Raspberry, almond and sour cream bread

OK, I have a confession to make. When this came out of the oven, the smell was so good I actually stood over the cake for several minutes just breathing in the delicious aroma of raspberry and almond. It made me chuckle at myself for being so weird... but then I just had to have another sniff! And the taste... it beats the smell.  This is SO good. Try it. You won't be disappointed.

Rhubarb and strawberry upside-down slices

It was the most beautiful sunny weekend and we went for a lovely picnic on the cliffs of Southerndown, before clambering down the cliffs to the beach below for a paddle in the sea with Doug the Pug. On the way we stopped at our favourite deli to pick up some picnic supplies, and I bought a couple of slices of the most delicious rhubarb and cherry cake. It was so good I had to figure out how to make it - I couldn't find any cherries in the local greengrocers so I used some lovely ripe strawberries instead. The cake batter is really just my usual upside-down cake recipe, but this time in a rectangular brownie tin. These are sweet, sunny and perfect for seaside picnics!

Apple, carrot, ginger and walnut bread (with optional cranberries and crumble topping!)

It's a work colleague, Tim's, last day tomorrow and the office has made him a hamper as a leaving present as he's a bit of a foodie. I was asked to make a cake for the hamper that would be a bit 'unusual' so came up with this - a version of carrot cake but with fresh ginger, grated apple and walnut. Unfortunately I have to give it wrapped up whole, so won't get a chance to taste it - but it looks and smells so good I'll definitely be making this again!
                                                                                                                                                                  

Ahem... I am officially a greedy guts.  I was so disappointed not to have tried tasting this, that the next day I came home from work and made another one! Never able to resist 'tweaking' a recipe, this time I added a crumble topping... and some cranberries. (Told you I can't resist). I've amended the recipe with these 'optional' extras (but I recommend them - it was amazing cake!!)

Lemon ginger yoghurt and poppy seed mini muffins

I bought some delicious lemon and ginger yoghurt recently and thought it would make a lovely ingredient for some mini muffins.  I added poppy seeds for some crunch and they add a wonderful speckled texture. These are light and delicious.

BMW (Banana Mango Walnut) Bread

Normally if I make a vegan recipe it's a deliberate attempt to provide cake to vegan friends. This one was a happy coincidence that looking for a recipe to use up some very ripe bananas and mangoes I came across a recipe from Joy the Baker which was dairy-free - and turned out to be so good I'll definitely be using it again regardless of who I'm baking for! Normally I'd also take a photo of a whole cake - but this was so delicious I didn't have a chance to get my camera out before half of it had been scoffed! 

Sable biscuits with chocolate ganache

Having made blackberry friands today, I had 4 egg yolks left over and wanted to find a recipe to use them up. I decided to try making sable biscuits, based on a recipe from I Love Milk and Cookies. I used a star-shaped cookie cutter and sandwiched the biscuits together with chocolate ganache made of part milk chocolate and part dark chocolate. Yum!

Blackberry almond friands

I've been wanting to try making friands for ages - little cakes made from egg whites, icing sugar and almonds. I think they'd work well with other ground nuts like pistachios or hazelnuts too, and with different fruits or even chocolate. These are unbelievably light and delicious!

Flourless chocolate amaretto pear cake

I wanted to make a wheat-free cake for my sister and any other coeliac party-goers at Mum's house-warming tonight. This is my adaptation of a BBC Good Food recipe, with Amaretto and almonds instead of the original recipe's brandy and hazelnuts - I think that would be lovely too, but I used the ingredients I had in the kitchen.

Lemony peach and raspberry cake

My mum's having a house warming party tonight and I've been asked to bring some cakes. A great excuse for a baking marathon to try some recipes out I've recently been salivating over on Pinterest! The first cake was this lemon and yoghurt cake topped with raspberries and peaches. I've adapted it from a nectarine cake recipe from Technicolor Kitchen. A lovely fresh cake for an early spring sunshiny day.

Marshmallow mega-chocolate mini muffins

Another all day team meeting tomorrow - so I thought I'd make a batch of mini muffins to help us survive it! These are about the most chocolatey things I can imagine - a very chocolatey mixture plus chopped dark, milk and white chocolate. And the best bit... multi-coloured mini marshmallows! These are really quick to make and guaranteed to put smiles on faces.

Blueberry, pecan and cinnamon sticky buns

I've seen lots of American recipes for cinnamon rolls, which all use yeast to make a proper dough. I'm too inpatient to wait for dough to rise and so decided to try making sticky buns using just a mixture with self-raising flour - no need to leave it to rise in a warm place for hours, this can be used straight out of the mixing bowl. I added fresh blueberries and ground pecans to the traditional cinnamon filling. It was really quick and fun to make, and they turned out beautifully. Delicious with a cup of strong black coffee!