I know I said I was going to be very prompt and get my Forever Nigella posts up on 1st of the month and 3.5 weeks later I fail to achieve this. But you see a few things have been going on…

The past week has kept me busy with final edits to the book, Bake Me I’m Yours Sweet Bitesize Bakes. It’s fitting that the week I finished work on it was also when the cover popped up on Amazon. It was the first time I’d seen this version of the cover with spotty green spine and pink ribbon. The exact wording and design you see may get changed a bit but this should be the cover photo. The first I knew about it was my mother emailing me. It does amuse me that my mum is searching for my book on Amazon even though it’s not published by David & Charles until June!

My mum ordered her copy the second it was displayed on Amazon however I was touched by all the tweets this week with people saying they were looking forward to buying it! I’d kind of forgotten people might actually buy it - I’m a can’t see the wood for the trees kind of girl evidently. If you’re the buy-ahead sort, you can pre-order already and Amazon will post it to you on publication.

So with all that and me having my head buried in A3 print outs of the book to edit, followed by some other paid work behind the scenes, the days ticked past and February pounced upon me.

But I will be posting something yummy and Nigella like for Forever Nigella very soon. In the meantime, for those of you who want to get cracking with posting February Forever Nigella entries (I have already seen one from Feeding Boys!) I am posting the linky below even though I’ve not yet managed to visit all the January ones yet to pick the winner of the Australian Women’s Weekly Cupcake and Muffin book. Bear with me and it will all get done early next week.

Whilst I’ve been a bit erratic (uh-hum slight understatement) on the recipe front lately, I have set up three new whizzy places where you can find out what I’m up to.

The first is Instagram where I have been posting pictures for a few months, you can find me there as sarahmaisoncupcake so do come follow if you have an iPhone or feel free to browse my IGs over at Webstagram the web based client for Instagram.

Pinterest has also grabbed my interest, I was a bit slow to pin stuff at first but have got into it now. Pinterest amazed me with scores of people coming to follow me who knew me from Twitter etc, I only hope they’ve not all unfollowed me as I wasn’t pinning anything for ages but I’ve kind of got the hang of it now.  You can visit my Pinterest boards at http://pinterest.com/maisoncupcake/ - do let me know if you would like an invite.

Finally, my other new toy (apart from the Monopoly app on iPad2) is Tumblr. Yes I’m probably 20 years to old to get into Tumblr but I am finding it very useful to post quick bits and pieces to various places with the added benefit of them being displayed in my blog side bar.  Keep up with my brief Tumbles either in the side bar or direct at Maison Cupcake Tumblr.

I. Will. Cook. Things. Again. Soon. I. Promise.

Check out the rules of Forever Nigella.

Back when I worked in an office, a colleague  regularly received a delivery of flowers on occasions such as Valentines Day or her birthday.

She used to get very embarrassed and those of us with partners less romantic were slightly envious. On the sole occasion I received flowers at work (before my wedding), I realised that taking flowers home on the tube was very tricky. Arguably you’d get to see the flowers more on your desk so if I had been my former colleague I’d have kept a vase in my desk and kept the flowers there!

More practical for someone to take home would be one of these superb Chocoholics hampers stuffed with Divine Chocolate and other goodies. Just look at what’s inside:

• Presented in a Cotton Lined Rope Woven Brown Gift Basket
• Taste Half Chocolate Coated Oat Flips 150g
• Four Anjels Double Chocolate Biscuits 100g
• Divine Fairtrade Cocoa Powder 125g
• Sally Williams Nougat 50g
• Simpkins Orange & Lime Travel Sweets 175g
• Hamlet Assorted Belgium Chocolates 125g
• Hamlet Dark Chocolate Flaked Truffles 125g
• Divine Fairtrade Hazlenut Milk Chocolate Bar 100g
• Divine Fairtrade White Chocolate Bar 100g
• Cocoabean Handmade Chocolate Caramels In Ribboned Gift Bag 100g
• Black Jacks Chocolate Covered Peanuts & Raisins 100g

Giveaway #39: Win Interflora Chocoholics hampers RRP £37 (TWO)

HOW TO ENTER

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• This giveaway is set to run until February 9th 2012.
• Do read the rules below. If you comment with nonsense like “Oh what a fabulous prize” you aren’t fulfilling the entry criteria and thus wasting your time. Oh yes and I can tell whether you’ve really tweeted or Facebooked when you say you have so please don’t waste your time thinking I can’t verify entries.
• Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.

