Mediterranean tart

Ingredients Pastry: 4oz plain flour, 2oz butter Filling: 4 eggs, 75g marscapone, 75g sun dried tomatoes, 75g artichokes, 3 bell peppers, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 1 hour (plus pastry chilling)

I adore tarts. Crammed with vegetables and set in a creamy egg filling with melt in the mouth pastry, they are a meal in themselves or great with salad. This tastes of pure sunshine and is super quick to prepare.

1) To make the shortcrust pastry, cut the butter into small cubes and drop along with the flour into a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Drip in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture quickly forms a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Once chilled, roll out and press firmly into a buttered pastry case. Bake blind for 10 minutes and set aside to cool.

2) Whisk the eggs and marscapone together, then stir in the oregano and basil.

3) This tart can be made quickly by using sun dried tomatoes and artichokes from a jar, drained well to remove the oil, but I would recommend roasting the peppers yourself as the longer they are marinated, the less sunshine sweetness they tend to have. Slicing around the core to remove the seeds, I roast these for 15-20 minutes and then peel off the blackened skin. 

4) Layer the vegetables in the tart case and pour over the egg and marscapone mix, then bake in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 5 for 30-40 minutes. The tart should be solid, rather than wobbly in the centre with a golden surface just beginning to form.

5) Serve hot or cold.

Nettle & feta tarts

Ingredients 4oz plain flour, 2oz butter, 3 eggs, 75g marscapone, 150g nettles, 35g feta.

Serves: 6 Preparation: 45 minutes

I love nettles. The green flavour makes a lovely refreshing tea, a peppery soup that only watercress can top for simplicity... but it also works well for a bit of indulgence. These tarts are feather light with melting soft nettles and the crumbly tang of feta.

1) To make the shortcrust pastry measure 4oz of plain flour and 2oz of cold butter. Cut the butter into small cubes and drop along with the flour into a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Drip in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture quickly forms a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Once chilled, roll out and press firmly into pastry cases. Bake blind for 5 minutes and set aside to cool.

2) To prepare the nettles, pick them carefully by cutting through the lowest part of the stem with secateurs or good scissors, then pick them up by the stems and pop them in your foraging bag/basket. Pour into a colander and run under cold water until any bugs have been washed away. You can use rubber gloves to protect your hands when picking the leaves from the stems but years of cooking burns have given me asbestos fingers and a few stings in you really don't much notice the tingle any more. Drop the leaves in boiling water, stir once, then pour back into the colander. Plunge into ice water to stop the leaves cooking and retain their colour. Strain and set aside.

3) Whisk together the eggs and marscarpone and stir in the nettles and crumbled feta. Spoon into the tart cases and bake for 20 minutes at 180, by which time the pastry and surface of the tart should be golden brown.

Mulled wine cake

Ingredients 250g butter, 250g plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 250g icing sugar, 4 eggs, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 3/4 cups red wine, 1/4 cup stem ginger, 2 tsp allspice, 2 tsp ground ginger, 3 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 150g marscapone, juice and zest of 1 orange

Serves: 10 Preparation: 1 hour

The lovely and fabulous @tiger_tea and I were recently discussing alternatives to Christmas fruit cake this week. Quite frankly, I love a nice slice of fruit cake at Christmas, especially with a slice of cheddar on the top (oh come on, you know by now that for me, cheese goes with everything!) but as not everyone likes it, I present this magnificent alternative. After all, what is more Christmassy than mulled wine? Booze, spice, citrus, warmth. OH MY LORD! GET IN MY BELLY! This cake is rich and dark with a layer of creamy orange marscapone in the centre.

1) Sift together the dry ingredients and chop the crystallised ginger.

2) Cream the butter and sugar together, and then whisk in the eggs, wine and orange zest.

3) Beat in the dry ingredients and the ginger bit by bit.

4) Pour into two cake tins and bake for 40 minutes at 175 degrees, until a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Your house will smell incredible. You're welcome.

