almond & pumpkin muffins.

An autumnal bake to brighten up your weekend. Spiked with warming spices and topped with flaked almonds, this basic pumpkin sponge recipe is the perfect base for some autumnal muffins. If you're wondering how to create a simple sponge mix with pumpkin puree you've come to the right place. This recipe creates the perfect base for seasonal bakes galore - such as my super easy pumpkin spiced baked doughnuts with maple glaze. Can you tell it's my fave season yet?

sea salt and dark chocolate cookies.

Milk and cookies; the perfect combination. Just like tea and toast, cheese and wine and jam and scones, this American tradition goes together like peas and carrots. One of the latest foodie trends though is mixing sweet and savoury in baking. Like salted caramel, sea salt with chocolate can add a little extra flavour and texture to sugary bakes.

Inspired by America's famous Sweet Corner Bakeshop and their sea salt chocolate chip cookies, I've created my own recipe featuring a duo of sea salt and dark chocolate. Warmed up and slurped down with a glass of milk? Perfection!

homemade beer burgers with beerwulf.com.

Beer and burgers; no-one can doubt they make for a delicious combination. I love a homemade burger stacked up with my favourite toppings and served with skin on fries. Throw in an ice cold beer on a sunny day and you're on to a winner. I've recently teamed up with Beerwulf.com to try out the latest addition to their beer packs, especially for Father's Day. I thought it made sense to put their beers into some tasty burger patties, alongside various paired cheeses.

For those who aren't familiar with Beerwulf.com, they're an online craft and speciality beer shop with loads to choose from. You can discover something new with their variety packs or handpick your own box from your favourites. There are also some helpful reviews and tasting notes over on their site to help you pick the perfect box. At the moment they actually have an offer with the promo code discount5 which entitles you to £5 discount off a £25 minimum spend. 

vegan sesame mushroom gyoza + a simple homemade dumpling pastry recipe.

Gyozas, potstickers, wontons, mandu... all with their very slight differences, shapes, fillings and quirks of the culture they are from. Gyozas in particular, hailing from Japan, are a favourite of mine, whether fried or steamed. The most fiddly part is probably the assembly, but actually making the dumpling pastry and filling is very simple. And if you didn't want to create the classic pleated gyoza shape, you could always just create a simple half moon shape at first. The best part is, for the dumpling pastry recipe you only need two things. Plain flour and water. As for the filling? Let your imagination go wild...

When Indigo Herbs got in touch asking if I'd like to try out a few of their products to create a vegan recipe, I couldn't wait to bring a really exciting plant based flavour together. As well as mushrooms, spring onions, ginger, garlic and chilli, their Japanese Maitake Mushroom Powder adds a smoky flavour, the sesame seeds an extra nutty taste and their Irish Seaweed Salad of course introduces that beautiful umami taste you often find in South Asian cooking. Think nori in sushi, soy sauce and miso,  for an idea of that slightly salty and savoury essence.