Blueberry, lemon and coconut traybake (2 colours)

Ingredients
Butter - 300 g
Caster sugar  - 400 g
Lemon - grated zest of 1
Eggs - 6
Self-raising flour - 250 g
Blueberries - 300 g
Lemon curd - 200 g
Dessicated coconut - 200 g

Methods
1) Beat together 250g of the butter with 250g of the sugar and the lemon zest.
2) In a separate bowl beat four of the eggs, then gradually beat into the butter and sugar mixture, adding a spoonful of flour if it begins to curdle. Fold in the flour and a third of the blueberries, then spoon into a 20 x 30 cm cake tin lined with greaseproof paper. My cake overflowed a little during the last five minutes so if your tin is shallow like mine make sure that the greaseproof paper reaches a little higher than the sides of the tin.
3) Flatten the surface with a spatula, sprinkle over another third of the blueberries, and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C until the surface is set.
4) Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan. Stir in the coconut and remaining sugar and eggs. Warm the lemon curd gently for a few mins in a small pan until it is runny and pourable (this was so easy I'll be doing it for my lemon drizzle cake in future).
5) Remove the cake from the oven. Scatter over the remaining blueberries and then drizzle over the lemon curd. Top with the coconut mixture and bake for a further 20-25 mins until the coconut is golden. Leave to cool and then cut into squares. Makes about 15 squares.

Apple scone (1 colour)

Continuing along the theme of family recipes, this one comes from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook. Although the book is rather outdated it contains the recipes for two of my favourite cakes - apple scone and ginger cake. When I was growing up we used to have apple scone every year at harvest-time.

Ingredients
Baking apple - 1 medium
Self-raising flour - 225 g
Baking powder - 1 level tsp
Salt - 0.5 tsp
Castor sugar - 57 g
Butter - 57 g
Milk - 0.25 pints or less

For the glaze:
Demerara sugar - 20 g
Milk - for brushing

Methods
1) Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Rub in the butter.
2) Peel, core and chop the apple finely. Add the castor sugar and apple to the bowl and mix well.
3) Add the milk, a little at a time, while mixing to form a soft dough. The dough shouldn't be sticky so don't add all the milk if you don't need to (I didn't).
4) Place the dough on a floured surface and roll into a circle about 1 cm thick. Transfer carefully to a greased baking sheet. Score into 8 triangles. Brush with the milk and sprinkle over the demerara.
5) Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes until golden brown. Cut into triangles and serve hot or cold with butter. Serves 8.

Fruit and nut Yule slice (2 colours)

The first Christmassy cake I made this year was the yule slice from the BBC Good Food website. I added a couple of ingredients and changed the quantities a bit and it was lovely. It's also dairy free.

There's a reason that it's sliced thinly in the photo on their website - this cake is deceptively filling because of all the nuts.

Ingredients
Nuts - 310 g (I used 150g walnuts, 100g hazelnuts, 60g blanched almonds)
Dried fruit - 680g (I used 200g dried apricots, 200g raisins, 100g stoned dates, 40g dried cranberries, 140g glace cherries, halved)
Plain flour - 100 g
Mixed spice - 2 tsp
Baking powder - 0.5 tsp
Dark muscovado sugar - 175 g
Eggs - 3
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Icing sugar for dusting

Methods
1) Mix together the fruit and nuts in a large bowl.

2) Sieve the flour, baking powder, sugar and mixed spice into the bowl and stir well.
3) Mix the eggs together with the vanilla essence in a bowl and add to the fruit and nut mixture. Stir until well combined and no dry ingredients are visible.
4) Line a loaf tin with grease-proof paper and pour in the mixture. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 150°C for 1.5 hours. Remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin.
5) When cool, dust with icing sugar. Serves 16.

Blueberry cake with cheesecake frosting (1 colour)

This easy-to-make cake looks beautiful and tastes absolutely delicious.


