Sluttishly Sweet: Cardamom Coffee Cakes

Here's one for wandering spirits: aromatic coffee and crushed cardamom seeds, sweet white chocolate and a hint of orange blossom... If you can't get away on holiday this summer, here's a trip to a souk in CAKE FORM.

Cardamom Coffee Cupcakes (makes 14-16, depending on cake cases)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 20-25 minutes

You will need:
For the cakes:

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 3 free-range eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
• 10 cardamom pods
• 50g white chocolate, finely chopped
• Splash of milk

For the topping:

• 175g butter, softened
• 250g icing sugar
• 1 heaped tsp instant coffee / espresso powder
• 50g white chocolate, finely grated
• Sprinkling ground coffee, to decorate

Make it!

The cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease the paper cupcake cases and place in a cupcake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs in one at a time, with a tablespoon of the flour to stop the mixture from splitting.
4. Add the orange blossom water, if using and stir in.
5. Place the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar and bash until the seeds come out of the husks. Discard the husks then pound the seeds into a powder (or use a spice grinder for this).
6. Stir into the cake mix, along with the white chocolate and the splash of milk.
7. Sift the rest of flour into the mixture gradually, folding in gently with a metal spoon.
8. Dollop into the paper cases, filling them 2/3 full.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen and a skewer comes out clean.
10. Place on a wire rack to cool.

The topping:

1. Place the butter in a large bowl and sift in the icing sugar. 
2. Beat together until combined and fluffy.
3. Dilute the coffee powder with about 50ml hot water to make very strong coffee: stir in to taste, 2 tbsps should do it.
4. Cut a little inverted cone in the top of the cakes. Pipe onto the cakes or frost with a palette knife. 
5. Sprinkle with grated white chocolate and a tiny pinch of ground coffee. 

Sluttishly Savoury: Potato, Cheese & Ham Croquettes

Cold mashed potato is a substance that I keenly abuse. Bubble and squeak — potato cakes — fishcakes — hell, even just fried mashed potato on its own is good. 

If you want to make something altogether more elegant - try croquettes. Children like them, adults like them, everyone likes them. They've got that nursery style comfort factor, but look like proper authentic tapas, especially if you serve them with aioli.

Mashed Potato Croquettes (serves 2 hungry people as a snack or starter)

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Cooking Time: 10 mins

You will need: 

• 200g leftover cold mashed potato
• 100g ham, cubed
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• a handful strong cheddar, grated
• 1 egg, beaten
• a handful plain flour
• a handful of breadcrumbs
• oil for frying

For the aioli: 

• 2 tbsp mayo
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• smoked paprika
• 1/2 garlic clove, minced

Make it!

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the mashed potato, ham, spring onions and cheese with lots of salt and pepper.
2. Make ping pong ball sized pieces and then mould them into little sausage shapes with your hands. 
3. Dip them in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and reshape again if you need to. 
4. Shallow fry in hot oil until golden, turning with tongs. 
5. For the aioli, just mix the ingredients together! 

Gluten Free: Cherryade

This time last year, I was pregnant, making me the designated driver. At a time of year when a fruity cocktail or chilled glass of wine is the perfect remedy to heat and humidity, I was drinking fizzy water. What I needed was something to liven up my summer drinks. I needed cherryade.

Cherryade was my drink of choice at school sports days, picnics in Balloch and after swimming lessons. It's refreshingly sweet and probably full of the sort of food colourings that cause hyperactivity in children. This one is just as brilliantly pink, but far more natural than the wee plastic bottles from my school tuck shop. It's a great way to make use of the wonderful cherries that are in season and ideal to cool down in this hot (so hot, I can't cope!) weather.

Admittedly, it's not hard to find gluten free drinks. Wine, spirits, fruit juice and most fizzy drinks are fine. Apart from barley squash, certain colas and cloudy lemonades and beer, very few drinks are off the menu. This is about variety. And cherries. If you're not on the wagon, this tastes amazing mixed with vanilla vodka.

Cherryade (makes about 500ml of syrup, 2 litres when diluted)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes

You'll need:

• 400g cherries, stones removed
• 200ml fizzy water
• 200g caster sugar
• juice from 1 or 2 lemons

Make it!

1. Put the cherries and water in a saucepan and heat gently until the cherries start to get soft. 
2. Attack it with a potato masher or the end of a rolling pin to mash the cherries and get the juice out of them. 
3. Strain the cherries, giving them a good squish in the sieve to get all that tasty juice out.
4. Add the sugar to the hot juice and stir until dissolved.
5. Add the lemon juice.
6. Leave to cool before mixing with sparkling water or soda water and lots of ice. I use 1 part cherry syrup: 3 parts fizzy water, but let your own tastebuds guide you.
7. The syrup will last a week undiluted, pour it into a clean jar and pop into the fridge until you need it.

