Features & Stories

Newsletter:🎄Christmas lunch covered + ckbk makes the perfect last-minute gift for food lovers 🎁

As you limber up for the big day, and anticipation mounts for that all-important Christmas lunch, here is a little extra inspiration and guidance to ensure that festive feast is all you want it to be.

Newsletter: 🎄 Christmas prep sorted + win a year’s subscription to ckbk with our new photo review feature 🎁

We are halfway to Christmas Eve—how did that happen? It is time to plan the food shopping, and what to make when, and while we can’t do your shopping or organise your diary for you, we can certainly make sure that you have all the ideas, recipes, and ingredient lists you could possibly need. Christmas ckbk-style is a tempting proposition!

Newsletter: 🥨 German Heritage Baking is our December cookbook of the month + you share your foodie gift ideas 🎁

Born near Frankfurt in Germany, Heidrun Metzler’s childhood was gloriously flavored by the delicious baking of her mother, aunt and grandmother. Traditional German baking, recipes handed down through generations, and with a careful balance of sweetness, of nuts and dried fruits and buttery goodness, were a constant and a joy. After she moved to the US in 1978, and began her journey to becoming a food writer and educator, recreating those bakes, and helping others to understand and achieve fine results with her recipes, became central to her work

The ckbk team's 2024 gift guide

For this year’s ckbk gift guide, we asked members of the ckbk team to each suggest both a favourite ingredient and a kitchen gadget that would make a great gift. Of course, it goes without saying that if you are looking for a gift for a food lover, the very first thing on your shopping list should be a ckbk gift subscription. For a strictly limited time, you can pick gift subscriptions half price with our BLACKFRIDAY24 special offer. So why not order a handful and cross several gifts off your list at once?

Newsletter: 🍝 Fred Plotkin on his passion for pasta + recipes galore for Thanksgiving and Stir Up Sunday 🎄

For those of us longing to be festive, we officially announce that Christmas prep is on! In Great Britain the last Sunday before advent is Stir Up Sunday—November 24 this year. A Victorian tradition, this is the day to make those Christmas treats that need to be made well ahead—such as Christmas pudding, fruitcake, and the mincemeat for mince pies. Several weeks of maturing and being ‘fed’ regularly with spirits ensures they are at their tip top best when the time to serve them comes around.

Newsletter: Christmas with ckbk – last minute gift ideas 🎁🎄

With Christmas day fast approaching, are you still charging wildly along the high street in the hopes of finding something your sister will actually like? Leave the crowds behind, the perfect gift for any food lover in your life – is there anyone in your life that isn’t! – is at your fingertips.

Newsletter: Christmas with ckbk – everything you need to prepare for the main event 🎄

No matter how many office parties or meetups with friends and family the coming weeks hold, Christmas Day itself is central to the holiday season. And for the cook of the household that can mean a lot of work and expectation. Tip one: delegate. Tip two: take your time to look through the wealth of Christmas recipes and resources on ckbk to make your Christmas lunch a pleasure to cook and eat.

Consuming Passions: Rosewater and Orange-Flower Water

Until bullying vanilla swept them aside, the flavours of orange blossom and of roses were the UK’s favourites in both sweet and savoury food. Following vanilla’s all-conquering rise, flower waters are now comparatively rarely used in Europe and the USA (except in better restaurants from the Near and Middle East and the Indian continent). What a lot we are missing, ignoring the flavour heritage of many centuries of British cuisine that has fascinating roots…

Nick Malgieri's Foolproof Holiday Cookie Checklist

Nick Malgieri, baker and former executive pastry chef at Windows on the World, is the James Beard Award-winning author of numerous bestselling cookbooks which are now available on ckbk. With the holiday season approaching, we asked Nick to share his top tips for baking successful holiday cookies.

Newsletter: Inspiration for your holiday cooking 🎄 + new Asian cookbooks on ckbk 🍜

Does your heart sink at the number of people to cook for, and the number of meals to be cooked, at this time of year? We’re here to help you turn the marathon of Christmas cooking from a chore into a joy. Whether you need your hand held, or want to explore new recipes, we have tips, and tricks, and scrumptious dishes galore.

Christmas: Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection

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