Whitecurrant Pudding Cakes

I've called these "Pudding cakes" because I can't decide if they are a pudding or a cake. Anyway, last weekend we went fruit picking in Poynton. There were no strawberries left, just lots of squashy raspberries... and masses of white currants. But what the heck ARE whitecurrants?! I'd never seen them before, and I certainly didn't know what to do with them, but we had to pick something to make it worth the journey! As for the taste, they seemed sweeter and less.... purple tasting then blackcurrants. That's all I can say. These are proper yummy squashy little pudding cakes. Wonderful warm, with icecream or custard, or great cold at a picnic.

Marmalade Sandwich Cake

I'll admit it, I didn't have much time to make my daughter's 2nd birthday cake, but luckily I came up with this ingeniously simple idea! She loves Paddington Bear, and what does Paddington Bear love? ...Marmalade sandwiches. So here is my delicious giant marmalade "Cakewich" birthday cake, which is essentially an orange flavoured square Victoria sponge cake! With added buttercream of course.

Cheapest UK Baking Ingredients - Supermarket Price Comparison

Want to know the cheapest places to buy your baking ingredients from? Well I've done all of the hunting around for you! If you're like me and you either bake for business, or just bake a lot, then you'll want to know all of the cheapest UK supermarkets and retailers to purchase your baking ingredients from.

Here I'll keep an up-to-date list of the cheapest places to buy your common baking ingredients such as butter, nuts, flour, sugars, eggs, dairy, vanilla, chocolate and speciality ingredients for all of your cake baking or business needs.

If you buy in bulk, then you might try the obvious places like Costco and Bookers, however I have found that it isn't always the cheapest. You might be better off shopping at places like Aldi and Tesco, or even on Amazon Subscribe & Save. But in most cases, for your basic ingredients, it's Aldi every time!

In most cases I have noted the price for the most basic/value/everyday/smartprice/essentials option. So this is not a comparison chart for the quality of the ingredients, simply the cheapest options.

Last updated April 2017 (Please comment below if you find an ingredient cheaper elsewhere!)

Lemon Curd Swiss Roll

My lemon curd swiss roll with fresh cream is a completely yummy and refreshing pudding. You must make the effort to make your lemon curd from scratch - it's so easy to do and so much nicer than lemon curd from a jar. It's very easy to eat more than one slice of this cake in one sitting...

You can freeze this sponge for up to 3 months. Just wrap it tightly in baking paper, then cling film. Defrost it thoroughly before serving in thick slices.

Easy Mini Fruit Tartlets

This is a complete cheat of a recipe. Absolutely no baking required - just assembly. I am not ashamed - these fruit tarts are perfect for feeding the masses at a tea party when you have very little time to spare. They look fantastic and are a great mini finger food. These need to be eaten fresh - within about 6 hours of assembling them.

Summer Berry & Cream Cheese Ring Cake

This cake is rather large, but don't worry, it won't last long if you invite the family over. This is a really easy, really delicious and tasty cake made with a moist cream cheese sponge, and iced with cream cheese icing. It's not too sickly sweet; the Summer berries inside and on top balance the cake beautifully with a bit of tartness; they of course make it look extra special and rustically appealing to any cake lover. Ooooh please try this one - you won't regret it and your family will love you forever (they didn't even give me time to photograph the inside of the cake which is laced with pockets of gooey berries).

Here's an alternative way to decorate this cake. Meadow grass and flowers with pre-bought little iced roses and pansies. I made this for my daughter's 1st birthday party and it was the easiest cake decoration I ever did, with just one piping bag required! It was really popular and got lots of compliments.

Speckled Egg Easter Cake

How's this for an alternative Easter Cake. No fondant was used during the making of this cake! Have a break from the traditional Simnel cake and chocolate nests and try a "Speckled Egg Cake". It's just a simple 4-layer Victoria sponge cake with vanilla buttercream & apricot jam in between the layers. You can just use your favourite sponge cake recipe, I like to use Mary Berry's.

To a get a smooth finish on the buttercream, you'll want to make it quite thick in consistency but still spreadable. After spreading it evenly over the cake, use a hot palette knife (dipped in hot water then cleaned on a dry cloth) to smooth over the cake as best you can, scraping the excess icing off the palette knife as you go. Using a turntable really helps. Then after leaving the icing to form a crust for 30mins, gently smooth out any imperfections using a piece of parchment paper and your fingertips, or a fondant smoothing tool. To get the speckled effect, mix cocoa powder with a little hot water, then flick it at the cake with a pastry brush. Finally, decorate with mini eggs (or mini-mini eggs for an extra cute finish!).