Let Her Eat Cake: Lemon Sherbet Cupcakes

My grandparents met over a Sherbet Fountain. True story! Boy sees girl, boy gets tongue tied, boy awkwardly offers girl some of his sherbet. Grandchildren ensue.

These are cute, sweet, sharp little cakes with a bit of zing. Next time you see a Sherbet Fountain, a Pixie Stick or a Dib-Dab, do what we do here at DSHQ: grab it and stick it in some icing. If you're feeling sly, you could always replace the lemon juice in the drizzle for this recipe with limoncello. Mmm...

Lemon Sherbet Cupcakes (makes 14-16, depending on cake cases)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 20-25 minutes

You will need:
For the cake:

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 3 free-range eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

For the topping:

• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tsp icing sugar
• 115g butter, softened
• 200g icing sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tbsp sherbet
• Sherbet and liquorice, to decorate

Make it!

The cakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease the paper cupcake cases and place in a cupcake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs in one at a time, with a tablespoon of the flour to stop the mixture from splitting.
4. Sift the rest of flour into the mixture gradually, folding in gently with a metal spoon.
5. Stir in the lemon zest and juice.
6. Dollop into the paper cases, filling them 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen and a skewer comes out clean.
8. Place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

The topping:

1. Whilst the cakes are still warm, poke a few holes in the surface with a skewer or a fork.
2. Mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar. 
3. Spoon over the cupcakes so that it soaks in. 
4. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Stir in the sherbet and lemon juice to taste.
6. Pipe or spread onto the top of the cakes, and decorate with more sherbet, a liquorice stick or lemon zest. 

Sluttishly Sweet: Watermelon & Campari Jelly

I don't think you're ready for this jelly.

I don't think you're ready because it's watermelon and Campari flavoured.  I love the freshness of jelly, and there's no cleaner, fresher flavour than watermelon. How do you juice a watermelon I hear you ask? You don't. You buy juice. Rubicon do it. 

As the joy of jelly is as much about how it looks as how it tastes, suspending the seeds from a real watermelon makes it a real show-stopper. Campari reminds me of holidays in Italy, and its redness and slight bitterness make this a jelly for grown-ups. I know not everyone feels the same, so if it's not your thing, just leave it out. 

Watermelon & Campari Jelly (serves 4)
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Chilling Time: 4 hours

You will need:

• 6 gelatine leaves
• 470ml watermelon juice (I used Rubicon)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 50g sugar
• 1 shot of Campari
• Watermelon seeds, I cut mine out of a fresh watermelon— these aren't strictly necessary, but they look great.

Make it!

1. Submerge the gelatine leaves in cold water for them to soak.
2. Pour the watermelon juice, lime juice, sugar and Campari into a saucepan and gently bring to the boil. If you don't like Campari, just leave it out. 
3. Remove the gelatine leaves from the water — squeeze out the excess. Stir them into the hot liquid, making sure they're fully dissolved.
4. Pour into your mould or glasses and fridge them for about 4 hours. If you're adding them watermelon seeds, just stir them into the jelly once it's started to set - about 45 mins after it's been in the fridge. 
5. Dip the mould in hot water before turning it out. 

Sluttishly Savoury: Sweet Potato, Chorizo & Feta Salad

You say potato, and I say... well, I also say potato, because I'm not a complete fool. What else do I say? I say that potato salad is one of summer's greatest pleasures. From mayo-smothered, chive-flecked traditional potato salad, to Caleigh's nifty - and gluten free - hot potato salad that's cooked on the barbecue, I am likely to be seen hovering near the bowl, plaintively asking if I can have seconds.

I have been experimenting this week with sweet potato salad, the chunks of potato baked in the oven before being coated with a dressing of red wine vinegar, honey and lime. As the title of this recipe suggests, I did not stop there. Oh no, dear reader, there was almost no stopping me. I also added some fried chorizo, salty feta, and a few lovely bits of cooked red pepper. This was a pretty bloody brilliant experiment. Go forth and sweet potato.

Sweet Potato, Chorizo & Feta Salad (serves 4-6 as a side)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
Cooling time: About 20 minutes

You will need:

• 1kg sweet potatoes (I used 2 large ones), peeled and roughly chopped
• A glug of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 225g chorizo (that's 1 ring in Asda and possibly a few other places, too!), skin removed and sliced into half moons
• 1 red pepper, roughly chopped
• 100g feta
• Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley to garnish

For the dressing

• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar 
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lime
• Pinch of chilli flakes
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper

Make it!

1. Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/Gas Mark 8. 
2. Spread the sweet potato chunks over a baking tray, coat with a little oil, and season well. Place in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes, until cooked through. 
3. Meanwhile, fry the chorizo until crispy, adding the red pepper towards the end and cooking until soft. Drain the chorizo and the pepper on a wad of kitchen roll, and leave to cool.
4. When the sweet potatoes are done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. While that's happening, make the dressing by combining the red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, lime juice, chilli flakes, and spring onion and whisking with a fork. Season to taste.
5. Once everything is at room temperature, put the potatoes, chorizo and red pepper in a large bowl. Give the dressing a final stir, and pour over the salad. Combine everything gently using your hands - forks and spoons and dinosaur salad servers are all a bit too aggressive for the delicate baked sweet potato. 
6. Finish by crumbling the feta over the top, and tearing in a few parsley leaves. This is best served right away, but you can chill it in the fridge if you prefer an ice-cold tattie salad (and if you do, I'd wait and add the parsley just before serving to avoid wilt and droop).

Sluttishly Sweet: Apricot Linzertorte

What do we love here at DSHQ? Shameless mucking about with classic recipes! This here's no exception; traditionally a linzertorte doesn't involve fresh fruit, but hey, who can resist beautiful, perfumed apricots when they're in season?

If you're like me, and are always running a couple of degrees too warm, then it's definitely worth chilling your hands before you handle the pastry; wrap them around a packet of frozen peas for a while or something. It makes everything a lot easier.

Apricot Linzertorte
Preparation time: 30 minutes (plus 60 minutes chilling time)
Baking time: 30 minutes

You will need: 

• 150g caster sugar 
• 150g plain flour 
• 150g ground almonds or hazelnuts 
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• zest of 1 lemon 
• 150g cold butter, cubed 
• 1 free-range egg, beaten, plus one egg yolk 
• 300g apricot jam 
• 4-5 ripe apricots, sliced in half vertically and stoned 
• 1 tbsp milk 
• flaked almonds and icing sugar, to decorate 

Make it!

1. Place the caster sugar, flour, ground nuts, cinnamon and lemon zest into a large bowl and stir together until well combined. 
2. Add the cold, cubed butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, moist breadcrumbs. 
3. Add the beaten egg and bring together with a wooden spoon and then your hands until you have a ball of soft dough. 
4. Wrap in lightly oiled cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so, until firm enough to roll. Cut away a quarter of the dough and return it to the cling film and the fridge 
5. Grease a 24cm, loose-based fluted tart tin. 
6. Press the dough into the tart tin using your hands, using the heel of your hand to press it gently until about half way up the edge of the tin. 
7. Spoon the jam onto the base of the tart and spread out into an even layer. 
8. Arrange the apricot halves, pressing down into the jam. 
9. Remove the remaining dough from the fridge. Roll out on a well floured surface until about the same length as your tin. 
10. Use a sharp knife or pastry cutter to cut thin strips from the dough (how many you need depends on how fancy you're going to be with the latticing!) 
11. Arrange across the surface of the tart, either in strips or weaving in and out, if you're feeling adventurous / arty! 
12. Press the edges into the dough at the edge, pinching any loose ends together. 
13. Cover and return to the fridge for 25-30 minutes. 
14. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F / Gas Mark 5. 
15. Brush the tart with the milk, then bake for around 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the jam bubbling. 
16. Allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then gently slide onto a serving board. Decorate with a sprinkling of icing sugar and toasted, flaked almonds.

Sluttishly Savoury: Tuna Tartare

I love cooking but there are times when I simply cannot cook. When my mind is simply elsewhere, the answer is tuna tartare: for starters, it doesn't require any cooking.

Tuna steaks are so easy to overcook anyway so why not—not cook them? This way, you get the best out of the tuna; best silky texture, best nutrients, best flavour. The only one important rule with tartare, like ceviche is that the fish needs to be uber fresh, so take a trip to your fishmonger, not your supermarket, and tell them you demand 'sushi grade', goddammit.

Tuna Tartare (serves 2 as a light lunch/starter)
Preparation Time: 2mins -yay!
Cooking Time: 0mins - yay!

You will need:

• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp sesame oil
• sesame seeds, toasted 
• clear honey
• juice of one lime
• 1 chilli, finely diced
• One large very fresh tuna steak (around 150g - 200g), cut into cubes

Make it! 

1. Mix the soy, sesame oil, sesame seeds, honey, lime and chilli together. 
2. Add the cubed tuna and mix.
3. Serve with whatever you like, but pureed avocado and cold dressed soba noodles go well, as do little crisp tostadas.

