Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

Please note, we are only able to answer questions selected for publication and aren't able to enter into personal correspondence.

• Nam pla (fish sauce) substitutes

  Hi! Nam pla is very hard to find where I live. From what I have read it doesn´t have a very fishy flavour - would a mix of soy sauce and oyster sauce + 1/2 fish boullion cube do the trick? I have tried this before and the result tastes good to me but I don't know what nam pla is supposed to taste like!

  Posted by sccf2. Answered on 2nd Apr 2011 at 12.00

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• Royal Icing For a Birthday Cake

  CAN ONE USE ROYAL ICING ON A BIRTHDAY CAKE? I AM PLANNING ON BAKING A HELLO KITTY BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR MY DAUGHTER, WHICH MEANS THE ICING MUST BE VERY WHITE. WE DON'T LIKE THE TASTE OF READY TO ROLL FONDANT ICING AND BUTTER ICING'S COLOUR IS TOO YELLOW. I ALSO WANT THE ICING TO HAVE A VERY SMOOTH SURFACE. I ONCE SAW NIGELLA MAKING ROYAL ICING FOR CUPCAKES, WHICH IS EXACTLY THE "LOOK" I WANT FROM MY ICING, BUT FROM INFO GATHERED ON THE NET I UNDERSTAND THAT ROYAL ICING IS QUITE HARD WHEN SET. NOT SURE IF THIS WOULD BE VERY TASTY ON A LARGE CAKE. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

  Posted by kos. Answered on 1st Apr 2011 at 12.00

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• Biscotti - too soft!!

  I have just made some biscotti for the first time and they taste good, but the problem is that they are too soft! Not sure what I did wrong, but it would help if you can help me!

  Posted by MonicaLee. Answered on 31st Mar 2011 at 12.00

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