I love cakes, but don’t want to spend my life making them.
I have a fabulous booklet from the Australian Women’s Weekly series, and I am working my way slowly through them.
However, I adapted a cake recipe using oil instead of butter to make a muffin - a bit more like the texture of the ones you buy in the shops - I find home made ones to be lumpy and heavy unless eaten warm from the oven.
Have a try and if you have any other ideas/ recipes, post them up here - don’t forget to mention where the recipe comes from.
This recipeis based on a VERY old Good Housekeeping book - at least 50 years old!
NOTE: The Australian Women’s Weekly booklets are still going strong - many have been updated and reprinted, with new titles coming out all the time. The recipes are tripe tested an reliable.
If you can get your hands on the older ones (like this one) it is worth the effort.
Yes, I think that chantilly mix is the thing to get it whipped up - I have since see cream for whipping in the supermarket as well.
Marscapone is an excellent idea as well!
I use creme entriere (any make) whip it up with a little icing sugar and then when it starts to thicken up then add one of those sachets Fixe Chantilly, it works fine. Or for real indulgence, I use a carton of mascapone, add icing sugar and a little milk to thin it down, then whisk it up! A fresh scone, with a large dollop of cream and homemade jam! delicious!
Elle & Vire Creme Fleurette de Normandie, widely available in 33 cl cartons (green ginham design on top half of carton). Found in fridge section near fresh milk. Works a treat and no need to add anything (I’m not a fan of chantilly!).
Zena - just out of curiosity, which cream to you use for the sponge? I have difficulty whipping up French cream - I have found some sachets in the supermarket to make chantilly - I guess you just add it to the cream before whipping. What do you do?
When I want to make a light sponge I use SuperU own marg for tartiner et cuisiner, results have been great soft light victoria sponge, ready for cream and jam!
Thanks for the tip, I’ll brave it – in the name of research – and will report back on results. Unless anyone else has tried them?
There is margarine for baking, but I have not tried it.
I made some muffins with oil and they were nice - however, I would say that I actually used an all in one sponge cake mix with equal quantities of fat, flour and sugar - I find the muffin recipes quite unsatisfactory in terms of texture.
However, I will have a go using oil in a recipe and see how it goes.
Regarding the margarine, it is in the butter section and there are a few makes, so I guess it must be for cakes - it usually says tartiner for spreading and cuisiner for cooking - there is a FLORA PRO ACTIV which is sold in two types - one for just spreading and the other for cooking and spreading.
I’ve only ever used oil in my muffins and, as long as you don’t over mix them, they seem to come out just fine and they are very quick and easy to make. Ideal if someone pops over at tea time.
All this talk of baking has got me thinking, when making cakes in the UK I always used Stork marg. Here I just use butter but wondered if anyone had discovered a trustworthy marg alternative?