COOKBOOKS GALORE

Have had a silicone bundt mould for ages, but haven't used it. It's a friend's birthday today so I decided to make her a bundt birthday cake. Her favourite fruits are blueberries, and they were on offer in my local supermarket - perfect. I decided to add some lemon flavour with the blueberries. I also had a pot of  natural yoghurt to use up, so added some to the mixture to make the cake nice and moist. I finished it off with some lemon glace icing drizzled over the top. I love Ina Garten's lemon yoghurt cake link is here   which Smitten Kitten made into a lovely lemon and blueberry one -   link is here  . The cake mixture is really a sandwich mix, or pound cake or quatre quarts - most countries seem to have their own version. I bought one of the Cake Release sprays so the cake would come out of the mould [my dil had problems getting her cakes out of bundt tins, so advised me to buy some]. So, it's a simple cake made to look more interesting by using a fancy...

I recently bought myself a Patisserie book, by Murielle Vallette. Among other things, I wanted to have a try at making my own puff pastry. This is an excellent book, as it has photos showing you all the steps. This time I didn't fancy making any of the suggestions in the book with my puff pastry, so made these easy turnovers. I adapted the ingredients from an idea I saw on Pinterest, which were turnovers using pear and walnuts. I had a search through my cupboard and found some cranberries lurking in the back. When I'd cooked the apples they were rather too mushy to put in the pastry, so I thickened them with some cornflour. I used Braeburn apples as they were in the fruit bowl, but you could use any apples. I decided to ice them with some simple glace icing. 2 apples peeled, cored and chopped into small dice sheet of butter puff pastry 50g brown sugar ¼ tspn cinnamon 30g dried cranberries 250ml water thickening: 30ml cold water ½ tbspn cornflour Cinnamon Icing: 6...

I’ve made a lot of cakes lately, large and small, and decided I wanted to make a tart. I bought a large bag of walnut halves last week, so decided they were just what I needed. My lovely friend who runs a cake shop gave me a few more of her recipes when we met up recently, and this tart is one of hers. You can use shop bought short crust pastry or make your own – enough for a 25cm tart tin, so it’s quite a good sized tart. I made 12oz /350g of pastry – that is 350g of flour and 175g of fat, and I used a mixture of sunflower margarine and Trex, but you could use all butter for a very short pastry. This was just the right amount for the tin. The tart’s made in 2 stages, the baked part with the eggs, sugar, butter and finely chopped walnuts and the topping with the walnut halves topped with caramel. So if you like walnuts, this is the tart for you! Preheat oven 180C/gas4      You need a 25cm tart tin [with sides at least 2.5 cms] You beat 2 eggs and 10...

I'm going through a 'nostalgic phase' at the moment, having made coconut ice, coconut pyramids and an orange coconut cake in the last few weeks - all recipes from my Mum's notebook, and which I remember from my childhood. I wanted to continue with the coconut theme, and I remembered a recipe I'd always meant to try. I have a few US cookery books and magazines brought back from when we lived there, and I've adapted this cake from a book called 'Cakes That Mom Baked' - it has 2 of my favourite ingredients in it - bananas and coconut. I've changed to metric measures and altered some of the ingredients. When living in the US, we got used to the fact that a cake wasn't a cake unless it had 'frosting' on top. This was usually a heavy butter cream, flavoured or coloured. This cake has a 'frosting' which is flavoured with banana and rum, and it's then sprinkled with shredded coconut [which I bought on Amazon UK]. I made it in a 9...

I'm always looking for new ways to use apples, and I found this recipe on Mary Berry's site. She calls it 'The very best Apple Dessert Cake'.  It's a sponge cake mixture with an added tspn of almond extract, and you put half of the mixture in the bottom of a 20cm springform or loose bottomed cake tin, lined, then you put a layer of thickly sliced apples then the rest of the cake mixture. You sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and bake for about 45 mins. You'll find the recipe  here  . It's got a great almond flavour and a lovely moist sponge; I like the contrast between the cake and the apple layer, then the crunch of the almonds on top. We ate ours with some creme fraiche. I liked it cold, but my OH preferred it warm.

My grandsons popped in to see us yesterday with their Dad, and I wanted something for them to munch, as they're always hungry! I'd been looking through Mum's old recipe notebook and found this. It brought back lots of happy childhood memories - these were a staple for family picnics, carried carefully in their special tin. The boys enjoyed them too, and asked if I'd tell their Mum how to make them. Praise indeed! Mum's recipe was in ounces, so I've converted it to metric. It's a 'melt in the saucepan and add everything else' sort of recipe, quick and easy to do, and it doesn't need cooking. 175g plain chocolate [or milk if you prefer] broken into pieces 60g butter 250g digestive biscuits (crushed) grated orange peel 125g sultanas 60g chopped glace cherries Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat then add the chocolate. Stir in the crushed biscuits, chopped cherries, sultanas and grated orange peel and mix till everything is cover...

I try and buy things in season, but the punnets of shiny blackberries caught my eye this week, so I bought some. I know they have air miles, but nobody's perfect! I love tray bakes,and I got the idea for this one from this Good Food site recipe. It seems to be fashionable at the moment to add crumble tops to cakes and muffins, and I think it gives a great contrast of textures to a cake.I like my crumble a bit clumpy, not too much like breadcrumbs. 115g butter, softened 175g caster sugar 1 egg 280g sr flour 125ml milk 200g blackberries Crumble topping: 115g caster sugar 85g pl flour finely grated rind of 1 lemon 50g butter Preheat oven 180C/gas4.  Butter an oblong cake tin. Beat sugar and butter together till pale and fluffy.Beat in the egg, then fold in flour and milk and mix well. Spoon into tin and sprinkle the blackberries over the top. The crumble - mix sugar,flour and lemon rind together then rub in butter till you have large crumbs,then sprinkle...