Delicious, easy recipes by Jay Wadams

Welcome to
Days of Jay

I'm Jay, cookbook author and food photographer.

Days of Jay is my website, where I share easy, delicious recipes for home cooking.

My recipes are packed with photos and useful tips and tricks to help you as you cook. They are all inspired by healthy, seasonal ingredients and my travels across the globe, especially in Germany, Italy, Cyprus, and Australasia.

Welcome to
Days of Jay

I'm Jay, cookbook author and food photographer. Days of Jay is my website, where I share easy, delicious recipes for home cooking.

My recipes are packed with photos and useful tips and tricks to help you as you cook. They are all inspired by healthy, seasonal ingredients and my travels across the globe, especially in Germany, Italy, Cyprus, and Australasia.

I am so excited to have you here, so let’s dive in and get cooking!


It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!


Well, the countdown is until the year’s end, and Christmas is just around the corner. Check out some of my most popular Christmas and festive recipes below!

Chewy, creamy, perfect caramels with a delicate hint of honey, my recipe for Soft Honey Vanilla Caramels is super easy and dangerously addictive.

Lusciously soft, chewy and gently flavoured with a hint of honey, Honey Vanilla Caramels are pure pleasure. Homemade candy is easier to make than you might think!

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Christmas Pavlova Slice

My Christmas Pavlova slice is a delicious combination of ight and airy meringue, piled high with juicy berries. The perfect Christmas dessert!

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German Christmas Stollen Title card showing two pictures of Stollen.

German Christmas Stollen is always a real treat during the holiday season. Made from an enriched yeast dough, loaded with rum-soaked fruit and candied peel, Stollen is delicious served with a cup of coffee or a warming mug of Glühwein.

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My Mulled Wine Cheesecake is full of Christmas’s rich spices and flavours. A deep-red, almost black mulled wine jelly on top of a creamy citrussy filling with a deliciously spicy base. This fabulous no-bake cheesecake is Christmas heaven!

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Tender, moist turkey breast filled with traditional stuffing and roasted to perfection. This delicious roast only cooks in under 2 hours, making it perfect for smaller celebrations.

Tender, moist turkey breast filled with traditional stuffing and roasted to perfection. This delicious roast is ready in under two hours, making it perfect for smaller celebrations.

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Homemade marzipan title card.

My Homemade Marzipan recipe is super easy and tastes miles better than store-bought. This eggless, no-bake recipe comes together in minutes with just three ingredients. Perfect for Christmas time, fruit cakes, cookies, marzipan candy and more.

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Almond and Cranberry Nougat recipe title card.

Sweet and delicious, it is easier than you think to make homemade nougat. This recipe has no glucose or corn syrup and can be made with ordinary household ingredients. Perfect for Christmas gifts!

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German Mulled wine recipe title card showing a mug of Glühwein and a man holding a mug of mulled wine.

A warming, gently spiced mug of Glühwein, or German Mulled Wine is one of the great pleasures of Christmas and the winter months. It is simple to make at home and fills the whole house with the most incredible aroma!

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Title card for Spitzbuben, showing cut out unbaked spitzbuben cookies on a tray and completed spitzbuben.

Spitzbuben are one of the most beautiful traditional German Christmas cookies. Also known as Linzer Augen or Linzer Cookies, the delicious combination of buttery short pastry and tangy redcurrant jelly is a Christmas classic.

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German style Gingerbread hearts

My easy recipe for making traditional Oktoberfest Lebkuchenherzen or Gingerbread Hearts at home. Hang these brightly decorated hearts around the neck of your sweetheart (or eat and enjoy!)

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The Latest Recipes From My Kitchen

Discover my latest and greatest recipes below, or use the search function to find exactly what you’re looking for.


Giant Stuffed Pasta Shells

Giant Stuffed Pasta Shells

As soon as the weather turns cold I turn into a comfort-food-carboholic, which is why we have been gorging ourselves on some truly tasty Giant Stuffed Pasta Shells this week. Pasta loaded up with cheese, meat, herbs, zesty lemon and…

Spicy Prawn Cocktail Salad

Spicy Shrimp Cocktail Salad

I think the very best cure for homesickness or wanderlust is to cook something to remind you of a certain place, so today we are having one of my favourite light, bright and summery meals: Spicy Shrimp Cocktail Salad. ‘Oh…

Roast Tomato and Feta Prawns

As contrary as it sounds, whenever the weather gets hot, my favourite way of cooking is to use the oven. I know it seems insane when the mercury is pushing 40°C outside to turn on a ferociously hot oven, but…

Summertime Apricot Cake

With the weather still cool and grey outside, I’ve been letting my mind wander to sunnier days, especially memories from the beautiful island of Cyprus where I was lucky enough to spend a few years living in the small village…

Easy Spicy Beef Enchiladas

Easy Spicy Beef Enchiladas

It’s raining again, and forecast to do so all week. Honestly, this has to be the wettest spring in Munich since I’ve lived here! At least the balcony plants are looking nice and green, but I am ready for some…

Earl Grey Smoked Salmon

While the undisputed champion of food smoking in my family is definitely my dad, New Zealand is an awfully long way from Munich when the craving for some delicious smoked fish hits. As I live in the city I also…

blueberry-and-almond-shortbread-tart-almond-tart-

Blueberry Almond Tart

Ok, so we all know I am a sucker for a bargain, which means when I spotted a kilo of luscious, juicy looking blueberries at the market today for only €4 they went directly in my basket without a second…

Home Made Tortelli Pasta

Homemade Tortelli Pasta

I’m back! Did you miss me? I’ve been travelling in Cyprus and Italy, soaking up the sights, sounds and most importantly flavours of those beautiful places, and giving myself a bit of a digital detox along the way. Back in…

Recipes By Meal Type


light-bites
Main Event
Sweet Things
cocktail hour

Marillenknödel – Austrian Apricot Dumplings
Wurstsalat (German Sausage Salad)
Easy Cherry Tomato Tart
Zwetschgendatschi (Bavarian Plum Tart)
Homemade Chocolate Popsicles

Looking for Dinner Inspiration?


Below are some of my most popular dinner recipes. Quick and easy with simple ingredients and big flavours.

Creamy Mushroom Pork Medallions
Chilli Lime Fish Tacos
Ricotta Gnocchi with Lemon and Sage title card.
Melt in your mouth pork, topped with a vibrant green sauce, Salsa Verde Pork Tenderloin is so incredibly tasty it is worth making two as the first is guaranteed to disappear in a flash!
German Potato Dumplings Title Card.
Cashew Chicken Stir fry with bell peppers and basil.

My FAvourite German Cake Recipes

While people often associate Germany with pretzels and beer, it’s really all about coffee and cake!

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Easy German Cake Recipes