5) Whip together the orange juice and marscapone and sweeten to taste with a little sugar. Leave to firm in the fridge at the cake cools, then use to sandwich the two halves together.

6) Dust the surface of the cake with a little cinnamon, cocoa powder and icing sugar mixture.

Lemon lavender & white chocolate sponge

Ingredients Per cake layer: 175g butter, 175g caster sugar, 1 lemon, 3 eggs, 175g self-raising flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder Filling: Lavender jam, marscapone, icing sugar

Serves: 12 preparation: 30 minutes

Tomorrow I'm going to Clandestine Cake Club and the theme is "indulgence"
Faced with what I'm sure will be a sea of chocolate and cream I thought I'd take a lighter approach. I can just about master a lemon sponge - equal parts butter, sugar and flour with the freshness of lemon juice, sandwiched with the luscious sweet exotic flavour of lavender jam and the unctuous cream of whipped marscapone. Topped with white chocolate... what could be more indulgent than that! It's rare to see cakes on this blog as I'm more of a cook than a baker, but what I lack for in technique I make up for with flavour combinations!

1) Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, then beat in the eggs.

2) Zest a lemon and squeeze the juice, then fold into the cake batter along with the flour and baking powder.

3) Spoon the mixture into cake tins and bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees, or until the top is golden and springy and a skewer comes out clean. 

4) Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool in the tins.

5) Pop out of the tins and sandwich together with lavender jam and marscapone whipped with icing sugar and lemon juice (to taste).

6) Melt white chocolate and drizzle over the top to decorate it.

Don't discover silver balls in the cupboard, fall over laughing at the retroness and decide to write ironically on the cake with them though... 

Courgette & pistachio bread

Ingredients  1 courgette, handful of pistachios, 500g wholemeal flour, 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 150ml  marscapone, 125ml milk, juice and zest of 1 lemon.

Serves: 8 Preparation: 1 hour


This bread manages to be at once light and spongy in the centre and incredibly crusty - I couldn't believe what a fabulous crust this formed from the texture of the nuts which also gave this enough flavour for me not to need to add any salt to the mix.



1) Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and grate the courgette into it. Stir well until each piece of courgette is coated in flour.

2) Finely dice the pistachios (this took me about 25 minutes so a quicker option would be to crush them in a mortar and pestle!) then stir in to the flour mix.


3) Zest the lemon and stir into the flour mix, then squeeze the juice from the lemon and stir that through too.

4) Stir through the marscapone and add the milk little by little until a soft, sticky dough is formed.

5) Form a rough ball with the dough and dust with flour, or set in a loaf tin. Slice a line down the top with a knife and bake on a baking sheet for 30 minutes or until a good crust has formed which sounds hollow when you tap it.

Pumpkin cannelloni

Ingredients Pumpkin, marscapone, egg, passata tomatoes, mozarella, cheddar, smoked garlic, smoked chipotle chillis, white onion, sage

Serves: 2 Preparation: 30 minutes (+1 hour to make the pumpkin puree)


I love pumpkin, this time of year finds me baking pumpkin bread and making pumpkin soup and I always save some of the pumpkin puree to make cannelloni or ravioli with. When it comes to cannelloni I love to get creative - seeing people in the supermarket buying microwaveable spinach and ricotta cannelloni that I know will taste bland and have the texture of leather makes me feel so sad. It's so quick and easy to make. If you haven't already - check out my spinach & goats cheese, pork & apple and stilton & cashew cannelloni recipes.


1) Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and pith with a spoon. Make sure all the stringiness has been removed. Peel away the skin with a chef's knife and cut the flesh into cubes.

2) Roast in the oven in an ovenproof dish with a lid for 50 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the roast pumpkin and blend until smooth.

3) Sieve away the excess juice - this, along with the juice in the ovenproof dish should make about a pint of liquid. The liquid remaining from this recipe, along with the rest of the pumpkin puree is perfect for Pumpkin Soup.


