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Cherry and chocolate roulade

A cherry and chocolate roulade for Valentine’s Day

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Mr English isn’t the romantic type, so we’ve never really embraced the whole flowers and chocolates thing, although we do send a card to each other (not really the same when you’re pretty certain who your secret Valentine is). People tend to fall into two camps Valentines-wise, they either love it or hate it. I think that if there’s a day in the year when you’re reminded to tell someone how much you love them, then so much the better. And what better way to express your love than with cake?

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English Mum’s Big Christmas Bakeoff 2013

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Yeo Valley goodie bag

So once upon a time, back in… ooooh… 2010, I did this competition called The Great Cupcake Challenge. The entries were fab, and encouraged by this, the competition morphed into English Mum’s Big Bakeoff, (yes, before that one on the telly) and since then we’ve had various different ones, including the ‘baked with love’ bakeoff for Valentine’s Day, an Autumn bakeoff and even a fresh bread bakeoff. My fave, though, has always been the Christmas one.

So without further ado, I give you… The Big Christmas Bakeoff 2013!!

The Rules

As usual, there really are no rules, and since the ‘send English Mum a piece of your entry for testing’ rule was scrapped (dammit) these are the only ones that remain:

1. You actually must have baked something yourself (although see below re: sneaky rule breaking) - doesn’t need to have been specifically for the bakeoff though.

2. You must take a picture (there’s none of those dodgy ‘I baked it, but then I ate it’ excuses…). The picture MUST be of your baking and MUST be original (I do check them!).

3. Email it to me at english[dot]towers[at]gmail[dot]com, telling me what it is and who you are. Entries must be received by midnight on the closing date (see below).

The Cheaty Bit

Hey, it’s Christmas, and any bit of Christmassy cookery is basically fair game. And I do like a healthy bit of skulduggery amongst friends, so any entertaining reason why your entry should be considered will be looked upon favourably. For example, if your trifle is beautiful, but obviously not exactly baked, let me know. I’m a flexible type and I’ll probably allow it. No lying though.

Okay, a bit of lying then, but not too much…

The Social Media Bit

If you’re a blogger, please link back to this post, and if you’re on Facebook or a tweeter or Instagrammer, please use the hashtag #bigChristmasbakeoff - if you’re none of the above, then just ignore this bit completely.

The Exciting Bit!

Those lovely little pixies down on the farm at Yeo Valley have very kindly agreed to give the winner a copy of their brand new cookbook. The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook, plus a lovely cool bag full of delicious Yeo Valley goodies!

The Inspirationy Bit

Get that camera or phone out and snap a picture of your home made mince pies, your festive cupcakes or your Grandma’s old Christmas cake recipe. Or maybe you can have a go at my jaffa cake Christmas trees, or some cranberry and pistachio biscotti. Whatever floats your boat.

And don’t think you have so be some sort of uber super duper food stylist. The bakeoff is all about the fun.

The Judgy Bit

Entries will be displayed in one enormous blog post and accompanied by the usual descent into hysteria while I wrestle with pixels and uploading and all that other complicated stuff. Follow me on twitter (@englishmum) to witness the carnage as it happens.

The very lovely Catriona from the very popular Irish food blog Wholesome Ireland has very foolishly kindly agreed to be our judge this year. You can find her on Twitter @wholesomeIE if you want to attempt a bit of online judge tampering. The judge’s decision is final. No arguing. She’s an Irish mammy y’know, she’ll take none of that boldness.

So that’s it, then. You’ve got loads of time, plenty of inspiration, and some very ambiguous rules. Let’s get baking!

English Mum's Big Christmas Bakeoff!

The Small Printy Bit

This competition is open to everyone in the UK and Ireland. No age limit. The closing date will be Wednesday 18th December at midnight. There is no cash alternative to the prize. If you’re outside of the UK and want to enter, please feel free. If you win, I’ll mail you the cookbook but I’m afraid the yogurt won’t travel!

