If you miss Mary's wisdom and inspiration in The Great British Bake Off, or want a brand-new companion to Mary Berry's Baking Bible, this is the cookbook for you with over 200 easy recipes to make with confidence. I've read through this book about 4 times since I got it on Friday - so 3 days ago. I took to it bed with me the first night, which resulted in some very strange dreams. :/ But I woke up and baked, so all good. Excellent cookbook from Queen Mary. Almost all the bakes in here are great. I have tried a couple of them and they have turned out well.

Loosen the edges, then set aside to cool in the tin. When cold, take out of the tin and leave to chill in the fridge. To make the filling and topping, measure the butter, honey, almond extract and icing sugar into a bowl and mix well until thoroughly blended. Measure the cream cheese and flour into another bowl and beat with an electric hand-held whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla, eggs, sugar and double cream, whisk again until well blended, then pour the mixture over the crumb base. Mary Berry is an English food writer and television presenter. After being encouraged in domestic science classes at school, she went to college to study catering. She then moved to France at the age of 21 to study at Le Cordon Bleu school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs.There are scones, buns and biscuits that you can whip up for tea, traybakes and fruit loaves perfect for a school or village fete and of course foolproof cakes for every occasion from everyday recipes such as a Honey and Almond Cake to Mary's First-Rate Chocolate Cake. If you miss Mary's wisdom and inspiration in The Great British Bake Off, or want a brand-new companion to Mary Berry's Baking Bible, this is the cookbook for you, with over 150 easy recipes to make with confidence.

Measure all the ingredients for the cake into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs and almond essence, adding a tablespoon of flour with the last amount of egg. Fold in the flour and baking powder and all the fruit. Heat the oven to 325F, 160C, gas mark 3 and grease and line with greased greaseproof paper a 7-inch (17.5cm) cake tin. Turn into the tin, smooth the top and bake in the oven for an hour and a half or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer pierced in the centre comes out clean.

The recipes are all well laid out, short instructions, no nonsense and easy to follow. She doesn't use complicated baking terms, so beginners and kids can have a go with ease. In addition to the easy tray bakes and family cakes there are some recipes to interest the seasoned baker such as battenberg cake, or my favorite brandy snaps that need to be rolled around a wooden spoon while still warm to achieve their tube-like form, ready for filling with cream! There are a lot of different flavors to choose from also. Melt the butter in a pan over a gentle heat. Take off the heat and add the biscuits. Mix together very well. Tip into the tin and press flat over the base using a spoon. I haven't actually managed to bake any cakes from this book so far but i have read it from cover to cover. I like how brief and un-fussy all the instructions are and how commonplace the ingredients are, meaning the recipes won't all have you rushing out to the shops to get ingredients you've never even heard of before like a lot of recipe books do.