4) Sage really brings out the warmth of pumpkin - finely chop about 5 large sage leaves and stir into the pumpkin puree. Beat together one egg and the marscapone, then whisk in 200 of the pumpkin puree. Put in the fridge to firm up.


5) Pumpkin loves spices so to make this sauce sautee half a very finely diced onion in about a teaspoon of chilli oil then pour in 250g of passata tomatoes. 


6) Add half a bulb of smoked garlic, minced and a tablespoon of chopped smoked chipotle chillis and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. Thank you to The Chilli Jam Man for the yummy smoked ingredients! Season with salt to taste.


7) Stuff 6 cannelloni tubes with the pumpkin mix using a teaspoon and rest in an ovenproof dish. Pour over the sauce and top with 100g grated mozarella and cheddar. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes covered with foil and a further 5 minutes uncovered to allow the cheese to crisp.

Black cherry tart

Ingredients Black cherries, red wine, cinnamon, star anise, marscapone, 250g butter, 100g sugar, 500g plain flour, 2 eggs, milk.

1) To make sweet shortcut pastry: sift the flour and sugar and add small cubes of the cold butter into your blender and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 2 beaten eggs and a splash of milk and pulse until a dough ball forms. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge to cool for an hour.

2) To make the cherry filling: Halve and de-stone your cherries and put into a hot pan with 50g of sugar. Stir as the sugar begins to caramelise and add a glass of red wine, some cinnamon and a star anise. Stir through for about half an hour until the cherries soften and the juice forms a syrup with the cooked off red wine and sugar.

3) Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and cut out circles of dough. Press firmly into pastry cases and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

4) Spoon marscapone cheese onto the pastry cases and top with the cherries.

Fig, goats cheese & artichoke tart

Ingredients Eggs, marscapone, basil, artichoke, lemon, basil oil, dried fig, pine nuts, goats cheese, 4oz plain flour, 2oz butter.

1) To make the shortcrust pastry measure 4oz of plain flour and 2oz of cold butter. Cut the butter into small cubes and drop along with the flour into a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Drip in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture quickly forms a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Roll out and cut circles of pastry. Press firmly into a Yorkshire pudding tin and blind bake for 5 minutes in the oven and set aside to cool.

2) To prepare the artichoke vinaigrette: Break the stem of the artichoke as close to the base as you can, then put the artichoke head first into a pan of hot, salted water and keep it submerged with an upturned pan lid (or plate). It will take 20-30 minutes to cook until tender - test the base with a knife - if it goes in smoothly it's ready! Slice the artichoke leaves and mix into equal parts of basil oil, lemon juice and sprinkle with chopped basil.

3) Slice the dried fig and goats cheese and layer, along with the basil leaves and artichoke into the pastry case.

4) Whisk together 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of marscapone. Spoon over the tart, top with pine nuts and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes.

Tomato, basil and goats cheese tart

Ingredients Eggs, marscapone, basil, piccolo tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, pine nuts, goats cheese, cinnamon, star anise, 4oz plain flour, 2oz butter.

1) To make the shortcrust pastry measure 4oz of plain flour and 2oz of cold butter. Cut the butter into small cubes and drop along with the flour into a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Drip in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture quickly forms a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes. Once chilled, roll out and press firmly into a pastry case. Bake blind for 5 minutes and set aside to cool.

2) Peel and slice half a red onion. Separate the outer rings and discard the smaller centres. Remove the core and seeds from 2 bell peppers and slice fine slivers of the fruit. Poach these along with the onion rings in red wine with a teaspoon of cinnamon and star anise.

3) Layer the pastry case with basil leaves, tomatoes, slices of pepper and onion and crumbled chunks of goats cheese.

