The Dolce Vita Diaries

Can we all agree that men are a nightmare to buy for. Is that just a me thing? Or maybe it’s just my own husband? But I literally just never know what to buy. Girls/girlfriends/mothers are pure joy to shop for: nice smelly things; a box of my good chocolates; that novel I just finished reading and really want you to read too; pretty things that don’t really have a purpose, but are just terribly nice to have in your life. All these are good, if not terribly original options, for presents for women.

This weekend I baked a cake for a friend’s wedding. Nine tiers of chocolate sponge layered with a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. Here she is: And as I type this, there are four more cakes baking in my oven. Three chocolate cakes (for a friend’s birthday), and an iteration of a sponge cake laced with lemon zest and elderflower, that I’ve been working on the recipe for, for a while now. As much as I like to cook, I love to bake more. Do you like to bake?

The ones I swear by for a glowier, glossier, healthier me I’m not one for gadgets generally, I’ll be honest: we don’t tend to get on. Photo above is just about as gadget-y as I like to get. Hello hair net; hello glossy (non-digital) magazine. That said! I do have a few (six to be precise) beauty gadgets that I absolutely swear by for the glowier, glossier and generally healthier version of me, and all of which I wouldn’t - at this point - live without.

A little guide So by some fortuitous twist of events, I went to Vienna last month not once, but twice. I know: crazy, right? Having never been to Vienna before. As in, technically, I have been to Vienna before: once, as a child (I must have been 4 or 5, I think, at the time), but to my shame, I can’t remember anything about the trip or the city, beyond a vague feeling that it was very cold and I ate lots of chocolate cake. Not sure that really counts?

Hello there! How are things? Are you having a nice weekend? I was at a friend’s wedding yesterday and it was just the most beautiful day: the sun was shining, everyone was joyful and happy in that way that people are at weddings, and for the first time this year, I wore a dress with no cardigan and no jacket and DIDN’T FEEL COLD. Not even a little bit; not even that feeling where you actually are quite chilly but you’re pretending not to be out of vanity. No, it was just actual beautiful weather.

April was a whirlwind for me: Venice-London-Vienna-London-Vienna-London-Venice. As I type it out, I see there’s quite a nice visual symmetry to that itinerary. Here are some highlights from the last month: books I loved reading, shows I loved watching; but also the concealer that has given me the gift of near-perfect looking skin, the summer sandals that are TOP of my wish list and my latest hack for not spending so much time on my phone. And other good things.

I’m doing a big spring clean/clear-out at the moment which involves going through everything in the house and deciding whether it sparks joy in me - or not so much. Let’s say, it’s a slow process. As I was ploughing through piles of unpaid (or possibly paid, who knows at this point?) invoices and other distinctly un-joyful paperwork, I unearthed a big old box full of photos from many chapters of my life - including all the photos from my 40th birthday party in Venice a couple of years ago.

So, when Milli arrived to do the flowers for the lunch I was hosting in her honour and to celebrate her beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) new book, I was still in my pyjamas. Very much not dressed. To be fair, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds: it’s not like I had been lounging in bed all morning eating bonbons (I mean: how nice?!); I had been up and about, cooking. And I do like to cook in my pyjamas: they’re comfy, not so precious that I mind getting a splash of oil here or a bit of flour there.

Hello, you! Here’s what I’ve been loving lately… On My Wishlist:A Red Raffia Bag I always have a soft spot for a good bucket bag: it’s just such a pleasing shape of bag. Surprisingly capacious, and yet still feels elegant enough to double as an evening bag. So useful and versatile as well as pretty: let’s think of it as the every-occasion bag.

In case you (or the Easter Bunny) are looking for a little inspiration ahead of this weekend, here are my top picks… This little fellow from Birley Bakery, one of my all-time most favourite chocolate shops, is PDC (pretty damn cute) and - I do not doubt - tastes pretty damn good too Also, this little clutch of chocolate chicks, resting on a delectable-sounding slab of milk chocolate peppered with salted roasted corn kernels. Too more-ish for words.