We’re all busy – but there’s always time to sit down for some soul-soothing tea and cake, says Lisa Faulkner
Lisa Faulkner has a lot to thank Celebrity MasterChef for. Since winning the show in 2010, the former Holby City actress has carved out a successful second career as a TV cook, and released three recipe books.
The BBC One show was also where she met Australian chef John Torode, the firm-but-fair judge who eventually became her boyfriend.
“I took on three jobs at the same time as MasterChef, thinking I would only be in it for a day, and I ended up in it until the end. That was amazing in itself,” the 43-year-old says.
“It completely changed my life and I haven’t stopped cooking since. It’s been amazing, really.”
Torode – who she began dating in 2012 – is “lovely, very lovely”, according to Faulkner, who has an eight-year-old daughter, Billie, from her marriage to actor Chris Coghill.
“Somebody said, ‘So what’s it like at home when you’re both cooking?’ It’s just like we’re both cooking! It’s not like he’s going, ‘Oh, you need to do that’, or, ‘Hurry Lisa, you’ve got five minutes!’,” she adds with a laugh.
Things have been busy recently, with the release of her third cookbook, Tea & Cake.
“I wanted to do a book that was just about things that I liked, and memories of tea in days gone by when I was little – things like sandwiches and cake and tins of biscuits,” Faulkner explains.
“We run around so much and we are all crazy busy,” she adds. “We can get so caught up in everything that’s going on, and sometimes just to stop for five minutes with a cup of tea in a pot and a piece of cake, it’s like, ‘Do you know what? Everything’s actually all right’.”
Faulkner has also been collaborating with kitchen appliance makers Hotpoint, on a campaign encouraging the nation to love their kitchens and explore their cooking potential.
She is keen to stress that image isn’t everything when it comes to baking.
“If you’ve made a cake for somebody you love and there are little dents in it, or the icing falls down the cake, it’s how it tastes, who you’ve made it for and why you’ve made it that counts,” she says.
“My grandma was properly slapdash, but she was an amazing cook.”
Billie, who Faulkner adopted in 2006 when she was 15 months old, is also a keen chef.
“She loves to cook and bake, and set the table, anything to do with food, she’s well into. She likes making pastry and bread, and she loves making chicken noodle soup.
“I feel so very grateful to have her that I spend as much time as possible with her,” adds Faulkner, who was 16 when her mother Julie died of cancer. “She and I are a right little team.”
While best known for her culinary prowess these days, she hasn’t bid farewell to her acting career.
“I went for something the other day – that I didn’t get, sadly – but it was nice to go in again,” she says.
“What’s exciting for me is that I’ll only go for characters that I really want, because I have another job that I absolutely love.”
As for turning 43 earlier this year, she confesses: “I don’t feel like I’m grown up enough to be 43, I feel like a child!
“It’s weird to think that great big number is me,” the actress-turned-cook adds. “But when I look back on what I’ve done, I think, ‘God, I’ve fitted quite a lot in’.”
Fancy a sweet treat? Here are three of Faulkner’s delicious recipes to try at home.
SELF-SAUCING CHOCOLATE PUDDING
125g plain flour
Pinch of salt
60g caster sugar
2tsp baking powder
2tbsp cocoa powder
120ml milk
40g butter, melted
1 egg
1-2 drops of vanilla extract
For the topping
180g muscovado sugar
2tbsp cocoa powder
250ml boiling water
Sift the flour, salt, caster sugar, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl.
Combine the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract in another bowl, then mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Pour the mixture into a 1-litre pie dish. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge overnight to set.
The next day, preheat the oven to 180C (350F)/gas mark 4. Sprinkle the muscovado sugar and cocoa powder over the pudding and pour the boiling water over the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until the pudding is puffy and firm in the centre.
Remove from the oven and serve with pouring cream or ice cream.
CLAFOUTIS LIMOUSIN
400ml milk
150g flour
70g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
2tbsp rum (optional)
About 80g butter, for greasing
200g fresh cherries
Icing sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F)/gas mark 4.
Put the milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
To make the batter, mix the flour, sugar and salt together well, then beat in the eggs, one by one. With a spatula, incorporate the boiled milk very slowly and gently, turning the mixture rather than beating. Add the rum, if using.
Generously grease a 2cm deep, 25cm diameter baking tin with butter and add the cherries, spreading them evenly. Pour the batter over the top and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar before serving hot or cold.
EARL GREY TEA LOAF
225g raisins
225g sultanas
125g dried figs, chopped
125g glace cherries, halved
110g chopped dried apricots
1 Earl Grey tea bag
110g light muscovado sugar
110g dark muscovado sugar
Juice and zest of an orange
Butter, for greasing
110g ground almonds
1tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs, beaten
450g self-raising flour
1tsp ground mixed spice
100ml whole milk
Combine the fruits in a large, heatproof mixing bowl. Pour 300ml boiling water onto the tea bag and leave to brew for a minute or so. Discard the tea bag then dissolve the sugars in the hot tea, add the orange juice and zest, and pour over the fruit. Stir to combine, then cover and leave to soak overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 150C (300F)/gas mark 2, and grease and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Stir the ground almonds, golden syrup and beaten eggs into the soaked fruit mixture then sift in the flour and mixed spice. Stir to combine, adding the milk if the mixture seems a little stiff, then spoon into the lined tin.
Bake for two to two-and-a-quarter hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Cut into thick slices and serve spread with butter.
The first two above recipes were created by Lisa Faulkner for Hotpoint. All three are also available in her new book Tea & Cake by Lisa Faulkner, published in hardback by Simon & Schuster Ltd, priced £20