Blog - Incredibusy

Online tutor help for GCSE and A-levels

28/09/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

Before lockdown and covid-related school closures, and the need for online tutor help for GCSEs, I arranged for my kids to have extra help from a local tutor.

Every week, the tutor helped both of my children with year 11 Maths and Economics GCSEs; and Maths preparation for year 10. We found this wonderful tutor via the app Tutorful, and Sevi (the tutor) lived close to us here in London. Sevi would come over for a couple of hours on a wednesday, and teach and support both boys in turn. Oh and would sometimes have supper with us too!

We are lucky to live in a London borough where the State secondary school is ‘outstanding’ yet both boys really benefitted from these weekly extra hours. The youngest teenager moved up a set in Maths as he headed into his GCSE years.

And the extra 1:1 hour a week with the tutor, helped to ‘shuffle’ the eldest teenager over the ‘pass’ line for Maths GCSE – which none of us thought was possible given that he, like me, has discalculia. Tutorful made it super easy to find a local tutor (you pop your postcode in to the search, Sevi used to cycle over after work, and the kids really enjoyed his company as well as learning LOADS).

Then along came Covid 19 and the need for online tutor help for GCSEs

Then two years later – along came the Coronavirus. Schools shut, and online learning began. The A’level “online classroom” study for the eldest was a real struggle – (because, dyslexia, concentration, distractions, his bed, his cat… and so on). Although only having three subjects to focus on, which he found easier than the multitude of GCSE options, that focus, and his homework, drifted.

From Primary to A’level

So once again, we turned to tutorful – and found two brilliant online tutors for him – one specialised in History and Politics, the other in Philosophy. If anything, the lockdown made it easier to find the RIGHT 1:1 tutors for A’level support as the net could be cast wider – no longer limited to the couple of miles radius we’d used for the search for GCSE help – with the online tutor help for GCSEs and A’levels that tutorful had quickly adapted for their app, we could literally search the entire country for A’level experts!

He’s now safely ensconsed in University life, and I would say that extra support we, and tutorful, gave him helped to secure a place at a good University (and yes, they do check to see what GCSE grades you have when considering offers.) His History & Politics tutor went above and beyond the call of duty and helped his with his ‘personal statement’ too – I loved that she was a recent graduate herself, which really made her lessons fun and relatable for my son.

And now we are doing the same again, as our youngest son heads into the lower sixth, we are booking some History A-level top-up lessons for him with tutorful too.

Try tutorful for yourself

If you too wanted to give tutorful a try, need online tutor help for GCSEs, or any other stage of the game; I would highly recommend tutorful, you can browse here and compare literally hundreds of tutors, filtering by qualification, subject speciality, and price. You can check over the tutor’s profile, to find out about their experience, and read the reviews.

click here to get started, and do message me if you’d like to ask me, or my youngest, any questions about our own experience. Four years down the line, we think this is a brilliant website, and a great top-up of 1:1 support for your kids, whether state or fee-paying, from primary to A’level.

#ad – This post is written in collaboration with Tutorful, as a family we have been using the service for over four years, and highly recommend them.

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Electric Vehicles, BMW, Goodwood Festival of Speed

28/07/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

We were recently invited to a day at the Goodwood Festival of Speed as guests of BMW, to talk all things Electric Cars – Electric Vehicles (EV). Not a lot of people know this, but in an earlier life I was a bit of a petrol head. My first cool car was a 1970’s red BMW 2002 – the cutest classic car – similar shape to the orange 1972 Electric Car from BMW which you can see in these photos.

With the UK government’s commitment to phase out petrol cars by 2030, I’m so interested in the evolution of the electric car.

So I was lucky enough to spend some time with the BMW UK team in their Electric Boulevard at Goodwood Festival of Speed, for a good look at their new i4. This is a fully electric car, produced in Germany. We talked ‘range anxiety’ – the i4 can travel up to 365 miles on one charge (so yes, I’ll make it to Manchester… see the YouTube video for reference) and WHERE and when you can charge your EV. Charging in the evenings, or using excess energy created by sunny days.

