COOKBOOKS GALORE

 Although my Mum was a great baker, she occasionally brought home one of McVitie's Tunis cakes near Christmas time. Do you remember these cakes? Apparently, it got its name because a baker at McVities had tried a similar cake while stationed in Tunisia, where he was stationed during WW2. Well I was feeling all nostalgic and thought I'd try and make one. Not as elaborate as the original, as that looks too tricky for my icing skills! Mary Berry has a recipe, but I found another one, which was apparently sent by McVitie to a fan of the cake, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's in ounces. 3oz ground almonds 6oz butter 6oz caster sugar 3 medium eggs rind of 1 lemon 8oz plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder 2 tbspn milk For the topping: 10oz plain chocolate Marzipan fruits [banana, orange, pear, apple] Preheat oven 160C/gas3                                        8" cake tin brushed with melted fat and lined with                                                           

 I thought I'd have a change from cakes and make a savoury recipe. There's a new greengrocer in town that sells fruit and veg in bowls. I don't know why, but I bought a bowl of courgettes. Have made this recipe many times before, but my son and my neighbour love it. It's a bit of a faff having to grate the courgettes, but my food processor does it for me. Don't grate them too fine or they'll end up like water! Past experience! You need: 300g goat's cheese, 5 medium courgettes, 3 eggs, 150g flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 2 tbspn vegetable oil, 120ml milk, 100g grated Gruyère cheese, 2 pinches salt. Preheat oven 200C/gas6                         Grease a 900g loaf tin.  cheeses, flour and baking powder, oil and milk. Add the courgettes and salt. Mix well and spoon into the tin.  Bake for about 40 mins then cool on a wire rack. Sorry, photo is a bit blurred. There's a nice flavour from the goat's cheese and the loaf has a soft crumb. The courgettes don

 I  had some of the family yesterday, and as my daughter is a chocoholic, I thought I'd make these. The recipe has been adapted from a French cookery book that my penfriend gave me years ago, but which has languished at the back of the shelf. The book has some other great tarts to try, so will be posting more recipes. It's called simply 'Les tartes' but I can't find an author. The recipe makes 8 tartlets. 250g  shortcrust pastry [your own or bought], 175g dark chocolate, broken into pieces, 2-3 tbspn water,1 tbspn butter - softened,1 tbspn cognac or cointreau [opt!], 3 eggs, separated,  chocolate shavings or grated chocolate to decorate Preheat oven 200C/gas6  Tartlet tin or 8 tartlet moulds Roll out the pastry and line 8 moulds. (I bought a lovely 12 hole tartlet tin from Lakeland)  Put in the fridge for about 15 mins.  Line them with parchment and fill with beans and bake them blind for15mins; take out the beans and paper and cook them for another 5 mins; leave to

 Bought some 'Wonky' rhubarb from Morrisons and decided to make this for a family get together last weekend. It's a French recipe, usually for a lemon cake, but I decided to add rhubarb. The recipe uses a yoghurt pot as a measure. Very easy to make. you need a 125g yoghurt pot So:  1pot natural yoghurt, 3 pots sugar, 3 pots flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 3/4 pot vegetable oil, 1/4 pot milk, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 2 eggs, 250g rhubarb Preheat oven 200C/gas6                        Grease and flour a 20cm cake tin. Put all the ingredients except the rhubarb into a bowl and beat together. Chop the rhubarb into chunks and add to the mixture. Mix in with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 mins till golden. It has a lovely moist crumb, and a good contrast between the fruit and the sponge. It makes a good cake with a cuppa or a dessert with cream or ice cream. I've made it with apple, but plums or pears would be good too.

