This holiday, I have been mostly baking...

 

After a wonderful few weeks at home, I'm back in France, full of home comforts and having satisfied my baking cravings - for now anyway!

To say I made the most of our oven would be a massive understatement. Dozens of cupcakes, Jamie Oliver’s tried, tested and utterly failsafe chicken and leek pie, my traditional Christmas sticky toffee pudding, macaroons, cake pops (more on those later!) and apple pie with homemade pastry (my first attempt at pastry in many many years) – I think it’s safe to say that I certainly took advantage of having an oven for the two weeks I was home. Even if it did break twenty minutes after we’d finished Christmas dinner. Uh oh.

Now, onto these cake pops. They're being tipped as "the new cupcake" when it comes to trends in the baking world. Well, no disrespect to cake pops, but personally I don't think they'll steal the place I have in my heart for cupcakes, but they are certainly satisfying in a way that cupcakes aren't. Provided you have the ingredients necessary - even better if you already have the batter made - little cakes can be yours in four minutes, thanks this wonderful little gadget, which my parents kindly bought for me this Christmas. 

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I can highly recommend a plain vanilla sponge, dipped in white chocolate and then dessicated coconut. I currently have about 13 cakes' worth of chocolate chip sponge batter - Ellen and I made some to take to snack on during the film we went to see earlier this evening, Les Intouchables, which, if you get a chance to watch, you really must watch. It's fantastic.

While it may not be a proper oven, and I won't be able to make cupcakes or pies or macaroons in it, it'll certainly tide me over until the next time I'm home!