 

Cherry and basil yogurt… it’s the future (maybe)

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Cherry and basil home made yogurt

I’m quite confident in the kitchen and really happy making lots of things from scratch: pastry, cakes, pies, jams and more. But when Yeo Valley challenged me to make my own yogurt for their blog, I was slightly perturbed – I mean, the masters of organic yogurt production challenging little old me to play them at their own game?

First of all, I felt at a distinct disadvantage – I don’t have the beautiful herds of British Friesians (all Yeo Valley born and bred – they haven’t bought a cow for over 20 years), neither do I have acres of lush organic pasture or the sparkling little stainless steel factory in the Mendips of which Yeo Valley are so rightly proud. Still, they gave me a little pot of their own yogurt to get me going and, being a gung-ho sort of gal, I set to work.

Yogurt making (on a very small scale) is actually quite easy. In the Yeo Valley Cookbook (The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook – out now), Sarah Mayor describes the process step by step. It’s basically heating milk, mixing in bio yogurt and waiting, but everything must be scrupulously clean and you do really need a thermometer to get it right.

And then the fun really begins. We got to choose our flavourings from what we had in the fridge and cupboards: honey and cinnamon, cherry and banana, honey and almond, cherry and almond, and my own creation: cherry and basil yogurt (no, don’t laugh, really, it works).

By this time of course, we were very very full up, but it’s a fab thing to do at home (kids will love it, watching how the milk thickens is like magic) and you can carry on and strain the yogurt more to make it thicker, or add salt, herbs and all sorts of other things to make a lovely soft cream cheese too (more details are in the book). Plus, of course, once you’ve made it, you can repeat the process and make more – meaning that – in principal - you’d never have to buy yogurt again (except, of course, I’m addicted to Yeo Valley’s Lemon Curd yogurt so that would never happen).

Now if only I can sell my cherry and coriander yogurt idea to Yeo Valley…

Yeo Valley’s new cookbook and a rather fabulous souffléed egg and bacon tart

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Souffléed egg and bacon tart

Souffléed egg and bacon tart

I do love a new cookbook. My family would say I already own far too many (if they could speak, my many groaning bookshelves would possibly attest to this), but there’s something lovely about ripping open the cardboard to find someone’s much-loved and oft-cooked recipes, delightfully photographed and neatly bound for posterity, ready for sharing.

I always think this is especially true with a first time author like Sarah Mayor. I like to imagine that she, like me, has a huge file on a kitchen shelf, jammed with hand-written, sometimes sticky recipes (especially given her immaculately foodie heritage, being the daughter of the founders of Yeo Valley farming family; the Meads). I imagine what a thrill it must be to see that scrappy file transformed into a brand new, glossy cookery book.

The book is a wonderful testament to everything that Yeo Valley holds dear: local, organic, fresh and seasonal. As I flicked through, marking pages of recipes I’d like to try (I know, a terrible habit, but I’ve always done it): marmalade glazed gammon (poached in West Country cider), deep trout fish cake with lemon butter and chive sauce (you guessed it, there’s trout in Blagdon Lake, running alongside the farm), it became clear that this is not only a rather wonderful country cookbook, but an absolute celebration of how we should be living right now. Modern food at its best.

And right there, as the postie walked away from the house, I decided I had to have a go at one of the recipes: a puffy, golden souffléd egg and bacon tart: a proper British picnic staple.

And, oh, the tart: light as air, cheesy, dotted generously with bacon and with pastry crisp and snappy. We devoured it. Never mind that it was about three o’clock in the afternoon and I was idly wondering about saving it for tea, maybe serving with some little rosemary potatoes and a nice salad. No, we descended upon that poor tart and devoured it. I’m not proud, but there was actually some arguing over the last slice.

I’m thinking that this one might not make it far away from the kitchen. My groaning shelves will heave a sigh of relief.

