CHOCOLATE SQUARES

you know where most of my recipes comes from - this one in mum's old handwritten book - is so badly stained and used it took me quite a while to decipher - but here it is - JUST FOR YOU!

4oz (125g) butter
1 small cup brown sugar
1 egg
vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup dried fruit (chopped dates, raisins or dried apricots)

Cream butter and sugar; add egg and vanilla, then dried fruit. Sift flour with baking powder and add to mixture. Cook in a Swiss Roll tin in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. When cold cover with chocolate butter icing.

Boiled (and moist) Fruit Loaf

Sometimes these old family recipes seem a bit old-fashioned when I check out the latest food magazines, TV shows or food blogs. They are however my old favourites, and the favourites I was brought up on and all come from mum's handwritten old recipe book, from recipes that were shared and passed on pieces of paper over the kitchen table, over the back fence, and sometimes in a letter ... how things have changed!

Put 1 cup water, 1 cup raisins, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and cool.

Add 1 cup self raising flour, pinch of each salt, ground nutmeg and allspice, with 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Mix. (The mixture will be rather runny).

Pour into a well greased loaf tin and cook in a moderate oven until the edges are coming away from the tin. Leave for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Varations: try mixed fruit, or dates instead of raisins - I'm going to add a little bit of dried apricots or dried figs in with the raisins next time ...