Baking for one help please.

Dawning

I live alone and I would like to spend less on mass produced rubbish and do my own cakes and biscuits. Baking my own would be healthier too. But the recipes are always for a huge quantity! For example, I love the Tana Ramsay Lemon Drizzle Cake, foolproof recipe and tastes gorgeous, but the recipe serves 10 people. I sometimes bake it when I'm going to see my aunt and give her half of it, but that still means that I've got a 5 portion cake to eat myself before it goes stale. I'm trying to lose some weight but I'd love to bake for myself now and again if I could find recipes suitable for smaller amounts.
I'm quite new to baking so I suppose my questions are : can I just halve or even quarter a cake or biscuit recipe, and would it be ok to freeze them?
Or perhaps there's a recipe book that has smaller amounts?

craigywv

Dawning wrote: »

I live alone and I would like to spend less on mass produced rubbish and do my own cakes and biscuits. Baking my own would be healthier too. But the recipes are always for a huge quantity! For example, I love the Tana Ramsay Lemon Drizzle Cake, foolproof recipe and tastes gorgeous, but the recipe serves 10 people. I sometimes bake it when I'm going to see my aunt and give her half of it, but that still means that I've got a 5 portion cake to eat myself before it goes stale. I'm trying to lose some weight but I'd love to bake for myself now and again if I could find recipes suitable for smaller amounts.
I'm quite new to baking so I suppose my questions are : can I just halve or even quarter a cake or biscuit recipe, and would it be ok to freeze them?
Or perhaps there's a recipe book that has smaller amounts?

freeze everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1:) i do even odd left over slices of cake wrap it up in a sandwich bag and put in a container in freezer does the job.

Callie22

It's generally easier to halve biscuit recipes than cakes - when you halve cakes you have to work out new baking times, tin sizes etc. It can be a pain too working out half of things like eggs. But most cakes and biscuits freeze really well, so you could make a 'normal' batch and then freeze the portions. The only thing is to wrap them well so they don't pick up freezer smells.

Or, if you like biscuits, you could try some 'ice-box cookie' recipes. In these, you make the dough, wrap it and freeze it, then slice bits off and bake as needed. That'd be a good way to get fresh biscuits whenever you want. You can generally freeze cookie doughs anyway, just portion them out, freeze them loose, then bag up and bake as needed from frozen - lots of bakeries do this and it's a good way to get cookies with chewy middles.

anguk

I would just bake everything as normal then freeze it in portion sizes then you can just lift out what you need. You could still bake the lemon cake but maybe quarter it, put three of the quarters in the freezer (in separate bags), that way you've only got a quarter at a time to get through before it goes stale.

msb5262

anguk wrote: »

I would just bake everything as normal then freeze it in portion sizes then you can just lift out what you need. You could still bake the lemon cake but maybe quarter it, put three of the quarters in the freezer (in separate bags), that way you've only got a quarter at a time to get through before it goes stale.

I second this - though I would go further and slice up the whole cake, wrap it and freeze it. Then you can unfreeze exactly the amount you want...and individual slices of cake defrost pretty quickly. Every slice will be fresh and delicious!
You can do the same with bread if you like, and of course you can drop a slice of frozen bread straight into the toaster - it takes slightly longer to toast but is very handy, and much quicker than waiting for a whole or half loaf to defrost.
HTH
MsB

nuatha

Generally biscuits freeze better unbaked and cakes freeze better baked.
I'd echo the advice given and freeze in individual portions wrap well and label everyone (or pack individually wrapped in a labeled bag)

PasturesNew

I'm single and generally don't bother.... it just would produce food that I'd have not normally eaten ... leading to weight increase.

It can be cheaper to buy yourself one shop bought muffin every 2 months, than to make a cake ... and then eat it because it exists.

If you are going to go ahead though - when it comes to trying to split an egg, the only strategy I can suggest is that if a recipe wants 1 egg and you're halving the recipe, use the half egg - then add another 2-3 eggs to the remaining half and make yourself some omelettes, or a frittata at the same time. It's easier to find something that'd use 2-3 eggs where quantity doesn't matter, than to work out what to do with half an egg.

cherie1122

I often bake cakes, cut them up, wrap them in cling film and freeze them in a poly bag. I just take a slice out of the freezer when I want to eat it. I do this with lemon drizzle, chocolate beetroot and victoria sandwich cakes and none of them seem to get spoilt.

In my freezer right now is a mincemeat cake (a gift), leftover christmas cake and lemon drizzle - all in separate portions.

[Deleted User]

I too live alone yet I always bake my own cakes and biscuits but then I have a tribe of permanantly hungry grandsons who are more than willing to 'help me out' with any surplus .But I adore lemon drizzle cake and often make it and portion it up as said in slices and wrap in cling film and freeze.It freezes well and I always have a slice or two ready quickly if I get an unexpected visitor .Thank the lord for the microwave it woulds beautifully after a few minutes zapped in there

Dawning

Thanks so much all of you - for some reason I had this idea that freezing my creations wouldn't work very well.
The ice box cookie things sound fab will definitely try those.

Thanks again!

voucherlover

I often make one eggs worth of cupcakes if I have a friend coming over, this is usually about 4-6 cakes depending on the size of the egg. What you do is weigh the egg, then use the same weight of butter, sugar and flour and a dash of baking powder and vanilla essance in the normal way.