Welcome to
Cook Make Bake
Welcome and a big hello from me!
I'm Helen, a passionate home cook living in lovely Lancashire with my husband Fraser, Tessy the Lakeland Terrier and about 25 English white park cattle.
I'm so glad you're joining me to Cook some sumptuous dinners,
Bake mouth watering breads and cakes,
and Make everything from pretty pink lemonade to creamy hummus!
This is a real opportunity for me to share my successes in the kitchen, culinary tips, cheats and show you how to make extraordinary food look and feel effortless to prepare.
I enjoy taking the mystery out of seemingly impossible recipes, and giving you the confidence to try some new and old recipes. Soon you'll be cooking up a batch of crisp danish pastries, making a silky hollandaise and cooking the perfect steak!
One of my real joys is having a house crammed full of friends and family, sitting around the kitchen table with delicious food and the sound of laughter.
I love having the opportunity to let you into my pandoras box of foodie passions, and hope you enjoy trying some of my failsafe recipes.
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Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jun 27
- 2 min
Hummingbird cake
This cake really is as pretty and as delicious as it sounds! Moist with plenty of pineapple and banana, textured with coconut and pecan pieces, then speckled with flecks of raspberry. If all that isn't delicious enough its smothered in a zesty orange and cream cheese frosting. Ok, this isn't a classic hummingbird cake as it has the addition of raspberry and coconut, but in my opinion it really is all the better for it! You've probably guessed from the main flavours that this
45 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Apr 2
- 3 min
Overnight brown butter cinnamon rolls
Freshly baked cinnamon rolls just got super easy! Forget thinking you need to be up with the lark to enjoy these browned butter beauties. Simply prep the night before and enjoy the fluffiest most deliciously sweet rolls within an hour of rolling out of the sack. Here's How.......... Ingredients 500g strong white flour 7g (1 sachet) instant dried yeast 75g butter 2 eggs 100g soft brown sugar 220g milk (lukewarm) 1 cinnamon stick 1 tsp fine salt Filling ingredients 250g soft b
107 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Mar 20
- 3 min
Hot cross honey bunnies.
Who doesn't love a hot cross bun toasted and dripping in butter? These soft tender easter buns are enriched and glazed with honey and look as cute as a button with their little bunny ears, the kids are going to love them! This recipe (although therapeutically time consuming) is perfectly easy to follow so even novice bakers can give it a go. Follow my step by step recipe for perfect easter bunnies. Here's how......... Ingredients 500g strong white bread flour 300 ml lukewarm
27 views2 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Mar 4
- 3 min
Cherry Bourbon & brown sugar pie
The deep south flavours in this cheeky cherry pie are going to make your heart sing! Rich dark cherries brought together in a syrupy, boozy sauce of bourbon, brown sugar, honey and vanilla. All encased in a crisp semi-sweet pastry. Although this looks like quite technical pastry work, it really doesn't have to be. You can simply pop a pie top on and it's good to go. Feel free to use ready made pastry if you want the most instantly delicious pie known to man (I won't judge you
27 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Feb 23
- 2 min
Carrot, orange & rosemary Cake
This moist carrot cake is not only incredibly easy to make but tastes completely divine. I've added subtle hints of rosemary and orange to add an extra layer of grown up flavour. To make it extra special it's been topped with a fresh orange blossom cream cheese frosting and crisp candied carrot curls. Here's how... Ingredients 250g self raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 150g soft brown sugar 150ml sunflower oil 50g chopped walnuts 200g carrots grated coarsely 3 medium eggs ze
201 views1 comment
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Feb 20
- 2 min
Stuffed Baklava cookies
I adore the flavour of Baklava (filo pastry with pistachio & honey) but I'm not keen on the texture, to me filo should be super crunchy. I do however love cookies.....who does'nt? so i've pinched all the best bits from a classic baklava and crammed them into the softest cookies you can imagine, then drizzled with delicate orange glaze and sprinkled with chopped pistachios! Something tells me you're going to enjoy this one. Here's how......... Ingredients for the cookie dough
17 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 21
- 2 min
Giant apricot & ginger muffins
When making muffins, gloriously big really is best. These beauties, although huge are delicately light and fluffy, dotted with squidgy apricots and topped with a crunchy ginger crumb. Perfect with your breakfast coffee. Heres how....... The key to a giant muffin is to work quickly, there's active ingredients in here that you'll notice, once combined has a life of its own! Get organised by weighing out all your dry ingredients, and all your wet ingredients, prepare your muffin
31 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 15
- 2 min
Beginuary cookies!