Rhubarb & Custard Cookies

I searched all over the internet for Rhubarb and Custard cookies but it seems that nobody has made them! So after much testing I have invented my own recipe, and it is good. You'll need to think ahead a little though as the Rhubarb needs an hour of slow roasting in a low oven before it's ready to be baked. I tried using raw rhubarb but the cookies were too wet. This recipe makes for a lovely vanillary custardy cookie with sweet chewy rhubarb pieces.

Praline Cookies

I keep saying this about each cookie recipe that I bring out, but this really is the best cookie I have ever eaten. I am a huge fan of those crunchy sugary caramalised praline nuts that you find in European markets. They are often very expensive, but I've finally worked out how to make my own. So what do I do? Put them in a cookie. Yes. This is good. Very good. The nuttiest cookie ever.

Carrot & Sunflower Cake

Just because you're trying to eat healthily doesn't mean that you can't have cake. Yeeaah so you can't really get away from sugar when it comes to cake, but you know what they say: half the slice = half the calories, so you can eat twice as much! This carrot cake is packed full of carrots, pineapple, pecans & sunflower seeds, and is made using sunflower oil, wholemeal flour and brown sugar. I've done my best to make it wholesome so you don't feel so guilty about eating something sweet. This makes a large batch so be sure to share it with your friends.

Cups to Grams Converter for Baking Ingredients

Here in the UK, we like to use our weighing scales, and we like grams. It may be easier to just "scoop and go" using the cup measuring method like they do in America, but we just don't "do" that. We English prefer accuracy. So, for your convenience, here are some common baking ingredients converted from cups to grams. Due to the inaccurate nature of cups, it's impossible to get an exact conversion as it totally depends on how compacted the ingredients are into the cups, but here are the averages.

Amaretto Cassata Cake

Cassata cake is Sicilian sweet which consists of chiffon sponge cake moistened with liqueur and layered with a filling of ricotta cheese, candied peel, chocolate & vanilla. Traditionally, it is covered with marzipan, green icing and candied citrus fruits, however in this "Cleveland Cassata" inspired recipe I have used whipped cream, cherries, almonds & chocolate to make it more gateau-like. In this recipe I have use plenty of amaretto to give this gateau a marzipan taste. This is an excellent choice for a Sunday-afternoon desert!

UK Alternatives to US Baking Ingredients

It can be really annoying when you find an awesome looking cake that you desperately want to bake, but you can't find any of the ingredients here in the UK, or you have no idea what the alternatives are. I've done some research, and here are the closest and best readily available-in-the-UK alternative ingredients to some common American recipe ingredients.

Most US ingredients easily translate into UK ingredients, they just have different names, however some ingredients are special to the US so for those I have suggested the best equivalents, or ways to make your own substitutes. There are a few things you can pick up in places like Selfridges or Tesco's American Grocery Isle, but why go out of your way to buy them, when you probably have something just as good in your cupboard already.

Recently, lots of the ingredients listed below have become available to buy in the "International Speciality Food" section of the Amazon Grocery store. However, if you don't want to be overloaded with cardboard and packaging, there's always a British supermarket alternative!!

See also: Cups to Grams Converter for Baking

Orange & Honey Upside-down Cake

Here is my deliciously wholesome and "healthy" Orange and Honey Cake recipe; made with fresh oranges, honey, olive oil, ground almonds & pinenuts. The yummy oranges on top are caramelized in honey and vanilla for an aromatic marmalade-like taste. The sponge is so fluffy & moist, with toasted pinenuts and orange zest for extra texture and taste. I was surprised at how good this cake turned out, but using olive oil instead of butter really works and makes for a lovely soft and tasty dairy-free sponge.

Lemon Blueberry Gingernut Cheesecake Slices

I think that lemon and ginger work so well together, and the addition of blueberries make these cheesecake slices taste extra fresh and fruity. This yummy recipe uses ginger nuts to make the crunchy biscuit base. This is a really simple recipe that you can whip up in 10 minutes or so, just make sure it's nice and cold before you serve it. And like a proper cheesecake, it's nice served with cream. It helps to have your cream cheese at room temperature before you start.