Gluten Free: Pina Colada Cake

We’re not ashamed to admit that we love Piña Coladas here at Sluttery HQ. They might be a bit passé, and you’d struggle to find one on a cocktail menu these days, but we don’t care. It’s not’s a subtle cocktail; rum, pineapple juice and coconut cream, served in a glass garnished with more pineapple and a glace cherry. It screams, “look at me! It’s summer!” and it doesn’t care who notices. No wonder we love them. 

This cake is the Piña Colada of cakes. It’s a little gaudy, definitely a centrepiece kind of a cake and it’s packed full of sunshine. If you’d rather eschew the four-storey show-off cake for two more modest sandwich affairs, feel free. The recipe works for either. In my experience, having cake to give away makes you very popular indeed. More so if said cake includes booze.

Piña Colada Cake (makes 1 large or 2 smaller cakes)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Decorating time: 30 minutes

You’ll need:
For the cake:

• 425g tin of pineapple rings in juice
• 250ml coconut cream
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp rum
• 1 tsp salt
• 300g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 410g gluten free self raising flour mix
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing:

• 200ml coconut cream
• 200g icing sugar
• 500ml double cream
• rum, lots. (about 4 tbsp if you’re counting)
• 6ish glace cherries, halved

Make it!
The cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 165°C/325°F/gas mark 3, then grease and line four 20cm sandwich tins.
2. Remove 3 rings from the tin of pineapple (to garnish) then blend the rest, including juice.
3. Measure 250ml of the pineapple puree and put in a bowl. 
4. Add the coconut cream, oil, rum, salt and sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves.
5. Add the eggs and a few spoonfuls of flour mix and combine.
6. Add the rest of the gluten free flour mix and the bicarbonate of soda and mix until you have a smooth batter.
7. Divide the mixture between the four sandwich tins (I use a ladle, because I’m no good at judging by eye).
8. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. You can do this in two batches if you don’t have room in your oven for all four at once.
9. Leave to cool completely on a rack before decorating.

The icing:

1. Whisk the coconut cream and icing sugar together until smooth.
2. Whisk the cream until it reaches the stiff peaks stage.
3. Add a third of the coconut cream mixture to the cream and fold in. Repeat with the rest.
4. Add the rum and fold that in, too.

To decorate:

1. Put about a fifth of the mixture into a piping bag with an open star nozzle and set aside.
2. Place one cake layer on a plate or cake board and spread about a fifth of the cream mix over the top.
3. Place the next cake on top and repeat until you have a tower of cake and cream. 
4. Pipe about 12 stars around the edge of the top of the cake.
5. Top each star with half a glace cherry.
6. Quarter the pineapple rings and place a piece between each cherry.
7. Keep chilled. Cakes will go stale more quickly in the fridge so make sure you eat the lot within a couple of days!

The Boy and his Poison: The Pickleback

When life hands you crackling, you make picklebacks.

The pickleback is an American BBQ staple which started popping up in London a few years ago as the BBQ meat scene established itself. It's a simple serve of a shot of irish whisky followed by a shot of the pickling juice from the pickles you'd be served along with your slow braised cuts of meat. It sounds wrong, but it's a delicious combination.

You can use a shot of pickle juice from a shop-bought jar of pickle or you can go all out and make your own. Either way, the Pickleback is going to unexpectedly going to become your new favourite drink. The pork scratching really isn't optional, but you knew that already.

The Pickleback
You will need:

• A nice bottle of Irish whisky (personally I prefer bourbon/rye)
• 250ml cider vinegar
• 25g salt
• 200g sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 Sprigs of dill
• 1 Cucumber
• 2 Shallots
• Roasted pork scratching (you've probably already bookmarked our pork scratching recipe)

To make the pickle:

1. Add the water, cider vinegar, salt, sugar, ginger, turmeric and mustard seeds to a medium sized saucepan
2. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 5 more minutes.
3. Slice cucumbers (I decided to go for a mix of quartered and sliced), finely slice the shallots and rip the dill into four pieces.
4. Drop your ingredients into a clean jar and pour over the pickling juice
5. Leave to cool for an hour then refrigerate for at least a day.

Now Serve:

1. Pour a 50ml shot of your whisky 
2. Strain a 50ml shot of your cold pickle juice
3. Knock them back in that order and be prepared for your love affair with the Pickleback to begin.

Let Her Eat Cake: Peach Melba Cake

Peach Melba, everyone's favourite combination of fresh peach, raspberries and creamy vanilla. It also rhymes with Idris Elba, which has to make it an excellent dessert. 

