Seasonal recipe! 

1. preheat oven to 190c, gas 5. Grease a 25-30cm/ 10-12 inch tart tin with butter, then roll out pastry and use to line tin.

2. Cut off any excess pastry, prick the base with a folk, cover with a piece of greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans, then blind-bake the base in a pre-heated oven for 20-30 mins until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly, reduce the oven temperature to 180c gas 4.

3. Meanwhile bend the asparagus spears until they snap and throw away the woody ends. chop the purple sprouting broccoli. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, add broccoli and asparagus and blanch for 1 minute, then remove and drain.

4. Mix eggs cream and garlic together and season to taste. add asparagus and broccoli to the pastry base, add the chopped tomatoes chopped side up, scatter over the basil, then pour over the egg mixture on top.

5. bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Or until the filling has set. sprinkle on the cheese, and leave to cool before serving.

Mothers day bake!

150g/5½oz margarine

150g/5½oz caster sugar

100g/3½oz self-raising flour

3 free-range eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp baking powder

60g/2¼oz ground almonds

1 tbsp milk

90g/3¼oz raspberry jam

 For the icing

250g/9oz icing sugar

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

12 un-dyed glacé cherries

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

2. For the cupcakes, cream the margarine in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients, except the raspberry jam, and mix until well combined.

3. Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

4. For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl until smooth.

5. Using an apple corer, carefully remove the middle of the cupcakes. Fill the holes with the raspberry jam.

6. Carefully spoon the icing onto the top of each cake until the icing reaches the sides of the cake case and top with a cherry.

Gift idea, Mothers Day Recipe: Hot Cross Buns

1. Put the flour into a large bowl. Add salt and sugar to one side of the bowl and yeast to the other. Add the butter, eggs, milk and half the water and turn the mixture around with your fingers. Continue to add the water, little at a time, until you’ve picked up all the flour from the sides of the bowl. You may not need to add all the water, or you may need a little more, you need to get a soft dough.

2. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and begin to knead. Keep kneading for 5-10 minutes. Work through the initial wet stage until the dough starts to form a smooth soft skin.

3. Put the dough into a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until at least doubled in size. at least one hour, but its fine to leave for 2-3

4.Tips the dough onto a lightly floured surface and scatter the sultanas, mixed peel, orange zest, apple and cinnamon on top. Knead in until evenly incorporated. Cover and leave to rise for a further hour.

5.fold the dough inwards repeatedly until all the air is knocked out. Divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Place, fairly close together, on 1 or 2 baking trays lined with baking parchment.

6. Put each tray inside a clean plastic bag and leave for 1 hour to rise, meanwhile heat oven to 220c gas 7.

7. For the crosses, mix the flour and water to a paste. Using a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle, pipe crosses on the buns. Bake for 20mins, until golden brown. Warm the apricot jam with a splash of water, sieve and brush over the tops of warm buns to glaze and then cool on a wire rack.

Blood orange Curd Tart

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

200g Golden Caster Sugar

1 Vanilla Pod, Split Seeds Scraped

Juice and zest 3 blood oranges, and 1 lemon and lime, plus the zest of one orange

5 eggs

250g Butter unsalted

icing sugar

creme fraiche and orange zest to serve

vin santo (optional) 

For the pasty:

100g icing sugar

250g plain flour

125g cold unsalted butter 

zest of one orange

1 eggs

splash of milk

1 to make the pastry. Mix the icing sugar and flour in a food processor, then add the butter cubes and pulse untill it resembles breadcrumbs. Add th Oragne Zest and egg and pulse again until the dough comes together- if it looks a bit dry, add a splash of milk until it does.

2 with your hands, form the dough into a smoth ball (don’t work the pastry too much), wrap with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

3 On a floured surface, roll out the pastry to 4mm thick, then use it to line a 25cm loose-bottomed fluted tart tim (no need to grease). Ease it into the sides and trim off any excess, then freeze it of 30mins. Preheat the oven to 180c/gas 4.

4 take the tart case out of the freezer, line it with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or rice. Bale for 15mins, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10-15 mins, or untill golden and cooked. Set aside to cool.

5 Meanwhile, place a heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat and add the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and citrus juice and zest. Whisk in the whole eggs and cook gently for about 5mins, stirring considerably. have patience, this will take a while to happen. It the curd starts to look lumpy, remove it from the heat and whisk vigorously, the return it to a low heat, stiring constantly until it recovers.

7 Remove the pan from the heat, take out the vanilla pod and set aside to cool slightly. stirring once or twice untill nice and smooth. While its warm, pour the curd into the tart case. Shake the tin to even out the filling, then leave in a cool placefor about an hour, or until set. If your kitchen is very warm, chill in the fridge for 30mins to speed up the process.

8 Once it has set, remove the tart from its tin and serve with zesty creme fraiche or cream and a drizzle of vin santo dessert wine.

Illustrations by Rebecca Pomroy rebeccapomroy.co.uk

Recipe from Jamie Oliver Magazine