BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS 

200 ml buttermilk

150g self raising flour

pinch of flour

3 large eggs

METHOD

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend for one minute.

Then place a cast iron pan over a medium heat, add 2 teaspoons of butter and heat until the butter has melted.

Next, using a tablespoon of batter per pancake, place 2 or 3 spoons full of batter into the pan. They will take about 1 minute to turn golden brown, then turn them over using a spatula and fork, being careful not to splash yourself with the hot fat. Give them another 45 seconds on the other side, by which time they should have puffed up like little soufflés, then briefly rest them on some kitchen paper to absorb any excess fat.

Repeat this with the rest of the batter, adding a little more butter if necessary. They will keep warm in a low oven, but to enjoy them at their best, have everyone seated to eat them as soon as they come out of the pan.

MARY BERRY'S FARMHOUSE FRUIT CAKE

 INGREDIENTS

225g self raising flour

100g softened butter

225g dried mixed fruit (I used 500g of dried fruit that had been soaked in brandy.)

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of dried cinnamon (I used one tablespoon of dried cinnamon.)

100 ml milk 

splash of brandy

METHOD

Pre-heat your oven to 160 (140 fan.)

Grease a 20cm baking tin and line it with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar.

Add two eggs and keep beating the mixture.

Add the flour and cinnamon to the bowl. Beat until well mixed.

Pour in the milk, mix and finally add the dried fruit.

Put the batter in the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.

Bake in the preheated oven for one hour and fifteen minutes. (Check the cake after one hour.)

A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean and the top should be golden brown.

BLACK FOREST GATEAU (DELIA SMITH'S ORIGINAL RECIPE)

 Ingredients List

6 large eggs
142g (5oz) caster sugar; 
50g (2oz) cocoa powder, sieved; 
285 ml (1/2 pint) double cream; 
1 level tbs. caster sugar; 
1 tin or jar of pitted morello cherries (700g) drained and juice reserved
50g (2 oz) plain chocolate 
3 tbs. kirsch or cherry brandy.

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade, 356 degrees Fahrenheit or gas mark 4. 
1) Grease and line two eight inch sandwich tins or three six inch sandwich tins if you would like to make a triple layer cake like mine. 
2) Separate the eggs and whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale and quite thick. 

3) Fold in the cocoa powder in two batches.

4) With a clean whisk beat the whites until stiff but not too dry. Stir a large spoonful of the whisked egg whites into the cocoa mixture to loosen it then carefully fold in the rest of the whipped whites in two batches.

5) Divide the mixture between the tins and bake on the centre shelf of your oven for 15- 20 minutes.

6) Check that the cakes are baked by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cakes. The skewer should come out clean and the cakes should be springy. Leave to cool in tins for 10 minutes and then release from the tins on to a cooling rack whilst still slightly warm. 

To decorate:

 
1) Add the the tablespoon of caster sugar to the cream and softly whip it - it should just about hold a soft peak when the whisk is lifted from the surface, but should it still be floppy and voluptuous. 

2) Remove the baking paper from the cooled cakes. Stir together the kirsch or cherry brandy and the reserved cherry juice. Drizzle the cherry/kirsch liquid over the cakes and leave for five minutes so that the cakes soak up the liquid.

3) Layer up the cakes with the softly whipped cream and most of the drained cherries.

4) Spoon some cherries on the top in the centre of the cake and pipe some swirls of cream round the edges. Grate the chocolate over the cream on top to decorate.

 

Alternative: Increase the amount of cream to 568 mls (1 pint) so that you have enough cream to around the edges of the cake and press chocolate sprinkles on to the sides.

CLAUDIA RODEN'S APPLE LETKES

Ingredients

sugar 2-3 tbsp
calvados, brandy or rum 4 tbsp
eggs 2 large, separated
light vegetable oil 2 tbsp
salt a good pinch
flour 150g
water 200ml
lemon grated zest of 1
vegetable or sunflower oil for frying
caster sugar for sprinkling on after serving

Method

Core and peel the apples and cut each into 4 thick slices. Put them in a shallow dish with the sugar and calvados, brandy or rum, and turn them so that they are well coated. Leave for at least 1 hour, turning the slices over occasionally so that they absorb the spirit.

For the batter, beat the egg yolks with the oil and salt, then stir in the flour and mix well. Now beat in the water gradually and vigorously, squashing any lumps. Leave for an hour, then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Heat at least 2cm of oil in a large frying pan. Dip the apple slices in the batter – about 5 at a time – making sure they are well covered with batter.

