COOKBOOKS GALORE

I made these for a children's party, having been given the recipe to try. I buy candy canes every Christmas, and then always have some left over, so this is a good use for them. You need: 125g butter 75g chocolate of your choice, milk or plain 200g caster sugar 2 eggs 1 tspn vanilla extract 75g chopped nuts 3 candy canes - chopped Preheat oven 150C/gas2                        Grease a 20x24cm cake tin Melt the chocolate and butter over simmering heat. Don't let the mixture boil or the chocolate will be grainy. Take pan off the heat and add the sugar, mixing quickly. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each. Spoon in the flour, half at a time, beating well, then add the vanilla and nuts. Mix together well. Spoon the batter into the tin and sprinkle over the chopped candy canes. Bake for 20 mins. I love this plate - I found it in a charity shop. The children loved them, but were only allowed one ...

Now that my son is living at home, we seem to get through an awful lot of biscuits and cakes. I thought I'd start to make my own biscuits/cookies to fill the biscuit tin, so at least I know what's in them. I love most  American cookies as well as lots of great British favourites like digestives, shortbread, bourbon etc. so thought that in the next few weeks I'd bake a mixture. With cookies, once you've found a good basic recipe, you can adapt it in many ways. When we lived in the US, my lovely neighbour gave me lots of her family recipes, including a basic one for cookies. This is it, adapted to UK measures and ingredients. Oven 190C/375F/gas5. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchent paper or a silicone sheet. Basic recipe 225g soft butter 140g caster sugar 1 beaten egg yolk 2 tspn vanilla extract 280g plain flour pinch salt Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then beat in egg yolk and vanilla essence. Stir in the flour...