The mighty annual office bakeoff. Competition fierce…always has been, always will be and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Hashtag game on!

Oh yes! While I’m busy Googling ‘re-purpose’ options for my batch of timer traumatized chocolate brownies, they in their frilly aprons with matching china bowls and candy stripe cupcake papers will be comparing the fruits of their labours to their Donna Hays with smug smiles of satisfaction.

Uh huh! The fabulous five (my gorgeous colleagues), between moving house, dance, gym, soccer runs and end of year school mayhem, still somehow find the time to knock up exquisitely presented, scrumptious fare that would make Adriano Zumbo blanche. Oh the pressure!

Time to put ’em in their place I mutter while wiping the sticky (but glossy) meringue massacre splatter of my new attempt off the kitchen walls. With what’s left in the bowl I will impress. Oh yes I will. After I dissolve this glob attached to my brow. And pour a large wine. And Google a substitute for white vinegar. I want my Mom.

Here’s the result. And the recipe. And you will need a BIG bowl. For the mix not your wine. And probably one of those MixMasters my colleagues are so fond of rather than hand held beaters.

Caramel Filled Pistachio Meringues

Need:
• 4 free range egg whites
• 220g caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons corn flour
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 40g pistachios, roughly chopped

• For filling – caramel in a can

Do:
• Preheat fan forced oven to 140 degrees centigrade (160c conventional/gas2-3)
• Line 3 baking sheets with baking paper
• Put egg whites in clean, grease free bowl and using stand electric mixer or electric hand held mixer, beat them until soft peaks form
• Gradually add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each edition. Whisk until mixture is smooth and glossy
• Fold in the cornflour, vinegar and 3/4 of the pistachios
• Put mixture in piping bag with no tube (or glad bag with corner snipped off)
• Pipe small rounds onto the prepared trays, allowing a little room for expansion, and sprinkle the remaining pistachio
• Reduce oven temperature to 130c (150c conventional/gas 2) and bake for 40 minutes
• Turn off oven and leave meringues inside to cool completely
• Scoop caramel out of tin whisking briefly to soften it then use it to sandwich meringues together

Serve: 

Pile on a platter and present.

PS: After the collective outcomes were presented, Instagrammed and consumed amidst deep sighs of sugar high, the vote was in. Hard to top a magnificent raspberry stuffed brownie topped with shards of white chocolate and dried raspberries thought I, as I graciously smiled at the winner punching the air with glee. A worthy adversary that Maree. But you just wait sweet pea! I’ve 11 months to perfect a perfect comeback…now somebody buy me a goddamned MixMaster?

Hi, there lovely readers. Let me put you in the scene… I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, freshly plucked sweet crimson cherries in hand, gazing at sun sparkles shimmering across a breathtakingly azure ocean and clear blue sky, and squinting to identify where the two actually meet. Grappa impaired vision.

The small terra cotta and mustard hued fishing village surrounded by heavy grape vines and silvery olive trees below looks to relinquish its tenuous grip on the valley and tumble into that ocean. A number of villas actually did in the Autumn of 2011 when flash flooding tore through the township consuming everything in its path to the sea. You’d never know it today though. Stoic folk these Ligurians…good thing that Grappa.

Behind me, nestling beneath a burgeoning Cherry tree, sits il Ciliegio (‘il Ciliegio’ translates to ‘the cherry tree’), a quaint little restaurant lovingly tended by a welcoming family who’ve just taught me how to cook five delectable Ligurian dishes. Each course consumed with great gusto and washed down with Prosecco, Frascati, Chianti, Sciacchetra (a delicate sweet wine from the region) and finished with a rich espresso….and Grappa.

As the last sediment of city deadline driven tension dissolves I smile and whisper to myself…’girlfriend you’ve made it!’ The Italian Riviera. The Cinque Terre. Monterosso al Mare…your new home! My gracious hosts are chortling for I’m also squealing ‘bello! magnifico! splendido!’ Damn Grappa mouth. Here’s one of those recipes…Grappa optional!