First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)

• No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
• Complete the form – or your entries will not go into the draw
• Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
• Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
• Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RULES:

1. Open to UK residents over the age of 18.

2. The prize is an Interflora Chocoholics Hamper RRP £36.99. There are two hampers available to be won in this giveaway.

3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.

4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.

5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Interflora who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.

6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.

7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.

8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.

9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.

10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.

Giveaway sponsored by Interflora.

Check out these other great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

   

Until February 7th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

If you’re looking to buy extra special Valentines Day Gifts for Him or Her Hotel Chocolat can always be relied upon for a great selection of luxury chocolate assortments presented in a beautiful fashion.

Ranging from their Chocolate Hearts at just £5 all the way up to decadent cabinets of truffles for £160, Hotel Chocolat have got something for you whether you’re the type of couple who exchange a Forever Friends card and some flowers from the petrol station or who whip yourselves away for a romantic city break complete with champagne in ice buckets and roses on pillows.

Alas – whilst I recall being the latter, post parenthood consider myself lucky to get the former!

Whilst I dream of being spirited away to a boutique hotel, you can dream about winning this spectacular package of chocolate… Meanwhile I shall nag my husband, “I remember a Valentine’s day when you gave me some earrings from Tiffany…” Sniff.

Simply follow the instructions below to enter. You have a greater chance of winning than I do of getting any new earrings!

Giveaway #38: Win a Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50

HOW TO ENTER

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• This giveaway is set to run until February 7th 2012.
• Do read the rules below. If you comment with nonsense like “Oh what a fabulous prize” you aren’t fulfilling the entry criteria and thus wasting your time. Oh yes and I can tell whether you’ve really tweeted or Facebooked when you say you have so please don’t waste your time thinking I can’t verify entries.
• Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.

First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)

• No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
• Complete the form – or your entries will not go into the draw
• Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
• Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
• Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RULES:

1. Open to UK residents over the age of 18.

2. The prize is a Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50.

3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.

4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.

5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Hotel Chocolat who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.

6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.

7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.

8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.

9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.

10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.

Giveaway sponsored by Hotel Chocolat.

Check out these other great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

   

Until February 9th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

Do you fancy being pampered? Maybe treat yourself to some beauty treatments? Would you like to go out to a great restaurant? Better still for it not to cost as much as usual?

One lucky Maison Cupcake reader can win a £50 voucher to treat themselves to whichever offer they fancy on Groupon.

I’m sure many readers are already familiar with Groupon but I’ll recap, you subscribe to a daily email for fantastic discount offers on products in your local area, often as much as 60-70% off usual prices. If something pops up that you like, you apply for the offer and pay the discounted price. It’s as simple as that.  I made great use of Groupon when I visited Itsu sushi bar.

Giveaway #37: Win a £50 Groupon voucher

HOW TO ENTER

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• This giveaway is set to run until February 28th 2012.
• Do read the rules below. If you comment with nonsense like “Oh what a fabulous prize” you aren’t fulfilling the entry criteria and thus wasting your time. Oh yes and I can tell whether you’ve really tweeted or Facebooked when you say you have so please don’t waste your time thinking I can’t verify entries.
• Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.

First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)

• No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
• Complete the form – or your entries will not go into the draw
• Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
• Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
• Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RULES:

1. Open to UK residents over the age of 18.

2. The prize is a voucher for Groupon offers worth £50.

3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.

4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.

5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Groupon who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.

6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.

7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.

8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.

9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.

10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.

Giveaway sponsored by Groupon

Check out these other great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

   

Until February 9th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

Rare is the treat a book that will not only impress your friends on your coffee table but teach you something valuable as well.

Couture Chocolate gives detailed information how to undertake chocolate making skills at very highest level but remains a readable joy to flick through and drool over.

You may remember I reviewed this book shortly before Christmas:

William Curley is one of the country’s top chocolatiers, having worked at numerous Michelin-starred restaurants with a number of the most respected chefs and pâtissiers in the business. Couture Chocolate is an astonishing homage to chocolate patisserie. Beyond being any other chocolate cookery book, it demonstrates in pictures highly skilled techniques that go into creating the most elaborate chocolates and desserts. For most people this is very advanced and would see little further action than oo-ing and arr-ing on the coffee table, however if you were someone wanting to set up their own chocolate business this publication would be an inspiring and beautiful textbook.

I am delighted to have three copies for Maison Cupcake readers to win by following the instructions below.

