Honeycomb

1. Oil a 20cm square baking tin.

2. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a medium heavy-based pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Turn up the heat and boil rapidly, without stirring. If using a gas hob, make sure the flame doesn't lick up the sides of the pan, as the sugar will start to burn on the sides of the pan. If some sugar does ‘catch’ at any point, dip a pastry brush in some water and brush the sides of the pan to remove any sugar.

4. Keep an eye on it the whole time. If the mixture goes darker at one side of the mix, then gently swirl the pan to mix it all together. Keep boiling until the mixture goes a good golden ‘honeycomb’ colour – this will take about 5 minutes.

5. Add the bicarbonate of soda and stir it for a few seconds. Tip the honeycomb into the oiled baking tin and leave until cold and set. Then cut or break into pieces to serve.

For a naughty treat, dip the pieces in melted chocolate, or use small shards of honeycomb to stir into ice creams or decorate puddings. Or blitz to a dust and sprinkle over desserts.

Recipe courtesy of Lorraine Pascale, Baking Made Easy HarperCollins, 2012 (£20)