Best scones ever

I have been baking the scones for few years now, but only recently when visited "The Secret Teacup" I felt like I had a kind of scones revelation. They were lighter than any others I had before, more fluffy and plain for a change. Thankfully the hostess shared her recipe with me and now I can enjoy best scones ever. I wonder if I will ever look back. The secret is buttermilk (soda and baking powder react well with sour liquid) and not kneading the dough, just putting it together. Please have a look at this typical British delight.

Scones – best I ever had

Makes 10-12

375g self raising flour

1 tbsp caster sugar

30g butter (I used unsalted)

300ml buttermilk

Heat the oven to 200 C (fan) and line a large baking tray with some baking paper.

Place flour sugar and cubed butter in a food processor and pulse until butter incorporates into the flour. You can also use your fingers and rub the butter in. Next add some buttermilk, little by little, with the lightest touch. Do not overdo the dough, stop when there is no sign of dry flour. The dough should be sticky!

Place the dough onto generously floured surface and press it slightly, until about 2.5cm high.    

Now, I prefer to stick to James’ Martin granny’s tip and cut the scones out without putting any leftover dough together and cutting again – it changes the dough structure and they are not as fluffy anymore. So I try to cut as much scones as possible from one piece, using a round cookie cutter and then when I have some bits left, I put them together to form one odd scone.

Bake then in the hot oven for about 12 minutes, remove from the oven and let them cool down on a wire rack.

Serve with fresh cream and your favourite fruit preserve.

For shiny scones brush the tops with beaten egg before baking.  

Plum & ginger swirl cheesecake

Today I will take a break from my holiday Italian theme and show you something that I am extremely proud of.  A cheesecake that I have made for Julie's birthday.

First of all I am proud of this cheesecake because I am not the best baker and not all of my desserts, especially cakes turn out as nice and tasty. Secondly I did not use any particular recipe and I based this cheesecake upon recipes that I already tried and this time added an extra twist - the plum sauce. I have seen many recipes for swirl cheesecakes using raspberry preserve, but this time of the year I was really keen to use plums instead. So I made my own plum sauce, spiced by adding little bit of ginger. So here it is - my late summer, delicious, creamy, little bit sharp yet sweet enough (drums!): plum & ginger swirl cheesecake!

Serves 8-10, makes round 25cm springform tin

For the base:

200g dark chocolate Digestive biscuits
80g unsalted butter


For the cheese filing:

600g cream cheese (800g if you prefer higher cake)
170g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tbps custard powder
2 tbsp lemon juice
200ml creme fraiche

For the plum & ginger sauce*:

4 large plums
100ml of mead (honey wine)
2 tbsp of brown soft dark sugar
4 cubes of crystallised ginger

First prepare the sauce.Quarter and stone plums and place in a small pan with mead, sugar and ginger, then bring to the boil and simmer until the plums are very soft and juices reduced. Next blend with a hand blender until smooth and place on the small heat to reduce little bit more. Set aside. 

Line a springform tin with some kitchen foil, making sure the bottom is protected from water. I bake this cheesecake in bain-marie, which is a type of preparation used for protecting dishes requiring gentle heat from the fierce heat of the oven.

Crush the biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with the melted butter. Press into springform tin and set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 180C and put a kettle on. 

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until light and fluffy. Next add eggs – one egg at the time, mix and add next egg when previous is mixed well with the cheese mixture.

Next add lemon juice, custard powder and mix, but make sure you do not overwork it – stop when custard is mixed into the cheese. Add the creme fraiche, mix and pour the mixture into the tin.

Now using a teaspoon dot the top of the cake with the plum sauce and working with a toothpick make movements in eight shape to create swirls, like lady in this film, however I do not recommend using a knife, toothpick makes much nicer effect. 

Place the tin into an ovenproof dish and fill with hot water (about half of the size of the tin), cover with kitchen foil and bake for about 1 hour 20 minutes.  The middle will be a bit wobbly.

Take it out of the oven and let it to cool down in  and then transfer to the fridge and leave it overnight.

To cut this cheesecake use knife previously kept in the hot water - it will make the whole process easier.

* it makes a whole about 250ml jar, and really you need few teaspoons only. This was an experimental recipe, and I did not expect that much of the sauce. However I placed the remaining hot sauce in the sterylised jar, sealed and kept it for winter - it will be lovely with the pancakes.

