Hummingbird Cake

For Mary

A variation on the carrot cake them- but with no carrot! This recipe is the Hummingbird Bakery's signature cake, hence the recipe, but they have 3 times the sugar in the icing (it must be terrifyingly sweet). I have also added some brown flour to the mix to add nutrition. In my dear friend Mary's words: "OMG that is like the BEST cake I have ever tasted!" Personally I wouldn't go THAT far... but it does look mighty impressive. Try it and see for yourself.

Raspberry almond pudding cake

I had frozen raspberries and wanted to make a pudding for our roast chicken dinner. But didn't want crumble. So improvised this - a mix between my all time favourite River Cafe Plum and Orange cake with almonds, another fav, Nigella Lawson's Easy Almond Cake, and a remembered cake that my step mother brought over to celebrate the birth of my first daughter. We liked it, a lot. 3 adults ate 3/4 of it!

So what's it like? A damp, sweet, buttery, crumbly almond and citrus scented cake with a crisp caramelised crunchy almond topping and tart raspberries at the bottom.

Luscious lemon squares

These are light and lemony. and super quick to throw together - under half an hour from start to eat. And eat them we did. They may look simple, and are certainly a classic, I claim no great surprises here, certainly no fancy icing... but boy are they good...myself and three kiddies (5,3, and 1) wolfed down half a pan of still warm squares in less than 10 minutes. So panic not about them being too sharp-tasting for kids. They would be great for a school bake sale or unexpected guests for tea.

I made them because we had a big batch of lemons to use up, and hundreds of our yummy yellow yolked free range eggs from our dear chooks who live under the kids' trampoline. Good eggs make all the difference.

Banana Loaf Cake

For Amy, Loo and Caragh who all love this cake.

A homely cake which fills the house with a wonderful cakey fug which seductively lets everyone who enters know that you are truly a domestic goddess. A crisp crust and moist springy sponge. Kids love it. And the adults do too! It's perfect for using up those deep brown spotted bananas that populate the fruit bowl.

We eat it plain. You can butter it. Or ice it, with a cream cheese icing, a la carrot cake, or a lemony butter or even lemony water icing. All are divine. Or how about a chocolate butter icing for a kiddies birthday cake (just bake it in a round tin).

It is divine still warm from the oven, but keeps well a few days too as the banana adds moisture. Ring the changes and cater to your individual crowd's needs: add 100 g sultanas (soaked in rum or orange juice to make them extra plump), 100g chocolate chips or chunks, and/ or 60 g chopped pecans or walnuts.

With thanks to Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess and Rose Levy Beranbaum's  The Cake Bible for their combined techniques!