Easiest berry cheesecake (two ways)

Posted on 18/07/2025 by Anna

Searching for an easy summery pud? Look no further. This is a recipe that I have returned to time and again over the years and every time wonder why I don’t make it even more often. So simple, fresh and delicious, a proper treat without weighing you down afterwards. When it isn’t berry season I regularly turn to a jar of lemon curd and swirl that with the mascarpone/yogurt mix – the zip of lemon is bright and tangy and this also makes this even more a spur of the moment pudding.

If it is simply too hot to put on the oven you can just leave the biscuit base to set in the fridge or freezer for a while, it tastes just as good but isn’t quite as crisp or held together. I have done both and have been happy regardless. The creamy combination, whilst given silky richness by the mascarpone is still fresh and light from the addition of yogurt.

You can use any fruit you have to hand, here I used roughly a handful of raspberries and blueberries plus half a regular punnet of strawberries, some halved and some quartered. On the off chance there is any left I suspect this would make rather a special breakfast.

Berry Cheesecake

Calling this a cheesecake may be a stretch, although tit does contain mascarpone, but happily here is no need for gelatine or baking it (bar the base if you want to).

Whilst the version you see here is fabulous for this time of year I would strongly urge you to try the lemon curd version – gently swirl half a jar of good lemon curd into the creamy mixture, don’t be too vigorous, the contrast of yellow and white is rather pleasing – and then spread this over the base. You could finely grate some lemon zest on top if you wish.

250g digestives, broken into crumbs

120g melted butter

Pinch of salt

250g mascarpone

250g Greek yogurt (or Greek style)

50g icing sugar

400g approximately of berries or half a jar of lemon curd (see intro)

Preheat the oven to 180 (cooking is optional, see intro) and line the base of a 23cm springform tin. Mix the digestive crumbs with the melted butter and salt and press into the tin. Bake for 10 minutes then leave to completely cool (you can do this earlier in the day and keep in the fridge). Mix the mascarpone, yogurt and sugar together, it will stiffen slightly which is fine (again you can do this ahead and store in the fridge). Remove the biscuit base from the tin and then spread it with the creamy mixture. Scatter over the berries and serve. This could serve 8 but I would rather it served 6.

Fruit and seed flapjacks (but not really a flapjack)

Posted on 12/03/2025 by Anna

I didn’t have a sweet tooth before I had children. During my working years I could happily keep a packet of chocolate buttons in my desk drawer for weeks only tucking into one or two per day. Now I am pretty much Olympic standard when it comes to polishing off a bar of chocolate. I give up chocolate each year for Lent but even then have a couple of caveats. The first is that I am giving it up solely in the form of confectionary – should someone present me with a chocolate pudding, I would, in the name of courtesy, not dream of turning in down. Equally when I am judging – for those unaware, I am a food judge – I am required to taste everything put in front of me.

So this abstinence for what always feels like a very long 40 days means I am regularly to be found scrabbling around my cupboards looking for something sweet after lunch or supper. Thus I have arrived at these kind-of-flapjacks. Actually they are more of granola / muesli / fruit and seed bar but those sound new fangled and anything containing oats which is baked and cut into bars feels like a flapjack to me. I have tried many permutations trying to reduce sugar in any form and have ended up here.

These are miles away from the delicious, but slump inducing, traditional flapjacks (for which there is a recipe here October 2013). The version below is packed with good stuff, oats, seeds and dried fruit along with a banana – some sugar and honey yes but I have tinkered with this recipe reducing the sugar each time so once you divide it up, well, it isn’t so bad and these are a treat after all. Perfect for a packed lunch or a picnic and useful to have in a tin for when you find yourself turning out a cupboard searching for chocolate.

As with most of my recipes there is room for manoeuvre and you can use the dried fruits you have in the cupboard, same with the seeds. You can even use a handful of nuts in place of some of the seeds, just keep the weights in line with those I suggest below. Finally, its worth mentioning that these are by no means just for Lent, tuck into them any day of the year you want.

