COOKBOOKS GALORE

Some kind of Chocolate Log is a Christmas tradition in our house, Sometimes I cheat and buy a 'good' one, but this year decided to make it. The cake is a chocolate Genoise sponge and the filling has salted caramel in it - one of my favourite things - and it's covered with a great chocolate icing/ganache. For the Genoise sponge:  Preheat oven 200C/gas6                   Grease and line a swiss roll tin with baking paper. Separate 4 eggs. Beat the yolks with 100g of caster sugar till pale and fluffy. In another bowl sieve together 120g plain flour, 4 tbspn cocoa powder and 1 tspn baking powder and fold into the batter. Beat the egg whites till stiff then fold them gently into the cake batter. Spoon into the tin and level the top. Bake for 10 mins. Take out of the oven and roll the sponge up using the baking paper to help you. Leave it on a rack to cool. For the Caramel Cream: In a bowl mix together 200g of mascarpone with 6 tbspn of salte

A couple of years ago my lovely Dutch friend sent me some goodies, including some of my favourite speculoos [ or speculaas?] biscuits. I used them in a recipe I found in a French magazine, and decided to make the cake again. It doesn't need any cooking. 125g speculoos biscuits [or any spicy biscuit - the ones they sell in Lidl are good] 4 dried figs, finely chopped 4 dates, finely chopped 2 tbspns sultanas 60g melted butter 200g milk or plain chocolate - broken into small pieces 15cl single cream 2 packets of Werther's originals or other butterscotch sweets 22cm cake tin - preferably a silicone mould Crush the biscuits and mix them with the dried fruit and melted butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of the tin/mould and put it in the fridge to harden. Break the chocolate up into a bowl. Put the cream in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Stir well till the mixture is nice and smooth. Cool. Take the

Have had a bit of a 'lost my cake-making mojo' time lately, but had some apples in the fruit bowl that needed using, so decided I wanted to make one of my favourite desserts - Tarte Tatin - as a cake. I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to making caramel, so used some from a can! Preheat oven 180C/gas4                             Grease a 18cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper. Using a tin of Carnation 'Caramel', spread a layer over the base of the tin [think I used about 120g]. Peel and core 2 apples - Coxes or something similar, then slice them and layer them onto the caramel. Cream together 125g butter and 125g caster sugar till nice and fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs then fold in 120g of sr flour. Add about 2 tbspn milk to loosen the mixture. Spoon the batter over the apples and bake for 35-45 mins till the cake is risen and golden. The caramel will be round the sides of the tin! Cool in the tin for a bit then turn the cake out, upside down, on