Unless otherwise stated, all recipes on Phil’s Home Kitchen (incorporating Baking Fanatic) are my own creations.
A warm welcome to Phil’s Home Kitchen: a space in which the challenges of the outside world and any feelings of food guilt are left firmly at the kitchen door!
Please dip in and out as casually as you want and whether you are starting out on your food adventures or are well seasoned, I hope you will get plenty of ideas and discover a few interesting dishes along the way.
This website
The idea of my own website had been bouncing around in my head for ages after a chance conversation with a friend during Afternoon Tea – and I often have meaningful conversations over Afternoon Tea! She suggested that as I have so many recipes jotted down on bits of paper and tucked away in the back of cookery books, was it not a good idea to organise them in some way?
So one day I had a few hours to kill and thought “Why not give it a go?”……..and the beginnings of this website was born! I started out as Baking Fanatic, and baking is still at the heart of my cooking, but I have expanded to include other types of cooking that I love.
The recipes on my website
Unless otherwise stated, the recipes are my own – apart from the classic base recipes for the standard pastries, cakes and sauces, for example. But once you feel confident with these, many exciting dishes can be created. A full list of my recipes can be found here: Recipe index
Perfecting dishes
Whenever I give cookery demos or talk about food on the radio, people often chat about difficulties when it comes to cooking – whether it is the perfect roast potato, fool-proof Yorkshire Puddings or delicious ways of using what is in the cupboards and fridge.
Many questions that I am asked by email or when chatting on the radio relate to baking. Common queries have included:
- how to get the lightest cake
- how to make the most melt-in-the-mouth pastry
- how to conquer sourdough bread
- how to make macarons that don’t crack…….
With these baking-related queries in mind, I have given step-by-step instructions, inclduing tips and recipes for making these and other areas of baking. My links for these can be found at the top of this page or you can find them here.
Some of my “random” recipe ideas
I often wake up in the night with an idea (often a mad idea, occasioanlly a more plausible idea!) and I then scribble down some thoughts onto paper: I always have a pad by my bed for this very reason! Some of these ideas – well, those that have worked out – are on this website:
Simplicity often rules
There is always the thrill in cooking of just what can be achieved with relatively few ingredients and achieved quite simply.
Cooking does not need to be complicated or hugely time-consuming; it can be, of course, and the more challenging dishes that take more time and focus are sometimes just what is need to unwind.
Often, just grazing on a few simple things that are easy to throw together can be just as satisfying as a more full-on meal!
Whatever your cooking interests are, I hope you enjoy the making, the eating, the experimenting and the sharing.
Happy cooking,
Philip
Key links
Recipe index
Top Tips/masterclasses
List of all posts
your website is cool. The next time I do baking I’m using your website.
From your niece Jodie xxxxx
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Thank you, Jodie. We must do another baking session via Skype and then bake some things when I am next visiting
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I’ve been dipping into your blog for ages and keep finding new things to entice me in. Great commentary with your recipes and I love the pics of what you’ve baked even though I shouldn’t look at them when I’m hungry
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Thank you. Yes, looking at food when hungry is always a fun thing 🙂
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amazing recipes and photos.
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Thank you
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Wow! Your recipes & blog are so impressive! I love baking but I have to say pastry still makes me very nervous! I would love to get this good!
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Yes pastry can take some getting your head around but go for it. It’s a lot to do with the mindset when it comes to pastry. And having very cool hands in a cool kitchen! But choux pastry is a good one to start with: it is one of the easiest and most forgiving pastries – not to mention impressive to serve up.
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quite honestly I could just look at your pictures all day. You really know how to put across your love of baking with your photos, and your writing style makes for great reading
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Thank you very much. Just about getting the hang of the photographs
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Pork pie with pistachio, apricot and quail eggs i hate you phil:)
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🙂
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Very impressive all round. I love baking your recipes-some great ideas
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Thank you, Jon
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Your blog is amazing, i love baking at home. I can make things for me and my kids according to our developed taste. Please keep posting.