The Great British Farmhouse Cookbook (Yeo Valley) by Sarah Mayor is out now, priced £20.00 RRP

A little nosey inside Yeo Valley HQ

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So yesterday we went down to lovely Blagdon for our Yeo Valley meeting. There are lots of exciting things afoot at YVHQ, many of which I can’t tell you about because I’d have to kill you as they’re very top secret, but I CAN tell you that we ate lots and lots of yogurt and that you’re going to adore all the fabulous new products that they’re bringing out. I’ve got some brilliant new things to share with you over 2013 and some amazing giveaways coming up too, so don’t feel too bad.

The really thrilling news from yesterday, though, was that the refurbishment of YVHQ is finished, and darned fine it’s looking too. Designed by Sarah Mead, who also designed their gorgeous tea rooms, the interiors are fun, quirky and quintessentially Yeo Valley. Here’s a sneaky peak:

Lemon drizzle cake for National Baking Week

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Let’s face it, baking is trendy at the moment. It’s not just the Great British Bakeoff that has prompted a resurgence in home baking either. I think it’s a return to local and seasonal food – an embracing of all things home-made – and I think there’s something quintessentially British about baking. I’m a long-term baking convert. To me, baking means home: cricket teas, making fairy cakes at Brownies, bringing those first (slightly grey) shortbread biscuits home from school and eating the marzipan off the Christmas cake. A home made cake is as good as a hug. You can’t beat walking in to a kitchen fuggy with the scent of vanilla and chocolate, and knowing you’ll soon be tucking into something deliciously sweet and soft, made just for you.

So what better way to celebrate National Baking Week than baking a delicious lemon drizzle cake. The natural yogurt in this recipe keeps the sponge really moist, and if you don’t fancy icing, substitute the icing sugar for granulated and dribble over your cake when it’s warm out of the oven. You’ll get a delicious, crisp topping. Serve warm with a dollop of Yeo Valley Greek Style Yeogurt with Lemon and Ginger for a fabulous dessert, or slice the whole cake lengthways and sandwich with a layer of lemony buttercream (add the zest and juice of ½ a lemon to buttercream made with 200g icing sugar and 100g butter) for a cake fit to grace any school fete cake stall!

Check out Yeo Valley’s recipe pages for lots of inspiration this week to celebrate all things bake and beautiful.

 

Frozen damson and plum yogurt terrine layered with vanilla plum sorbet

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One of the things I love about Yeo Valley is that they never stop being creative. New flavours and limited editions are always appearing, and their new Limited Edition Damson and Plum Yeogurt is a fine example of this - a lovely, and very British mix of gorgeous ripe plums and that tart little late-summer smasher, the damson.

The plum and damson flavour is delicious on its own, spooned over a fruit compote (use the plum recipe here) or made into an easy, frozen terrine. As you have to wait for each layer to freeze, it’s probably best to make this the day before you need it. Here’s how I did it:

You will need:

1 pot Yeo Valley Damson and Plum Yeogurt (450g)

100ml double cream

For the plum compote:

60g brown sugar

100ml water

250g ripe plums, halved and stoned

1 vanilla pod

First, line a medium loaf tin with cling film

Next, whip the cream and stir gently through the yogurt. Be gentle as it’s the air bubbles that keep the texture of the finished ‘ice cream’ light.

Pour half the yogurt mixture into the loaf tin, level off the top and freeze for a couple of hours. Pop the remaining half into the fridge for later.

Meanwhile, make the compote. Put the sugar and water into a saucepan over a low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the plums and vanilla pod, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer until the plums are tender – about ten minutes should do it. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Remove the plums from the syrup (fish out the vanilla pod but keep the syrup, it’s delicious drizzled over the finished terrine) and whizz the plums in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour over the first frozen layer and return to the freezer for another couple of hours.

Finally, spoon over the remaining half of the yogurt mixture and freeze for another couple of hours or overnight. Remove from the freezer about 20 minutes before serving.

