Gooseberry and orange drizzle cake (2 colours)

Ingredients
Butter - 225 g, softened
Self-raising flour - 225 g
Caster sugar - 225 g
Orange - juice & grated rind of 1
Eggs - 4
Gooseberries - 225 g
Granulated sugar - 140 g

Methods
1) Cream together the butter, flour, caster sugar, orange rind and eggs in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
2) Gently stir in the gooseberries and then pour into a 20 x 30 cm baking tin.
3) Bake at 180°C for 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean (I covered mine with foil after 20 minutes so that the top didn't burn).
4) Mix together the juice of the orange and the granulated sugar. Prick the cake with a fork and pour over the orange syrup. Leave to cool and then cut into squares or bars. Serves 12.

Chocolate fingers (0 colours)

Ingredients
Block margarine - 115 g
Golden syrup - 90 g
Digestive biscuits (not the chocolate ones) - 250 g, crushed
Dessicated coconut - 60 g
Cocoa - 2 tbsp
Cooking chocolate - 150 g

Methods
1) Melt the margarine and syrup together in a saucepan. Turn off the heat and then add the biscuits, coconut and cocoa to the pan.
2) Stir until well combined and then spoon into a small brownie tin. Place the tin in the fridge and leave to cool for half an hour.
3) Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water and then pour on top of the biscuit base. Spread with the back of a spoon and then return to the fridge to cool for another couple of hours. When cold, cut into bars. Makes 10 - 12 bars.

Double chocolate cake (0 colours)

I've made quite a few different chocolate cakes in the past, but this is by far the tastiest and has a lovely consistency too. I kept it in the fridge because the chocolate topping would melt in our warm kitchen, but the cake tastes equally good warm or cold.

Ingredients
Golden caster sugar - 175 g
Butter - 175 g
Eggs - 3
Self-raising flour -140 g
Baking powder - 0.5 tsp
Ground almonds - 85 g
Milk - 100 ml
Cocoa powder - 4 tbsp
Chocolate chips - 50 g
6-8 pieces (total) of white and milk/dark chocolate for decorating

Methods
1) Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Cream the sugar and butter together in a large bowl.
2) Whisk in the eggs, flour, baking powder, ground almonds, milk and cocoa powder until smooth.
3) Stir in the choclate chips then pour into the loaf tin and cook at 160°C for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin.

4) When the surface of the cake has cooled melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Drizzle over the cake with a spoon. Repeat with the milk or dark chocolate and then cool the cake in the fridge. Serves 8-10.

Blueberry and lime drizzle cake (2 colours)

Ingredients
Butter - 225 g, softened
Golden caster sugar - 225 g
Eggs - 4
Limes - 2, juice & grated zest
Self raising flour - 250 g
Ground almonds - 25 g
Blueberries - 200 g

For the syrup:
Lime juice - 8 tbsp
Lime - 1, grated zest
Golden caster sugar - 140 g

Methods
1) Line an 8 inch square cake tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour towards the end to prevent curdling. Beat in the zest of two limes, then fold in the flour and ground almonds. Stir in the juice of the two limes.
3) Add three quarters of the blueberries to the bowl, stir gently and turn into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface, then scatter the remaining fruit on top - it will sink as the cake rises (I must remember to do this with my blueberry cake because the fruit usually sinks to the bottom).
4) Bake for about 1 hour (cover with foil if beginning to brown too much), or until a skewer comes out clean.
5) Meanwhile make the syrup - add the lime juice, zest and sugar to a small saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer then pour over the syrup. Leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin. Cut into squares when cool. Serves 16.

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.