Honeycomb.

Ok...before you think anything....don't. Because you're wrong. I'm not mental for saying that it's easy peasy to make what is essentially the inside of a Crunchy. I shouldn't be arrested for suggesting that you make this in an emergency, last minute, for an occasion that requires pud, or at least a sweet offering. And it is most definitely not silly to say that YOU could DO THIS.

While yes, it is true that some magic occurs, what is with bicarb and all it's crazy uses, it's not actually a requirement that you are a witch, all you do is throw the ingredients together and some spell/scientific reaction occurs all by itself. Mix, Pour, Done.

It's one of those genius things that makes everyone think YOU are the genius and slaved over a hot stove just for their benefit and they will therefore think you love them very much and are very generous and will love you back and maybe even buy you presents.

That's not to say that you DON'T love them millions for taking the easy way out, but you probably just have lots of washing to do or maybe you've used all your baking time watching re-runs of Gilmore Girls...I don't know, I'm only guessing...so when you're in a fix, don't fret, just chuck bicarb at stuff. With Love and Cake.

Honeycomb.

Original recipe from Nigella Express

A few notes:

• This is best eaten as soon as poss really, it fairly quickly goes a bit bendy and overly chewy. It's so speedy to knock together I would make it an hour or 2 before it's needed.

Makes enough for 6-8 to have a nibble

You will need

A large piece of foil, oiled, set over a heatproof surface

100g caster sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• Mix together the sugar and syrup together in a small-medium saucepan.
• Place the pan over a medium heat, don't stir beyond this point.
• You want the mixture first to melt, then turn into a golden goo, then bubble fairly fiercely to the colour of maple syrup...hopefully taking around 3 minutes.
• Take the pan off the heat and quickly whisk in the bicarb...it goes mighty poofy at this point, that's what we want.
• Pour this immediately onto your oiled foil and leave it to cool and set.
• When it's hard, bash or snap it into pieces.

Snickerdoodles...with plenty of very informative pictures.

I dislike very much, recipes that are not accompanied by pictures...it’s NOT that I’m not very clever and can’t imagine what the wordy instructions of recipes are supposed to culminate in...no really it isn’t, I really am clever, at least when cake is involved, maybe not physics so much. But firstly, a recipe without a picture is much less likely to be attempted in the first place, and this surely can’t just be the case in my kitchen. A picture gives you an immediate, accurate and objective view of the recipe as a whole and an strong indication as to whether it’s something you might fancy trying and could enjoy.

Secondly, a picture gives you a detailed insight into what the recipe author is intending you to produce, meaning that all the little discrepancies that occur between different ovens and all the other little bits and bobs that are involved in the translation from highly tuned test kitchens to real person cooking; cooking at home, at the hands of the people that cook to eat, are more easily bypassed.

This is what happened....I made Snickerdoodles under Nigella’s guidance, but sans pictorial aid, and well, they are mighty lovely and kind of shortbready and the perfect spice combination for this time of year. Buuuuut they turned out to be round ball shapes, and when I Googled for further reference...I found *gasp* flat Snickerdoodles....eeeeverywhere. So here I am, mid biscuit fail, when I read that perhaps maybe possibly their name originates from the German word Schnecke, which describes a snail shape...and mine are indeed snail shaped AND posses the crackly surface which apparently is another important attribute.

So without Nigella making any wordy or picture reference to her intended Snicke shape, I am confused. Confused yet delighted I must clarify, because whatever shape these treats are suppoooosed to be, they really are delicious and sit perfectly next to a hothot coffee on a dark afternoon. So recipe writer people...pleaseplease can we always have photos, but Nige, on this occasion I am willing to forgive, firstly because, well, you’re Nige, and secondly, because these are damn fine biscuits and most things that are not quite what they are supposed to be are, in fact, all the better for it. With Love and Cake.

Snickerdoodles.

From How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson.

A few notes:

• Nigella says this recipe makes 32 biscuits....she is a big fat liar-pants because I only got near to 20. 
• I've seen lots of different variations on this theme across the bloggersphere...so if you fancy being adventurous, have a Google. 
• Freshly grate your nutmeg...always. 
• If you have any cinnamon sugar left, it is wonderful sprinkled on top of frothy coffee.

