ginger & salted carmel cake

This is a cake that is guaranteed to make an appearance towards the end of the year since it has such Christmassy flavours.. The warming spike of ground ginger, with crystallized and stem ginger balamced with the sweetness of ginger syrup & delicious Salted caramel is the perfect flavour combination especially at Christmas time


To make a 9 inch square cake you will need

12 oz butter
12 oz soft light brown sugar
12 oz self rasing flour
6 eggs
1 heaped tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp crystallized ginger
1 small jar of stem ginger chopped up

For the syrup 

Syrup from the jar of stem ginger
2 tbsps golden syrup
2 tbsps of Salted caramel
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp hot boiled water

Salted caramel to finish


• Preheat your oven to 160c fan

• Grease and line a square 9 inch tin, set aside

• In a freestanding mixer,  beat the sugar and butter till light and fluffy

• Add in the flour eggs and ground ginger, mix together until combined well - but dont over mix it

• Fold in the stem and crystallized ginger. Pour into the tin and bake for 45 -50 mins or until the edges of the cake slightly come away from the tin and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake and set aside

• Make up the syrup by mixing all the ingredients together in a small bowl - I just used my cereal bowl

• Use a tooth pick to make tiny holes all over the top of the cake and slowly pour or brush the syrup all over the top whilst the cake is still warm and in the tin.

• Leave the cake to completely cool otherwise it will fall apart - just before serving drizzle a load of salted caramel all over the top of the cake

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Following on from my Mince meat recipe, here is my recipe for my quick, easy but delicious mince pies ..

The amount for the pastry will make a batch of 12, so of you're wanting to make more just double up on the pastry ingredients.

With the mincemeat you'll have plenty left over from just 12 pies but you can always store any left over in the fridge

 For the pastry bases you will need 1 batch of my Sweet short crust pastry and a batch of my mince meat


• Start by lightly flouring your work surface, roll out the pastry to about the thickness of a £1 coin

• Using a pastry cutter slightly bigger than the holes in the cupcake tin, cut ot 12 rounds. Gently press each round into the tin holes

• Fill each case with 1 - 1 1/2 tsp with the mincemeat

• Use any left over pastry to either cut out shapes and place them on top of each pie, or make cut out lids to place on top.

• If you top your mince pies with lids, brush the edges with a little water and seal together  by pressing together  with a fork and poke a small hole in the top to help the steam escape.

• Brush the lids/shapes with a little egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 200c/180c fan for 18- 20 minutes or until golden brown

• Leave to cool slightly  before transferring to a wire rack to cool, and and lightly dust with icing sugar before serving

Thanks Sharon

Now i know i don't celebrate christmas but it doesnt mean i can't indulge in all the foods that are a classic and guaranteed to make an appearance at this time of year.

Growing up I always thought that mince pies had actual mince in them - please tell me i am not alone in this - and because we never ate them at home or knew anyone in my family or friends that liked them, i never bothered to investigate what they actually were.


Fast forward to the first time trying  mince pie in school after discovering the actual contents, I found that i didn't like them at all. Every year since then I've tried to force myself into liking them and it just made me dislike them more ever time.

Thank the lord for my amazing friend Sharon who brought her home made mince pies to work last year, i geared myself up to try one since she promised they tasted nothing like shop bought ones, and boy was I amazed at how delicious they were.

So from trying a home made one I knew i had to make my own version. I wasted no time whatsoever and found myself indulging in making as many mince pies as possible and handing them out left right and centre.

So to make my home made mincemeat for mince pies you will need:

170g currants,
          raisins
          sultanas
          dried cranberries
100g mixed peel
1 small cooking apple, peeled and chopped
100g butter
25g vegetable suet
115g soft light brown muscavado sugar
95g soft dark brown muscavado sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice

          ground Nutmeg
100ml orange juice

             apple juice
Zest of 1 lemon

• Start by placing all the dried fruit into a bowl along with the cinnamon, mixed spice and both fruit juices. Stir till well incorprated and leave to soak over night - i normally mix mine up early evening and leave till the next evening before cooking

• When ready to cook, take your soaked fruit along with the rest of the ingredients into a heavy based pan, and on a medium heat stir everything together until the butter and sugar completely melt

• Bring the mixture to boiling point on a high heat, then lower the heat completely and leave to simmer until the mixture has thickened slighty, and the fruit juices have reduced.

