My Favourite Scones

Fresh scones out the oven with a nice strong cup of tea, are one of the small joys in life. Served with jam and cream or even grated cheddar cheese, these are wonderful for tea time and one of my favourite recipes. Personally... I think these are the best!

Ingredients:
500ml (280g) flour
15ml baking powder
2ml salt
75ml (60g) castor sugar
65g margarine or butter
1 egg
125ml milk

Method:
Sift dry ingredients together then add sugar
Rub margarine into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients, forming a soft but not sticky dough
Turn out onto a floured surface and pat lightly. Place spoonfuls onto a greased baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 200ºC for 12-15minutes
Serve with jam and cream

*Makes about 8, depending on the size

Honey Cake

I love Honey Cake! We normally make it over Rosh Hashanah but to be honest that's a real shame as this is a delicious cake. The Honey Cake is a symbol of a "good and sweet year" in the Jewish religion so I suppose having this at my 30th bithday tea party can only bring good things for the year to come : )

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup honey (plus a little extra for good luck)
1 cup sugar
1 cup warm coffee
3 tablespoons margarine
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon allspice
Additional spices (optional)

Method:
Cream margarine and sugar
Add eggs then honey and continue to mix
Add sugar and mix again
Mix baking soda into coffee, then add to the mixture
Add remaining ingredients (optional cinnamon, ginger and ground cloves) and beat together well
Bake at 160ºC for about 70minutes
Sprinkle with icing sugar once cool

Biscuits for the Biscuit Maker

These have been some of my all time favourite biscuits to make. Yes, mainly I love using my cookie cutters that I have collected over the years, but also because these biscuits are delicious and bring back memorie of when I was small and used to bite the little petals off the flower biscuits my Granny Zelda used to make. These are delicious decorated with icing, maybe a smartie pressed into the centre or even some sugar sprinkled on top before baking.

Ingredients:
250g butter
125ml (100g) sugar
2 eggs
10ml vanilla essence
625ml (350g) flour
10ml baking powder
2ml salt

Method:
Cream butter and sugar together
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add essence
Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture. Mix well
Place dough in biscuit maker and press onto (or in my case roll out, then press out shapes with cookie cutters and place onto) a greasd baking tray
Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 10minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container

*Makes about 80