Quite often my hair smells of spice, particularly if it gets wet in the rain. There are very few days when spices aren't used in our house. We've filled two double spice racks and are now balancing extra jars on top.

As I've been cooking a lot of Indian and Middle Eastern dishes lately, I've really enjoyed using some of the sweeter spices in savoury dishes - especially cinnamon, as it adds such a lovely softness against other spices.

When I saw this recipe by Shelina Permalloo in the Sainsbury's magazine I knew it would go down a storm in our house. Muscavado sugar is one of my most favourite things (and also makes it into a lot of my savoury dishes). The full-on spice balances it out and stops the cake feeling too sweet.

The original recipe uses the topping as a buttercream once the cake is cool but I prefer the method here which gives it a coating a bit like McVitie's Jamaican Ginger cake (yum).

Oh and I added the rum, though you can leave that out if you prefer. My husband said it needed more rum but he'd always say that!

Ingredients:

175ml whole milk
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75g dark muscavado sugar
75g softened unsalted butter
75g black treacle
100g golden syrup
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 medium egg lightly beaten

For the topping:
35g very soft unsalted butter
55g dark muscavado sugar
25g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp dark rum

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. Grease and line a 20cmx9cm loaf tin with baking paper.

3. Put the milk, butter, spices, sugar, treacle and syrup in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer, until all the sugar is dissolved.

4. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.

5. Pour the wet mixture onto the dry ingredients and stir well.

6. Add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly.

7. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 30mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

8. Put all the topping ingredients into a bowl and mix.

9. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the tin carefully and place on a cooling rack with some newspaper underneath (this can get messy!)

10. Use a cocktail stick to pierce 10-12 holes in the cake without going through the bottom.

11. Take spoonfuls of the topping and spread onto the cake while it's still hot. It will sink into the holes and form a thin crust on the cake. Use the spoon to make sure it covers the sides as well as the top.

12. Leave the cake to cool and the topping to set - if you can wait that long!

Recipe adapted from Shelina Permalloo for Sainsbury's Magazine.

I love vegetables.

When my mum reads that statement it will make her laugh out loud, as I've spent most of my life hating vegetables and avoiding them as much as possible.

And actually I still don't love all vegetables - stalky nobbly broccoli is clearly the devil's work. Nothing would convince me to eat smelly watery cucumber. However, if you roast me some sweet parsnips or nutty Jerusalem artichokes I'm a happy girl.

We now probably eat vegetarian meals at least three times a week, and what has made the difference has been finding amazing recipes which put vegetables at the centre of the dish and are packed with great flavours and textures.

I have a little bit of an obsession with Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's books Plenty and Jerusalem. Though not vegetarians they create fabulous vegetables dishes that can easily be made at home.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Jerusalem. I've added the peashoots/ walnuts and roasted the figs rather than served them fresh, but otherwise it's a great representation of the beautiful dishes in their books.

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ chilli flakes
20g caster sugar
40ml balsamic vinegar
4 fresh and ripe figs
125g soft goat’s cheese
Sea salt and black pepper
A few handfuls of peashoots
A handful of roughly chopped walnuts

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 240C/gas 9.

2. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthways and then cut each again similarly into three long wedges. Mix with the olive oil, the chilli flakes, a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper.

3. Cut a cross into the top of each fig, take a chunk of cheese and put it inside.

4. Spread the wedges out on a baking sheet, skin-side down, nestle the figs inbetween them and cook for about 25 minutes until soft but not mushy.

5. To make a balsamic reduction, place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 2–4 minutes, or until it thickens. Be sure to remove the pan from the heat when the vinegar is still runnier than honey; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

6. Stir in a drop of water before serving if it does become too thick to drizzle.

7. Put the peashoots in the bottom of each dish and sprinkle with the walnuts.

8. Arrange the sweet potatoes and figs on top.

9. Drizzle over the balsamic reduction and crumble over some extra cheese if you'd like it.

Recipe adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

My husband used to hate soup. He always found it too greasy, too salty, too thick ...