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Thank you, and happy baking
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Hi Philip,
I am a German home bread baker and my husband and I love to spend our holidays in Britain. We are keen followers of the GBBO and it was indeed Paul Hollywood who inspired me to bake bread. I have moved on and learned a lot about bread and sour doughs from some fantastic German bloggers specialising in bread – Plötzblog and Brotdoc.
Happy to have found a great British baking blogger now! I do not blog myself but put up photos of my breads and cakes on Instagram under Marie Nitzenplitz.
Well, enough now I don’t want to tire you. Looking forward to browse your blog!!
Warmest wishes
Evi
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Hi Evi, thank you for your very kind words. I look forward to enjoying your bakes on Instagram. Regards, Philip
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Hi Philip, I love cooking/ baking (and eating, of course). My old man and I have just got back from France and I can never get over the sensational patisserie that you get over there – even the smallest village has its own patisserie and the cakes are so beautiful – made with such obvious love – but they taste wonderful too.
I’ve tried making macarons – yours looked perfect – but I haven’t been able to achieve that professional finish.
As an ex- (now retired) teacher, I can’t help thinking your pupils must love ‘Sir’ – especially if he teaches them how to bake as well as maths.
Great stuff, Philip. And thanks for the blog.
Gill
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Hi Gill.Thank you so much for your kind words.
Do have another go at macarons: they are so rewarding and when “it works” it is a wonderful feeling (having had SO many disasters with them initially!!).
Teaching is a wonderful thing to do: and the odd “cake eating lesson” and baking sessions with my 6th formers is fun to have! I hope you are enjoying your retirement. Warm wishes, Philip
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Wow, you ARE a fanatic! Thanks for following my blog – I’ll be keeping an eye on yours for more ideas too. Cheers!
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Thanks John. Regards, Philip
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such a treasure trove of exciting bakes and helpful tips. I,ve been regularly looking at your blog for ideas and guidance and love how it has developed hugely over the past year
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thank you Lisa.And a warm welcome to my blog
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Oh Philip this is such a resource of great baking info. I have bookmarked several of your pages that I keep returning to and I always love to see your new posts.
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thank you, Kate 🙂
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I love your passion for baking, your blog is amazing & the photos are delightful!
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thank you Jeanne. I made your chicken parmesan the other day – a gorgeous dish.The pumpkin sourdough pancakes are next (got a lot of the starter to be used – always such a shame to discard it)
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Excellent, Philip! That just made my day! I know what you mean about the starter…I sort of look for things to make with it, haha!
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Phil – the wedding cake you made for us was absolutely divine! Thank you. Everyone devoured it with gusto, and is most jealous that we may get to try your future creations. Wonderful baking. Fact. X
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Hi Lucy. It was a pleasure to make the cake for you both. So glad it went down well xx
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I checked out your blog- it is awesome! I adapted your ‘chocolate collar’ for one of my cakes and it went down a treat, everyone was super impressed! Keep blogging!
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Thank you, Grace. I am glad the chocolate cake went down well: it’s a fun one to make. Best wishes
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Wonderful site – thanx for sharing these great recipes and pictures.
Greetings
Robby(licious)
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A pleasure Robby. Welcome 🙂
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You have a lovely blog. Everything looks amazing! Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. 🙂
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Thank you very much Linda. Best wishes
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Amazing recipes. ..
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Thank you very much Prabal. I hope you enjoy dipping in. Kind regards
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That Maltesers cake is spectacular, I love it!
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thank you. It was great fun to make
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Amazing recipes. I love baking and I love your blog
http://tuckerwalsch.wordpress.com/
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thank you. I love your bread – very inviting
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Just found your blog and it is absolutely lovely! Can’t wait to try making some of your recipes
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thank you Claire. I hope you have found some recipes to try out. Apologies for the delay in responding – I only just got you message popping up. Regards
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Thank you for this very enjoyable look at some fantastic bakes! 🙂
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thank you Lili. Best wishes
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thank you for the recipes and your baking tips. I can now make macarons really well after so many horror stories with them
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Thank you Angie. Congratulations on the macarons: it’s a great feeling when they work.
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Fantastic!!! I’m inspired!
