Carrot cake

I pinched this recipe from Rachel Allen's excellent book, Bake. It's one of the best carrot cakes we've made - really light and fluffy, and dead easy to make. It was very popular...as you can tell by the small amount I was able to photograph.

You'll need:

300g grated carrot
100g raisins
200g soft brown sugar
180g self-raising flour
140ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Stick the oven on at about 150 degrees C, and find a deep baking tray or a loaf tin (I lined mine with greaseproof paper).

Sling the eggs in a large bowl, beat and then chuck in the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot and raisins. It will look like a disgusting mess, but bear with me. Pour in all the dry ingredients (you should probably sift the flour, but life's too short) and mix everything together.

Tip the mixture into your baking tray/tin, and bake in the oven for about an hour (you may need to add another 15 minutes or so - you'll be able to tell it's done when a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out nice and clean).

Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes or so, then carefully transfer to a wire rack. You could faff about with icing this (an orange glace icing would be nice, or traditional cream cheese frosting), but it tastes wonderful on its own with a nice cup of tea.

Christmas cake

Guaranteed to make the house smell of Christmas.

You helped me to make this one, together with Philip and Judith. Everyone stirred, and made a wish with their eyes screwed up tight.

It makes an enormous amount of cake - enough for a 20cm cake tin, and a loaf tin - one to eat now, and one to feed and keep for Christmas. You'll need:

350g butter
350g soft dark brown sugar
350g plain flour
1kg of dried fruit - I used chopped apricots, quartered glace cherries, candied peel and some chopped prunes
5 large eggs
100g ground almonds
150g shelled hazelnuts
500g raisins/sultanas
5 tablespoons brandy (I wasn't allowed to use your Dad's armagnac, so I had to make do with some orange juice this time)
zest and juice of an orange and lemon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Line your cake tin(s) with greaseproof paper (which needs to come a few centimetres above the top of the tin). I ignored this bit and did it in silicon moulds - which was fine, but made for a rather chewy edge to the cake. Stick the oven on at 160 degrees C.

Beat the butter and sugar together until they turn light brown and fluffy. This is so much easier in a mixer, but you'll feel very virtuous if you spend 10 minutes working out your arm muscles instead.

Add the eggs to the mixture, and beat thoroughly. Then gradually add the ground almonds, hazelnuts and the dried fruit, pausing now and again to let your junior helpers have a try of everything. Mix in the zest, juice and brandy, and then fold in the flour/baking powder.

Scrape into the tin(s) and marvel at the sheer amount of mixture. Bung in the oven for 1 hour at 160 degrees C, then turn the oven down to 150 degrees C and continue to bake for another 2 hours. You might need to place a sheet of greaseproof paper over the top of the cake if it looks like it's browning too fast.

Poke a hole in the cake with a skewer - if it comes out clean, then it's done. Leave to cool, and then remove from the tin.

Wrap in greaseproof paper then foil, and place in a airtight tin. I tend to feed mine a little brandy every week or two from now until Christmas - make a few small holes in the top with a skewer, and then drizzle a little brandy over the cake. It'll be nicely sozzled by the time you want to eat it.

Halloween spider cakes

Needless to say, these disappeared very very quickly...

Makes around 12 really large cupcakes. You'll need:

3oz butter
2oz dark chocolate
1 tablespoon milk
8oz self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
3oz light muscovado sugar
2oz caster sugar
150ml cream

And for the spiders:

12 prunes
24 silver balls
lots of liquorice laces
a little white icing (mix together a scant amount of warm water and lots of icing sugar)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a muffin tin with 12 cases.

Melt the chocolate, butter and milk together in a small saucepan over a low heat. Leave to cool slightly.

Mix together the flour, bicarb and sugar (both lots). Then beat the egg and cream together, and slowly add to the flour mixture. Pour over the cooled chocolate/butter mix. It'll look terrible...but don't worry, just stir a little (but not too much).

Spoon into your paper/silicon cases, and bake for about 20 minutes in the oven until they've risen (and they rise a lot).

Leave to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, spread icing on the top, and assemble your spiders. Eat with gusto.

Apple upside-down cakes

We spent all day at the allotment digging up the potatoes, so we needed a pudding for tea.

Makes 4 muffin-sized cakes. You'll need

1.5 apples, cored and sliced
a good knob of butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
65g sugar
65g butter
65g flour

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a muffin tin.

Put the apples, knob of butter and brown sugar into a saucepan on a low heat, and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the apples are tender, and the butter and sugar has formed a golden sauce.

Grease the muffin tin, and then place the apples (and a small drizzle of the sauce) at the bottom of four of the holes. Keep the rest of the sauce!

In a food processor, blitz together the sugar and butter, until it's soft and fluffy. Add the egg, and whizz until it's incorporated. Add the baking powder, flour and cinnamon, and blitz again until it all comes together. My egg was on the small side, so I had to add a little extra milk to stop the sponge mixture from being too stiff.

Dollop the sponge mixture onto the apples, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the sponge has gone golden brown. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, loosen round the edges, and then turn upside down to turn out.

