• ccav on December 15, 2012

  Quinoa Apple Cake: I added ground chia seed for about 1/4 of the flour. Excellent, moist and slightly sweet cake. The fresh apple chunks, raisins and spices give it good flavor and the cooked quinoa provides substance and nice texture. Great for breakfast or snack.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Irish whiskey soda bread

  • apattin on March 18, 2022

    Recipe calls for 1kg flour, which is about double what other resipes call for given the same rest of ingredients (buttermilk, butter...). It makes a brick, not a bread.

• Cardamom cake with whole pears & white chocolate

  • Foodo on September 23, 2025

    This was a huge let down. There was too much batter - so it over-flowed. There was SO MUCH BUTTER the bottom half of the cake was greasy. There was WAY TOO MUCH syrup as well. The flavor was mediocre at best.

• Mariëtte's sausage buns

  • e_ballad on July 19, 2019

    I recognise that these are Yvette’s Mum’s recipe & are clearly a sentimental favourite... but these were horrible. For all of the ingredients, I was expecting a punch of flavour, but this didn’t translate to the end product. The texture was also off, despite using the minimal amount of breadcrumbs “until no longer sticky”, the filling was tough & unappealing.

• Chickpea soup with sweet potato and feta crackers

  • e_ballad on July 08, 2021

    Acknowledging that the main ingredient IS sweet potatoes, this was too sweet for our liking, needing more savoury notes. The feta crostini should have been helpful with this, but they were crumbled feta on baguette slices & really didn’t add a great deal.

• Frittata of kale & bacon

  • e_ballad on September 16, 2017

    Functional. More exciting kale frittata recipes are about, but this was very simple to knock up.

• Mashed potatoes with Brussels sprouts, orange & smoked sausage

  • Cheri on February 06, 2023

    Made this without the orange. Great comfort food, quick and easy. Lovely lunch leftovers.

• Whole organic chicken stuffed with pork, veal & sage sausage

  • e_ballad on July 09, 2017

    Good instructions on how to ballotine a chook, but that's the only positive I have for this recipe. A chook wrapped around a meatloaf.

• Quiche Lorraine

  • e_ballad on January 07, 2017

    Our go-to quiche recipe. Always light & fluffy, yet incredibly tasty.

• Irish stew

  • e_ballad on February 07, 2017

    A real stick-to-your-ribs dish. Have tried lots of Irish stew recipes & this is our favourite to date.

• Turbot tower with nutty white cabbage and vanilla beurre blanc

  • Cheri on January 10, 2023

    Wow! We loved this. Used rockfish (Turbot not available), omitted vanilla seeds, otherwise made as written. Cabbage braised for about 20 minutes, which was perfect. Amazing approachable weeknight dish. Definitely a repeat. Company worthy.

• Sticky chocolate cake in your coffee mug in 3 minutes

  • Melanie on March 28, 2014

    Fail - I wouldn't make this again. The texture of the pudding was horrible and the chocolate that I mixed in tasted burnt.

  • Cheri on February 01, 2015

    Interesting. Texture, shiny and spongy., but cake-like. I added a few semi-sweet chocolate chips. Not bad for a single serving emergency chocolate fix. It really needs to be served with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to temper/balance it out. This is not company worthy, but when you need something very chocolate, quick and quite warming, not a bad option.

  • LaurenJA on September 29, 2023

    Used a small egg, 2 TBS sugar and 1 TBS chocolate chips, worked a treat. Would definitely make this again.

• Baking Bites

  The recipes tend to be easy to put together, with clear instructions that are easy to follow along with (even for something as impressive looking as that pear cake).

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• Serious Eats

  These dishes are often accompanied by quirky illustrations and cut-out collages, making the book just as much fun to read as it is to cook from. Given its format, some recipes are more detailed...

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• Seattle Weekly

  Flipping through this cookbook makes me feel optimistic about cooking this winter. There's no need to boost readers' moods about cooking in summer... Wintertime cooking just got a whole more inspired.

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