Ingredients
Self-raising flour - 225 g
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Golden caster sugar - 175 g
Butter - 175 g, warmed to room temperature
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Eggs - 3 large
Soured Cream - 4 tbsp
Fresh or frozen (defrosted) blueberries - 190 g

For the frosting:
Cream cheese (philadelphia) - 200 g
Soured cream - 1 dessert spoon
Icing sugar - 100g
Fresh blueberries - 150 g

Methods
1) Sieve the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the butter and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the vanilla essence and eggs and mix well.
2) Beat in the soured cream and then gently stir in the blueberries.
3) Pour the mixture into a round 22cm loose-bottomed cake tin, spread it level and bake at 180°C for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.
4) When the cake has cooled completely, mix together the cream cheese, soured cream and icing sugar in a bowl. Spread on top of the cake and scatter the blueberries on top. Keep the cake in the fridge, but remove an hour before serving. Serves 8.

Ginger cake (1 colour)

This is an old family favourite and I can't remember ever having a Christmas without it.

Ingredients
Golden syrup - 55 g
Black treacle - 170 g
Margarine - 115 g
Brown sugar - 55 g
Milk - 140 ml
Eggs - 2, beaten
Plain flour - 225 g
Bicarbonate of soda - 1 level tsp
Ground ginger - 2 level tsp
Mixed spice - 1 rounded tsp
Sultanas - 115 g

Methods
1) Heat the treacle, syrup, margarine and sugar in a small pan until the sugar and margarine have dissolved. Add the milk and leave to cool for a few minutes.
2) Meanwhile, sift the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
3) Add the eggs to the cooled treacle mixture and stir well. Pour into the bowl containing the dry ingredients and fold in the sultanas, mixing until everything is well combined. Bake in a greased tin for 1.25 - 1.5 hours at 150°C until a skewer comes out clean. Serves 12.

Orange and cranberry muffins (2 colours)

I've finally got round to buying a muffin tin - something I've been meaning to do for several weeks. There are so many muffins I'm looking forward to making - blueberry and lime, blueberry, lemon and raspberry, raspberry and nectarine...

Thanks to Mark at cookbook for this recipe. I used frozen cranberries (defrosted) for this as we can't buy fresh ones at any time of year other than Christmas. The recipe actually makes about 15 muffins (the holes in my tin are 7cm wide by 4cm deep), so I poured the excess mixture into a small pyrex dish to make one large muffin:

Ingredients
Cranberries - 140 g
Orange juice - 175 ml
Unsalted butter - 170 g, warmed to room temperature
Granulated sugar - 170 g
finely grated rind of 1.5 oranges
Eggs - 3 large
Plain flour - 300 g
Salt - pinch
Baking powder - 3 tsp
Milk - 175 ml

Methods
1) Place the cranberries in a small pan with the orange juice and heat gently until the juice just starts to simmer. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
2) Cream the butter with the sugar and grated orange rind. Beat the eggs into the butter. Sieve the plain flour, salt and baking powder and fold in to the mixture along with the milk. Fold in the cooled cranberries and orange juice to form a batter.
3) Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. Divide the batter into 12 cups and bake in the oven at 190°C for about 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serves 12.

Pear and walnut cake (1 colour)

I made this with freshly bought pears, but next time I shall leave them to ripen for a day or two.

Ingredients
Plain flour - 250 g
Caster sugar - 180 g
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Pears - 3 ripened, peeled and coarsely chopped
Walnut pieces - 80 g
Eggs - 2, beaten
Milk - 100 ml
Butter - 125 g

Methods
1) Melt the butter in a pan and leave to cool. Preheat the oven to 180 °C and grease a 9 inch round baking tin.
2) Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the pear and walnut pieces and mix well.
3) Place the milk and eggs together in a small bowl and whisk for a couple of minutes.
4) Add the milk and egg mixture together with the butter to the mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.
5) Pour into the baking tin and cook for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Serves 6-8.