Cakes

• Preheat your oven to 180° C and prepare your baking tin.  
• Bring butter and milk to the boil then switch off.
• Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the vanilla essence to the egg mixture.
• Sift flour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
• Add the flour and baking powder to egg mix and fold in with a metal spoon.
• Add the hot milk mix to egg mix and blend well. 
• Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean (cooking time depends on the size of your tin) usually between 30-45 min.

• Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until foamy and pale.
• Mix in the oil and beat lightly again.
• In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt.
• Gently, with a metal spoon fold in the flour a little at a time alternating with the buttermilk, ending with flour until all the ingredients have been added.
• Spoon the mix out using a 1/4 cup measure into paper cases.
• This mix makes about 24 large or 36 medium sized cupcakes.
• Bake in a hot oven 180° C for approximately 15 minutes. 

• Preheat your oven to 180° C, and prepare your muffin tin, by lining each with a paper case.
• In a bowl sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, cocoa and bicarb) and set aside.
• In another, larger, bowl mix all the wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar and vanilla).
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and combine.
• Spoon into your cupcake cases, filling each to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

For the icing

• Beat the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer until combined (about 3 minutes).
• Gradually add the icing sugar, beating all the while until it forms a smooth icing.
• The add the lemon juice and/or the vanilla to taste.

• Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 23cm baking tin, make sure that your lining comes up the sides about 5cm above the top of the tin.
• In a big pot mix all the dried fruit, cherries, mixed peel, ginger and nuts. Add the zest and juice of the orange and lemon, marmalade, butter, sugar and water.
• Bring to the boil and give it a good stir to mix everything. Then let it simmer for 5 minutes.
• Leave it to cool, you should be able to hold the pot in your hands comfortably (or leave it overnight and finish off the following day). Once the mixture has cooled add the eggs and espresso and mix well. Sift the dry ingredients in and mix well again.
• Spoon the mixture into your tin and bake for about 2 hours. The cake should feel firm to the touch and a skewer should come out clean. If the cake I getting a bit dark on the top and not cooked through yet, cover the top with foil and turn down the heat slightly.
• When you take it out of the oven splash a good amount of brandy over the top while it is still hot. That should soak in quite quickly, after that you can remove it from the tin. You can eat the cake as is then, but it is definitely better if you keep topping up the brandy over the next few weeks.
• I usually wrap the cake in foil and plastic wrap and once a week I water it with another healthy splash of brandy (as much as it can soak up at a time), each time turning it over to get even distribution. After a couple of weeks you will see that it has become quite moist and can’t really absorb any more brandy. I usually know when it is done because it kind of puts out a dark sticky syrup at the bottom.

• Sieve together flour, cocoa, bicarb and BP. Stir in sugar.
• Mix together syrup, eggs, oil and milk and then add to the dry ingredients.
• Bake in large greased cake tin (or ring tin)
• Bake at 160˚C / 325˚F for approx. 1 hour (until skewer comes out clean)
• Cover with caramel or icing of your choice and enjoy!

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a loaf tin (15cmx8cm) by greasing it well.
• Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
• Set aside a little zest for decorating the top of your loaf and add the remaining lemon zest.
• Add one egg at a time, beating between each addition.
• Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, and fold gently into the butter mix.
• Set aside a table spoon of lemon juice for the glaze and add the remaining lemon juice to the mixture, then add the buttermilk and fold in.
• Pour into prepared tin and bake for about 30 minutes until cooked through, and a skewer comes away clean.
• Cool fully before glazing.

Glaze

• Mix the icing sugar with lemon juice and drizzle over the top of the loaf and finish off with a sprinkling of zest