Orange sponge with white chocolate and fresh fruit decorations-Mum's 60th Birthday

Here's a beautiful but very sweet cake, impressive for special occasions. The white chocolate cigarellos and dark chocolate hearts are bought online-pricey but worth it for the wow factor.

Ingredients:

For the sponge:
225g (8oz) butter (unsalted, softened
225g (8oz) golden caster sugar
4 eggs
100g (3.5oz) plain flour
225g self raising flour
1 orange (zest and juice of)
2 tbsp apricot conserve
2 tbsp milk

For the syrup:
25g (1oz) caster sugar
Juice of an orange

For decoration:
125g (4oz) unsalted butter at room temp
Zest of an orange
225g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp apricot conserve
75 chocolate cigarellos
450g (1lb) summer fruit

Preheat your oven to 170 (non-fan) or 150 (fan) & line a greased 8 inch cake tin

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
Add the 4 eggs and the plain flour and mix
Then add the remaining SR flour, zest, juice and conserve
The mix should be quite slack and fall easily from a spoon, if it does not do this add the milk until it does
Put the mixture in the tin and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes (a skewer should come out clean)

Make the syrup by simmering the juice and sugar for one minute, let it cool a bit then pour it over the sponge (still in the tin), it helps to prick the surface a little. Allow cake to cool completely.

Then you make the orange buttercream-whisk the butter with the orange zest and add the icing sugar a bit at a time. Then it will be too dry so add the milk and gently stir until well mixed & spreadable. Take the sponge cake and cut it in half horizontally, a icing turntable and a long serrated knife is really helpful for this part. Put a layer of the buttercream & then a thin layer of conserve in the middle of your cake, I found its better if you go easy here as the cake is VERY sweet and if you put a lot in the middle its all a bit much.

Once you've got the cake back together cover it with the remaining buttercream-its best to get it on the plate or board you want to serve it on at this point as its hard to handle once the cream is on it. Then you can start placing the cigarellos on, you will need to cut them down-beware here as its easy to end up with all different sizes and then it looks scruffy (well if you have a perfectionist head like me) or maybe you might like it to be "rustic"!!! Use a measure or template and cut straight!!

Then throw all the fruit and any other decoration you fancy on top...et voila!

(Happy 60th Birthday Mum Xxxxx)

Mountain Flapjacks

Plas Y Brenin "mountain" Flapjacks

I recently went on a walking course at Plas Y Brenin and these flapjacks were so delicious when I was frozen on the hills and starving. Gooey and sticky and sugary to give you bags of energy! They publish all their receipes on their site and thats where this one is from, but I have drizzled melted chocolate over the top for an extra treat. My son loves them because he thinks thats what mountain climbers eat!!!

Ingredients

500g Oats
350g Golden syrup
250g Margarine
175g Demerara sugar
Any other topping or filling (e.g. dried fruit, chocolate chips)

Heat the margarine, sugar and syrup in a pan until the sugar has dissolved (tip the pan and lick the spoon also, you should not feel or see any sugar crystals). Use a low heat.

Add the oats and mix well (off the heat at this point or in a mixing bowl).

Grease a swiss roll tin and spread your mix into it. (my tin has internal dimensions of 24cm by 34.5cm)

Cook on middle shelf at 150oC for 25 minutes until golden brown. My oven is non-fan so I did an extra 5 minutes.

Decorate as desired. Tastes best when eaten on top of a mountain!

Banana Cake

I got this receipe from a New Zealand cook book of my friend Ben. It is unusual in that it uses 2 raising agents but its great and I have been trying to put it on the blog for ages but my family keep eating it before I can photograph it!!! It uses up old bananas and I have also found you can freeze your overripe bananas and then defrost them and use them if you haven't got time to do your cake when you've got the bananas.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 3/4 cup of caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups ripe mashed bananas
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 2 tbsp hot milk
• 2 cups plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180 oC. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add the eggs and beat well. Mash the bananas with a fork and stir in-don't over mash/blend them because they can be too liquid and make the mix too slack. I find from the point of adding the banana you stop using the electric whisk and just fold to keep the mix stiff. Then add your hot milk/bicarb mix (which should look like a sort of foam) by folding it carefully.

Fold in the sifted plain flour and baking powder.

Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour. A skewer should come out clean when it is ready. Cracks in the top are normal. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out.

You could ice it like a carrot cake or dust it with icing sugar but we like it just the way it is with a hot mug of tea!

Tips: I have tried this with soft margarine instead of butter but it just isn't quite as good. I have also noted that if your bananas are very rotten its best to use less than the amount suggested as again the mix can get too slack and the cake therefore denser than you'd like.

Honey or Maple Syrup Granola

This amazingly simple and delicious recipe is easy and if you put it in a nice jar then it makes a very lovely homemade gift. You can use maple syrup instead of honey but my personal favourite is honey. Eat with milk or yogurt and a drizzle of honey on top!

Ingredients:

• 500g rolled oats
• 100g flaked almonds
• 100g sunflower seeds
• 100g dessicated coconut
• 100g pumpkin seeds
• 100g pecan halves
• 150mls honey
• 150mls rapeseed oil (veg oil)
• 200-300g any dried fruit
• Pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Gently heat the oil and honey (or maple syrup) in a pan with a drop of vanilla essence (if you wish) and a pinch of salt. Meanwhile put all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour the warmed liquid over the mixture and stir well.

Spread the mixture out between 2 roasting tins and cook at 160 oC for 40 minutes. It needs to be turned AT LEAST every 20 minutes and possibly more so the colour is even. You are aiming for a nice light brown all through. My oven is not very good and cooks unevenly and so I do check it very regularly but you might not need to.

Leave the mixture to cool completely and then add 200-300g of any dried fruit (I like sultanas). Then you're ready to serve or put in your jars!

Spicy Chicken Pasties

Hot and sweet chicken pasties made with bright turmeric pastry. These lovely items are simple to make, a little different from the usual baking, and an all-round crowd pleasing snack. The recipe is taken directly from the second Great British Bake Off book... we think they came out delicious looking and tasting!