I was given this tip, back in the mid 1980's when I used to visit a shop called Bruccianis, in good old Barrow-in-Furness, who made the best sandwiches in the world!

Prawns on their own are dry, don't taste of much, etc. Instead of wasting your money on 1000 island dressing and the like, try this:

Take 2 parts salad cream, mix it with 1 part tomato sauce (I use heinz out of a glass bottle as the "squeezy" bottle is normally alot thinner than the glass bottle stuff) mix well together, spread on one side of a muffin/teacake/bap, add prawns, add a lettuce leaf and maybe some cucumber, then scoff before someone else can eat it.

I've spent the day battling with the age old problem of my victoria sponges not rising.

Using the correct ingredients, I have now tried to make the sponge with a hand whisk and metal spoon, a food processor, an electric whisk and a combination of all of them, mixing butter and sugar with food processor then folding in flour and eggs with a spoon.

I have tried the oven on gas mark 4, 5, 6 and 7, at the centre of the oven (always recommended for baking cakes) and at the top of the oven

I have tried 7 inch and 10 inch baking tins.

All have had the exact same results, the mixture is cooking but not rising.
Any ideas where I am going wrong with my victoria sponge would be most welcome. Thanks.

I am having real trouble finding any useage for a deep fat fryer we were given as a gift.
I have tried chips, regardless of temperature, they are done on the outside but raw in the middle.
Tonight I tried doughnuts, which cooked in 6 minutes, but held in all the new vegetable oil. The end result was doey in the centre but crunchy on the outside. Again I tried all temperature settings and shortened and lengthened the cooking times between 4 minutes and 8 minutes.

If anyone can suggest a use for our deep fat fryer I will try it, I think I am going to have to give up on this and find it a new home (for free of course) which is a shame, as many people use them and say they are great to have around the kitchen?

I have been looking out for some weighing scales, for a long time now. I have had some digital weighing scales that were ok I suppose, they took any size of container, but kept switching themselves off, leaving me with the job of keep setting them back to pounds and ounces each time I turned them back on.

Passing a shop in a local indoor market, that sells old style items, I spotted these traditional weighing scales and nipped in to ask how much they were.

I haggled the price of £12 down to just £8, along with some advice about a German brand of old camera that is particularly hard to get hold of and second hand ones were normally bought for spares, for a higher price, one of which she had in a basket outside her shop!

All I need to do now, is to use my traditional weighing scales and increase my knowledge of baking.

Tiffin - means a light meal or snack - it comes from the old Empire British India.

Things you will need:

• 8oz cooking chocolate - milk or dark or both
• 8oz of plain biscuits
• 4oz butter
• 2tbls sugar
• 4tsp cocoa
• 2tbls golden syrup

Now your instructions:
First, melt your butter in a pan (careful not to burn it) - add in and mix your sugar, cocoa and syrup.
Next, crush up your plain biscuits, it can be digestives, rich tea, etc, any kind you want, then add these to your mixture.
Remove your stodgy mix from your pan and place in a suitable cooking tin (I use an oblong loaf tin) - flatten it down.
Now take your chocolate and place it in a mixing bowl, placing the bowl over the top of a pan of boiling/simmering water (make sure the bowl is larger than the diameter of the pan!) and melt it.
Pour the melted chocolate over the top of your mixture, leave it to set.
When set, cut into whatever size you want.... then scoff!

Hey presto... chocolate tiffin!
For something different, try adding fruit or cinnamon