!!! After this return to the fridge for about an hour. You can then sift strawberry or raspberry freeze dried powder using a heart shaped template to create hearts (you can just make this yourself from card/paper). Then it’s ready to serve! It’s best served after being left out of the fridge for half an hour for a little gooeyness. But it totally depends how you like it.

Optional marshmallow pig decoration:

You can these to the chocolate layer if you like! Make some quick icing by mixing together the icing sugar and water in a tiny bowl. Check the consistency - if it’s too runny to pipe add a little icing sugar. If it’s too thick, add a tiny bit of water. A tiny bit goes a long way as it’s such a small quantity. Add pink food dye to colour the icing, put it in a small piping bag, cut a small opening, and use to decorate the pigs like in my video. Decorate the tart with these after you add the ganache!

And happy Valentine’s Day to you 💛 as you may know, i like stories in my bakes, so there is a bit of a story behind this bake. It represents how for some people, Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate - symbolised by all the pigs gathered together. Conversely, for some it can be isolating - like the pig on the left. Sending you love, whichever side you are on, or if in between.

Kim-Joy x

This is a cute one to do for Valentine’s Day if you’re a fan of cats and cakes! It’s simple and utterly delicious.

You might feel a bit nervous with the rolling up in case of cracking - but trust me if you follow the instructions carefully you’ll be okay.

Tips for no cracks and a smooth roll:

-Grease your baking paper (just in case)

-Smooth your baking paper before piping design

-Roll the cake up while warm in a damp teatowel (make sure it’s damp otherwise it can stick to the cake)

-Don’t overbake (this can dry it out and cause cracking). If you’re worried you’ve overbaked it, trim the drier edges off before rolling up.

But ultimately it’s not the end of the world if there’s a crack or mistake. It’s a totally adorable and tasty purrito swiss roll after all.

SERVES: 8 (ish)

DECORATIVE PASTE (optional if you want a patterned roll, but you can also skip this!)

25g butter, room temperature/soft

25g icing sugar

1 medium egg white

25g plain flour (to make gluten-free, substitute with a gluten-free plain flour blend. I use the Doves farm brand)

pink gel food dye

CAKE

4 medium eggs

125g caster or granulated sugar

125g self-raising flour (to make gluten-free, substitute with a gluten-free self-raising flour blend. I use the Doves farm brand)

FILLING

8 Tbsp raspberry jam

300ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Some fondant to make a cat (or use a figurine!)

Sprinkles and edible ink pen to decorate cat

METHOD

1 / Grease a rectangular 38 x 25cm swiss roll pan with butter, then line the base with baking paper. Grease the top of the baking paper too. You can draw some heart outlines (or whatever design you want to do) on the back of the baking paper before placing it in the tin, if you like. Concentrate the design on just one half of the paper (landscape), as this is the side that will be visible once rolled.

Tip: Use a bread scraper or smoothing tool to ensure the baking paper adheres smoothly to the tin without air bubbles or creases. This is important because otherwise you can get ripples in your design from the paper crinkling up. You can see in my video that an air bubble starts popping up for me after I’d piped a heart - I left this as it was only one, but if it’s all over then the whole pattern could be affected.

2/ Make the decorative paste for the hearts. Cream together the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or flexible spatula until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg white, then add the flour and whisk until just combined. Add pink food dye to colour the paste (or any colour you like), then transfer the mixture to a piping bag. Cut a tip and pipe your design. Chill in the fridge (at least 15 minutes) or freezer (5 minutes), while you make the cake.

3 / Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. For the cake, using a handheld electric whisk or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl on high speed for about 7 minutes, or until very thick and light in colour and holds a trail for a few seconds. Sift in the self-raising flour, then carefully fold it in to avoid deflating the batter too much.

4 / Spread the batter over the top of the frozen piped design. Bang the tray a couple of times on the work surface to pop any large air bubbles, and bake for 10-12 minutes until evenly golden, spongy on top and coming away from the edges.

5 / Once baked, carefully turn the cake out onto a chopping board lined with greased baking paper. You should see your design on top. Peel off the paper to reveal your design. Place a clean damp tea towel on top of a second board, hold this on top of the sponge and quickly flip the board over. The sponge is now upside down and the design is resting on the damp tea towel. Roll the cake up in the tea towel (starting from the side without the decoration). Leave the cake to completely cool while wrapped in the tea towel.