Couture Chocolate: A Masterclass in Chocolate by William Curley is published by Jacqui Small in hardback RRP £30.00. (Although currently at the bargain price of £19 on Amazon.)

Giveaway #36: Win “Couture Chocolate” by William Curley (three copies)

HOW TO ENTER

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• This giveaway is set to run until February 28th 2012.
• Do read the rules below. If you comment with nonsense like “Oh what a fabulous prize” you aren’t fulfilling the entry criteria and thus wasting your time. Oh yes and I can tell whether you’ve really tweeted or Facebooked when you say you have so please don’t waste your time thinking I can’t verify entries.
• Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.

First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)

• No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
• Complete the form – or your entries will not go into the draw
• Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
• Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
• Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RULES:

1. Open to UK residents over the age of 18.

2. The prize is one of three copies of Couture Chocolate by William Curley published by Jacqui Small.

3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.

4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.

5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Jacqui Small publishers who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.

6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.

7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.

8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.

9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.

10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.

Check out these other great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

   

Until February 9th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

January traditionally sees new found dedication to healthy diets and weight control, what better time for Weight Watchers to launch their new book.

The Complete Kitchen features 145 simple-to-follow recipes within nine chapters – ranging from basic stocks & dressings to Sunday roasts, leftovers & sides, to the more budget conscious ‘Everyday Value.’

Recipes include roast fillet of beef with red wine sauce, garlic mushroom and rustic bean bruschetta and chocolate cherry cupcakes. It retails at £16.95 but is so far only available to Weight Watchers’ members through meetings and the Weight Watchers At Home programme.

But I have two copies to give away to Maison Cupcake readers and better still, one of these is available to any winner worldwide.

To give you a flavour of what’s inside why not take a look at this recipe for Sticky Toffee, Date and Banana Pudding. Meanwhile try to win a copy of the book by following the instructions below.

Giveaway #35: Win the new Weight Watchers’ book “The Complete Kitchen” by Tamsin Burnett Hall (two copies)

HOW TO ENTER

• Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• This giveaway is set to run until February 28th 2012.
• Do read the rules below. If you comment with nonsense like “Oh what a fabulous prize” you aren’t fulfilling the entry criteria and thus wasting your time. Oh yes and I can tell whether you’ve really tweeted or Facebooked when you say you have so please don’t waste your time thinking I can’t verify entries.
• Winners are announced on the Rafflecopter form after claiming prizes.

First timers: How Rafflecopter works (video clip)

• No form showing? Hit refresh and it should appear
• Complete the form – or your entries will not go into the draw
• Mandatory entries to be completed first; i.e. leave a blog comment
• Want more chances to win? Come back daily to confirm bonus entries via Twitter
• Viewing this by email? You need to click through to enter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RULES:

1. Open internationally to entrants over the age of 18.  

2. There are two prizes each of one copy of The Complete Kitchen by Tamsin Burnett Hall. Please note that one copy is available to a winner outside the UK, both are available to winners inside the UK if an overseas winner is not drawn.

3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.

4. No fibs: each winner’s tweet entries and subscriptions etc are cross checked, cheats will have ALL entries disqualified.

5. This giveaway is hosted on behalf of prize sponsor Shiny Red on behalf of WeightWatchers who will deliver the prize(s) following confirmation of winners’ contact details.

6. The prize sponsor’s decision is final and binding on entrants; no further correspondence will be entered into.

7. There is no cash or alternative to the prize stated.

8. The prize is selected in good faith, however the prize sponsor may substitute with one similar value/type if original one is unavailable.

9.Winners are picked by Rafflecopter using random.org and the site owner contacts them by the email.

10. Failure to claim prizes within 7 days will result in a replacement winner being chosen.

Check out these other great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

   

Until February 9th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

Three and a half weeks into the new year and I have been alcohol free, raw food chomping and slurping wheat grass and banana smoothies for breakfast.

It’s probably time I let my hair down a bit without doing too much damage to my hard work hence the appearance of this deceptively virtuous pud from the new book by Weight Watchers.

So stir up the custard and grease those ramekins to save all your calories for some of my other giveaway prizes going live today: for the diet conscious I have Weight Watchers books, for those in need of pampering or dining I have a fabulously exciting Groupon voucher worth £50 and for the rest of you determined to bury yourselves up to the neck in chocolate I have three copies of the new William Curley book “Couture Chocolate” and a luxuriously decadent Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box worth £50.

Enjoy!