Christmas cake

I missed last Sunday - the stir-up Sunday, because I was still in Poland. I honestly doubt if I would have made traditional Christmas pudding, however I was really keen to make my own Christmas cake this year. There are hundreds of recipes in internet, cookery books and websites but I decided to use a recipe from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson. I used the basic idea but I have changed the quantities of dried fruits. Click here , for the original recipe. I have made two cakes - one in round 20 cm tin and other in bread tin, based on the third column of quantities.

Today I am going to show baked cake that you have to store in airtight container and feed with brandy every 2-3 days. Traditionally it would be covered with some apricot jam, marzipan and icing just before Christmas, but I am not a big fan of icing so I think I will leave it on its own. Perhaps I will make some icing and decoration for one of them if I decide to give it away. Click here for the decoration ideas.

This cake goes amazingly well with some Real Wensleydale cheese.



500g raisins
600g sultanas
250g mixed peel
200g glace cherries
250g dried cranberries
5-6 pieces of stem ginger, chopped
200ml brandy (or sherry)
300g butter
250g brown sugar
zest of one orange
zest of one lemon
6 big eggs
3 tbsp orange marmalade (I used one with ginger by Tiptree)
500g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp salt
more brandy to feed the cake over next few weeks

Place all of the fruit in a large bowl and add the brandy. Leave to soak overnight.

Next day preheat the oven to 150C and line baking tin with brown paper.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the orange and lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one and then add the marmalade and almond extract.

Sift the dry ingredients together.

Then mix the fruit alternately with the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.

Put the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake for about 2 hours.

When the cake is cooked, brush with a couple of tablespoons of extra brandy. Cover immediately in a tin foil – this will trap the heat and form steam, which in turn will keep the cake soft on top. Remove the cake from the tin when it is completety cold. Wrap in a paper, secure with some elastic and if needed and store in airtight container, for at least 3 weeks. Remember to feed it with some more brandy every 2-3 days.

Dark chocolate chips & cranberries shortbread

I have made those shortbreads because I was short of chocolate chips and shop is too far away to go for one missing ingredient. I had all of the ingredients for a dough measured in a bowl when I realised that I have not enough chocolate chips in my cupboard. Although I have found some dried cranberries and decided to add them along the chips. The outcome was fantastic and these will replace my lavender shortbread for a long time, Autumn and Winter for sure.

375g plain flour, sieved
250g unsalted butter, diced
125g caster sugar
handful dark chocolate chips
handful dried cranberries

In a bowl mix the flour with sugar and add diced butter. Work with your fingers (or use food processor) to bring the dough together. At the end add chocolate chips and cranberries.

Form the dough into a rolling pin shape (or huge sausage), wrap in cling film and place in a fridge.

Heat the oven to 140C and line a baking tray with some baking paper. Cut the dough into about 7mm thick cookies and place them on the tray, not too tightly. (I bake them in two batches). Bake for about 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and gently transfer onto a cooling rack. These are quite soft when warm so you have to be careful as you can easily break them. Cool down on a wire rack and store up to one week in airtight container.

Plum & almond cake

End of the summer and beginning of warm autumn always remind me dinners at my Granny's house - in September she always makes a kind of dough and wrap the prunes in it (knedle ze śliwkami in Polish - it is little bit like Italian gnocchi but filled with fruits, clik here to see what it looks like). It tastes great, but I can get hold of this particular type of plums she uses. It is similar to damson, but bigger and sweeter. Although I love plums I do not fancy making my Granny's dish as I think it would not be as good as that one back home... Instead I indulge myself with plum cake, especially that my boss gave me some plums from his garden.

It is easy and quick to make and it makes a great treat for your afternoon tea.

Makes 25cm round tin

250g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar ( I used golden)
5 eggs
tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
level tsp baking powder
handful of almond flakes
about 600g plums, halved, weight after removing stones

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Mix sugar with butter until fluffy. Next add eggs - one by one mixing all the time. Add vanilla extract, sieved flour with baking powder and mix. Place the mixture in round cake tin lined with baking paper.

Sprinkle half of the almonds on the top, place halved plums and sprinkle with the remaining almond flakes. Bake for about 30 minutes, remove from the oven and let it cool down in the tin.