6 / When the cake is cool, carefully unroll it. Whip the double cream and vanilla together until soft peaks form, then spread the cream over the top - make it slightly thicker at the end which you will start rolling the cake up from (the end that doesn't have the pattern on the back). Spread the jam evenly over the top. Roll up the cake starting from the non-patterned end, making sure to make the initial roll slightly looser than you would do normally, so you can fit your cat into it later.

7 / Use a cat figurine or make a fondant cat like I did in the video (you just need the front part of its body). You can use an edible ink pen and sprinkles to create the face features. I piped the eyes and nose but that can just be done with your edible ink pen and creative sprinkle use! Trim the end of your Swiss roll, then insert your cat so that it looks like it’s rolled up in it.

Eat right away!

Happy valentines and cuddle your kitties from me 🐈‍⬛🐈💖

Kim-Joy x

You can also make these without decorating too, they are just so tasty sometimes it’s hard to not just eat them all right away!

The heart cheeks give these a very slight valentines vibe but you can make them all year round of course.

Makes 12-14

Cake:

100g sugar

2 eggs

30ml milk

140g self raising flour

2tsp matcha powder

70g salted butter

Matcha white chocolate coating:

100g white chocolate, chopped finely (there’s a bit extra but it’s just for ease of dipping these bears, so there will always be some leftover to snack on)

1/2tsp matcha powder

Icing:

2tbsp icing sugar

A tiny amount of water

Black food dye

Optional:

Sprinkles!

Method:

1 / Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease your mould. Put the caster sugar and eggs in, ideally, a stand mixer (or use a handheld electric whisk) and whisk on high speed for about 7 minutes, or until thick and holds a trail. Meanwhile, melt the butter in the microwave so that it is liquid but not too hot. Combine the flour and matcha in a separate bowl.

2 / When the sugar and egg mixture is thick and holds a trail, pour in the milk, then sift in the flour and matcha powder. Pour in the cooled melted butter and whisk gently again until just combined. Do not overmix.

3 / pipe the batter into the moulds, filling just above halfway up. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until risen and springs back when touched. Just a minute can be the difference between just right and overdone, so keep a careful eye!

4 / When the madeleines are baked, slide them out of the mould and onto a rack.

5 / Meanwhile, melt the chocolate. You can do this in a pan set inside another pan of hot water - making sure the boiling water doesn’t touch the bottom of the inset pan (so as not to overheat the white chocolate). You can also do this in the microwave - heat for 15 seconds, stir, then keep going with 5 second bursts. Be very careful not to overheat. Stir to make sure all the chocolate has melted. Remove two tablespoons of the melted white chocolate to a small bowl, then mix this with the matcha powder until even. Return this to the main mixture of white chocolate, stirring again to combine.

6 / Place the chocolate mixture into a small bowl/something easy to dip into. Dip the madeleines face down into the chocolate mixture, then set aside for it to set. A few minutes in the freezer will help set it.

7 / once the chocolate is set, you can pipe the faces. Mix together the icing sugar and water until of a piping consistency - you may need to add a little extra icing sugar or water to adjust. Put a little bit in a piping bag and test if you’re unsure! Divide in half and add black food dye to one half. Put in two separate piping bags, cut small tips, and decorate like in the video. Add sprinkles for the cheeks or anywhere if you like!

That’s it! Try to eat these the same day as you make them (not that that’s hard).

Happy baking!!! 🐸🐸🐸

Hello! If you are camembert obsessed like me, you are going to LOVE this tear and share bread. It is so delicious, the bread is buttery soft, it’s just so comforting. And share-able (if you want to).

As camembert is extremely rich, I prefer the bread I eat with it to be not so rich, so in my recipe I use the 'tangzhong' method. There is far less butter in tangzhong-style bread, but it is just as soft as brioche and incredibly addictive! It’s also much easier to make than brioche.

The camembert and bread take about the same amount of time to bake, so it's all really straightforward.

It’s optional but you can decorate this with cute little crackers to make it extra whimsical.

