Butternut Squash Muffins

Supersoft and moist :-)

Butternut squash muffins

255 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp each of ground ginger, nutmeg and cloves
150 g white sugar
1 egg
130 ml milk
2 tbsp honey
1/2 butternut squash (~400g)
90 ml sunflower oil

Cut, peel and remove the seeds from the squash and cook in simmering water for 15 minutes until soft. Drain liquid and mash (or puree in a food processor). Ideally you should get ~250g of puree.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, all the spices and the sugar.

In another bowl, beat egg with a fork. Add milk, honey, squash and oil and stir well.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry, stirring until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and bake in a preheated oven (190C) for 18 minutes.

Lemon Souffle

Very easy to make and really few ingredients! It looks and feels like a cheesecake :-)

Lemon Souffle

For the base:
200 g digestive biscuits
100 g butter (at room temperature)

For the mix:
4 eggs
2 lemons
Small tin of condensed milk

To make the base, crumble the biscuits on a food processor and then mix with the butter and 1 tbsp of water. Pour into a 20cm round oven tin and cover the bottom and sides, pressing with the fingers until you have an even layer.

Squueze the lemons and sift the juice into a bit bowl. Add the egg yolks (of the four eggs) and the condensed milk. Mix well.

Whip the egg whites until stiff and then add to the lemon mix in two steps, stirring carefully.

Pour the mix over the biscuit base and bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes, until the top of the souffle is golden.

Take the souffle from the oven and let it cool down. (I think it's a lot better when it's been in the fridge)

Carrot cake

Not the lightest cake! The icing alone probably has more calories than a pizza, but it's really good, definitely worth it :-)

Carrot cake with a cream cheese icing

For the cake:
250 g brown sugar (I used 180 g of light brown sugar and 70 g or dark brown sugar)
100 g olive oil
20 g sunflower oil
3 eggs
160 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
200 g grated carrots
30 g chopped walnuts

For the icing:
170 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225 g philadelphia
250 icing sugar
2 tbsp orange rind
A pinch of salt

To make the cake, mix together the oil (both) and the sugar (both) in a bowl with electric beaters for two minutes.

Add the eggs slowly, and then the sifted flour with the baking powder. Add the ginger, carrot and walnuts and mix well.

Grease the bottom of a 22cm round oven tin and cover with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 60 minutes.

To make the icing, beat the softened butter and the sugar in a bowl with the electric beaters until l it's soft and spongey (around 2 minutes). Add the philadelphia and beat for another two minutes. Add the sugar, the orange rind and the salt and beat for another three or four minutes.

Take the cake from the oven and let it cool down completely. Cut in half and fill with part of the icing. Assemble the two halves of the cake and decorate with the rest of the icing.

Baklava

Super-sticky baklava... Probably not how they would serve it in Turkey, but I love it slightly warm with vanilla ice-cream :-P

Baklava

For the baklava:
200 g chopped hazelnuts
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
200 g filo pastry
75 g unsalted butter, melted

For the syrup:
200 g white sugar
200 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Mix the hazelnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Butter a large oblong roasting tin (approx 30 x 18 cm). Cover it neatly with five sheets of pastry, buttering each layer before lifting it from the stack. Allow the excess pastry to hang over the edge of the tin.

Spread half of the hazelnut filling on evenly. Cover with three more layers of buttered pastry and spread over the rest of the filling.

Fold over the overhanging pastry, buttering each layer first.

Cut away the excess pastry at the edges if needed, so that it fits the dish neatly.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the baklava into triangular or square shapes without cutting all the way to the base. Otherwise it will be impossible to cut the filo pastry neatly once it's cooked.

Sprinkle a bit of cold water over the baklava with your fingers (to stop the edges curling) and bake for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes turn the heat up to 190C and bake for another 15 minutes until light golden.

Take out the baklava and let it cool slightly.

For the syrup, boil all the ingredients apart from the honey. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the honey and simmer for 5 more minutes, stirring until lightly thickened.

Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the syrup slowly over the baklava.

Allow to stand for 10 minutes so it absorbs the syrup. Cut and carefully lift the pieces individually.

Lemon and Meringue Tart

I made this tart a few months ago, but hadn't had time to upload the recipe.

I think it looks quite impressive, but it wasn't one of my favourites, too lemony!

The tricky bit for me was to get the meringue toasted... You're supposed to use a torch for this, but I didn't have one, so I tried both with the grill and with a lighter - probably not the best idea!

Anyway, here it goes:

Lemon and meringue tart

For the base:
200 g plain flour
70 g ground almonds
40 g white sugar
1 large egg
85 g butter at room temperature (plus a bit for greasing the tin)
A pinch of salt

For the lemon mix:
200 ml lemon juice
160 g white sugar
140 g butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
20 g cornflour

For the meringue:
2 egg whites
100 g white sugar

Grease the bottom and sides of a 22 cm round oven tin and cover the base with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.

To make the base, mix the flour, almonds, sugar, egg, butter and salt in a bowl with your fingers.

Now, to extend the base, you're supposed to use a rolling pin over a floured surface. However, I find this quite difficult, so what I did was to take small bits of the dough and mash them with my fingers into the oven tin little by little until the whole base was covered.

Cover the pastry with another piece of baking paper and put some dry chickpeas over.

Bake the base in the oven, at 180C, for 15 minutes. Remove the chickpeas and the baking paper and bake for another 10 minutes.

To prepare the lemon mix, heat the lemon juice with half of the sugar and the butter in a sauce pan. In a bowl, beat the eggs, the yolks, the rest of the sugar and the cornflour.

Add the lemon juice, sugar and butter mix to this bowl (while it's still warm) and beat well. Pour back into the sauce pan and cook at a low heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens.

Remove from the fire, leave to cool down and then pour into the base.

To make the meringue, whip the egg whites and then add the sugar. Continue beating to get soft peaks.

Using a piping bag, form small meringue drops all over the cake. Then use the oven grill or a blow torch to toast the meringue so it gets a golden colour.

Orange Muffins

One of my favourite muffins, so spongy!

Orange Muffins

280 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
100 g white sugar
1 egg
Grated orange rind from 2 oranges
200 ml orange juice
40 ml water
90 ml sunflower oil

For the icing:
4 tbsp orange juice
80 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp grated orange rind

Preheat the oven to 195C and prepare the muffin cases.

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar) into a bowl.

In another bowl, beat egg with a fork and then add the orange rind, the juice and water (240 ml in total) and the sunflower oil.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Stir until just mixed.

Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 23 minutes.

Mix the juice, sugar and orange in rind for the icing and spoon on the muffins while they're still hot.

Leave to cool down on a wire rack.

Tarta de Santiago

This is a flour-less cake, very typical from Spain, which is incredibly easy to make and really nice.

Tarta de Santiago


250 g ground almonds
250 g white sugar
5 eggs (large)
Lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Icing sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Mix the sugar, almond, cinnamon and lemon zest on a bowl with a fork.

Add the beaten eggs and mix with a spatula (just enough so it's mixed).

Grease a 22cm springform round oven tin with butter and cover the bottom with baking paper.

Pour the mix into the tin and bake at 175C for 50 minutes, until golden. Once done take it out of the oven and leave to cool down before removing from the tin and decorating.

To decorate, you need to download and cut the cross template (there is one here). Place the template over the cake and sprinkle with icing sugar (using a sift).