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
- 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
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
8 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
12 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
72 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 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 30, 2020
- 2 min
10 minute Tiramisu
If you’re looking for a super quick thoroughly luxurious dessert you can whip up in 10 minutes, and impress the pants off your allocated 5 dinner guests then look no further. This knock spots of those shop bought synthetic tasting ones and takes just minutes to rustle up! All you need is a few good quality ingredients, no cooking involved! Ingredients 250g Mascarpone cheese 150ml double cream 400ml strong coffee (I like Tully Brothers) 8 tbsp amaretto liqueur 3 tbsp icing sug
14 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jul 27, 2020
- 2 min
Sesame snap Crème Brûlée
Silky smooth creamy sesame custard with a crisp sesame crunch topping. If you love those sweet little sesame wafers you’re going to be addicted to this pud! Contrary to popular misconception Crème brûlée is actually really easy to make, just takes a little patience stirring. A really great dinner party dessert that can be made in advance, simply add the crunchy topping when you’re ready to serve up. Makes 4 ramekins Ingredients 4 free range egg yolks. I use Clarence Court for
27 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jul 8, 2020
- 2 min
Leche Merengada
A traditional Spanish dessert, with origins from 18th century Madrid. This light as a feather treat is sometimes served as a type of ice cold milkshake often at the end of a Tapas repast. I prefer it as a frozen, ice-cream style dessert. With bold flavours of cinnamon and lemon and fluffy meringue gently folded through, it tastes like a decadent whipped sorbet. Don’t worry if you don’t have an ice cream machine, you can make it with or without! Here's how........ Ingredients
19 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jul 5, 2020
- 2 min
Gooseberry pavlova fool.
Gooseberries are in abundance, and certainly in my garden they’re ripe and ready for the picking. Tread with care, the thorns are unforgiving and plentiful. This is a great time to pick gooseberries, there’s a good mix of the hairy tart green alien looking berries and the rosy pink jewel-like sweet ones. For a good balance choose both; when simmered slowly with sugar the result is a delicate sweet pink hued, pulpy puree with a sharp, tangy flavour unlike any other. You could
7 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jul 2, 2020
- 2 min
Fluffy American pancakes with pecans and butterscotch sauce.
Super fluffy and light this is a breakfast or brunch to die for! With only a few store cupboard ingredients you can whip up these tasty treats in a matter of minutes. I love them with pecans and butterscotch sauce, I’m greedy like that! feel free to have them with fresh fruit and yoghurt or traditional streaky bacon and maple syrup. The pancake possibilities are endless! Here's how....... Ingredients for pancakes 250g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder Pinch salt 25g cast
51 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
8 views0 comments
Helencooksbakesmakes
- Jun 24, 2020
- 3 min
Italian lemon meringue tart
Short crisp almond pastry, sharp and sweet silky lemon filling and soft pillowy Italian meringue peaks. I’ve tweaked a classic and if I do say so myself the result is delicious… a sensory trip to the Amalfi coast! I like to try to get hold of Amalfi lemons. Really good artisanal shops or supermarkets sell them. Grown on cliff terraces on the Amalfi coast; they’re much bigger, more aromatic and the difference in flavour is quite startling from a common or garden lemon, and to
10 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.