Yeo Valley’s new Damson & Plum yogurt (450g) is available from all major retailers at MRRSP £1.49. For more information about Yeo Valley, product information and recipe ideas, please visit www.yeovalley.co.uk

*Limited edition – on pack offer*

For those thinking of starting their own mini fruit orchard, there’s a fabulous on-pack competition to instantly win one of 500 English fruit trees, with varieties including Conference pears, Victoria Plums and Discovery Apples. Simply pick up a limited edition Damson and Plum yogurt to be in with a chance of winning and keep these rare British fruits alive by starting a little bit of countryside in your own back garden!

Strawberry and sour cream fairycakes

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British summertime means strawberries, and for me, that means making the strawberry scented fairy cakes I remember baking with my Mum. If you’re surprised that this recipe contains sour (or ‘soured’) cream, you’ll soon realise that its fresh flavour is the perfect complement to sweet, summer strawberries. It also has the added benefit of making sponge cakes tender and light.

Lovely Yeo Valley have just added a soured cream to their range and gave me some to play with (check out the funky packaging) and it’s incredibly versatile. It’s fabulous for dips, sauces, baked potatoes and dolloping on a spicy chilli con carne, but it teams equally well with fruit: think hot apple pie with a mountain of cinnamon-laced, slightly tangy soured cream. It also whips quite well. You won’t get the volume of double cream, but the texture is lovely. After whipping, fold through a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar for an almost cheesecake-like flavour. Perfect with berries and crushed meringue for a different take on Eton Mess.

For the fairy cakes, you’ll need:

170g butter, softened

170g caster sugar

3 free range eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

200g self raising flour

100g strawberries, mashed

4 tbsp sour cream

For the glacé icing:

5 tbsp icing sugar

Warm water

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add in the vanilla and lightly mix with a fork. Add it to the butter and sugar mixture a little at a time, mixing well.

Stir in half the flour, then add in the mashed strawberries. Stir in the rest of the flour and finally the sour cream.

Bake at 180 degrees/gas 4 for 20 minutes until just golden. Allow to cool, then sift the icing sugar and add just enough water to make a thick paste.

Dribble onto the cakes and finish with a small strawberry.

You can also find this recipe on Yeo Valley’s website.

Win a fabulous KitchenAid blender from Yeo Valley!

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The lovely chaps at Yeo Valley are always coming up with nice ways to use their 100% yeoganic yogurts. Recently they’ve been dabbling in smoothies (ooer) and have come up with some fab yogurty recipes - perfect for breakfast times, especially if you’re in a hurry, trying to be a bit healthier, or even just not mad keen on eating breakfast.

There’s a delicious apple and cinnamon smoothie (apple pie in a glass!) and an elderflower and passion fruit smoothie, amongst others.

Such is the SHEER EXCITEMENT at the new smoothies down in the Yeo Valley, they’ve decided that they want everyone making them and have teamed up with the wondrous KitchenAid. From this weekend, you’ll be able to find a special code on promotional pots of Yeo Valley’s Natural and Fruited Big Pot Yeogurts which can be entered into Yeo Valley’s website or Facebook page. 1,000 (I know, right? 1000!) lucky people will win KitchenAid artisan blenders, and there are 10,000 gadget sets (they include a whisk, peeler, can-opener, ice cream scoop and spatula) too.

If you’re not one of the lucky ones, I’ve snaffled an extra blender away for you, my dearest reader. Just leave a comment. Any comment (tell me what smoothies you like… what you have for breakfast, hell, you can even tell me what colour drawers you have on… whatever takes your fancy) and one lucky person will be chosen at random to win the blender.

The small print: This competition ends on Monday 9th July. Winner will be chosen at random after this date and will receive one Empire Red KitchenAid blender. UK only. No cash alternative.

************THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED - WELL DONE TO ‘ANONOMUM’!!****************

Brunch: lazy weekend eating. It’s the new breakfast

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So when it comes to the weekend, breakfast has become a thing of the past, especially now we have teenagers in the house who don’t emerge until a) there’s a phone call inviting them somewhere exciting, or b) they smell bacon.

Brunch has become the new breakfast, and it’s a great opportunity for me to get baking (which also passes the time until everyone’s out of their respective pits).