  I love caramel and found this recipe in my magazine cuttings. Happily it's not a difficult caramel to make, as I've had many disasters with it in the past! You can make your own shortcrust pastry or use ready made, which I did. You need:  Pack of shortcrust pastry, 2 eggs, 100g caster sugar, 60g butter, 100g walnuts chopped finely  and 100g walnut halves For the Caramel: 20g butter, 100ml crème fraîche, 150g caster sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4                 22cm tart tin For the tart: Cut the butter into pieces and melt for 1 min in a microwave. Leave to cool. Beat the eggs and caster sugar using an electric mixer or hand mixer till white and fluffy.  Add the chopped walnuts and melted butter and gently mix together. Roll out pastry to fit a tart tin which is at least 2.5cm high. Grease the tin then line with the pastry. Add the nut mixture gently. Bake for about 30 mins till golden. Caramel: Put the sugar in a pan and melt till brown. Heat the cream till b

 I love apricots, but you don't see them often, and sadly, our town market is no more. so saw some on offer in the supermarket and bought them to make this tart, another French recipe from my friend. I used ready made shortcrust pastry, as it's too hot to make my own. You need: a block of shortcrust pastry, 75g caster sugar, 75g ground almonds, 600g apricots, 75g soft butter, 1 egg, and a handful of flaked almonds to sprinkle on top. Preheat oven 200C/gas6                   Tart tin 24 - 26 cms Roll pastry out and fit into tin. Put in fridge while you make the filling. Wash and stone the apricots. Mix together the sugar, butter, ground almonds and the beaten egg - make sure it's well mixed. Spread over the pastry and top with the apricots.  Bake for about 35mins then sprinkle the almonds over the top.  You can add the flaked almonds partway through cooking, but I prefer them like this. I like the crunchy pastry, the soft filling, then the fruit and the nice crunch of the fl

 It was my daughter's birthday recently and she came up for the weekend, so of course needed a cake - this was just the thing. It's made with oil not butter and is very easy to make, yet it looks 'an occasion' cake. Preheat oven 190C/gas5                                  Grease and line 2x18cm [7"] sandwich tins For the cake: you need to sieve 150g plain flour, 25g cornflour and 2 level tspns baking powder into a bowl. Mix together 100ml veg oil [I used sunflower] and 100ml water in another bowl. Separate 2 eggs and add the yolks to the oil/water mixture and mix together. Stir the dry ingredients in and mix to a batter. Whisk the egg whites till stiff then fold into the mixture. Divide into the tins then bake for 25-30 mins. Cool on a wire rack. Turn the oven off. For the little meringues you need to put 1 egg white in a clean dry bowl and whisk till stiff and dry. Mix together 40g caster sugar and 15g icing sugar, then gradually whisk them into the whites. Put a s

  I don't really do much baking now that I'm on my own, but sometimes I have a need to make a cake. I bought some blueberries from our local market. They're one of my favourite fruits, and I used to have a bush in my garden. Sadly the winter before last killed it. I love them on porridge, but I had an urge to make a cake with them. I decided on a streusel cake - I love these cakes with the crumbly topping. So you need: For the topping 25g caster sugar, 2 tbspn flour and 55g soft butter For the cake 3 eggs, 200g caster sugar, 220g melted butter, 1 tbspn vanilla extract, 250ml buttermilk, 320g flour, 1 tbspn baking powder, pinch salt,  400g blueberries [washed and dried] Preheat oven 180C/gas4         Grease and flour a 9"x13"  [23x33cm] cake tin For the topping - mix the sugar, butter and flour together till like crumbs. For the cake - In a large bowl beat together the eggs then gradually whisk in the sugar till the batter is nice and thick and fluffy. Beat in the

  One of my favourite French desserts is a Charlotte, and I had a tin of pears which needed using and a recipe from a French neighbour for making a chocolate and pear one. It doesn't need cooking, just chilling. I bought a Charlotte mould when living there, but you can use any deep cake tin. It's simple to make and delicious. Charlottes can also be made with bread. You need: a large packet of boudoir biscuits [sponge fingers] or make your own  200ml whipping cream a sachet of vanilla sugar [about 1 tbspn] large tin of pears in syrup 150g dark chocolate 4 egg yolks Open can of pears and pour syrup into a small bowl and slice the pears. Dip the boudoir biscuits into the syrup and line a Charlotte mould with them, keeping some back for the top. Using an electric hand beater, beat the cream and vanilla sugar together till it's thick. Melt the chocolate over a low heat. Turn the heat off and add the egg yolks, beating together till the mixture cools. Add the cream and mix togeth

