Nonettes

Nonettes. No, me neither. If you, like I, have never heard of them, they’re delicate little honey flavoured  cakes with a marmalade filling from the Dijon area of France. I bought a wonderful cookbook called ‘A La Mère de Famille’ which features traditional recipes from the celebrated shop in Paris. So many of the recipes will provide some inspiration over the next few weeks, but this was the one I had to make first!

A little bit of oven magic takes place during the cooking here as the jam ‘sinks’ into the middle of the cake – some of mine were more successful at achieving this than others, but even being able to see the jam gives a very pretty effect. Naturally this is my adapted allergy-friendly version, and a chance to use my wonderful violet and rose jams for the filling, but any jam or marmalade would do. If you are a true vegan and avoid honey, then by all means use maple syrup instead.

Nonettes (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan – if use maple syrup)

makes about 18

• 275g plain flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 125g caster sugar
• 200ml oat milk
• 200g honey or maple syrup
• 75g dairy-free spread
• 200g jam
• 50g icing sugar
• 2 tbsps water

– Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Centigrade/Gas Mark 3

– Line a cupcake tray with paper liners

– Sift together the flour and baking powder. Then stir in the sugar.

– Warm the oat milk and honey in a saucepan and then pour onto the flour mix.

– Add the dairy-free spread and stir until the mixture is combined well.

– 2/3rds fill each cupcake case.

– Place 1 tsp on jam ontop of each filled case.

– Bake for about 15 minutes.

– Meanwhile combine the icing sugar and water to make a runny icing.

– Remove the cakes from the oven and brush with the icing. return to the oven for a couple of minutes.

– Cool on a wire rack.