There’s a touch of sweetness in the bread and crackers, which balances the pure savoury-ness of the Camembert.

SERVES: 6-8 (I mean, clearly this is subjective and probably only if you’re serving this as a starter. Could serve two depending on your hunger and cheese cravings)

TANGZHONG PASTE

25g strong white flour

100ml water

DOUGH

All the tangzhong paste

160ml whole milk

50g salted butter, melted

40g white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

420g strong white flour

7g fast-action instant dried yeast

A little oil, for oiling

SESAME CRACKERS (makes extra to go on the side)

150g plain flour

1/4tsp salt

2tbsp white sesame seeds

3tbsp olive oil

60ml water

QUICK ICING

30g icing sugar

About 1tsp water

Extra icing sugar and water to adjust

PLUS

1 camembert in its box

1 garlic clove, cut into thin slivers

fresh rosemary sprigs

1 egg, lightly beaten, to brush on bread before baking

METHOD

1 / First, make the tangzhong paste. Using a balloon whisk, mix the flour and water together in a pan until smooth. Place the pan over a low-medium heat and stir constantly with a spatula until thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Transfer the tangzhong to a small bowl, and chill in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.

2 / Meanwhile, for the yeasted dough, warm the milk in the microwave. It should be warm but not hot. Melt the butter, too.

3 / Place the milk and butter in a large bowl and add the sugar and salt. Add the chilled tangzhong to the bowl along with the egg and whisk together.

4/ Add the flour and yeast to the mixture. If using a stand mixer, just allow the machine to knead for 10 minutes with the dough hook attachment. If working by hand, use a wooden spoon to combine everything into a shaggy ball of dough, then turn out onto a floured surface. Knead by hand for about 10-15 minutes. The dough will be sticky to start with, but avoid adding too much flour - it will gradually become less sticky as you knead it. If the dough sticks to the surface, use a dough scraper to scrape it off. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth; it will still be a little tacky, but that is normal.

5/ Place the dough into a lightly oiled large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. The time taken for the rising varies depending on the warmth of your kitchen. If I’m in a rush I put the oven on a really low temperature (30C) and place it in there to give it a boost.

6 / While the dough is rising, make the crackers. Preheat the oven to 200C.

7 / Place all the dry cracker ingredients in a bowl. Add the liquid (water and olive oil), and mix into a ball of dough. Use your hands towards the end to bring it together.

8 / Roll out on a floured work surface, then stamp into desired shapes. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for

around 12 minutes until lightly brown. Leave to cool on a rack.

9 / When the yeasted dough has doubled in size, it is time to shape the bread. Divide the dough into 27 equal pieces. I like to weigh the dough so that each piece is the same weight, but that’s totally optional and you can go by eye!

10 / Shape the pieces into round balls - try to get a smooth, taut surface on all of them to ensure a good oven spring. Arrange these around the camembert box (you can leave the actual camembert in the fridge for now). Leave small gaps in between each bread bun, as they will expand and join when they rise. Loosely cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave to prove in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until the dough springs back halfway when lightly pressed with a finger.

11 / Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C. Once the bread has risen, pop the camembert in its box and poke a few slivers of garlic and some rosemary sprigs into it. Brush the beaten egg over the bread, then bakefor about 20 minutes. The bread should be a deep golden brown colour, and the camembert should be liquid and bubbly inside.

12 / while it bakes, decorate the crackers. Mix the icing sugar with the water until smooth, adjusting with a little icing sugar or water to create a pipe-able consistency. Transfer to a piping bag and use to decorate the crackers like in the video.

13 / Place the crackers on the wreath right after it comes out of the oven and serve right away!

Enjoy!!! Sending you whimsy and magic as always.

Kim-Joy 💖

P.s. if you want a different dip in the middle (like hummus, pesto, anything!), just make the wreath around an oven-safe dip size small dish - then add the dip when the bread comes out of the oven.

This recipe you can use for a ton of different designs. This one is mushrooms and bees and flowers and it’s so adorable. I’m pretending it’s Spring instead of being stuck in the depths of winter! I am usually okay with winter and like the cosy days, but this year it’s feeling a bit much.