As with anything here at DSHQ, we've taken the everyday delicious and crammed it into CAKE FORM. There are so many gorgeous soft fruits around at the moment, that it would a crime not to use them, so here's a vehicle for just that.  

Peach Melba Cake
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Baking time: 25-30 minutes

You will need:
For the cake:

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 free-range eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• 25g ground almonds
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 ripe peaches, sliced

For the filling:

• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 ripe peach, sliced
• 100g raspberries
• 300ml double cream
• 1 heaped tsp icing sugar (you can add more to taste)
• 1/2 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out, or a few drops vanilla essence
• 2 tbsp raspberry jam
• Fresh peach and raspberries, to decorate

Make it!
The cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 18cm round cake tins. 
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs once at a time, along with a tablespoon of the flour with each and beat well. Repeat with rest of the eggs, beating well in between. 
4. Add the rest of the flour in thirds, folding in lightly in between until it is just incorporated and no streaks are showing.
5. Fold in the ground almonds and vanilla.
6. Stir in the milk.
7. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over the bottom of each tin, then arrange the sliced peaces in whatever pattern you fancy.
8. Dollop the cake batter on top of the peaches, smooth over the top and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool in the tin on a wire rack for a few minutes before placing a dinner plate under each cake and flipping them over. Carefully peel off the baking parchment. 

The filling:

1. Place the caster sugar into the pan over a medium heat along with 50ml of water and simmer for 3-4 minutes. 
2. Add the peaches and raspberries and stir together. Allow to poach gently for 5-7 minutes, until ruby red and jammy. 
3. Push the fruit through a sieve into a jug to remove the skin and seeds and create a puree.
4. Set aside to cool. 
5. Place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip together until the cream is stiff, but still spreadable. 
6. To assemble, spread the bottom of each cake with a little raspberry jam to give it some stick.
7. Follow with a few good dollops of cream, spread, then swirl through a couple of spoonfuls of puree. Top with the second cake, and decorate the top with cream or icing sugar, fresh raspberries and peach slices. Serve with any extra cream and puree and devour immediately! 

The Grown-Up Chocolate Company

  

"Please note that we cannot be held responsible if you eat all the chocolates in one go," says the small print on London chocolatier The Grown-Up Chocolate Company's shopping page.

Speaking as someone who ate half a Terry's Chocolate Orange for dinner last night (Vitamin C! Carbs! Er...there's got to be an egg in there somewhere, protein!) this would be me unless I managed to summon the will to put them in the fridge.

What's in a name? Well, inspirational drives to eat chocolate, mainly

Sigh...nom

The Grown-Up Chocolate Company has the fun, teasing packaging of childhood, and such exciting flavours and meltingly good quality that you'd believe that they've got Oompa Loompas over in Essex and Enfield, rather than humans.

This is outrageously good chocolate: like Paul A Young with some ridiculous marketing. There are nine chocolate bars, with wonderful names like Glorious Coconut Hocus Pocus, and Crunchy Praline Wonder Bar -  and Salted Peanut Caramel Cracker, which is less evocative but extremely knee-trembling if you're as keen on that flavour combination as me. They're £2.50 each.

You can buy all nine for £22, and what I really respect is the other option to buy 100 for £150. That is a significantly more devoted outlay than my periodic purchasing of a large bag of Maltesers with a Dime bar.

Baby box...

Massive box!

There is a a choice of bars, tasting boxes, and beautiful combinations of elegant, well-thought out flavours and stunning presentation. Did I take a photo when I tried them on Monday? Er, no. Why did I not take a photo? Because I was busy making all manner of terrible noises about the Earl Grey chocolate that was making my taste buds go full Les Miserables finale.

There are three tasting box options, from the full whammy Tasting Tray, which is £25.95 and comes with 31 chocolates and two bars, to the Mini Tasting Tray (£13.95) with 18 chocolates and one bar, and the Yummy Scrummy Chocolate Bites (£7.95) which have four flavours to try.

The Grown-Up Chocolate Company is stocked online, and in the flesh at all good luxury shops - unhelpfully, they don't have a comprehensive list of stockists so ask them on Twitter and Facebook - and they will be stocked by Ocado for Christmas (yes, this is another Christmas in July joy).

Top Ten Citrus Cake Recipes

"Oranges and lemons," say the bells of St Clements... And we'd like to add limes and grapefruits, please. That's right, we're all about the citrus fruit today! Those fresh and zesty fruits that taste of summer and can lift a dish from, "meh" to "wow!" More specifically, we think you should all go and bake a citrusy cake, we have so many to choose from.

