Baking a cake

[Jules]

It's wet and windy. I'm stuck at home with the half-term kids as the wife is the one with the day job.

I really fancy baking a cake. I  cook and make bread when I  feel like it - usually in Italy as we have a wood oven - so I'm not a kitchen klutz but have never baked a cake. I don't want to use a kit. We don't have a mixer here so it will have to be mixed with a bowl and spoon. The supermarket is 5 mins away and I need to go there anyway so any ingredients are possible.

Recommendations on where I should start?

[Marj]

Carrot cake is really easy, the receipe on the following link is the one I use and it's yummy.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3229/yummy-scrummy-carrot-cake

[L CC]

Go for a recipe that uses oil or mayonnaise rather than butter creamed, or where the butter is melted rather than creamed.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-oil-cake/

[L CC]

A lot of the reason that people don't make cakes more often is the 'kit'. Unless you do it regularly, who has 2 x 9" sandwich tins? That recipe above is a big square rectangular tin, you're more likely to have one of those.

I like tray bake recipes that you make in a roasting pan. (Apart from anything else, they're huge. This is probably why I'm a big fat bloater)

[Chris N]

Dan Lepard's dark banana cake:

Dark banana ginger cake

The surprising thing with this cake is how delectable and rich the flavour is, given how basic the ingredients are. Though I try to hold back from eating too many cakes, this one had me sneaking back late at night. Keep it simple, but if you get the urge, a little spice or roughly chopped nuts won't hurt. If you don't have muscovado, use caster sugar, but replace 25g of that with black treacle.

200g dark muscovado sugar
300g ripe bananas
125ml sunflower oil
4 medium eggs
75g chopped glacé ginger
200g wholemeal bread flour
3 tsp baking powder

Line the base of a deep, 20cm square cake tin with nonstick paper. Put the sugar and bananas in a bowl and mash until almost smooth (the odd bits doesn't matter). Beat in the oil and eggs, and stir in the ginger. Add the flour and baking powder, stir well, then pour into the tin. Bake at 170C (150C fan-assisted)/335F/gas mark 3 for 50-60 minutes, or until a careful poke with a skewer in the centre doesn't reveal any uncooked mixture lurking beneath the crust.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/27/banana-cake-recipes-dan-lepard

Really easy - simple to mix and basic inredients.  Tastes lovely too.

[Julian]

A friend of mine makes this amazing mashed potato cake and it's very tasty.  And like other veg cakes (carrot, courgette, beetroot) you'd never know that it has potato in.

[rogerzilla]

Madeira cake is easy.

Some soft margarine
Some sugar (not too much or it stays gooey in the middle)
Cream the two together
Add two eggs
Add flour, stirring until you get a mix that is slightly too dry
Add milk to get the consistency just right
Add glace cherries, coffee and walnuts, chocolate chips or even the traditional ground almonds
Bake in a pre-heated hottish oven for about 40 minutes, or until a knife thrust into it comes out clean

Sorry...I never measure anything.

[Jules]

It's in the oven!

Started with Marg's Carrot cake recipe. Will work my way through the others.

Photos at 8.

[Arch]

Madeira cake is easy.

Some soft margarine
Some sugar (not too much or it stays gooey in the middle)
Cream the two together
Add two eggs
Add flour, stirring until you get a mix that is slightly too dry
Add milk to get the consistency just right
Add glace cherries, coffee and walnuts, chocolate chips or even the traditional ground almonds
Bake in a pre-heated hottish oven for about 40 minutes, or until a knife thrust into it comes out clean

Sorry...I never measure anything.

My Dad always used to say "Stick a knife in it, and if it comes out clean...... stick all the rest in too!"