Chatting to Jodie Kidd

Chatting to Jodie Kidd in the BMW i3

I met up with Jodie Kidd, and we sat in the BMW i3, fully electric, and chatted about Formula E race series, the interior design, utilising recycled plastics, and sustainably sourced wooden dashboards – and how BMW are experimenting with vegan leather alternatives made from olives!

I’ve downloaded an app https://www.zap-map.com/ which searched for charge points, and helps you to plan longer electric journeys.

Many hotels and holiday homes now offer off-street charging as part of their service, Middlewick Holiday Cottages in Glastonbury for example (bring your own charging cable).

On-street charging points

And I’ve been looking into options locally, my borough Merton is a little behind Wandsworth who are working with Source London and Siemens to grow their network of charging points.

Wandsworth are for example, rolling out Lamp column charging (lamp-posts to you and I) which is installed and maintained by Siemens under contract to the council. Siemens have teamed up with Ubitricity to provide slow charging on residential streets, making it ideal for overnight charging. More details are on the Ubitricity website.

Low-emission vehicles eligible for a plug-in grant

To be eligible for the grant, cars must cost less than £35,000. This is the recommended retail price (RRP), and includes VAT and delivery fees.

The grant will pay for 35% of the purchase price for these vehicles, up to a maximum of £2,500.

You can get a discount on the price of brand new low-emission vehicles through a grant the government gives to vehicle dealerships and manufacturers.

You do not need to do anything if you want to buy one of these vehicles – the dealer will include the value of the grant in the vehicle’s price.

What’s next for the Electric Car

I’d be interested to find out more about how challenging EVs will be to the National Grid, and how the 35% of us with no off-street parking will get around the charging at home (which ultimately will be cheaper, and easier than tracking down a working charging point). I guess we have a few years to figure this out.

This article was written following a collaboration with BMW on my social media here.

Career Change Ideas – Chef? Check out the Cook’s Certificate Course

19/07/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

Has this last eighteen months had you considering a Career Change? Looking for ideas – How about a Chef? Check out the Cook’s Certificate Course at Cookery School at Little Portland Street, London.

Faraj in the Kitchen, photo by Dani Oliver

As you may, (or may not?) know, I am both an educator, and social media marketing consultant – I wanted to tell you more about a recent client @cookeryschoollondon.

Recent graduates

Some of you may recall that my eldest son has recently graduated from their coveted Cook’s Certificate Course, at their teaching kitchens in Little Portland Street, London.

The students spend six intensive weeks (and believe me – they are INTENSIVE) learning the trade, and come away with several qualifications – including OCN Level 3 certification,WSET (wine) WINE AND SPIRIT EDUCATION TRUST Level 2 Award, Level 2 Food Safety certificate and Sustainable Kitchen OCN Level 1 accreditation.

If you’d like to hear about the success story of one of their amazing students, click here, as I recently interviewed the founder of Cambridge-based Faraj’s Kitchen over on Cookery School’s blog – such an inspiration, Faraj is a refugee from Aleppo, Syria.

So if you are considering some Career Change Ideas – perhaps a Chef? or have surprised yourself with the delights of cooking at home this last 18 months, this is the course for you.

The next six week course commences September, the class size is small (maximum 12 people), and of course Covid-secure, and numbers are limited, so be quick, click link HERE – with thanks to Dan Lepard (guest teacher) and @sarahinthekitchen_ (recent Cook’s Certificate graduate) for providing content for this REEL (click here to watch).

If you would like to hear more on sustainability in the 2020s, please sign up for our newsletter here.

Vegan sneakers, 3D product display

07/07/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

After many years working with ethical shoe designer Sven Segal, I will always be interested to find out about new shoes, and new technology – particularly vegan sneakers. The idea of marketing of this sustainable footwear, with movement and interactivity, competing with the bigger players via 3D product display. Only this week instagram announced changes to their platform, with the focus more on movement and video. I got chatting with Tim Flynn and Marc Adamson at All Axis who kindly created this fun 3D interactive rotation of my new shoes from Flamingos’ Life – I’ve also added a couple of recent photos of me wearing said trainers, very comfy and stylish.