If starting the day with a martini is likely to cause you to fall over in the bus, perhaps a breakfast martini cake is the better option? Cake, marmalade and booze are a brilliant start to any day! (Please eat boozy cakes responsibly.) Orange zest, orange juice and orange blossom water make our Sussex seed cake, a citrus spectacular that you simply have to try.

Floral lavender and fresh lemon combine to delicious effect in this lemon and lavender cake, whilst basil and lemon unexpectedly enhance each other in our lemon, basil and almond cake. If you prefer your lemon unadulterated, our lemon squares are the only way to go.

We couldn't mention limes without our brilliant Mojito cake! Quite frankly, if it contains lashings of rum, we'll love it. Lime and coconut are BFFs so they're the perfect combination for a bundt cake (or fairy cakes if you don't have a bundt pan). Ok, so pie and cake are not the same, but we love lime and chocolate so much that we had to feature our lime meringue pie.

Well, if we're going off-piste with one pie, we might as well go all the way. The Negroni pie is a beautiful way to serve up grapefruit, none of those shovel-shaped grapefruit spoons here! Back to cake, however, we have a lovely (and dairy free) grapefruit and coconut cake to tempt you.

Still hungry? Check out more of our top ten recipe posts!

Sluttishly Sweet: Raspberry & Coconut Frittata

This recipe came about, like so many great recipes, because I had a lot of stuff to use up in my fridge. I'd gone WILD making a recipe that needed 10 egg yolks, and I didn't really fancy using the leftover whites for meringues. So I rummaged in the back of the fridge for inspiration, and found half a punnet of raspberries and an opened tin of coconut milk. Reader, the raspberry and coconut frittata was born.

Obviously, I only needed to use my egg whites here - no yolks. It made me feel pretty Hollywood and healthy, actually. Thrilling. However, I understand that having 10 egg whites in the fridge is a pretty rare occurrence, so feel free to use 6 whole eggs - yolks and all - in their place. The final frittata will be a little more eggy tasting, but no less delicious. And swap the raspberries for any other soft fruit you fancy - blueberries or peaches would be really good.

Raspberry & Coconut Frittata (serves 4)
Preparation time: less than 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-45 minutes
You will need:

• 10 large egg whites or 6 large eggs
• 3 heaped tbsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp coconut milk (cream or ordinary milk is fine, too, but there won't be such a coconutty flavour)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• A large handful of raspberries
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• A small handful of flaked almonds
• A little extra caster sugar for sprinkling

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
• In a large bowl, beat together the egg whites (or whole eggs if that's what you're using), caster sugar, coconut milk, and vanilla extract. Whisk for a couple of minutes until it's a bit frothy.
• Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Scatter the raspberries, desiccated coconut, and flaked almonds over the top (the raspberries will sink, of course), and finish with a sprinkle of caster sugar. 
• Place in the centre of the oven for 30-45 minutes, until the egg has cooked through. You may want to cover the top with a bit of tin foil towards the end of cooking, to stop the almonds and coconut catching and ruining the frittata's good looks.
• Once it's done, remove from the oven and leave for a couple of minutes before serving in slices, drizzled with some honey or maple syrup. 

Food Porn: Rubies In The Rubble

It's July, which means one thing: my favourite events of the year, Christmas in July.

There is something completely irresistible about leaving hot, sweaty London behind and going into a world occupied entirely by festive decorations, fake snow and swathes of Christmassy food. In the case of Ocado, THREE gorgeous dogs (real), a six-in-one bird that could feed an orphanage, and today's utterly gorgeous food porn.

Rubies in the Rubble chutneys are a divine meeting of beautiful presentation, excellent reasoning and absurdly tasty product. We'll get on the last one in a moment - mmm, moment - but it's that reasoning that really takes it up a notch.

Jenny Dawson started making her chutneys from otherwise perfectly good fruit and veg that was headed for the bin, or the landfills. As they write on their (beautiful) labels: "Our ingredients have to pass a taste test,  not a beauty contest. If it's wonky, in over abundance, or just plain pear-shaped,  it's in."

Yes, yes, all very good but OH MY GOOD LORD. I am eulogising today about Rubies in the Rubble (can't stop saying that name - it trips off the tongue like a dream) because of their Hot Banana chutney, a jar of which I was given by Ocado who will be stocking it as part of their Christmas foods.

I am resolutely not a banana person. I've never managed a whole one. I can't stand that sweet, curly flavour, and the texture makes me gag. My one fail-safe claim in games of 'I Have Never' has always been "I have never eaten a banana."  But I had just destroyed myself on my first run in weeks, and this was to hand, so I dipped some olive oil biscuits into it and before I knew it I was making even more socially-inappropriate noises than I was by the end of the run.

