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.

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.