What to cook, then?

Well, the aforementioned bacon happens to be a staple of our brunches. Free range and preferably streaky, it’s stuffed into crusty bread and piled onto teetering mounds of pancakes before being drenched in maple syrup. You can use any flavour yogurt for the pancakes, but if you’re planning on eating it with bacon, sometimes natural is best. If you’re going to eat the pancakes with fruit, then try Yeo Valley’s raspberry flavour. It goes deliciously with maple syrup for some reason. Dollop a bit more yogurt on the top too:

Yogurt Pancakes

2 eggs

150ml milk

150ml Yeo Valley yogurt

225g self raising flour

4 level tbsp caster sugar

So sieve the flour and stir in the sugar (f you’re using a sweetened yogurt, cut this down to 2 level tbsp). Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the eggs, yogurt and milk to make a thick batter.

Next, heat a heavy-based frying pan and lightly brush the surface with oil. Dollop a couple of tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, trying not to let them touch, then wait until you see bubbles on the surface before flipping them over. The first one will be a disaster, it always is, but after that you’ll get light, fluffy pancakes.

Might I add that these also make a lovely dessert, served with some boozy fruit and a big dollop of creamy Greek yogurt.

To serve your brunch, pile the table high with bowls of fruit and yogurt, piles of gorgeous pancakes, a big tray of sizzling bacon and some crusty bread. Some of Yeo Valley’s fruity favourite muffins would be an excellent addition here too.

And then it’s completely permissible to go back to bed for a little snooze. Or is that just me?

Growing your own in pots (plus you get to eat the yoghurt first)

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I’m not a green fingered girl. My gardening skills currently run to rushing to my Mum’s every so often (usually when the grass in my back garden reaches Serengeti dimensions) to borrow her mower. So when Yeo Valley challenged me to get creative in the garden, I was a little stumped. Still, I love a challenge, and a quick trip to the garden centre later saw me armed with multi-purpose compost, a selection of seeds and a can-do attitude. Here’s what I learned:

Growing seeds is easy

First things first, have a quick recce around your outside space. If you’ve got a balcony, then consider keeping it small with, say, a few pots of herbs and maybe some salad potatoes in a little tub. Salad leaves take up little room and you can grow peas purely for their shoots, which are lush in salads.

Grab any available containers (thank you Yeo Valley) and fill them with compost. Pop in your seeds (read the instructions) and remember to water the little chaps occasionally and you’re in with a good chance that things will grow. It’s that easy.

BUT feel free to cheat

Don’t fancy growing things from seed? Garden centres and markets are currently full of all sorts of seedlings. I picked up two heritage variety seedlings for just £1.00 each at my local market, and now the chances of frost are past, the stallholder assured me they’d be fine in the garden.

So how did I do?

As you can see from the pictures, I had terrific success with my sweet peas, which I’ve now transferred to a larger pot in the garden, complete with some canes, optimistically added for them to climb. My herbs are also thriving: I’ve got basil, coriander, thyme and mint all doing wondrously. For some reason, my salad potatoes didn’t chit (they’re supposed to grow shoots when left on a sunny windowsill – mine sulked and did nothing of the sort), but I’m not beaten that easily so I’m starting again with a fresh batch. I also now have a beautiful Nigella plant which will add lovely flowers and delicious scent to my little patio.

More inspiration

If you’d like to know more, why not try Laetitia Maklouf’s wonderful book, Sweet Peas for summer, which has all sorts of hints and tips for the novice gardener, or try and get down to one of Yeo Valley’s gardening lectures with gardening greats such as Bunny Guinness and Jekka McVicar. Find out more here

 

baking-header-english-mum

Testing… testing… substituting yogurt in recipes for Yeo Valley: yogurt scones and ice cream!

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l love cream. But with double cream containing 48% fat, it’s not exactly your healthy option. Fine for the occasional treat, but not for every day. So how can we still make all the lovely creamy recipes and sauces that we love whilst reducing some of the calories and producing a lighter, fresher end result?

