Chocolate, banana and peanut butter cake for £1

This month's We Should Cocoa challenge run and hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog challenges us to make a chocolate cake for £1. There is an active fund raising and awareness campaign called Live Below the Line which challenges people to live on £1 a day for 5 days. Participants are asked to spend only £1 per person per day on food and drink. Having made this cake for £1, I am in awe of those who participated in the challenge as I'm not sure if I personally would manage! 

I know I am extremely lucky to live a comfortable lifestyle. I often spend a fair amount on baking and baking related items as you can probably tell from this blog. I have to say I was sceptical about making a cake for £1 as basic ingredients such as butter and eggs cost more than £1. I decided to fully embrace this challenge and to my surprise found out that you can make a delicious cake for only £1. I incorporated my favourite flavours of banana and peanut butter and used regular ingredients that I had at home. I know you can buy cheaper versions but as I only needed a small quantity I decided to work with what I had. My secret ingredient was a packet of Morrison's Saver Sponge mix for only 22p!! I've taken a picture of the shelf in case you don't believe me. The packet instruction says to add 1 egg and 5 tablespoons of water. 

I brought the cake into work and offered it up as usual. I didn't mention that this was a budget cake as I wanted to see everyone's reaction. The comments I got were  "The cake is really light and moist"; "It's really flavourful"; "Can I have the recipe please?" At this point, I'd not tried the cake myself so I had a slice and I was honestly surprised. I really thought it was going to be dry and tasteless as I had my reservations about the sponge mix and the small quantities of peanut butter and cocoa powder. You can clearly taste the banana, peanut butter and cocoa. I think the sour cream added to the lightness of the cake which was my intention hence making sure there was budget for it. If you want to make a chocolate drizzle for the cake then I would recommend reducing the amount of cocoa powder and peanut butter slightly to account for the chocolate. 

The cake I made weighed 482g and I managed to cut it into 9 decent slices as shown which makes it approximately 11p per slice! Definitely a very tasty economical cake.

I'm entering this to several challenges this month.

We Should Cocoa hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog. The challenge was to make a chocolate cake for £1 and mine came up to exactly that.

Family Foodies hosted by Vanesther from Bangers & Mash and Lou from Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is cheap and cheerful.

Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Alex from Gingey Bites this month. This challenge was created by Camilla from FabFood4All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours.

 peanut butter, sour cream, cocoa powder, banana, egg, sponge mix 

 mix everything in a large bowl 

 ready to bake 

 fresh from the oven 

 You can see the banana bits in the cake 

Ingredients and cost 
Morrison's Saver Sponge mix 22p
1 egg 17p (24 eggs for £4)
5 tablespoons water (0p)
18g cocoa powder 21p (Cadbury Bourneville cocoa powder £1.16/100g)
1 banana 8p (0.68p/kg)
50g smooth peanut butter (Sainsury's smooth peanut butter 0.39p/100g)
30mls sour cream 12p (Morrison's sour cream 40p per 100ml)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Pour the sponge mix into a large bowl.
• Add 1 egg and 5 tablespoons water.
• Add the remaining ingredients.
• Whisk until smooth.
• Pour into a loaf tin and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before slicing. 

Speculoos Cupcakes

I bought a jar of Speculoos ages ago from a trip to Europe and it's been sat at the back of my cupboard gathering dust. You can now buy it in supermarkets here which is good as I will probably want more after the success of these cupcakes. I baked these for work using a recipe I found online and they were absolutely delicious. It has a rich caramel flavour and a lovely smooth consistency. It tastes exactly like the little Lotus biscuits that you often get with coffee/tea but in cupcake form. 

 milk, brown sugar, plain flour, butter, speculoos, eggs 

 The star ingredient 

 ready to go in the oven 

 I decorated mine with some coloured star sprinkles 

Recipe available here 

Marvellous Mix Up Cookies

I've been seeing advertisements for Cadbury's Marvellous Mix Ups everywhere. It contains mini oreos, cadbury pebbles, white chocolate buttons and milk chocolate buttons. It sounds delicious and I just couldn't resist especially when they were on special offer in Tesco. I decided to bake them into a cookie using my candy cookie recipe. I baked them for an event at work and everyone really enjoyed them. The cookies have a crisp edge and soft centre and the filling was a surprise as each cookie was different. Definitely a crowd pleaser and would be brilliant at kids parties or for entertaining. I think they would also work well in a brownie.

