a berry nice cake indeed!

Looking for a quick and easy afternoon tea or even a dessert?

Look no further than the humble cake mix in a pack!

I always have one or two cake mixes on hand and usually have the White Wings Madeira Cake mix in the cupboard as it can be quite versatile. All you need are two eggs, 3/4 cup of milk and the cake mix!

above: image from the White Wings website

As we all know, a Madeira Cake is usually baked in a loaf pan and with lunch guests arriving within the hour I needed to try something quick and easy, a little different, not too sweet and this is how it turned out:

above: White Wings Madeira Cake Mix, a packet of frozen mixed berries, eggs and milk.

Place the cake mix in a large bowl, add milk and eggs according to the packet directions and blend well.

above: instead of placing the cake mix in a 'loaf pan', add it to a square pan lined with baking paper.

Once the cake mix is added to the pan add a selection of frozen berries to the top of the mix. Sprinkle with some vanilla sugar. Place in pre heated oven (180 deg / 160 deg fan forced) for about 45 minutes.

above: leave on a wire rack for 5 minutes to cool

 
above: once cooled, it can be cut into squares.

a bit of a twist on the usual Madeira Cake, but still tasty and it can be served for afternoon tea or served for dessert with cream or custard.         

a berry nice cake indeed!

I first uploaded this post on 12 May 2012 and up until early October 2013 have had 735 hits. Now it has been moved to a new site am anxious to see the traffic now!

banana bread

When John works from home or perhaps over the weekend he is often looking for something to 'munch on'!

The Banana Bread I made earlier this week always goes down well.

Well it was easy to decide what to bake considering I had two banana's that were well past their "use by date" sitting in the fruit basket.

The recipe I used is as follows:

1 1/2 cups of SR flour
1 cup sultanas
1/3 cup brown sugar    

1 tablespoon of honey

2 or 3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

I placed the flour in to a large bowl, added a cup of sultanas with the brown sugar.

Everything else went into the blender and was whizzed until it looked smooth. I added it to the flour / sugar mix and stirred.

Place it into a greased loaf pan, sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top and pop it into the oven at 180 C deg for about 45 mins.

You can vary the above by adding chopped nuts, or use 2/3 cup sugar instead of the sugar / honey combo I use.

You can also omit the sultanas.

If you have sultanas that look kind of old and 'dry', pop them into a microwave safe dish with a half cup orange juice for a minute or two to 'plump' them a bit before adding to the above flour / sugar mix.

When the bread has finished baking, remove from the pan and let cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.


enjoy a bit of Tasty Fun!