A big slab of lush, chocolate heaven with a velvety crumb and mascarpone icing, and just made for sharing and showing off

I almost never say no to chocolate cake. I’m a sucker for them all, from super-fudgy, flourless ones to intensely dark torte s. But this is the chocolate cake I’ll make for a crowd. It’s an easy, one-bowl bake with a velvety crumb and a milk chocolate mascarpone frosting that brings a luscious, creamy texture. Casual yet decadent.

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A grilled salad of onions and shallots with boiled eggs and tarragon yoghurt, and a hearty chive and challah bread pudding

It’s the oldest trick in the book: get some onions and garlic on the stove, cook them until they’re smelling lovely, and everyone will assume that dinner is just around the corner. One way to fast-track that process is to make those alliums the stars of the show, rather than just a background note. From shallots to spring onions and chives to calçots, onions and garlic are just two players in the vast and varied allium family. Unlike other vegetables, alliums accumulate energy stores in chains of fructose sugars, rather than starch, and cooking transforms them from harsh to super-soft and sweet. So, instead of making everyone think of supper, think of onions themselves as supper!

Beetroot leaves are nutritious, thrifty and work brilliantly mixed into a hash with other leftover vegetables. Just top with a fried egg and away you go …

Hash is a clever way to use up the day before’s leftovers, because almost any combination of chopped meat and vegetables, all fried together and topped with a fried egg, is scrumptious. I’ve focused today’s recipe around a whole beetroot, including its leaves, which are even more nutritious than the root itself, full of vitamins A, B6, C and K, and rich in iron, magnesium and potassium.

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Rich, crisp, complex, decadent – and no pastry in sight!

There’s a pub in east London that serves one of my favourite ever desserts. The Marksman ’s brown butter and honey tart is rich, crisp and full of depth – everything you could ever want from a sweet tart. Here, I’ve tried to recreate its flavour in the form of custard pots to serve at the end of dinner with an elegant grating of good-quality dark chocolate.

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Egg cartons are labeled with all sorts of descriptors, making grocery shopping a confusing experience. Experts tell us what these labels mean and how to shop

Shopping for eggs at the grocery store can be a confusing experience. Cartons are labeled with all kinds of descriptors – natural, organic, cage-free, free-range – and some cost more at checkout. But what do they actually mean, and for ethically minded consumers, are they actually worth the money?

Protein-packed eggs are linked to relatively low carbon emissions compared with other land-based animal protein sources, but not all eggs are created equal when it comes to the environment, health or animal welfare, experts say.

Golden fried boiled eggs in a salty-sour curry sauce with a crunchy toasted coconut topping, and Thai baked chicken in a coconut sambal sauce

Thai New Year, or Songkran , is celebrated next weekend. Traditionally, water symbolises happiness and purity across the kingdom, and the festivities culminate in a huge nationwide water fight. If there’s an end-of-festival tradition more delightfully fun than this, I’m not sure what it is. I’d love to be in Thailand myself one year, water pistol in tow, but for now, I’ll be in the kitchen having almost as much fun. I’ll also certainly be staying dry while paying homage to the end of one year and the start of the next.

Brown bananas make a toffee-like curd to spread on toast or to eat straight from the jar

My research for this column leads to all sorts of tasty discoveries, some of which become firm family favourites. Today’s recipe is one of these: it takes just minutes to make a big jar full of curd and it tastes heavenly – like a gooey, rich, banana-flavoured dulce de leche . I often eat it straight from the jar, or as a yoghurt-topper, or warm and spread on toast, or drizzled over last week’s brown sugar pavlova , which is a great way to use up whole eggs in one dish, because the whites go into the pavlova and the yolks into the curd. The two are then reunited in an elaborate mess of meringue, curd, whipped cream, flambeed bananas, toasted coconut and date syrup (all of which are optional and/or to taste).

Enlarge / Chicken eggs are disposed of at a quarantined farm with bird flu in Israel's northern village of Margaliot on January 3, 2022. (credit: Getty | JALAA MAREY )

The flare-up of highly pathogenic bird flu continues to widen in US livestock after federal officials confirmed last week that the virus has spread to US cows for the first time. The virus has now been detected in dairy cows in at least five states , a single person in Texas exposed to infected cows, and an egg farm in Texas, all spurring yet more intense monitoring and biosecurity vigilance as the situation continues to evolve.

As of Tuesday, seven dairy herds in Texas, two in Kansas, and one each in Idaho, Michigan, and New Mexico had tested positive for the virus. The affected dairy herd in Michigan had recently received cows from one of the infected herds in Texas. It remains unclear if there is cow-to-cow transmission of the flu virus.

The virus—a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza or HPAI—has been devastating wild birds worldwide for the past several years. Throughout the devastating outbreak, the flu virus has spilled over to various species , including big cats in zoos, river otters, bears, dolphins, seals, squirrels, and foxes. While cows were an unexpected addition to the list, federal officials noted last week that affected dairy farms had found dead wild birds on their farms, suggesting that wild birds introduced the virus to the cows, not an intermediate host.

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A fresh take on seasonal favourites adds Middle Eastern spice and cleverly accommodates leftover hot cross buns for afters

The daffodils are out, parading their annual magnificence, and I can’t help but be enchanted by the beauty of spring. While I’m not religious, I also can’t help but revel in the festivities of Easter. Eggs, lamb and hot cross buns are all traditional, but these fuss-free recipes give them a new lease of life. Buy in some flatbreads and pickles to serve alongside the meat, so you aren’t stuck in the kitchen for the whole day. After all, there are more important things to do – such as hunting for chocolate eggs!