Makes 18-20

You will need 

A baking sheet, greased or lined

2 tbsp and 100g caster sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

250g plain flour 

½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

¾ tsp baking powder

pinch salt

125g butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

• Preheat your oven to 180°c.
• First, stir together the 2 tbsp of caster sugar and the cinnamon. Pour out onto a plate or saucer and set aside for now.
• In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt and set that aside too.
• In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla.
• Stir in the flour mixture a bit at a time until everything is incorporated and you have a smooth paste...this takes a bit of effort and patience and you will probably be left with a few rubbley bits but that's ok.
• Now, to shape the biscuits pull off a walnut sized piece of the dough with your fingers and roll it into a ball.
• Roll the ball in the cinnamon sugar until well coated and pop onto your prepared baking sheet.
• Do the same with the rest of the dough and bake for around 15 minutes, when the biscuits should be deep bronze and crackly.
• Let sit on the baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool. 

Morning Coffee Cups.

Have you heard of Hope and Greenwood? Well they are wonderfully genius, wonderfully eccentric sweet makers. They make sweets with names like Pavlova Islands and Mallows D’amour and Squirrel Nibbles. There was even a scene of Made in Chelsea in one of their shops...you knowwww, the one with Millie and Francis and Jamie and....oh please don’t judge me.

Anyhoo...I’ve not been lucky enough to try any of the sweets made by their own fair hands but I am in possession of one of their magical books so I get to make some made with mmmmyyy own fair hands.

I’ve had the book since January (thank you Phoebe) but didn’t make anything from it for a good while. Of course I read it right through...I have a little cookbook obsession and have read many multiple times...but it was sweets, and, you know, making sweets is hard.

Stoopidstoopid me. Ok making SOME sweets is hard. I wouldn’t recommend making toffee after too many Gs&Ts...but off course making some sweets is easy and I’m silly for not getting my hilarious (and H&G aaare hilarious) little book dirty sooner. So they may be little, they may be ‘confectionary’, but please don’t make my mistake and presume that these Morning Coffee Cups are too much effort. You definitely could combine this recipe with too many Gins aaaaand it kind of implies the consumption of chocolate before breakfast is acceptable behaviour....so what are you waiting for. With Love and Cake.

Morning Coffee Cups.

From Life is Sweet by Hope and Greenwood.

A few notes:

• The original recipe for these uses dark chocolate so feel free to go that route, or you could use a mixture.
• Because we're not doing fancy things like tempering the chocolate here it might discolour a little bit on setting. Don't worry, it's not a problem, but if you're giving them as a gift you might not want to leave too long between making and giving.

Makes 10

You will need

10 mini foil cases

200g milk chocolate

25g butter

1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

10 chocolate covered coffee beans

• All you need to do is melt the chocolate with the butter; either do it in the microwave, checking VERY often, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
• Stir through the espresso powder.
• Pour the coffee-ee chocolate into your cases and top each one with a chocolate coffee bean.
• Leave to set for a few hours of overnight.
• You made sweets.

Churros and Chocolate Sauce: Deep Fried Joy.

Please make these. Pleaseplease make these. Because good heavens are they good. And not in the way you’d expect. Firstly, I think you’d expect them to be tricky and fiddly to make. Frying and piping bag-ing and all sorts of faff. But NO. Oh nonono. As long as you go steady, and are in possession of said piping bag, even if you’re not (see notes), it will be a breeze.

Secondly I think you’d expect stodge. Deep fried, carby-fullness stodge. But again nonoNO. These little sausages of joy are light as a cloud; all crispy on the outside and airy on the inside. Even the chocolate sauce is smooth and silky rather than sticky and gooey.

They’re so light and non-deep-fried-feeling that they, I’ll admit, appeared on my breakfast plate this morning. And I’m only a teeeensy bit ashamed. In fact no, not even a teensy bit...the Spanish wouldn’t be. Especially as they were accompanied by sweet and juicy and oh so healthy pineapple, which didn’t even go neeeeeear the sauce. Though if it happened to have fallen in I wouldn’t have complained.

So go on, give it a go, and you’ll see that frying doesn’t have to mean stress and doesn’t have to mean stodge. And you will then love me forever for directing you to the MOST delicious of revelation. With Love and Cake.

Churros and Chocolate Sauce.

From Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple

A few notes:

• If you don’t have a piping bag, fear not. Just fry little spoonfuls of batter, and you’ll have mini donuts...and my goodness is that a result that doesn't feel like 'making do'. If you do have one and also happen to have a large star nozzle then BRILL...yours will have the more traditional serrated edges. I thought I had one but didn’t. Hey ho.  
• To achieve the light, non-stodge texture we're after you need the oil to be hot enough to cook speedily without being so hot that the outside burns before the inside is cooked. If you have a cooking thermometer just make sure that the oil is around 170°c. If not, when the pan has been on a medium heat for 5 minutes or so, pop a little cube of bread in the oil and you want it to bubble and turn golden brown in less that 30 seconds...if not, adjust the temperature accordingly.
• In terms of the amount of oil, it's more about the level it reaches in you pan than millilitres, so go for it being filled about a third full. When frying like this I always choose the smallest pan sensible, so that you have to deal with as little hot fat as possible. It might mean a few more batches but I'll take that over vats of boiling oil.

