Cranberry, apricot and amaretto mince pies with almond, orange and cinnamon pastry

It's Christmas Eve-eve and I've spent a very happy day baking - a couple of cake commissions for friends for Christmas, sausage rolls, ginger biscuits, and these fantastic deep-dish mince pies. Made in muffin tins, they have lots of room for really good filling, so I spruced up some mincemeat with dried apricots, blanched almonds, amaretto and fresh cranberries.  The pastry has ground almonds, orange zest and juice and cinnamon in too for extra festive flavour. Merry Christmas everyone!

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! 

Torta Gianduia - chocolate and hazelnut torte

Torta Gianduia is a speciality of the Piedmont region of Italy.  It’s a flourless cake, just made with ground hazelnuts, dark chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs – so was a great choice for a meal we cooked for my dad and step mum to celebrate their birthdays (they were born on the same day, two years apart) with my sister who is gluten-intolerant.  It’s rich but incredibly light and moist – definitely more of a torte than a cake.  I tarted it up with some homemade truffles on top, just made from Nutella and a splash of amaretto, rolled in cocoa powder.

  

BANG cake (banana, amaretto, nut and ginger)

It's fast approaching that lovely time of year when pumpkins and sparklers come out. In honour of this, I've called this a 'BANG' cake, as it's made from banana, amaretto, nuts and ginger. The cake contains ground walnuts and ground ginger, and is topped with a kind of crumble made from blitzed pecans and crystallised ginger. I'm serving this tonight for my friend Ali who is cooking me supper!

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.

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).

Mini plum amaretto tarts

This is a really quick invention to use up some plums that needed eating and to brighten up a wintry Tuesday evening after a stressful day at work!  (It's made extra quick by the use of ready made pastry - pre-rolled is even quicker and you don't need to flour a worktop...)  We ate them with friends to celebrate Kirsty's first job as a law graduate, congratulations K!

Amaretti baked peaches

Simple but unbeatably delicious!