Ingredients
Cake
115 g unsalted butter, softened
115 g caster sugar
4 large free-range eggs
180 g ground almonds
30 g poppy seeds
zest and juice of 2 lemons
125 g self-raising flour, sifted

Lemon Syrup
100 g caster sugar
90 g lemon juice

Lemon Icing
225 g icing sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Preparation Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour.
3. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge.
4. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
5. Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.
6. To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the 'drizzle' effect! Give it a helping hand with aspoon if you want.

A challenge had been set, try and win the great Olive&Moss bake off!

I was the third person up to bring in my cake. The standard had already been exceptionally high so a bit of thought was needed to come up with a winning recipe.

The designers had gone first so up until now presentation had been excellent with decorations far above my limited capability, so I knew that I had to rely on great flavour if there was going to be any chance. I finally decided on a non-offensive carrot cake.

My favourite is actually from one of the coffee and sandwich chains, so I scoured everywhere to find the recipe. I was in luck; the chain in question had produced a book of their best recipes! The rest was easy, follow the guidelines and then pray that my mini oven could cope with the 1 hour baking time (it’s a little temperamental at the best of times...). The cake came out well, just needing the sides cutting off where they had become a little crispy and the confidence began to flow that I hadn’t disgraced myself. A lovely cream cheese frosting finished the cake off and now it was judgement day. Positive noises were made by the team, but I had heard that before and then the critiques usually followed…

Now it was just a matter of waiting for the final few people to go and then we would have the long anticipated results.

Martin.

Ingredients
Cake
2 eggs
200g brown sugar
150ml vegetable oil
200g plain flour
1½ tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
200g grated carrot
50g mixed chopped nuts
75g tinned pineapple
40g dessicated coconut

Icing
400g icing sugar
100g cream cheese
50g soft butter

Preparation Method
1. Preheat a cool oven: 150°C / 300°F / gas mark 2. Line a square 20cm baking tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Chop the pineapple into small pieces.
3. In a large bowl whisk the eggs, then add the sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy. Keep whisking while you steadily add the oil.
4. Fold in the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Next fold in the carrot, nuts, pineapple and coconut.
5. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. To make the icing, cut up the butter and then cream together with the cheese. Gradually add the icing sugar and beat in until there are no lumps. Chill in the fridge.
7. When the cake is ready, leave to cool for quarter of an hour then remove to a wire rack until completely cool. Now you smear the icing all over the top. Done!

This season the Design Team has lovingly embraced the theme of Farmyard. Peggy the Pig, Sheila the Sheep, Dotty and Dalilah, Poppy the Peacock and Boris the Border Collie are the new characters that you'll meet on the farm. Our new friends brighten styles throughout the collection with a bold splash of colour.

Here is a little preview of five of our new playsuits featuring our Farmyard friends. These can be viewed in the Playsuits catregories.

Here at Olive&Moss it is no secret that we love animals. In preparation for our new Spring/Summer 2013 collection the Design Team were busy researching new characters; the theme of Farmyard became apparent... Bold, bright, and full of positivity, Farmyard was perfect to kick start the Summer (especially after one of the bleakest winters ever!)

Our Design Assistant Jess, accompanied by our ever so adventurous Margot Mouse, set off for Mudchute Farm in East London for some inspiration. Margot was very excited to meet the Farm's residents...

"What an adventure we had!" she says. "The farm was full of life on this beautiful summer's day and I now can't wait for you to meet all of my new friends!"

Margot & Jess x

Hi I'm Steph, the newest member of the Olive&Moss team and what better way to make a good first impression than with a bake off. That was, if I could bake?

I was feeling a little apprehensive with the challenge so I began helping my mum around the kitchen in the evenings and watching the basics. I started to ask her for some ideas for my bake off, something simple with a minimal chance of burning myself to avoid past experience. Her caramel shortcake had always been the winner in our household and went down extremely well with everyone who had ever tried it. After seeing Jess smuggling some Thornton's caramel shortcake into her drawer one afternoon, I realised that it was to be the caramel shortcake that would win me respect in my new office.

The several practice runs that I carried out went down well with the family, and I was finally feeling confident in my choice of cake. The day came and I foolishly left it until the morning of the bake off to carve my slab of caramel into perfect pieces - aaaagh, complete and utter mess! With a little help from my dad, my bake off looked presentable and I was ready to go. The team seemed pretty impressed with what I had produced and the anxiety was thankfully over. Now it was time to taste what everybody else had in store and I couldn't wait!

