The original recipe for this almond and apricot cake can be found here.

Ingredients

230g fresh apricots, chopped (or a drained 411g tin if they aren’t in season)

200g unsalted butter

200g golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

75g ground almonds

1 tsp almond extract

200g self raising flour

A handful of flaked almonds to decorate

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 C /140 C fan / Gas 2/3. Line a deep loose bottomed 20cm (8 in) cake tin with baking parchment.

2. Drain the tinned apricots in a colander (see tip) and cut the drained apricots into pieces and keep to one side.

3. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat the eggs into the mix one at a time with an electric whisk. Stir in the ground almonds and the almond extract. Then sift the flour onto the mixture and fold in thoroughly. Gently fold in the reserved apricots.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and smooth the top, pushing down any apricot pieces that appear on the surface. Sprinkle the top with the flaked almonds and press slightly to flatten.

5. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Test with a skewer inserted into the cake to ensure it is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is cooked, otherwise give it a further 5 or 10 minutes until done. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool in the tin.

6. Place on a cooling rack and when completely cool remove the parchment.

This cake is delicious served on its own, or with cream or ice cream. Why not try custard on a chilly day?! Yum!

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Long-time readers of my blog will know that I love picking up recipes here and there, and that I love the Waitrose recipe cards. I only ever really pop in there for the odd thing because it’s near to where I work at the day job, so I always look and see what the recipes are for the month. I knew I’d have to give these ginger spiced crunch biscuits a try! Tom is a huge fan of anything with ginger, but we often find that biscuits are nice but without that real spicy kick. But these are perfect!

These biscuits have a crunchy (but not too crunchy) outside with a chewy centre, which is delicious. If you’re looking for more of a ginger cookie, just leave out the bicarbonate of soda. I did this with my first batch because I thought I had some in the cupboard, but I didn’t! But we actually really loved them with the slightly less crunchy, cookie-like texture. I also had a little play around with the recipe and added some dark chocolate to some of these, and the combination works really well.

Ingredients (makes 24)

75g (roughly 4 balls) stem ginger in syrup, plus 3 tbsp of the syrup

150g soft light brown sugar

150g unsalted butter (or margarine), softened

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbsp ground ginger

Optional: 100g dark chocolate (I used Green and Black’s 85%)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas mark 3. Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment.

2. Chop the stem ginger into very small dice and set aside. Place the brown sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl and, using an electric handheld mixer, beat together until creamy.

3. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, mixed spice, cinnamon and ground ginger into the bowl. Stir in the stem ginger and syrup, until everything comes together to form a dough. Tip onto a work surface and gently knead until smooth.

4. Break up the dough into 24 even-sized pieces and roll into balls. Place 6 on each of the prepared baking sheets, spaced well apart. Flatten each ball a little, then bake for 15 minutes until golden. They will still feel a little soft but will firm up as they cool. Repeat with the remaining dough until you have used up all the mixture.

Adding a little dark chocolate makes these ginger spiced crunch biscuits extra special. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of boiling water. Place the biscuits on a sheet of greaseproof paper on top of a cooling rack to decorate them. If you don’t want loads of chocolate, you could drizzle a little of the melted chocolate over the top like I have done with the ones above. Or, you could dip them in so that half of the biscuit is covered in chocolate. I used a spoon to do this as the chocolate wasn’t that deep in the bowl! Leave to set in the fridge – the greaseproof paper will easily peel off once the chocolate is set.

Freeze the biscuit dough!

According to the recipe card, the uncooked dough freezes well. Roll it into balls, flatten slightly and freeze layered up between baking parchment. To bake, take out the number you want and bake from frozen for 3-4 minutes longer. Excellent! Time to enjoy one of these with a cuppa Hope you have a great weekend!

If you missed out on a recipe card, you can also find the original recipe here.

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This recipe comes from the BBC Good Food Magazine website, and originally appeared in the magazine in January 2002.

Ingredients

For the cake

225g softened butter, plus extra for greasing

225g golden caster sugar

4 medium eggs

2 limes, grated zest and juice

250g self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of salt, plus extra flour

25g ground almonds

100g each blueberries and raspberries

For the syrup

8 tbsp lime juice (about 4 limes)

1 lime, grated zest

140g golden caster sugar

Method

1. Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8in square cake tin (not loose-based) with greaseproof paper and butter the paper. Set oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan oven 160C.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour towards the end to prevent curdling. Beat in the lime zest, then fold in the flour and almonds. Fold in enough lime juice – about 3 tablespoons – to give you a good dropping consistency (the mixture should drop easily from the spoon when tapped).