Fruit and seed flapjacks

75g butter

80g soft brown sugar

60g honey

200g oats

150g dried fruit, I use dried cranberries, sultanas and chopped apricots

150g seeds, I use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds

I ripe banana, mashed

Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 20cm square tin. Melt the butter in a pan with the sugar, honey and a pinch of salt. Put the oats, dried fruit and seeds in a bowl and mix. Add the melted butter and sugar to the bowl, mix well then add the mashed banana and mix again. Put into the prepared pan, press down lightly, level the top and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until just bronzed on top. Leave to cool and then cut into squares or bars.

Apple Galette

Posted on 27/10/2021 by Anna

Although apples are available all year it is in Autumn when I think of cooking with them. Laden apple trees in the early morning mist are a treat to behold and biting into a crisp juicy apple is the autumnal equivalent of a handful of Summer strawberries snaffled from the fruit cage. We have several apple trees in the garden in varying stages of vintage and productivity. Unfortunately late frosts this Spring did not suit some of the trees and one hasn’t produced a single apple. The Bramley is usually my failsafe and I make lots of puddings based on its large generous apples that cook down to fluffy snow. Sadly it is a little disappointing this year but one of the eaters has masses of fabulous, crisp and delicious apples.

Eating apples obviously cook in a different way to the Bramleys so I look to different recipes to make the most of their firmer flesh and sweet tang. There couldn’t be a better way to showcase those qualities than this fabulous galette. Sweet crumbly pastry that is the work of minutes (I promise) encases slices of apple. Genuinely one of the easiest puddings to make, it comes into its own at this time of year and regular visitors to this site will know its close relation the plum galette.

I make this often, fruit based puddings being one way I can persuade myself (as if) it is ok to tuck in to a pud. That this one is so genuinely full of apples means I have even turned a blind eye on occasion to it being breakfast. What?

Apple Galette

Generally I keep this fairly simple but if you want to go for an apple pie vibe then add a little ground cinnamon into the chopped apples or dust the cooked galette with some icing sugar combined with cinnamon. You only need a teaspoon of beaten egg for the glaze so take it from another egg that is being cracked for another purpose if possible otherwise use milk. The galette in the picture used four big, tennis ball sized apples and maybe there were a couple of slices too many, three would have been fine. I don’t mind too much apple but let you know this as a guide.

100g plain flour plus a heaped teaspoon extra

60g cold butter, cubed or grated

A good pinch of fine salt

60g caster sugar, divided in two

30ml cold water

4 crips eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices

Squeeze of lemon juice

A teaspoon or so of beaten egg (see introduction)

A dessertspoon of demerara or caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 190 and put a baking tray into heat up. Put the flour and butter into a medium size bowl and rub together with your fingers. There isn’t really enough to justify getting a food processor out. When it looks like breadcrumbs add the salt and 30g of sugar followed by the water, bring it together into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and leave somewhere cool for half an hour. Mix the sliced apples with the teaspoon of flour, remaining 30g of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice. Roll out the flour to a rough 30cm circle and place on a sheet of parchment, tumble the apples onto the pastry leaving a good gap and turn this pastry edge over the apples. Brush with your glaze, egg or milk and sprinkle with the dessertspoon of sugar. Carefully transfer the galette on its parchment paper to the hot baking tray and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and crisp underneath. Let it cool for a few minutes as the apples will be piping hot before dusting with cinnamon icing sugar if desired (see intro).

Last of the summer fruit (blackberry and apple) cake

Posted on 21/09/2020 by Anna

I have made this cake twice in a week – once with the last of the raspberries and an apple from the garden and then again with wild blackberries and another apple. A real foragers cake. This sort of cooking gives me immense pleasure – I can always rustle up some sort of tea time treat and my ginger cake (July 20103) is a regular go-to as the required ingredients are usually on hand. This cake is even more satisfying, a few bits and pieces found in the garden are giving star billing, a glorious last hurrah if you will.

