COOKBOOKS GALORE

I love apple cakes and this is one I hadn't made before. It's good as a cake and as a dessert. 125g butter 125g caster sugar 2 eggs 1 tspn vanilla extract 200g plain flour 11/2 tspn baking powder 1 tbspn cinnamon 2 cooking apples 3 tbspn sour creme t opping 1 tbspn butter 2 tbspn sugar 1/2 tspn cinnamon Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Grease and line a 23cm springform tin Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy. Beat in eggs and stir in vanilla essence, flour and baking powder, tbspn cinnamon and the sour cream. Peel and chop one apple into dice and finely slice the other. Add the diced apple to the mixture and spoon in the tin. Arrange the apple slices on top.                 Melt the tbspn butter amd mix with the sugar and cinnamon. Brush this over the apple slices.                 Bake for about 40 mins till golden and cool on a wire rack.

We don't like marzipan, so our Easter cake is usually a chocolate one. We're off to Suffolk to our son tomorrow, and my contribution is this chocolate cake. This is the recipe I use most often. It has oil instead of butter. 190g sr flour 2 tbspns cocoa powder 1 tspn bicarb. of soda 1 tspn baking powder 150g caster sugar 150ml milk 150ml veg. oil [I used sunflower] 2 tbspn golden syrup 2 beaten eggs Oven 160C/gas3 Grease and line 2 x20cm sandwich tins Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, bicarb and baking powder into a bowl. Beat the milk, oil, eggs and syrup together and add to the bowl. Beat the mixture till well mixed. Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins. [My cakes took 45 mins in my gas oven.] Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool. For the icing you can use a chocolate butter cream, a ganache or this one, which I find isn't too sickly. 50g butter 4 tbspn sieved cocoa powder 3 tbspns milk 150g sieved icing sugar Melt butter in a pan and add the cocoa. Stir

I've carried on my family's tradition of making 'Hot Cross Buns', using the recipe that my Mum and Granny used. I still weigh the ingredients in lbs and ozs. I've not given the recipe here as there are so many similar recipes on the web or in cookbooks or magazines. Here's one I've also made and it's very good. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hotcrossbuns_397 I made 24 buns, freezing 12 when cool, before I brushed on the sugar syrup.                      I love this plate - it's 'Robin' from Emma Bridgewater's  'Birds' series. The buns are covering the robin! Here he is!

This is my Gran's version of the Welsh teabread. You can also make bara brith [speckled bread] with yeast. 6oz [175g] currants 6oz [175g sultanas] 8oz brown sugar 10fl oz [300ml] very strong tea 10oz [275g] sr flour 1egg Preheat oven 180C/gas 4/350F Grease a 2lb [900g] loaf tin Put the fruit and brown sugar in a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Leave it to soak overnight. Stir the flour and beaten egg into the fruit mixture and pour into the tin. Bake for about 1hour and leave to cool in the tin. Serve as it is or buttered. I added some cinnamon to the flour, and think next time I'll change some of the fruit for dried cranberries. I'll also try different flavoured teas and maybe use half white and half wholemeal flour.

Had a couple of lemons left in the fruit bowl so thought I'd make a cake. Didn't want to make my usual drizzle cake, so found this recipe in an old copy of a French magazine. I did a very stupid thing and opened the oven to check that the cake hadn't overcooked - so of course it's now sunk in the middle! I still haven't got the measure of this gas cooker - several things I've cooked lately have been overcooked, hence the checking of the cake! That's my excuse anyway! Bottom of cake 125g plain flour pinch salt 35g icing sugar 100g unsalted butter 2 drops vanilla extract Topping 2 medium eggs 170g caster sugar grated zest and juice of a large lemon 1 tbspn plain flour 1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda icing sugar to dust Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Grease a 20cm square cake tin. Put flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and mix. Add the butter and vanilla extract and blitz till the mixture becomes a soft dough. Press this evenly into th