3. Fold in three quarters of the blueberries and raspberries and turn into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface, then scatter the remaining fruit on top – it will sink as the cake rises.

4. Bake for about 1 hour (cover with foil if beginning to brown too much), or until firm to a gentle prod in the centre. A skewer pushed into the centre should be clean when removed.

5. Meanwhile make the syrup: put the lime juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan. Put over a gentle heat and stir, without allowing to bubble. The sugar should dissolve a little. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer then spoon the syrup over it. To store, cool before wrapping in paper and/or foil.

6. Carefully remove the cake from the tin, discard the lining paper and cut into 12 pieces to serve. Enjoy!

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You could make the puff pastry if you wish (the recipe is in the book), but we cheated and used a pack instead. It does take time to make this recipe, but you could make the filling in advance if you wish and it’s so worth it! We made the full amount but then put half of the filling in the pie and the other half in the freezer – things like this always taste good after freezing.

Ingredients (serves 4-6, fills a dish roughly 1.5 litres in capacity)

For the filling

10g dried porcini mushrooms

200ml very hot water

100g lardons (diced streaky bacon)

800g lean boneless stewing steak (chuck or skirt) cut into 5cm cubes

About 2 tbsp olive oil (if needed)

3 shallots, peeled and quartered

1 tbsp plain flour

500ml red wine

2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely sliced (we don’t have a crusher, so we sliced it!)

1 bay leaf

Salt and black pepper

1 375g pack all-butter puff pastry (thawed if frozen)

Beaten egg, to glaze

Method

1. Heat your oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Put the dried mushrooms into a heatproof bowl, pour over the very hot water and leave to soak and rehydrate until needed.

2. Put the lardons into a cold flameproof casserole dish and set over medium heat (we have a stoneware one that only goes in the oven, so we used a large non-stick pan for this bit). Fry, stirring frequently until the fat melts and the lardons are golden. Remove from the dish/pan with a slotted spoon to leave the fat in the pan, and set aside for later.

3. Add the beef to the dish/pan a few pieces at a time, and fry until brown on all sides (add a little oil here if needed). As each batch of beef is browned, transfer to a large plate with a slotted spoon. Then add the shallots and brown quickly, before removing and adding to the beef.

4. Turn the heat down to low and add the flour to the dish/pan. Stir until slightly coloured, stir in the wine and the mushrooms with their soaking liquid. Return the beef and shallots to the dish/pan along with the garlic, bay leaf, and a little salt and pepper (go easy on the salt – the lardons are salty!).

5. Bring everything to the boil. If using a casserole dish, cover and put in the oven. If not, transfer from your pan into an oven-proof dish, then cover and place in the oven. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the meat is very tender.

6. Remove the bay leaf from the dish. Stir in the lardons and then adjust the seasoning as required. If cooking the pie in the same dish, place your pie raiser (or egg cup) in the middle, and leave the whole thing to cool. (I must admit that we didn’t leave it to cool, mainly because we started cooking it later than we anticipated! So we just put the mixture in a new dish – see next step).

7. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, and trim the lid to the correct size of your dish. Then cut some 1cm strips of pastry and use a little water to dampen the rim of the dish, before pressing the pastry strips so they completely cover the edge. Join the ends and trim as necessary.

8. If you’re using a separate dish, fill it with filling and then place your pie raiser in the centre. Then (for either method!) dampen the pastry strip with water, cut a hole in the lid where the raiser will be and then place the lid on top. Press the edges carefully to seal it, and decorate it if you wish.

9. The recipe says to chill the pie at this point as the oven heats up to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. We ignored that bit too, and it was fine! Brush the pie with beaten egg to glaze, and then bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for a further 20-25 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. Serve with some vegetables and mash or roasties. Yum!

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I had a look on the internet and came across this recipe on This Cotswold Girl‘s blog (which is fab – lots of lovely recipes and things!). Let’s face it, anything with Nutella in it has to be good. And a little bit dangerous. My mission is to not eat what’s left out of the jar with a spoon…but I did test it out beforehand, just to check it was ok… I did also overfill the loaf tin slightly, on account of the fact that we had already packed the muffin tin and cases, so it isn’t the prettiest cake I’ve ever made – BUT it would look better if I hadn’t done that, so I’m sure yours will look amazing! It tastes SO good though, and you just have to give it a go – we only eat bananas in cake and we love this one.

