Hi, I’m Marie and I’m the recipe developer, cook, photographer, and author behind Sugar Salt Magic. I love my husband and family, my fur babies and creating delicious things.

While I don’t doubt my love of cooking and baking comes largely from the eating, what really means the most to me is seeing the joy it brings to those I’m making it for, and the memories it both supplies and evokes. If I think right back, the passion that I have for food now actually comes from my mum.

A slice of raspberry tiramisu on a white plate surrounded by fresh raspberries.

Thinking back

Mum worked full-time as a legal secretary then came home at the end of every day and proceeded to get a home-cooked, balanced and delicious dinner on the table for her family – not because she loved the cooking but because it mattered to her so much that we ate real meals.

When it got to the end of a long week she might do an “easy” dinner of egg and chips – sounds simple enough, right?! But mum always made her chips from scratch, peeling potatoes, chopping them into chips and frying to absolutely perfection. Those chips were regularly devoured chip-butty style (sandwiched in bread and, for me, with BBQ sauce). My mum was, is and always will be a superhero to me (not just in the kitchen).

Some of my fondest childhood memories are from watching, and later helping, mum make sausage rolls at Christmas. They became so highly requested that, as I grew up, the number of celebrations that included those sausage rolls steadily increased. The anticipation while watching her make steak and mushroom pie, homemade pastry and all. Those mornings she’d make us her lemon sugar pancakes. Quiche for Sunday lunch. Her creamy rice pudding and that summer perfect strawberry flan.

Closeup of the in meat filling in a pie in a white pie dish. It sits on a wooden board.

For me, this blog is a place to share that joy, the building of memories round the table and in the kitchen and the love of great flavour. I’ve had grandparents tell me about the time they spent with their grandchildren baking one of my recipes. And home cooks tell me about how their dinner party went off with a bang using my recipes. Hearing these stories absolutely makes my day. Not for vanity’s sake but the thought that one of my recipes brought joy to someone’s life just fills my heart. Imagining the smiles and laughter as families and friends come together to eat.

What you’ll find here

On Sugar Salt Magic you’ll find a good dose of edible comfort. From easy dinners to indulgent desserts, I try to create recipes that are full of flavour whilst being simple to make. I aim to keep ingredients lists short but not so short as to skimp on flavour. I try to break down technical recipes to make them approachable to all so everyone can be a superhero in the kitchen. I love a variety of cuisines and try to keep them equally authentic and simple.

A bowl filled with pasta noodles and meatball stroganoff.

Satisfying savoury

Often-balanced, sometimes a splurge but always tasty, I aim to keep dinners simple. Meals that are both weekday-easy but special enough for a dinner party are my favourites. Creamy Tuscan chicken will delight umami lovers while Chinese prawn fried rice will cure those take-out cravings.

Sinfully delicious desserts

My desserts are the same. Made most often all from scratch, I love a good easy cookie recipe as much as a show-stopping pavlova. Fun desserts that even the kids can make (hey there, chocolate hedgehog slice) and foods perfect for gifting (here’s looking at you, salted caramel fudge) also feature heavily.

My hope is to inspire others to get into the kitchen – make something from scratch, try something new and have some fun with it. Don’t take it too seriously and just cook with love then enjoy the precious memories you make while doing it.

Top down view of a batch of Biscoff blondies, dolloped with Biscoff spread.

What you won’t find

This is not a place you’ll find recipes that adhere to any specific diet. While some recipes will suit certain dietary choices, I don’t create them with things like low-cal, whole 30, paleo, keto, vegan or gluten free in mind. I’ll leave that to the experts in those fields and I’ll focus on what I know – just wonderful dinners and desserts that err on the side of comfort.

How did you choose the name?

A few years back, my hubby and I, along with his family, had a little family My Kitchen Rules competition so of course we had to come up with our restaurant name. We decided to choose words with the first letter of each of our names (Marie and Scott) that, when put together, would be a catchy name.

Long story short, Scotts was “salt” and mine was “magic” so our restaurant name was Salt & Magic. When I started the blog I chose to use that but added the sugar so that the name reflected everything you’ll find on the site. Sugar for the sweets, Salt for the savoury and a little bit of Magic in everything.

… and now?

Now I have my little part of the virtual world to share my creations with you.  Please have a look around and check out some of my easy recipes. While you’re here, sign up below to get the new recipes as soon as they’re released.

Where to start

Check out the Recipes index where you can search by Category, Date or by Search Term right at the top – or scroll down to look through each Category.

Or click on one of these most popular categories – Sweets and Desserts, Main Meals, Appetisers and Snacks.  You’ll find a search bar in the top menu and in the side bar to search for recipes or ingredients.

Lime coconut chicken in a large skillet, ready to be served.

Press

From these gorgeous peach melba cupcakes featured on The Pioneer Woman to these decadent Salted butterscotch chocolate fudge brownies featured on The Feed Feed, I’m very humbled to have had my recipes and myself featured on a number of websites. You’ll find a few of these below.

I promise to send you delicious recipes regularly and any little special offers I can muster up along the way.

Keep in touch

Subscribe to my mailing list  for recipes straight to your inbox and any other freebies I come up with. No spam, pinky promise!

You can drop me a note on my Contact Me page or directly to Marie at sugarsaltmagic.com.

Want to work with me? Feel free to drop me a note here about your requirements.

For more you can see my FAQ’s page and you can find the privacy policy here.

All recipes and photos are mine unless otherwise stated. All opinions are my own. While sometimes I may show sponsored content, I will never accept payment in exchange for a positive review on a product. Where a post is for a sponsored product, there will be an annotation stating such.