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 Although the book is rather outdated it contains the recipes for two of my favourite cakes - apple scone and ginger cake.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.

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.