Ingredients

4 large / 5 small black / old bananas (don’t use ripe ones – it doesn’t taste as good)

100g butter

140g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

140g light brown sugar

4 heaped tbsp Nutella

2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Mash up the bananas with a fork in a mixing bowl

2. Add in all other ingredients – bar the milk and Nutella – and stir until it forms a smooth mixture. (You could soften the butter in the bowl first and mix in a bit of sugar to get it going – I’m going to do this next time.)

3. Heat the milk and Nutella in a pan over a low heat to form a smooth, chocolatey liquid

4. Pour the Nutella into the mixing bowl and roughly fold in. Don’t mix in completely as you’ll want it to form a marbled mixture.

5. Pour into a loaf tin and bake for 30-40 minutes at 180C (it took about 55 in our oven, so just keep an eye on it!). Leave to cool before removing from the tin and eating. Best enjoyed with a cuppa

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If you follow me on Instagram (or you’ve seen the photos in my feed on my blog) then you may already know that yesterday our new Kitchen Aid mixer was delivered! I can’t believe we actually got one, after so long saying ‘I’d LOVE one of those!’. We chose the pistachio colour in the end, as it will look so lovely with our new kitchen when we get it done in a couple of months. That’s another exciting project to tell you about, but that’s for another time!

We wanted to try out our new gadget today, so chose this chocolate mousse recipe because it meant that we could make the mousse and the shortbread in it! If you want to make it for a special occasion, you could easily make this a day ahead. I love the combination of flavours – the coffee and chocolate, the orange and ginger. Yum!

Ingredients (makes 6)

For the chocolate mousse

30g/1¼oz unsalted butter, chopped

100g/3½oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces

3 free-range eggs, separated

25g/1oz caster sugar

1 shot espresso

For the fiery ginger shortbread

100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened until very soft, plus extra for greasing

80g/2¾oz plain flour

30g/1¼oz icing sugar

30g/1¼oz cornflour

drop of vanilla essence

50g/1¾oz fresh root ginger, washed, unpeeled, finely grated

2-3 pieces crystallised ginger, sliced

For the candied orange peel

1 large orange, peel only, white pith removed, sliced into 0.5cm/¼in strips

80g/2¾oz caster sugar

150g/5oz demerara sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. For the chocolate mousse, bring a little water to the boil in a pan, then reduce the heat until the water is simmering. Suspend a heatproof bowl over the water (do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Add the butter and dark chocolate and stir until melted, smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until nearly white and thick in consistency.

4. Gently stir the whisked yolks into the butter and chocolate, then add the coffee.

5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed, then gently fold them into the chocolate mixture, until just combined.

6. Transfer the mousse to small cups or ramekins and chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

7. For the ginger shortbread, cream the butter until pale and fluffy in a bowl. Sift in the flour, icing sugar and cornflour and beat again until fully incorporated. Stir in the vanilla essence and grated root ginger.

8. Place walnut-sized balls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, about 2cm/¾in apart (you should get about 18 from this mixture). Spread each ball of the biscuit mixture out slightly using the back of a spoon, until flattened into biscuit shapes. Top each ball with a slice of crystallised ginger, then transfer to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the shortbread biscuits are pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes, then carefully lift them off the tray and onto a wire rack, using a palette knife, and set aside to cool completely.

9. For the candied orange peel, fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the orange peel and bring to the boil again, then drain well.

10. Re-fill the pan with water, bring to the boil, return the orange peel to the pan, return the water to the boil, then drain again.

11. Re-fill the pan with 150ml/5fl oz of water, add the caster sugar and bring to the boil, stirring well. Add the orange peel, reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid resembles syrup, stirring occasionally.

12. Tip the demerara sugar into a shallow bowl. Once the syrup mixture has thickened, remove the orange peel and coat each piece in the demerara sugar. Shake the peel in the sugar until it is completely covered. (NB: Once cool, keep the candied orange peel uncovered until needed.)

13. To serve, place the ramekins of chocolate mousse onto serving plates. Place one or two shortbreads alongside each. Sprinkle the mousse with the candied orange peel.

Enjoy!

This recipe was taken from the BBC website.

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I have wanted to make this delicious sun dried tomato and parmesan bread from scratch for some time now, because we usually buy the packet mix (which is super tasty). I always thought it would be more complicated to make than it actually is, and it only takes an extra 5-10 minutes to prepare in comparison to the packet mix. So I’ll definitely be doing this again – the extra minutes are more than worth it! Bread-making is such a satisfying thing to do. Why not try it this weekend?

I originally found this recipe on Good To Know.