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Thank you very much 😀
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I really like your instagram post about the Halloween cake. I did something quite similar on my blog and I would be really overjoyed if you could take a minute to take a look at it.
https://bakingadventure.wordpress.com/
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thank you. I love the cottage cheese cake you made: it makes such a lovely icing
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What an awesome blog. Just love it and will keep visiting and following you.
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Thank you so much, and a warm welcome
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Hope you will pop over to my side and see whats cooking in my kitchens.
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I am just popping over: I love looking at blogs that are new to me
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Hope you will follow and enjoy the treats and food here. Keep an eye out on 1Feb for the new theme of our monthly Share and Inspire Others recipe exchange.
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I look forward to it. I cant wait to participate
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Awesome, so glad you will participate. 1 Feb you will see the theme
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I came following a comment on that lovely comedy, Ladies of Letters, when Vera mentioned she was making an Arctic roll. Over here in the U.S. I’d never heard of one (although being a big fan of British cookbooks, especially the ones that concentrate on Afternoon Tea), so I typed in the term, thinking it would be some awful fish thing (Vera not being my idea of a “good” cook). I was pleasantly surprised to find it is a dessert, and your cherry version looks scrumptious and so do the rest of your recipes.
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Ladies of Letters was wonderful, wasn’t it. Loved it. I share your love of Afternoon Tea. And thank you for your very kind words
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Not sure if I mentioned this before, but you have an amazing blog.
Congratulations and well done: I wish to let you know that I have nominated you for “The Mystery Blogger Award”. Check out the link: http://bit.ly/2jfpBHQ and I hope that you will enjoy it and also pay it forward.
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thank you so much. I most happily accept and will post accordingly 🙂
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My absolute pleasure. Please when you do your post add the logo and link back or provide a pingback to me in order for me to see your post and nominees and also meet them
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i think I have pinged back: do let me know if it hasn’t worked, Philip
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Welcome to the new The Blog-aholic Award? I am happy to inform you that I have nominated you for this new award, and hope you will be able to participate and pay it forward to as many bloggers as possible. ❤
Link to the post: https://cookandenjoyrecipes.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/the-blog-aholic-award-2/
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thank you so much- I am honoured and delighted. I will be paying it forward very shortly
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My absolute pleasure. Please when you do your post add the logo and link back or provide a pingback to me in order for me to see your post and nominees and also meet them
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mmm, yummy recipes…
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Thank you
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very nice thank you
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A pleasure 😀
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I recently discovered your web site and think it is amazing! I have tried at least four recipes since I found you 6 days ago (!!) and love the ideas. The trouble is every time I come here I find MORE that I want to make. Thank you so much!
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Oh thank you Jean your lovely words, and a warm welcome. I hope you find plenty more to bake too. 😀
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I’ve just stumbled across your wonderful blog after Googling a recipe. It’s absolutely amazing, like a very up-market Aladdin’s cave, a foodie paradise with pictures! I’ve cooked, baked and created for many years myself, and one of my favourite possessions is my late grandmother’s recipe book, which includes not only her own recipes in her very distinctive, almost copperplate hand, but those from others such as my great aunt and my Mum – and there’s even one from me, aged seven (and I’m now 60!). I just wanted to say thank you, for your incredible generosity in creating, updating and maintaining such a beautiful yet user-friendly resource. In the words of Mr Schwarzenegger, ‘I’ll be back’ … frequently from now on!
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Gosh, thank you SO much for your very lovely words. Seriously, they really perked up my weekend. I share your excitement over handed-down recipes: there is something quite magical with those recipes, as well as a desire to always do them justice. Please do pop back again and again, as you are most welcome, and I very much look forward to meeting you on here. With very best wishes, Philip
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Sally sent me your way via her blog. I am looking forward to perusing your tutorials when I have time, because that is where I would certainly need to start! 🙂
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Hi, and a most warm welcome. Isn’t Sally fabulous? I hope you enjoy the tutorials and find many things to delve into. Best wishes, Philip
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Phil, I just discovered you days ago via the Clandestine Cake Club Community Facebook page, loved your posts there, and found your brilliant website, a wonderful place for avid cooks and bakers to wander! Thank you!
Susan
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