But look how good they look in 360 degrees rotation!

Flamingos’ Life

Vegan sneakers handmade in Spain. Made with corn waste and bamboo, as of 6 July 2021 they have planted 160,638 trees and collected 11,081 kilograms of plastic. Find out more about these Vegan sneakers here: www.en.flamingoslife.com

Marc writes: Who are All Axis?

We are All Axis: a core team of three, with a diverse background ranging from programming, film making, customer relations and more.

A few years ago, after dabbling with 360 photography in between freelance jobs, I realised the potential of enabling customers to interact with products and rotate them in 3D space. But there were also some substantial limitations.

So I set out to build a system that could eliminate the shortcomings. I was eventually joined by Tim, my long friend from high school and then Dawid, our CTO extraordinaire.

What do we do?

We provide a one stop solution for users to display 3D photos of their products online.

What sets us apart from the rest relates to what I like to call the three tenets of 3D product display. All Axis spins uniquely excel in all three for the following areas:

Life-like depiction of texture and detail

Maximum interactivity (being able to view a product from every angle)

Fast loading speed

All Axis 3D photographs are instantly interactive, enable a user to freely rotate a product in any direction and provide a completely faithful representation of detail, texture and form. This is achieved by a combination of photographic image capture & automated post processing. The result is displayed online with our cloud based All Axis viewer.

Our customers find that All Axis 3D photos significantly increase user engagement & conversion rates as well as reduce returns.

Who have we worked with so far?

When the time came to test our solution, given our shared passion for reducing waste and minimizing environmental impact, we approached a number of brands in the sustainability space. Some of our early adopters include Baabuk, Po-Zu (a previous long-term Vegan sneakers client of Ali’s – now under new ownership), & Etiko, to name a few. The results so far have exceeded our expectations. While testing the All Axis 3D photo with their flagship product, Baabuk almost doubled their average time spent on page. (pictured below – Ali loves these slippers too!)

The impact on conversion rates has also been remarkable, with increases of up to 78%.

As our capacity increases, we are looking to take on more customers & we have some incredibly exciting brands lined up for the coming weeks and months.

The next six months

Being a customer-centered early stage business, we are focused on making each and every customer fall in love with our product. As such we are constantly gathering data and feedback from users to better understand how to make our product the best it can possibly be.

We have had interest from a number of larger brands who want the ability to use our image capture system in-house, in order to better handle larger volumes of SKUs, so we are working hard to make this a reality.

“As we grow our ambition is to be able to join the list of B-certified companies and be the first in our industry to do so.We would like to become the new standard in online product display, and in the process make shopping more efficient, and of course, have fun doing it!”

Thank you Marc and Tim for sharing this innovation, and for making the interactive graphic for me – hope you have fun playing with it!

If you would like to hear more on sustainability in the 2020s, please sign up for our newsletter here.

Recycling your cat food pouches Terracycle

10/06/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

Let’s face it, some cats are just plain fussy, and some of us can’t run to the extra expense of organic tinned pet food.
So chances are as a pet owner, you will inevitably find that you will have in your possession some cat food pouches and pondering the environmental impact of putting these in the bin once empty. Landfill is so last year – we need to cut back on what we are consuming, and rethink how we are disposing of our ‘waste’.

Did you know that you can recycle your cat food pouches with terracycle?

Think on however, as both the plasticky cat food pouched and cat treat pouches can indeed be recycled with the help of the ever wonderful Terracycle – you just search here https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/petfood for you local Terracycle drop-off, wash and dry the pet food packaging, drop off – and Terracycle will do the rest.

We are fortunate that our local council do pick up cat food tins in our own roadside recycling boxes, however, Kipper really loves a cat treat – Dreamies – the kids love treating him a couple of times a month too – so inevitably we have the plastic pouches to get rid of too, and I can’t face putting them in the bin, hence this is where Terracycle comes in for us! Locally to us, Mitcham Cats Protection collects for Terracycle.

