Beetroot chocolate brownies

This is my adaptation of a cross between a Harry Eastwood and a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe, with added decadence through the inclusion of chunks of chocolate, a mix of demerara and caster sugar, lots of cocoa.  If you want them even more chocolatey, increase the amount of melted chocolate - but I think this is a nice amount to maintain the earthiness of the beetroot, which makes them lovely and moist.  The trick with this one is not to use grated raw beetroot but to dice and microwave the veg and blitz it into a purple puree.  I've also separated the eggs so you get lots of air into the mix at the end by adding the beaten egg whites at the last minute.  Altogether, this recipe takes quite a long time to make and you need to be prepared for the amount of washing up required afterwards - but the end results are amazingly well worth it!

For a party to welcome home our friends James, Kate and their new baby Nia, I chopped them into inch squares and piped on a blob of cream whipped with cocoa powder and icing sugar, and added a raspberry to the top of each one.  Pretty!

Camomile and lemon cupcakes

This is my second attempt using tea for cakes, this time with camomile.  I infused milk with camomile tea bags for a couple of hours before I started (and added the contents of one bag to the cake mix) - and it worked really well.  It's a gentle flavour, but has a lovely gingery, honeyish taste, and it works beautifully with the lemony, camomile icing.  These were SO moreish!

Peach tea and biscotti muffins

These are my first experiment making cakes with tea.  I've tried infusing the butter with tea bags, but the flavour is quite subtle - next time I'll try using loose leaf tea and straining it.  I'm thinking about camomile and lemon cupcakes...  The Amaretti and almonds take over the tea in this, but they were pretty delicious and beautifully moist.  Happy birthday Jon!  

Apple, cranberry and cinnamon crumble muffins

Some wrinkled-looking apples languishing in my fruit bowl were the excuse to invent these.  I’ve used the same yoghurt muffin mix from my redcurrant and white chocolate muffins and added a crumbly topping like that used for my apple and blackberry crumble.  The smell of cinnamon fills the house as these are baking – yummy!

Coffee and walnut cake (10 inch square)

I like my coffee cake to have a bit of cocoa in – more of a mocha cake – but also can’t resist walnuts if I can find them.  Using real espresso if you are passing a coffee shop would probably make this even better, but I find that instant coffee mixed with the smallest amount of boiling water you can get away with to create a smooth syrupy mixture works just as well.  There’s also Camp coffee essence (I found it in Asda but nowhere else) which works really well – it’s especially good for the icing and creates a fantastically rich, golden colour when mixed with mascarpone and icing sugar.

Best banana bread

Banana bread is the first thing I remember baking all by myself as a kid.  I had a brilliant recipe in a children's cookery book from the 70s full of lovely illustrations.  Sadly the book has got lost in the mists of time but this recipe is the closest I've come to recreating the banana bread of my childhood which I remember being so proud of - and so excited to eat!

Amaretti baked peaches

Simple but unbeatably delicious!

Rum and raspberry black forest gateau

Based on the classic Delia recipe, this is my version using a creme fraiche chocolate ganache instead of whipped cream, dark rum instead of Kirsch, and raspberries instead of morello cherries.  We love this so much we had a three tier, triple layer version for our wedding cake, covered with summer fruits (thanks to our lovely friend K)!

Apple and blackberry crumble

A classic recipe with a flap-jacky twist - this is the best crumble topping I've experimented with and so had to be preserved!

Passion fruit, lime and ginger cheesecake

Always a winner - but remember to make it the night before so that it's properly set...

Honeycomb and white chocolate cheesecake

This is incredibly good but unbelievably rich - best to make it in small ramekins rather than one big cheesecake

Dark chocolate and ginger cookies

These are brilliant for dunking or on their own - the kind of cookie that deserves to be made BIG!

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

These are delicious dunked, and probably worth making two batches at once as they disappear so quickly

Redcurrant and white chocolate muffins

I made these recently for my friend Kirsty's 30th birthday - 15 muffins with two pink and white candles in each (so no room for the extra redcurrants on the top).  The recipe actually makes 18 (so we had the excuse to test 3 before the birthday party).  I've made these with icing using the juice of the redcurrants to colour it pink, but I think they are nicest just with the glaze of redcurrant jelly and dusted with icing sugar, making them glisten temptingly!