This week brings another bread recipe from the Hairy Biker's book. The German Potato Bread was made using equal weights of mashed potato and bread flour, with salt, yeast and a small amount of sugar added. Some of the water the potatoes were boiled in was kept back and used in the mix.

The dough was quite sticky to work with since the flour was added a bit at a time until a reasonably firm dough was achieved. The resulting bread had a good soft texture and didn't taste potatoey.

The second recipe was a bit of an experiment. I had bought a tin of apricots with the intention of using them in another recipe but I never got around to making it and the tin had been in the cupboard for several months. I decided to have a go at a simple all in one cake where the ingredients just get dumped into a bowl, mixed then poured into a cake tin.

I chopped the apricots and added them, along with the syrup, to a mixing bowl. I added just under a cup of sugar, 1 medium egg and enough self-raising flour to make a reasonable looking cake batter (this turned out to be around 1 and a half cups).

This was poured into a greased and lined cake tin and baked for around 45 minutes at gas mark 4, until a skewer came out looking clean.

The cake is very moist and has a reasonable taste. It takes next to no time to prepare - it would be much faster if a tin of chopped or sliced fruit was used instead. You could also leave out the egg since I've seen some similar recipes which don't include one.

I did two new recipes this week. The first was a Norwegian Rye Bread from the Hairy Biker's book. Their recipe called for caraway seeds but I didn't have any of those. Instead I put some fennel seeds in the milk and strained them out when I added the milk to the flour.

The bread was good, with a nice texture and flavour.

The second recipe was from the River Cottage Cake book. It was described as a seasonal Fresh Fruit Cake. It was packed with fruit and nuts: I used apples, plums, dried apricots and sultanas, and grated coconut, and a mixture of ground almonds and chopped mixed nuts. Along with the flour and oats, it's probably close to being a nutritionally complete cake.

The photo doesn't really do it justice but the cake did come out looking a strange purple/brown colour. The texture was a bit like a soft flapjack instead of being like a traditional fruit cake. The mixture was enough to make 3 cakes - I kept one out to eat, put one in the freezer and one in the fridge. I think the texture improved on the one which had been in the fridge for a couple of days.

This week's recipe was based on a Lebanese sesame cake. It consists of a biscuit layer on the bottom with a cake layer above.

To make the biscuit layer, mix together 100g of honey, 100g of softened butter and 150g of wholemeal flour and press into a lined cake tin. Bake for 15 minutes at gas mark 4.

To make the upper cake layer, beat 2 eggs then add 50g of dessicated coconut, 50g of sesame seeds, 50g of brown sugar, some vanilla essence and seeds from a couple of cardamom pods. Add 100g of flour and mix to a paste. Spread this over the biscuit base and cook for another 15 minutes.

The biscuit base might work in a cheesecake but I was a bit disappointed by the overall flavour of the cake. It tasted a bit bland and could probably do with being a bit sweeter. A layer of sesame seeds sprinkled on top might also improve the taste.

We had lunch at Feast Junction, which is the re-branded and re-launched `Dragon Phoenix' near the ring road. We were last there back in 2006 and the place has been completely updated since then.

The food looked like fairly standard all you can eat buffet but the range was good and everything I tried was good. The food was split into several areas, with salad, soups, starters, mains and desserts. I had something from everywhere apart from the soups. The various different curries and oriental style meats were all good. I also liked the dahl and the paneer. The only real disappointments were: 1) the crispy seaweed wasn't very crispy, and 2) they had run out of ice cream cones in the dessert section, but the chocolate fountain was running so that probably made up for the shortage of cones.

This recipe is based on the samosa recipe from the Hairy Biker's pie book. The pastry was made according to their recipe:

• 250g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 9 tbs warm water

The egg yolk and oil were mixed with the flour and salt then the water was slowly added until the dough came together.

The filling was made up using leftover meat and vegetables from the fridge and freezer:

• some cooked stewing steak
• potato, parsnip and butternut squash
• an onion and some peas
• some beef stock

I fried the onion then added the other vegetables and stock and simmered for a few minutes before thickening the stock with cornflour and adding the beef.

To assemble the samosas, the dough was rolled out and a saucer was used to measure out circles. The circles were then cut in half and rolled into a cone. The mixture was spooned into the cone the egg white used to seal the edges.

The samosas were fried in a few centimetres of oil for about 5 minutes each side. I was impressed with how the pastry bubbled and puffed up like a 'real' bought samosa. The recipe was very successful, with the samosas both looking and tasting very good.

I do like cakes so I recently decided to look out for any shops or bakeries in Coventry selling nice looking cakes. A few weeks ago I noticed a cake stall on the market with a nice looking display of cupcakes so I decided to try a couple.

I started off with a chocolate orange cupcake and a red velvet one. The latter wasn't as red as some which I've had (probably down to the quality or intensity of the food colouring) but they were both good.

I was back today to try a couple of other cakes. This time I bought a viennese sandwich (filled with cream and half-coated with chocolate) and a carrot cake. Both of these were good too.

I've had quite a busy week baking, doing both breads and cakes. I started off with some olive bread, which I made since I had a large tub of olives which we bought cheap from the supermarket because they were going out of date.

I made a standard wholemeal loaf (50:50 wholemeal flour and plain bread flour), diced a handful of olives and kneaded them into the bread before proving.

The next recipe was Apple and Oatmeal muffins. These were based on a recipe from a River Cottage book.

Finally, a malt loaf. This was based on a recipe from the Paul Hollywood Bread tv series. When it came out of the oven, it didn't look quite right. It was paler than a bought malt loaf and I forgot to add the sultanas. It tasted right though and had the proper soft texture. I'll definitely try it again but next time I'll try to remember to add the fruit.

I regularly walk past some of the 'street food' stalls in the city centre and sometimes think about trying one of the sausages from the bratwurst stall but until this week I never actually got around to it. I decided to give the half metre bratwurst a go, complete with onions and german mustard. The sausage is so long, only the middle half fits on the bread.

It's pretty good value at £4.50 and the sausage is good quality and tasty. I did notice that they advertised chicken bratwurst on the side of the stall so I'll have to try those next time I'm passing.

I used to write about local eateries and review local restaurants fairly regularly but I haven't done that for a while. There are a few places in Coventry which I mean to try out in the next few weeks, including various shops, restaurants or take-aways. I won't promise that it'll be a weekly thing but I'll try not to leave it too long between reviews.

I'll get the ball rolling with my visit to Love Shake in the West Orchard shopping centre. They do a wide selection of milk shakes (made using chocolate bars), fruit smoothies (made using a mixture of juice and frozen fruit) and locally made ice cream. I chose The Immunizer which is a mixture of equal amounts of strawberry, kiwi and pineapple, topped up with apple juice. then liquidized.

The use of frozen fruit means the fruit keeps its vitamin content but also means you get an ice cold smoothie which you can't drink too quickly without freezing your throat. The fruit flavours come through well and you can taste them all within the mix.

I'll have to pop back to try their ice cream next.