A Very Easy Lemon and Sultana Cake

Just soak around 1lb of sultanas in a couple of spoonfuls of Brandy ( or any other booze!) along with the zest and juice of 2 lemons. Then turn on the oven to 160 C, line your tin-see below- and then make an all-in -one basic sponge mixture using 3 eggs, and their weight in self-raising flour along with the same weight of caster sugar and soft unsalted butter.( ie the usual 6:6:6 oz recipe for Victoria Sponge). Beat really well together in a mixer until pale and fluffy. Then add the sultanas and their liquid along with an extra couple of tablespoons of flour to mop up any liquid  and put into a suitable tin. I use a large loaf tin but anything will do. Essential to line the tin first with non-stick baking paper. Put in oven and cook for around 1 hour if in a shallow cake tin,around 1 1/2 hours if cooked in a deep loaf tin-or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. All ovens vary, so check progress after say 30 mins and adjust temperature if it is cooking too fast or to slow. If cooking in a deep loaf tin then reduce the temperature after 1 hour to 150C.  Cracks on top don’t matter. It will be gobbled up before anyone notices.<
DONT cut it until the NEXT DAY! as it is VERY crumbly when still warm, although just as delicious.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Roast Chicken

If you haven’t got a home reared chicken to hand, then I recommend a Free Range Norfolk Black chicken from Sainsbury’s, as they are the next best thing, and are the only chickens you can buy today , apart from my own, that can produce a really good jellied stock from the bones. And no, I am not getting any reward for advertising their produce!

All you have to do is shove a pricked lemon inside the main cavity, surround with peeled potatoes/carrots/root vegetables, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and then roast for about an hour, in a hot oven  around 220C ,in a covered roasting tin–I love the old-fashioned enamel tins that our mothers all had. Total prep time around 5 minutes, and no fuss.