• Leave to completley cool, and use to make up mince pies using a batch of my Sweet short crust pastry You'll need about 250g of mince meat to make 12 mince pies.

Store any left over mince meat in sterilised jars and keep in the fridge for up to 6 months

Gingerbread men

Ginger bread men are something I have never (yes never.. you read that right) ever made in my entire time since discovering a love of baking, but I thought an attempt was well overdue and now I have attempted them I know they will be appearing in my kitchen quite possibly all year round.


I decorated mine simply with an outline of royal icing and added a simple smile, and three dots for buttons. You can go as detailed as you wish, let the kids go all out with colours or go classic and keep them totally plain.

To make about 6-9 gingerbread men you will need:

75g soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp treacle
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp  ground ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
95g butter
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
235g plain flour

• Place the butter, both syrups, sugar, soda bicarb and water into a saucepan and melt on a low heat, stirring together to ensure the mixture doesn't stick or start to burn. Once melted remove from the heat and leave to cool 
• In a bowl, add the flour and all the spices and stir together. Slowly add the cooled syrup mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once all the syrup mixture has been added, use your hands to bring the dough together and ensure there are no bits of flour that haven't been mixed in properly
• Leave the dough to completely cool, trying to roll it out and handle it will be difficult whilst it is warm and it will just tear. I left mine for about 25- 30 minutes, alternatively you can place the the dough in the fridge to cool it quicker, for about 15 minutes. Ensure you wrap it in cling film if you're placing it in the fridge.
• Once the dough is cool enough to handle, flour your work top and rolling pin as this is a dough that will easily stick and you want to try and handle it as less as possible so that you're not over working the dough.
• Roll your dough out to 3-4mm thick if you want biscuits that are thin and snappy or for softer and thicker gingerbread roll out to 4-6mm thick. Use gingerbread cookie cutters to cut out your gingerbread men, or whatever shapes you fancy.
• Bake them on a greaseproof lined tray, in a preheated oven at 160c (fan) for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just slightly colour.
• Leave to slightly cool once removed from the oven, then place onto a wire rack to completely cool before decorating as desired

Mint chocolate brownies

Brownies are something that I dont actually make that often, I'm not really sure why in all honesty as they are actually so easy and you can make up all sorts of flavours from the classic sticky chocolate to out of the box rocky road brownies.

I decided to go with mint chocolate brownies this time around as we are in December which for fellow foodies and bakers means Christmas preps, and I think mint is a classic flavour for this time of year.


For my mint chocolate brownies you will need :

250g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
4 large free range eggs
250g caster sugar
2 heaped tablespoons self raising flour
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa powder
1 bag aero mint bubbles
1 box mint matchmakers

• Start by preheating your oven to 160c (fan), grease and line a 20cm tin.
• Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a simmering pan of water. Once melted, set aside to slightly cool.
• Whilst the melted chocolate is cooling, whisk together the eggs and caster sugar in a freestanding mixer or an electric whisk. The eggs should be pale and fluffy and almost double their volume.
• Stir in the cooled melted chocolate, and stir through gently to combine. Sieve over the cocoa powder and self raising flour and carefully stir together until all the flour is mixed in and their are no lumps.
• Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread out evenly. Take the mint aero bubbles and gently press them into the batter - I used about half the packet. Then take the matchmakers, roughly snap them up and scatter all over the top of the brownie batter- I used almost the whole box
• Bake the brownies in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until crisp on the top and just slightly soft.
• Leave to cool slightly before cutting. Serve warm with Ice cream or cooled completely on their own.