Makes enough for 6

You will need

For the sauce

250g chocolate of your choice

2 tbsp golden syrup

300ml double cream

For the churros

a heavy based saucepan 

a piping bag if poss (see notes)

90g caster sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

125g plain flour

125g self raising flour

pinch salt

2 tbsp olive oil

450ml freshly boiled water

around 1 litre of vegetable or sunflower oil

• First job is to make the sauce. All you do is pop all the ingredients into a little saucepan and heat gently until everything is lovely and melty. Done.
• Next for the churros. First mix the sugar and cinnamon together on a plate and set aside.
• Now for the dough. Sift the flours and salt into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
• In another bowl mix the water and olive oil together and pour into the well in the flour
• Beat together until combined and you will have a firm dough. Set it aside to rest for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile get the oil on a medium heat and heat to 170°c or so that a cube of bread browns in less that 30 seconds (see notes).
• When it's ready, pop the dough into your piping bag and squeeze out sausages of dough as long as you want them, into the oil, snipping them away from the nozzle of the piping bag with scissors. Don't overcrowd the pan, you don't want the churros to stick together.
• Leave to cook for 3-4 minutes, flipping them over once or twice, until golden brown and a bit of the bubbling has subsided.
• After a quick drain on kitchen paper, roll the hot churros in the spiced sugar.
• Get on with cooking the rest of the dough in the same manner.
• Then....it's time...lay back, dunk and enjoy. Yesssss.

Love For Orange and Rosemary Biscuits.

Oh biscuits, I do love you so. In all of your forms; plump and chewy, thin and crumbly, chocolatey, buttery, oaty...whatever, I love you all. But I'm afraid it is an unrequited affair.

I'm not a snacker in general. Therefore the appearance of a biccy in my day has got to be a special one. And myohmy did this orange and rosemary concoction deliver. Crumbly shortbread with a sweet, creamy icing, and the fantastically unexpected combination of orange and rosemary.....mmmm dreamy.

But the biscuit doesn't love me back. It leads me on with it's delicious delicacy, leaves me wanting more and more and more without remotely satisfying any hunger (or nutritional requirement, but the less said about that the better).

Like a classic fool I will continue to love these wonderful little mouthfuls, lust after their soft melty-in-the-mouthyness and embrace their calories into my day. Make them and you will not be able to resist their charm either. Sorry. With Love and Cake.

Orange and Rosemary Biscuits.

A few notes:

• If you're not liking the whole rosemary thing here, first, think again, it's wonderful, second, simply leave it out and the orangeyness will be even more lovely and sunshiney.
• The icing is not mandatory of course, but does contribute greatly to fancyness and to texture.
• I use my food processor here, which means the biscuits are a cinch to make, but if that's not an option for you, just rub the butter in with your fingers and bring the dough together with your hands.

Makes 15-20

You will need

a 7-ish-cm round cutter (or use a glass or mug)

a large baking sheet, lined

For the biscuits

175g plain flour

100g soft butter

50g caster sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 egg yolk

For the icing

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp fresh orange juice

1/2 tsp orange food colouring (optional)

fresh rosemary leaves

• Get your oven on first, so it preheats to 180°c.
• Now pop the flour and butter in your processor and whizz (or rub in by hand) to the texture of breadcrumbs.
• Whizz or stir in the sugar, zest and rosemary so everything is evenly combined.
• Add the egg yolk and bring the mix together in your processor or by hand to a smooth dough.
• On a clean, floured surface roll the dough out to about the thickness of a pound coin.
• Cut out discs with your cutter and transfer them to your baking sheet.
• Collect up and roll out the excess dough and cut out more discs; continuing until all the dough is used up.
• Bake in the oven for 12 minutes when they should be just golden.
• Leave the biscuits to firm up a bit on the baking tray for 5 minutes or so, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• When the biscuits are cold it's time to ice.
• Whisk the icing sugar with the orange juice and colouring so you have a smooth, faaaairly thick paste.
• Then spoon and smooth it over the top of your biscuits and top with a rosemary leaf if you're feeling fancypants.