Ingredients

425g (15oz) wholesome white flour
1tsp salt
40g (1 and 1/2oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
50g (2oz) sundried tomatoes, chopped and drained from oil
3tbsp sundried tomato paste
2tbsp finely chopped oregano or rosemary plus a few extra sprigs
7g sachet easy bake yeast
325ml (11fl oz) warm water

Method

1. Put the flour, salt, Parmesan cheese, sundried tomatoes and paste into a large bowl. Add the chopped herbs and yeast, then pour in the warm water.

2. Mix together with your hands until the mixture combines to make a rough dough ball.

3. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch and knead the dough for 10 mins until smooth and elastic.

4. Shape the dough – either into 8 rolls or a loaf. The original recipe says to shape it into a 23cm (9inch) round which can then be put into a greased 23cm (9inch) round tin. Press lots of indentations into the top of the bread with your finger. Scatter over a few extra herbs, drizzle with some of the olive oil from the sundried tomatoes and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

5. Cover loosely with cling film. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size. (This will take about 30-40 mins.)

6. Preheat the oven to 220°C/ fan 200°C/ gas 7. Bake the bread for 35 mins for a loaf, or 15-20 mins for rolls. When ready the bread should be golden in colour. To test to see if the loaf or roll is ready, upturn and tap the base – it should sound hollow.

7. Leave to cool a little on a wire rack and then enjoy!

Enjoy your sun dried tomato and parmesan bread with some delicious home made soup! Click here for the recipes for spicy parsnip, red lentil and chorizo or roast carrot and butternut squash.

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I made this gorgeous loaf ages ago, and then completely forgot to write the post about it! It comes from Rachel Allen’s ‘Cake‘ – a fabulous book which the Bakewell Cake that I made a few months ago came from too. If you’re a fan of ginger then you’ll love this – it didn’t last long in our house!

Ingredients (for a 900g/2lb loaf tin)

225g/8oz golden syrup
100g/3.5oz butter
100g/3.5oz caster sugar
75g/3oz stem ginger in syrup, chopped (plus 3 tbsp of syrup for the glaze)
200ml/7fl oz milk
2 eggs, beaten
225g/8oz self-raising flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Line the base and sides of the loaf tin with baking parchment, with the paper coming above the sides of the tin so that it can be lifted out easily later.

2. Place the golden syrup, butter and sugar in a saucepan and stir over a medium-low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside and allow to cool, then mix in the ginger, milk and eggs.

3. Meanwhile, sift the remaining ingredients into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, then pour in the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.

4. Tip the mixture – which will be quite runny – into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

5. Remove from the oven and drizzle or brush the reserved stem ginger syrup over the loaf while it’s still hot. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then lift the cake out of the tin and place on a wire rack. Peel away the baking parchment and leave to cool down fully.

6. Enjoy with a cuppa!

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Bake your own bread

Today was the first Saturday that I’ve been at home for a few weeks, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to bake some bread. I think that some people are put off making it because they think it might take too long or that it might be too difficult to make, but it is much easier than you think (and also very cheap!). My bread usually has a very homemade look, but for me that makes it even better. It’s so lovely to bake your own bread, and it makes your house smell amazing! It also makes an excellent pizza dough.

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour (I usually avoid supermarket own brands as high quality flour = better bread)

1 sachet quick yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

300ml hand hot water (150ml cold topped up with 150ml boiling water)

Method

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Add the oil to the water before pouring over the dry ingredients. Mix together until a dough is formed and then knead for five minutes.

3. Leave the dough in the bowl. Wet a clean tea towel with cold water and wring out so that it isn’t dripping, before placing over the bread. Leave to rise.

4. When the bread has at least doubled in size, ‘knock back’ and knead again for a few minutes.

5. Shape the dough into a loaf (or cut into eight equal parts to make rolls) and place on a greased baking tray. Cover with the teatowel and leave to rise again – you could always place the tray on top of the oven as it heats up to aid rising (oven should be heated to 220°c/425°F/Gas mark 7).

6. Once risen, place to bread in the oven. Rolls will take 15-20 minutes to bake, whilst loaves (depending on size) usually take 30-40 minutes. To see whether or not the bread is done, tap on the bottom and if it sounds hollow it is ready. Leave to cool on a wire rack and then enjoy!

You may also like…

This yummy banana bread recipe:

Banana bread

These rose shortbread hearts:

Rose shortbread hearts

Try this sun dried tomato and parmesan bread:

Sun dried tomato and parmesan bread

Or some soup to go with your yummy bread!

Pumpkin Carrot and Bacon Soup

Post updated 12th March 2021.

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