Thursday morning saw me at a loss,
and generally with me that means I want to BAKE. For once I had adequate ingredients in the house
and so bake I did!

First up came Flapjacks from my favourite recipe book (which is probably older than I am!)

Fast Flapjacks

225g (8oz) Butter
225g (8oz) Demerara Sugar (I used soft brown sugar)
75g (3oz) Golden Syrup
275g (10oz) Porridge Oats

I also added a liberal dose of cocoa powder and cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 160*c/140* for fan oven, or Gas Mark 3
Grease a 12 x 9 inch baking tin.

Melt the butter in a large pan along with the sugar and syrup, then stir in the oats (and whatever else you are adding!) Mix well and spread in to the prepared tin and press flat.

Bake for about 35 minutes until golden brown (mine were done after 30 and still over-done so check on them a lot!) Leave to cool for 10 minutes before marking in to 24 bars and leaving to finish cooling in the tin.

Like I mentioned above, mine came out really, really crispy and the majority stayed in the tin! But what I did salvage were delicious! You can experiment with pretty much any add ins you want…if using chocolate chips leave the mix to cool before adding those.

I was desperate to take something in to work for a much needed sugar boost but the flapjacks simply didn’t make enough…
I had just enough time to make, but not decorate a simple vanilla sponge, so I added about half a tub of sprinkles to the mix before baking!

I don’t need a recipe book to make a sponge, I just use the 2:2:2:1 method

2oz butter
2oz caster sugar
2oz flour
1 egg

(plus a dash of vanilla essence and sprinkles!)

To make a cake the size I did (8 inch tin) I simply doubled all the quantitys, mixed it all together, poured in to a greased/lined tin and baked at 180* for about 18 minutes
(you can tell it is done when the cake is golden brown and a knife/skewer poked inside comes out clean)

For a chocolate cake you’d replace 1oz flour with 1oz cocoa (give or take!)

What have you baked lately?

Care to link me to recipes?

xxx