Makes 24.
20 mins prep. time
37 mins cooking time180°C (350°F)/Gas Mark 4

What you need:

• 140g ground almonds
• 115g butter (unsalted)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 140g plain flour
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar

Beat the butter and the sugar together until the mixture is creamy.  Add the almonds, vanilla essence and flour.  Mix the mixture into a dough.

Roll the dough into balls of a desired size - I like bite size - and place them on a baking tray which has been covered in grease-proof paper.  Put the balls in the oven for 35 minutes.

Once you've taken them out of the oven, sprinkle them with icing sugar and place in the oven for another 2 minutes.

Allow to cool and eat away!

Overnight prep.time

What you need:
Yoghurts (child size)
Lolly-sticks

I must admit that I couldn't resist eating mine before remembering to take a picture.

Most simple, delicious things you will ever make!  Poke your lolly-stick through the yoghurt lid.  Shove yoghurts into the freezer.  Take them out the next day and run them under the tape before removing the lid to loosen them up a little.  Slide them out of the yoghurt pot and you have a scrummy ice lolly!

1 min prep time
2 mins cooking time

What you need:
Pepperoni

A microwave recipe!

On your microwave tray place a fair number of kitchen roll sheets.  This is going to absorb the grease and oils.

On top of the microwaves sheets place your pepperoni slice so they are no overlapping.  Heat up the pepperoni for 60 seconds.  If the slices in the middle are not crisp heat up for another 15 seconds and continue until all slices are crisp.

Ta-da, pepperoni crisps.  Some people like these with a sprinkle of salt - give it a go!

What you need:

• watermelon
• lime
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 water
• ice
• lemonade

First you need to make the syrup.  To do this boil the water and the sugar.  Once it comes to the boil take off the heat and leave to cool.

Makes 20
30 mins prep. time
15 mins cooking time
180°C (350°F)/Gas Mark 4


What you need:

• 150g plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups milk
• strawberry jam
• icing sugar

Mix together the flour, salt and ground almonds.

Beat the butter until soft and then add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and milk.  Fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

On a floured surface, knead the dough and then roll out the desired thickness of biscuit.  Using a biscuit cutter shape of your choice (I chose a star), cut out your biscuits.  With the waste dough roll out again and cut, continue until there is no dough left.

Place the uncooked biscuits on a greased baking tray.  Prick each biscuit.  Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

Leave to stand for a few minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

When cold, sandwich the biscuits together in pair with strawberry jam (or your preference of jam) - I conveniently had an odd number of biscuits, so I HAD to eat the remaining one....opps.  Dredge each biscuit with icing sugar.

Makes 10
20 mins prep. time

What you need:

• 50g butter
• 400g condensed milk
• 200g plain dark chocolate (broken)
• 125g rich tea biscuits
• 100g pistachio nuts

Use a little of the butter to grease the inside of a round tin (I used a 20cm (8 inch) tin).  Put the rest of the butter in a saucepan with the condensed milk and chocolate.  Heat gently, stirring until melted, then remove from the heat.

Makes 12
12 mins prep. time
20-25 mins cooking time
160°C (325°F)/Gas Mark 3

What you need:

• 150g plain flour
• 25g cornflour
• 125g butter (diced)
• 50g caster sugar
• 75g milk chocolate (shopped)
• a little ground cinnamon

Put the plain flour and cornflour in a mixing bowl.  Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixtures looks like breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar and chocolate.  Squeeze the crumbs together in your hands to form a ball.

Press the mixture into an ungreased shallow cake tin (I used an 18cm (7 inch) tin).  Prick the top with a fork.  Mix the cinnamon and a little sugar together and sprinkle on top.  Bake in a preheated oven, 160°C (325°F)/Gas Mark 3, for 20-25 minutes until pale golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  Cut the shortbread into bars and store in an airtight tin for up to 5 days.