The Good Life France is thrilled to introduce guest food writer Julia. Julia has had a lifelong love of cooking and in particular baking cakes. Julia told us that when she was younger she found her Grandmother’s ancient hand written recipe books and this guidance passed down through the generations of her family has been the mainstay of her approach to cake baking ever since. We’ve tried some of Julia’s cakes here at our offices in France and when we asked her for one of the recipes – a glorious boiled fruit cake – she offered to share her recipes with us and our readers and of course we said YES PLEASE because we are sure you are going to enjoy these recipes and the cakes just as much as we do.
We asked Julia to tell us a bit about herself:
I am a food lover and fortunate enough to “have the best of both worlds”, living in both France and England. I have a major love of food, having studied Food Science but also growing up with the legacy of my Grandmother who was a brilliant baker, being well-known for her amazing scones!
When my family and I are in France I really enjoy shopping at the French Supermarkets as they are so different to the English ones. We have a wonderful time filling the trolley up with amazing products that in France we all take for granted. I also love to bake in France (helped along by my daughter, Lucy) but sometimes its a challenge as there are some fundamental differences that we need to work around. Things like all the flour appears to be “plain”… I’ve never seen any self- raising flour in France; and cream – in the UK we can get double cream but in France the cream has less of a fat content so you can’t get full on naughty double cream! I use my experience of food science to amend the recipes when I’m in France but I also take back to Britain some of the wonderful ideas I see in the patisseries in France – the gorgeous cakes and deserts. Although it takes years to learn how to make these wonderful creations – they can inspire all of us and make our approach to making every day cakes look and taste better than ever.
I try to integrate the “best of both worlds” and adapt cookery skills I know from England into my French life and then bring all the delicious French cuisine into my English life!
My recipes are timeless and appeal to everyone – from scones to Boiled Fruit Cake – the sort of delicious cake that one is more inclined to have a slice with a cup of tea as the nights draw in and I hope to share my passion for baking with you.