I keep the butter content high in my shortbread so it melts in your mouth. It’s simple but when you get it right you can’t beat it. Especially with a cup of tea. Bonus if it’s also in an adorable cup.

You can also add a ton of different flavours to this to customise it! Try grated zests, extracts, spices, etc!

Note: You can make this vegan too (substitutes in recipe).

Shortbread:

200g salted butter (room temp and cubed) or vegan block butter (75-80% fat - this is essential for a good result)

85g caster or granulated sugar

1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

280g plain flour

Gel food dyes (red, yellow, white)

Note: white food dye is important so that the stalks of the mushrooms and flowers pop against the background.

Piping paste:

A little bit of shortbread (like 1-2tsp)

White and black food dye

A little bit of egg white (or aquafaba) to make it a pipeable consistency (I just gradually add in a teeny bit until it was right)

Method:

1 / first make the shortbread. Mix the butter and sugar until smooth and easily spreadable. Add the vanilla, mix again. Add the flour and mix until it comes together. Don't overmix. Press into a ball.

2 / Reserve a small amount of dough for colouring/piping. Knead in food dye to colour these how you wish! You’ll need the white food dye so that the white elements are visible against the yellow-y dough.  You’ll make the piping paste later with what you have left so don’t worry about that for now.

3 / sprinkle a little flour onto a sheet of baking paper. Place the plain dough on top, then sandwich with another sheet of baking paper. Roll out the plain dough between the two sheets of baking paper. You don’t want it too thin as it will be rolled again further later.

4 / Pinch your coloured dough shapes and press them down on the dough. Once you’re happy with the design, place the baking paper back on top and then roll over again like in video - so that the shapes are flattened into one layer.

5 / Now you need some piping paste for the details. Use some of your leftover white or plain coloured dough (just 1-2tsp will do), and mix with enough egg white or aquafaba to make it a pipeable consistency (you don't need much, add it gradually). Colour some white (if needed), and some black. Put these piping pastes into small piping bags and cut small openings.

Pipe them like in the video, or however you like (I added the wings after cutting the hexagons cause I forgot earlier! You can add them earlier of course!).

6 / Stamp into any shapes you like. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven to 160C fan. Bake for 12-15 minutes. No decorating to do after baking - they’re all done - so take a pic of your art, let it cool, and eat!!

Happy magical baking!!! 💛🐝🍄🌷 enjoy! and thank you for being here!

Kim-Joy 💖

Happy new year friends!!! To start the year off, these buns are my winning recipe when I was on the New Year’s Bake Off. They are EXTREMELY soft and fluffy - helped by the secret tangzhong technique. The caramel is baked with the buns (kind of like an upside-down cake), so it's extremely satisfying when you flip your tin over and watch as the generous caramel and caramelized nuts are unveiled and drip down. Then there's another moment of satisfaction when you slice the buns open and see the spirals of dough inside, packed with even more favour. It is absolutely delicious and a step up from ordinary cinnamon rolls.

You can also find this recipe in my book Bake Me a Cat (ALL cat themed bakes!) though it’s a cat version there, whereas these are bears. Bears kind of make more sense, as you could make these buns with honey as opposed to maple syrup, and then it’s bears & honey!

These make a great bake any time of year, and I really love them for Christmas.

You can always omit the nuts, or use different nuts, if you like.

MAKES: 15 LARGE BUNS; IF YOU'RE USING A SMALLER TIN FOR THESE, YOU MAY NEED TO SLICE THE DOUGH INTO SMALLER PORTIONS AND MAKE MORE THAN 15

Can be made vegan

TANGZHONG PASTE

100ml water

25g strong white flour

DOUGH

160ml whole milk (or use plant-based milk)

80g salted butter (or vegan butter - use one that's close to 80% fat content)

1 large egg (or replace with 30ml

vegetable oil and 30ml plant-based milk)

finely grated zest of 1 orange

50g caster or granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

420g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

7g instant fast-action yeast

FILLING

2 tsp ground cinnamon

100g light muscovado [soft brown] sugar

130g pecan nuts

80g salted butter, melted, for brushing (or vegan butter - use one that's close to 80% fat content)

note: Use metal or silicone muffin tins (I used silicone) with large, deep holes. If using smaller cupcake tins, then divide the caramel topping between more holes, and cut the dough into smaller portions accordingly in step 7.

