I love this for dessert, or afternoon tea or morning tea or… well, you get the idea!  You can serve it hot with yummy caramel sauce or cold with lashings of butter and a cuppa.

What You Need:

• 250g pitted dates
• 1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 125g butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups self raising flour

Caramel Sauce

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 300ml thickened cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 60 butter

What You Need To Do:

First of all, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and grease a 22cm base cake tin.  Roughly chop the dates, sampling many as you go!, and put them into a bowl with the bicarb and pour over the boiling water.  Let this stand for 20 minutes or so.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla, using an electric mixer, until pale and creamy.  This is the part that the kids always want to dip their fingers in even though you tell them that it is just butter!  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  In a larger bowl, sift the flour and fold in the dates and the butter mix.  Mix well so it is all combined.

Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Making the caramel sauce is really easy!  Put all the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat and cook until the sugar dissolves and then let it boil.  Reduce the heat to medium low and let simmer for a couple of minutes.  Do not be tempted to taste it at this stage, even though it looks delectable, – cos its really hot!!  Let it sit for 5 minutes and then serve it with the cake and some whipped cream or icecream!

Here is a fantastic dish that is easy, but looks so good, and will impress your visitors!! Even my three year old requests this for dessert because she know I can whip it up in a short time, before she has to go to bed, so she can at least have – something special – as dessert is called in my place.

What You Need:

• 3 apples (I used Granny Smith because that is what was in the fruit bowl)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 200g castor sugar
• 30g unsalted butter,cubed
• 1 sheet puff pastry (ready made frozen)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons water

What You Need To Do:

Peel the apples so they still retain their nice rounded shape and then cut into quarters. Cut out the core carefully and trim the edges so the pieces are neat, and cut the core side so it sits flat on the bench. You don’t have to do this, but it gives the tart a more even finish and helps the apple to sit flat on the bottom of the pan. Toss the apple pieces in the lemon juice and half of the sugar. The lemon will stop them from going brown while you are making the rest.

Put the other 100g of sugar and the water into an oven proof frying pan over low heat to dissolve the sugar. Or if you don’t ( like me!) own any fancy cookware then just put it into an ordinary frying pan and we will deal with that bit later! Increase the heat slightly and cook the sugar for about five minutes or until it is turning a nice golden colour.

Put the apple pieces in the pan, cut side up, in a neat circular fashion, and dot the apple with the butter. Turn the heat down to low and cook for a further five minutes to cook the apple a bit. You don’t want it to be too soft before it goes into the oven. Take it off the heat and let it cool a little. Trust me, if you don’t have a fancy pan, and you like the fact that you have fingerprints, let the apples cool for a bit!

Cut a circle from the pastry that is a little bit bigger than the pan you are using. Lay the pastry over the apple and tuck any excess underneath, inside the pan. If you aren’t putting your frying pan in the oven, choose a small round baking tin and grease it with butter or cooking spray. Arrange the cooled apple pieces, cut side up, into the tin and pour over the golden caramel the apples were cooked in. Then place the pastry on top.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and flaky. The juice may overflow, so you might want to put a tray underneath! Remove from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes in the pan.

Now for the theatrical part! Like the pizza maker who throws the dough into the air or the magician who rips the tablecloth out from under a fully set table, place a plate on top of your pan and turn it over so the tart is apple side up on your plate! Voila! One perfectly caramel-ly, apple-ly, crispy, chewy something special! Serve hot with a generous dollop of cream or some extra creamy icecream.