Yet another loaf cake – my most used tin in the kitchen! Pears are in season at the moment, for this recipe just make sure they are nice and soft before using.

Ingredients :

• 3 pears
• 150g self-raising flour
• 80g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 90g butter (melted)
• 50 g dark chocolate

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Mix the flour, sugar, eggs and melted butter together
3. Peel and chop pears in small cubes
4. Break the chocolate into small pieces (or use ready made chocolate chips)
5. Add the pear and chocolate into the cake mixture and pour into loaf tin
6. Sprinkle some sliced almonds and chocolate on top of the cake
7. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes at 180°C

This is another traditional french cake that is very popular at goûter time and is a real favourite with french kids.

Ingredients :

• 125g butter
• 200g self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons of milk
• 200g sugar
• Vanilla essence
• 25g cocoa powder

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together
3. Add the eggs, milk and flour and mix well
4. Separate the mixture in two halves
5. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to one half
6. Add the 25g of drinking chocolate to the other
7. Grease and flour your loaf tin
8. Pour in some of the vanilla mixture, followed by the chocolate mixture and repeat
9. Bake in pre-heated oven for 40 minutes

The quatre-quarts is a classic recipe from the french repertoire. Directly translated into english it means “four-quarters”. It originated in Brittany and its name comes from the fact that it is made up of 4 ingredients in equal quantities, each representing a quarter of the cake.

This is the traditional quatre-quarts recipe but you can then add different flavours etc – lemon, vanilla, apples

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• Same weight in flour
• Same weight in sugar
• Same weight in salted butter
• I heaped teaspoon of baking powder

Method :

1. Crack your eggs into a bowl and weigh them. 4 eggs weighs around 180g – 200g.
2. Use the weight of your eggs and weigh the exact same amount of flour, butter and sugar.
3. Melt butter and allow to cool
4. Beat the eggs with the sugar
5. In another bowl mix the flour and baking powder
6. Make a well in the flour and pour in the egg and sugar mixture and beat gently with a whisk
7. Add the melted butter and mix well
8. Pour batter into a greased loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes

Another simple, easy to make cake that is a tried and tested goûter time staple here 🙂

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 180g sugar
• 120g flour
• 150g salted butter melted (if you use unsalted add a good pinch of salt to the ingredients)
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 100g grated coconut

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Beat the eggs with the sugar
3. Add the other flour, baking powder and melted butter and mix well with a whisk
4. Mix in the coconut
5. Pour into greased cake tin and bake in oven for 25-30 minutes

This is another savoury loaf (or cake as they say in french!) which is perfect as an aperitif or finger food for a buffet. Personally I prefer the ham and olive loaf, the recipe for which you can find here, but this is a good alternative if you are cooking for someone who doesn’t like olives 😉

Ingredients :

• 150g flour
• Even teaspoon of baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard
• 100ml milk
• 125ml sunflower
• 150g ham
• 75g cheddar
• 75g grated gruyere (or other hard cheese)
• 5cl beer (blonde or pale – not sure what the correct term is in english!)
• Salt and Pepper

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven t 180°C
2. Chop the cheddar and the ham in small cubes
3. Place in a bowl and mix in the wholegrain mustard and the beer, mix well and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes
4. In a large bowl beat the eggs with the flour and baking powder
5. Slowly pour in the warm milk and oil mixing all the time
6. Add the grated cheese
7. Add the ham and cheese mixture and mix well
8. Season with salt and pepper
9. Pour into a non-greased loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes at 180°C

Leeks are in season! And this leek and potato tart makes a lovely evening meal or lunch with a green salad. I made it with lardons but it is also lovely with smoked salmon.

See the following for some similar recipes : Quiche or Courgette Tart

Ingredients :

• A short-cut pastry (recipe here) or a puff pastry
• 5 medium sized potatoes
• 3 leeks
• 3 eggs
• 150ml of milk or creme fraîche
• 200g bacon lardons or 4 slices of smoked salmon
• 100g grated cheese (I use gruyere but any hard cheese works)
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. Wash and peel potatoes
2. Wash leeks, remove any withered outer leaves and trim off then end of the roots and the green leaves (leave a little green as this will have more colour to your dish)
3. Chop potatoes and leeks and cook in salted boiling water for approx 20 minutes (until cooked)
4. Roll out pastry and press into a quiche tin, prick the base with a fork
5. If using lardons fry in a pan, when cooked spread on the pastry base, if using smoked salmon cut into strips and do as for lardons
6. Beat the 3 eggs with the milk or creme fraiche, salt, pepper and grated cheese
7. Strain potatoes and leeks and add to the lardons
8. Cover with the milk and egg mixture
9. Cook in oven for approx 35 minutes at 180°C until nice and golden

I love lemon flavoured cakes and desserts but I like them to have a really strong lemon flavour so this lemon cake is only going to be the one for you if you really appreciate the tangy fruit too!