A light vanilla sponge studded with flavour bombs of fruit, their crimson colour seeping into the yellow cake like a sunset. The raspberries I used were supplemented with a few blackcurrants from the freezer and I will use these again soon – their bright and vibrant sharp-sweet flavour the perfect foil to the sweet sponge and a million miles better than the oft used blueberries.

Next on the bake list is my Beetroot and Carrot cake (February 2016) – an absolute delight and a great way to use up some of the late summer root veg (see bottom picture).

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Use what you have – blackberries are an obvious choice at the moment. When all the summer fruit is done you could use some frozen berries as I did with the extra blackcurrants. I add the extra flour to balance the extra wetness from the soft fruit and apple. This isn’t too sweet a cake which I love but it could certainly take a drizzle of the lemon variety if you wanted, see my Spring Lemon Cake (March 2019).

160g butter or Stork

130g caster sugar

Good pinch of salt

2 large eggs

140g self raising flour plus two tablespoons

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

A good handful of blackberries or other fruit (see intro)

I medium apple grated, I don’t bother to peel it

Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 and line a loaf tin. Cream the butter or Stork and sugar together until light and fluffy, I use a stand mixer for this but a wooden spoon and bowl work a treat too. Add the eggs one at a time with each with the extra spoonfuls of flour until well incorporated and then add the remaining flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla and grated apple. Finally gentle mix in the blackberries. Put the mix into the lined tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. Check after 40 and cover with foil if it is brown on top before a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. Dust with icing sugar if you like or add a glaze (see intro).

The sharp eyed will notice that the cake in the picture above is the raspberry version because I caught a picture of this, the blackberry and apple one went too fast…..

Raspberry biscuit ice cream cake

Posted on 30/04/2020 by Anna

Barely even a recipe this requires very little effort and few ingredients. Just a determination to make a pudding with not much to hand. Raspberries and ice cream from the freezer and a pack of biscuits from the cupboard – I used digestives but you could happily use shortbread or ginger nuts. Equally whilst I only had vanilla ice cream available this would be fabulous with chocolate ice cream. A bit of bashing and mushing results in a pud that far exceeds expectations and made use of whittling lockdown provisions.

Raspberry biscuit ice cream cake

200g digestives

75g butter, melted

350g vanilla ice cream

200g raspberries divided into two lots of 100g

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Take the ice cream from the freezer and let it soften while you get on with the biscuits. If your raspberries are frozen do the same with them. Bash the digestives to crumbs in a bag, mix with the melted butter and put into a 20cm loose bottom tin. Mash 100g raspberries with the icing sugar and swirl into the ice cream, add the whole raspberries and pour the whole lot onto the biscuit base and freeze for an hour. This will serve as many, or as few, as you choose.

Apple Turnovers (2)

Posted on 30/09/2019 by Anna

If pushed I think an apple would my choice if only able to eat one fruit ever again. I love summer berries and would find it particularly difficult to cast aside juicy raspberries or fragrant, almost scented, wild strawberries but an apple would pip them all to the post. Not only is it hard to beat the juicy, tangy crunch of a perfectly ripe apple but they work so well in all manner of recipes, both savoury but particularly sweet that one might never become bored. Lacking the glamour of blowsy, vividly coloured summer fruits they are more the sensible prefect of fruits – jolly reliable and a proper all rounder.

Lucky enough to inherit a collection of apple trees when we moved here and having subsequently added to our small orchard, now is the time of year when we are spoilt. Various eaters and a hugely prolific Bramley mean apples feature on our menu several times a week. The turnovers in the photograph were an after school treat at the end of last week and a simple form of apple strudel hit the table for pud on Sunday. A bowl of stewed apples alternate with plums to accompany granola and Greek yogurt for breakfast and an apple crisp is on the cards for supper tonight.

