Fastest cake in the world

I felt a bit domestic goddess-like this morning - up and about very early and in the mood to fuss aeound in the kitchen. I was also starving by about 10am so I decided to rustle up some scones, one of the easiest cakes to make.

To start I rubbed 60g of slightly salted butter into 220g of self-raising flour. This is the messy bit where you need to take all the rings off your fingers and end up with something resembling breadcrumbs. Next mix in 50g of golden caster sugar and a handful (your hands or mine? Who cares?!) of sultanas. Then use a wooden spoon to mix in 150ml of semi-skimmed milk until it makes a soft but held-together dough. If it's too gooey to lift out of the bowl in one piece, add a sprinkling of flour.

Knead it very lightly for hardly any time at all on a floury surface, then roll it out to a thickness of about 2cm. I prefer square, rustic-looking scones so I used a bread knife to cut it into 8 pieces. I baked them on a non-stick tray for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees.

Of course, the real reason for making them is the joy of butter or spread sinking slowly into hot, crusty scones. And to use up the last of the Fortnum and Mason luxury cherry jam from Christmas!

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Not just snacks

It's tapas time again. Well, it was for me on Saturday. A friend and I cooked up a storm using recipes from The Book of Tapas.

This meaty tome, by family act Simone and Ines Ortega, is a bit of a tapas bible. It cuts straight into business-like and easy to follow recipes for everything under the lovely Spanish sun.

We made patatas bravas, potato salad with tuna, crab and tomato bites, asparagus and ham toasts, spicy chicken brochettes and some delicious stuffed potato skins. All within an hour and a half while avoiding an 18-month-old baby playing with cars underfoot!

It's a pretty expensive book and perhaps not as visually appealing as some cookbooks, but well worth it. If you like tapas. Which I do.

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