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
- 3 days ago
- 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
17 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- 5 days ago
- 2 min
Salted peanut and banana bake
This is such a quick and easy bake, has the perfect balance of salty and sweet and makes brilliant use of those brown bananas languishing in the fruit bowl. I realise every man and his dog has had a go at banana bread / cake over lockdown... this one however is on another level! Here's how...... Ingredients 200g self raising flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter 80 mls whole milk 200g butter 200g dark brown soft sugar 3 large eggs 2 very
78 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
36 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
9 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Feb 5
- 2 min
Gluten free blood orange & rhubarb cake
This actually started life as simply a good gluten free orange and almond cake, but with the abundance of forced rhubarb in my kitchen it seemed like the opportune time to experiment... and I'm glad i did. With very few ingredients and literally no baking skill required you can create this wonderfully moist cake/torte. Here's how........ Ingredients 300g ground almonds 300g caster sugar 6 large eggs 200g chopped rhubarb 2 large blood oranges (regular navel oranges are fine to
10 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Feb 5
- 2 min
Rhubarb & pistachio frangipane tart
Yay! it's the season for forced rhubarb, the colour of this short season rhubarb is unbelievably intense and the flavour is... well, very 'rhubarby' indeed! Please don't feel that you have to recreate the intricate design on the top of this tart, I won't lie, it nearly broke me and i have patience in abundance. A simple lattice design will look equally as beautiful and impressive, after all the colour is the star of the show. I've teamed this with a layer of clementine marzip
10 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 28
- 4 min
Brown butter & star anise Madeleines
Madeleines are essentially little french teacakes, with a crisp shell and a light airy centre. I've tweaked a classic recipe with the addition of browned butter; giving them a rich but gentle nuttiness. A brown butter glaze, star anise and roasted hazelnuts places these beauties in another league entirely. These glorious high tea treats have long been associated with being tricky to make. This couldn't be further from the truth if you follow a few of my simple troubleshooting
11 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jan 24
- 2 min
Scottish Cranachan
This is Scotlands answer to Eton mess; I have to say, the Scotts give the English a run for their money on this one! It was originally a celebration of harvest, made following the raspberry harvest in June. This rich dessert of cream and fresh seasonal raspberries is made even better by Scottish oats and whisky. Here's how........ Ingredients for whiskey cream 300ml double cream 1 shot single malt whiskey 4 tbsp honey Raspberry layer 300g punnet Raspberries 1 tbsp caster suga
44 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
13 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
73 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
10 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
17 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
27 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Dec 30, 2020
- 2 min
Sticky toffee rum puddings.
comforting and indulgent, these dinky little puddings are soft and moist with a silky toffee sauce and a boozy kick of rum. They are super quick to bake and freeze brilliantly. recipe makes 8 darioles or 2 mini bundt tin trays here's how...... ingredients for the puds 220g stoned, finely chopped dates 40g chopped sultanas 4 tbsp dark rum 2 tsp vanilla essence 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda. 100ml boiling water 100g softened salted butter 140g muscavado sugar 2 tbsp dark treacle
23 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Dec 26, 2020
- 2 min
Lemon & Raspberry tart
If you're full to the brim with currants, spices and all things Christmas then this might just be the refreshing pud you've been craving. Crisp sweet pastry encasing a soft velvety but sharp lemon mousse-like cream with raspberry conserve, topped with pops of fresh raspberry. Here's how....... Pastry ingredients 170g plain flour 100g butter 1 egg yolk 40g caster sugar Filling ingredients 130g caster sugar 100ml lemon juice 160ml double cream 2 large eggs 4 egg yolks zest of 1
13 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
43 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Oct 2, 2020
- 2 min
Pumpkin sage and stilton bread
This beautiful plaited bread is autumn at its finest, with a glossy and slightly chewy amber crust, delicately flavoured with naturally sweet pumpkin, notes of earthy sage and strong salty veins of stilton running through its heart. You won’t be able to wait for this beauty to cool before tearing off a big chunk fresh from the oven. Here's how.......... Ingredients 450g pureed pumpkin (unsweetened tinned is fine) 500g strong white bread flour (i like to use doves farm) 2 tbsp
23 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
30 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Sep 9, 2020
- 4 min
Individual Beef Wellies and an easy red wine jus.
If you’re like me then making a full beef wellington can be a bit hit and miss, soggy bottom, over or undercooked…and a fillet of beef is an expensive mistake if you cock up! With this method you can have each diners steak as well done or as rare as you like with perfectly crisp pastry… it’s so easy. I've added a red wine jus recipe to the end of the recipe, it's delicious and freezes really well for the next time you make some wellies! Check out the link to see the video of
50 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Sep 8, 2020
- 2 min
Creamy chicken & tarragon crumble
Savoury crumble? Dare I say it…. Possibly more delicious than its fruity counterpart! Tender chicken, fresh baby leeks and juicy chestnut mushrooms in a silky tarragon sauce topped with a crunchy parmesan crumble. You’re going to love it! Serves 4 Here's how............ Ingredients for the filling 6 free range cooked chicken thighs 200g chestnut mushrooms sliced 200g baby leeks sliced 400ml whole milk 50g butter 3 tbsp plain flour 1 small bunch fresh tarragon roughly chopped
102 views0 comments
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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.
