1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. 2. Tip the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and stir. 3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, mixing quickly with a large fork to form a soft dough. 4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. 5. Form into a round and flatten the dough slightly before placing on a lightly floured baking sheet. 6. Poke evenly spaced holes in the dough to push the roasted garlic cloves in. 7. Bale for about 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. 8. Cool on a wire rack.

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl and mix, then set aside. 2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 3. Add the molasses, vanilla and egg to the butter and sugar until fully combined. 4. Add the flour mix until it forms a smooth dough. 5. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 30 minutes while preheating the oven to 180C/160C fan. 6. Sprinkle flour on a surface and a rolling pin and roll the dough to 50mm thick, then cut into shapes with cookie cutters. 7. Line a baking tray with baking parchment, put the shaped cookies onto it at least 5cm apart, then bake for 10-15 minutes or until perfectly baked. 8. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack, then decorate.

For the first few posts it’ll just be photos of bakes from years ago, then when it gets to more recent years up to the present, I’ll post recipes along with the photos.

Remove from the oven, leave to cool completely in the tin, then chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours, preferably overnight.

Method: 1. Place the flour in a large bowl. Place the yeast on one side of the bowl and the salt on the other side. (Make sure the salt is not placed on top of the yeast, as it can kill it, making it inactive). Add the sugar and stir everything together with a spoon until evenly mixed. 2. Mix together the milk and eggs until well combined. 3. Add three-quarters of the combined eggs and milk to the flour and stir to combine. 4. Mix in the rest of the liquid and knead the dough on a worktop until it’s smooth and glossy, this will take approximately 10 minutes. 5. Add in the softened butter and work it through the dough thoroughly until it’s silky and stretchy. This should take approximately six minutes. 6. Place the dough back into a bowl and cover with cling film. Set the dough aside to rise for at least an hour, until doubled in size. 7. Grease and sugar the four 11cm/4½in fluted rum baba tins (savarin moulds). (Adding the sugar will help the fragile sponges come out of the moulds). 8. Turn the dough out of the bowl, and knock it back by kneading it a few times. 9. Place the dough into a piping bag with a large plain nozzle. Pipe the dough into the four moulds. Try and get them all as equal as possible. 10. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. 11. Allow to prove for a second time until the dough has expanded almost to the top. Be careful not to over-prove at this stage, or you will get a muffin top around the edges. 12. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes. 13. Meanwhile for the syrup, put the sugar and rum in a small saucepan with 200ml/7fl oz water and bring to a rolling boil. 14. When the babas are cooked, take them out of the oven and allow to cool a little before carefully removing the cakes from their tins. They will be very fragile. 15. Place the babas onto a dish and pour over half the syrup. Allow them to soak up all of the liquid; then turn them over and repeat with the rest of the liquid. Transfer to the fridge to chill. 16. Meanwhile for the Chantilly cream, whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla seeds. The cream must be firm enough to pipe and hold its shape on top of the babas. Transfer the cream to a piping bag and keep in the fridge until needed. Prepare the fruit as necessary. 17. To serve, pipe the Chantilly cream, using a star nozzle, into the middle of the babas. Garnish with the mixed fruit.

1. Butter a 23cm springform cake tin and line with baking paper. 2. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until fine and tip into a bowl, then mix in the melted butter. 3. Spread the biscuit mix onto the bottom of the tin, using the back of a spoon to flatten it out into an even layer. 4. Chill while you make the filling and heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. 5. Peel, core and finely chop two of the apples. 6. Whisk together the soft cheese, cream, caster sugar, flour and vanilla, then stir in the chopped apple. 7. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and bake for 30-40 minutes, after which the centre of the cheesecake should have a uniform wobble when gently shaken. 8. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in the oven until it has cooled completely. 9. To make the toffee, melt the cream, sugar, butter, vanilla and a pinch of salt together in a pan. 10. Bring to a low bubble and keep stirring until the liquid is a thick, golden toffee colour. 11. Spoon a thin layer of toffee onto the cheesecake. 12. Core, slice and arrange the remaining 4 apples on top. 13. Use a pastry brush to thinly coat the apple slices with toffee (this will create a seal and stop them going brown). 14. Drizzle over the remaining toffee before serving.

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of 3 x 20cm cake tins (my tins were larger so the cakes were thinner). Boil the kettle. 2. Put the butter and 75g chocolate broken into chunks in a small pan and gently heat, stirring, until completely melted. 3. Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda with a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. 4. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk or yogurt together. 5. Scrape the melted chocolate mixture and egg mixture into the dry ingredients, add 100ml boiling water and whizz briefly with an electric whisk until the cake batter is lump free. 6. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 25 mins, swapping the tins round after 20 mins if they’re on different shelves. To test they're done, push in a skewer and check that it comes out clean. 7. Prick the cakes a few times with a skewer. Mix together the 2 tbsp reserved cherry juice and the kirsch (or more juice) and drizzle over the cakes. Cool the cakes. 8. Mix together the remaining drained cherries and jam. 9. Tip 200ml of the cream into a small pan and heat until just below simmering point. 10. Chop the remaining chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl, pour over the hot cream and stir until melted. Set aside until spreadable. 11. When the cakes are cool whisk the remaining cream and the icing sugar together until softly whipped. 12. Spread over two of the cakes, then spoon over the jammy cherries. 13. Stack the cakes together. 14. Spread the chocolate cream over the third cake and sit on top of the other cakes. 15. Pile the fresh cherries in and around the cake and serve.

1. Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C). 2. In a small pot over medium heat, whisk together the butter, cream cheese, milk, and vanilla extract until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool. 3. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth, then slowly drizzle in the cream cheese mixture, stirring until evenly combined. 4. Sift in the flour and the cornstarch, whisking to make sure there are no lumps. 5. In another large bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. 6. Fold about ¼ of the egg whites and into the yolk mixture, then repeat with the remaining egg whites until the batter is evenly combined. 7. Grease the bottom of a 9 x 3-inch (23 x 7.5 cm) round cake pan, then line the bottom and sides with parchment paper. If using a springform pan, make sure to wrap the bottom and sides completely in foil twice to prevent any leakage. 8. Pour the batter into the pan and shake to release any large air bubbles. 9. Place the pan into a larger baking dish lined with 2 paper towels at the bottom. The paper towels ensure that the heat is distributed evenly along the bottom of the pan. Fill the larger pan about 1-inch (2-cm) high with hot water. 10. Bake for 25 minutes, then reduce the heat to 285°F (140°C), and bake for another 55 minutes, until the cake has risen to almost double its original height. 11. Remove from oven, and carefully invert the cake onto your dominant hand and peel off the paper. Be extremely careful, the cake will be hot. You can also invert the cake onto a plate, but this will cause the cake to deflate more. 12. Dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar, then slice and serve with strawberries and cream while still warm!