Lift each one out carefully and lower into the hot oil. The oil must be sizzling but not too hot, or the fritters will brown before the apple is soft inside.

Fry in batches, and turn the slices over to brown both sides. Lift out with a slotted palette and drain on kitchen paper before serving. Pass the caster sugar for everyone to sprinkle on.tart or sweet apples 4 large

DELIA SMITH'S RICE PUDDING

 INGREDIENTS

Pudding rice measured to the 175ml level in a glass measuring jug

410g evaporated milk 

850ml whole milk

40g golden granulated sugar

1 whole nutmeg

25g butter

 

 METHOD

 Pre-heat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2

This is simplicity itself, place the rice and sugar in the ovenproof dish, pour in the milk and the evaporated milk and give it all a good stir.

Grate the whole nutmeg all over the surface (it may seem a lot but it needs it), then, finally, dot the butter on top in little flecks. Next just carefully pop the dish in the oven on the centre shelf for 2¼ hours. After the pudding has had 45 minutes slide the shelf out and give everything a good stir.

At the end of this time the rice grains will have become swollen, with pools of creamy liquid all around them, and, of course, all that lovely skin!
 

NIGELLA LAWSON'S FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE OLIVE OIL CAKE

INTRODUCTION

Although I first came up with this recipe because I had someone coming for supper who - genuinely - couldn't eat wheat or dairy, it is so meltingly good, I now make it all the time for those whose life and diet are not so unfairly constrained, myself included.
It is slightly heavier with the almonds - though not in a bad way - so if you want a lighter crumb, rather than a squidgy interior, and are not making the cake for the gluten-intolerant, then replace the 150g ground almonds / 1½ cups almond meal with 125g plain flour / ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour. This has the built-in bonus of making it perhaps more suitable for an everyday cake.
Made with the almonds, it has more of supper-party pudding feel about it and I love it still a bit warm, with some raspberries or some such on the side, as well as a dollop of mascarpone or ice cream.

INGREDIENTS

150 millilitres regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
50 grams good-quality cocoa powder (sifted)
125 millilitres boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
150 grams ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
200 grams caster sugar
3 large eggs

METHOD

 Preheat your oven to 170°C/150°C Fan/gas mark 3/325ºF. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.

 Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.

 In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.

 Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.

 Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.

 Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.

 Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

NIGELLA LAWSON'S PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

 This is a bit before my time, but I have vague nursery memories of a friend of my grandmother's making a version of this, which she would serve with a warm sauce made of pineapple juice thickened with - I imagine - cornflour. That I can do without, but I am still of the mind that it is perfectly all right to make this with canned pineapple rings. I feel it is slightly bad sport to start peeling and slicing your own pineapple.
Anyway, canned pineapple is just fine, though I advise going for the one in its own juice rather than in syrup, and I add some of the juice to the sponge, too. This seems to make it light and fluffy.

INGREDIENTS

butter (for greasing)

2 tablespoons sugar

6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)

11 glace cherries (approx. 75g total weight)

100 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100 grams soft butter

100 grams caster sugar

2 large eggs

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).
2. Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.
3. Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
4. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
5. Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
6. Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft - ha! - move, turn it upside-down.

DELIA SMITH'S BAKED APPLE AND ALMOND PUDDING

• INGREDIENTS
•  
• 1 lb cooking apples, peeled and sliced
• 2 oz soft brown sugar
• 4 oz ground almonds
• 4 oz butter at room temperature
• 4 oz castor sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten

METHOD

 Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

 You will need a round, ovenproof baking dish with a diameter of 8 inches (20 cm), 1¾ inches (4.5 cm) deep, buttered.

Place the apples in a saucepan with the brown sugar and approximately 2 tablespoons of water, simmer gently until soft, and then arrange them in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy and then beat in the eggs a little at a time.

When all the egg is in, carefully and lightly fold in the ground almonds.

Now spread this mixture over the apples, and even out the surface with the back of a tablespoon.

Then bake on a highish shelf in the oven for exactly 1 hour.

This pudding is equally good served warm or cold – either way, it's nice with some chilled pouring cream.  Once cooled, it will keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.

