Golden syrup

A very British favourite, something that should always be available for sauces, puddings, butterscotch, sticky-toffee sauce, treacle puddings or spread thickly on home-made bread with a generous amount of butter.

If you find you always end up in a mess when using syrup for baking, Delia has a great technique for measuring it out with little mess.

'First weigh out the syrup into a small saucepan, it helps to place the opened tin in a pan of barely simmering water for 5 minutes to make it easier to pour. Then weigh a saucepan on the scales, and weigh the syrup into it.'