There are apple pies of course and crumbles (try my Apple and Raspberry Crumble, October 2015), elegant apple tarte fines, apple cobblers, crisps and Betty’s. Grated apple works a treat in a treacle tart to soften that super sweet hit and I like it mixed with mincemeat for a slightly less rich and more tangy pie at Christmas. My super easy Tarte Tatin (January 2019) enjoys regular outings here as does the Crunchy Apple Pudding (January 2015). The sharp apple makes a perfect foil to sweet pastry and oaty crumbly toppings; it melds perfectly with cream whether straight or in the form of ice cream or custard which is why it makes so many appearances as a pudding. Apples and cinnamon? A life long love affair and a little tangy apple works amazingly well in cinnamon buns.

So make the most of wonderful apples. We grow them here and right now you can enjoy them super fresh without having travelled a thousand miles or languished for months in cold storage. Check out farm stalls and farmers markets for locally grown and unusual varieties – above all make a delicious apple pudding – with all that fruit under the crumble, well its almost health food.

Apple Turnovers

These are a little different to the filo wrapped turnovers I wrote about in Turnovers and leftovers (October 2016). Not only do these use puff pastry (as that is what I had to hand) but they also combine cooking and eating apples. This means you get the fluffy Bramley which breaks down to a fluff along with small pieces of the eaters which retain a little bite. The strudel I mention in the introduction was essentially a large, long turnover using the other half of the pack of puff pastry. It was eaten before I could take a photograph.

1 large Bramley apple, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into small dice

4-5 tablespoons caster sugar plus some extra for sprinkling onto the turnovers

A couple of tablespoons of water

1/2 pack of puff pastry

Milk or a little beaten egg

A little flour

Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200. Put apples, sugar and water into a large pan and cook gently until the Bramley has broken down and the eaters have lost their crispness. Taste, you may need a little more sugar and when you are happy with it leave to cool. Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle and cut into six squares. Put a tablespoon of the apple onto one square of pastry, sort of in the right angle, brush the edges with milk or egg wash and fold over to make a triangle pressing the pastry well to seal, use a fork if you like. Repeat with the other 5 and put onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush a little more milk or egg over the triangles, sprinkle with caster sugar, cut a couple of slits in the pastry and bake for 12-15 minutes until puffed, bronzed and crispy. Allow to cool a little before dusting with icing sugar if you like. Makes 6 and depending on the size of the apples used you may have some apple left which would be delicious for breakfast…

Spring Lemon Cake

Posted on 12/03/2019 by Anna

I can’t tell you how many lemons have been squeezed and cakes made here in the name of research. Lemon drizzles, lemon curds, lemon polentas and of course there is the layered beauty that features here in Lemon Cake and the 1970’s (May 2013) and often graces our table as our Easter Cake*.

I’m happy to eat a lemon based cake any day of the year but in Spring it seems even more appropriate. That bright yellow zip and zest works perfectly when there is still a nip in the air but green shoots are on show and the hope of sunny days feels well founded. This then is a cake for teatime, picnics or rainy days, trips to the beach, eating outside or in front of the fire and, of course, for all those school bake sales.

This modest looking little loaf cake has been tried and tested in many incarnations and this is my favourite. It couldn’t be easier, is very quick and a doddle if you have children who want to make a cake. If you don’t have any lemon curd don’t worry it will still be delicious but it’s worth having a jar of good curd in the fridge for such occasions. You can stick with a crunchy sugar and lemon drizzle if you prefer but this lemony icing is our perfect topping. Finally, whilst I am a huge fan of butter, it has become quite expensive and Stork or similar works brilliantly here – if its good enough for Mary Berry, its certainly good enough for me!

