Cranberry, fresh ginger and clementine cake with mulled wine syllabub

I made this cake with a punnet of fresh cranberries intended for cranberry sauce to go with our Christmas turkey, that we forgot to make on the day. It's back to work and school tomorrow so we had a final movie night in front of the fire, and ate it while the cake was still warm. The cranberries are quite tart even when cooked, but balanced perfectly when paired with the sweetened cream of this mulled wine syllabub (made with a syrup from the poaching liquid I'd used for our Christmas poached pears).

Vietnamese banana fritters

We’ve recently returned from an amazing holiday in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.  We ate the most incredible food, did a cookery class in the middle of the jungle beside the Mekong river, and spent a day touring the street food secrets of Hanoi.  Last night, back at home, we cooked some of our favourite recipes from the trip for a meal with our friends.  For dessert, I made these Vietnamese street food favourites, banana fritters.  They are dangerously easy!

Basil-infused berry, fig and clotted cream Eton mess

Last night Lu and I cooked a meal for my Dad and had such a lovely evening with him, eating, drinking,  listening to music and to him telling us brilliant stories from his days as a journalist, and generally putting the world to rights until the wee small hours!  I invented this very quick and easy dessert for pud - a twist on a classic Eton mess by swapping whipped cream for clotted cream, adding some fresh figs to the strawberries and raspberries, and infusing the fruit with fresh basil while it macerated in the fridge.

Clotted cream tiramisu

Lu loves tiramisu and always orders it when we go to Italian restaurants, but I realised recently that for some reason I’ve never made it!  For her birthday, I decided to give it a try, but unfortunately couldn’t find any mascarpone at the shops.  Instead, I made it with clotted cream – and Lu says this was the best tiramisu she’s ever tasted, so for now on this will be how I always make it!

Cranberry, apple and maple pudding cake

Since it's Thanksgiving today, I thought I'd use up the last of the cranberries I had left over from my cranberry and clementine loaf cake-baking at the weekend and make something American-inspired. What better pairing than maple syrup, apple, cinnamon? This was inspired by a recipe which also contained cornmeal, another very American ingredient, and although I had some in the pantry from when I made cornbread, I have to confess none of us were that keen on its slightly grainy texture - so I decided to go for ground almonds instead! The result was a lovely warming dessert, somewhere between a pudding and a cake.

And as it's a time of giving thanks, I just wanted to say a great big THANK YOU! to all of you who've visited and enjoyed reading my blog. Today I hit the 20,000 visitor mark - something I'd never have dreamt would happen when I first started this to record my recipes. It's lovely getting feedback from those of you who have tried baking or just enjoyed looking at the cakes I've invented. Come back again soon!

Chocolate raspberry brandy soufflés

It's Valentine's Day and also six years since Lu and I got together.  I came home to find Lu had started knocking down the ugly chimney breast in our kitchen, something we've wanted to do since buying the house two years ago.  It meant the setting for our romantic home cooked meal was a little dusty, but perfect!  Lu cooked the steaks for our main course and I made these chocolate soufflés, laced with brandy and full of  raspberries which bake into a sharp but sweet jam that combines beautifully with the gooey chocolate centres.  This is about the easiest thing to cook so don't be put off by me calling it a soufflé - you don't even have to separate the eggs!

Cream cheese blinis

It's Shrove Tuesday so we decided to have a whole pancake feast for supper this evening!  For a main course I made normal pancakes (Delia Smith is my go-to pancake recipe) which I filled with a garlicky mushroom and cream cheese filling, rolled up and baked with a sprinkle of cheese on top.  Then I made these cream cheese blinis - we had them as a savoury starter with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and then also as a sweet dessert, with blueberries, clotted cream and maple syrup.

Pimms and orange syllabub

Syllabub is a very traditional dessert of a syrup stewed overnight made from sugar, lemon juice and zest and sweet dessert wine, which is then added to double cream and whipped until light and duvet-like. I've made this version using Pimms instead of dessert wine and orange instead of lemon. I served it with my Pimms and elderflower summer pudding, but you could have it just on its own, or as an accompaniment to lots of other puddings. It's especially good for those puds you have to make the day before and leave to chill overnight, as it forces you to really let the flavours infuse rather than making it all in one go. I'm sure you could but it just wouldn't be quite the same!

Pimms and elderflower summer pudding

Summer pudding is one of my all-time favourite desserts. Soggy bread shouldn't be a good thing, but this fruit filled pud transforms the bread into a silky cake-like texture! It's really easy to make just using a frozen packet of mixed summer fruits. Once I've put it in the fridge to chill over night, I am desperate for it to be ready. And once it's had its first outing as a dessert, it makes an amazing breakfast! I've added a splash or two of elderflower and Pimms, but it is perfectly good without. I made a Pimms and orange syllabub to go with it, which complements the silky, cloud-like texture beautifully. 

Honey and heather flower roasted plums

I recently posted a shortbread recipe I'd created with heather flowers that I'd found in the local farmers market. This morning I decided to use them again, this time with plums roasted in the oven for a few minutes with a honey caramel. I adapted the recipe from Joy the Baker's recipe for honey roasted plums with thyme. This takes just a few minutes to make and is a fantastic recipe for breakfast or for a quick dessert.