This teriyaki marinade is so simple to make it is so useful you can have it on salmon, chicken, beef, vegetables, anything! It’s absolutely delicious and one of the quintessential Japanese flavours for me.

- 200ml soy sauce
- 100ml sake
- 100ml mirin
- 4 tbsp sugar
- whatever you want to marinate (salmon fillets, chicken breasts, strips of beef)

- Mix all of the ingredients together in a ziplock bag. Shake until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add your meat/fish and either leave in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Remove the meat/fish from the bag and pour the marinade into a saucepan.
- Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer for 20 mins until it starts to get thicker.
- If making skewers then thread the meat onto your skewers while the grill heats.
- For salmon fillets I would suggest a cast iron skillet or heavy frying pan, for skewers the grill.
- While cooking brush the meat or fish periodically with the sauce for an even better flavour and a nice sticky coating.
- If making vegetables skip marinating and simply sturdy the veggies and then add the thickened sauce.
- I always serve this with sticky Japanese rice, gyoza (dumplings) and edamame. Yum!

150g soba noodles
500mls chicken stock
1 leek, white part only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sake
A few handfuls of cooked turkey meat
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, washed and roughly chopped

- Cook noodles according to the instructions on the packet drain and then refresh under cold water.
- Bring the chicken stock to the boil.
- Add the leek, soy sauce, fish sauce and sake.
- Cook for 10 minutes until the leek is soft.
- Add the turkey and the spinach bring back to the boil and then remove from heat.
- Divide the noodles between two bowls and then pour over the soup.
- Garnish with chopped spring onion if you like.

This recipe is an old favourite from childhood.  The main selling point is basically, cookies on demand! You make the dough, bung it in the fridge (or freezer) and then when you want cookies you simply slice however many you want off the log and bake them. 15 minutes later you have cookies! What’s not to love about that?

Makes about 48

125g butter
150g caster sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 egg
250g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
100g plain chocolate chips

- Cream together the butter and the sugar.
- Add the orange zest (I like to zest my orange over the bowl so that you get all the lovely orange oil too for really fragrant biscuits).
- Beat in the egg.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder and add the chocolate chips.
- Mix until it forms a dough.
- Shape the dough into two logs about 2″ thick.
- Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to one week.
-When ready to bake heat the oven to gas mark for and slice however many cookies you require from the log and place them on a baking tray.
- Bake for 15 minutes then leave to cool on the tray for 2 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.  (Or eat warm with a glass of milk for utter comfort food!)

Visually I find it very pleasing with the overall Guinness look with that cream cheese frosting “head” on it.  The tanginess of the cream cheese frosting is not to be missed out on (although, if you absolutley must do without it it’s still damned good cake!).  Overall another corking recipe from Nigella, but what else do we expect?

Serves 12 min.

Cake:
250ml Guinness
250g butter
75g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
142ml creme fraiche (Nigella says Sour Cream… I never buy Sour Cream yet always have Creme Fraiche)
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting:
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream

- Heat the oven to Gas 4/180C and prepare a 23cm springform cake tin.
- Take your largest saucepan and pour in the Guinness.  Cut the butter up and add that too.
- Heat until the butter’s melted then whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar.
- In a separate jug mix the creme fraiche, eggs and vanilla together.
- Pour into the pan.
- Whisk in the flour and bicarb.
- Pour the mixture into your greased and lined cake tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Check that the middle is totally cooked by using a skewer to test and that it is springy when touched or it will sink in the middle.
- Leave to cool in the tin.
- To make the frosting beat the cream cheese until smooth then sift over the icing sugar.
- Beat together then add the cream and beat til smooth.
- Spread over the top of the cake.

I have to say, I go much more low key with it and leave the pomegranate etc out of it.  I have to admit, it doesn’t look half as good without but it is still just as delicious.  Sometimes I go the whole hog and use my red onion yogurt dip, other times I just add a pinch of salt to some yogurt and leave it at that.

Serves 4 as a side

1 large head of cauliflower
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
300ml natural yogurt
pinch of salt
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
small handful fresh mint, finely chopped

- Heat the oven to gas mark 6.
- Cut the cauliflower into florets and then break the larger florets into bitesized chunks.
- Place the florets in an oven dish and drizzle with the olive oil.
- Toss to coat.
- Sprinkle over the cumin seeds and a good grinding of salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
- For the yogurt dip simply mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl.
- Serve with whatever you wish.

Makes 500ml yogurt

just under 500ml milk (whole, semi or skimmed all work)
25g milk powder (optional, makes yogurt thicker)
3 tbsp natural live yogurt

- In a small pan heat the milk to 46-49C.  You will need a thermometer, my sugar thermometer handily starts at 40C.  Or, until you can keep your finger in it for 20 seconds without it burning apparently.
- Mix in the milk powder until dissolved and no lumps.
- Add your yogurt to a 500ml thermos then, once the milk is at about 46-49C pour in the milk, screw on the cap and shape well to mix.
- Alternatively mix the yogurt and milk in a bowl, cover it with clingfilm, wrap it in a towel and put on top of a radiator.
- Then leave for 6-8 hours or overnight.
- The next day ip out the yogurt into a container and refrigerate.