Check out these great Maison Cupcake giveaways happening now:

Until February 9th:

Hotel Chocolat Beauty Box RRP £50!

Until February 28th:

Two copies of Weight Watchers The Complete Kitchen!

Three copies of William Curley’s Couture Chocolate!

£50 Groupon Voucher!

One of my Christmas presents was a giant dinosaur cookie cutter. As you can see it’s a jigsaw style cutter to make one big dinosaur out of several pieces. Ted has had his eye on it.

So we got a prepared batch of chocolate cookie dough out of the fridge and made our giant dinosaur cookie after dinner this evening.

Ted supervises putting the pieces on the tray.

Whilst the pieces were baking we got out our decoration of choice: Renshaw Funky Flavoured Sugar Dough. Four chunks of flavoured paste; brown chunky chocolate, orange pip, yellow lemon fizz and pink strawberry.

I had expected these to be just like flavoured sugarpaste but actually the consistency was very different.

They’re kind of like massive Chewits sweets!

The plan was to roll out sugar dough pieces with the same dinosaur cutter and affix them onto the cookies (which should hopefully be slightly bigger after spreading in the oven). Then we were making contrasting polka dots with another colour just like the cupcakes shown on the packaging.

So far so good.

However it became apparent that the sugar dough does not like being handled. Hot little paws quickly turn it to the consistency of chewing gum and it sticks to the table when you roll it out. Possibly I could use icing sugar to dust however the pieces I rolled myself (without their being mauled by a 4 year old first) rolled out ok as you can see with the orange pieces.

The sugar dough tastes surprisingly appealing and Ted was very pleased with the end result.

Verdict: great fun for kids but less suitable for projects needing a professional finish – a pity since the flavoured dough tastes much more interesting than ordinary sugar paste.

Chances are if you read this site that you’re already fond of cooking and like to eat meals made from scratch. We all have off weeks though when we’re up against deadlines and can’t be bothered to shop properly and plan meals. If you know you’ve got a busy period ahead and don’t want to end up with miserable microwave dinners or greasy takeaways there is a new alternative. It sounds like the next best thing to having your mum do your shopping for you.

Often the most consuming thing when cooking dinners from scratch is a) the shopping itself and b) collating all the ingredients for a particular dish. HelloFresh sounds like it can do all the hard work for you and I reckon I could seriously have made use of it when I was doing the 3 days of photo shoots for my book recently.

HelloFresh is specifically designed to support a healthy lifestyle for busy people – especially those with families whilst still being affordable. It makes life simpler by removing the pressure to decide what to make for dinner at short notice and to worry about getting all of the ingredients. HelloFresh meals will be balanced and healthy, filled with vital nutrients, and brought right to your door. Everyone who works hard deserves to enjoy their time off, and we give you a little more to savour.

The site is straightforward with a clear design. Simply choose the bag size you want, which means how many meals you want – either 3 or 5 – and choose how many people will be eating them – either 2, 4, or 6. That is all you have to do, and then on Monday between 5pm and 9pm a bag filled with things like Mexican tacos, grilled chicken with salad, quiche, chili con carne etc. will arrive at your door, fresh and ready to be cooked. Each dish takes 30 minutes or less to make – perfect for busy people who still want healthy and delicious food.

HelloFresh was developed because the creators felt there should be a service that would deliver groceries and recipes, but there was none. It is expensive to order takeaway food too often and no one wants to feed their family microwave food every night, but it’s an easy habit to slip into when you are busy. Not everyone has time to grocery shop each day after work and scour the internet or recipes for tasty things to eat, sometimes you just want to have that done for you.

With HelloFresh, you still get to enjoy the art of cooking though, something you can delight in with the whole family. The point of the service is to enjoy healthy, delicious food that you cook yourself, but without having to worry about finding recipes or buying the ingredients.

Check out www.hellofresh.co.uk to read more.

Post sponsored by HelloFresh

I don’t deserve the lovely readers I have, I really don’t.

I mess you about, I disappear, I kind of shrug back and then loaf off again with little more than an occasional tweet. I try to avoid “me me me” outpourings on here but feel I owe my regular readers an explanation for the lack of regular recipes lately.

Being frank for a moment, I haven’t felt like baking for the site and the Christmas tree was hogging the best spot in the house for taking food photos. Apart from checking email on my phone I’ve barely sat down in front of the computer for nearly a month. I had meant to take some time out last January but it never happened so this year I’m determined to have a proper break!