Outside Eating Sausage Rolls.

Here we are, another use for this super special homemade pastry I told you about the other day and it’s picnic tiiiiime! Or at least it’s time to stop thinking that popping outside for 5 minutes on your lunch break is the craziest thing in the world.

Now I’m not of the “heck it’s 15°c, it must be shorts and flip flops weather” school. It takes a good additional 10 degrees for sandals to even remotely be considered. But on sunshiney days early on in the year when hats and scarves and double, triple layer socks are not a distant memory and not out of the question for next week, it feels like every minute that can be squeezed out of the great outdoors, should be. And that means nibbles outside as well as walks and runs and sitting and chats.

Not barbeques or big banquets with bunting and candelabras like you see in foodie magazines- someday, but snacks on a picnic bench, or a weekend lunch in the park or a break from a walk on the beach. And theeeese sausageysausage rolls are perfect for all such occasions as well as packed lunches and parties. Being a veggie I tend to delegate the squishing up sausages bit, but the rest is easypeasy. Aaaand these is a delicious veggie version which I will have to tell you about sometime soon, should you feel that way inclined, which, little Sis, I know you are.

Both this recipe and the veggie one have never feeled to be met with praise and mmmmms, in my experience, out of proportion with the effort you are required to invest...always a bonus. With Love and Cake.

Sausage Roll

Adapted from Delia's recipe (deliaonline.com)

A few notes:

• These are great to have in the freezer, made up but not cooked, because you can just whack them in the oven, cook from frozen, and you have homemade sausage rolls in half an hour.
• As I said here, using good, shop bought butter puff pastry should not really be considered a cheat, so feel free to do that...and these will come together in no time at all. 
• You can make these as big or as bite sized as you wish, just tweaking the cooking time a bit to suit. Really the recipe in terms of amounts is not important, just as long as the amount of meat you have matches the amount of pastry. 

Makes 10ish, depending on how big you make them

You will need 

1 quantity of this homemade flaky pastry or a 375g-ish packet of shop puff pastry, chilled 

4-6 your favourite sausages 

A few spring onions, finely chopped 

Pinch cayenne pepper 

1 egg, lightly beaten 

• Preheat the oven to 200°c. 
• Right let’s go, squidge the sausage meat out of their skins and mash it up a bit with the onions and pepper. 
• Now for the pastry. On a clean floured surface, roll out your chilled pastry into a long rectangle, with a width of around 3 times the width you want your sausage rolls. You might find it easier to work with it in 2 halves or thirds so you have to work with less at a time. 
• Go back to your meat and roll it back into sausage shapes, which I tend to keep a bit skinnier than the nice fat sausages I use. 
• Then lay the meet down the centre of the pastry, as in the picture above and brush some egg down one side. 
• Fold the un-egged side up and around the meat and meet it with the eggy side so it overlaps a little, and press down to seal. 
• Turn your big sausage roll over so that the seam is underneath and slice into individual sausage rolls. I tend to go for ones that are around 2 inches long. 
• Now carefully move them over to a greased baking sheet and snip little slits into the top of each one, then brush all over with egg. 
• Time to bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and shiny and then cool on a wire rack until it’s time to head out into the sunshine (hopefully).

Peanut Butter Squares: Treats For a Soldier.

My friend Hayley. You've met her haven't you? So you'll know how fab she is, and if not, well I will tell you. She is bright and breezy and beautiful and just downright unstoppable when it comes to having fun. She is also the person with whom I shared the majority of my baking experiences through college and university; fudge being our 'specialty' (you can infer from the apostrophes that it was the thing we made most consistently, rather than success being the most consistent occurrence).

So again, she is fab. But here's the thing, since I last saw her at Christmas, Hayz has been rather unfeelingly whisked away to Sandhurst, where she is learning to save the world. Of course all of us Hayley fans are uber proud of her; when I say 'whisked away', what I really mean is that she spent many an hour runningrunningrunning up, over, under as well as swotting up on classical music and politics so she could impress on rather intense and numerous army 'auditions'.

But hearing what she's getting up to on a daily basis is nothing short of gut-wrenching. It seems to go a bit like this: up to a watery breakfast at 5am, shoutyshouty, pushuppushuppushup, shoutyshouty, bed at 1am. Oh and she has to eat 5000 calories a day. FIVE THOUSAND! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure on each of our baking days we each consumed that in sugar alone, but I don't thiiiiiiink the British Army feed you millionaire's shortbread.

