I can't remember the last time I did some baking. It was quite some time ago. It never seems worth the effort as it is cheaper to buy rubbish and DH and I need to lose weight. Also, stuff has happened and I rather got out of the rhythm of things.
Yesterday I saw the recipe for Magic Custard Cake. Why did no-one tell me that this recipe exists? For those in ignorance like me it is a cake where you mix up all the ingredients and pour into a greased tin and when it comes out there is a pastry type layer at the bottom, custard in the middle and cake on top - apparently. I can't test it out because you really need a mixer to do this, and I've thrown my mixer out.
Darn it to heck.
Mind you, my hand mixer was older than some of the teachers at bear's school and looking a bit on the grim side. I suppose I could always lay out for another mixer, but I don't want to, not even an Argos very basic cut price one. I can't think when I'd use it apart from this Magic Custard Cake, and we really do need to lose weight.
However, bear has a lot of friends around and they are hoovering up the treats like eight year old boys. I was going to compare them to vultures, but I bet that vultures would remember to put the empty packets in the bin. So I am going to dust off my cookbooks and try and provide some home made treats that are still likely to be slightly less expensive and certainly healthier. Bear is suffering from green nose at the moment. I could do with cramming some more vitamins and minerals in.
So I am going to dust off my cookbooks and see what I can come up with. I'm not entirely sure how successful I'll be, but it has to be worth a go. I've found an interesting recipe for peanut cookies that is just peanut butter, sugar and an egg. I'll test that out tomorrow, I think.
I've never used a mixer for my cakes and as we don't have an electric hand whisk, I beat everything together as my mother originally taught me, although she liked her hand whisk later on. If you don't want to beat anything, try some flapjacks. Our family recipe is 8oz margarine, 2 dessertspoons of golden syrup (heat these together in the microve for about 30 seconds until melted, then mix in 1tsp bicaking powder mixed in 2 tablespoons of hot water. Add this to previously mixed 8oz porridge oats, 7ozs sugar and 5 ozs of flour. i.e. you are adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir and placed in an oiled baking tray. Cook in a medium oven for 15-20 minutes. You can add dried fruit and reduce the amount of sugar or grated apple or other fruit, but this makes the mixture wetter so needs longer to cook. My sister and I could cook this ourselves when we were eight. It's nowhere near as sweet as commercial flapjack.
ReplyDelete