Once collected by Terracycle from the designated drop off points, the plastic pet food packaging are sorted, shredded and washed. Food residue is composted (but honestly, it’s just good manners to wash and dry the pet food/ pet treach pouches before you send them off. The material is then densified into hard-granulated plastic granules by Terracycle. The granules are then extruded so they can be incorporated into the production of different plastic products such as new fence posts and reformed benches.

Why not get together with neighbours who are also looking at recycling their cat food pouches, or coffee pouches, like Hasbean coffees, Terracycle is a great service!

Mitcham Cats Protection would really love your support and help in sharing their fundraiser/photo competition if you can please. Details can be found on their Facebook page or on Just Giving at:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mitcham-homing-centre6

Feel free to enter as many times as you like and to share with fellow cat lovers who love nothing more than showing other people photos of their furtastic felines!

About Cats Protection

Cats Protection is the UK’s leading feline welfare charity. They help around 200,000 cats and kittens every year through their network of 250 volunteer-run branches over 30 centres. They find homes for cats, promote the benefits of neutering and produce a wide range of cat care information for owners.

Lucky Kipper has his own instagram HIGHLIGHTS saved on my @incredibusy feed. So be sure to follow for more feline news.

Treedom and World Environment Day

04/06/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

Treedom are celebrating World Environment Day and has launched a limited-edition collection of five sustainable trees to purchase online.

Did you know it’s World Environment Day on Saturday 5^th June 2021? To celebrate this eco-friendly day and promote ways we can look after our planet, Treedom, a sustainable company all about giving our loved ones trees as gifts, saving the planet and giving back, has launched a limited-edition collection of five sustainable trees that anyone can purchase online from World Environment Day 2021, until Monday 14^th June. Their new collection includes Lime, Baobab, Avocado, Coffee and Tephrosia Trees, which are all special in their own right and give back to their communities in different and inspiring ways.

Buying just one of these specifically selected trees means you can not only directly contribute to reducing CO2 but also help give back to the communities that they are planted in and help achieve many of the Sustainability Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. The Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) act as a call to action to end poverty, tackle climate change, improve health, education and reduce inequality. You can read more about the UN’s goals here.

To bring them to life, Treedom has collaborated for World Environment Day, with talented illustrator @kiracyan.design to highlight each specific goal that each tree directly contributes to:

Treedom is a unique company promoting sustainability and community through the act of gifting trees. They provide information on each tree’s unique powers in relation to reducing CO2 and providing food security, economic development and environmental protection. In purchasing a tree, you can follow its growth and get detailed updates on how it gives back to the community in which it was planted, on World Environment Day and beyond.

Every tree on Treedom is geo-localized, photographed and has its own online page. They are great as gifts in which you can dedicate a tree to a loved one and even name it after them or keep the experience for yourself and enjoy tracking its growth and journey from the nurseries to the field and beyond! Whichever way you choose to experience Treedom, it’s a unique and worthwhile experience in helping the earth and its communities.

With each tree planted, Treedom directly give the fruits back to their farmers to help build their income and support their families. Since its foundation in 2010 in Florence, 2 million trees have been planted in Africa, South America and Italy. All trees are planted directly by local farmers and bring environmental, social and financial benefits to their communities. To date, Treedom have worked in 17 countries supporting countless farmers, communities, and ultimately the environment!

Celebrate World Environment Day with Treedom and purchase your own tree here.

This has been a collaborative post, with Treedom.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, you may also like to read about Peat-Free Compost here.

How to remix reels, a duet on instagram

17/04/2021 By Ali Clifford 2 Comments

I’ve been dabbling with REELS for a while now, not particularly committed to doing these regularly, however, I have noticed a marked increase in views of my @incredibusy instagram feed when I’ve dabbled – so have a go!

Meanwhile, just to confuse us all, instagram have introduced ‘ REMIX’ – so if you particularly enjoy someone’s 15-30 seconds dance moves, you can ‘REMIX this REEL’ to make a duet, basically a new REEL with your own REEL showing up adjacent to the existing REEL!

If this makes no sense at all, please watch this video tutorial.

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Hopefully the captions will be automatically generated so that you can join in and have some fun.