Spring Lemon Cake

160g butter or Stork (see introduction)

120g caster sugar

Good pinch of salt

2 large eggs

140g self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Zest of one large unwaxed lemon

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons lemon curd (see introduction)

150g icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 and line a loaf tin. Cream the butter or Stork and sugar together until light and fluffy, I use a stand mixer for this but a wooden spoon and bowl work a treat too. Add the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour until well incorporated and then add the remaining flour, salt, baking powder, zest and milk. Finally swirl in the lemon curd leaving a few streaks. Put the mix into the lined tin and bake for 40 minutes. Check after 30 and cover with foil if its brown on top before a skewer comes out clean. Whilst the cake is cooling, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice (add the juice slowly as you may not need it all) and then pour over the top of the cake. Leave to set and then tuck in.

*Whilst I know a Simnel Cake is the usual Easter offering and I love it, none of my immediate family like fruit cake (also my daughter is allergic to nuts). Besides, we all know what happens to a cake when only one person likes it……

Cinnamon Buns

Posted on 30/09/2018 by Anna

Sweet, squidgy, fragrant with spice – what’s not to love about a cinnamon bun? As yet I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t weaken at the knees with the mention of a CB. My children adore them and regularly make urgent requests for me to bake some. There is no great secret to making these, bread flour rather than plain gives that fluffy soft dough which is then wrapped around a buttery, sugary cinnamon filling. The final flourish of icing completes the picture and makes them pretty much perfection in our book.

So, whilst these are super easy to make remember to allow a bit of time. Like other recipes using yeast it requires a couple of rises. I give myself about a 4 hour time frame (which includes cooling them if you are going to ice them) but there isn’t more than about 30 minutes of hands on time. Just letting you know in case you want to get them ready for the end of school….

Cinnamon Buns

I find a stand mixer easiest for this as it is quite a soft dough.

450g strong white bread flour

7g yeast

7g salt

60g soft brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

225ml milk, warmed to just blood temperature

1 egg beaten

75g soft butter, cubed

For the filling –

100g soft butter

80g soft brown sugar

2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon

200g Icing sugar

Put the flour, yeast, salt, 60g sugar and cinnamon into the bowl of your stand mixer. Once mixing add the warm milk and beaten egg followed by the 75g soft butter, a bit at a time until it comes together then let this mix for 5 minutes. Leave to rise for an hour in a warm, draught free place. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until approximately the size of a tea towel then spread with the 100g soft butter. Mix the 80g soft brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon together and then sprinkle this evenly over the butter. Roll up from one of the long sides and then cut into even pieces about 2cm thick. Depending on the length of your roll you’ll get about 12-16. Place these cut side down and well spaced on a large baking sheet and leave to rise again for another hour. Just before the time is up preheat the oven to 190 and then bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed up and golden. Leave to cool. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and mix with just enough water to get the consistency you are happy with before trickling it over the buns either neatly and artistically or rather more erratically as I have done in the photograph above.

Beetroot and Carrot Cake

Posted on 09/02/2016 by Anna

My children have exceptionally finely tuned radars when it comes to trying out new dishes and show particular suspicion if I ever respond “it’s a surprise!” when they are faced with something new. They will fire questions about ingredients at me but I am used to this now and have a range of ripostes and distracting tactics at the ready. I’ve perfected acting in a slightly deaf, vague fashion when being cross examined, sometimes I will deflect questions by posing a conundrum so complex, lengthy and bizarre back at them that they will have forgotten their original question or my absolute favourite when faced with a query I would rather not answer, I look intently at the window and ask “is that a badger out there?”.

These discussions and my slippery evasiveness usually come to the fore when a less than popular vegetable has been snuck into something under cover. I do this in my never-ending efforts to find a way to make each and every vegetable delicious to my treasures. Rather as it was with this Beetroot and Carrot cake. Previously a regular kind of Carrot cake had been deemed acceptable so grabbing this particular baton, I decided to expand on the idea and add beetroot to the mix.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am under no false illusion that by adding any old veg to a cake it miraculously becomes healthy. There is a sea of treats out there that contain ‘better for you’ ingredients – sweet potatoes, date syrup, wholemeal flour, quinoa or whatever but treats they are. A cake is a cake is a cake, something to enjoy occasionally but not every day. The reason I make this one is because I think it is absolutely delicious. The fact that it contains grated raw carrot and beetroot is a happy coincidence.