CARAMEL TOPPING

115g salted butter (or vegan butter - use one that's close to 80% fat content)

135g light muscovado [soft brown] sugar

45ml whole milk (or use plant-based milk)

80ml maple syrup (you can also use honey or golden syrup)

200g chopped pecans

BEAR COOKIE DECORATION (this will make more bears than you need to decorate but extra is never a problem)

100g salted butter, at room temperature, cubed (or vegan butter - use one that's close to 80% fat content)

45g caster or granulated sugar

1tsp vanilla extract or bean paste

140g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

QUICK ICING

50g icing sugar

1tsp water

Extra icing sugar/water to adjust consistency

Black and pink food dye

1 / First, make the tangzhong paste. Using a balloon whisk, mix the water and flour together in a pan until smooth. Place the pan over a medium heat and stir constantly with a spatula until the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (making sure it touches the surface of the tangzhong) and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.

2 / Meanwhile, for the dough, warm the milk in the microwave - it should be warm, not hot - then melt the butter in the microwave. Lightly oil a large bowl.

3 / Place the milk, butter, egg, orange zest, caster sugar, salt and chilled tangzhong in another large bowl and whisk briefly, then add the flour and yeast on top. To knead by hand, use a spoon to mix the wet and dry ingredients together until it forms a rough shaggy ball of dough, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough will be sticky to start with, but avoid adding extra flour as much as possible - it will gradually become less sticky. Use a little oil to prevent it sticking. A dough scraper also helps to remove any dough that sticks to the work surface. Alternatively, use a stand mixer or bread machine fitted with the dough hook attachment to knead the dough for 10 minutes.

4 / Place the dough in the lightly oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, then leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size.

5 / Meanwhile, make the filling. Place all the ingredients, except the butter, into a food processor and blend until fine but still with some texture and chunkier pieces. If you don't have a food processor, just roughly chop the nuts and mix with the sugar and cinnamon. Melt the butter, and then mix in with the dry ingredients. Set aside.

6 / Next, make the caramel topping for the buns. Place the butter, muscovado sugar, milk and maple syrup into a pan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar and butter have melted. Leave to simmer for 1 minute. Divide the roughly chopped pecans evenly between each muffin hole then add approximately 2 Tbsp of caramel to each (if you’re doing more buns, distribute the nuts and caramel evenly between them all)

7 / Once the dough has risen, the buns are ready to shape. Place the dough on a floured or oiled surface, then roll out to a 50 x 25-cm [20 x 10-in] rectangle. You will find that the dough keeps trying to shrink back due to the gluten development. If you’re struggling to roll it out, just leave it for a few minutes to allow the gluten to relax, then return and roll it out further.

Cover the surface of the dough with the melted butter, followed by the blitzed filling, then roll up the dough starting from the longer edge, into a sausage shape. Use a sharp knife and a sawing motion to cut this into 15 equal-sized pieces (or more depending on your tin size)

8/ Place a spiral of dough in each muffin hole on top of the pecans and caramel. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave to prove at room temperature until risen and when indented springs back slightly. Preheat the oven to 180°C [350°F/Gas mark 4] just before they are ready to bake.

9 / Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden on

top.

10 / meanwhile, make the bear decoration. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper or a silicone mat.

11 / Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth and spreadable.

12 / Add the flour and mix until just combined. The dough should be slightly sticky, but soft and easy to handle. Towards the end, use your hands to form into a ball.

Note: If the dough feels too warm or soft, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 15-30 minutes until firm enough to roll out.

13 / Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and roll to about 1/6inch thick (or like a pound coin). Cut out bear shapes using cutters, then transfer to the prepared baking sheets. You will have some leftover dough, so press this together and roll out again to cut more.

14 / Chill in the fridge for at least

30 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C

[325°F/Gas mark 3].

15 / Bake for 10-12 minutes until just ever so lightly browned at the edges. Leave to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

16 / Make the quick icing by mixing together the icing sugar and water. You may need to add a little more water or icing sugar to get the right consistency. Dye about half black and half pink, and put into piping bags. Cut small tips on the piping bags and create the faces like in the video!