It’s only by stepping off the hamster wheel for a few weeks that I realised how long it had been since I just did stuff around the house without feeling guilty that I was procrastinating doing something else. Five years to be precise i.e. pre-pregnancy. A rug was pulled from under me when Ted arrived three months early and ever since I’ve felt like someone holding arms full of boxes and being expected to walk upstairs whilst someone placed still more on top.

With the book all but finished and my son at school, I’m finally enjoying a bit of peace and “me time”. I probably won’t post as frequently for a while but rest assured I am still here, chilling out, taking some time to look after myself for a change – for six hours a day during the week at least.

It’s in this relaxed mode that I launch the new look Forever Nigella.

More consistent, easier to keep up to date with, easier to keep track of who else is entering – both for you and me.

The badge will still get the dates updated monthly although I won’t nag my husband to redesign it every month – maybe 3-4 times a year instead as I know you like the pretty designs!

The theme will be pure Nigella from now on. Now that we’ve gone through a year of themes, without getting repetitive any new themes are likely to be too specific, especially if people only have one Nigella book.

Although we’re ditching the theme, I suspect that seasonality will play a big part in who enters what anyway.

So from now on:

Forever Nigella now starts on the 1st of each month and ends on the 28th. You may submit ANY Nigella recipe.

The current host is Sarah at Maison Cupcake i.e. ME. When the new system settles down I’ll get some people to host – I have a list of lots of you who have asked to but I’m too disorganised to get this set up in advance and always end up hosting myself at the last minute.

The announcement post will go live on the 1st of the month with the new Linky. So you can blog your entries at any time from 1st -28th or hold on to them a few days for the next month’s round of entries.

We may not always have a prize but this month we do…

This month’s prize:

Everyone submitting their entry to the Linky Tool will be eligible to win a copy of Australian Women’s Weekly’s book of Cupcakes and Fairy Cakes.
Everyone means YES I WILL MAIL IT INTERNATIONALY. No there isn’t an alternative, I’m giving away a book not a voucher. If you win and don’t want the book, yes I can mail it to one of your mates who would like it instead. You see, I’m flexible.

On this occasion I am choosing a winner myself as I’ve not organised anyone else to judge. Previously, getting someone else to judge entries in a draft post was a total pain in the bum but it would be easier now we run this with a Linky. Thinking on my feet it might prove easier in future to get people to judge winners rather than host this thing. But for now we’ll suck it and see.  I’ll pick who wins this time, my blog, my rules.

A reminder of the rules:

Forever Nigella #11
Challenge: To prepare and blog any Nigella recipe.
Deadline: 28th of the month, at midnight wherever you are.
Round up: By Linky Tool on the announcement post which is linked to on the Forever Nigella page.

There are:

• No rules about how often you must take part
• No rules about stuff being secret until certain dates
• No rules that everyone cook exactly the same thing
• No rules about not being able to submit to any other blog events – just check it doesn’t contravene the other guys’ rules

But there are 3 rules:
1. Blog your entry by the deadline including:
a) the current Forever Nigella badge
b) a link to the current host’s announcement post
c) a link to the official Forever Nigella page at Maison Cupcake: http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/forever-nigella (if hosted by someone other than myself)

2. So not to breach Nigella’s copyright you must NOT reproduce recipes verbatim as shown in her books. If using an original Nigella recipe, tell us which book it is from and/or where we find it online (see most likely sites below). If you’ve adapted the recipe in some way i.e. changed at least two ingredients or amended the method then it’s ok to publish the a recipe in your post but you MUST write the directions in your own words.

3. Tell us about your post by adding it into the latest Linky Tool here.
I have made this into a Blog Hop so feel free to post the script at the bottom of the announcement post to encourage your readers to visit other entries.

Don’t forget to tweet your post with the hashtag #forevernigella – I will retweet all those I see!

N.B. Your entry must have been published since the announcement post. You may only submit something from your archives if you republish it as a new post.

Thank you for bearing with me during the past few weeks, I am always amazed as many people join in as they do when I go “off radar” for ages, I always visit and comment all the entries eventually although I’ve been slower than I would like lately. I always retweet those entries that I see using the #ForeverNigella hashtag.

The final bit of business is to announce the winner of Forever Nigella #10 who bags a set of these slinky digital Salter scales. My personal favourite post from Forever Nigella #10 was this wonderful rocky road wreath dotted with green and red smarties by Susan at Not just any old baking.  Well done Susan!