 I also added a bag of cadbury pebbles 

 adding marvellous mix ups to the cookie dough

 ready to go in the oven

 the marvellous mix ups and pebbles remained intact after baking. I love how the mini oreos peek through and how the pebbles add a lovely splash of colour. 

175g caster sugar
110g brown sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
450g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
55ml milk (you may need less)
1 bag of Cadbury's marvellous mix ups and 1 bag of cadbury's pebbles

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix well. 
• Mix in the vanilla extract. 
• Stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
• Gradually add the milk until a soft dough forms (be careful not to add too much milk or the dough will be too sticky) 
• Sitr in the marvellous mix ups and pebbles by hand. 
• Use a small ice cream scoop to place small scoops of dough spaced apart on a lined baking tray.
• Bake for approximately 8-9 minutes or until they are golden brown but still slightly soft.
• Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• The cookies will harden as they cool. 

Butterscotch Bundt Cake

Today May 18th 2014 is World Baking Day. The theme is who will you bake for? Baking is a great way to show you care and although I baked this earlier in the week, it's a lovely cake to share on World Baking Day. I'm away for the weekend so I can't actually bake anything today. Have you baked something for World Baking Day and if so what did you bake and for whom?

I saw this recipe ages ago and bookmarked it immediately. I bought some butterscotch chips when I was last in America and finally found an opportunity to bake with it. The cake is absolutely stunning. The bundt tin does all the work so it looks impressive and it tastes absolutely amazing. The glaze is the perfect complement and there wasn't a crumb left even though it's a huge cake! 

I'm sending this to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 brown sugar, flour, sour cream, milk, butter, butterscotch chips, eggs 

 Pour a small amount of batter into the tin

 add a layer of butterscotch chips

 fill with more batter followed by a second layer of butterscotch chips

 I added an extra third layer of butterscotch chips

 ready to go in the oven

 fresh from the oven - you can see the caramelise butterscotch chips 

 with the glaze

Recipe from Food Librarian

For the bundt cake
320 grams light brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
170g butter
4 eggs
466 g flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
310mls milk
170 g butterscotch chips

For the glaze
56g butter
50g light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
125g icing sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
• Mix in the sour cream.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder. 
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 of the milk and repeat, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. 
• Pour 1/3 of the cake batter into the bundt tin. 
• Sprinkle butterscotch chips in the middle, avoiding the sides of the tin. 
• Repeat this for another 2 layers finishing with a layer of cake batter on top. 
• Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once the cake is cooled, make the glaze by placing the butter, brown sugar and milk in a medium saucepan until it comes to a boil.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
• Pour the hot glaze over the cooled cake. 

Wensleydale and Apricot & Apple Cake

I baked this for J's work colleagues and it was very well received. I've made the same cake using Wensleydale & cranberry cheese previously but I saw the apricot version and decided to give it a go. We debated about pears or apples and decided to go with apples which worked beautifully. The cake is incredibly light and the crispy cheese bits are delicious! It was a good combination of sweet and salty. 

 The star ingredient

 adding in the crumbled cheese

 sprinkle some demerara sugar on top before baking

 

 you can see the light and soft crumb texture here

Recipe from Wensleydale Creamery

150g butter
175g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk
175g self raising flour
2 apples – peeled, cored & sliced + 1/2 apple for the topping
125g Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese with Apricots
1 tbsp Demerara Sugar

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease a 20cm / 8" cake tin.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the milk and flour.
• Fold in the apples and crumble over the cheese.
• Spoon the mixture into a tin.
• Arrange the apple slices (from approx 1/2 an apple - depends on your cake tin size) on top and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
• Bake for 55 minutes until risen and golden brown.
• Leave to cool in the tin.

