The Recipes

1. Sally's Flapjacks

4 oz / 120 g butter
3 oz / 90 g syrup
3 oz / 90 g soft brown sugar
8 oz / 240 g JUMBO oats

Melt butter, syrup and sugar slowly. Pour into oats and mix. Line 7x7" tin with baking parchment and grease it. Bake in preheated oven at 140ºC for 20 minutes.
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2. Bara Brith (aka 'the one', aka 'the surfboard')

350 g / 12 oz mixed dried fruit
200 ml / 1/3 pint tea
1 tbsp marmalade
1 egg, beaten
4-5 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
350g / 12 oz self-raising flour

Soak the fruit overnight in the tea. Next day, mix this with the marmalade, egg and sugar, then add the spice and flour. Spoon into a greased 1 lb loaf tin and bake in a warm oven (gas 3, 325ºF, 170ºC) for 1 hour or until the centre is cooked through. Cover with a sheet of foil or move down a shelf in the oven if it starts to brown too much.

Once cooked, leave the Bara Brith to stand for 5 minutes, then tip out of the tin on to a cooling rack. Serve sliced, spread with Welsh butter (which is very salty).

Bara Brith means 'speckled bread'.
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3. Chocolate Cake (from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book)

6 egggs, 5 of them separated
7 1/2 oz (215 g) caster sugar
9 1/2 oz (265 g) best quality plain chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tsps coffee (or 1 tsp instant + 1 tsp hot water)
5 oz (150 g) ground almonds

Preheat oven to 190 / 375 / gas 5. Grease and base line a 9" (23 cm) deep round cake tin with greased greaseproof paper or parchment.
Place the egg yolks and whole egg in a large bowl with sugar and whisk together until thick and light in colour.
Melt chocolate slowly in a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water. Dissolve the coffee in the water and add to the melted chocolate. Cool slightly, then stir into the egg mixture with ground almonds. In separate bowl whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry. Carefully fold into the egg and chocolate mixture. Turn into prepared tin and gently level surface.
Bake in preheated oven 50 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 mins in the tin before turning out. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the icing: fly Barbara to your location and have her make her butter icing (with plenty of salt), then arm her with tubes of food colouring and a palette knife, brief her on your theme, and let her loose on the design.

[Failing that here's a more prosaic alternative: gently melt 4 tbsps apricot jam and brush over cake. Melt 8 oz (225 g) plain chocolate, broken into pieces, over a pan of hot water. Add 4 oz (100g) butter and stir until icing has consistency of thick pouring cream. Place the cake on a cooling rack and pour over the icing, smoothing it over top and sides with a palette knife. Allow to set.]
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4. American Scones

A Williams-Sonoma recipe, more or less

15 oz plain flour
1 tsp salt
5 level tsps baking powder
8 oz butter
1/3 - 1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

Rub in or process butter with flour, salt, baking powder. Stir in sugar. Bind with egg which has been beaten with milk.

Before binding stir in 1 cup flavouring: bluberry & orange rind; chopped banana & pecan; raisins & cinammon; chopped apple; raspberries & chopped almonds.

Take golfball size clumps of mixture, form into balls and put on banking tray. Or roll out mixture into a round and cut into 12 wedges. Bake at 350-375 F for about 25 minutes.

These scones freeze well.
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More recipes follow...

The Photos

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