occasionally, until well browned and cooked through.
* To make the sauce, simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve drizzled over the meatballs on a bed of couscous.
Chocolate, toffee and peanut squares
One of my guilty pleasures is a tin of boiled condensed milk. The sugars in the milk caramelise to make a thick toffee-like sauce. It’s perfect for cooking or eating straight from the tin (with or without a spoon!). It’s also possible to buy ready-boiled condensed milk, which is sold in jars as dulce de leche. If you want to make your own, boil unopened tins of condensed milk for 2 hours – I like to prepare a few tins at a time and then keep them in the cupboard where they’ll store for months.
Makes about 24 squares (v)
PREPARATION TIME
10 minutes
COOKING TIME
20 minutes, plus chilling
100g (3½oz) caster sugar
200g (7oz) butter, softened and diced
300g (11oz) self-raising flour, sifted
400ml (14fl oz) dulce de leche or boiled condensed milk (see recipe introduction)
125g (4½oz) salted peanuts, roughly chopped
200g (7oz) milk chocolate, broken into pieces
20 x 30cm (8 x 12in) Swiss roll tin
* Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Line the base of the Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.
* In a food processor, whiz together the sugar, butter and flour for the shortbread base until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rub together the butter and flour in a bowl with your fingertips and stir in the sugar. Tip into the prepared tin and press down with your hands or a palette knife to level out the mixture.
* Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown all over, then remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.
* Once it is cool, spread over the dulce de leche to cover the shortbread, then press the roughly chopped peanuts into it, making sure they are evenly distributed.
* Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt. Remove from the heat and pour over the peanut-studded dulce de leche, allowing it to cool, then leave in the fridge for 1–2 hours to set. Once set, cut the mixture into squares in the tin and serve.
As the title of this recipe suggests, this cake is ridiculously simple to make. It’s just a matter of whizzing all the ingredients together in a food processor before tipping the mixture into a tin and baking in the oven. If you don’t have a food processor, it’s still very easy to make by hand and tastes just as delicious, either way!
Serves 4–6 (v)
PREPARATION TIME
10 minutes
COOKING TIME
30–35 minutes
110g (4oz) butter, softened and diced
110g (4oz) caster sugar
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
2 eggs
150g (5oz) plain flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk
For the icing
175g (6oz) icing sugar
2–3 tbsp lemon juice
20cm (8in) diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed cake tin
* Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Line the base of the tin with a disc of baking parchment and grease the sides with butter.
* Place all the ingredients for the cake in a food processor and whiz for 1 minute or just until the mixture comes together. Alternatively, cream the butter until soft using a hand-held electric beater, then beat in the sugar and lemon zest, whisk in the eggs one at a time and fold in the remaining ingredients. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing over the top with a palette knife or the back of a spoon.
* Place in the oven and bake for 30–35 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool.
* To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add just enough lemon juice to make a soft icing with the consistency of thick double cream. (Too thick and it won’t ‘self-spread’, too thin and it will run off the cake and onto the plate beneath.)
* Place the cake on a serving plate and tip the icing into the middle of the cake, allowing it to spread itself, then cut into slices to serve.
Rachel’s tip
If the icing is a bit stiff and won’t spread easily, dip a palette knife in boiling water and use this to gently smooth the icing over the surface of the cake.
My mum’s friend Maxine gave me this amazingly easy recipe. It uses unpeeled oranges, steamed and puréed, making the cake gorgeously moist with a taste that is unsurprisingly reminiscent of marmalade.
Serves 8–10 (v)
PREPARATION TIME
5 minutes
COOKING TIME
1¼ hours
2 oranges, cut in half and all pips removed
200g (7oz) ground almonds
200g (7oz) caster sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
23cm (9in) diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed cake tin
* First steam the orange halves for 30 minutes, in a steamer or in a metal sieve covered with foil and set over a saucepan of simmering water.
* Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Line the base of the tin with a disc of baking parchment and grease the sides with butter.
* Once the oranges have finished
