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I made Mary Berry's Chocolate Cappuccino Tart as our Easter dessert from her recent Quick Cooking series. My son and family were due to arrive for Easter Sunday lunch, but he had to go into work for an emergency, so my daughter and I were left with a huge leg of lamb and Mary's dessert! It took us all week to eat it!   https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/mary-berrys-chocolate-cappuccino-tart I didn't finish the top in the same way as Mary, just added some Easter eggs. Thought enough cream had gone into it! It's extremely rich and a small slice is enough. Maybe I should have tried to freeze it rather than to eat it all! My neighbour was given several slices, as was a friend. Yesterday my son and family did finally arrive to eat with us, so I decided to make a special cake. My son loves anything caramel, so this recipe seems just the thing. I found the recipe on an American site, but changed the recipe to suit us, and changed the cups into grams. Cake : 150g ...

Have been having a good clear out of kitchen cupboards, including my baking one. Lurking at the back was yet another tin of Carnation Caramel, so had to use it up. Have made this cake many times, but all the family love it. It's easy to make and uses oil, so healthy of course! 75g sr flour, 3 tbspn cocoa, 1 tspn bicarb, 150g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 150ml sunflower oil, 150ml milk, 2 tspn vanilla extract, 125g dark chocolate, 375g tin of Carnation Caramel , 1 tspn icing sugar and extra for the top of the cake PREHEAT OVEN 180C/GAS4                 Grease and line 2x18cm sandwich tins Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarb into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Stir oil and milk together then add the eggs, 1 tspn of the vanilla and beat together. Add this to the dry mixture and beat together. Beat 2 tbspn of the caramel till smooth, then whisk into the batter. It's a wet mixture! Pour into the 2 tins and bake for about 20-25 mins till springy. ...

A quick post. It's the usual story - what to do with 3 very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. I also had a tin of Carnation Caramel coming to its 'use by' date, so decided to make a cake combining both of them. The Caramel is very sweet so there's only a small amount of sugar in the cake. I wanted an easy cake to cut, so made it in a loaf tin, Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     Grease a 900g/2 lb loaf tin Cream together 75g butter and 25g soft brown sugar till fluffy. Beat in 1 egg then add the caramel and mix well. Sift together 225g plain flour and 2 tspn baking powder then fold these into the mixture. Stir in 3 ripe and mashed bananas. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for an hour. I covered the top with foil for the last 15mins as it was getting very brown. Cool in tin for a few mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool. I really expected it to be very sweet, but it isn't. The crumb is soft and I liked the bits o...

I always seem to find something I need to use up in my store cupboard, and this time it was a tin of Carnation Caramel just coming to its 'use by' date. I love anything caramel, so decided to use it as a filling and topping for a cake. I know it's very sweet, but I took it to a coffee morning to share the sweetness! It uses oil instead of butter, so perhaps that makes it a bit healthier! For the cake: Preheat oven 180C/gas4               Grease and base line 2x18cm sandwich tins. Sieve together 175g sr flour, 21/2 tbspn cocoa powder and 1 tspn bicarb. Stir in 150g caster sugar. In a jug  - put 150ml vegetable oil [I used sunflower] and 150ml milk, 2 eggs and 1 tspn vanilla extract and beat together. Beat 2 tbspn of the caramel till smooth and add to the egg mixture. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well. [It's a wet mixture] Pour into the tins and bake for 20-25mins till risen and firm. Cool the cakes in the tin, then turn onto a...

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 ...

My husband loves biscuits, so as it was pouring with rain and I felt like baking something, I decided to make some for him. What to make? I had half a tin of Carnation caramel in the fridge left over from a cake recipe my daughter tried, so thought I'd use some of this - not much, as it's so sweet. I like a biscuit with a crunchy outside but a soft centre, so decided to use oats and some plain chocolate to get the sort of biscuit I wanted. A couple of tablespoons of caramel would give it extra flavour, and add to the softish centre. I found plenty of oat biscuit recipes on the net, but couldn't find just what I wanted, so I used a basic oat recipe and added my own tweaks to it. I made 15 chocolate oaties from this recipe. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 100g butter, 100g soft brown sugar and 2 tbspns of Carnation caramel - spoon these into a pan and melt gently till all the sugar and butter have dissolved. 100g sr flour, 100g oats and 1/2 tspn of bicarbonate of soda - put t...

A tin of Carnation caramel was lurking in the back of the cupboard, and carrying on with my biscuit theme, thought I could use it as a filling in a double biscuit. I have an easy shortbread recipe given to me many years ago when I was a student, by my Scottish landlady, and this would go really well with the caramel. You must use butter for these to get the lovely flavour. Shortbread: 350g plain flour 110g cornflour 110g caster sugar 225g butter Filling: tin caramel 100g dessicated coconut -optional Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Cream the butter and sugar either by hand or with electric mixer on a low speed till nice and smooth. Sift the flours together and add to the mixture. Work the flours in by hand. Knead the dough till it's smooth then wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 mins. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 5mm and cut out rounds with a cutter, the size depending on how big you want your biscuits! Put the biscuits on baking sheets a...