Spinach and coconut soup

'This was a recipe born out of desperation from what food writers like to call store cupboard standbys.' I wrote it for the wonderful website I worked on for seven years.

This tasty soup recipe is so quick to make, using frozen spinach, coconut milk and lots of flavour!

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1tbsp oil
• 500g frozen spinach
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 400ml can coconut milk
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently fry the onion and garlic in the oil until softened and golden.

Stir in the spinach, stirring to break up the frozen chunks.

Add the stock and bring to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer, stir in the coconut milk, nutmeg and seasoning. Blend until smooth and serve.

This recipe first appeared on Allaboutyou.com, where I used to work. It was a great website, with lots of top-quality content, including a few recipes by me. Unfortunately, it was closed in January 2015

Baking: lemon and lavender drizzle cakes recipe

I love lavender, but I'd only used lavender essential oil in cooking (try beating a few drops in to good-quality vanilla ice cream). I'd eaten lavender-topped cakes from Konditor & Cook, and then my mum gave me some dried edible lavender designed for culinary use, and I devised this recipe to use it. They're now one of my favourite bakes – so fragrant – and other people love them too!

These mini lemon and lavender drizzle cakes, made in muffin cases, are a delicious teatime treat.

Ingredients
• 250g unsalted butter

• 225g caster sugar

• 280g self-raising flour

• 2 level tsp baking powder

• 4 large eggs

• 4tbsp milk

• finely grated rind of 2 lemons

• ½ tbsp dried lavender flowers

For the topping:
• 150g granulated sugar

• juice of 2 lemons

• 1 tsp dried lavender flowers

You will need...

16 muffin-sized paper cake cases

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF. Place paper muffin cases in a muffin tin.

Place all the cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat until well blended. Spoon into the muffin cases. 
Bake for 20-25 mins until the tops of the cakes are golden brown.

While the cakes are cooling, mix the sugar, lemon juice and lavender. While the cakes are still slightly warm, spoon the topping evenly over the cakes.

This recipe first appeared on Allaboutyou.com, where I used to work. It was a great website, with lots of top-quality content, including a few recipes by me. Unfortunately, it was closed in January 2015.

How to make sloe gin

Sloes are members of the plum family and grow from October through to November - they are delicious infused in gin, creating a sweet, fruity drink with a bitter edge. Make it now and drink it or give it as a gift at Christmas.

• 200g sloes
• 400ml gin
• 100g granulated sugar

Prick the sloes’ skins. You can do this by piercing each one individually, or just pop them in the freezer for a couple of days.

Push the pierced sloes (frozen or not) into a screw-top bottle (wide-necked is easier, but the bottle you’ve taken the gin from may be handier). Pour in the sugar and add the gin.
Seal tightly, shake to combine and store in a cool, dark place.

Give the bottle a shake every day until all the sugar has dissolved. It’s ready to drink in about three weeks, but the sloe flavour becomes more pronounced the longer you leave it.

Baking: apricot and walnut scones recipe

I fancied baking some scones, because they're so quick and easy, but I wanted a change from sultanas, so I had a rummage around in my cupboards, and this was the result...

Ingredients
• 225g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 40g caster sugar
• 75g butter, cut into small pieces
• 30g finely chopped dried apricots
• 30g finely chopped walnuts
• 1 egg
• 3-4tbsp milk
You will need...
• Rolling pin
• 5cm round pastry cutter or a glass

Preheat the oven to 220°C /F/gas mark 7. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Add the butter and rub in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the apricot and walnut pieces with the beaten egg and the milk. Mix with a knife, then bring the mixture together with your hands. The dough should be soft but not sticky so add a little more milk or flour as necessary.

Shape the dough into a ball and place a on a lightly floured work surface. Roll out the dough until approx. 3cm thick. Use the cutter to cut rounds from the dough, starting from the edge and place on a non-stick baking sheet.

When you have cut the first batch, bring the dough into a ball and roll out again. Cut remaining scones out.

Dust the scones with flour and bake for 12-15 mins. Place on a rack to cool and serve halved and buttered – delicious served warm and particularly good with apricot jam!

This recipe first appeared on Allaboutyou.com, where I used to work. It was a great website, with lots of top-quality content,including a few recipes from me. Unfortunately, it was closed in January 2015.

Making chocolate cake for charity

We decided to have a Macmillan Coffee Morning at work. I left it to the last minute to come up with a cake, but thanks to Nigella Lawson I found a quick and easy chocolate cake recipe.

Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake appears in How to be a Domestic Goddess and widely online. Basically you melt butter and chocolate, then stir in a jar of marmalade, eggs and sugar, then fold in flour and bake. I decorated mine with grated orange zest and a nasturtium, which is edible.

And it was very popular with my colleagues at the coffee morning, raising money for Macmillan, which was the whole point.

Sewing for myself: the Sorbetto top from Colette Patterns

There are, of course, lots of free sewing patterns online, but one of the most popular must be the Sorbetto top from Colette Patterns. It's a simple loose-cut sleeveless top with two pattern pieces, bias binding around the neckline and armholes and a front pleat detail. It's supplied as a 'patchwork PDF' that you stick together to make the pattern. The instructions are easy to follow, the pattern pieces are easy to put together, and it's very quick to make. And here's my finished top.

Cooking shakshouka

I've been meaning to make shakshuka since I got Yotam Ottolenghi's book, 'Plenty'. It seems to have started a trend: I've seen this recipe or variations of it everywhere, from magazines to menus and everyone I know seems to eat it all the time. I exaggerate slightly. Finally I got round to it last weekend and although it takes a little longer than my normal breakfast to cook, we agreed it was well worth the wait. It's a delicious slow-cooked mix of spiced peppers and tomatoes with eggs broken into the pan.
See Yotam Ottolenghi's shakshuka recipe here