rhubarb gingerbread pudding

"And so it begins...", said King Théoden (R.I.P. Bernard Hill.)

Also myself upon looking at my garden. Rhubarb season has begun and the "rhubarb empire" is growing larger with each passing day...

...resembling an exotic jungle for cats.

The Man gave me a Rhubarb cooking/baking book for Christmas so I've been eagerly awaiting rhubarb season to arrive to try out recipes. It's a quirky, little book called Rhubarbaria and it's full of sweet and savoury dishes the author has gathered from people all around the world along with a bit of rhubarb history and anecdotes. It's not a glossy, instagrammable book as it has no pictures but I think it's a gem. I'm especially looking forward to trying the jam recipes.

The rhubarb gingerbread pudding immediately appealed to me and became my first rhubarb experiment of 2024. Despite knowing rhubarb and ginger pair well together I hadn't ever considered rhubarb with a gingerbread cake. I also loved that the recipe originally came from a lady called Mavis from New Zealand. How could I be steared wrong by a Mavis?

Well, Mavis. Your pudding, especially after 2 days, is delicious. However, your timings are shocking. What was meant to be a 35-40 minute bake was actually at least 60 minutes. That's a fair old difference, Mavis.

But as I said, 2 days later served warm with custard it was exceptionally tasty. As with all gingerbread cakes the flavour and texture benefitted from maturing. This goes against the nature of hot puddings for me, which are always served fresh from the oven, but I guess this makes this pudding an excellent one to make in advance for an occasion.

What I liked most is that the rhubarb is left as its natural, tart self; no extra sugar before adding the cake mix. The cake is the sweet element, although that didn't feel overly sweet either. However I would say if you're using a particularly tart or green rhubarb you may want to add additional sugar. My rhubarb is naturally on the sweet side as it's very pink so it was perfect for me.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Mavis.

Rhubarb gingerbread cake 

Mildly adapted from "Rhubarbaria" by Mary Prior

450g/ 1lb rhubarb

25g/ 1oz muscovado sugar 

25g/ 1oz soft dark brown sugar

100g/ 4oz Stork margarine (or softened butter)

50g/ 2oz golden syrup

1 large egg 

150g/ 6oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1tsp ground ginger 

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2 tbsp hot milk

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/375F and grease a baking dish with butter. My dish measured 16cm wide x 24cm long x 6cm deep and I found it was a suitable size.

Wash and dry your rhubarb stalks then chop up into 1" chunks. Arrange in the bottom of the baking dish. Add a sprinkling of extra sugar if you want a sweeter flavour.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes) then mix in the syrup. Add the egg and mix again until combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt and spices then add to the egg mixture and mix until combined. Finally, in a cup or small bowl dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the hot milk then add this to the cake mixture and mix again.

Spread the cake mixture over the rhubarb in the dish. It's quite a thin spread so don't be alarmed if it doesn't cover well.

Bake in the oven for approx. 1 hour. I put a layer of greaseproof paper over the top of the dish after 40 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the middle to continue baking.

Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard. Alternatively leave it to cool fully, store in the fridge (with a cover on top) for at least a day then reheat and serve. This will enhance the gingerbread flavour.

Sticky ginger and orange cake

I take all my blog photos with my phone these days. In fact all my blogging is now done from my phone since my laptop barely functions anymore. It's something I wasn't comfortable with for a long time as I know I don't put much effort into photography if I'm just using my phone, whereas I generally used to make an attractive set up when I used my proper camera.

However this year I decided to embrace my laidback approach. After all my blog is a casual baking journal, not an aspiring professional food blog, so any form of documentation will do, whether it's (vaguely) styled or just a very quick snap before the cake ends up in my mouth.

This cake is falls into the latter category. It's unfair to judge it on its unassuming appearance and uninspired photography as it is genuinely a really lovely, comforting hug of a cake. 

As with most ginger cakes this cake improved with age. It tasted so much better on the second and third day (photo above is day 2 and below is day 3.) It developed the glorious, soft, stickiness associated with a great ginger cake and the spices became more intense. I've never added orange to a ginger cake before and found it was a lovely addition. It lifted the ginger and added a fresh zing to the cake. Although I ate the cake plain, I bet it would taste amazing served with custard as a cosy, winter pudding.

Needless to say this cake smelled gorgeous in the oven. I baked it whilst watching some terrible Christmas films on tv last weekend and it made my house feel a little bit festive. Bring on all the festive, spiced bakes!