Apple & blackberry kuchen

Or cake for butchers. Where do I start where do I begin... It is important to have decent butchers locally. Never mind the usual stuff, but when you are in good relationship with you butchers, they can also supply you with some stuff that they do not normally sell such as pork fat or marrow bones for beef stock. My local butchers are decent lads and they do not charge me anything for some random orders and this is what I have made for them to thank them for their recent help.

This sort of yeast cake with not too sweet base is very popular in Poland (and in Germany as far as I am concerned - Kuchen = cake) all year round using different seasonal fruits. I was bit concerned using Nigella’s recipe, rather than my Granny’s but the outcome was very satisfying.



From "Nigella Bites", makes 20 x 30 Swiss roll tin

For the cake base:

350–400g strong white flour
half tsp salt
50g caster sugar
half packet easy-blend yeast (about 3g)
2 eggs
half tsp vanilla extract
zest of half a lemon
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
125ml lukewarm milk
50g butter, softened

I have placed all of the above in a bread machine and used "dough" programme. At first I used 350g of flour and was adding some more when I noticed that the dough is too sticky. You can use a stand mixer or you hands, adding mixed wet ingredients to dry ones and mixing until you have medium soft dough, then kneading with your hands. Next place the dough into a bowl, cover and leave in warm draft-free place until doubled in size. Or you can leave in a fridge overnight.

Then punch down to release the air and press to line a Swiss roll tin (I lined mine with baking paper) –it needs some stretching. Next leave it for about 15-20 minutes to rest and prove little bit.

Meanwhile prepare the fruits.


Fruits for topping:

1 small Bramley apple
300g blackberries
zest of half lemon

Peel, deseed and chop the apple and toss in a bowl with lemon zest and blackberries. Set aside and prepare the crumble toping.


Crumble topping:

50g self-raising flour
25g ground almonds
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
50g cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp demerara sugar
25g flaked almonds


Put the flour, cinnamon and ground almonds in a bowl, stir to combine and add the cold, diced butter. Using your finger tips rub the butter into the dry ingredients, work quickly – you do not want the butter become too soft. Stop when mixture resembles clumpy porridge oats. Fork in the sugars and flaked almonds.

Now prepare mixture that will keep the juices from the fruits soaking into the dough when baking.

1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp of cream
pinch of ground cinnamon

Mix all of the above together and brush over the dough.

Next tumble the fruits over the egg washed dough and then sprinkle with crumble topping. Put in the preheated (200C) oven and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180C and cook for further 20 minutes or so, until the dough is swelling and golden and the crumble is set.

Remove from the oven and wait about 5 minutes before cutting into portions. Serve warm or cold.

Yorkshire Lavender - does it sound weird?

When you think “lavender” the next thing you would possibly think is “Tuscany” or “Provence”. Would you think “Yorkshire”? I doubt it.

I was rather surprised when I found a leaflet of “Yorkshire Lavender” spot and I knew I was going to visit it as soon as possible. I am little bit obsessed with a lavender - I have got lots of lavender bags all over the cottage, lavender oil in burner and obviously some candles. One of our rooms is painted lavender, I use lavender and camomile bedroom spray to relax before sleeping, I love lavender soaps and shower gels. Not mentioning lavender plants in the pots on our patio. There was no other option than visiting this place at our earliest convenience.

Yorkshire Lavender is situated in beautiful surroundings, outside Terrington, which is 3 miles west of Castle Howard, 14 miles north east of York and 8 miles west of Malton in North Yorkshire. It is not far away from charming Rievaulx Abbey - a former Cistercian abbey which is definitely worth visiting too.





Yorkshire Lavender is a family project and it has only started from few rows of lavender but now you can enjoy many different varieties of lavender, amazing array of different colours in the summer. If you fancy having some at home, you can buy plants in a specialist plant nursery, where you can also find all the usual culinary herbs of different varieties. Very tasty Moroccan mint and golden marjoram plants which I bough are now growing nicely on my patio and I am using them with many different dishes. Huge bushes of different herbs in the garden amazed me with their smell when I was passing by.







Also there is a award-winning tea room, restaurant and gift shop where you can buy lavender related items – oils, soaps, candles, lavender bags, scented sticks, lavender honey, biscuits, dried culinary lavender and many others. Obviously I bought some culinary lavender and I made my own shortbread inspired by latest Olive magazine recipe. It is scrumptious!