4) Whisk together 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons of marscapone. Pour this evenly over the tart and sprinkle with pine nuts. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Gnocchi

Ingredients Potato, pasta flour, egg, plain flour Sauce 1) Onion, red wine, bell pepper, basil, passata, butter Sauce 2) Garlic, vodka, marscapone, cream, cheddar, butter

1) Bake 2 large potatoes in their skins, remove the skins and then allow to cool.
Add them along with 4oz of pasta flour to a blender and mix thoroughly - adding 1 beaten egg part way through the process until it forms a ball of dough.
2) Prepare a large surface area by dusting it with plain flour and dropping the dumpling dough into the centre. Roll the mixture out into a sausage and divide into even sections with a knife. Roll up each section into a ball and drop into a pan of boiling salted water. When the dumplings rise to the top of the water and float (rather than bob up and down) they are ready to be removed with a slotted spoon.
Gnocci is equally divine when served with zingy or creamy sauces - here I have combined the two because I'm in an indulgent mood!
3) Vodka sauce
Mince 4 cloves of garlic and sautee with butter in a pan. Add a shot of vodka and stir through. As the vodka begins to cook off add 2 tablespoons of marscapone, grate a generous knob of cheddar into the pan and finish with cream or milk.
4) Tomato and pepper sauce
Finely dice half a white onion and sautee with butter in a pan. Add a good glug of red wine and stir through. Remove the core from 3 bell peppers, slice into small pieces and roast in the oven. Blend the peppers and then pass through a sieve to separate the flesh from the skin. Add this to a pan along with some chopped basil and passata tomatoes.

Sweet potato & carrot mash

Ingredients Sweet potato, carrot, honey, ginger, marscapone Serving suggestion Pork medallion, cherry tomatoes, mozarella, basil, basil oil, lemon juice, salt, parmigiano, cream, pine nuts, garlic, courgette.

1) Peel and dice 2 carrots, ginger root and 2 sweet potatoes. I used about a teaspoon of the ginger root because I wanted it to enhance the flavour of the sweet potato, not overpower it.
Add to a pan of hot, salted water and cook until the carrot and sweet potato pieces are soft.
Mash or blend in a food processor with a teaspoon of honey and a tablespoon of marscapone.

2) Sautee the pork medallions in a pan.

3) To make the pesto - finely slice a good handful of fresh basil leaves and add to a mortar bowl. Sautee 1 clove of garlic in basil oil and add to the mortar bowl along with a pinch of salt and a handful of pine nuts.
Grind thoroughly, adding lemon juice, basil oil and parmeggian to taste.
Quarter some thick slices of courgette and stir them, along with a tablespoon of pesto in a hot pan. Finish the rest of the pesto with a tablespoon of cream.

4) Pour this cream onto some roughly chopped mozarella, halved cherry tomatoes and the pork medallions. Serve with the sweet potato and carrot mash.

Mulled pepper & goats cheese tart

Ingredients 4oz plain flour, 2oz butter, bell pepper, spinach, goats cheese, eggs, marscapone, dill, balsamic vinegar, red wine, red onion, honey, olive oil, cinnamon, star anise.

1) To make the shortcrust pastry measure 4oz of plain flour and 2oz of cold butter. Cut the butter into small cubes and drop along with the flour into a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Drip in 2-3 tablespoons of cold water until the mixture quickly forms a ball. Wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 15 minutes.

2) Whilst the pastry is chilling finely dice a red onion and slice slivers of red bell pepper. Add into a pan with a tablepoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of honey and sizzle for 2 minutes. Add in a slosh of red wine, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a star anise and simmer until the onions are soft. Strain the onions and pepper from the liquor (discarding the star anise) and set aside.

3) Whisk together 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons of marscapone. Add a little chopped dill and stir through.

4) Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out to a half centimetre thickness.
Either line a large flan dish or make individual tarts by cutting circles of pastry. Press them firmly into a yorkshire pudding tin and blind bake for 5 minutes with another yorkshire pudding tin sat in the top to prevent the pastry from rising beyond the "cup" shape required.

5) Add fresh spinach leaves to the pastry cups, chunks of goat's cheese and the onions and peppers. Pour some of the egg and marscapone mixture into the cases and bake for 10-12 minutes. Serve with a drizzle of balsamic glaze.