As with most social media apps, instagram is always evolving, some things are worth playing with for a bit of fun, others, just too time consuming to do more than once, but as so many of you asked how to do this I thought I’d dash it down on a post, and make a video to embed… enjoy.

If you’d like to know more about how social media works, or fancy a bit of one-to-one training with me, give me a shout via email hello@aliclifford.co.uk or DM me on @incredibusy or @sogoodineveryway, my two main instagram accounts.

If you’d like to have a go at a duet with one of my REELS, once you’ve followed my video ‘how to’ click here, and don’t forget to tag me so that I can share!

how to make a remix of reels in instagram like a tiktok duet

New #sgiew project = #sgiew_SpringForward

16/04/2021 By Ali Clifford Leave a Comment

Spring is here, it’s Earth Month, and we have a new photo theme (AND EPIC PRIZES) for @SoGoodInEveryWay (#sgiew in acronym form) if you would like to join the fun on instagram, the hashtag to use is #sgiew_SpringForward.

This theme, #sgiew_SpringForward, will be live for two weeks (until May the 4th 2021). The idea for this theme prompt came from our wonderful guest host, Atia @TheBrightBlooms – as we look forward to moving out of lockdown we are reflecting on the time we have spent at home, and things we may have enjoyed – and we hope that our choice of prizes will inspire you to join in.

We have a pair of ethically sourced slippers from 1. Tanri, (we’ve all been wearing a lot of indoor shoes!).
A litter picker from 2. Water Haul, (made from recycled ocean plastics). 3. A box of plastic-free, sustainably sourced coffee from bluecoffeebox. 4. A selection of beautiful hand embroidered cards from Sarah Becvar so that you can carry on your correspondance with friends and family. 5. Some organic skincare (£30 to spend) from Shea Butter Cottage to help you to look after yourself. 6. A gorgeous peat-free large Monstera 23cm house plant from Harriet’s Plants (worth £40) – we’ve ALL been embracing the plants right??
So in keeping with that, 7. lovely plant-themed embroidery kit from Nicki Franklin, plant design and an embroidery toolkit (needles/hoop/scissors) – a new skill🧵!
8. And a gift set of natural soap, soap dish and nail scrubber for those hard-working hands from Castaway Scotland (worth £20).
9. Planet Organic are giving you an additional 15% saving across all their Planet Organic shopping using this link and the code GREEN15 until the end of May, and a bundle of organic, plastic-free goodies too.

The Rules

The rules are simple, follow @incredibusy and @SoGoodInEveryWay, and @TheBrightBlooms instagram accounts, and any of the PARTICIPATING eight prize giver accounts that you like the look of – and don’t forget to add #sgiew_SpringForward on your photos before the end of April, we want to see your celebration of spring, and what you may be doing to gently get back into real life post-lockdown – with a nod to what you’ve enjoyed during these last 13 months of flux – walking, eating, house planting, litter picking! Show us with the hashtag #sgiew_SpringForward.

BONUS PRIZE

Earth Day is the 22nd April so we will have a bonus prize if you tag @SoGoodInEveryWay on that day with #sgiew_SpringForward.

Atia @TheBrightBlooms has the most amazing instagram account(s) do check her out, give her a follow and say ‘hi’ and here’s the list of our fabulous prize givers too – so far EIGHT prizes for EIGHT lucky people who will win prizes from:

Prize givers

@tanri.live 100% merino wool, artisanal and eco-friendly slippers for your home & office created in Central Asia

@WaterHaul_co Intercepted from oceans. Redesigned for adventure. Eyewear and outdoors equipment made from 100% recycled fishing nets

@bluecoffeebox sustainably sourced, plastic-free coffee box

@sarahbecvardesign – Textile artist specialising in freehand machine embroidery

@sheabuttercottage multi award winning organic/vegan beauty with ethical + fair trade values.

Harriets-Plants-Harriet-herself — @Harriets.plants Grower~Indoor plant specialist. 🌴The only peat free commercial houseplant grower in the UK

@nickifranklin_needlework The Stitchery. Hand-embroidery subscriptions and kits and online tutorials.

@castawayscotland Handmade Scottish Soaps, Drawings & Accessories

@planetorganic Planet Organic Nut Butter and Vegan Truffles.