These soft gooey cookies were born from a need to clear all the post Christmas goodies. Really its just a pretty fantastic basic cookie dough that produces soft chewy thick cookies. I added a few handfuls of chopped celebrations and chopped brazil nuts to purge the cupboards of naughtiness but you could add smarties, choc chips and any kind of fruit or nut you like.... Get imaginative! yields about 15 cookies. Here's how........ Ingredients 300g plain flour 1 tbsp cornflour 1
81 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 13
- 3 min
Indulgent dark chocolate and hazelnut praline tart.
Decadent, silky salted dark chocolate ganache with crunchy hazelnut praline and a sweet toasted Swiss meringue.....Sounds complex right? I'm going to show you how easy this little showstopper tart really is, and uses minimal ingredients! Makes approx 10 slices if you work in stages on this it really couldn't be simpler. the only bit to bake is the pastry case. If you prefer to use a shop bought one i'm not going to judge you! Ingredients for the pastry case. 170g plain flour
22 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 6
- 2 min
Marmite and cheddar tear & share bread
Are you a lover or a hater? These soft squishy rolls are entwined with tangy mature cheddar and rich sticky marmite. I'm not going to lie to you, this is a bit time intensive on the filling and rolling, but if you're looking for something delicious and would like to immerse yourself in dough then this is the recipe for you. here's how......... Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour
10g dried instant yeast
4g salt
Good glug of olive oil.
300ml lukewarm water
Filling
300g
33 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 2
- 1 min
Pear ginger & oat cake
visually this is amazing, one perfect sliver of sweet pear in every slice. Warm with fresh and ground ginger and just this side of healthy with almonds and oats. This is perfect with a cuppa but equally delicious served as a pudding, warm with custard or ice cream. Here's how.... Ingredients 100g self raising flour 100g ground almonds 40g rolled oats 100g caster sugar 100g dark muscavado sugar + extra for sprinkling 200g softened butter 100ml milk 3 large room temp eggs eggs
39 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Dec 2, 2020
- 2 min
Cranberry, pecan and clementine Babka
If you want to get your GBBO game on, then give this festive babka a go! It’s surprisingly easy to make and tastes of pure Christmas. Sweet enough to nibble on its own and not so sweet that you couldn’t enjoy with a hunk of salty cheese. Here's how.......... Ingredients 300g strong white flour 7g yeast 5g fine salt 30g sugar 70ml whole milk 2 eggs beaten 90g butter cubed and softened 5 tbsp cranberry sauce Good handful roughly chopped pecans Zest of 2 clementine’s 1 tsp mixed
53 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Sep 10, 2020
- 2 min
Autumnal apple and cinnamon traybake with salted caramel sauce.
This has to be the most autumnal pud I have made.. ever! Packed with slices of seasonal Bramleys, and warm with cinnamon, it takes no time at all to make and will feed an army! The salted caramel sauce is silky, buttery, creamy & sweet with just the right amount of sea salt to make it feel grown up, It’s the simplest thing to make too, with my failsafe recipe. Ingredients for the traybake 2 large Bramley apples, peeled cored and sliced. 400g butter 400g caster sugar 400g self
36 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Aug 16, 2020
- 1 min
Fluffy Focaccia
This is one of my favourite Italian breads, done right it’s fluffy, light and rich with olive oil. After you’ve tried this 15 minute to make easy peasy bread you’ll never buy a supermarket cardboard one again! Add olives, sunblush tomatoes, anchovies or just keep it simple with rosemary. Serves 8 Ingredients 500g strong white bread flour 4 tbsp olive oil 360ml tepid water 7g dry active yeast 7g fine table salt 1 Tsp sea salt 8 small sprigs rosemary Before you start please not
80 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jul 1, 2020
- 2 min
Glazed and cinnamon sugared doughnuts
Ok, I know these aren’t going to win any healthy food competitions, but they are definitely over the winning line in taste. Fluffy inside, crisp on the outside, warm and sweet. The question is, can you eat one without licking your lips? You’ll need a round cutter approx. 4 cm ( I have used the plastic tube that you get birthday candles in) you can use anything really. Ingredients 265g strong white bread flour 7g fast action yeast 15g caster sugar 100ml lukewarm whole milk 1g
12 views0 comments
Contact Helen
Thanks for your interest in cook make bake. For more information, feel free to get in touch and I will get back to you soon!
Lancaster, Lancashire.
