Why not pass on share your favourite cake and biscuit recipes (keep your winning one to yourself obviously!)

 Jonny's "Mike's Carpets" Cake

The ingredients feature in the calendar, but the genius construction method can be found here!

"I baked chocolate sponge (using a recipe from a cookbook with an added packet of Morrison's orange flavoured drinking chocolate for good measure) in several different shaped containers to get a variety of blocks, left them to cool, went and had a look at the building to take some photos and think how I could recreate it using the shapes I had available.

I then carved up the blocks to suitable shapes (eating lots of offcuts *burp*), stuck them together using chocolate spread, made the icing from a recipe in the book, which turned out too runny so I had to leave the cake in the fridge for it to set, picked out a few details with matchmakers, made the signs and windows by colouring and sculpting ready-to-roll icing (the lettering on the signs was hand painted with a fine brush). That was pretty much it."

Freda Taylor's (the Mother of Armley Darling Barbara Taylor Bradford)

Alice's Cake

Barbara  has a new book coming out called Heirs Of Ravenscar, which will be in stores on October 10th - 15th. This is what she says;

"Here is a cake recipe that my mother Freda Taylor got from my Great friend Margorie Clarke some years ago. We all love the cake, which is called Alice's Cake. So here goes:"

• Four ounces margarine
• Eight ounces sugar
• Six ounces self-raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa
• 2 egg cups of boiling water
• 3 tablespoons of milk

Method: Cream margarine and sugar together. Beat in 2 eggs. Fold in the flour and cocoa. Add the boiling water and milk to the mix. Pour or spoon the mixture into a baking tin (cake tin) and bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven, gas mark 3.

Why not try and recreate this for the cake competition. Barbara Taylor Bradford will be in the UK later in the week to pick up her OBE from Buckingham Palace, we could try and get it to her!

Victoria Sponge Mix

• 6oz Self Raising Flour
• 6oz Caster Sugar
• 6oz Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence or Pod

Preheat oven to 190°C: 375°F: Gas 5.
Whisk together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the beaten eggs gradually with a little of the flour.
Fold in the remaining sieved flour and add the flavoring.
Divide equally between two 15cm (6 inch) sandwich tins.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Put some yummy stuff like jam and cream in the middle and eat it with friends and family.

Please email us your recipes and we will add them to our website for all to share and enjoy. Please include your:

• Name
• Age
• Email (secret not shared with anyone else)
• Name of Cake
• Ingredients
• Directions
• Any pictures to make people’s mouths water!