17 / Once the buns are baked, leave them to cool for 2 minutes, then flip the whole tray over onto a wire rack, letting the caramel drip down.

You may want to put a sheet of baking paper underneath the wire rack to catch any drips. Leave to cool, then insert the bears on top and enjoy!

Happy baking friends!!! And happy new year 2026 let’s go!!!

Kim-Joy x

Buttery and crisp pastry, fruity jam, moist almond frangipane and sweet icing topped with an even sweeter reindeer design. So many people have told me these are the best bakewell  tarts ever! The trick with these is to make sure your pastry is elegantly thin, definitely blind bake, make sure the pastry is chilled properly before going into the oven, and all will be right as rain.

MAKES: ABOUT 12

PASTRY

150g salted butter, cubed and at room temperature

225g plain [all-purpose] flour (to make gluten free, use gluten-free flour plus ½ tsp xantham gum

40g caster or granulated sugar

2tbsp egg

FRANGIPANE

100g caster or granulated sugar

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 medium egg

¾ tsp almond extract

100g ground almonds

ICING

200g icing

2 Tbsp water

plus extra icing sugar/water to adjust consistency

PLUS

4 Tbsp jam of your choice

black food dye

12 glacé cherries

mini pretzels

1 / First, make the pastry. Grease a 12-hole muffin tray with butter. Add the flour (or gluten-free flour plus xanthan gum) to a large bowl. Chop the butter and add it to the bowl, then rub it into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Don’t overwork. Stir in the caster sugar. Beat the egg in a separate small bowl, then add 2 Tbsp to the main mixing bowl and stir, gradually combining it with the rest of the mixture. When the egg is stirred through, use your hands to form the pastry into a ball.

2/ Roll out the pastry on a generously floured work surface as thinly as you can, and use round cutters to stamp out 12 circles of pastry (check that the size works with the size of your muffin tin). Use your fingers to gently guide each circle of pastry into each muffin hole. Prick the bases with a fork 2-3 times, then place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, or in the freezer for ten. At this point, preheat the oven to 180°C fan.

3 / Line the chilled pastry shells with muffin or cupcake paper cases, then fill with baking beads (or you can use lentils or rice like I do) and blind bake for about 15 minutes. Remove the baking beads and paper, then bake for a further 5-7 minutes until golden and crisp.

4 / Meanwhile, make the frangipane. Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and almond extract and mix until just combined. Fold in the ground almonds. Set aside.

5 / When the pastry has finished blind baking, leave to cool for 10 minutes. Then spoon 1 tsp of jam into each of the bases, and then fill with frangipane, about three-quarters of the way up, as it will rise slightly. Return to the oven to bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the frangipane is set.

6 / When baked, transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

7 / Meanwhile, make the icing. Just whisk the icing sugar and water together in a bowl until smooth. You want it to be a nice spreadable consistency to top the Bakewell tarts. You can check it’s correct by testing on one of the tarts, then adjust the icing accordingly with icing sugar to thicken or water to thin. Spoon about 2tsp into a separate bowl and add black food dye to colour, plus extra icing sugar to thicken to a pipeable consistency. Transfer to a piping bag.

8/ When the tarts are cool, spoon the white icing over the top and carefully spread to the edges.

Place a glacé cherry in the centre, then add the pretzel antlers. Cut a small tip off the black icing piping bag, then use to add eyes and a mouth. See the video as a reference.

These thick, chunky-style gooey chocolate and walnut cookies are baked at a higher temperature than your average cookie to ensure that the outside is crisp and the inside is gooey. You can also experiment with adding different types of chocolate and nuts but don't reduce the quantity, as this is what helps make these cookies so thick and chunky. Just make sure not to overbake these, and you will be in Christmas cookie heaven.

Tips: I get bags of my chocolate from the brand Callebaut. It comes in small chips so is really easy to use (I hate chopping chocolate!). I used dark chocolate and caramelised white chocolate in these cookies.

