A scaled-up version of our Madeira Cake recipe

I have had a request for a scaled up version of my madeira cake recipe for a wedding cake. The texture of madeira cake is firm enough to cope with ornate icing which makes it a good choice for wedding cakes. However, you do have to remember that it does not keep like a fruit [...]

Helen's Cream Cheese Topping

This a recipe provided by someone who’s been working on it for a while. She uses it on carrot cake. The ingredients and method are hers and you’re welcome to contact her with any queries by leaving a comment on this post. It sounds good to me.

For this recipe you will need an electric hand [...]

Balti-style Lamb

This is a great meal to make with leftovers from the weekend’s lamb joint. As it uses cooked lamb, the cooking time is fairly short, so it’s a good choice when you fancy something tasty (that isn’t just cold lamb and veg.), but you don’t have much time.

We cook Indian food in a flat-bottomed wok [...]

Fast and Fabulous Fruit Loaf

This is a fabulously fruity and amazingly easy fruit loaf. It’s a great recipe to make with children. I made this with mine when they were not much more than 18 months old. Once they can stand on a chair, they can help to choose the proportions of the dried fruit and put handfuls onto [...]

Traditional Easter Simnel Cake

This is our favourite recipe for a traditional Simnel Cake. It’s based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe with tweaks to make it work dairy free. The marzipan balls on top are great fun for the children to make. There are supposed to be eleven (for the disciples of Christ minus Judas, of course) but, when you [...]

Curried Parsnip Soup

This is very easy to prepare. The parsnips have a lovely sweetness which goes really well with the spices. If you use a pressure cooker, this is ready to eat in under 20 minutes!

For this recipe you will need either a pressure cooker or a large, heavy-bottomed pan/flame-proof casserole (eg. Le Creuset) and a hand-held [...]

Sausage casserole

This is one of our family favourites for a weektime dinner. It scores highly on several fronts: it is easy and fairly quick to assemble; it is tasty; it can be thrown in the oven to look after itself. What more could you ask?

You need to go for good quality sausages for this. I use [...]

Spiced Apple Punch

This is totally alcohol free, but has all the flavour of an alcoholic punch. I have had people unable to believe that it really is completely safe for the drivers at a party.

You will need a large preserving pan for this.

Recipe: Spiced Apple Punch

Summary: A non-alcoholic fruit punch

Ingredients

4 boxes of apple [...]

Midwinter Venison

This is a recipe for the cold, dark winter evenings. It is rich and satisfying and has the added bonus of being a dish which does most of the work for you and can be made in advance, which means that you can cook this for guests and still get to talk to them [...]

Sticky Fingers

To make these treats you will need a heavy-bottomed saucepan and a shallow baking tray. A swiss roll tin would do fine, but remember that you are going to be cutting the fingers up in the tin, so don’t use a precious, non-stick tin.

Recipe: Sticky Fingers

Summary: Delicious, sticky little treats

Ingredients

4oz (110g) Tomor
4oz [...]