Drizzle over a little extra sauce, and serve with a little creme fraiche or ice cream. Perfect for Sunday tea!

Chocodoodles

It's been rather a strange, grumpy day, so we made chocodoodles (little chocolate biscuits/cakes) to cheer ourselves up. It's a Nigella recipe, slightly tweaked - we ate them with slices of juicy nectarine, and will finish the rest off with the blackberry mountain currently sitting at the bottom of the fridge.

Makes about 16. You'll need:

65g butter
50g sugar
25g cocoa powder
100g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a small egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out a baking tray (you'll need to line it with greaseproof paper or a silicon sheet).

Cream the butter and sugar (50g, not the tablespoon) together, until they're fluffy. A bit of elbow grease works wonders, but you could cheat and do this in the food processor. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, and then carefully add the cocoa powder, and mix gently. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, and mix until everything is smooth.

Mix the remaining caster sugar/cinnamon, and place on a plate. Take a teaspoon of mixture, roll it in your fingers to make a ball, and then roll each ball on the cinnamony/sugary plate until it's thoroughly covered. (You loved this bit.)

Sling each ball on the baking tray (they don't spread too much while baking, so you don't have to space them widely), and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until no longer soft. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Grandma's marmalade cakes

Everyone felt a bit rotten this afternoon, so we made these to cheer ourselves up. You can make lots of small cakes (the mixture made enough for 12), or one large one (in which case a 7 in cake tin, or a loaf tin should do the trick).


You'll need:

8oz plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4oz butter, softened
4oz sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bitter orange marmalade (I used rhubarb and orange, which was all we had left)
grated rind of one orange

First of all, stick the oven on at 180 degrees C (all Grandma's cakes bake at that temperature). Mix the baking powder into the flour, and rub in the butter (or cheat, and do it in the food processor). Stir in the sugar - I used brown, but white caster sugar would probably produce a lighter result.

Beat the eggs and the marmalade together - this looks absolutely disgusting. Add it to the dry mixture - you should end up with a fairly stiff mix. I loosened mine with a tablespoon of milk. Stir in the orange rind, and you're good to go: spoon the mixture into small fairy-cake sized cases (of the paper or silicon variety), or into a big tin (see above).

Bake in the oven until the tops have gone golden brown, and a little bit crunchy. It'll take about 20 minutes if you do the little cakes (and keep an eye on them - you might have to turn them round, and bring them out a little earlier if your oven's fierce). A big cake will take about 1 1/4 hours.

Allow everything to cool in its tin for a 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack. They're nicest sprinkled with icing sugar, and would also be good with a blob of creme fraiche and some fruit.

Lemon drizzle cake

Just the thing for a hot day, especially if decorated with sugar flowers. I would add a picture, but it's nearly all gone.

You'll need:

4oz butter
6oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6oz caster sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
grated rind of a lemon

for the lemon drizzle icing

juice of a lemon (ie the one you've just used the rind from)
3oz caster sugar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper.

You could just chuck all the cake ingredients in a food processor, and blitz until it's smooth. I suspect you'll get a fluffier sponge if you blitz the sugar/butter together first, then add the eggs/milk, and then the flour/lemon rind/baking powder.

Spoon the mixture into your tin, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it's turned golden brown. Take it out of the oven, but leave in the tin.

Mix together the lemon juice and sugar, and pour (drizzle) over the top of the cake. You might want to make a few tiny holes with a skewer first, so it soaks into the cake too.

Leave to cool - then cut into squares. We decorated ours with tiny sugar flowers (v tasteful), and then lots of pigs/rabbits/owls/dogs (v silly).

Apple cake

This is adapted from a Dan Lepard recipe, and never fails - it's always beautifully squidgy in the middle thanks to the ground almonds.

You'll need:

1 apple (about 150g), peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
a large teaspoon of ground cinnamon
50g ground almonds
150g rye flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
75g butter
50g golden syrup
100g dark brown or muscovado sugar
75ml milk
an egg

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C, and find a suitable tin - I use a silicon loaf tin, which is probably a 2lb one.

Toss the chopped apple in the cinnamon, so it's coated all over. Mix together the flour, ground almonds and baking powder in a large bowl.

Pour the golden syrup into a small saucepan, and add the sugar and butter. Melt slowly over a very low heat until everything's dissolved. Take off the heat, and then add the milk, and a beaten egg. It'll look pretty disgusting, but bear with me.

Pour this fairly revolting mixture into the flour/ground almonds mix, and stir really well. Chuck the apple in, and fold in gently. Scrape the lot into your tin, and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. You could sprinkle the cake with some flaked almonds or demerara sugar before you bake it, if you're feeling fancy.

Leave to cool before eating, if you can - it'll slice much better.

Update: pic of cake (with slice missing - wasn't me, honest). It tastes far better than it looks.

Mini carrot cakes with lemon drizzle icing

This was an an attempt to cheer you up, and distract you from the spots. It seemed to work - you had a ball drizzling the icing everywhere.