Can be made gluten free

MAKES: about 30 small cookies (40g each), or make 15 bigger (double the size) cookies

COOKIES

115g salted butter

130g soft light brown sugar

85g caster or granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 medium eggs

1½ tsp baking powder

250g plain [all-purpose] flour (or use gluten-free flour plus 1 tsp xanthan gum)

1 Tbsp cornflour (if you don’t have this you can omit it, it makes a small improvement but the cookies are great without it still - just leave it out and increase the flour by a tablespoon instead)

400g chocolate, roughly chopped (half white and half dark, or experiment with what chocolate you have! In the video I used half dark chocolate, half caramelised white chocolate)

150g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (although you can use any nuts you like, or a combination of different nuts)

add 20g unsweetened cocoa powder to half the dough to create a darker chocolate dough (optional)

QUICK ICING

30g icing sugar

A little water

Extra icing sugar/water to adjust consistency

Food dyes of your choice

METHOD

1 / Line 2-3 large baking sheets with baking paper. Place the butter and both sugars in a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whisk attachment(or use a handheld electric whisk) and whisk on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition until combined. Add the baking powder, flour and cornflour, and stir by hand until mostly mixed in but some visible flour still remains.

Optional: At this point, you can weigh your dough and divide it equally into 2 bowls, adding cocoa powder to one of the bowls to make a darker dough.

2 / Add the roughly chopped chocolate and nuts (if you have divided the dough, then just divide the chocolate and nuts evenly between the white chocolate on page). Mix until evenly combined.

3 / Scoop the batter into balls. You can either scoop large cookies (about 80g each), or smaller scoops (about 40g) for smaller cookies (I did the smaller ones in the video). Place the balls of dough onto the lined baking sheet, ensuring that there's a cookie-sized space around each ball of dough as they will spread out a bit. Flatten ever so slightly.

4/ Chill for 1 hour in the fridge, or ten minutes in the freezer. Just before they have finished their chilling time, preheat the oven to 210°C.

Note: You can also freeze the scooped balls, and have a stash ready to be baked!

5/ Once chilled, bake for 7-9 minutes for smaller cookies or around 12 minutes for larger cookies. They should be brown on the edges and still soft in the centre. They will look underdone once baked, but they will firm up and continue to cook while they cool. Leave them to cool on the baking sheets until they are firm enough to transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

6 / Once cool, mix together the icing sugar with a little water, starting with a very small amount water, then gradually adding a little more. Mix and keep checking the consistency. Add water if you need to thin the icing, and more icing sugar to thicken. Colour the icing with food dyes, then transfer to piping bags. Cut the tips of the bags, then decorate the cookies with various festive faces. You can copy the examples here or create your own!

Stay cosy and magical friends 💛

Kim-Joy

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you subscribed to me (and a few of you who have pledged money which really helps!!). It’s really nice to be here and share recipes and other bits of life with you. I hope you like Christmas edition of my thumbprint cookies!

Three designs to pick from, and you don’t have to make all three designs, you can just pick your favourite! These taste so buttery and melt in your mouth, with the sweet tanginess of the orange. Paired with strawberry jam, biscoff paste and icing, these combos are delicious. But you can adapt the flavours however you like!

Makes: 16

Can be made vegan and/or gluten free

Cookies:

200g salted butter (or use 80%-fat vegan butter), softened at room temperature, cubed

90g caster sugar

Zest of one orange (i ran out of orange for my video so i used a few drops of orange essence instead.

280g plain flour (or use a gluten-free flour blend plus ¾ tsp xanthan gum)

A little bit of strawberry jam

A little bit of biscoff paste

Quick Icing: (note - if you are only making the snowman design, you will need to increase this quantity by 3)

50g icing sugar

1tsp water

Extra icing sugar/water to adjust consistency

Black food dye for faces

Plus:

Sprinkles

Mini pretzels for the reindeer design

1 / Line a baking tray (or two depending on size of baking tray) with baking paper or a silicone mat.

2 / Add the butter, sugar and orange zest to a large bowl, and beat together with a spoon or spatula or electric whisk until smooth and spreadable.

3 / Add the flour (or flour plus xanthan gum) and mix until roughly combined. Then use your hands to form this into a ball. The dough should be slightly sticky, but soft and easy to handle.

4 / Divide the dough into 16 roughly equal pieces, then roll each piece into a rough ball and flatten with the palm of your hand.

