Not Quite NigellaThe cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @

The Rocky Road To Love!

Not Quite Nigella — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:14 +0000

Not everyone loves Valentine’s Day. In fact when I talk to some people about Valentines Day their reaction is to sneer at it and talk about “crass commercialism.” I’m not sure what to answer to that because of course it is quite true and I can only offer “But this is a day to eat more chocolate! [...]

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A Birthday Dinner For Two Under the Velvet Canopy!

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 08 May 2011 19:00:40 +0000

Good Monday Dear Readers and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mums for yesterday! I hope you all had a wonderful day I actually had my birthday yesterday on Mother’s Day which is something that happens every seven years or so. Every year for my birthday I try and stretch out the celebrations as [...]

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Love Letter Cookies

Not Quite Nigella — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:00:29 +0000

I don’t think that I was a particularly ugly child or teenager. I’d probably rate myself a three or four out of ten perhaps taking off some points for the fact that I grew up in the 80s and points must inevitably be deducted for bad hair choices and suspect clothing selections. Still, I never [...]

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Kransekake – A Danish Wedding Cake

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:00:29 +0000

In my humble opinion, I would guess that for most guests, weddings are all about two things: the speeches and the food (dinner and a show if you will). The reason why I include these two things is because I am thinking about the men folk who don’t really care about a bride’s dress or the designer [...]

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How to Make a Two Tier Wedding Cake with Faye Cahill!

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:00:17 +0000

Once upon a time, I got married. I had grand dreams of making my own cake. Until sense kicked in and nudged me sharply and told me that I had never made a wedding cake in my life and that was not the time to try. Now over four years later, I’m finding myself making [...]

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A Step By Step Guide on How to Make A Wedding Sized Croquembouche With Patisse

Not Quite Nigella — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:00:36 +0000

Dear Reader, no doubt at one stage or another, you may have been asked to make a birthday or wedding cake for a friend or family member. I did one a few years ago for Mr NQN’s sister. I swore I would never do another such was the stress. The bride and groom wanted cream [...]

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Mother’s Day Heart Shaped Braid

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:00:10 +0000

I feel like I have a bit of a connection with Mother’s Day. No, I’m not a mother but having a birthday on May 8th means that often Mother’s Day overlaps with my birthday (or at least the Mother’s Day weekend). This year, my birthday is the day before and all I want is a [...]

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Valentine’s Chocolate & Raspberry Truffle Cake with Truffles

Not Quite Nigella — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:00:32 +0000

I wrote before about how difficult it was for Mr NQN and I to say “I Love You” to each other. That reminded me of a situation from back when I worked in an office. We were a typical “Office Space” company, a technology start up where very few had offices with walls and we’d [...]

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Ispahan Crème for Christmas Dinner

Not Quite Nigella — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:00:54 +0000

I was at a convent flicking through an issue of Delicious. Yes you heard right, I was at a Convent. I hadn’t checked myself in I should clarify though. It was a convent in Orange where I was having lunch. I was looking through the latest issue of Delicious and murmuring and pointing to various [...]

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Chocolate Valentine Cake with Cafe Au Lait Ice Cream-Daring Bakers February 09

Not Quite Nigella — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:00:36 +0000

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was exciting. For not only was it chocolate based, it only had 3 ingredients. Yes seriously. Of course I’m not counting the ice cream part. They wouldn’t let us get away with something so simple. But even give this head start of sorts, I still waited til the last week [...]

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