SPELT SCONES

INGREDIENTS

250g spelt flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 pinch salt

2 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp olive oil

125 milk 

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with parchment and pre-heat the oven.
2. Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and blend together well.
3. Sprinkle the honey and oil over the flour and use a fork to blend them until the mixtures looks like breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the milk and bring everything together to form a soft slightly sticky dough.
5. Turn out the dough onto a flour dusted surface and gently press into a 25x12cm/10x5” rectangle.
6. Cut this into two 12cm/5”squares, then cut each square into triangles.
7. Transfer the triangles to the prepared baking tray.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 220˚C, Fan 200˚C, 425˚F, Gas 7

RYE SCONES

INGREDIENTS

200g rye flour

4 tsp baking powder  

1 tbsp sugar 

3 tbsp oil  

125ml water 

flour for dusting 

 METHOD

 Dust a large baking tray with a little flour and pre-heat the oven.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl, add the sugar and salt and blend together well.

Add the oil to the bowl and using a fork, blend everything together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the water then use your hands to bring everything together to form a soft mass of dough.

Dust the worktop with flour, place the dough in the middle and flatten it, with floured hands, until 2cm/¾” thick.

Using a 5cm/2” round cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and lift them on to the prepared baking tray.

Gather the off-cuts into a ball, flatten the dough, cut further circles of dough and put these on the baking tray.

Bake for 15 - 18 minutes at 220˚C, Fan 200˚C, 425˚F, Gas 7

DOVE'S FARM WHOLEMEAL SCONES

INGREDIENTS

200g wholemeal self raising flour  
1 tbsp brown sugar 
50g butter 
150ml milk
 flour for dusting 

METHOD 

Dust a large baking tray with a little flour and pre-heat the oven.

Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the sugar and blend together well.

Add the butter to the bowl and using a fork, blend everything together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Stir in the milk then use your hands to bring together a soft mass of dough.

Lightly dust the worktop with flour, place the dough in the middle and flatten it to 3cm/1” with your hands.

Press a round pastry cutter or upturned coffee cup into the dough to cut out circles.

Lift the dough circles onto the prepared baking tray.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at

220˚C, Fan 200˚C, 425˚F, Gas 7 until golden brown

LEMON PAVLOVA FROM NIGELLA LAWSON

 LEMON PAVLOVA FROM NIGELLA LAWSON

Ever since my first pav in How To Eat, I have been something of a pavaholic. For me, acidity is key. I never understood why anyone would pile sweet fruit on top of something that is essentially – and dreamily – a cross between a marshmallow and a meringue. So naturally, a lemon pavlova made perfect sense. I had the idea – yes, really – from the actor Michael Sheen. This didn’t come in the form of a personal tip, I should admit. I saw him create a great pile of lemony pavs on the British TV show The Great Comic Relief Bake Off, and it inspired me. Diolch Michael (if I may). And that’s “Thank You” in Welsh by the way.)

You will note there are a lot of sliced almonds required: that is because they are the topping of the pav and not mere decoration; the crunch they offer is essential.

I make this with a jar of shop-bought lemon curd, but obviously I wouldn’t stop you from making your own. Should you want, proceed as follows: whisk together 2 extra large eggs, the yolks from 2 more extra large eggs, and ¾ cup superfine sugar in a heavy-based saucepan (off the heat). Add the finely grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons and 7 tablespoons soft unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes or teaspooned out into similar-sized blobs, and put the pan over a medium heat, stirring constantly with a little flat whisk, until thickened. This will take around 5–7 minutes, but keep taking it off the heat – stirring or whisking all the while – at regular intervals during this time. When thickened, pour and scrape into a cold bowl and let it cool, stirring occasionally.

I am childishly excited about this pavlova: a reminder that good ideas come unbidden, much as happiness does.

Ingredients

6 egg whites (feel free to use unseasoned egg whites from a carton, if wished)
1 ¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
2½ teaspoons cornstarch
2 unwaxed lemons
½ cup sliced almonds
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
1 1/3 cups jar lemon curd (see Intro)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form, then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny.

Sprinkle the cornstarch over the meringue, then grate in the zest – a fine microplane is best for this  - of 1 lemon and add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

Gently fold until everything is thoroughly mixed in.

 Mound onto the lined baking tray in a fat circle approximately 10 inches in diameter, smoothing the sides and the top with a knife or spatula.

Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 300°F, and cook for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, but don’t leave it anywhere cold as this will make it crack too quickly.

 If you think your kitchen is too cool, then leave the pavlova inside the oven with the door completely open. 