So little Miss Hayley is in need of some treats- big time. Utterly delicious sweet treats with a hint of nostalgia (we used to make peanut butter millionaire's shortbread). But if you're not in the army and doing a squillion push ups a day, no worries, just think of these as homemade Reese's Cups...enough said. With Love and Cake.

Peanut Butter Squares

From Nigella (oh how I love her)'s How to be a Domestic Godess

A few notes:

• These are soooooo much easier made in a food processor, so do that if you can. If that's not an option though, no probs, you can use a good old fashioned bowl and spoon, it'll just take a little more time and burn a few more calories, but that way you can eat more...hurrah.
• If you prefer you can roll the sandy peanut butter mixture into bite-sized balls, pop in  mini cupcake cases and drizzle the chocolate mix over. I guess you could say that they look slightly more elegant that way, especially if topped with a silver ball or star.
• Feel free to mix up and chop and change the proportions of different types of chocolate depending on what you prefer or just what you have around.

Makes 30-40

You will need

a small-ish square, loose bottomed cake tin, lined

For the base

50g dark muscovado sugar

200g icing sugar

50g soft butter

200g smooth peanut butter

For the top

200g milk chocolate 

100g dark chocolate

around 1 tbsp butter

• So let's do this. Pop all the ingredients for the base in a food processor and whiz to a sandy, clumpy mixture or do the same by hand in a bowl. Don't worry if the muscovado sugar remains a bit nubbly, it even looks like that in Nigella's picture.
• Tip the mix into your tin and press out to as even a layer as poss with your hands or a spatula.
• To make the topping, melt all the ingredients together slowly, without too much stirring, in a microwave or in a bowl over a just-simmering pan of water.
• Pour over the base and pop in the fridge to set.
• When you're ready, turn out the slab of joy from the pan and chop into squares, or any size you fancy really. 
• Eat without doing any push ups. Ever.

'Perfect Night In' Smoked Cheddar and Rosemary Whirls.

"We'ello there Rachel" (oh I MISS Friends). Today I have for you a wonderously yumptious, wonderously easypeasy, party nibble. Now I know it's not exactly party season: been there, done that. But it IS the season of going home, your own or another's, after a long, perhaps tiring, perhaps dull, day and spending a cosy but oh so jolly night in with brilliant people. Well it is for me anyway.

These nights have strict requirements if they are to reach the desired heights of fun; fun that means although you weren't even remotely tipsy, by the next morning, the memories are a blur of chatter, gaaffoooors and that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from spending time with people that make you smile.

Requirements: 

• Food to nibble on while dinner is cooking; you're probably rAVenous from speeding about all day.
• Beverages that are delicious and fancy feeling while being gloriously low-maintenance; current fav = fizz and cordial. English Cox's apple is a recent discovery. 
• A deliiiicious tea, or dinner if you prefer, which requires no effort. Don't tell the food-police but take away or shop bought is ok, in fact it makes it feel even more like a treat.
• Banterbanterlaughterlaughter.
• And finally, a nice hot cup of tea and PJs.

These cheesy whirls satisfy requirement #1, in fact satisfy doesn't cover it in the slightest. They went down a STORM, and to be honest, I was a bit worried that they might be a bit divisive; they have a superstrong flavour. But no, perfect 'after work, dinner's cooking, lets have chats' food. And soso simple for you...so go on, PJs on. With Love and Cake.

Smoked Cheddar and Rosemary Whirls.

A few notes:

• This is so straight forward that it would be easy to chop and change the filling to what you fancy; other cheese, other herbs, you could even go sweet and do cinnamon and crunchy brown sugar.
• To make things easier still, I used a shop bought pastry, mainly because I found a couple of packets reduced to 15p because it was their 'going off day'. Brill. Though do feel free to make your own and do feel smug about it.

Makes around 20

You will need

A large baking sheet, greased

250g shortcrust pastry, bought or with a little help from Delia, found here. I would double the recipe, freezing any leftovers, and replace the lard with butter

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

around 50g (a nice chunk) Applewood Smoked Cheddar

1 egg

• Roll out the pastry to a neat rectangle; the size isn't really inportant but make sure it's around 1/2 cm thick.
• Brush egg all over the pastry, then scatter over the rosemary and grate over the cheese.
• Roll the pastry up like a swiss-roll from one of the long edges of the rectangle and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Cut the roll, with a serrated knife, into swirls, about every 1.5cms...or as thick as you want them.
• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Bake the whirls for 20-25 minutes until golden and lovely looking...let the fun commence.