• Luci on June 05, 2011

  honey and walnut tart - excellent

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Oatmeal and raisin cookies

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 14

• Chocolate and coconut bars

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 19

• Bakewell bars

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 22

• Almond and orange butter fingers

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 24

• Peanut butter and white chocolate blondies

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 29

• Cinnamon pecan buns

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 32

• Eccles cakes

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 35

• Lemon cupcakes

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 36

• Viennese biscuits

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    The texture of these wasn't great and the shape was difficult to pipe. I wouldn't bother making these again.

  • retrocook on April 22, 2017

    I agree with Melanie, this biscuit dough is very stiff and difficult to pipe. By the end of the piping, my hands had warmed up the dough and it was much easier. I substituted tonka bean for vanilla and they tasted great.

  • CourtneyT on January 25, 2026

    Ugh-wish I had checked these notes first! The dough was too stiff to pipe and I ended up rolling into balls and flattening with a cookie press. Flavour was fine but I will use a different recipe in the future.

• Dutch apple cake

  • Brightgreen800 on December 31, 2025

    I've made this many times, and it is lovely, and easy. I tend to arrange the apples in the dish/tin first then pour over the batter though as it doesn't make much difference to the end result.

  • Brightgreen800 on December 31, 2025

    I've made this many times, and it is lovely, and easy. I tend to arrange the apples in the dish/tin first then pour over the batter though as it doesn't make much difference to the end result.

• Carrot cake

  • Brightgreen800 on December 31, 2025

    Really good, moist cake with a good level of spice.

• Chocolate cake

  • Astrid5555 on September 04, 2012

    This is our new favorite chocolate cake for children's birthday parties.

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    Perfectly lovely cake - this baked fairly quickly (20 mins). I iced the cake with leftover chocolate orange icing from the Hummingbird Bakery which was delicious.

• Banana bread

  • eela on October 10, 2025

    I only had 300g banana so added 100g frozen raspberries. Used plain flour so added in total 4tsp baking powder. Omitted rum and raisins and cherries

• Baked cheesecake with blueberries

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 76

  • Astrid5555 on July 03, 2016

    This cheesecake was a lovely surprise. It has a very creamy and light texture, no waterbath and chilling required, no cracks on top. Big hit with my guests!

• Coconut meringue roulade with lemon curd cream and raspberries

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 85

• Chocolate lava cakes

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 93

• Cardamom bread

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    Very nice soft bread - almost feels like a healthier version of brioche. I loved this with cardamom however would also consider swapping it for cinnamon.

• White chocolate and dried cranberry cookies

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 14

• Spinach, potato and goat's cheese tart

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 139

• Chicken and leek pie

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 140

• Roast mushroom and goat's cheese tartlet with sweet onion jam

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 141

• Quiche Lorraine

  • herbietea on December 31, 2011

    Page 145

• Waffles

  • Astrid5555 on November 03, 2012

    Needed a quick and easy waffle recipe and it worked just fine. A little bit on the sweet side. However, much prefer Kim Boyce's "Maple oat waffles".

• Baked butternut squash risotto with sage and toasted pumpkin seeds

  • Lindalib on November 02, 2012

    This was good and the addition of the pumpkin seeds (we used pepitas from Trader Joes) really added a nice twist. It did take nearly twice as long to bake, almost 30 minutes instead of the 15 minutes listed in the recipe.

  • Lilyinthevalley on August 14, 2020

    I added chopped bacon when frying off the onions, it was delicious!

  • katie_6n41lt on April 29, 2026

    So yum! Did without parmesan for dairy free option

• Lime yoghurt cake with rosewater and pistachios

  • stephengk on January 28, 2015

    Beautifully moist and keeps well. Be generous with the syrup - use it all.

• Mince pies

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    Although I have made the mincemeat from this book I prefer Dan Lepard's recipe from Short & Sweet. The last couple of years I have paired one batch of his mincemeat with two quantities of the sweet shortcrust recipe called for in this book. This makes lovely mincepies with a sweet crumbly crust.

• Gingerbread house and people

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    This dough tastes amazing and is great for building houses with. I amped up the spices by adding extra cloves and cinnamon.

• Dodo's stolen

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    Really delicious and dense stollen, packed with fruit. I substituted dried cherries for the raisins and dredged the top with butter and icing sugar.

• Shortcrust pastry

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    I've made the sweet variation of this recipe for mince pies - works like a dream.

  • CourtneyT on November 20, 2025

    We trialed the sweet version for our mince pies. This was traditional tasting and easy to prepare and work with but in the end we are going with a different recipe. Nothing wrong with this one but it’s not a standout.

• Marzipan

  • Melanie on March 09, 2014

    I made this to use in the stollen recipe. It tastes good but makes a very stiff marzipan - I wouldn't have been able to roll this out to top a cake with.

• Tinned Tomatoes

  It's a lovely book, although nothing can beat actually watching her bake whilst chatting away in that lovely irish accent of hers.

  Full review