When you’re ready to eat, turn the pavlova onto a large flat plate or board with the underside uppermost – I do this before I sit down to the meal in question and let it stand till dessert time. This is so the tender marshmallow belly of the pav melds with the soft topping.

FIFTEENS

FIFTEENS

Method

15 large marshmallows
15 digestive biscuits, crushed
15 red candied cherries, halved
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Method

Cut the marshmallows in halves using scissors, and place in a large bowl. Toss with the digestive biscuits and candied cherries. Gradually stir in the sweetened condensed milk until the mixture becomes a soft, moist dough. It should not be too dry, so you may need to add a bit more of the milk.
Spread a generous layer of coconut out on a clean surface, and place the dough on top of it. Use your hands to form the dough into a long thick sausage, making sure it is well coated with coconut. Wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
Unwrap the long piece of dough, and cut into slices to serve.

MISS SOUTH'S PINEAPPLE CREAMS

MISS SOUTH'S PINEAPPLE CREAMS

A recipe that just leapt out at me on this traybake inspired cookbook meandering was the now somewhat unfashionable pineapple cream. A small pastry tart case filled with crushed pineapple and whipped cream before being topped with pineapple water icing, these were a real favourite of me and my granny when I was wee. Trips into Lurgan town centre on market day weren’t complete without two of these in their little foil cases from one of the fantastic (and sorely missed) home bakeries every Northern Irish town centre had in those days.
Shelves at places like O’Hara’s, McErleans, Jeffers or Kennedy’s groaned with baps, farls, pan loaves,  gravy rings and sweet buns, biscuits and tarts. You couldn’t miss the pineapple creams with their vivid yellow toppings and we brought two home in a white paper bag to be eaten with a cuppa at the kitchen table. Strangely I don’t remember eating them with anyone’s else except her and I’ve certainly never heard of anyone making them at home, so it seemed time to try both.
- Miss South

Ingredients

    400g shortcrust pastry (not sweetened)
    2 x 425g cans pineapple chunks or crushed pineapple, juiced reserved
    400ml double cream
    400g icing sugar
    100ml boiling pineapple juice
    pinch of yellow food powder or liquid colouring

 (makes one 9″ tart or 12 small tarts)

Method

I have to admit that I used shopbought pastry for this pineapple cream tart because my homemade stuff shrinks like wool on a boil wash and while I’m trying to work out what I’m doing wrong, I rolled out some commercial shortcrust instead. If you are more pastry proficient than me, this Dan Lepard recipe for pastry is a good basis.
Line a 9″ tart tin or a 12 whole small tart or bun tray and chill the pastry for about 30 minutes before blind baking for 25 minutes on 200°C. Remove the lining and baking beans after this and bake naked for another 5-7 minutes to give a golden finish. Allow the pastry to cool completely.
Drain the pineapple chunks and reserve the juice. These pineapple creams always used crushed pineapple with its soft almost sticky texture but this is much harder to get these days than it used to be. Del Monte sell it or you can simply crush your chunks with a potato masher. Drain off any excess juice after this and layer the pineapple into the tart tin.
Whip the cream and spread it over the pineapple evenly. Smooth the top down as much as possible with a spatula or a palette knife.
Pour the reserved pineapple juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil, adding the food colouring now if using the liquid version. Tip the icing sugar into a large bowl and add the pinch of yellow food powder if using. Pour the hot pineapple juice into a measuring jug and add about 25mls at a time, whisking well. 100ml will give you a loose but not pourable texture, but you might want a drop or two more if it is too stiff to spread. It should be a soft yellow colour rather than looking like the background of a smiley face.
Use a spoon to pour the icing over the cream. It should be thick enough to obscure the cream completely. Allow the icing to set for at least 1 hour before serving. The pineapple will begin to leech its juice after a few hours and the pastry will become sticky and a little difficult to cut in a large tart. No one will notice when they are eating it but don’t make it too far in advance. Serve with tea and a certain amount of nostalgia.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favourite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavoursome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almonds provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour. But there is more to it than that.  By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

for the cake
    200 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
    200 grams caster sugar
    200 grams ground almonds
    100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal)
    1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (see NOTE below)
    3 large eggs
    zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup)

for the syrup

    juice of 2 lemons
    125 grams icing sugar

Method

    Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter.
    Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F.
    Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
    Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
    Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes.
    It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin.
    Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan.
    Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done.
    Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

