Cherry and Almond Bake

4oz Butter

5oz Caster Sugar

3 Large Eggs

3.5oz Ground Almonds

1.5oz Self Raising Flour

6oz Cherries

1Tsp Vanilla Essence

Cooking Time: 180c / gas mark 4 for 30-40 minutes

Serving: 8" Sqaure tin / 9 square pieces

1. Pre heat the oven and grease the tin

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until combined and smooth

3. Add the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of almonds and whisk or use a spoon to mix in

4. Fold in the vanilla, flour, cherries and the rest of the almonds until it is well combined

5. Pour into the tin and level out

6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or so or until golden

7. Remove and leave in the tin to cool before cutting into pieces and transferring to a wire cooling rack

Coconut and Chocolate Squares

Base

8oz Digestive Biscuits

4oz Butter

2oz Plain Chocolate (Broken up)

1 Egg (Beaten)

3.5oz Desiccated Coconut

1.5oz Cherries (Chopped)

Filling

7oz Icing Sugar (Sifted)

1.5oz Butter

2Tbsp Custard Powder

1Tsp Vanilla Extract

3Tbsp Milk

Topping

4oz Plain Chocolate (Broken Up)

Cooking Time: Pre heated oven on 180c/ Gas Mark 4 for 12 minutes

Serving: 9 Sqaure Pieces

Dish Size: 7" Square Tin

Base

1. Grease the tin

2.Crush the biscuits

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan

4. Take the butter off the heat and stir in the egg and mix well

5. Add the biscuits, coconut and cherries and mix well together

6. Press the mixture firmly into the baking tin and put in the oven for 12 minutes then leave to cool

Filling

1. Beat all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth

2. When the base is cool, put the filling onto the biscuit base and spread out evenly

3. Leave to set

Topping

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl

2. Pour the chocolate onto the filling and smooth out

3. Leave to set, then when ready cut into slices

Almond Crumble Topping with Blackberry and Apple

3 Large Cooking Apples
150g Blackberries
4oz Sugar
100Ml water

Topping
6oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Butter
7.5oz Demerara Sugar
4oz Almonds (Chopped)

Cooking Time: Preheated oven to 190c / Gas Mark 5 for 25 minutes
Serving: 5
Dish size: A large serving dish or 5 ramekins

1. Peel, Core and slice the apples and put in a saucepan along with the blackberries, sugar and water and bring to a simmer until the fruits are combined and softened
2. To make the Crumble topping, crumble the flour,sugar and butter in a bowl until it forms breadcrumbs
3. Chop the almonds and add to the mixture , mixing in well with your hands or a spoon
4. Put the fruit mixture in one big dish or the ramekins
5. Put the crumble on top, spreading evenly between the dishes and level out
6.Put in the oven and bake until golden or for 25 minutes
7. Serve warm with ice cream, custard or cream

Orange and Chocolate Cake

6oz Butter

6oz Caster Sugar

6oz Self Raising Flour

3 Eggs

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

100g Chocolate (Chopped)

Zest of 1 Orange

Cooking Time: 15 minutes on pre heated oven 180c/Gas Mark 5

Serving: 2 x 7inch round tines / double layer sponge cake

1. Pre heat the oven and line the cake tins

2. Cream together the butter and sugar with a whisk until smooth and combined

3. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs for a few minutes

4. Whisk the eggs into the creamed butter mixture until all combined

5. Grate the orange zest into the mixture and fold in

6. Measure out the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and sieve into a bowl

7. Chop the chocolate into little bits and then coat in the flour (this prevents it from sinking)

8. Fold the flour mixture gently into the egg mixture until it forms a nice smooth consistency and the chocolate drops are folded in evenly

9. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and put in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden

10. When done, remove from the oven and the leave in the tin to cool for 5 - 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack

Buttercream Icing

1 Quantity of the perfect buttercream icing from this site

Juice from 1 orange

Flake or Ripple Chocolate Bar

1. Make the icing as described on this website

2. Add the juice and fold in, I added about 2/3 of the juice from one orange but you can add as much as you like, depending on how strong you want the flavour

3. Divide the mixture between the sponges, putting a little more on one than another

4. Put the sponge with the more icing on the bottom and place the other sponge layer on top

5. Chop / Crumble the chocolate bar on top and then enjoy!

Trifle (Basic and Quick)

Jelly Packet (Strawberry)

Blamange / Custard (Strawberry)

