COOKBOOKS GALORE

I like traybakes and bars and wanted to make something with blueberries. I found this recipe in an old French magazine and it used raspberries, so I thought I'd try it with blueberries and it worked very well. The French recipe uses Petits - Beurre biscuits and I found some in Sainsburys. Waitrose and Tesco also have them apparently, but shortbread or other plain biscuits could be used. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                        Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. You need: for the topping: 175g plain flour, 150g of crushed Petits- beurre or biscuits of choice, 60g caster sugar, 50g of chopped walnuts, 150g soft butter, for the filling:  225g blueberries, 50g caster sugar, 3 tbspn water, 3 tbspn flour, juice of 1/2 a lemon For the topping, mix the flour, biscuit crumbs, sugar and nuts together in a large bowl. Rub in the butter to get a crumbly mixture. Put half of this into the bottom of the cake tin and p...

I thought I'd used up all my bits and pieces form the baking cupboard when I found a jar of Morella cherry jam lurking in the corner; it was a present from France from a friend. I wanted something simple so decided to make one of my favourite cakes - Mum's Bakewell Cake - it has the ingredients of a Bakewell tart, but no pastry and is a 2 layer cake. It's the all in one method, so quick and easy to make. Preheat oven 190C/gas5.             Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. In a large bowl beat together 200g soft butter or margarine, 200g caster sugar, 100g ground almonds, 100g sr flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn almond extract and 4 eggs. Divide the mixture between the 2 sandwich tins and bake for about 30 mins till golden. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 mins then turn out onto a wire rack till cold. Put one of the cakes onto a serving plate and spread with 340g Morello cherry jam. Put the second cake upside down on top, ...

One of my favourite fruits is a pear, and I love anything with almonds, so decided to put the two together and make a tart. The filling for the tart is an almond cream, a frangipane. I used a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin and made a sweet shortcrust pastry case using 200g plain flour, 150g butter, 2 tbspn icing sugar and 2 - 21/2 tbspn water. Baked it blind at 200C for 5 mins then turned oven down to 170C and baked for further 10 mins. For the filling  85g butter at room temperature, 140 g caster sugar, 90g ground almonds, 2 tspns plain flour, 1 tspn cornflour, 1 large egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract. You also need 6 tinned pear halves or you could use fresh ones. If you do, you'd need to poach them first. Preheat oven 180C. To make the filling - put the butter and sugar in a bowl or a mixer [with whisk attachment] and cream till white. Add the ground almonds and mix togther. Add in the flours then the egg and gently mix together. Finally add in the vanilla extract and mix ...

I like making cakes with vegetables, and have made a few different ones, but this is the first time I've tried making one with vegetables and fruit. I defrosted the big freezer and found a lot of blueberries I needed to use up, so this cake seemed a good way of using some of them. I found the recipe in an old pull-out for Woman's Weekly magazine, but have changed several things to suit my taste. I also halved the recipe as the original one made 2 cakes. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Beat together 2 medium eggs, 125ml sunflower oil, 2 tspn vanilla extract and 225g caster sugar till nice and fluffy. Stir in 125g of grated courgette. Sift together 185g plain flour with 1/2 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn salt, 1/8 tspn bicarb and 2 tspn cinnamon then fold into the wet mixture. Gently stir in 165g fresh blueberries and mix. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 35-45 mins. Cool in the tin for 20 mins then turn onto a wire rack. The...