This is delicious, gently-spiced chutney that's sweet without being sickly, and almost irresistible. It's £4.25, and you can currently buy the chutneys from British Fine Foods, of which this is *definitely* one.

As well as Magical Banana Joy, I have my eye on the Pear and Walnut variety,  and Mango, which is one of my favourite condiments ever. You can also choose from Spicy Tomato Chutney, Apple & Ginger, Red Onion & Chilli, and if you know witchcraft/someone with good contacts, there's also London Piccalilli which was commissioned for Jamie Oliver's Diner restaurants (or, you know, go there and buy some).

Mmmmyyyyaaaaarghhhhh.

Sluttishly Sweet: Pimms Cake

Glorious tennis time might be over for another year, but that doesn't mean summer drinks time is! There are still plenty of vague sporting excuses for drinking jugs of cocktails in the middle of the day. Like, errr, cricket? Now, how to wash down those large glasses of Pimms? What's that? With more Pimms? In a cake? Why the heck not.

If Pimms ain't your thing, we can offer a gin and tonic cake, or a limoncello cake; in fact, we've pretty much got the whole aperitif spectrum covered, in crumb form.

Pimms Cake 

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 45-50 minutes 

You will need:

For the cake:

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 free-range eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus a generous squeeze of juice
• Zest of 1 orange
• Handful mint leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Pimms

For the syrup:

• 50ml Pimms
• Juice of half an orange
• Generous squeeze lemon juice
• 2 inches cucumber, chopped
• 1 heaped tbsp icing sugar

To decorate:

• Icing sugar
• Chopped mint leaves
• Strawberries

Make it!
The cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 900g / 2lb loaf tin. 
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and very fluffy. 
3. Add in the eggs one at a time, along with a tablespoon of the flour to stop the mixture from splitting. Beat well in between.
4. Sift in the rest of the flour and stir gently until just combined. 
5. Add in the lemon and orange zest, the squeeze of juice, the mint leaves and the Pimms and stir gently into the cake mixture. 
6. Tip into the loaf tin and smooth the over the top
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. If the top is browning too fast, cover with foil until the centre catches up. 
8. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool slightly.

The syrup:

1. While the cake is cooking, make yourself a Pimms. 
2. Then, place all the ingredients for the syrup in a jug. Stir together well and add a little more sugar to your taste, if necessary. 
3. Tip into a small saucepan over a medium heat and warm gently for a few minutes, to allow the flavours to come together. 
4. While the cake is still warm, poke holes all over the top with a fork or a skewer. 
5. Spoon over the liquid of the syrup (not the cucumber) so that it soaks in. You might need to wait and do a second round. (You'll probably have syrup left over). 
6. Quickly dust with a generous helping of icing sugar. 
7. Decorate with a sprinkling of chopped mint, fresh sliced strawberries, and of course, a jug of Pimms...

Gluten Free: Cake French Toast

When you bake gluten free, disasters happen. Often. Cakes flop, brownies and blondies crumble, fruit sinks to the bottom of the tin and burns. It's infuriating, even more so when you consider that gluten free flour costs nearly four times as much as wheat flour! Sometimes, you have no choice but to chuck your efforts in the bin. Other times, though, the cake tastes good, it just looks dreadful. This is when you can rescue the situation by making French toast.

This works particularly well for those times when you forget to add baking powder and produce a slab of cake; when cakes rise beautifully in the oven, then slowly sink on the cooling rack, and on stale cake, too.

Cake French Toast (makes 4-6 slices)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
You'll need:

• 2 eggs
• 50ml milk
• a few drops of vanilla extract
• 4-6 slices of gluten free cake
• a generous knob of butter
• icing sugar, for dusting

Make it!

1. Beat the eggs and milk together in a large shallow bowl and add the vanilla extract.
2. Place your slices of cake into the mixture and leave for a couple of minutes to soak. Flip the slices over and leave for 2 more minutes.
3. Heat the butter in a large frying pan, over a medium heat, until it starts to foam.
4. Place each slice in the pan and leave to cook for about 3 minutes, until the bases start to brown. 
5. Turn the cake slices over and cook for a further 2 minutes.
6. Serve immediately, lightly coated in icing sugar.

Let Her Eat Cake: Summer Berry Brioche Pudding

Ahh, the quintessential British summer berry PUDDING. What could be better than gorgeous, red berries mixed into a dessert with very little effort? Red berries combined with brioche and booze, that's what! 

This recipe is no bake, super easy to prepare with perfect for using up any soft fruits, and if you like, you can replace the brioche with going-stale white bread. It's a classic, but mascarpone and liqueur give it a bit of grown-up zing. It's a lovely pudding for a lazy, sunny Sunday.

