Have you heard of the Stack-A-Snack?

The Stack-A-Snack may not be the most popular kitchen accessory on the market, but it’s one of the most rewarding. Some say it’s a bit of a novelty item that will only come out of the kitchen cupboard once a year, while others say they use it religiously. If you haven’t heard of it let us explain:

It’s essentially a McMuffin maker. That’s right, it cooks multi-layered snacks from scratch, so you can put your muffin or bagel halves in, the egg, the meat and some cheese if desired, and you just leave it to get to work. Okay, so it isn’t going to taste exactly like a McMuffin, but it stops you having to mess around using ten different pots and trays to make a breakfast burger. It’s really easy to clean too, and it’s a handy device to have whether you use it once a year or 100 times a year.

Coffee machines – Perfect for the Christmas period

Christmas is a magical time of year, not just for the presents and vast amounts of calorific food, but for the memories made. It’s a time to invite your closest family members and friends round for a homemade dinner, while a pot of coffee is usually the ultimate desert.

There is one problem with coffee though, everyone has their own tastes, and while one person might like a sweet cappuccino with vanilla syrup, another might like a standard black Americano. It can get confusing if you have too many people round, but that’s where a coffee maker can help. Today you can simply ask each guest to choose the coffee pod they like, place it in the machine and put their mug beneath it and voila! It’s a huge timesaver, and it means you can effortlessly serve out high quality coffee without breaking a sweat.

Belfast Sinks: they’re back with a bang!

It’s always a shame to see a traditional kitchen with a stainless steel sink. Take a country cottage kitchen design as an example, you may have solid oak units and worktops, floral ceramic tiles, checkered tiled flooring and perhaps even a cast iron wood burner. Then, if you decide to fit a stainless steel sink, you’re ruining the traditional style.

The Belfast sink has been around for sometime but it’s now enjoying a bit of a resurgence in the UK. These are white, square and made of ceramic, and they are the perfect accompaniment to solid oak worktops. You can buy single or double versions, and they should always be positioned in line with the work surfaces so that they blend into the traditional kitchen seamlessly.

If you have a traditional kitchen, or you’re looking at various classic designs, don’t forget the Belfast sink. They’re just as practical today as they were 100 years ago!

Hot chocolate straight from the pot

Sometimes the easy way isn’t always the right way, and that’s certainly the case when you’re making a hot chocolate. It’s easy enough to pop to your local supermarket and pick up some instant hot chocolate, before arriving home and adding in a touch of boiling hot water. You’re just not going to get the true experience that way.

With a ceramic chocolate pot, you’re able to melt fine flavoured cocoa straight into the pot with heated milk. Add the pieces of chocolate slowly whilst keeping the chocolate pot on a low heat (over the stove). You can then add a touch of sugar, but not too much, otherwise the deep notes of roasted cocoa won’t come through.

Brits have been enjoying hot chocolate for hundreds of years, and as a country we’d enjoy it a whole lot more if it was served up fresh from the cocoa bean in traditional ceramic chocolate pots. So make sure you help raise the bar, and enjoy hot chocolate the right way!

Why ceramic kitchenware will never go out of style

You may notice that a lot of kitchen equipment produced today is made of stainless steel, or is it? Ceramic certainly still has a big role to play, and that’s not just in terms of traditional kitchenware. Many electric slow cookers are encased in stainless steel, but with a ceramic interior, showing just how important it actually is.

A lot of non-stick kitchenware is made of ceramic, and though it’s often considered a ‘traditional material’, it’s still being regularly used on quality kitchen accessories today. It can also last a lot longer than other materials, if it’s well looked after that is! It’s also important to note that there are now scratch resistant pots and pans made of 100% ceramic, so it’s a material that will never go out of style in the world of cookery.

We look forward to using it for hundreds more years to come!