5 / Arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Create the thumbprints as shown in the video. Fill the reindeer design with strawberry jam and attach the mini pretzels (break them so they are more like antlers) and cover the sprinkle one with sprinkles.

6 / Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160C fan.

7 / Add the jams to the indents as shown in the video. Add the mini pretzels for the reindeers.

8 / Bake for 18-20 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

9 / Meanwhile, make the quick icing to decorate. Just mix together the icing sugar and water, adding a little more icing sugar or water to adjust the consistency.

10 / dye about a teaspoon of the icing black (you don’t need much!). Put the white icing and black icing into separate piping bags. Cut a smaller opening on the black icing piping bag. The opening on the white icing for the snowman needs to be bigger.

11 / Once the cookies have cooled, you can finish decorating! Use the video as a guide, but feel free to add your own flourishes.

Instead of a gingerbread house this year, I am doing a CAKE version! This is my classic gingerbread cake like my other house cakes (there’s a cat version a few posts back from this one), except a Christmas version this time yay. I’ve been wanting to do a Christmas one for a while!There is a longer in depth version of the base ginger cake on my YouTube: here’s the link! It’s the best ginger cake you will ever try!!!! So fluffy and moist and full of ginger. I freeze the cakes before stacking so you can’t see how fluffy they are in this video, but if you look at my YouTube you can see how soft this cake is. You can play about with the design and don’t be afraid of making mistakes (like my roof design initially in the video, that I scraped off). If you chill it before attempting something you’re not sure about, it should scrape off a lot easier.

For the cake:

750g salted butter

750g dark brown sugar

360g black treacle

1125g self-raising flour

12 Tbsp ground ginger (yes, really!)

3 Tbsp ground cinnamon

9 eggs

900g whole milk

6tsp bicarbonate of soda

Buttercream:

220g egg whites, room temperature

900g icing sugar

900g salted butter, room temperature.

2 tsp vanilla extract

A tiny bit of purple food dye (for whiter buttercream)

Plus:

various food dyes of your choice

Sprinkles

1 / Preheat the oven to 180°C [350°F/Gas mark 4]. Then you’re going to grease your cake tins and line the base with baking paper. Now this takes around 5 x 17cm square tins to make, but most people (including me, see video) don’t have that many tins of a specific side. So use a slightly different size (as long they’re square or rectangle) and try to fill as many as you can. You want thick layers for ease. You will have extra cake after trimming, but that’s okay!

Note for the cake making below: the recipe makes a large amount. It can be difficult to mix such a large amount. I recommend using 2/3 of the recipe first, then make other 1/3 to finish in another batch.

2 / For the cake, heat the butter, salt, dark muscovado sugar, and treacle in a small pan over a low-medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter has melted and combined.

3 / Combine the flour and ground spices in a separate bowl.

4 / Heat the milk in a small bowl in the microwave for a minute until warm. Set aside.

5 / Pour the liquid sugar and butter mixture over the flour mixture, then stir quickly until smooth and combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6 / Add the bicarbonate of soda to the reserved warm milk and mix until foamy. Pour this into the main mixture and mix with a balloon whisk until smooth and just combined. Immediately pour the mixture evenly between the prepared cake tins and bake for 25-35 minutes until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place on a cooling rack.

Then repeat, using 1/3 of the ingredients this time.

7 / Next, make the buttercream. I advise using a stand mixer because of how large the quantity is. Whisk together the egg white and icing sugar until opaque and more shiny. Gradually add the soft butter, chunk by chunk. Until all the lumps are incorporated. This can take a while so be patient. Add the vanilla and whisk again. With this quantity, your whisk should stay under the buttercream, meaning no air bubbles are created. That’s one step skipped, yay! You can mix in a tiny bit of purple food dye to whiten the buttercream a little, so it looks more snowy.

8 / cut the cake into pieces. I made the base 16cm x 13cm. And then just made the roof to fit. Crumb coat, chill, then coat again with whatever colours you want.

9 / dye your buttercream in different bowls with your chosen food dyes. Decorate like in the video! Or put your own twist on it.

Happy holidays friends! Stay cosy, keep baking. 💛

Kim-Joy 💛