Blog | Victoria Tait

Delicious Spring Recipes from The Waterwheel Café: A Cozy Mystery Setting in the Cotswolds

February 12, 2025February 12, 2025 Victoria Tait

In Inheritance and Intrigue in the Cotswolds, Georgina and her Aunt Beanie visit The Waterwheel Café, which serves up fresh homemade fare and vibrant dishes perfect for a spring day in the Cotswolds. The Specials at The Waterwheel Café: If these dishes have made your mouth water, here’s how you can recreate them in your[…]

The Humble British Bacon Sandwich

January 9, 2025January 9, 2025 Victoria Tait

A bacon sandwich is an everyday concept in the UK, most often enjoyed at breakfast, where the bacon takes centre stage rather than being a side character. At its core, a bacon sandwich is a simple yet glorious creation: slices of bacon placed between two pieces of bread. That’s the essence, but as with many[…]

Christmas Mince Pies

December 2, 2023December 2, 2023 Victoria Tait

After I published Holly, Baubles and Murder, many of my readers emailed with wonderful memories of tasting mince pies. Others, after reading about Meg, Lord Abermarle’s cook, asked how they were made. When I was in Kenya, running my cafe and farm shop, I produced upwards of 1,000 mince pies each year, along with Christmas[…]

Thank YOU

July 4, 2023July 4, 2023 Victoria Tait

Your Click is Acknowledged

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe with Earl Grey Tea

May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 Victoria Tait

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ingredients 240 gms 8.5 ozs 2 ¼ Sticks Butter 150 gms 5.25 ozs 1 ½ Cups Brown Sugar 200 gms 7 ozs 1 ½ Cups Self Raising Flour 200 gms 7ozs 1 ¼ Cups Chocolate Chips (milk, dark white or combination) Method 1. Set the oven to 180 oC/355 oF/Gas[…]

Writers And Writing in the Lake District

August 28, 2022December 17, 2025 Victoria Tait

The Lake District, in the north-west of England, is the country’s largest national park at over 2,362 sq.km, similar in size to the Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, US. So what drew so many Victorian authors to the area? William Wordsworth The famous poet, William Wordsworth, was born and raised on the edge of[…]

Mario’s JOURNEY

June 11, 2022June 11, 2022 Victoria Tait

Mario lay in a long shaft of sunlight on the floor of the music room alcove in Windrush Hall. Using his paws, he pushed himself into a sitting position and gazed out of the French windows to the garden his mistress had created. Those had been fun times. He’d followed her outside and as she[…]

10 Facts about the Sarajevo haggadah

March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 Victoria Tait

At the beginning of March 2022, I was privileged to be part of a private guided viewing of the Sarajevo Haggadah, at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Haggadah is one of the principal treasures of the museum and is kept behind a glass door, in a sealed display case, within a climatically[…]

Chocolate Celebration Cake

March 1, 2022March 12, 2023 Victoria Tait

In Hour is Come, Dotty makes a chocolate cake for Lucas, her husband’s young son. This is the recipe for the cake including the gooey fudge icing which tends to flow over the top of the cake and drip down its sides.

Mama Rose’s Christmas Gifts

December 24, 2021December 24, 2021 Victoria Tait

“Is that everything, Kipto?” Mama Rose Hardie stood in the kitchen of her one-bedroom thatched cottage on the edge of Nanyuki, a market town in the shadow of Mount Kenya, three hours’ drive north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. In her early 60s, she was tall and thin, with a face lined from yours of working[…]

5 Interesting Facts About African Wild Dogs

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021 Victoria Tait

# Fact 1 African wild dogs are known by several names including Cape hunting dog, painted dog, or their scientific name, Lycaon pictus, which means “painted wolf”. ‘Painted’ refers to the wild dog’s dappled coat of black, brown, yellow and white fur. Each animal’s markings are unique, like a human fingerprint. # Fact 2 African[…]