Sticky ginger and orange cake

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

The cake:

100g (4oz) golden syrup

100g (4oz) black treacle

250ml (9 fl oz) water

100g (4oz) softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

100g (4oz) caster sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 large egg, beaten

275g (10oz) plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger (I made it a heaped teaspoon for more kick)

The icing:

100g (4oz) icing sugar

Juice of 1 orange (I used less than one half)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C /fan 160C/ gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm (9") deep round tin with greaseproof paper.

Pour the syrup, treacle and water into a small pan and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, put all the remaining cake ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a stand or hand mixer until well combined. Add the syrup mixture and beat again until smooth (it'll look lumpy as hell initially, but honestly it'll smooth out!)

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 50 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (I took mine out at 40 minutes as it was definitely ready, so keep an eye on it.)

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the paper and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar with enough orange juice to make a smooth, fairly thick pouring consistency. Pour onto the cooled cake over a wire rack to any catch drips (or be like me and disregard this step and enjoy the icing puddles which develop around the plate. It's all good!) Decorate with sprinkles if you want to pimp it up or just leave the icing to set for 1 hour.

Oat shorties

I've been on a biscuit kick over the last couple of months and realised that it has been absolutely years since I last made oat shorties. Do they look like the most exciting biscuits? No, but damn they are tasty. They're like a Hobnob-flapjack hybrid.

They smell amazing fresh from the oven too. Butter, golden syrup and oats. . . Mmmmmm.

I was going to add that these are made using store cupboard essentials, but then again perhaps lard isn't commonplace? I must admit I don't tend to have it lying around but it was definitely worth buying a block to make these biscuits. Now what to do with the rest of it, shortcrust pastry or more oat biscuits? Decisions decisions.

Oat Shortie Biscuits
A family recipe

50g (2oz) lard (such as Cookeen or Trex)
50g (2oz) margarine
100g (4oz) sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp boiling water
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) porridge oats

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a few baking sheets/trays with greaseproof paper.

In a small saucepan melt together the lard, margarine, sugar, syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Do not bring to the boil. Add the oats and flour and mix well. 

Take heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture, (or bigger if you want larger biscuits) shape into rough knobs  and place on the trays, leaving space for each one to spread. I think I made about 24 biscuits in total. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden.

Leave to firm up slightly on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Ginger nuts

Over the last year or so I've developed a strong liking for ginger nut biscuits. Especially dunked in a hot cup of tea. Yum!

They never used to be my biscuit of choice (custard creams all the way) as I wasn't a fan of ginger or anything vaguely fiery/spicey in flavour. However my taste buds have definitely changed over the last couple of years as I can now stand a little bit of heat in my food. I even ate a (very mild admittedly) curry a few weeks ago. Who the hell have I become?!

At the beginning of the covid-19 lockdown I couldn't find any Ginger Nuts in the local shop so I took matters into my own hands and made my own, Mary Berry's Yorkshire Ginger Nuts to be precise.

There isn't a picture with the recipe but I have a feeling I went wrong somewhere. The mixture was really stiff so the biscuits didn't spread at all and they took a lot longer than stated in the oven. Admittedly I only got 35 biscuits when the recipe said it yielded 50, so I definitely rolled my dough balls too big. Saying that, the resulting biscuits are still pretty small.

Taste-wise, although perfectly nice with a cup of tea they didn't quite hit the spot for me. I think I was after a firmer biscuit with a snap.

The search for the perfect Ginger Nut recipe continues. . .

Yorshire Ginger Nuts from Mary Berry Baking Bible

100g (4oz) butter
1 generous tbsp golden syrup
350g (12oz) self raising flour
100g (4oz) demerara sugar
100g (4oz) light muscovado sugar
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 level tbsp ground ginger
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas mark 3 and line 3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Melt together the butter and golden syrup in a small pan on the hob over a gentle heat. In a separate large bowl combine all the dry ingredients then add the melted butter mixture and the egg.

Form the dough into 50 balls about the size of a walnut and place on the sheets, allowing some space for each ball to spread. (This is where I went wrong as I only got 35. I also flattened the balls slightly as I couldn't see how they'd be soft enough to spread.... and I was correct.)

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Leave to firm up slightly on the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

festive bakes

It's that time of year again... when I become so disorganised that I lump all of my festive baking into one blog post on Christmas Eve. YAY!

Personally, I find it just isn't Christmas without gingerbread boobie angels and saucy santas. This year I made sure I scheduled in the time to make them as I didn't manage to make any last year and it just felt plain wrong. Their little faces fill me with so much joy! I baked a batch of these to take in to my local music group's Christmas party and they went down an absolute storm.