No Bake Peanut Butter and Oreo Cheesecake

I usually like to plan what I bake in advance and buy the ingredients in preparation. However, I needed a dessert quickly at the very last minute so I decided on a no bake cheesecake. I looked around my cupboards for inspiration and decided on my all time favourite flavour combination of chocolate and peanut butter. I had a can of condensed milk which I decided to add in after the success of using it in my No Bake Berry Cheesecake.  

The cheesecake was really quick to put together and consists of an oreo cookie base and a peanut butter filling which contains condensed milk, cream cheese and peanut butter. I also added in some peanut butter chips as I had a small amount leftover but you can also use chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. After I assembled it, I thought it looked a little plain and spotted my half eaten bag of peanut butter M&M's so I threw them on top for decoration. They taste strongly of peanut butter which complements the flavours well but more importantly it added a lot of colour and the 'wow' factor to a really simple dessert. The cheesecake is really decadent and rich and you only need a very small portion so this would easily feed a large family or group. 

I'm entering this to Dead Easy Desserts hosted by Tina from The Spicy Pear and co hosted by Sarah from Maison Cupcake. This took about 15 minutes to put together including washing up!

 condensed milk, cream cheese, peanut butter, oreo cookies 

 oreo cookie base - allow to set in the fridge whilst you make the filling 

 creamy peanut butter filling 

 peanut butter M&M's on top 

 yum! 

2 packs of Oreo cookies

100g butter, melted

200g cream cheese

1 can condensed milk

250g smooth peanut butter

approximately 100g of peanut butter chip or chocolate chips/chunks

peanut butter m&m's for decoration - you can use plain m&m's or smarties or similar

• Blitz the oreo cookies in a food processor until it resembles fine crumbs.
• Place the oreo crumbs in a large bowl and stir in the melted butter. 
• Press evenly into the base of your tin or bowl and allow to set in the fridge whilst you make the filling. 
• To make the filling, beat together the cream cheese, peanut butter and condensed milk until smooth.
• Stir in the peanut butter chips if using.
• Pour the filling on top of the cookie base and smooth the top with a spatula. 
• Decorate with peanut butter M&M's or similar.
• Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving. 

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Recently I was asked to make some cupcakes for a brain tumour support group. They provided the cake toppers which was edible wafer paper with a grey ribbon on top. I started thinking about colour combinations and liked the idea of grey and pink which led to raspberries and white chocolate. I made up the recipe slightly mainly because I wanted to use up my milk and yoghurt and thought it would add a nice moistness to the cake. The burst of fresh raspberry in the cake was delicious and the white chocolate chips added sweetness and a slight crunch.

I'm entering this to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is 'Who will you bake for?' in conjunction with World Baking Day on May 18th. I baked these for a brain tumour support group so I hope it qualifies!

I'm also sending it to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme this  month is favourites. Raspberry and white chocolate is one of my favourite flavour combinations even though I don't generally like white chocolate. However, it works perfectly with raspberries and it's also a summer favourite which we are heading into (hopefully!).

 adding fresh raspberries to the mix 

 ready to go in the oven 

 ready to be iced 

 I decided to pipe a rose on top so that it would be flat

 I added some sprinkles and the cake topper 

Makes 12 cupcakes
For the cupcake
113g butter
120g caster sugar
140g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
60g yoghurt
100g white chocolate chips
150g fresh raspberries
60mls milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the icing 
100g butter
200g icing sugar
2 tablespoons smooth, seedless raspberry jam
few drops of pink food colouring
few drops of milk, depending on consistency required

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 
• Mix in the yoghurt,vanilla extract and milk and then the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
• Finally stir in the fresh raspberries and white chocolate chips by hand. 
• Divide evenly into 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating. 
• To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. 
• Add in the food colouring and continue mixing.
• Finally add in the raspberry jam and beat until smooth. You may need a few drops of milk depending on the consistency of the frosting. 
• Pipe on top of cupcakes and decorate as desired.