 This is one of our family favourites and is so easy to make.  It's  lovely mixture of chocolate, mascarpone with a hint of coffee, all in a pastry case. Doesn't need much cooking - just the pastry case. You need: a pack of shortcrust pastry [or of course make your own] 200g dark chocolate 250g mascarpone 1 dspn instant Espresso coffee 3 egg whites pinch salt 80g caster sugar chocolate shavings to decorate [opt] Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     Grease a 21cm tart tin/dish Roll pastry out to fit the tin, prick with a fork and bake blind for 10 mins. Break chocolate up and put into a pan; sprinkle a little water over and melt on a low heat. Once it's melted, take off the heat and add half the mascarpone and 1 dspn of instant Espresso coffee powder and mix well. Take the pastry out of the oven, cool then add the chocolate mixture. Put in fridge for an hour. Whisk the egg whites to peaks with the salt then add the rest of the mascarpone and the sugar. Mix together. Ta

  I love ginger in all its forms.  As with all ginger cakes, this one is better the day after you've baked it, as its flavours can then  develop. This version has dates in it, hence the title I've chosen! So you need:  75g unsalted butter 100g dark muscovado sugar 125g black treacle 125g golden syrup 2 eggs 225g self raising flour 2 teaspoons ground ginger 50g stem ginger, finely chopped 75g dates pitted and finely chopped For the icing: 100g icing sugar 1 tbspn stem ginger syrup (from the jar of stem ginger) Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4                Line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment or a liner Put the butter, sugar, treacle and syrup in a pan and melt together over a gentle heat. Cool for about 5 mins before beating in the eggs. Fold in the flour and the ground ginger, then stir in the dates and chopped ginger. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 50 mins. Cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn out onto a wire rack. Icing : Mix the icing sugar with the syrup, addi

  My daughter loves dark chocolate and raspberries, and as she was coming up for the weekend for Mothering Sunday,  I found this recipe in my scrapbook which was perfect for her. Raspberries seem to be available fresh all year round now. I do try and buy seasonally, but this cake is so good! For the cake you need:  250g dark chocolate (70% cocoa) 200g butter 1 tspn instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbspn hot water 5 eggs 100g caster sugar 75g plain flour 100g raspberries  Preheat oven 170C/gas3                    Grease and line a 20cm springform tin In a saucepan, put the chocolate, butter and coffee and heat over a low heat till melted and glossy. In  a bowl beat the eggs and sugar till pale and fluffy.   Pour in the chocolate mixture, add the flour and fold together gently. Pour this batter into the tin and sprinkle the raspberries over the top. Bake for about 40 mins till the cake is firm. This cake is good with a cuppa or as a dessert. It's ideal as a special cake for Mothering S

 I got this recipe from a friend recently, and have been waiting for an opportunity to try it out. Yesterday was my friend's birthday, so a good enough reason to bake! It's a caramel Genoese sponge which has an almond topping. I wondered if the name was linked to the opera, but my friend said it was a Scandinavian recipe. Who knows? So you need: 75ml buttermilk, 75g butter, 3 eggs, 150g cazster sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 150g plain flour, 1 tspn baking powder and a pich of salt For the topping you need: 150g flaked almonds, 125g butter, 125g soft brown sugar and 50ml milk Preheat oven 180/gas4                       Grease and line a 23cm springform tin Beat eggs, vanilla extract and caster sugar together till pale and thick,  Add baking powder and salt to flour and stir together. Fold 1/3 of flour into batter with third of the buttermilk, then repeat with other 2/3. Mix together gently and spoon into tin. Bake 40 mins till golden. Put onto a wire rack. Make topping while ca

 Not been around for a while because I haven't been well. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and a belated Happy New Year! It's January, so must be Galette de Rois time again! I love these and made several of them to take to our French group's postponed Christmas get together. One of them was apple; I know I have already put 2 or so recipes for apple ones on here, but this one is so quick and easy that it's almost a must make! You need: 2 sheets of puff pastry, 125g caster sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 500g apples, peeled and sliced, 1 tspn cinnamon and 1 egg yolk.  Pr4e4heat oven to 220C/gas7                 You need a baking sheet Put the apples in a pan with the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Simmer for 20 mins then put aside to cool. Roll out of the pastry sheets and cut a large circle [I drew around my biggest flan tin]. put this on the baking tray and spread the apple mixture on top, leaving a 3 cm edge all round. Wet this edge  using a pastry brush then roll out t