I also baked a batch of mankini-clad gingerbread men and some questionably styled Tory hipster gentlemen as part of an in joke for some friends. This is probably the height of my piping decoration skills.

The amount of sugar and butter I've gone through in the last couple of weeks is obscene! I can't remember how many bags of sugar were emptied for all the tablet I made but I definitely used up at least 6 packs of butter for shortbread. I have a large extended family so large quantities of foodie presents are needed to take around when visiting relatives over the festive period.

It's always worth the mammoth effort though as I love seeing everything all packaged up with my childish funky handmade labels.

As I had leftover cranberries from my cranberry orange muffins I decided to try the cranberry, apple and cinnamon cake from Hannah's blog, Honey & Dough. I more or less followed the recipe, substituting caster sugar for soft light brown sugar, a cooking apple instead of a granny smith, and added 1/2tsp of vanilla bean paste to the batter. I also mixed some whole cranberries into the batter as well as scattering on top. My cake took twice the length of time to bake, probably due to the amount of fruit I put in, about an hour.

I baked this as a pudding to take to a friend's house last weekend and it was so well received that my friend asked for the recipe and she bought the ingredients the following day so she could make one. Then I decided to bake another too! Needless to say, it's a very tasty cake.

And finally, I baked a couple of ginger syrup bundts. They're full of flavour, keep pretty well and the recipe is nice and simple... unless you're baking whilst really tired and forget to add an ingredient. Yup, I forgot to add baking powder to one of them. Oops! So I got to keep a flatter bundt for myself.

I've been meaning to make mincemeat pies as well but I think I've reached my limit. After baking most evenings for the last two weeks I must admit to feeling rather pooped. You never know though, I might muster up some energy to make some closer to new year.

But for now I'm probably going to put my feet up, drink a lot of tea and wish everybody a very merry Christmas!

Trying to photograph the tree? Ok, I'll sit here then.
Cheers, Bob.

Dad's birthday clootie dumpling

Last weekend Dad requested a clootie dumpling for his birthday bake of choice. For all the non Scottish folk reading, this is basically a fruit cake boiled in a cloth i.e. a "cloot."

Clootie dumplings, also known as clootie puddings or duffs, can vary in recipe. Some people include suet and breadcrumbs or extra fruit such as grated apple, dates or orange zest, but the recipe I use (from my Aunty Janice) is fairly plain: lots of treacle and golden syrup, spice and sultanas.

It's one of those old fashioned, heavy, wintery puds which will divide opinion. I was unsure whether it would appeal to my nephews so I also baked a plain sponge cake, but I think the pudding went down pretty well with everybody.

My clootie was a bit drier in texture compared to the last one I made a few years ago (probably because I accidently almost boiled it dry!) but the flavour was still great - treacley, spiced and comforting with juicy bursts of sultanas.

Perfect served warm from the pot with a dollop of ice cream.

Aunty Janice's clootie dumpling

Janice's method is to wrap the mixture in a greased and floured layer of greaseproof paper before wrapping up in a damp dishcloth to boil, which means all the grubbiness goes on the paper instead of the cloot. It makes washing up easier!

1lb plain flour

8oz margarine

6oz caster sugar

1 lb dried fruit such as sultanas or raisins

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 beaten egg

2 dessert spoons treacle

2 dessert spoons golden syrup

enough milk to moisten

Lay out two large lengths of greaseproof paper, overlapped - enough to wrap round your pudding which will end up roughly 7 inches in diameter. Thoroughly grease with margarine (including the overlap to help it stick) and dust with a coating of flour. This will form the clootie's "skin." Dampen a plain dishcloth and lay it out. 

Put a flat, heat proof side plate in the bottom of a large, heavy based pot (for your clootie to sit on.) Fill the pot with about 1L water and put on the hob to warm up at a low heat.  

In a very large bowl rub together the flour and margarine. Stir in the sugar, fruit, bicarbonate of soda and spices. In a small saucepan heat up the treacle and syrup until warm then remove from the heat and add a drop of milk to cool it down. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the egg and cooled treacle mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is combined and add a little more milk if needed. The mixture should stay fairly thick though, reluctant to drop off the spoon.

Heap the mixture into the centre of the greaseproof paper sheet then gather the paper edges up over the mixture. Tie tightly together with a length of string, leaving about an inch of space between the mixture and where you tie to allow it to grow during cooking. Wrap the damp dishcloth over the top and tie the ends together on top of your previous tie.

