For me, living on the border between the provinces of Siena and Florence, driving south in Tuscany means going through one of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet, the Val d’Orcia and the Crete Senesi, declared by UNESCO, in 2004, World Heritage Site. The outlines of the hills are well known throughout the world, just [...]

Posted in Autumn, Baked Good, Cakes, Chocolate, Desserts, Tuscan Recipes, Winter 29 Comments »

“The blog is a part of who I am. It’s becoming like a limb. I have to feed it all the time. I think of it as an engine that propelled me forward. I look at the world through my blogger struggles. When I go anywhere I wonder if it’s blogger material. I experience things [...]

Posted in Autumn, Chocolate, Desserts, Family recipes, Spring, Summer, Winter 21 Comments »

Mum has a sweet tooth for whipped cream. Sweet tooth may be simplistic to describe her relationship with whipped cream and the speed with which her spoon speeds under my eyes when I make a cake, returning to her full of whipped cream. This said, she loves simple and traditional desserts: tiramisu, mantovana, rose cake [...]

Posted in Baked Good, Cakes, Desserts, Winter 20 Comments »

They came home gift-wrapped as only Santa’s elves would be able to do: two kilos of intense Caffarel dark chocolate. They came home along with a shower of chocolate stars, wrapped in a shiny yellow and red paper. As you can see from my pictures, I was put in charge of the 20th of December in the Advent Calendar, a game [...]

Posted in Chocolate, Christmas, Preserves, Winter 14 Comments »

They are three. Three white hairs. Three white hairs that I see every morning in the bathroom mirror, highlighted by the harsh spotlight that makes them stand out, so white and straight, among the other soft brown curls, that instead are huddled peacefully on my head, as they are supposed to be, as curly hair, in the early hours [...]

Posted in Autumn, Chocolate, Desserts, Winter 31 Comments »