Ingredients

4 baking potatoes

Wash them and pierce several times all over with a fork or eating knife. Rub in a tiny amount of olive oil.
Pre-heat oven to 200°C (392°F).
Place potatoes on low rack.
Cook for 40/45 minutes.

Ingredients

Vegetables of your choice
Water
Cooking foil (to wrap)
Butter/Olive oil

Method

Clean and cut the vegetables as desired.
Brush each with melted butter/olive oil
Wrap a small amount of each vegetable portion in foil.
Before seal sprinkle 2 teaspoons of water into each package, seal tightly.

Place them directly on the lower rack and cook at 200°C/392°F. Soft veggies such as courgettes and peas will cook in 15 to 20mins. Hard vegs, carrots etc will take 30-40 mins.

This goes fantastic with our Easy Roast chicken recipe here.

Ingredients

100g caster sugar
125g butter
1 egg
225ml treacle
300g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
250ml hot water

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C .
Grease and flour a 8 inch tin
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Beat in the egg, and mix in the treacle.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake 1 hour approx in the preheated oven, low rack, fan medium, 180 degrees

This easy to make cake is wonderfully moist and smells like Christmas!
Serve with custard, creme fraiche or whipped cream for a lovely pud.

Ingredients

4 metal skewers
250g monkfish cubes
1red pepper ( cut into 1 inch squares)
1 large onion. ( cut into 1 inch squares)

1/4 tsp mixed herbs
1tbsp olive oil
Juice o a whole lime
1tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Serve on a bed of rice & salad.

Method

1. Place the cubes monkfish into a bowl and add sweet chilli sauce,
Mixed herbs, olive oil and half the lime juice.

2. Mix and leave to marinate for 10 mins, then place on skewers with the onion and the red pepper.

3. place on a grill tray on high rack, high heat 240c for 6 mins on each side or until cooked.

4. Use the rest of the juice of the lime on the monkfish & serve on a bed of rice & salad.

You can also use scallops & prawns instead of monkfish

Ingredients

110g Self raising flour
30g caster sugar
30g butter
75ml milk

Sift flour add sugar and combine well.

Method

Add butter and work until it looks like bread crumbs.
Add milk a little at a time until you have a soft but not wet dough
On a floured surface roll out to about 4-5mm thick. You make one big round or biscuits prick the top with a fork.

Preheat oven using ovens own preheat setting
Set temperature to 210c
Cook shortcake on browning tray for 10-12 mins until just golden
Turn out to cool.

Makes 6-8 depending on size
to alter this to coconut shortcake

increase
sugar to 50g
flour 175g self raising
50g desiccated coconut
butter 110g

Cream sugar and butter
add flour and coconut combine into a dough
roll out cook at 180 (no preheating for this one)
cook for 30 mins

Ingredients

I use the Delia all-in-one method for sponge cakes plus a tablespoon of hot water (a tip given to me by a cake maker), spoon the mixture in to two 8 inch sponge tins.

I then place a tin on the lower rack of my JML HO and use the upper rack covered in foil to stop the cake from burning.

Time it for 30 to 35 minutes at 170 degrees (175 to finish it off if the its not fully cooked inside).

I find the results to be a golden sponge cake, light and fluffy.

My only gripe is that I can’t bake two at a time. So far I’ve cooked 3 sponge cakes using this method and they all are perfect.

1. For beginners, making cakes can seem a bit of a daunting prospect but, as with all cooking skills, once you’ve been taught the correct way, you can proceed without fear and have success every time. Using the wrong tins is probably the cause of 90 per cent of failures – for this quantity you will need two 8 inch (20 cm) diameter sponge tins, 1½ inches (4 cm) deep. Lightly grease them and line each one with a circle of silicone paper (baking parchment), also lightly greased.

2. For an 8 inch (20 cm) sandwich cake, start off by sifting 6 oz (175 g) of self-raising flour and a rounded teaspoon of baking powder into a very large mixing bowl, holding the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.

3. Next, break 3 large eggs into the flour and add 6 oz (175 g) of caster sugar and 6 oz (175 g) of butter – the butter has to be at room temperature, so soft that the blade of a knife will make a deep impression straight away. Finally, add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

4. Now you just go in with an electric hand whisk and whisk everything together until you have a smooth, well-combined mixture. This will take about one minute – if you don’t have an electric whisk, you can use a wooden spoon with a little more effort.

5. What you now end up with is a mixture that drops easily off the spoon when you give it a tap on the edge of the bowl. If it does seem a little too stiff, add 1-2 teaspoons of tap water and mix again.

6. Divide the sponge mixture equally between the prepared tins and level out the surface with a palette knife.

7. Place them on the centre shelf of a pre-heated oven – gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C) and bake for 30-35 minutes. Don’t open the oven door until 30 minutes have elapsed. To test if they are cooked or not, touch the centre lightly with your little finger. If it leaves no impression and springs back, the sponge is cooked.

8. Remove them from the oven then wait for about 5 minutes before turning them out on to a cooling rack and carefully peeling off the base paper.

9. Leave the sponge to get completely cold before you add your filling and topping.

Copyright to this recipe belongs to Delia Smith