Tiramisu (the Ligurian way)

Need:

500g mascarpone cheese
4 eggs
Zest – thick strips of the surface of one lemon
4 tablespoons sugar
Coffee
Savoyard (lady finger) biscuits
Cocoa or shaved dark chocolate for dusting

Do:

• Separate eggs
• Beat the 4 yolks with the sugar and strips of lemon zest until light and fluffy (the zest removes the ‘eggy’ taste, remove it and discard after beating)
• Add mascarpone and incorporate well
• Beat egg whites until soft peaks form
• Fold egg whites into the mix, stir gently
• Prepare strong black coffee
• Reserve six of the Savoyard biscuits
• Break two Savoyard fingers each into the bottom of six individual glasses
• Soak the biscuit in each glass with two tablespoons of coffee
• Top with the mascarpone cream
• Liberally dust with cocoa or shards of dark chocolate
• Insert the remaining Savoyard finger
• Serve with espresso and dessert liqueur of choice.

Grappa – an alcoholic beverage, fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume. (Wikipedia) Damn Grappa!

From Flu, Free Themes & Foodie Finds… to Wander Away

“Career specialist, aspiring writer, foodie, traveller and retail therapist; lover of gadgets, mango daiquiris and sourcing the perfect downtown nosh.”

Well, hello 2011 Jane.

That’s how I introduced myself when Indulge Divulge first ventured somewhat tentatively onto the internet fifteen years ago.

The blog itself was created while I was wallowing in bed recuperating from the flu, armed with a laptop, a free WordPress theme and apparently far more confidence in my technical abilities than was entirely justified.

Its purpose was simple: document an impending six-week European adventure with my besties and share the journey with friends and family back home.

How hard could this blogging business possibly be?

Ahem.

That first little site was entirely self-taught, self-hosted, and, in places, undoubtedly held together by the digital equivalent of sticky tape. But it worked. We travelled. I wrote. People read.

And somewhere along the way, I caught another bug – thankfully far more persistent than the flu.

I fell in love with writing.

Back then, Indulge Divulge was my “little scrapbook of inspirational finds and lifestyle enhancements.” Career advice sat happily alongside décor, foodie discoveries, inspiration, personal musings, travel adventures and the occasional epic fail.

In other words, I wrote about whatever delighted, intrigued or amused me.

And, truth be told, I still do.

A small lifetime ago…2011

But over fifteen years, hundreds of posts, countless photographs and now four different blog themes, something gradually became very clear.

Travel had well and truly claimed the window seat.

Today, Indulge Divulge is less about telling you where to go and much more about sharing what I discover when I get there.

I love the grand sights, certainly. But I’m equally fascinated by the things other travellers might walk straight past – the tiny details, hidden corners, quirky histories, fabulous food, extraordinary people and unexpected moments that transform a destination into a story.

I travel. I photograph. I poke around. I ask questions. I hunt down the quirky bits. I occasionally get lost.

And then I come home and relive the whole glorious adventure by writing about it here.

Because I’ve discovered that travel isn’t simply about where you go.

It’s about what you notice while you’re there.

And now… Wander Away – our new IndulgeDivulge theme!

Which brings us rather beautifully to 2026 and Theme Number Four: Wander Away.

Fifteen years after teaching myself WordPress from my sickbed, I’m once again on a rather spectacular learning curve – this time involving Elementor, widgets, queries, taxonomy slugs, caching and other mysterious creatures that 2011 Jane would quite reasonably have assumed belonged in a biology textbook.

But look how far we’ve come.

From a free theme created to share one European holiday to a beautiful new home built around travel, photography, curiosity and storytelling.

The old Indulge Divulge hasn’t disappeared. Rummage deeply enough, and you’ll still uncover career wisdom, culinary adventures, décor, inspiration, personal confessions and probably a few things I’d forgotten I’d ever written.

They’re part of the story too.

But this new chapter belongs to travel.

To Adventure Hits and Curious Finds. To Handy Hints, Travel Tips and Tasty Treats. To beautiful places, peculiar discoveries and stories waiting around corners.

And perhaps that’s the nicest thing about looking back at that first introduction from 2011.

I described myself as an aspiring writer.

Fifteen years and hundreds of stories later, I think it might finally be time to drop the aspiring.

The retail therapy remains. The foodie is alive and extremely well. The traveller is showing no signs whatsoever of slowing down. And should anyone happen to know where they’re serving the perfect downtown nosh alongside a decent mango daiquiri, I’m still taking recommendations.

So welcome – whether you’ve been travelling with me since 2011 or you’ve only just wandered in.

Have a poke around. Look closer. Stay curious.

There’s far too much world left to indulge in…

and divulge about.

Jane x