I’m not a fan of the thick clotted cream normally served with scones. Maybe I’m uncomfortable with so much unhealthy food in plain view, but I also simply don’t like the taste.

Not having made these before, I wanted to find a ‘definitive’ recipe but I was surprised at the variation between different sources.

In the end I settled on a version from Richard Bertinet’s reliable Dough book. It has an interesting twist, incorporating double cream into the scone itself. This suits me as they have a subtle creamy flavour and I can keep a batch in the freezer, defrosting one for breakfast whenever I like.

I was a little suspicious of the amount of baking powder in this recipe (40g for 600g flour) but thought it better to trust the author. Some of the scones did look as if they had risen a little enthusiastically, so I’d reduce the amount next time.

Strawberry jam is traditional here but I served them with raspberry jam – I thought the slight tartness of raspberries worked particularly well.

A minor problem threatened this week’s baking. I had wanted to make a Christmas cake but my oven broke, forcing me to change my plans. Luckily I also have a combination microwave with a convection oven, but it’s far too small to bake a cake in, so I switched to something else which I’d had been thinking of recently.

Eccles cakes are beautifully simple confections of flaky pastry filled with currants, sugar, butter, peel and nutmeg, named after the Lancashire town from where they originate.

I recently picked up my first Delia Smith cookbook. Her recipes have stood the test of time and have a reputation for reliability. However, on reading the recipe I was a little sceptical:

Put a teaspoon of the filling on to each round, then brush the edge of half the circle of pastry with water, and bring the other side up and seal it. Then bring the corners up to the centre, and pinch to seal well. Now turn your sealed pastry parcel over, so that the seam is underneath, then gently roll the whole thing to flatten it to about ¼ inch thick (½ cm),

It seemed to me that this would lead to a thick pastry base with only a thin covering on the top, and that’s how it worked out. I found it impossible to roll the cakes without currants becoming embedded in the top of the pastry, and the end result looked more like a Garibaldi biscuit.

I switched to a different technique, from a recipe by Fergus Henderson of St John restaurant.

Roll the pastry out to 8mm (¼in) thick and cut 12cm (5in) circles. Spoon a blob of filling into the centre, and pull up the sides to cover the filling. Seal with your fingers, then turn it over and slash the top three times

This worked much better, and the cakes were larger too – as they should be. A further issue I have with the Delia version is the inclusion of cinnamon, which gives them a Christmassy flavour. Not inappropriate for this time of year, but something as simple and traditional as an Eccles cake needs no improvement.

Lemon curd was in that category of foods that I’d tried once a long time ago and, for whatever reason, didn’t enjoy and never touched again. I gave it another chance recently, on a late-summer family holiday in the Algarve.

I quickly developed a taste for it, spread thickly on warm croissants for breakfast each morning. I was very pleased then to see this recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day.

The lemon curd gives a fresh, tangy flavour which is quite different to most ‘lemon flavoured’ commercial products available.

I’m tempted to make these again, perhaps larger this time – Starbucks style – with a dollop of lemon curd in the middle as a surprise.