Classic Caggs

This recipe for lemon shortbread is adapted from one on the  Sorted website . The shortbread is really delicate; with the addition of the lemon drizzle it gives it an amazing zing! You definitely won't be able to just have one slice. I baked the shortbread for a charity cake sale, so luckily they can't all be eaten by me! For the lemon shortbread you will need: 150g plain flour 75g cornflour The zest of 2 lemons  75g caster sugar 185g soft butter For the lemon drizzle you will need: Juice of half a zested lemon 50g icing sugar Preheat the oven to 170 ° C/338 ° F and prepare a tin by lining with greaseproof paper; I didn't butter the paper as there's such a high butter content in the shortbread it's not going to get stuck! Cream the butter and sugar together until pale Zest in your 2 lemons Sift in the flour and cornflour and smush it all together with a spoon until it comes together - I got a glamourous assistant to do it for me (he...

The summer for me feels well and truly underway when I've got a bowl of Eton Mess to hand (or in my tummy). You can even get the summer feeling when it's raining outside and pretend the sun is shining. I couldn't be bothered to make the meringues myself (I will put up a meringue recipe soon!) the reason was though that I'd spent all morning knocking up  an easy peasy fake chocolate torte  and didn't have the time or energy to make meringues too.  This summer in a bowl will serve at least 8 people a good pudding-sized portion. For summer in a bowl you will need: 400ml double cream 6 meringue nests A punnet of strawberries A punnet of raspberries A punnet of cherries 2 kiwi fruit Whisk up the double cream until it forms soft peaks Crumble the meringue nests in Cut the strawberries into quarters... The cherries in half... And throw the raspberries in whole! Chop the kiwi into slices and then little chunks and fold everything toget...

. To celebrate the end of our degree  our tutor invited the whole group for a barbecue at his house, which I took as the perfect opportunity to whip up a really chocolatey dessert.  The reason this is an easy peasy (and fake) chocolate torte, is that although the sponge part of a torte is kept the same, the traditional apricot is swapped for raspberry conserve and the chocolate glaze (which usually involves thermometers and smearing chocolate all over granite) is swapped for ganache. Still delicious but so much less faff. You will need a 25cm tin for the sponge as it forms one cake. For the chocolate sponge you will need: 225g butter (room temperature so it's nice and soft) 280g icing sugar  250g dark chocolate, broken into chunks  1/2 tsp vanilla extract (ideally the one with vanilla seeds in!) 5 eggs, separated 50g caster sugar 260g plain flour For the raspberry spread you will need: 150g raspberry conserve 3 tbsp water For the chocolate ganac...

One of my favourite suppers when the fridge is looking pretty bare is pizza.  It's even easier if you make the dough in a bread machine.  The dough recipe I used is specific to my bread machine, but was: 1/2 tsp yeast 300g strong white bread flour 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp salt 170ml water That took 45 minutes for the machine to work its magic, during which time I cooked two chicken breasts in the oven. 180 ° C/356 ° F, breasts  on a tray, drizzled with oil and baked for 15 minutes. Once the dough was done, I stretched it out on a well greased and floured pizza dish and then got creative with the toppings! The toppings I used: 1 tin of chopped tomatoes A little bit of pesto Good handful of grated cheddar A mozzarella ball Sliced chicken breast Pre-heat the oven to 180 ° C/356 ° F Start off by smearing the tinned tomatoes over the base - push it right to the edges and get a good even covering Next smear some splodges of pesto across the tomato...

I promised a friend ages ago that I would make him his favourite dessert - lemon cheesecake no less - as a treat for him finishing his university finals. Found out my housemate has invited him to dinner this evening...realised I still hadn't made him the cheesecake I'd promised...cue emergency cheesecake making! This recipe is super quick and easy (ideal for impromptu guests!) as it is made with double cream and condensed milk; the lemon juice reacts with the condensed milk to solidify it. This also means you don't need to use any gelatine!  For the lemon cheesecake you will need: 150g digestive biscuits 60g butter 3 lemons (juice of all 3, zest of 2 and decorative peel off 1!) A tin (397g) of condensed milk  150ml double cream Start by popping your digestives in a plastic bag and hit them with a rolling pin to smash them to dust. Put the butter in a pan and melt quite slowly so it doesn't burn.  Add your biscuity rubble and give a good stir. Pre...

I am a massive fan of Italian food, particularly pasta. I decided to give making my own ravioli a go and fill it with my all-time favourite flavour combination: sweet potato and pine nuts. I rolled my dough out by hand using a rolling pin and a lot of muscle-power. If you have a fancy pasta roller, even better. For the pasta dough you will need: 250g 00 flour (has a really high gluten content specifically for pasta making!) A pinch of salt 3 eggs 1 tbsp olive oil A little bit of milk to seal the pasta For the sweet potato and pine nut filling you will need: 1 sweet potato 1 red onion, finely diced 1 clove of garlic, crushed Glug of oil for the pan A sprig of rosemary (fresh is preferable, if dried use about 1tsp as it's a much stronger flavour) 3 tbsp cream cheese 20g pine nuts To begin with, pop the sweet potato in the oven at 180 ° C/356 ° F for about 40 minutes until it is nice and soft. While the sweet potato is in the oven you can make your pasta d...

My youngest brother's absolute favourite thing to make (and eat!) is rocky road. I'm not a massive fan of the glac é  cherries that seem to feature in most British recipes so we made up our own version which is very indulgent.  You will need: 200g amaretti (almond) biscuits 100g white chocolate 300g plain chocolate 175g butter (cut into little chunks) 4 tbsp golden syrup A big bag of Maltesers (we used a 135g family-sized one) 2 Crunchie bars 50g mini marshmallows Put the amaretti biscuits into freezer bags and smash into large chunks using a rolling pin. You don't want dust, more biscuity boulders. Keep the Crunchies in their wrappers and also gently bash with the rolling pin to break them up a bit. Break up the white and plain chocolate and melt together with the butter and golden syrup. We did this in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds on the top setting, but it can also be done in a bowl over boiling water. Once your chocolate is all melted and the...

With a potential diagnosis of coeliac (gluten intolerance) on the cards, I thought I would cheer up my sister with a gluten-free supper.  This red lentil risotto is (again) from the  Sorted website  with ingredients and a video provided. The red lentils are served with rocket and parmesan (you can leave out the parmesan to make it vegetarian and marginally less delicious) As red lentils take around 10-15 minutes to cook, it's a super quick and easy meal. And kept my sister happy, which is always a bonus. As it's so light you can even squeeze in a slice of  Key Lime Pie  for pudding...

I have got completely and utterly obsessed with the Sorted website  recently, which is where this  Key Lime Pie  recipe came from. The ingredients are all on there and there's an accompanying video. The pie itself has a ginger nut base and the lime curd is super duper sour.  The caramelised lime pieces on top are so easy to make. Slice a lime in half and then into ultra-thin slices before covering in caster sugar and popping in a cool oven (80 ° C/176 ° F) for at least 2 hours. Magic. 

Here it goes! My first ventures into the world of blogging... This blog came about because I love all things food and baking related and the eating aspect of such activities mean I rarely have anything to show for all of the time and effort spent.  Mainly though I have set up this blog in direct response to a friend, in as not so many words, telling me to stop posting photographs of food on Facebook. So here we are!