Another attraction is a sculpture park named “The Spirit of Yorkshire” where you can find eleven metal fielding cricketers taking a cricket match and you should also be able to see some deer that were only few steps away from the gardens.




It is definitely must see if you are a lavender lover. And do not forget when visiting the Yorkshire Lavender that you are very welcome to weed as it says a sign on the shop door into the garden.

Not bored with lavender yet? Try this recipe for the lavender shortbread. It is truly delicious.





Lavender shortbread


200g unsalted butter
300g plain flour
100g caster sugar and extra for dusting
1 cheaped tsp of dried lavender buds for culinary use
1 tbsp ice cold water

Mix the butter and the sieved flour in a bowl. Using peste and mortar or food processor, blend the lavender and sugar. When they are quite fine sieve and add to the bowl and mix. Discard any lavender left in the sieve. If the dough does not wanto to come together add tbsp of very cold water. Turn out the dough onto some baking paper, wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 140 C (fan). Roll out the dough and cut into rectangular biscuits or slice rolled dough into round ones. Sprinkle with little sugar and bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 20 biscuits that keep for a week. I keep them in a biscuit tin, but they never last more than 3 days anyway because they are so delicious.

Blueberry cheescake

There are some typically Polish food specialities that I miss a lot. Perhaps you will think – she lives in UK and there are plenty of Polish delis. Yes, there are, but I have to travel a lot to the nearest one and it does not give me a wide and interesting selection of my favourites, never mind the unprofessional staff.

I miss a curd cheese (twaróg) a lot. I figured out to make my own; it tastes good but different from what I know from Poland. Every time I make my own curd cheese it ends up on homemade bread or I mix it with some fresh herbs, yogurt and vegetables such as cucumber or radishes. This is the reason why I bake cheesecakes using cream cheese rather than a traditional Polish curd cheese. I am not bothered about getting Philadephia, because cream cheese from any supermarkets brands is cheaper and good enough.

I also miss bilberries that grow in Polish woods. I live few miles from a wood but I have never seen any berries in it. So in the summer I try to comfort myself with some blueberries instead. They are very tasty, but not as tasty as bilberries. If I do not have what I love, I have to love what I have.

This cheesecake comforts me when I miss my Polish traditional cheesecake with bilberries. You can use fresh raspberries instead - it also tastes good.

Blueberry cheesecake

Makes round 25cm springform tin


200g Digestive biscuits
80g unsalted butter
800g cream cheese
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tbps custard powder
tsp vanilla extract
juice of half lemon
250g blueberries

Line a springform tin with some kitchen foil, making sure the bottom is protected from water. I bake this cheesecake in bain-marie, which is a type of preparation used for protecting dishes requiring gentle heat from the fierce heat of the oven.

Crush the biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with the melted butter. Press into springform tin and place in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice until light and fluffy. Next add eggs – one egg at the time, mix and add next egg when previous is mixed well with the cheese mixture.

Next add custard powder and mix, but make sure you do not overwork it – stop when custard is mixed into the cheese. Add the blueberries and mix gently with a spatula and pour the mixture into the tin.

Place the tin into an ovenproof dish and fill with hot water (about half of the size of the tin), cover with kitchen foil and bake for about 1 hour. Uncover for last 10 minutes. The middle will be a bit wobbly.

Let it to cool down in the open oven and then transfer to the fridge and leave it overnight.

I serve it with some fresh blueberries on top garnished with fresh mint leaves.

Torta/Tarta de Santiago (Light lemon & almond tart)

Makes 25cm round loose bottom tart dish (you can use round 25cm spring form)

250g ground almonds
180-200g caster sugar
4 eggs
zest of one lemon
pinch of salt
icing sugar to dust
little unsalted butter to brush the dish

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Separate egg yolks from whites and using a hand mixer beat the whites with a pinch of salt – they should not be too stiff.

In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks together with a sugar and lemon zest until pale.

Gently add the whites to beaten yolks and mix them using a spatula. Try not to overwork this, because it should stay fluffy. You want as little air to be released from the whites as possible.

Next gently mix the ground almonds into the eggs and pour into a buttered dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes. If the top is getting darker, cover with a piece of tin foil.

Let it cool down for about 15 minutes and dust with some icing sugar.

This cake does not rise at all, so do not worry if it is little bit flat.