Pop the clootie into the pot and add more water to the pot until it's about half way up the pudding. Put the lid on top and leave to boil at a low heat, with the plate lightly rattling at the base of the pot, for 3 hours. Check on it every half hour or so to top up with more water if necessary. Do not boil it dry!

After 3 hours remove from the pot and untie from the cloth and paper. It's best served warm with cream, ice cream or custard, but it is also lovely cold. 

chocolate malt marble bundt

It was my Mum's birthday at the weekend so naturally she deserved a beauty of a cake. I have to admit I think I did pretty well this year.

After seeing a malted chocolate bundt cake on Chocolate Log Blog a few weeks ago I immediately bookmarked it with Mum's birthday in mind. She loves chocolate, Horlicks, maltesers and bundts so it was a match made in heaven.

The only substitutions I made were plain flour instead of half plain/half wholemeal spelt flour and golden syrup instead of mesquite powder. I also veered off track with the icing glaze. I had milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate so I was unsure about using Choclette's method of melted sugar in case it ended up being overly sweet. Instead I followed a similar icing in my Mary Berry book which adds icing sugar at the end, thinking it would be easier to adjust the sweetness. However when I tasted the icing it just tasted really water-y, not particularly appetising. 

At this point I went freestyle and chucked in extra chocolate, butter and icing sugar and sifted in some cocoa powder which boosted the chocolate flavour and deepened the colour. This resulted in a slightly fudgier runny icing, definitely preferable to what I started out with. It looked lovely and glossy poured over the cake too.

I slightly over cooked my bundt at the crust/the top when it's in the oven (9 months later and I still forget this oven cooks things quicker) but the ground almonds and yoghurt in the batter kept the cake moist. As you can see there were satisfying puddles of icing around the edge of cake stand which were perfect for adding to any dry bits. Or just scooping up to eat from a teaspoon!

It's always exciting cutting into a marble cake to reveal what pattern lurk inside. It's such a simple yet striking effect. Chocolate and malt is a winning flavour combination too. The malt flavour definitely comes through in the pale mixture which elevates it beyond your standard chocolate and vanilla marble sponge. I highly recommend this cake if you want something easy and tasty to bake yet stunning to look at. Cheers for the recipe Choclette!

On a side note, are people finding my main text difficult to read at the moment? I've always used Courier as my blog font and have never had any issues with it, but it started looking patchy and faint last week on my laptop. It doesn't look any different on my work desktop computer though. Weird.

gingerbread dinosaur invasion

My friend Sarah gives the best Christmas presents, 3D dinosaur biscuit cutters!

I was a bit miffed that I hadn't got around to baking any gingerbread biscuits at Christmas, so these cutters gave me the perfect excuse to bake some this month.

 camouflage stegosaurus

The biscuits turned out more like super syrup-y gingersnaps than gingerbread as the dough needed to be rolled out fairly thin in order for the dinosaur legs to slot comfortably into the bodies. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it's worth noting they're crunchy rather than a chewy centred gingerbread. They're great tea dunkers, providing you're ok with the possibility of icing flaking off into your cup. (Part of the dunking thrill surely?)

 "Hey, what do you think of my Lord Nelson jug. Pretty groovy, right?"
"Fabulously retro, darling'"

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun making and decorating these dinosaurs and setting them around my dresser in crockery attack formations. They've certainly amused all the visitors to the house this week. Dinosaur fun for everybody!

Gingerbread/snap dinosaur biscuits
Original recipe from a recipe card in an Usborne baking pack (funnily enough, I think it was also a present from Sarah many years ago.) I've made a couple of tweaks/substitutions:

350g (12oz) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100g (4oz) chilled butter
100g (4oz) light muscovado sugar 
75g (2oz) soft dark brown sugar
1 large egg
2- 3 tbsp golden syrup (enough to bring the dough together)

for the royal icing:
1 egg white (or 1 sachet of egg white powder)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
300g icing sugar

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Break the eggs into a jug and lightly beat with a fork. Add the syrup and beat again. Pour the eggy syrup into the flour mixture and mix until it forms a dough. Wrap in the dough clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Cut the dough in half. Sprinkle the (clean) worktop with flour and roll out one piece of the dough until it's about 3mm thick if you're making 3D dinosaurs (about 5mm thick is fine for ordinary biscuits). Cut out all your shapes and transfer to baking trays (make sure your trays have a dusting of flour to stop your biscuits sticking!) Roll out the rest of the dough and cut more shapes. 

Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them! The dough is rolled out thin so the edges don't take long to colour. Thicker (ordinary) biscuits will take longer, 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. 

For royal icing, beat together the egg white and lemon juice. (If using egg white powder, follow the instructions on the sachet to reconstitute the egg white before adding the lemon.) Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing well between each addition. Whisk the mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Add more icing sugar if you think it looks too runny. Divide the mixture into a couple of bowls and add a few drops of food colouring. Once you've reached  your desired shade dollop the icing into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and have fun decorating!

muesli cookies

There was a disaster yesterday.

The biscuit jar was EMPTY. Not even a rich tea biscuit.

Nothing.

Since nobody was going to venture out to restock our digestive/hobnob/custard cream supply any time soon, I took it upon myself to bake something that evening.

After a quick rummage around the baking cupboard I discovered some dried cranberries and apricots which needed using up, perfect for this muesli cookie recipe I found in my Lakeland book.

I took these out the oven a bit earlier than the recipe stated as they looked golden and I wasn't sure how much they would harden once cool. In hindsight I should have left them in the full allocated time as they're quite chewy, almost like a syrupy flapjack, which is incredibly tasty but I suppose not what they're intended to be.

I'll probably make more in the next couple of days to use up the rest of the cranberries and apricots as I don't think these are going to last long in the biscuit jar!

Crunchy (or not so crunchy in my case) muesli cookies

Recipe from Cupcakes and Cookies by Lakeland, slightly altered to suit what I had

90g rolled oats

150g plain flour

220g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g flaked almonds

50g chopped dried apricots

50g dried cranberries

125g butter (I think I used 100g unsalted, 25g salted)

2 tbsp golden syrup (go on, lick the spoon, I did)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp boiling water

Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas 3 and grease and line oven sheets with baking parchment. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nuts and fruit. In a saucepan, melt the butter and syrup over a low heat, then add the combined bicarb. soda and boiled water. Mix then add to the dry ingredients. Combine everything together and roll pieces of the mixture into (roughly) tablespoon sized balls. I think the recipe was a bit optimistic claiming the dough makes 36 biscuits, I got around 20 and I personally wouldn't have wanted them any smaller. Space about 5cm apart on the baking trays and flatten slightly with your hand before baking in the oven for roughly 20 minutes.  Cool on trays.

Passionfruit cream biscuits.

Last week I found this pressed glass pedestal cake stand in the charity shop. With its fluted edge and yellow rose pattern, it was begging for a fresh, sunshine bake. As it is quite a small cake stand, I decided it had to be biscuits.

Some may be horrified that I've never worked with passionfruit before. I've had drinks and eaten cake containing passionfruit, but I've never physically handled one! Clearly I lead a sheltered existence.

I love how all the flavours come through in the biscuit: zingy lemon zest and passionfruit pulp, sweet golden syrup and rich butter. The passionfruit seeds add a bit of crunch too, which I always enjoy in a biscuit. Then there's the passionfruit buttercream which can only be described as sweet sunshine. I may have eaten four of these in one sitting....

Bake these zingy biscuits if you're feeling miserable or fed up with the cold winter weather. They will make you happy :)

Passionfruit cream biscuits

Recipe from Lakeland Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

75g caster sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

100g plain flour

60ml passionfruit pulp

2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp

90g butter, softened

160g icing sugar

Beat the butter, lemon rind and sugar in a bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup and beat together. Stir in the flours and passionfruit pulp. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cut dough in half; roll each portion between sheets of baking parchment to 5mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Grease oven trays and line with baking parchment. Cut 25 4cm fluted rounds from each portion of dough and place about 2.5cm apart on trays. Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven until light golden (mine took about 15 minutes). Cool on the trays.

For the buttercream, strain the passionfruit pulp through a sieve into a small jug and discard the seeds. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the passionfruit juice. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with 5mm fluted nozzle (I used a wilton 1M). Pipe the cream onto half the biscuits and then place the other biscuits on top.

Note: You will need about 6 passionfruits in total.

I think I made 30 in total as opposed to 25 which meant I didn't quite have enough icing so I made an extra quarter of the icing quantity.

5 festive bakes

Not long till Christmas now! I've been busy making Christmas presents for the past month but it really feels like Christmas now that I've started my festive baking. I debated splitting all my festive bakes into separate posts, but decided to make one massive Christmas post instead. Hope you enjoy it!

First up are the funky gingerbread biscuits I baked yesterday to give to my cousins. They're quite crunchy, definitely more of a biscuit than a gingerbread, so they're good for dunking in your tea or coffee.

