Many of you will know that my daughter and her family moved to Seattle in May of this year. It’s been a tricky time for them: moving with a small child and a two month old baby is not easy, moving to a place where you know no one adds another layer of difficulty.

Six months on, and after some trying times things are looking up. I’m on my second visit and will be flying home with most of the family for Christmas in London. Before we leave though I was keen Jade showed me how to make friands.

Having worked full time in London Jade had had little time for adventurous cooking but once the baby, Gabriel , began sleeping better Jade embraced baking with a passion, friands being her speciality.

Friands are small cakes made with egg white and almonds I believe they are French in origin and can be very simply flavoured or have a variety of ingredient added. Jade has been experimenting with different recipes and is proving herself to be her mother’s daughter by inventing her own variations. She stared with lemon friands with raspberries moved on to baked pumpkin friands for Halloweeen and today we made spiced apple friands stuffed with mincemeat and some chocolate ones packed with chocolate chips and frosted with white chocolate ganache and peppermint snow.

I was impressed by how good tempered the mix is, no folding in ingredients, no worries if you need to bake the cakes sequentially. To make life easier I’ve used a carton of egg whites but if you are making egg nog this Christmas you’ll have plenty of leftover whites.

Spiced apple friands with mincemeat