Well, last time I was there, the Yeo Valley chaps set me a bit of a challenge: have a go at substituting yogurt in some of my favourite creamy recipes. And you know me, I’m always up for a challenge in the kitchen.

In baking, dressings and marinades you can add yogurt straight from the fridge. If you’re cooking with the lower fat yogurt varieties, you do run the risk, as with single cream, that they will ‘split’ (ie curdle) if you place them straight into a very hot environment. You can counter this by using the ‘standard’ versions rather than the low fat (still much lower fat then cream) and bringing the yogurt up to room temperature before you cook with it.

I used Yeo Valley’s Greek Style Natural Yogurt which has 9.5% fat (plus a nice long sell-by date) so it’s still got a nice creamy finish and isn’t too sharp-tasting. I’ve taken to keeping a couple of pots in the fridge as I use them at breakfast time, with fruit and muesli, as well as for cooking.

I had a go at cooking some of my favourite creamy recipes, substituting yoghurt instead. Here’s how I got on:

Spaghetti carbonara (or yoghetti carbonara - see what I did there?)

Snip a pack of smoked streaky bacon (outdoor reared, please) or pancetta into strips and fry in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until nice and crisp. Set pan aside on a low heat (you can do this while the spaghetti cooks).

Cook 300g spaghetti in plenty of boiling, salted water.

Meanwhile, mix a large tablespoon of Greek yoghurt with two eggs and a splash of milk, then stir in a big handful of grated Parmigiano or Pecorino.

When the spaghetti’s cooked, drain and dump it into the bacon. Pour over the yogurt mixture and toss to combine.

The verdict:

To be honest, once we’d added Parmesan, we could hardly taste the difference. Slightly sharper in flavour but still yummy. Fussy Death Wish Dude didn’t even notice and hoovered it down, and the Prof said that he’d ‘noticed something a bit different’ when I told him afterwards. Success.

We also tried:

Ice Cream: AMAZING success here. We actually liked the flavour of the ice cream better with the yogurt. Especially good with fruity and citrussy flavours and the bonus is here that you don’t need an ice cream machine. Try folding lemon curd through Greek yogurt and adding a grating of fresh ginger for extra zing, or just fold through your favourite fruit compote (Yeo Valley do some lovely flavours) before freezing. Take the ‘ice cream’ out of the freezer to soften up a little before serving.

As a dressing: I mixed the yogurt half and half with mayonnaise, added a squeeze of lemon and a handful of herbs and served it with smoked haddock fishcakes. Delicious.

Scones - totally yummy and the yogurt keeps them lovely and tender.

 

Yeo Em Gee! They’re ‘yeoganic’, don’t you know… A visit to Yeo Valley.

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So earlier this week I was up and about at some ungodly hour, puzzling as to where exactly the car park spaces were supposed to be under several inches of ice in a windswept train station car park.

Still, it got better, as when we got to Yeo Valley’s beautiful organic garden and tea rooms in Somerset, they’d got the log fire burning and tea and biccies laid out ready for us (home made chocolate and mint - very yummy indeed). The gardens look beautiful even in the winter:

 

As you might know, I work with Yeo Valley Organic as an advocate, (along with Laura, who nearly missed her connecting train and managed to catch it by an ungainly sprint across the platform, hurling people out of her path as she went). We work with them on new ideas, feeding back information from a consumer’s point of view, and basically loll around eating as much of their yogurt as possible. Yup, it’s a tough job.

This week, then, it was all about the new look. Most of us already know that Yeo Valley’s farmers are British organic family farms, (which are more sustainable than intensive mass dairy production) but they really want to get that message across. Let’s face it, they have SO much going for them: beautiful organically-run farms in gorgeous Somerset, the stunning organic gardens and tea rooms, amazingly committed staff and fantastic organic products too.

So in their quest to be ‘100% Yeoganic’ (which is obviously much more than just ‘organic’) they’re going back to their roots, with fab new flavours, lovely new packaging and a gorgeous new website to match. The yogurts have all had a ‘facelift’ too, with an amazing new.. erm… bacterium or something? (sorry, I was too busy eating yogurt during this bit) which is much creamier (without being ‘fattier’).

