To make up for it, I’m keeping my hand in with the writing by giving you another recipe. This is one of my absolute favourite desserts (and I’m a big dessert fan) and incredibly simple and versatile to boot. It’s perfect for entertaining because it can be left to stand for 20 minutes or so (perhaps longer), it freezes well and re-heats in the microwave, probably because it’s very moist. It’s also got masses of lovely cholesterol and sugar in it to really keep you fit and healthy. Tonight I’m making one with real fruit in to try to counteract those effects.

A bread and butter pudding is, basically, bread and butter with an egg custard and other “stuff”. The root of it is incredibly simple:

Egg custard

• 4 egg yolks
• 300ml milk
• 300ml double cream
• 100g caster sugar
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract (optional)

Beat the egg yolks, then add the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla extract (pod can be used too if you’re feeling flush). Give it a little whisk to get a bit of air in and mix it all up – and you’re done.

The bread and butter

You don’t have to use bread and butter – there are myriad bread-based things you can use. As long as it’s absorbent (and works with sweet stuff – so white is probably best) it should work. I’ve seen recipes using hot cross buns, croissants, and even pain au chocolat – just remember that other fillings you may use need to complement the “bread” part of the dish, so sultanas would work well with hot cross buns, for example. Quantities depend on the size of the dish you’re using and your preferred custard/bread ratio; about 9 slices of bread works well with the above quantity of custard, though. It should serve 4 with the above custard quantity, so that’s about 2 slices of bread – and probably 2 croissants/1.5 hot cross buns each.

Cut into rough “soldiers” (I cut slices of bread into thirds) and butter, or tear up your croissants/buns and butter them. Put them higgeldy-piggeldy into a buttered, oven-proof dish or casserole which can hold at least 2 pints, layering with your filling (see below) until you reach the top.

Extras

The extras are where it can get interesting – use, basically, whatever you want, as long as it goes with the “bread” part. Marmalade seems to be used quite often, but I’ve never tried it (and don’t fancy it much); jam, likewise. Sultanas work very well – and are what I remember from childhood – but remember not to put them on the very top or they’ll swell and go crunchy. Chocolate chips could be used, as could real fruit – supermarkets often sell bags of frozen summer fruits for smoothies which are worth trying. Layer your extras between the bread and push them into any gaps. It’s not supposed to be pretty; just shove it all in but try to spread reasonably evenly.

About 150-200g of loose extras – fruit, chocolate chips – should be used, to taste. The beauty is that you can just grab handfuls and pop them in as you see fit, and keep the rest.

Finishing off

Once you’ve layered everything, pour the custard into the dish, making sure you get a little over all the bread – it should get absorbed so don’t worry if the level is below the level of the bread. Dust with cinnamon, nutmeg or a little of both and pop in a pre-heated oven at 180°C/gas mark 4 (try at 160°C in a fan assisted oven, but vary as you would any recipe to suit your equipment) for 45-50 minutes. Stand for 15-20 minutes and serve with cream, ice cream, or as it is. Lovely.

Well, I’ve found a solution to this: baking cakes. I’ve developed something of an expertise with the classic lemon drizzle cake, and today decided to do a bit of experimenting.

Baking is something interesting to do and, when money is tight, it’s pretty cost effective, too. The basic cake recipe calls for the following ingredients:

• 6oz (175g) castor sugar
• 6oz (175g) self-raising flour
• 6oz (175g) margarine or softened butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1tsp baking powder

When you look at the costs, you can get the following:

• Castor sugar, 1kg: £0.77
• Own label self raising flour, 1.5kg: £0.41
• Own label butter/margarine, 500g: £0.90
• Organic large eggs, 12: £3.69
• Baking powder, 170g: £0.17

Which means you can make about three cakes for £6.00 – £2.00 a cake – and still have loads of eggs and flour left over. 1.5kg of flour is enough for about 8 cakes. Plus you get the fun of baking, a break from work, and an ideal present for someone if you’re too broke to buy them something from the shops. While I’ll happily buy own-label flour and marge – while money is tight, at least – I’ll never compromise on eggs and always buy organic, free range. If you’ve got a few pence to spare then fair-trade sugar and organic flour is better – and if you can get flour direct from a local mill, so much the better.

Today I made up my own variation on the basic recipe, and I’ve had one slice and it seems to have worked. Here’s my recipe for Adam’s lovely apple and cinnamon cake:

Ingredients:

• 6oz (175g) castor sugar
• 6oz (175g) self-raising flour
• 6oz (175g) margarine or softened butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1.5tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 medium cooking apple.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). Reduce this slightly for fan-assisted ovens.
2. Lightly (very lightly if it’s non-stick, which most are) grease a 9″ x 5″ x 3″ (23cm x 13cm x 7cm) loaf tin and line the bottom only with greaseproof paper. Be careful of getting too much marge into the corners of the tin – it may burn.
3. Put the castor sugar, flour, eggs, cinnamon, baking powder and margarine into a large mixing bowl. Use an electric hand-whisk (Tesco do a value one – with a year’s warranty – for less than a fiver, which is incredible value) to beat everything together for about a minute. Be careful: to avoid spraying egg and marge everywhere, you might want to start things off by folding everything together with a spoon first and start mixing at a low speed.
4. Peel your half cooking apple and cut that in half again. Grate one part in to the mixture and dice (fairly finely – 50mm square) the rest. Fold it in carefully with a wooden spoon, taking care not to squash it too much – you’ll put too much juice in the mixture. In my cake, the apple chunks sank to the bottom of the mixture while cooking – you might want to try rinsing and drying the apple before you add it, or perhaps dust them lightly with flour before you put them in. Unless you’re happy with the apple being at the bottom, which is fine.
5. Pour the mixture in to the tin and smooth the top a little with the wooden spoon. Don’t push it down too much – if you can keep the air in, it’ll rise better.
6. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the middle of the oven. Don’t open the door before about 40 minutes or it’ll sink. This recipe may take a little longer than other cakes using this basic sponge recipe – you’ve introduced quite a bit more liquid with the apple juice.
7. It’s cooked when the centre of the cake springs back up after pushing gently down and a skewer pushed into the cake comes out clean. Take it out, cool for five minutes, then turn out on to a wire cooling rack (a clean grill-pan wire rack works well if you don’t have a proper cooler). Allow to cool.

And there you go – enjoy! Store it in an air-tight cake tin, but make sure it’s cool before you do. Let me know how you get on. And how does this relate to writing? Well, it probably doesn’t. Except I’ve not written instructions like that since I was a technical writer in the pharmaceutical industry, and it’s nice to keep my hand in.