My son ate one slice of the first of these cakes but has mysteriously been full whenever offered a slice at a later date. My husband said he like it but could see why the children didn’t which, in itself, was fairly damning and my daughter simply eyed it as one would a snake.

So to everyone who has tried this cake and loved it (even those who were told the pink bits were raspberries….) I say thank you and to my family I say, never mind, all the more for me.

Beetroot and Carrot Cake

Grating the vegetables in a processor can make it a bit wet so I tend to do it by hand with a box grater, it only takes a few minutes.

300g carrots and beetroot (untrimmed or peeled weight), grated

250g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

150g soft brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

150ml sunflower or vegetable oil, plus a tiny bit extra for greasing the tin

2 eggs, beaten

125g icing sugar, sifted

50g soft butter

200g cream cheese, at room temperature

1 lime, zest and juice.

Preheat the oven to 170 and oil a 20cm tin with a little of the sunflower/vegetable oil and line the base. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add the salt and sugar followed by the grated carrot and beetroot and mix well. Combine the oil and beaten egg and add this to the flour and vegetables and mix. It will be a thick mixture! Put into the tin, level the top and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cooling completely on a rack. Meanwhile for the icing, beat the butter, sugar and lime really well before adding the cream cheese. It is important that this is at room temperature so it mixes in easily, don’t over beat it as it will quickly become runny. If it does however, don’t panic, just put it in the fridge until firmed up. Spread over the cake.

Oaty Mincemeat Squares

Posted on 06/12/2015 by Anna

I often make something we imaginatively call Jammy Oaty Slice – can you guess what is in it? Of course you can and I highly recommend it as a delicious tea time offering. The other day I was looking at a tray of it cooling ready for scoffing and it reminded me of the mincemeat slice that used to adorn the bakers’ shelf at Christmas in Yorkshire. Heavily dredged with icing sugar, it was completely white from the top and the layers were crisp and even (really!) in the way only a practised hand can accomplish.

So of course I had to have a go at making it myself. Whilst I love mince pies, my immediate family (i.e. the ones I actually live with) don’t like anything with cooked raisins or dried fruit. This means that if I make mince pies then I am the only one who will eat them unless we have friends over and when it comes to a Christmas cake…. Well, suffice it to say I ate all of the the last one which graced a tin in our house. All of it and I made another in January because I had enjoyed it so much…..

These little squares are much safer then. Rather than a huge cake winking at me from the corner I can safely eat one of these treasures with a cup of tea on a daily basis without having to book into the gym afterwards. Like two layers of shortbread with mincemeat in between, somehow better than a traditional mince pie if that is not too shocking a statement? The oats add an extra element which is just right and of course go a good way towards balancing out the sugar and butter. Heading for health food is what I say….

Oaty Mincemeat Squares

If you want to go for the original Jammy Oaty Slice then just replace the mincemeant with jam, I favour raspberry. However, please do give them a go this Christmas, they are a million times easier than mince pies if you need to make a batch for a sale and are just delicious.

250g plain flour

125g oats

135g caster sugar

200g cold butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

450g mincemeat

Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180. Line a tin of approximately 23cmx32cm with baking parchment. Whizz together the flour, oats, butter, sugar, baking powder and salt briefly in a food processor (you want it combined but not forming a ball of dough as it needs to be quite crumbly for the top layer). Tip half of the mixture into the baking tin and press it to cover the base in an even layer. Spread the mincemeat over this and then sprinkle the remainder of the mix evenly over the mincemeat and press it down gently. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden on top. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and cutting into squares.

Anna May, everyday…

Category Archives: Cakes