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients
For the Shortbread
250g plain flour
75g caster sugar
175g butter
For the Caramel
100g butter
100g white sugar
1 can of condensed milk
For the Topping
200g Sainsbury's own milk chocolate

Preparation Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4
2. Lightly grease a baking tin of your choice.
3. Start by making the shortbread. Mix the flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingers until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
4. Pour the 'bread crumbs' into the baking tray evenly.
5. Bake for about 20 minute until very lightly browned and let it cool in the tin.
6. Next is the caramel. Put the butter, sugar and condensed milk into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
7. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously for 15-20 minutes until the mixture has thickened and turned to a light brown colour.
8. Pour the caramel mixture over the shortbread and leave to cool. (For a speedy cooling, leave in the fridge!)
9. Lastly the topping. Melt the chocolate slowly into a bowl over a pan of hot water. Pour over the cold caramel and leave to set.
10. Cut into squares.

Here at Olive&Moss we love a bit of team bonding, and what better way to do so than over a nice cup of tea and a tasty piece of cake. To spice things up a bit, we turned it into a competition and the great Olive&Moss 'Bake Off' was set! The rules were simple: every week we would take it in turns to present to the rest of the team a home made baked creation that would then be judged on originality, taste and presentation.

I was the first to start and being on the Design Team I knew expectations would be pretty high. I racked my brains for days trying to find something that would not only look impressive but would also taste great. Should I bake a Devil's Food Cake? A Pavlova? A Croque-en-Bouche tower? I was clearly getting carried away, so I changed strategy and opted for originality banking on something the others, hopefully, had never eaten before. That is when I chose to make Lavender Shortbread.

After a quick Internet search I found a satisfying recipe and with a reinforced desire to win I set off for Columbia Road Flower Market to purchase dried lavender flowers (and also nose around the vintage shops!) I started off buy mixing the lavender in with  caster sugar that I stored in my cupboard for several days. I then gathered the rest of my ingredients and got to work. Having no cooking utensils at home whatsoever I had to improvise a bit, but thought the results looked good. I made individual stacks and tied them up with a fabulous lavender ribbon I found in a local gift shop.

Feeling slightly nervous on the day, I decided that good presentation could only help and cheekily served up the shortbreads with tiny cups of Jasmine tea. After much "oohing and aahing" from the team, and Margot the Mouse, I had renewed confidence in my choice of recipe. I genuinely enjoyed taking part in this competition and couldn't wait to see (and taste) what the others would make!

Jess X

If you would like to try this recipe at home here is the one I followed:

Ingredients
125g lavender caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
225g unsalted butter, softened
300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g ground rice

Preparation Method
1. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
2. Sieve the sugar into a bowl and reserve the lavender (this stops the lavender seeds getting broken when creaming the butter and sugar). Add the butter and cream the sugar and butter together.
3. Sift the flour and ground rice into the mixture, add the reserved lavender seeds and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Using floured hands, work the mixture together to form a smooth paste.
5. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently until the dough is smooth. Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
6. Roll the dough out to a 5mm/¼in thickness, and cut out biscuits using a heart-shaped cutter. Place the hearts onto the baking trays, and sprinkle with a little extra lavender sugar.
7. Leave to chill for a further 30 minutes in the fridge.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/Gas 4.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Carefully place the biscuits onto a cooling rack., sprinkle with extra lavender sugar and set aside to cool completely.

Dear friends, as you may know I am Margot the Mouse from the infamous Margot and Mo duo. I also hold the prestigious title of the Olive&Moss top chef!  However, I have been in a bit of a rut over my cuisine lately as I’m at a loss for ideas and I think it’s time for some inspiration! What better place to go than the world’s food capital? Paris of course! With my Eurostar ticket in hand I hopped on the last train on Wednesday, ready for some adventure.

Keen to blend into the crowd, I asked Mrs Jane, my personal tailor, if she could make me a nice striped top and beret, so chic!  I could not possibly come to such a beautiful city without doing a bit of sightseeing…

There is so much to see! I even picked up some of the lingo…

What a shame Mo couldn’t come with me.

But what about the food?

And the cakes?

I definitely need to sample some of these!

What a wonderful trip! Paris is truly amazing and I am now full of ideas and new recipes… Watch out Rachel, maybe I should open my own “Little Paris Kitchen”! Time to go back to London but I will be visiting Paris again soon. Lots of love, Margot x