h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mini Mouse's Magic Sponge Mixture.

2 cups flour (self raising)
2 cups sugar
2 cups margarine
2-3 eggs

Mix ingredients together, put in a Gas mark 4/5 ish oven (turn it on while you are mixing ingredients together) bake for 20-30 minutes.

if the top looks cooked, but the middle is still gooey, stick some tinfoil over it and pop it back in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

I like to give my cakes some colour, (usually pink) and ice them with water, rather than butter icing.

mini

Here's a ginger cake recipe. It might look a bit tricky at first, but it's actually a piece of ...um...cake. The only awkward bit is weighing out the treacle and syrup.


Ginger Cake:

Line the base and sides of a deep sided 8 inch round cake tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.

Ingredients:

4 oz margarine
6 oz black treacle
2 oz golden syrup
quarter pint milk
2 med eggs, lightly beaten
8 oz plain flour
2 oz caster sugar
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarb of soda
stem ginger (the type in a jar, in syrup) (optional but recommended)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 160 C.
If using the stem ginger, chop a couple of pieces into smallish lumps and set to one side.
Put margarine, syrup and treacle in a medium saucepan (big enough to hold all of the ingredients) and melt but do not boil.
Add milk.
Allow to cool for 5 mins.
Add eggs.
Sieve the dry ingredients together, add to the pan, and whisk thoroughly with an electric whisk for 5 mins.
Pour into the cake tin, scatter the stem ginger over the top, and cook for 50 mins.

Apologies to people who have gone metric.

Loads of lovely-sounding recipes here now, thanks everyone. Will let you know what I make and how it turns out

i tend to keep cake simple

1 egg
50g flour (self)
50g sugar
50g butter

scale as necessary you may wish to add a very small amount of milk if the mix looks too dry

to this i often add mixed spice or coco powder

Kelli, have you calibrated your oven temperature? If you are measuring and preparing according to the recipe, it has to be your oven.

My 'can't-fail abracadabra cake recipe' is in amongst this lot: A765993. It's about 60% of the way down - One Cup Fruit Loaf. Enjoy!

Four heaped (really quite heaped) tablespoons of self raising flour
Four rounded (ie, a bit heaped) tablespoons of caster sugar
Half a 250g tub of soft margarine (I use stork) (don't use butter, don't use hard marg, don't use 'spread')
Two eggs
Generous teaspoon baking powder

I use proper old-fashioned metal tablespoons that used to belong to my great aunt. I don't think this is essential. But they do need to be tablespoons, not dessertspoons.

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer until it is very pale (almost white) and fluffy (this is the key - rubbish cakes almost always haven't been beaten enough). You will know when it is done by comparing what's in the bowl to what's around the edges (and therefore hasn't been mixed as much).

Divide the mixture between two round 7" tins, greased and lined with paper - or 24 bun cases, about 1 tsp mixture in each bun case.

Bake for 20 mins (cakes) or 10 mins (buns) at about 180/gas 4. Do not open the door to peek before this time is up; *do* set a timer to remind you to check. You will know when it is cooked
(a) because you can smell freshly baked cake
(b) because the sponge is risen and golden (and coming away from the edge of the tin (if a cake))
(c) if you press gently with a finger in the centre, it springs back.

Assuming you don't need to run to the shops for any ingredients or equipment, this cake takes about 7 minutes from thinking 'I want to make a cake' to getting it into the oven. You really don't need to weigh the ingredients, if you're a bit over or under with something it doesn't matter; I think I've had one disaster in 20 years with this recipe (and even then, it was only a disaster in the sense that it came second in the flower and produce show instead of first ). But you absolutely must use electric beaters.

Oh, yes, nearly forgot - sandwich with jam or lemon curd and dust with icing sugar. Or use lots of buttercream and smarties for buns. Buns sell well at cake sales and you will be astonished by how much they sell the whole cakes for. And people pay that! For something that takes *minutes* to make! It's a mad world.

Mol

I've just thought - why aren't you making gingerbread men?! You can *do* gingerbread! And they would sell really well ...

Mol

Have just tried Mol's recipe for J's Valentine's cake. Made half as much again as my heart shaped tin is probably bigger than a 7 inch tin. Will report back but it looked ok when it came out. Am not sure if it came out too soon as it sank a bit flatter as it cooled. How do people make those thicker cakes? Could I have put it all in one deep tin? is tall enough with second layer anyhow. Will have to see tonight what the texture is like. I wanted it to be coloured red but don't think I put enough food dye in, I beat it first, pretty certain I haven't been doing that enough, and put colour in after.

I can't bake. I suspect it's due to years of bad ovens, but they can't ALL have been bad, can they? Seriously, I really cannnot do it.

So my thoughts are either something like rocky road tray bake which is basically melted chocolate with chunks of biscuit in it, or buy something and - this is the point - bring it along in its box.

Being asked to provide something is fair enough. Being told you should make it yourself is an imposition.

B

>How about a savoury option, like mini pizzas? There never is one at these events, I'm sure someone would be glad to find a quiche.

*That* is an excellent idea. I detest sweet stuff, and always find myself going hungry when colleagues bring in in cakes to share (well, I did, until I trained them all to chuck a couple of sausage rolls in with the sticky things).

Something like cheese scones would fit in very well with the cake theme, and are hard to bugger up as well.

Or in fact any scones..

Actually cheese scones are a great idea! Will hunt out a recipe now!

The boys just made cheese scones for tea. Disappointingly uncheesey. Need better cheese and will have to see what they are like tomorrow as I think they'll have to be made the night before as is a work day.

Ben, they said we could just buy something but it depresses me how very bad I am at baking. I wish I could do it. Much like sewing. I was obviously bunking off school the day they handed out the homemaker skills.

I'm with Ben, I'd just buy something. I'm a great cook, but rubbish at baking. So I rarely bother trying.

Buy a sponge and decorate it yourself.

I like baking.It suits my cooking style - bung it all in one container and apply heat.

On the other hand I have just made a stir fry. Must remember that just because the recipe says throw *dried* chillis into smoking hot oil, that does not mean it's a good idea to throw fresh chillis in, and an even worse one to inhale at the same time.

I had to evacuate the children from the room. *coughcoughcoughcough*

Erm, ok, well I would never have made that particular cake mix in a single deep tin - it doesn't cope well structurally with depth (as I found out the time I attempted to use it to build a castle). You need something denser for a deeper cake, which is probably why it sank a bit. Or it might have needed an extra 30 seconds in the oven. But it will still taste delicious

If it's being advertised as a cake sale people won't expect savouries. There may be Complaints. Sorry. People are weird.

Mol

No, sorry, I didn't do it in a single tin, I was just wondering if you could. The two cakes look fine but they did sort of deflate afterwards and ended up much thinner than I thought. Haven't eaten them yet so no idea what they are like inside!

I don't think I could cope with Complaints

People are so keen to hand out Complaints. If only they were only allowed a strict quota of such, ie one complaint handed out per 5 recognisable donations of help/time/cake etc they'd contributed. But no, people feel it is much more worthwhile to criticise without offering help at all.

I think it must make them feel clever or something. Wrong. It doesn't.

Just to be clear ... *I* wouldn't be complaining. I *like* cheese scones and I rarely make them. And I could be wrong, maybe other people wouldn't complain. But the school gate is a funny place.

Mol