Here’s our tasting table. You’re jealous, right?

My particular favourite was this little beauty - a limited edition flavoured with blackcurrant and a fragrant hit of elderflower. Absolutely delicious:

There are also some brand new products, which we’re probably not supposed to tell you about, but hey, you know I’m an oversharer. Talking of oversharing, how about these new Top Notch yogurts, with a layer of fruity conserve on the bottom. The sticky fig and honey is TO DIE FOR:

And you can see the gorgeous new packaging for the milk and butter in the background there. Here’s a close-up:

and here’s all the new packs of pots and the cute new children’s products (including Yeo Tubes with some fabulous cow jokes). I think the smoothies are great for older children - they have bigger pots and more sophisticated flavours like peach and passion fruit, and mango and pineapple. You can take the outer carton off and inside you can cut out and build a 3D cow. I tried to bribe them into giving me one of the 3D cows, but they’re not out yet. Boo.

Stuff to look out for:

  • the new ‘Mild and Creamy Natural’ - a lovely creamy version of Yeo Valley’s natural yoghurt. I can see this being a great substitute to cream, dolloped on apple crumble and splodged on warm chocolate brownies… mmmmm.
  • new 0% fat yoghurts all thicker and creamier
  • Fab new recipes including even yummier strawberry and raspberry flavours, blueberry with a hint of lime, a scrummy rhubarb flavour and a very posh raspberry and passionfruit one too.
  • the Greek Style yogurts - so thick the spoon stands up in them (check out my fave: coconut)
  • there may even be (shhhhhhhh!) some really creamy rice pudding in the pipeline.

All this lovely new stuff will be appearing in the shops very soon. Last photo is probably my favourite pot of all. The classic strawberry. Whoever thought you could look at a pot of yogurt and think ‘wow, that’s pretty’, but it really is:

Thanks, as always, to the fabulous team at Yeo Valley, for endless tea, delicious grub, heowge amounts of yogurt, tons of laughs, and ‘Yeo Em Gee!’ those puns xx

Spiced apple yoghurt cake and waiting to see if I won the X Factor…

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So this weekend is the big X Factor final. As you know I work with Yeo Valley and I’ve really enjoyed their ads this year - their ‘boy band’, The Churned, has frankly been better than a lot of the actual acts!

If you missed it (or just love The Churned), the advert will be playing during the X Factor ad break this Saturday. And on Sunday, the winner of the Yeo Valley singalong competition is going to be announced (it better be me or there’ll be trouble) during the ad break too.

Anyhoo, aside from creating boy bands for the X Factor, Yeo Valley are actually quite good at making yogurt as well (who knew?). Their most recent creation, the rather lovely and very seasonal Spiced Apple, is utterly gorgeous. I used it to very good effect in this simple yoghurt cake. You don’t have to use a posh bundt tin like this, but I think you’ll agree it does look rather nice and Christmassy. It would also be rather lush with one of their other flavours - they’ve got a new pear and butterscotch one too. Mmmmmmm.

To make the cake, you’ll need:

3 eggs

125ml rapeseed oil

450g self raising flour

300g golden caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

250g Yeo Valley Spiced Apple yogurt

For the yogurt frosting:

4 tbsp Yeo Valley Spiced Apple yogurt

100g white chocolate

So to make the cake, just give the eggs a quick whisk. Add in the rapeseed oil and whisk again until combined. Then add in all the dry ingredients and finally stir in the yogurt.

If you’re using a bundt tin, make sure you give it a good spritz of cake release spray (Dr Oetker is very good) to make sure you can get it out afterwards. If you’re using a normal cake tin, just give the tin a quick rub with some oil.

Bake for around half an hour at gas 4/180 degrees.

To make the frosting, just melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, then just take it off the heat and mix in the yogurt. Pour all over the cake and stuff into face.