Lemon drizzle

Show me a person who doesn’t like lemon drizzle? It’s one of the best classics IMO and is certainly a fave in our household. It’s lovely with a cuppa, but equally you can serve as a pud with fresh raspberries, fruit coulis - any combination of berry would be lovely - and whipped cream

Ingredients

• 240g butter, room temp

• 240g golden caster sugar

• 3 unwaxed lemons

• 4 eggs

• 240g self-raising flour, sifted

• 100ml milk

• 140g demerara sugar

  Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180Cºc.

• Grease a 23cm cake tin with butter and line with greaseproof paper.

• Beat together the butter, caster sugar and zest of 2 lemons until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes on med/high.

• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined before adding the next.

• Gently fold in the flour, or add a spoon at a time with the mixer on low. Turn off the beater as soon as the flour is combined to prevent knocking too much air out.

• Slowly add the milk, the batter should a dropping consistency so it falls off the spoon.

• Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

• Zest the other two lemons and tap the zest on to a plate to dry a little before you use it as decoration.

• Juice all 4 lemons and stir in the demerara sugar, set aside until the cake is cooked.

• As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke holes all over the top, especially near the edge and slowly pour over the drizzle using a spoon to distribute evenly. Sprinkle over the dried lemon zest.

Banana, almond, raisin & spelt loaf

This is a great loaf to make for quick breakfasts or healthier afternoon treats as it’s sweet, but not too sweet and has plenty of nutrients in the fruit, almonds and spelt to give you energy. Yes there’s sugar, but it’s definitely packing more goodness than your average sponge! I love this kind of cake as it’s full of interesting flavours and textures, plus there’s nutritional value in it without compromising on taste - win/win! It’s delicious, let me know if you give it a go.

Ingredients

• 150g almonds

• 150g spelt flour

• 125g ground almonds

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• 300g banana

• 250g golden caster sugar

• 3 eggs

• 140ml yoghurt

• 70ml rapeseed oil

• 1 tsp vanilla essence

• 80g sultanas

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170ºc and line a 2lb loaf tin - I use these liners.

• Spread the almonds on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 6-7 minutes. Set aside to cool and then chop roughly.

• Mix the flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder together in a medium sized bowl.

• Put the bananas into the bowl of a mixer and beat for a minute or so until mashed. You can do this with a fork if you don’t have a mixer.

• Add the sugar, eggs, yoghurt, rapeseed oil and vanilla, mixing well.

• Gradually add the flour etc to the bowl using a large serving spoon, or just tip in slowly.

• Beat with the mixer briefly until the ingredients are just combined, then fold in the almonds and sultanas. I usually turn the mixer on low briefly to do this, it will bump about a bit though!

• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 1hr 10 minutes and then check with a skewer. It should come out clean when the cake is cooked, if not put back in for a further 5 minutes, check and then repeat once more. It should be cooked through by 1hr 20 minutes, but remove sooner if a skewer taken from the middle of the cake is clean.

Banana & pecan bread

I know this isn’t my recipe, but it’s shared quite widely online so I hope Mr Ottolenghi won’t mind me posting this, especially as I can say nothing but good things about it! This is literally the most delicious banana bread ever and it's so easy to make. I made it one Friday evening (yeah my life is that exciting these days), so we could eat it for breakfast the next day. It's absolutely amazing with honey and tahini as suggested in the recipe which you can find in Plenty More.

Ingredients

• 150g Pecans

• 300g mashed banana

• 275g soft light brown sugar

• 3 medium eggs, lightly beaten

• 140ml milk

• 70ml sunflower oil

• 275g plain flour

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

To serve:

• Tahini

• Honey

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170ºc. Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking paper.

• Spread the pecans out on a baking sheet and put in the oven for 6 minutes. When they’re done, take them out and roughly chop.

• In a bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, then set aside. In a jug, combine the milk, oil and salt and also set aside.

• Put the whole bananas in a mixing bowl and if you have a stand mixer set on medium speed and this will mash them - easier than by hand. Add the sugar, egg and combine. Slowly add the milk and oil whilst continuing to mix, making sure all the ingredients are well combined. Then, add the flour mixture, continuing to blend on a medium speed for a couple of minutes. Finally, stir through the pecans before pouring the mixture into your prepared tin.

• Place the tin on the middle shelf of your oven and cook for 1 hour 10 minutes.

• When cooked, remove and leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.Once cooled, slice the banana bread, spread the butter on one side and put it under the grill until lightly toasted.

• Spread with tahini, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with salt.

• Note - this bread is lovely without doing anything to it, so if you want it plain then go for it.

Tip

Remove the top shelf in your oven as this cake rises a lot.

Apricot & cardamom cake

Oh my goodness I love this cake; it tastes amazing and is different from the norm. The subtle addition of cardamom makes this bake interesting and would be the perfect end to a Middle Eastern-style meal. Gorgeous. The recipe comes from Simply Nigella and is very easy to follow. I love Nigella's new book as it is full of fresh new recipes that are full of flavour, but more straightforward and lower in fat. 

Ingredients

• 150 g dried apricots

• 250 cold water

• 2 cardamom pods (cracked)

• 200 grams ground almonds

• 50 grams fine polenta (not instant)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder (gluten-free if required)

• 150 g caster sugar

• 6 large eggs; ideally at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon rosewater - I left this out as I find it too floral

• Sunflower oil or butter for greasing

• Decoration

• 2 teaspoons apricot jam (or rose petal jam)

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

• 2½ teaspoons very finely chopped pistachios

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°c

• Use a 20cm (or 21cm also works well) springform cake

• Put the apricots in a small saucepan with the split cardamom pods and just enough water to cover them. While you're doing this grease the tin and line with parchment. Bring to boil and turn down to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to cool and the apricots will absorb more water, so make sure you don't boil them dry

• Weigh the other ingredients while the apricots are cooling down. Once the apricots are cool put 5 aside and remove the cardamom pods, but not the seeds. Place the rest of the apricots and the cardamom seeds into a food processor, or if you don't have one you can finely chop with a knife (including the seeds - they'll be soft and easy to chop, just a bit fiddly)

• Next put the almonds, polenta, baking powder, caster sugar, sugar and eggs into a food processor or a mixer with the beater attachment and mix thoroughly. Once mixed add the lemon juice and then the apricots.

• Scrape the mixture into the tin and then position the apricot halves around the top of the cake and put in the oven for 40 mins.

• I checked mine after 30 minutes and it had browned enough on top so I placed a piece of tin foil lightly over the top for the last ten minutes - this is what Nigella recommends in her recipe

  Tip

• If you don't like cardamom then just leave it out of the recipe, or add a teaspoon of almond essence instead. It'll still be one of the most delicious soft cakes you have ever eaten.