Rhubarb cake with cinnamon topping

For 25cm round spring form

For the topping

50g brown sugar
100g plain flour
60g melted unsalted butter
handful of almond flakes
15g cinnamon sugar (you can make your own by putting whole cinnamon into a jar of sugar and keep closed for few weeks, instead you can use half tsp of ground cinnamon)

Mix all the above and keep refrigerated.

For the rhubarb filling

600g rhubarb, peeled and sliced into 1cm pieces
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tbsp of potato starch (potato flour)
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Mix all the above.

For the base

140g plain flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
90g softened, unsalted buttr
80ml crème fraîche

In a bowl mix all dry ingredients and in a separate one all wet ingredients (eggs, crème fraîche and butter). Add wet mixture to the dry ones and mix using a hand mixer. Dough is quite sticky.

Spread some butter over a spring form and place the dough in it. Flatten it little bit by pressing down using your damp hands. Place the whole rhubarb mixture on it and finish with the topping.

Bake for 75 minutes in 170 C.

Baileys Pound Cake

1 cup caster sugar (I use golden)
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Baileys
1 cup sunflower oil
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa
icing sugar, for dusting


Using an electric hand mixer mix the eggs together with the sugar until white and milk shake like. Add the oil and Baileys mixing all the time, then add the flour mixed with the baking powder but not all at once.

Place about 3/4 of mixture in a buttered 25cm round baking tube pan, and mix the remaining mixture with cocoa. Then place it over a previous one in the pan.

Bake in preheated oven (fan 170C) for about 60 minutes. Leave it to cool down, remove from a pan and dust with icing sugar.

Simple chocolate brownies

Inspired by BBC "Good Food" magazine.

Makes 12-16

185g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I use 70% cocoa solids)
185g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 eggs
200g golden caster sugar
85g plain flour, sieved
40g cocoa powder, sieved
100g white chocolate, roughly chopped (you can use milk chocolate or mix both)


Place the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl, and place it over a pan with simmering water. Put over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally. Leave it to cool down.

Break the eggs into a large bowl and tip in the sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, until they look thick, creamy, and milky.

Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the mixed eggs and gently fold together with a spatula in a figure of eight, moving the bowl round after each folding so you can get at it from all sides. Do not be tempted to use a mixer – the idea of putting them together gently and slowly is to not knock out the air from the mixture.

Next in the same way add flour and cocoa powder. It is better to sieve them evenly on the top of the chocolate mixture and then mix in a figure of eight until it looks fudgy.

Add chopped white chocolate into your mixture and stir gently. Pour the mixture into a square 20x20cm tin lined with a baking paper and bake in preheated oven (fan 160C) for about 25 minutes.

The top of your brownie should look like a paper, and middle should not be too wobbly. Turn off the heat, open the oven and leave it to cool down in it. Brownie will continue to cook for few minutes, so it is important to not overcook it in the oven – 25 minutes is enough.

Leave it to cool completely, cut into squares and serve. It tastes better next day.

Parsnip & maple syrup cake

From BBC "Good Food" magazine.

Serves 8

175g unsalted butter
250g demerara sugar
100ml maple syrup
3 large eggs
250g selfraising flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
250g parsnips, peeled and grated
1 medium eating apple, peeled, cored and grated
50g pecans, roughly chopped (if you can get hold of them use walnuts)
zest and juice 1 small orange
icing sugar, to serve (optional - I spread the filling on the top)

The filling:

250g tub mascarpone
3-4 tbsp maple syrup


Heat oven to 180 C. If you want to have a round sandwich cake with the filling you have to use two 20cm round tins and line them with baking paper. I used rectangular 32x19x2cm baking tray lined with paper.

Melt butter, sugar and maple syrup in a pan over gentle heat, then cool slightly. Whisk the eggs into this mixture, then stir in the flour, baking powder and mixed spice. Then add grated parsnip, apple, chopped pecans, orange zest and juice.

Divide between the tins, then bake for 25-30 mins until the tops spring back when pressed lightly. If you use rectangular tray, transfer all mixture into it and bake for approx. 30 minutes. I use wooden toothpick and stick it into a centre of the cake - if it come out dry and clean it means that cake is ready.

Cool the cake slightly in the tin before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Just before serving, mix together the mascarpone and maple syrup. Spread over one cake and sandwich with the other. Dust with icing sugar just before serving. Rather than making a sandwich cake I spread the mixture over cooled cake.