And yes, I wore those ears all day!  We had a fantastic spread, everyone was absolutely inspired! I made Marshmallow Crispies, Chocolate Brownies, Pudsey Gingerbear Biscuits and a special Pudsey cake!

I borrowed the tin from my mum who used it to make my 3rd Birthday cake and within 10 minutes of arriving in the office he had been sold to become someone’s grandson’s 6th Birthday cake!

To make your own Pudsey cake you will need a bear cake mould and make a simple sponge using 250g each of butter, sugar and self raising flour along with approximately 250g worth of eggs.  I made him lemon flavoured coz he’s yellow, of course he’s lemon flavoured! To cover him in buttercream you need 225g unsalted butter, 475g icing sugar, 1tsp vanilla and 2-3 tbsp milk and mix, mix mix! I mixed so hard I blistered my entire finger!

Huge thanks to everyone at the office for baking and eating, we smashed last year’s total of £123 and enjoyed every crumb!

I took this craving and ran with it.  I whipped up the dough when I got home, used leftover Awesome Sauce as the pizza sauce (delicious but not perfect as it was a little wet as I’d feared) and raided the fridge for various toppings.  This was the happy result.

Makes 2 ~8″ pizzas

250g strong bread flour
4g fast action yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
150ml warm water
200g mature cheddar (I used Cathedral Mature Cheddar and may I say, yum!)
pizza sauce of your choice (I used Awesome Sauce)
toppings of your choice (I went with ham and mushroom and sausage and pepper)
mozerella and cheddar for topping (I urge you not to skip the mozerella!)

- Place the flour in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the yeast on one side and the salt on the other.  Mix each into the flour a little bit then mix the flour to thoroughly distribute each ingredient.
- Make a well in the centre then add the olive oil and almost all the water.  Keep back a few tbsp of water and only add if you need it.
- Mix the ingredients together to form a soft dough and knead.  Either use a stand mixer or a hand mixer with dough hooks for about 5 minutes or do it by hand and knead for about 20 until the dough is soft and springy.
- Grease a bowl with a little oil and lighlty oil your ball of dough too.
- Leave to rise covered with a towel in a warm place for at least 1 hour, until doubled in size.
- Heat your oven as high as it will go.  At least Gast Mark 7/210C.  If you have a pizza stone heat that, if not place baking trays in the oven to preheat.
- Knock down the dough and divide into two.
- Leave to sit for 5 minutes or so.
- Roll out the dough on a sheet of baking paper until about 9″ in diameter.
- Slice your cheddar into thin strips, about 1cm wide and tall and about 3-4cm long.
- Place the strips of cheddar about 1cm away from the edge of your pizza.
- Carefully fold the dough over the cheddar and tuck slightly under to totally enclose the cheese.  Pinch the dough together to seal.
- If you want a deeper crust pizza you can leave the dough to rise again for about 20 minutes before adding the sauce and toppings, if you’re hungry and impatient then you can add the sauce and toppings now.
- Once you have constructed your pizza to your liking use a splatter guard/chopping board/plate/something to lift your pizza up on its baking paper and slide it onto the preheated surface in the oven.
- Cook for 20 minutes or so until the crust is a golden brown and the cheese is all melty.
- Leave it to cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing and eating. Nobody likes that burnt roof of the mouth you get from eating hot pizza!

For now let me introduce a variation on one of my favourite themes: pasta, cream, mushrooms and bacon! There is very little that can go wrong with these ingredients no matter what you do, but when you add delicious sausage meatballs and a warm blush of chilli to the mix it is the perfect meal for a cold autumn night.

Serves 4

4 of your favourite sausages
2-3 tbsp olive oil
4 rashers of bacon, chopped or pancetta
150g closed cup or baby mushrooms, quartered if large
1-2 small red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
200ml double cream
salt and pepper to taste
pasta to serve

- First remove the skins from your sausages and slice each sausage into 4, making little meatballs.
- Heat a few tbsp oil in a large frying pan.  Add the meatballs and cook over a medium heat until browned all over.
- Add the bacon and the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are just browned and the bacon is cooked through.
- Add the chilli and the cream and season to taste.
- Reduce to a low heat until the cream is heated through and just simmering.
- Simmer for 5 minutes until the cream thickens a little.
- Serve over pasta.

Serves 12

150g butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g self raising flour
200g granulated sugar
375ml water
3 tsp instant espresso/coffee granules

- Heat the oven to gas mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
- In a food processor blitz the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
- Add one egg at a time with the motor running, dropping each one down the funnel at the top.
- Do the same with the vanilla.
- Add the flour and blitz until smooth and all combined.
- Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for 30-45 minutes.
- Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes in the tin then turn out and place on a plate.  Your plate needs to be more dished than flat, preferably with sides.
- Stab the cake all over with a skewer.
- In a small pan heat the sugar, water and coffee until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Spoon 1/3 of the syrup over the cake as evenly as possible.  Leave for at least 30 minutes.  Then spoon over the next 1/3 of the syrup, leave it for half and hour and then spoon over the final 1/3 of the syrup.  Leave the cake to sit for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
- Serve with whipped cream (or squirty cream if the logistics of taking it into the office present themselves!)