Raspberry, elderflower and amaretti crumble (wheat-free)

My sister Lizzie came over for dinner this evening after work and I made this as a quick wheat-free pudding. I was pleased that it was also a dairy-free and sugar-free dessert as we’re all trying to be healthy, but then quickly realised that there was plenty of sugar in the amaretti biscuits and elderflower cordial (and in fact the porridge oats were golden syrup-flavoured).  On that realisation, I decided to hang it all and served it with gorgeous salted caramel ice cream – there’s always tomorrow to try being healthy…

Apricot, almond and amaretto cake

This was the other cake I made today for Paddy's 80th birthday party at Butetown History and Arts Centre, where I'm a board member. On the way there, I thought this might have ended in disaster when the apricots looked as if they were going to slide off the top in an avalanche of whipped Amaretto cream, but luckily some emergency cake repairs in the kitchen on arrival sorted it out and it was demolished by guests very quickly - the fact that it was still a little warm (the source of the melting panic in transit!) in fact made this delicious, a warm, boozy, almondy pudding, delicately spiced with nutmeg and full of baked and fresh apricots, with a fresh, Greek yoghurt cream which lifted it perfectly. For me, this was the winner of the two! 

Chestnut chocolate truffle torte

This is my adaptation of a fantastic Delia Smith recipe which I've done several times before - this time though, I've added some chestnut  purée to make it more Christmassy!  It's the ultimate decadent chocolate dessert, so I'm rounding off Christmas dinner with it (accompanied by my summer fruit terrine and a spiced Christmas panna cotta).

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!  

Amaretti baked peaches

Simple but unbeatably delicious!