Makes about 12 little fairy cakes/cupcakes.

You'll need:

4oz butter
4oz sugar
4oz self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
3oz grated carrot
1 tablespoon raisins

Stick the oven on at 175 degrees C, and line your tins with baking cases (your favourite bit).

Put the butter, sugar, flour, mixed spice and eggs in a food processor, and blitz until everything's well combined and smooth. You could do this by hand - it'll just take longer and need more elbow grease.

Take your blade out of the food processor. Add the grated carrot and raisins, and mix by hand (you don't want to do this bit with the processor, as you'll end up with shredded raisins) to create a fairly sloppy batter.

Spoon the batter into your cases, trying not to drip. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the cakes have risen, and turned golden brown. Take out of the tins, and place on a rack to cool.

For the lemon drizzle icing you'll need:

1oz icing sugar
a little lemon juice

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add a couple of splashes of lemon juice, and mix to a smooth paste. Thin this with a little more lemon juice, until it drips nicely off your spoon, and can be drizzled dramatically over the cakes, plate and worktop.

Banana bread

I adapted this one from a Nigella Lawson recipe - she's right, it does produce the most wonderful fug of banana-y smell that permeates the whole house.

You'll need:

some rather squishy bananas (I used three large ones), mashed
125g butter
150g brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
a teaspoon of vanilla extract
60g walnuts, chopped
100g sultanas or raisins
175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
a pinch of salt

First of all, stick the oven on to about 175 degrees C, and find a loaf tin (I used a silicon one, so I didn't have to faff about with greasing or greaseproof paper).

Melt your butter (either in the microwave or in a small pan), and then add the sugar to it. Beat the two together, then add in the eggs - beat until it's blended really well. Mix in the mashed bananas, and then the vanilla extract.

Add the sultanas and walnuts (you like taste testing these, so I darkly suspect we didn't have quite the right amount).

Stir in the flour, bicarb, baking powder and pinch of salt, and make sure it's all mixed together really well.

Decant into your loaf tin, then bake in the oven for an hour. Poke a skewer or long pointy thing into the cake - if it comes out clean, then the cake's finished.

Leave to cool in the tin, and then turn out. Try not to eat it all at once...

Christmas cake

We stirred this up properly this afternoon, and made a wish - you screwed your face up tight, and wished for snow on Christmas Eve.

The recipe comes from a rather battered page in Sainsbury's magazine, November 2007.

You'll need:

315g butter
340ml apple juice
295g dates, chopped
1 medium cooking apple (about 300g), peeled, cored and grated
350g raisins
315g sultanas
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150g plain flour
150g ground almonds
lots of freshly grated nutmeg
zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon

First of all, stick the oven on at about 150 degrees C.

Then get out a fairly large saucepan (you're going to be boiling up all the dried fruit in it, so it needs to be pretty big), and melt the butter with the apple juice. It'll look very strange...

Stir in the dates, apple, raisins and sultanas, bring to the boil, and simmer for 5 minutes or so. Then comes the fun bit - tip everything into a (large) mixing bowl, and add the bicarb. Once you mix it in, it'll fizz enthusiastically for a while - guaranteed to amuse small children.

Leave everything to cool for 5-10 minutes. Add the flour, ground almonds and nutmeg, and beat until it's all thoroughly combined. Grate in the lemon and orange zest and you're done!

Stick in a large tin (at least 20cm/8in round and 9cm/3.5in deep). This year we've tried a star-shaped silicon tin, rather than having to bother with all that wrapping in baking paper. It seemed to work and was much less faff. (If you haven't got a silicon tin then you'll need to line the tin with baking paper, and also wrap a double layer of paper around the tin itself before it goes in the oven). Lay a sheet of baking paper on the top, otherwise the cake will turn too brown.

Bake for 2.5 hours - it's done when a skewer or long thin pointy thing inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a baking rack.

If you're going to eat it straightaway, dust with some icing sugar, and go off in search of some Wensleydale cheese. If you're keeping it until Christmas, wrap in greaseproof paper, then foil, and place in a tin. You could feed it a little rum/brandy at intervals if you feel like it.

Chocolate cornflake cakes

Yeah, yeah, they're bad for you. But you've got to try them at some point.

You'll need:

100g milk chocolate (we used a leftover Easter egg that we found at the back of the cupboard)
25g butter
1 tsp golden syrup
50g cornflakes

Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan, over a very low heat. I suspect this is probably better if you do it in a bain marie - put some water in a pan, suspend a bowl over the top (with the chocolate/butter in), and put on the heat.

Add a teaspoon of golden syrup to the sludgy mixture. Stir. (Don't panic at this point if it all goes wrong and the chocolate mixture separates - we carried on regardless and it all tasted and looked fine.)

Throw in the cornflakes, and swish round with a spoon until they're all coated with chocolate. Spoon into little paper cases, and then put in the fridge to set.

It's easiest if you use cases that will fit into bun tins, and then you can just stick the whole tin, complete with 12 little paper cases, in the fridge.