Elderflower Cordial

A lovely refreshing summer drink, quick and easy to make. Makes great gifts too!

Makes 1.5 litres.

30 elderflower heads

3 pints/1.7 litres of boiling water

900g caster sugar

50g citric acid

2 unwaxed lemons, sliced

2 unwaxed oranges, sliced

Rince the flowers. Pour boiling water over sugar in a large pan. Stir and leave to cool. Add citric acid, oranges and lemons and then flowers. Leave it a cool place for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain through muslin and store in sterilised bottles. Keeps for 3 months. Refrigerate once open.

Rhubarb upside down cake

This is an excellent cake... and a great way of using up rhubarb if you have a particularly prolific patch! I took a cake along to a cake sale at St Paul's Carnival and someone liked it so much they bought the whole thing!

About 4/5 sticks of rhubarb

a generous sprinkling of dark brown sugar

175g butter

175g caster sugar

175g self raising flour

3 eggs

vanilla essence

Heat oven to 160/170 degrees C. Line and greece a 7 inch cake tin. Chop up the rhubarb into short lengths (2 cms), lay in tin packed tightly (2 layers is fine) Sprinkle over the dark sugar. Cream the sugar and butter (softened) until soft and fluffy. Add 1 tbsp flour, then eggs one at a time. Add vanilla essence. Fold in rest of flour. Spoon on top of the rhubarb, smooth over leaving a small well in the middle. Bake for 45 mins. Allow to cool for 15 mins before removing from tin. Turn cake upside down onto serving plate. Cool slightly before serving with vanilla icecream.