COOKBOOKS GALORE

I love using my bundt tin, but don't do so very often. I had several lemons to use up so decided to make a lemon cake in this tin. It's easy to do and doesn't need any icing or decoration - not too much work! You need 170g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 170g butter, 120g light brown sugar, 3 eggs, the juice of 1 lemon and the zest of 2 lemons, icing sugar if you want to sprinkle it over the top. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Spray a bundt tin with Cake Release or something similar Beat the butter with the sugar to get a nice creamy mixture. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each one. Add the flour plus baking powder and the lemon juice and zest and beat together. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 45 mins. Cool in the tin for 10 mins then finish cooling on a wire rack. If you want, sprinkle some icing sugar over the top. A nice lemony cake with a good soft texture. You could ice it with lemon glacé icing, but I think it's...

Wanted a quick and easy dessert, so used 3 ripe pears from the fruit bowl and made an easy tart. Chocolate and pears are a marriage made in heaven for me, but if you haven't got a bar of chocolate, you could use Nutella spread over the pastry. You don't have to make the pastry - use a ready made butter puff. Preheat oven 220C/gas7                23cm tart tin In a bowl, mix together 100g soft butter, 100g ground almonds and 125g caster sugar. Mix together then add 2 beaten eggs and beat together. Roll out the puff pastry and line the tart tin. Prick with a fork. Peel, de-pip [is there such a word?] and cut 3 ripe Conference pears each into 4 pieces. Melt 100g chocolate [you can use cooking chocolate if you want] in the microwave or over simmering water, then pour over the pastry in the tin. Spoon in the batter then spread the pears on top. Bake for about 30 mins - keep an eye on the tart at the end so it doesn't burn! Nic...

 Needed to use up two very ripe looking bananas in the fruit bowl, so it would be a banana cake. I think banana goes well with caramel, so made a caramel icing for the top. The recipe uses sunflower  oil and yoghurt, so definitely healthy [if you ignore the caramel!]. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                   Grease and base line a 23cm springform cake tin. In a bowl mix together 250g plain flour with 2 tspn baking powder and 1/2 tspn bicarb. Mix in 250g caster sugar. In another bowl beat together 150ml sunflower oil, 250g ripe bananas [ I used 2 large ones], 2 eggs, 50ml natural yoghurt and 1 tspn vanilla extract. Pour the oil mixture into the flour and stir together till mixed. Spoon the batter into the cake tin and bake for about 40 mins. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins, then turn onto a wire rack. For the caramel topping: Put 85g butter, 175ml double cream and 175g soft brown sugar in a pan over a medium heat ...

I love rhubarb, and decided to make something different with it for my friends when they came for tea. I've recently bought a new 12 hole fluted tartlet tin, so decided to use this and to top the tartlets with meringue. I have a recipe with fruit, which has a creamy almond filling, so this would make them a bit different. 250g shortcrust pastry [your own recipe or bought] 400g rhubarb 80g caster sugar 125g ground almonds 80g soft butter 125g caster sugar 2 eggs beaten For the meringue 3 egg whites 75g caster sugar Preheat oven 180C Peel the rhubarb and cut into pieces. Put it into a bowl covered with the 80g caster sugar and leave for an hour. Roll the pastry out thinly and line the tartlet tin. Using baking beans, bake blind for 10 mins. Take the beans out and cook for a further 5 min. Remove the pastry cases from the tin and put on a wire rack to cool. Beat the butter with the caster sugar; add the eggs then the ground almonds and ...

I needed a simple recipe to use up some lemons, and found many versions of this uncooked tray bake [I suppose it's not really a tray bake as it's not baked, but it's made in my Delia tray bake tin!]. I played around with several recipes till I made exactly what I wanted - a good lemony flavoured slice, with a decent amount of coconut and a lemon icing. It was perfect to make for my daughter's recent visit. We brought a lemon tree back from France and it now lives in the greenhouse. It was a gift from our neighbours, and has faithfully produced lemons every year. The lemons I used in this recipe were from this tree, and they are much juicier than the ones you buy. You put 125ml of condensed milk in a pan with 125g butter and stir till the butter has melted. In a food processor or using a plastic bag and a rolling pin, break a 250g packet of Nice biscuits into crumbs and put into a bowl with 1 tspn of grated lemon zest, 1 tspn lemon extract and 85g dessicated coco...

Have been on holiday for a week, but yesterday I went to a Polish supermarket with my son's partner and discovered bags of ground hazelnuts. It's not easy to find these, so I was tempted to buy several bags, but I've learnt from experience that they don't keep after the use by date! This recipe makes a nice, light cake with a lovely praline chocolate topping, easy to make and delicious. 3 eggs - separated 80g caster sugar 70g melted butter 90g plain flour + 1 tspn baking powder 70g ground hazelnuts 90g praline chocolate chopped hazelnuts to decorate Preheat oven 150C/gas 2               Grease a 18cm cake tin Mix the egg yolks and sugar together. Add the butter, flour and baking powder and the ground hazelnuts and mix well. Whisk the egg whites till stiffish then carefully fold into the batter. Spoon into the tin and bake for 25mins. Cool in tin for 5 mins then finish cooling on a wire rack. Melt the chocolate over simmering water or...

This is another cake that came about because I was having a sort out in my cupboard, seeing if anything was out of date.  I found a packet of polenta that needed using up, and had saved this recipe ages ago from the side of a polenta packet. It's easy to make, and using the polenta makes a lovely light cake. Preheat oven 160C/gas3              Grease a 23cm springform cake tin. Grate the zest from 3 medium sized oranges and keep it to put in the batter. Put 1 lemon aside to use later. In a bowl, mix together 210g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 120g polenta and a tspn salt. In another bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand beater, beat together 4 large eggs and 200g caster sugar till it's pale and fluffy and tripled in size. Beat in the orange zest. You need 175ml olive oil, and you add this to the batter alternating with the flour mixture, scraping the bowl down occasionally; just beat gently until incorporated into batter. Spoon...