Strawberry Swiss Roll

Tin of Fruit / Frozen Fruit

Elmlea Double Cream

Cooking time: None but you need to heat the blamange and then chill the dessert

Serving: 6 people, using a nice flan dish / serving bowl

1. Slice the swissroll into medium slices and put around the bottom of the serving dish

2. Make the jelly following the instructions on the packet and pour into the serving dish

3. Pour the fruits into the jelly and put in the fridge to set

4. Make the blamange / custard following the instructions on the packet and once the jelly has set pour the custard onto the jelly and put back in the fridge to set

5. When you are ready to serve the jelly whether this is the same day or next day whip the cream into soft peaks but not so it it too stiff and spread gently over the top of the custard

6. If you desire you can scatter chocolate or fruit over the top and then tuck in and enjoy!

Mincemeat Tart for Christmas or Just Anytime!

Jar of MinceMeat

6oz Self Raising Flour

3oz Butter

Water to mix

Milk (To brush with)

Cooking time: 190c for approx. 20 minutes minutes

Serving: 6 people (10" round flan dish)

1. Grease the flan dish with butter and pre heat the oven

2. Put the flour and butter into a mixing bowl and rub in till it forms breadcrumbs

3. Add the water a tbsp at a time and with your hands mix the ingredients into a dough

4. Chill the dough for approx. 10 minutes this makes it easier to roll

5. Scatter a clean smooth surface with flour and a rolling pin (this prevents the dough from sticking to the surface)

6. Roll out the pastry so that it is approx 4 mm in depth.

7. Transfer this to the dish, the pastry should cover the bottom of the dish and come up the sides

8. Cut away any extra pastry

9. Empty the jar of mincemeat into the pastry case

10. With the left over pastry roll it out again and using cutters, cut out shapes or design your own to place on top of the mincemeat tart.

11. Using a bit of milk brush the shapes and around the edges of the tart, this helps the pastry to brown and go slightly golden.

12. Then put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until piping hot and golden

13. You can either leave to cool and eat cold and reheat if wish or heat warm with a nice dollop of cream, ice cream or custard!

Christmas Tree CupCake

6oz Self Raising Flour

6oz Butter

6oz Caster Sugar

3 Eggs

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

100g Chocolate drops

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Bi Carbonate of Soda

Cooking time: 30-45 minutes on 170c / Gas Mark 4

Serving: 1 Large cupcake

1. Pre-pare your cupcake tin by greasing it well with butter and putting it on a baking tray

2.Cream together the butter and into a bowl until it is smooth

3. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a separate bowl

4. Whisk the eggs into the creamed butter mixture for approx. 2-3 minutes until the mixture is smooth and fluffy

5. Into a separate bowl sieve the flour, baking powder and bi carbonate of soda

6. Add the chocolate chips to the flour mixture and coat well

7. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and fold in gently but smoothly ensuring it is all mixed in well

8. Once mixed together divide the mixture evenly between the top and bottom of the cupcake

9. In the bottom part of the cupcake insert the insert if you have one as shown by the instructions (this means you then have a hole which you can fill with extra filling, yum!)

10. Put in the Oven and bake, at about 20 minutes through cover the sponge with baking proof paper so it does not burn on top but cooks through

11. The bottom part of the cupcake will take longer to bake than the top

12. Once each part is done, remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the silicone case onto a wire cooling rack

Decoration and Icing

12oz Icing Sugar x 2

4oz Butter x2

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

2 Tbp Cocoa Powder

Orange and lemon slices

Silver ball balls

1. Prepare the two batches of icing as follows;

2. Cream the butter in a bowl until soft

3. Sieve the icing sugar into the butter and mix with a metal fork until it is combined

4. Mix witha fork or a whisk for a few minutes until it forms a smooth consistency but not runny! Otherwise it will not hold its shape when piped

5. In one batch add the vanilla and mix to the other sieve in the cocoa powder and mix well

6. I decorated the top of the cupcake first using a swirl piping knozzle and piping bag and piped around the cupcake

7. I then added slices of organge and lemon to be the christmas lights and then little silver ball balls for the tinsel effect

8. I then decorated the bottom before putting the top on top. I did this using a piping tube and a small knozzle to make the lines more defined like bark. I did this by starting at the bottom of the cake and piping up and just over the edge to get a smooth finish.

9. I then put about a good cm of buttercream in the middle to hold the top and bottom together

10. Carefully lift the top of the cupcake onto the top of the bottom and press gently down

11. Then do any last bits of icing in the middle to make it form nicely together and there you have it a green cupcake or what I like to say a Christmass Tree!