Adapted from Tamasin Day Lewis' Kitchen Classics; my gluten free cake version of a sticky toffee pudding (nut free too!)

• 55g unsalted butter
• 200g light soft sugar

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan. As it is almost completely melted, add the sugar and hover over a low heat, stirring briskly, until the sugar dissolves into the butter. Leave off the heat for a minute or two.

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg, beaten

Add the essence and the egg, stir. The mixture will immediately loosen in the pan.

Stir in a sifted mix of:

• 100g gluten free flour
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of sea salt

and finally add:

• 120g pitted dates, scissored into half

Line a small loaf pan (i use a 900g tin, but a smaller pan will give you a thicker brownie) and carefully dollop in the mixture. Bake for 25 minutes, but check at 20 mins .. a skewer will be barely clean but the top should look crisp. Leave for at least 10 minutes to cool before removing from the tin and slicing, greedily.

Another loaf cake. My kitchen doesn't feel right without a frilled and fragrant gentle brick of cake on the window sill. This is a prime candidate for frequent revisiting. My first attempt was with standard flour, but I will try it with gluten-free flour without hesitation.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

• 150g soft unsalted butter
• 30ml golden syrup
• 175g dark muscovado sugar

I have a handy scale which measures ml so i can pour sticky syrup directly into the beating bowl, otherwise use 2x 15ml spoonfuls. Beat the soft butter with the syrup and sugar - a good 5 minutes, until you have a consistent and appealing coffee-coloured batter. 

try resisting dipping a finger ...

• 150g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 25g cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients together and beat 1 tablespoon into the butter cream, then beat in one egg. Add 2 more tablespoons of the flour mix and beat again before adding the second egg.

• zest of 2 medium oranges, juice of 1 orange

Keeping the paddle moving, add the zest of the oranges and then the juice, slowly.

Pour and scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 45 minutes. It may need 5 minutes less or more .. do check. A cake tester should not be totally clean. Leave in the tin to cool slightly.

The flavour is, as Nigella says, more of warm spice than citrus.

utterly moist

It is a crumble, the best crust for a dish of cooked bramleys and blackberries, and doesn't seem to care that i used gluten-free flour.

100g flour

75g butter

50g sugar

Whizz in a food processor for a few seconds to make a crumb. Scatter over your choice of fruit and bake in a medium hot oven until crisp, about 25 minutes.

I prefer mine served warm, with hot custard.

A fine piece of belly pork.

I sliced the fat with a sharp blade, rubbed salt pepper and lemon thyme into the creases. 30 minutes at 230ºC, then an hour or so at 180º. It didn't need an extra blast at the heat, the crackling was done to perfection.

It is the Bramley season. I like mine stewed slowly with a little sugar and a generous amount of raisins (the apple with shrink, the raisins multiply while it cooks). I lubricate the pan with a glug of green ginger wine and add two large knobs of fresh ginger (unpeeled) for flavour. Remove the raw ginger before serving warm, with cream.

Yes, this is more banana than courgette, but it must be the healthiest cake ever betwixt my lips. Gluten free, fat free. I used tight little currants instead of the suggested nuts. Very light to eat, excellent not-to-sweet fuel for breakfast, and keeps well too.

Cinnamon Banana Bread, by Harry Eastwood (recipe also found here)

Use a barrel grater .. it is the only reasonable way of getting finely grated vegetables without destroying your knuckles and your sense of humour. I always bake this sort of damp cake in a paper case to avoid the extra work of greasing the tin.

Coconut, lime and blueberry slice, from Harry Eastwood's Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache.

This is a courgette cake, and, as i have an excess of the green truncheons, i was determined to make something more than just endless griddling (with mint, delicious).

It has a 'pastry' base of coconut mixed with sugar and butter. Unnecessary, probably. I didn't crisp the base quite enough .. coconut burns so quickly, i was over cautious.









2 eggs, sugar, a LARGE courgette very finely grated (a minute in a barrel grater, no sweat), zest and juice of 2 limes, gluten free flour and baking powder, salt and a generous cup of frozen blueberries.

Again, i didn't give it quite long enough in the oven (although a deal more than the recipe states). The flavour was fabulous - lime and blueberries are perfect companions - i think the sponge will probably stand alone from the coconut base and that is how i will try it next time. It is worth another attempt.