Summer Berry Brioche Pudding
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Chilling time: 6 hours / overnight

You will need:

• 600g summer berries, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants etc, fresh or defrosted
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 2 tbsp fruit liqueur, e.g. cassis or chambord
• 1 brioche loaf
• 200g mascarpone
• 1 heaped tbsp icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out

Make it!

1. Wash the fruit and pat dry if necessary. Remove any stalks or stems. If using strawberries, set aside for now. 
2. Place the caster sugar in a small saucepan along with 3 tbsp of water. Stir a few times, then allow to simmer for 1 minute or so.
3. Tip the fruit and liqueur into the saucepan and stir together. 
4. Simmer gently for 3 minutes or so, so that the fruit releases some of its juices but still retains its shape. 
5. Strain the liquid into a separate bowl and place the fruit in another. Add the strawberries back into the fruit.
6. Pudding, assemble! Take a small pudding basin (I used a pyrex bowl) and grease lightly. Line with two pieces of clingfilm, overlapping them in the middle and leaving plenty of overhang over the edges. 
7. Slice your brioche loaf (if not already sliced) into thick slices and cut off the crusts. 
8. Dip one whole slice lightly in the juice and press gently into the bottom of the bowl.
9. It might be useful to experiment with cutting the pieces to fit first, before dipping them: I found that four whole slices around the edge, then four diagonally cut pieces of brioche all fitted together to line the sides of the bowl.
10. Dip the slices in the juice and arrange. If you see any gaps, now's the time to fill them, but leave yourself enough slices for the top. 
11. Mix together the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla. Add in the remaining fruit, saving a little. Stir together. 
12. Spoon the mascarpone into the lined bowl, dolloping the remainder of the fruit into the middle, then covering with more mascarpone.
13. Arrange the remaining slices of brioche on the top as before (I used one whole piece, surrounded by 4 triangles and squished the edges together). Spoon over enough juice to soak into the slices. 
14. Bring the overhanging cling film up and wrap loosely. Cover with a small plate that sits inside the bowl, then weigh down with a couple of tins. 
15. Place in the fridge overnight, or for at least 5 hours. 
16. To serve, unwrap the cling film and invert the bowl onto a serving plate. Decorate with any remaining juice, fresh fruit, and a dollop of mascarpone...

Sluttishly Savoury: Chicken with mushrooms and thyme

Thursdays are the day I'm most likely to be eating a ready meal from M&S and not giving a damn. It's getting to be an expensive habit. Instead, a fast dinner with bits and bobs that I'm likely to find in the back of the fridge is my compromise.This chicken dish is the perfect 'what the hell am I going to have for tea?' dinner. It's simple, it's cheap, it's quick and it tastes brilliant.

Chicken with mushrooms (serves 2 with salad or greens)
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

You'll need:

• 4 chicken breasts or boneless thighs
• 300g mushrooms, destalked
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 glass white wine
• 250ml chicken stock
• 1 sprigs fresh thyme
• A bit of chopped parsley for garnish, it's tasty but it's a very brown dish.

Make it!

1. Season and brown the chicken on all sides in a large pan, 
2. Throw in the mushrooms and turn down onto a low heat.
3. As they're softening, add the garlic and thyme and pour on the stock and white wine.
4. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until the liquid has formed a rich sauce.
5. Sprinkle on the parsley and serve alongside a simple salad or buttered greens. Or all of the carbs, depending on how your day has gone. (It tastes great with lentils mixed into the stock.)
6. Settle in front of the telly with the rest of the bottle of wine.

Sluttishly Simple: Herb Salad

I think we often see herbs as a little extra garnish, rather than using them as salad leaves. Buying them can seem like an unnecessary extravagance. Once too often I find a mangy bag of old parsley stuck to the back of the fridge, going black. If you share my herby woes, listen up. Do a herb salad— it's more summery and fragrant than a freshly mowed lawn.

Use any soft herbs - coriander, basil, dill, mint, parsley etc. Perhaps not tarragon, as it can be quite overpowering.

Herb Salad with Avocado and Orange (serves 2)
Preparation Time: 10mins
Cooking Time: none

You will need:

• 2 avocados, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
• a bunch of mint, roughly chopped
• a bunch of dill, roughly chopped
• a bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• a handful of toasted sesame seeds
• a handful of black onion seeds

For the dressing:

• a dash of sesame oil
• a dash of rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
• a dash of mirim (or a tsp of sugar/honey)
• a dash of soy sauce
• the juice of a lime

Make it!

1. Brace yourself: Toss the salad ingredients together (gently) and mix the dressing ingredients together and combine. Phew.