This beautiful grain and nut cake is a true favourite of mine and I hereby give you permission to eat cake whenever you want. So simple to make yet so unusual in flavour, this two-fruit cake is based on buckwheat and almonds, while bay leaf adds a subtle herbaceous fragrance. The cake is gluten-free, so long as the baking powder used is gluten-free too. Served with tea, it’s a nourishing, sustaining feel-good cake.

Not too sweet, and with wholesome almonds, this moist cake makes the most of seasonal plums. There are two plummy elements: a simple plum syrup (stirred through the batter and drizzled on top), plus the plum-studded cake itself.

Eggnog is a classic Christmas drink made with a custard base. Naturally, chocolate queen Kirsten Tibballs’ recipe has a chocolate element to make it even more delicious. Kirsten uses white chocolate to flavour and thicken the base, plus milk chocolate to line the rim of the glass. I love eggnog with hazelnutty Frangelico but you don’t have to add the booze at all. See the Tips for brunch ideas with leftover eggnog.

Kirsten Tibballs' spectacular and delicious Christmas shortbread stack is filled with cinnamon ganache and decorated with nuts and dried fruit - Yule love it! I'm also sharing Kirsten's tips for a fabulous Christmas.

I am all about the picnic right now and these are my cake of choice. Friands are small, delicate oval-shaped cakes made with a batter based on almond and egg white. My rustic version starts with natural almonds, rather than traditional blanched almonds or snowy white almond meal. I am enjoying the last of the pears at the moment so I’ve used them, but classic friand additions include raspberries and blueberries so feel free to use those instead.

As soon as I ate this cheesecake in the Spanish Basque country, I knew my mission: get the recipe! Now that I've done so, my life is pretty much complete. Witness my bliss and create your own...

This Heleh Goh recipe is from her book, Sweet, co-authored with Yotam Ottolenghi. The addition of banana brings moisture and subtle flavour - it's a winner! As Helen says, “The secret is to slightly under-bake the cookies, which keeps them soft and fudgy.” These are eat-them-up cookies, not put them in the biscuit tin cookies. You definitely have Helen’s permission to eat them all on the day they’re baked!

I tasted a peanut butter miso cookie at Falco Bakery in Smith Street, Collingwood, and instantly knew I needed to recreate the recipe at home. I absolutely love the sticky chewiness of the peanut butter underlaid with the salty funkiness of the miso. The flavours are as round as the biscuit!

Christy Tania's fluffy, floaty cherry semifreddo is an easy no churn iced confection. It's part one of an amazing two-part dessert that finishes up with her wickedly wonderful Choc Top.