Marigolds - I've had a thing about them recently. No, thankfully it's not the return of the washing-up glove fetish - I'm talking about the flowers.

It started with a big bag of dried petals that I bought to shine a little summer sun into the gloom of my winter kitchen. Following the serving suggestions on the packet, I first tried adding them to fish dishes, pepping up a kedgeree with a scattering of this poor man's saffron.

This week, wracking my brain for a seasonal theme to my Radio Sheffield baking slot, I considered how we're probably in the most posy-filled time of the year - sandwiched between Valentine's and Mother's Days - and this thought somehow morphed into two recipes for floral biscuits. Well, I say 'biscuits', actually the Marigold melts are more like a cross between a biscuit and a flat cake - soft like a pancake (but appropriately seasonal too). My second recipe, for Rose-scented raspberry biscuits, makes use of another floral discovery - rose extract. More potent than your common-or-garden rosewater, this fragrant addition also includes geranium for a wonderfully rounded bouquet. Use it sparingly... or risk an attack of culinary hay fever.