That is, until he started making it himself. Now he is a very fine soup maker and I often come home on a Thursday, after an evening in a freezing cold kitchen baking with the Swindon Young Carers, to a delicious freshly made soup and crusty bread.

So I usually leave the soup to him, but I wanted to have a go myself. I think it's worth the bit of extra time to roast the butternut squash and get that really sweet flavour. It's quite heavily spiced but without too much heat, so that the flavour of the squash still comes through.

I wanted this to be as well spiced as a curry would be, and if you wanted, you could leave out the stock, ditch the blending and simply stir through the chunks of roast squash at the end for a gorgeous veg curry.

Ingredients:

640g butternut squash

4 shallots
½ tsp garlic paste
2 tsp ginger paste
½ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp cinnamon
½ ground fenugreek

100g red lentil
500ml vegtable stock
400ml reduced fat coconut milk
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp brown sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp nigella seeds

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C/gas 3.

2. Cut the squash into large chunks and peel (or better still buy it pre-prepared).

3. In a bowl, drizzle the squash with a tbsp of oil and mix to make sure all the squash is coated. Spread out on a baking tray covered with grease proof paper and put in the oven for an hour and 15 mins.

4. Chop the shallots roughly and fry for a few minutes until they start to soften.

5. Add the garlic and ginger pastes and all the spices. Fry on a medium to high heat for a few minutes. Don't let the spices burn, if you think they might, add a few tbsp of warm water.

6. Add the lentils and stir into the spice and shallot mixture for minute.

7. Add the stock and coconut milk and stir thoroughly.

8. Add the tamarind paste, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

9. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a low heat. Allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.

10. Remove the squash from the oven and add to the pan.

11. Remove from the heat and use a stick blender to blend to a very smooth texture. If it seems a bit too thick, add some warm water.

12. Return the pan to the heat and warm through.

13. Serve topped with a tsp of nigella seeds to add some earthiness and some buttered naan.

If you love Twitter and you love baking then you must love @SundayBakeClub.

The other week the theme was cupcakes and all over the country flour, sugar, butter and eggs were turned into sweet delights and the evidence posted on Twitter.

Husband spent the afternoon in front of boy telly while I spent the afternoon creating these little beauties. There is almost nothing I love more than coconut. They give you just a hint of it, followed by a big kiss of lime curd. The recipe makes 12 but they're only at their best for about 3 days, so unfortunately you have to eat them fairly quickly (not a problem in our house).

Give them a go - or even better find out what the theme is this week and join the club!

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter, at room temp
225g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour, sifted
125g plain flour, sifted
120ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temp
1tsp vanilla extract

A jar of lime curd

110g unsalted butter, at room temp
A splash of semi-skimmed milk
500g icing sugar
Green food colouring
5 tbsp dessicated coconut

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the two flours. Put the milk into a jug and add the vanilla extract.

4. Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

5. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown. To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.

6. Remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool.

7. Once totally cool, make a small circle in the top of each cake with a small sharp knife. Lift the circle of sponge out and keep to one side.

8. Use a teaspoon to scoop out a bit deeper, then fill the hole with a teaspoon of lime curd. Replace the circle of sponge.

9. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, vanilla extract, 3 dessert spoons of lime curd and half the icing sugar until smooth.

10. Gradually add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until the buttercream is smooth and creamy. If it's too soft add a little more icing sugar, if it's too stiff add splashes of milk.

11. Add a few drops of the green colouring and beat. Keep adding drops until you get the colour you want. I went quite pastel but go full on Kermit if you like.

12. Dollop a dessert spoon of the buttercream into the middle of the cupcake.

13. Use the back of the spoon to swirl the icing out to the sides of the cake.

14. Sprinkle liberally with the coconut before the icing sets.

Recipe from The Primrose Bakery