If you or a small business you know, would like to be a prize giver, please contact Ali Clifford at hello@aliclifford.co.uk
details here. The hashtag to use is #sgiew_SpringForward if you would like to join the instagram fun.

With thanks to my #sgiew_SpringForward co-host Atia https://thebrightblooms.com/ for collaborating and helping me to source these Earth Month prizes.

Harriet’s peat-free house plants

07/04/2021 By Ali Clifford 1 Comment

House plants are so on trend right now, but have you ever asked yourself ‘are these peat-free?’

During “Lockdown”, the whole world seemed to go house plant mad. Our desire to reconnect with nature, and to nuture another living thing, while many of us were isolated, went into overdrive. Today we caught up with Harriet Thompson the founder of Harriet’s Plants to talk about all things greenery and her peat-free plants.

Peat-based products are costing the Earth

For a woman selling the plants, the rise in house plants sales is wonderful!

It means that more people are understanding and appreciating the amazing power of plants to enrich our lives. However, Harriet is more than a seller of plants, all of her peat-free house plants are grown by herself in her glasshouse in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

She is the first and only commercial peat-free houseplant grower in the UK and being peat-free is hugely important to her and the business.

For those new to gardening, peat isn’t something we’ve perhaps ever really thought about. It’s just compost, right?

No, it turns out that keeping peat where it belongs in peat bogs is a huge ally in the fight against climate change. Peat stores massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and when it is harvested, that carbon is then released. The link to read more about why she is peat free is as follows; https://www.harrietsplants.co.uk/blog

So how did Harriet get so passionate about peat?

Harriet didn’t always want to grow houseplants. In fact the self-confessed “naughty school girl” didn’t really know what she wanted to do at all. She was always drawn to nature and mused about being a farmer’s daughter when she was little. However, growing up in the Midlands she also longed for adventure. In her early twenties she travelled the globe and it was a chance job in a café in Tasmania that set her on her amazing journey into the fascinating world of horticulture.

The café owner was also a Peony Farmer and at the age of 23, Harriet had caught the ‘growing bug’.

Returning to the UK

Soon after her visa ran out forcing her return to the UK. Harriet brought the appetite for growing with her and enrolled in a horticulture degree at the Eden Project in Cornwall. When asked what she wanted to achieve after the degree she initially thought she would grow vegetables and solve world hunger – she’s that kind of awesome.

During her time in Cornwall she got to work in some of the most beautiful gardens in the UK including Chelsea Physic garden, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Eden Project and Tregoose. She now offers her gardening services to areas in and around Lichfield, Staffordshire.

During her studies she supported herself financially running little pop-up shops selling house plants and Harriet’s Plants was born. With no formal business background, at first it was a simple case of buying and selling houseplants. However, it was in these early days that she saw a gap in the market. After learning about the detrimental effect of harvesting peat, she was keen to buy peat-free. But there were simply no peat free growers of houseplants anywhere in the UK. In fact the majority of houseplants were grown outside of the UK and this didn’t sit well with environmentally aware Harriet. Even at the smallest scale of business she wanted to be as sustainable as possible.

Following her studies in 2018 she returned back home to her family in Staffordshire to set up her greenhouse in Lichfield. She knew she wanted to be a completely sustainable business and it’s been a huge learning curve for her to really see and live the sustainable life.

Her ambition is to be 100% self-grown from seed or propagated from her existing plants thus reducing unnecessary transportation. She is currently in the process of planting 100,000 seeds in the glasshouse which is a HUGE task in itself.

Plastic-free

All of her packaging is 100% biodegradable and of course she is also peat free. Many of her peat-free house plants are grown and sold in coir pots. Where she does use plastic it is recycled from other businesses waste. It is important to her that Harriet’s Plants is the number one place to go to for sustainable, plastic free and peat free house plants.

Harriet is active on instagram and now uses her growing platform to educate more people on how to grow in a sustainable way. She posts tips and tricks to grow at home. This inspiring female founder is on a mission to be the largest sustainable and peat free commercial house plant grower in the UK.

