Bakes! How have I not, as a mummy, as someone who always wants to feed folk cake, as a busy but scatty, very modern mim, NOT discovered tray bakes before?
They are fabulous, make loads of yummy cake, take no time and can be turned into absolutely anything that takes your fancy (satisfying the creative side too....with minimal fuss!)
Sooooooooooooooo here it is!Take one throw away roasting tray!
Take a basic recipe for sponge cake (this makes enough mix for a 23x30x3cm roasting tray....half/ double for your size of tray).225g/8oz soft margarine
225g/8oz caster sugar
275g/10oz self-raising flour
2tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
And then the fun can begin! What do you want your tray bake to be? Choc chip? Throw some in. Lemon? Add some zest! When cooked, stab lots of little holes in and squeeze lemon juice over, followed by a generous scattering of caster sugar. Chocolate? Add cocoa! When serving drizzle with warm chocolate fudge sauce! Fruit? Scatter apple slices, blackberries or blueberries, or plums, or strawberries......or yum, raspberries and chunks of white chocolate! Boozy or not! The options are endless! This is very freeing cooking!
FUN TIP
When you want to test if your cake is ready and like me you have no cocktail sticks or skewers, you can take a piece of humble spaghetti and insert this into the centre of the cake. Leave for five seconds, if when you pull the spaghetti out it is clean, with no sticky cake on it, your cake is ready!And this is what I did with mine!
I sliced my tray bake up,
slathered on some August Bramble Jam
and Vanilla Buttercream
and dredged (I love that word!) with icing sugar!
I think I broke every village WI rule regarding 'proper' Victoria Sandwich! But my, it was tasty with a good mug of hot tea
and some knitting!
