Create your own simple yet impressive showstopper treats with Mrs Crunch’s low-price cheats
Great value recipes in association with Morrisons
LOVE the Bake Off but not the baking?
Then you are not alone.
The showstoppers made on the popular series - now making a shock move from BBC to Channel 4 - can leave the rest of us feeling a bit like an ill-timed sponge: flat and something of a failure.
But don't despair you can still get a slice of baking fever.
Impress your friends and family with the simple recipes here - or save yourself the hassle of baking and simply buy a stunning cake from the shops instead.
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Country Life Union Jack Cake
YOU NEED:
155g Country Life Salted, softened
155g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
180g self-raising flour
60g milk
1 small lemon, zest and juice only
200g icing sugar, sifted
100g Country Life Spreadable
170g fresh strawberries
150g fresh blueberries
METHOD: Preheat oven to 190C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 5.
Line oblong roasting tin (20cm x 26cm or deep 20cm cake tin) with parchment.
Place the Country Life Salted, caster sugar, eggs, flour, milk, and the zest and half the juice of your lemon into a bowl.
Using an electric whisk, slowly blend until ingredients are combined.
Increase to medium, whisk three minutes until mixture is a pale colour.
Spread into tin, bake for 25 – 30 minutes in centre of oven, until risen and golden in colour.
Leave to cool in tin, turn out on to cooling rack, carefully remove parchment.
For topping, beat together the icing sugar and Country Life Spreadable until pale in colour.
Stir in the other half of your lemon juice to give a soft consistency.
Spread on top of cake.
Cut strawberries in halves and quarters to form a cross and diagonals, fill in the gaps with blueberries.
Pin a ribbon around the cake.
Blackberry Bakewell Cake
YOU NEED:
150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp almond extract
100g ground almonds
80g self-raising flour
200g blackberries
30g flaked almonds
2 tbsp demerara sugar.
METHOD: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Grease and line a 20cm round, loose-based cake tin with baking parchment.
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Add the eggs, almond extract, ground almonds and flour, then mix well.
Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared tin.
Scatter blackberries over the top then sprinkle over the flaked almonds and sugar.
Bake in the oven for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Pistachio Brownies
YOU NEED:
225g dark chocolate
225g butter; 200g caster sugar
2tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
150g ground almonds
100g pistachios, chopped
METHOD:
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over simmering water.
Remove from the heat, mix in the sugar and vanilla then beat in the eggs.
Stir in the ground almonds and chopped pistachios.
Pour into a lined tin and bake at 170C for 25 minutes.
Press in a knife to check the brownies are cooked.
It will not come out completely clean but should not be too gooey.
Leave to cool and set, then slice into squares to serve.
You should get around 12.
If you wish, dust the tops with icing sugar or cocoa powder, then serve.
Best deals on ingredients
Best shop bakes
IF YOU’D prefer to stay out of the kitchen, here’s my best buys on shop-baked cakes this week:
You can’t beat a classic sponge and Morrisons’ six-inch Fresh Cream Sponge Cake was £1.55, and is now just £1.
Get a last taste of summer with Tesco Finest White Chocolate and Strawberry Cake (serves six, £2.65).
Share the cupcake love with Tesco’s Giant Cupcakes (serves 12, £6).
Or save 65p on Sainsbury’s five-inch Taste the Difference Belgian Chocolate Fudge Cake – now £2.
You can also save 65p on Asda Extra Special Hand Finished cakes (now £2), available in 14 varieties including Apple & Blackcurrant and Honey & Stem Ginger, as well as traditional flavours.
Tuck into a showstopper from Asda such as Rainbow Jazzie Cake (serves 20, £12).
Or get two tubs of bite-sized cakes for £4 at Waitrose including Chocolate Brownies (270g, £2.69) and Rocky Road Bites (230g, £2.69).
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