The Occasional Sweet Treat...

I used to bake all the time, but don't bake very often anymore... mainly so that I don't eat it all but also because when we moved out of our house and into a static caravan to allow for renovation work to take place, I couldn't take all of my baking equipment and have never really picked up the habit again since. I did however (literally) dust off the bowl and spatula this week to make some cakes for my Brother and Nan's birthdays.

I thought I'd go simple and make a classic Victoria Sandwich as I had a large jar of raspberry jam left over that needed using up. I followed BBC Good Food's recipe for the sponge. It turned out pretty well I think. It uses the all in one method which I've never actually done before but the sponge was as light as air!

I also made some cupcakes (as my brother had requested them). He didn't request any particular flavour and said 'surprise me'. So I decided to double the Victoria sponge recipe above and also whip up a batch of brownie batter. I dolloped a spoonful of brownie batter into the bottom of the cupcake case and topped it with sponge batter and baked on a low heat (160C) for about 20 minutes. Then just a simple decoration with icing and fresh raspberries.

My go-to brownie recipe is always the Hummingbird Bakery's recipe. Once you've tried this recipe once you will never make any other recipe again. It is the perfect balance of decadent chocolate flavour with a squidgy fudgey texture....mmm!!!