Savoury muffins make a good lunchbox filler or a meal on the go and are a healthy fast food, especially if you pack them with plenty of veggies and make them with wholemeal flour. Use tasty cheese to give these plenty of flavour, or substitute feta or parmesan for a different flavour. Zucchinis have a huge amount of moisture in them so add the milk a bit at a time, you may not need the whole amount.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Lightly grease 12 x 1/3 cup capacity muffin pan.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in zucchini, carrot and cheese working out any lumps with your fingers. Stir in ham.
3. Whisk milk, oil and eggs together in a jug. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
4. Divide mixture evenly between muffin holes. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Stand in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

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The recipe has ground almonds, which cost an absolute bomb, so I just grind some skinless almonds in the coffee grinder (that hasn’t seen coffee for a few years now!), much, much cheaper. I usually have all of the ingredients in the cupboard, so depending on how you stock your pantry, this is an easy variation to a plain butter cake that can be made at any time without fuss.

The recipe below is the original, but I made a few changes when baking it. I added a little vanilla to this recipe (can’t help myself) used one less egg, a little less butter, a little more s/r flour and a splash or two of milk to get a cake consistency. It just makes the cake a bit less heavy for the trifle and that’s the way I prefer my cake.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and line a loaf or cake tin.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg beating thoroughly. Beat in rind.
3. Fold in ground almonds and flour until will combined and smooth.
4. Pour into prepared tin and bake for around 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar before serving.

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I created this cake by taking a basic vanilla cake recipe, making some adjustments, and incorporating some ideas from a few other recipes.

I’ve always read that you have to be absolutely precise when baking, but I haven’t found this to be the case yet. If the mix doesn’t seem right, I add a little extra moisture or a little extra flour.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamed. Add vanilla and eggs and beat until will combined.
3. Add the milk and self raising flour a bit at a time, alternating between the two, mixing well until all combined.
4. Alternatively, throw everything in the mix master or food processor and give it a good wiz.
5. Pour the melted butter over the base of the cake tin and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the top. Line the tin with the peach slices.
6. Top the peach with the cake batter and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool in the tin so that the caramel sets, otherwise it runs everywhere .

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Method

1. Put the crushed Weetbix, sugar, bicarb, dates and boiling water in a bowl, stir and let stand for 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the eggs and the s/r flour.
3. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake at around 180C for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve warm with butter

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It’s not a very sweet recipe, so not one of DH’s favourites, but a lot of the flavour comes from the warm cinnamon goodness and juicy sultanas. If I remember correctly, the original recipe had mixed dried fruit and peel, but sultanas are just enough for me. They’re not glamorous looking, but nice with a morning cuppa.

Method

1. Preheat oven to ‘moderately hot’ about 180°C (360°F). Grease a baking tray or cookie sheet with butter.
2. Sift flour, sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add sultanas and mix well breaking up clumps.
4. Beat the egg and add. Add sufficient milk to make a moist but stiff consistency. Depending on the flour you may need a little less or a little more milk.
5. Spoon mixture into rough lumps onto the greased tray. Leave space for slight spreading. Sprinkle with sugar.
6. Bake for 10 – 20 minutes depending on size or until cooked through. Loosen on trays while hot and allow to cool.

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This is a good recipe if you’re trying to use up leftover cream or sour cream. If you don’t have sour cream, substitute it with yoghurt or just milk.

Use the batter to make a single cake and cook it for around 40-50 minutes. Ice with a chocolate ganache for a real indulgence. Leave out the shot of liqueur for a kid friendly version.

Is it any cheaper to make your own cake than buying a packet cake or store bought cake? Sometimes, but not always. On the other hand, you know what’s in it. There is no egg substitute, preservatives, artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners, sodium, thickeners, stabilisers, soy products, or anti-caking agents (stops the dry mix from clumping up in store).

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Grease 2x 6 cup muffin or cupcake tins
2. Beat the butter and sugars until creamy. I just use a wooden spoon, but you could use electric mixers, mix master or food processor. Getting all the lumps out of the butter will give the cake a fluffy texture.
3. Add the eggs and beat well. The mixture may look a little curdled at this point, but that’s fine. Add the vanilla and the shot of grog if using.
4. Beat in part of the sifted flour, cocoa and bicarb alternating with the sour cream until all is incorporated. The mixture will be quite thick and stiff, if you feel it needs thinning out a bit add a little extra sour cream or milk.
5. Spoon into muffin tin and smooth surface. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. I don’t see the point of patty cases, it seems like a waste of money and paper, but if you prefer, you can spoon your mixture into these.
6. Alternatively, if you want to bake a single cake, spoon into a greased 20cm cake tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes.
7. Let the cakes cool completely.
8. Whip the cream. You could leave the cream plain or for a bit of extra flavour, you could add a little icing sugar, liqueur, vanilla or coffee.
9. Cut out a round disk from the centre of each cake about 3/4 inch deep. Cut each round in half. Spoon or pipe cream into hole made. Place rounds back into cake to form ‘butterfly wings’. Dust each cake with a little icing sugar or cocoa or grated chocolate and serve.

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The measurements are given as a guideline but I didn’t measure as I cooked this so taste as you go and adjust to suit how you enjoy your crumble. You may need to adjust the sugar level with the apples anyway depending on what variety of apples you have and how naturally sweet they are. If you don’t have lemon leave it out, it adds an extra dimension to the flavour, but isn’t necessary, substitute the cinnamon for nutmeg or cardamom or allspice if you prefer.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Core, peel and chop the apples. In a saucepan add apples, sugar, lemon and cinnamon.
3. Simmer apples until soft or to the texture that you prefer.
4. Meanwhile combine the flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon and rub together with your fingers to get a ‘breadcrumb’ like consistency.
5. Pour apple mixture into greased oven dish or individual dishes, sprinkle with crumble mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden.

Variations

• Add sultanas or other dried fruit for variety
• You can use any fruit that you have on hand like berries (fresh or frozen) pears, peaches, plums etc.
• To make this dish even quicker, use tin fruit. No need to cook just drain.
• Add rolled oats or crushed nuts to the crumble mixture for more texture. You may need to add a little extra butter to get the right consistency.

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Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and grease and line your tin
2. Cream butter and sugar together in a bowl until will combined and lump free.
3. Add the banana, eggs and yogurt and stir to combine well.
4. Stir in the flour and mix until the mixture is smooth.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through.

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Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C and grease a loaf tin
2. Sift the flours, baking sodas, and spices into a large bowl. Add the sugar.
3. In a jug whisk the eggs, oil and vanilla until thick. Add to the dry ingredients along with the zucchini and mix until will combined.
4. Bake for 1 hour or until the a skewer comes out clean.

Serve with butter if desired.

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Method

1. Line a pie dish or flan tin with pastry. Blind bake and cool.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add cream and whisk to combine. Add lemon juice and zest. Whisk well to combine.
3. Pour into prepared pastry base. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes at 150°C.
4. Cool and serve

The bigger the tart tin, the thinner the filling, but it is a very rich and ‘tart’ tart so a little goes a long way. Using a store bought pastry case will mean that this dish will take less than 5 minutes to prepare.

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