Help - baking recipes for someone who cant bake

smarties84

Hello, i was wondering if anyone had any nice and easy recipes for me - i cannot bake to save my life... but i would really like to bake with my daughter. Does anyone have any easy recipes for things like nice cakes, cookies etc - things children would like and we can do together? Im doing an online shop today, so could buy the ingreidants x

Thanks in advance xx

Sambucus_Nigra

Try these - failsafe

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-chocolate-chip-muffins-recipe/index.html

sparklewing

I can't recommend Mary Berry's Baking bible enough. None of her recipes have ever failed me and most of them are just bung it all in the bowl and beat none of the cream sugar & butter blah blah blah.

A lot of her stuff can be found on Google if you wanted to test first.

zzzLazyDaisy

You can make chocolate truffles (no baking!) great fun and very easy.

The recipe is of the 'throw it together' type, but basically...

1 cup cocoa (not drinking chocolate)
about 1/4 slab melted butter
about 2 cups unsalted nuts, ground up (best if at least some of them are put through a coffee grinder to make a flour, but a food processor will do. It is nice if some bits are left chunky.
raisins (for sweetness)
Honey if you like it sweeter
any other bits you might have in the house that you want to throw in (dried dates or apricots, smashed up crunchie or maltesers, etc... a little goes a long way)

Method

add melted butter to cocoa, mix well, then add powdered/ground nuts. If using honey add that now. Mixture should be soft but mouldable. If too stiff add some more melted butter, if too wet or runny add some more cocao and/or ground nuts (but also see below).

When soft and slightly wet add dried fruit and anything else and mix well.

Using a teaspoon take out small amounts, shape into an oval and slide onto a tray or plate. When all done pop in fridge and eat when set. Place in those tiny paper cake things if for pressies.

Alternatively, if you have a very wet mixture you can pour it into a square flat dish or something similar put in freezer for a few mins then take it out and score into squares, then put back in freezer.

This recipe makes a very chocolatey tasting sweet, so you only need a very small amount so it is great for diabetics.

You can also mould the choc truffle around a fruit or nut (cherry, almond, etc)

smarties84

thank you ladies xx

smarties84

thank you lazy, xx

Cosmopolitan

Cornflake or rice crispy cakes always go down well. Just a asenod melting chocolate and mixing with the cereal. Can always be topped with mini marshmallows or something similar. Easy peasy.

squeaky

Be-ro has a bunch of goodies... Childrens Cooking

And, truth be told - everything on the be-ro site is easy. Well explained and bullet proof recipes

mioliere

I was just about to recommend Be-Ro but I see that Squeaky beat me to it. I can second the recommendation, though!

st_owly

My very own simple cookie recipe:

100g chocolate chips (whatever kind you like)
125g (1/2 block) butter
100g granulated sugar
75g soft brown sugar (doesn't matter if it's light or dark. Muscovado works as well)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract (or flavouring)
150g Self raising flour
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190 Celsius and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper
Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat it very gently until it melts. Don't let it boil.
Put both types of sugar and the salt into a mixing bowl, and when the butter is completely melted, pour it into the bowl with the sugars.
Add the egg and vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mix and beat well.
Sift the flour into the bowl, add the chocolate chips, then mix well.

Dot heaped pudding spoonfuls of dough onto the baking tray, making sure you leave plenty of space between each one for them to expand, then put them in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes.
When they're done, leave them on the greaseproof paper to harden for a couple of minutes, then put them on a wire rack, still on the greaseproof paper. They're delicious slightly warm, as they're really gooey.

If you want my brownie recipe, let me know

balmk

Hello

Didn't want to read and run (don't have any recipes that immediately spring to mind) - perhaps it's not you...it may be your oven!

Ovens are very individual and you do need to experiment with them.. For example, I used to have an electric fan oven which took exactly as long to cook as the recipe stated.

Since moving, I now have a gas oven, and through trial and error have learned to add 20% to the recipe cooking time in order to get the best results.