Cheat's Easter Sunday dessert

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! Here is my cheats cake. I bought a Sainsburys new york style baked vanilla cheesecake then topped it with low-fat creme fraiche and two packets of Cadbury's mini eggs. Et voila! Went down a treat at lunch and easily fed 10!

Halloween Inspiration - food and drink

How cute are these cakes? Molly Bakes have a pop-up shop at The Hoxton Hotel, 81 Great Eastern Street, London EC2. I am a little in love with the eyeball cake pops and will take great inspiration from the Halloween cupcakes - wow! If you are in the area go along...

Ghoul mask meringues from Melrose and Morgan

Or how about these amazing and tasty offerings from Melrose and Morgan?
Chocolate and Chilli biscuits sound delicious at £4.50 a pack or there's a gingerbread loaf for £4.95 which would be the perfect team-mate for a spicy Halloween cocktail or two... Garish ghoul mask meringues make for a sweet snack on Halloween too and are £4.95 for a bag of three.

Cocomaya Chocolate Skulls

Mexican Day of the Dead anyone? Cocomaya is celebrating Halloween in style this year with these gorgeous embellished chocolate skulls for £5.50. They also have pumpkin ganaches (£1.50), pumpkin pies (£30 for a whole pie, £4.65 for tart-sized) and gingerbread. Check out Cocomaya for Halloween!

Min Jiang Moutai Monster cocktail

Blood red cocktails are so Halloween and here is the Min Jiang Moutai Monster cocktail from Min Jiang, the fine-dining Chinese restaurant in Kensington. This is a wicked mix of Moutai, a famous Chinese liquor with Kahlua, vanilla and double cream. Apparently it has quite a kick! It is available only on 31st October in the bar and is £25.

Nigel Slater Apricot Cake...

I've taken this from Appetite by Nigel Slater and it's called A simple cake to serve with summer fruit.

Ingredients 250g butter, 250g caster sugar, a lemon (unwaxed), 75g ground almonds, 100g plain flour, 100g soft dried apricots, 4 large free range lightly beaten eggs.

You'll need a shallow 23cm cake tin lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and to set the oven at 180degrees C or gas mark 4.

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until white and fluffy. Grate the zest from the lemon and squeeze its juice. Mix the ground almonds and flour together and whizz the apricots in a food processor until finely chopped.

Add the eggs to the butter a little at a time with the beater on slow. Turn the machine off and add the lemon zest and a third of the almonds and flour, then turn the mixer on slow until the dry ingredients are all mixed in.

Add the second and then the third lot of almonds and flour, switching the machine off each time otherwise you will get a heavy cake.

With the machine still on slow mix in the lemon juice and the apricots. Transfer to the lined cake tin, preferably with a rubber spatula and gently smooth the top as you go. Bake until firm and a skewer comes out of the middle clean (about 35/40 mins).

I served this with a fruit compote made with raspberries, strawberrys, blueberries and redcurrants (all frozen) mixed with sugar and boiled with a cup of water and thick creme fraiche!

Orange and Almond Cake

This is a fantastically different recipe as it contains no fat, no flour but isn't all saintly as it does have a lot of sugar. Serve with creme fraiche or ice cream..

Ingredients
2 large oranges
200g caster sugar (I use golden)
200g ground almonds
1.5 tsp baking powder
6 medium eggs

For the drizzle
100g caster sugar

1. Peel the rind off the oranges with a peeler and put in a separate saucepan for later. Cover the oranges with water and simmer for two hours until soft.
2. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and mix together then pour into a 20cm lined baking tin.
3. Bake on 200c/180c fan/gas mark 6 for 50 mins - well this is what it says in the recipe but to be honest this isn't enough and I give it around 15 mins longer.
4. Remove from tin and cool on rack.
5. Make drizzle with sugar, orange peel and 300ml water - simmer until liquid becomes thicker then drizzle over the cake.
Serve immediately or the next day - to be honest it's way better the next day!

Christmas Cake - ready for 'feeding' from now until Christmas

Christmas for me is all about family traditions both old and new. The start of the countdown to Christmas is, as far as I'm concerned, nothing to do with the lights going up on Oxford Street or talk about X Factor having yet another Christmas number one. For me the true start to Christmas is when I mix, measure, bake, feed and then decorate my Christmas cake. I have tried several cake recipes over the past few years but in my honest opinion my recipe of choice has to come from....

This is my original copy published and purchased in 1990 - can't quite believe that is 21 years ago when I was in my first home and preparing to have the family over for Christmas.I have flirted with Nigella and Nigel since, but for Christmas, well Delia does it every time. From her red cabbage baked with apples and spices to her mince pies she has it covered. Apparently this has been republished so get yourself a copy.

Here is her Classic Christmas Cake recipe....

You will need
450g currants, 175g sultanas and 175 currants, 50g glace cherries rinsed and chopped, 50g candied peel chopped, 3 tbsp brandy, 225g plain flour, half teaspoon salt, quarter teaspoon grated nutmeg, half teaspoon ground mixed spice. 225g unsalted butter, 225g soft brown sugar, 4 large eggs, 50g chopped almonds, 1 dessertspoon black treacle, zest of one lemon and one orange, a 20cm round cake tin.

The night before you put all the dried fruit and mixed peel into a mixing bowl and mix in the brandy - leave for at least 12 hours.

Next day pre-heat oven to 140 degrees centigrade. Sift the flour, salt and spices into one bowl. In a separate bowl beat the eggs. Whisk the butter and sugar together then gradually add the egg to avoid curdling (but don't worry if this happens). Fold in the flour, fruit, chopped nuts and treacle and finally the grated lemon and orange zests.

Grease and line your tin with greaseproof paper and evenly spread the mixture in it.

Cover the top of the cake with a double layer circle with a small hole in the centre (about the size of a 50p). Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for - now this is where Delia and I disagree because she says 4 - 41/2 hours - I find 2 1/2 hours is fine and any longer in my oven burns it. So I suggest you set the timer for a couple of hours then after that keep checking quite frequently until a you think it's cooked through (test this by putting a knife in). Cool the cake in the tin for 30 mins, remove and place on a wire rack until cold. Then it's ready to be wrapped in double greaseproof paper and stored in a tin. I then 'feed' my cake once a week with spoons of brandy and just before Christmas I decorate it with ready rolled icing and marzipan and of course a snowman and Santa!

I love to eat Christmas cake like they do in the North of England - with either a strong Stilton or cheddar cheese - which ever cheese you prefer it should be strong enough to make your tongue itch!