My mum helped with the decorating. We definitely have more of a childlike than professional quality. But who wouldn't want a stripey or splodgy dinosaur biscuit?! I don't know why I don't make biscuits more often as I love all my cutters, the dinosaurs in particular.

You know it's officially Christmas when you make mincemeat pies. I know many will be disappointed that I used bought mincemeat but I had jars left over from last year and I don't like to waste food. I made my own sweet shortcrust pastry though. It has ground almonds in it which gives the pastry a lovely crumbly texture.

It's also officially Christmas in my household when my Mum makes tablet (fudge/candy). I think we made 5 batches(!) to package up prettily as gifts. Don't even ask how much sugar is involved. It is not healthy!

I have also baked a couple of ginger bundt cakes to give to some aunties and uncles. They look impressive without taking up much of your time and they're perfect for sharing. I think my aunties and uncles will like that it's Granny's sticky ginger cake recipe too.

And lastly, a rarity on my sweet toothed blog, a savoury creation! I found this recipe for caramelised red onion chutney through the Cake Hunter (she's got a fantastic Christmas Countdown Gifts series at the moment which is worth checking out).

Chopping so many onions was a tearful task and certainly left a strong aroma in the house, but it was definitely worth it. This recipe made 3 and a half Bonne Maman jars worth of chutney. I'm glad there's a half jar so I can keep one for myself to eat with cheese. If I'm not eating cake, I'm definitely eating cheese.

How are your festive plans coming along? What are you all baking for Christmas? The amount of sugar and syrup I have gone through this weekend is insane!

Syrupy ginger bundt

Although it's fun to flick through the glossy pages of new cookbooks, sometimes it's good to return to an old family favourite. My aunty recently gave me my Granny's handwritten gingerbread recipe. She used to make it in a large roasting tin but I thought I'd try it in my 10 inch cake ring/bundt tin.

Winter light got the better of me with these photographs. Just as I took my camera out a big rain shower came past and made the room dark. I took a few photographs and got on with eating the cake. Cake is to be eaten and enjoyed after all.

This cake is so sticky and syrupy. It's gorgeous. Not surprising since it contains 3/4lb golden syrup! Shhh, don't tell your dentist. You can always pretend the warm spices make it healthy.

I think this cake would taste incredible with custard, although a cup of tea is just as comforting and involves less effort. After the faffy tarte tatin I was all about laziness this week!

Sticky syrupy gingerbread

Recipe from my Granny. I converted her measurements to metric to be helpful.

450g (1 lb) flour

1 level tbsp ground ginger (or adapt to suit. I used 2tsp ginger and 1tsp cinnamon and I'm a cinnamon freak)

1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 level tsp bakind powder

1 level tsp salt

225g (8oz) brown sugar ( I used light brown muscovado)

175g (6oz) margarine (I used Stork)

350g (3/4lb) golden syrup

300ml (10 fl oz or 1/2pt) milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas 3. Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Warm the sugar, margarine and syrup together, not letting it get too hot. Warm the milk separately. Add all the liquids to the dry ingredients along with a beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 1hr 15-30 minutes, or until firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. (I took it out when it was still slightly warm and a layer stuck to the base of the tin. I didn't mind though, I just scraped it off and ate it!)

Millionaire's shortbread

Oh my, these have got to be the sweetest, stickiest, piggiest things known to mankind. They are heart attack inducing and one single piece may cause you to go up two dress sizes.

It is worth it though.

Sweet things on my sweet cake stand.

Millionaire's shortbread

This is apparently a Mary Berry recipe, which is appropriate since The Great British Bake Off is back on TV. However I can't remember which blog I found it on, sorry!

Base:

225g plain flour

100g caster sugar

225g butter

100g semolina

Topping:

175g butter

175g caster sugar

4 tbsp golden syrup

1 x 397g can condensed milk (yum!)

200g milk chocolate (or dark if you prefer)

Set the oven to 160C/Gas mark 2. Lightly grease/line a 20 x 33cm oblong tin. Mix the base ingredients until they form a smooth dough (I mixed by hand). Press into the tin and prick all over with a fork. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and firm, then leave to cool. Next put all the topping ingredients (except the chocolate) in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter and sugar has melted. Bubble the mixture gently for 5-8 minutes, stirring constantly, until it is thick and fudgy and darker in colour. Pour into the tin evenly. Once that has set melt the chocolate and pour into the tin as well and spread evenly. Leave to set, (or mostly set if you're like me and desperately want a piece) then cut into squares and pig out!