We had our Christmas Day early as we’ll be working on the actual day. Here are some of my presents:

I used the mezzaluna and board to chop up sage to add to the gravy I made to go with our sausage and mash tonight. The gravy turned out very well. I sliced 2 shallots and fried them very slowly in olive oil. Towards the end I added 2 chopped cloves of garlic and continued the slow frying. When the garlic had just browned I drained off excess oil and added some plain flour, probably 3 heaped teaspoons in total. (Delia says not to use corn flour to thicken gravy as the gravy ends up with the wrong texture and I must say I agree.) Once the flour was fried, little by little I added a 500ml bag of Waitrose beef stock and boiled it all gently until the gravy was reduced by about half. There was no need to add salt. The result was a meaty, garlicky (but not too greasy or gelatinous) rich gravy.

I made these using a recipe from my Primrose Bakery book. They were a bit dry and not light. Also, I took them out of the oven when they were still ever so slightly undercooked. They’d cooled by the time I realised and put them back in the oven and when I took them out that second time, the tops of the cakes had browned more but the insides hadn’t cooked anymore. The lemon buttercream was very sweet, too sweet in fact.

I think one of the things I did wrong with this was not to beat it much by hand and try to do the majority of the mixing in the food processor (blade attachment). Also I usually put an extra half or one tsp baking powder to give more lift but this time I forgot.

The next time I fancy a lemony cake I’ll make the Nigel Slater lemon and thyme cake!