Five minutes pudding

On a cold winter's day, there is nothing more comforting than a baked pudding served warm with lashings of custard. This one takes no time at all to cook - my grandmother called it a 'five minutes pudding'. When it was cooked, she would simply spread it with jam and roll it up. Another name for this would probably be jam roly-poly!

I have increased the quantities shown to suit a 20cm x 30cm shallow tray.

110g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

150g plain flour

3 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Line a shallow tray with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, add the eggs and flour alternately and mix together until well blended. Pour into the lined tray and bake for about 10 minutes or until it starts to brown. Take out of the oven and turn out onto a clean tea towel. Remove the piece of baking paper (which will now be on the top) and, while still warm, start to roll from the longest edge, keeping the tea towel inside. Then leave to cool.

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When you're ready to eat, unroll the pudding, remove the tea towel and spread the cake with jam. Roll up again and cut into slices to serve. Custard recommended!

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Royal Icing

... or glacé icing as my grandmother called it. As with the marzipan, this is very easy to make and will finish off your Christmas cake to perfection.

I have given quantities for the top and sides of a 23cm cake.

450g icing sugar

juice of half a lemon

2 egg whites

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon juice and the egg whites - do this gradually as you do not want your icing to be too runny. Then, as my grandmother says, 'stir vigorously' until you have a smooth thick paste'.

Cover the sides and top of the cake and either smooth down with a knife dipped in warm water, or make snowy peaks over the whole cake.

Decorate and leave to set. Enjoy!

Marzipan

... or almond icing as my grandmother called it. This is very easy to make and well worth the effort for your home-made Christmas cake. I have substituted almond essence for orange flower water and given quantities to cover the top and sides of a 23cm cake.

Some marzipan recipes combine caster sugar and icing sugar, but my grandmother's instructions use only icing sugar. Whichever you try, you need equal amounts of the ground almonds and the sugar.

300g ground almonds

300g icing sugar (sieved)

½ tsp almond essence

white of 2 eggs

2 tbsp of apricot jam or marmalade, thinned slightly with boiling water.

Combine the ground almonds and sieved icing sugar in a bowl. Add the almond essence and most of the egg white and stir together with a palette knife until you have a stiff paste. Add more egg white if needed.

Dust a board with icing sugar and knead the marzipan until smooth. Don't overdo it or it will become oily. Roll out about half and cut to a circle large enough to cover your cake - I used the base of the cake tin as a template. Brush the top of the cake with the jam and using a rolling pin, lift the marzipan onto the cake.

For the sides, roll out the other half of the marzipan to a length to go around the cake. You may need to do this in two lengths and, again, you can use the cake tin as a template for the required width. Brush the sides of your cake and stick the marzipan to it, pressing down firmly.

Now you're ready to ice your cake.

Any left over marzipan can be kept for up to a month in the fridge. Alternatively, you can use it to make festive decorations or it's very good stuffed into fresh dates and then rolled in caster sugar.