CLAUDIA RODEN'S MIDDLE EASTERN ORANGE CAKE

CLAUDIA RODEN'S MIDDLE EASTERN ORANGE CAKE

Ingredients

2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs, beaten (use 5 if large)
250 gms ground almonds
250 gms sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Wash and boil the oranges unpeeled, in water to cover for 1 1/2 hours or until they are very soft.
The oranges float, so you might put something (like a saucer) on top to keep them covered with the water. Let them cool, then cut them open, remove the pips and turn them into a puree in a food processor.
I have tried microwaving the oranges for about 8 minutes on high as an alternative to the boiling. Seems OK to me!
Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
Add all the other ingredients, mix thoroughly and pour into a buttered and floured cake tin with a removable base if possible.
Bake in a preheated moderately hot 190ºC oven for about 1 hour.
If it is still very wet leave it in the oven for a little longer. Cool in the tin before turning out.

APPLE SHARLOTKA

APPLE SHARLOTKA

Ingredients

6 large, tart apples, such as Granny Smiths
3 large eggs
1 cup (200 grams)  sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

 Oil for greasing pan

 Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
 Butter the paper and the sides of the pan.
Peel, halve and core your apples, then chop them into medium-sized chunks. (I cut each half into four “strips” then sliced them fairly thinly  -  about 1/4-inch -  in the other direction.) Pile the cut apples directly in the prepared pan.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat eggs with sugar until thick and ribbons form on the surface of the beaten eggs. Beat in vanilla, then stir in flour with a spoon until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
Pour over apples in pan, using a spoon or spatula to spread the batter so that it covers all exposed apples. (Updated to clarify: Spread the batter and press it down into the apple pile. The top of the batter should end up level with the top of the apples.)

Bake in preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out free of batter.
 Cool in pan for 10 minutes on rack, then flip out onto another rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip it back onto a serving platter.
Dust lightly with ground cinnamon.

NIGELLA LAWSON'S APPLE AND ALMOND CAKE

APPLE AND ALMOND CAKE

Ingredients

for the apple puree

    3 tart eating apples (such as Braeburns)
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    2 teaspoons caster sugar

for the cake

    1 splash of vegetable oil to grease tin
    8 large eggs
    325 grams ground almonds
    275 grams caster sugar
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    50 grams flaked almonds

Method

Peel, core and chop the apples roughly. Put them in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar and bring the pan to a bubble over a medium heat. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes or until you can mash the apple to a rough puree with a wooden spoon or fork. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180ºC/350ºF; oil a 25cm / 10 inch springform tin with almond or a flavourless vegetable oil and line the bottom with baking parchment.

Put the cooled puree in the processor with the eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar and 1 tablespoon - or generous squeeze - of lemon juice and blitz to a puree. Pour and scrape, with a rubber spatula for ease, into the prepared tin, sprinkle the flaked almonds on top, and bake for 45 minutes.

 It's worth checking after 35 minutes, as ovens do vary, and you might well find its cooked earlier - or indeed you may need to give a few minutes longer.

Put on a wire rack to cool slightly, then spring open. This cake is best served slightly warm, though still good cold.

DOVE'S FARM BUCKWHEAT AND ORANGE DROP SCONES

DOVE'S FARM BUCKWHEAT AND ORANGE DROP SCONES

Ingredients

100g Buckwheat Flour
1 tbsp Icing Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Cinnamon
1 Egg
1 Orange rind and juice
140 ml Water
1 tbsp Sunflower Oil

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
Grate the orange and squeeze the juice into a measuring jug.
Add water until you have 150ml/5floz of liquid (you may not need it all, or slightly more than specified depending on the orange) . 
Mix the egg into the liquid then pour everything into the flour.
Stir to make a smooth batter.
Lightly oil a heavy frying pan and heat well. 
Put a large spoonful of batter into the hot pan, smoothing to a circle.
Cook until bubbles form and the bottom is golden, then turn over and cook on the other side.

DOVE'S FARM BLINIS

DOVE'S FARM BLINIS

Ingredients

2     Eggs
150 g    Buckwheat Flour
2 tsps    Baking Powder
300 ml    Milk
2 tbsps    Oil

Method

Whisk the eggs until frothy.
Mix in the flour, baking powder and milk.
Beat well to make a smooth batter smooth.
Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan.
Put tablespoons of the batter into the hot pan to make 5cm/2” pancakes.
Cook until small bubbles appear and underside is golden.
Turn over the blini and cook the other side.
Continue until the batter is used.
Cover the blini with film or foil until required.