Need to bake treats but need help as no money left!

rosie383

Thanks for that. I always think of icing sugar as being much, much sweeter. And this from a woman who has made my own icing sugar in the FP before!!!!

rosie383

I forgot to put that I have cocoa powder too. Something chocolatey would be nice.

lapis_lazuli

rosie383 wrote: »

I always think of icing sugar as being much, much sweeter.

I've never really thought about that before! In that case, err on the side of caution. Add less than the recipe says, and then taste a bit of the mixture to check for sweetness. If it's not sweet enough, just add a bit extra. Just remember the old maxim that it's easy to add stuff but harder to take it away again. It would be a shame to waste all that lovely hobnob mixture because the biscuits are so sweet as to be revolting to eat. Also, go easy on the treacle. It's much heavier and sweeter than golden syrup, so be careful.

EDIT: Just seen this:

rosie383 wrote:

I forgot to put that I have cocoa powder too. Something chocolatey would be nice.

Delia's all-in-one sponge is dead easy and pretty foolproof:

Ingredients:

4oz self-raising flour
4oz sugar
4oz butter
2 eggs.

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat it all together. Split the mixture into two greased cake tins and spread the mixture evenly with a spatula. Don't worry if it it won't go all the way to the edges, it 'melts' in the oven and will fill up the tin all by itself. Bake at gas mark 4 for about 30 minutes until it is solid and springy to a light touch. Give it 20 minutes before checking so it doesn't sink when you open the oven door. You'll know it's nearly ready because it smells strongly of yummy cake. Turn the cakes out onto a cake rack. When cool, spread the flat sides with jam, put the two halves together, and enjoy!

My mum replaces some of the flour with cocoa powder. I think it's 1 oz of cocoa powder and 3 oz of self-raising flour in her mixes. If in doubt, use the full 4oz of flour and add *small* amounts of cocoa powder until it looks and tastes chocolatey enough. Spread with jam as above and enjoy!

jackieglasgow

The icing sugar will make for a crumblier biscuit, and use the same weight. I always use icing sugar for sweet biscuits and pastry It tastes sweeter on your tongue because more of the surface area of the sugar is in contact with your tastebuds. Its a science thing which I can't explain because I don't do science but someone once explained to me

rosie383

Thanks for all your help. I now have 1/4 batch of hobnobs in the oven along with 1/2 quantity of the honey and banana cake. Hope they work out ok.
Discovered a whoopsied cherry pie in the bottom of the freezer, so that will be lovely done with custard later (made with powdered milk of course!). Also found some mince pies lurking in there so they will come in handy.
Popcorn for the next few days too as there are no more savoury treats lurking and will probably do a batch of onion bhajis and pakoras with onions and veg from the freezer as I have a big bag of gram flour.

jackieglasgow

Well done Rosie you sound as if you'll be eating well

rosie383

Forgot to flatten the hobnobs, so they are like little fat balls, but lovely.
Just waiting on the honey banana cake. Doesn't look that great cos I didn't have a very small tin to put it in, but hopefully it should taste ok with custard!!!