The icing is optional as even without, the cake is very lemon-y!

The temperature for the cake is 170°C and it really needs to be no higher, as you can see from the picture my cake got slightly too done on the outside because I wanted to double up and bake it at the same time as a brown bread loaf so everything went in at 180°C – I won’t be making that mistake again!

Ingredients :

• 175g sugar
• 120g melted butter
• zest of two lemons
• 3 eggs
• 150g flour
• Juice of two lemons (approx 80g)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the icing :

• 125g icing sugar
• 25g lemon juice

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 170°C
2. Melt the butter in the microwave
3. Mix the butter and sugar together
4. Add the lemon zest and then the eggs, one by one mixing well after each one
5. Mix in the flour and baking powder
6. Pour in the lemon juice and mix well
7. Pour the mixture into a greased 1lb loaf tin and bake for 40 mins at 170°C (it may need 5 minutes more or less depending on your oven)
8. When the cake is cooked remove from the tin and wrap immediately in clingfilm while waiting for it to cool, this will keep the cake lovely and moist!
9. Whisk the icing sugar with the lemon juice
10. Remove the cake from the clingfilm and place on a grill
11. Cover the cake with the icing and leave for a few moments for the icing to harden
12. Eat!

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Its another loaf recipe – easy, versatile and perfect for the “goûter” I tend to use my loaf tin more than any other in the kitchen. This recipe is perfect for the autumn season as apples and walnuts are plentiful.

Ingredients :

• 150g softened butter (I just melt it in the microwave)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g flour
• Teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of bread soda
• Pinch of salt
• 50g raisins (pre-soaked in hot water to plump them up!)
• 60g walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 200g grated apple (2 apples)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Beat the eggs and sugar
3. Add the flour, baking powder, bread soda, salt and cinnamon
4. Mix in softened butter
5. Add grated apple, raisins and walnuts
6. Pour into cake tin
7. Bake in pre-heated oven for 50 minutes at 180°C

Courgette (or ‘zucchini’ for some of you!) tart – like a quiche with extra veg 🙂

Ingredients :

• 1 short-crust pastry (see here for recipe)
• 1 small onion
• 200g lardons (smoked if possible)
• 2/3 courgettes
• 20cl crême fraîche or cream
• 3 eggs
• Salt & Pepper

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
2. Wash and finely chop the onion and the courgettes (grating works well too if you prefer)
3. Gently fry the lardons in a pan and then add the onion and courgettes – fry until the excess water from the courgettes evaporates
4. Add salt (not too much because the lardons will be salty) and pepper
5. In a bowl beat the eggs with the crême fraîche (or cream if using)
6. Roll out you pastry and press it into a quiche dish, pricking the base with a fork
7. Spoon the courgette, onions and lardons over the base of the tart
8. Pour over  the egg and cream/crême fraîche mixture
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Serve warm with a tossed salad

*  You can always add cheese too, sprinkling on top of the tart before it goes into the oven.  Or to have a vegetarian tart you could replace the lardons with a hard cheese – cheddar works well. Leave out the lardons, mix approx 125g of grated cheese into the cream and egg mixture and continue as above.

The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english.  I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry (pate brisée)
• 1 litre of milk
• 3 eggs
• 160g sugar
• 100g cornflour
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla pod

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry and press it into your tin , prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge while preparing the flan mixture
3. Beat the eggs with the cornflour, the vanilla extract and 125ml of milk (taken from the 1 litre of milk in the recipe) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer
4. Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla sugar, the sugar, the vanilla pod (cut the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the empty pod halves into the milk).
5. Bring to the boil
6. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture beating all the time with your electric whisk
7. Pour everything back into the saucepan, place on a low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon
8. Allow it to simmer for a few seconds so that the mixture will have thickened slightly
9. Pour the mixture into your pastry base (remember to remove the vanilla pod halves at this point) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180°C
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting and store in the fridge