Moving to peat-free wholesale

Now at a level where she can sell wholesale she is changing how the UK buys and grows houseplants one plant at a time. Harriet’s Plant’s has already achieved an unrivalled reputation for quality sustainable houseplants and has caught the attention of leading industry figures.

When lockdown is lifted Harriet is most looking forward to opening her greenhouse to the public. This will mean that she can run workshops and also to get on the road and meet new people at fairs up and down the country.

Until then she is focussed on growing and gardening. You can find out more about Harriet on her website www.harrietsplants.co.uk or follow her on instagram @harriets.plants

EARTH MONTH GIVEAWAY

If you would like a chance to WIN a couple of peat free house plants from Harriet, please sign up for our newsletter here.

PETITION

The Wildlife Trusts have a petition running currently, if you would like to sign click here to call upon Rebecca Pow, Environment Minister, and Lord Goldsmith, Minister for International Environment & Climate to act at once to progress a ban on peat-based products in shops.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, you may also like this one.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake recipe

23/03/2021 By Ali Clifford 1 Comment

I went hunting for a Lemon and Poppy Seed cake recipe, having had a request from a hungry teenager for a ‘cake with poppy seeds in it’. I found several Orange and Poppy Seed cake recipes online, including the famous Nigel Slater recipe (recommended to me by Anna Koska during our interview earlier this month).

Lemon-Poppy-Seed-Cake-recipe-incredibusy

However, I couldn’t find an easy bake option, too many syrups, confits, and processes to follow, and it had to be Lemon and Poppy Seed cake (as we had no oranges on the fruit bowl, and like many of you, we are avoiding visiting shops on a whim at the mo).

Lemon and poppy seed cake recipe, makes two: one to eat, one for instagram

So I dug out an old recipe favourite of ours, a lemon drizzle cake with almonds, if you visit the KidsChaos blog, you’ll see HOW long ago we wrote that one up! Links to this, and the Nigel Slater recipe later, I don’t want to distract you from the epic recipe I’ve hashed together (and tried several times for you, to make sure it works!).

So here are your ingredients:

Lemon-and-Poppy-Seed-Cake-recipe-incredibusy

🍋 Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake 🍋
(makes two; one large cake to eat, and one to photograph!)

350g Fairtrade caster sugar
350g organic butter
2 unwaxed lemons
6 free range eggs
200g self-raising flour
150g ground almonds (OMIT if allergies)
30g poppy seeds
Icing sugar to decorate

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 180C/160C fan.
Line two loaf tins with unbleached parchment paper.
Beat together the caster sugar and the butter, and the finely grated zest of two unwaxed lemons.
Add a pinch of salt and beat in the eggs one at a time.
Sieve the self raising flour and fold in, add the ground almonds and 30g poppy seeds. (again, not essential if there’s a nut allergy in the house)
Pour into your lined tins.
Bake in the oven for about 40 mins, until your knife pulls out dry when you test it.
Leave it in the tin to cool, then ice accordingly.

Decorating the cake

Whilst the cakes are baking, we like to mix some sifted icing sugar with a small amount of the lemon juice until it makes a thick silky paste. When the cake is fully cool, drizzle the icing across the cake in zig zags…

Top Tip – don’t make the icing too runny or it won’t have the strong visual effect you’re looking for.

Dust lightly with icing sugar (use a small icing sugar sieve or shaker). Not too much, you don’t want to hide those zig zag lines! (see example at foot of this post of heavy handed teenage use of icing sugar… that’s the ‘eat now’ cake not meant for photographing…)

Lemon-and-Poppy-Seed-Cake-recipe-Ali-Clifford-packs

If you’ve a spare lemon, grate some of the zest over the cake, so that the delightful lemony-yellow confetti adds some joy to your cakes.

Oh have fun, enjoy, and if your lemon and poppy seed cake doesn’t all get eaten in one go, it will last for a few days in an airtight tin.

Original recipe adapted from the incredibusy teenagers over on https://kidschaos.com/lemon-drizzle-cake-ground-almonds/

Nigel Slater’s orange and poppy seed cake recipe appeared in The Guardian here.

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