Hi I’m Madryn and whilst I’m no Bake Off contestant, I do love making cookies and cakes for friends and family. To my flatmates’ delight, I’ve been baking more this past year than ever. Chocolate & BBC Good Food are the recurring themes in this list and are fan favourites.
On your marks, get set, BAAAKE!
Madryn, 4th year.
Mini chocolate cakes
I created these after a baking failure. I was aiming to make a big chocolate cake to celebrate the end of January (a too long and cold month) but I’d underbaked them. To avoid wasting the whole thing, I cut smaller circles from the baked sections (avoiding the gooey middle) using a cookie cutter and sandwiched the circles together with thick chocolate ganache. If made on purpose, you’d get lots more mini cakes and scrap bits to eat as you decorate!
Recipe courtesy of Nigella here
Welsh cakes
To try and cure my homesickness for Aberystwyth, I make welsh cakes! They’re a traditional cake/biscuit/scone-like treat, usually covered in sugar and eaten with butter. Less traditionally, I usually double this recipe and make half with raisins and half with chocolate chips (my flat hates raisins). I also add some nutmeg. You don’t need a griddle pan, a heavy frying pan at medium heat works just as well.
Find my favourite welsh cakes recipe here
Best ever chocolate brownies
These brownies took twice as long to bake as they should have thanks to my oven but still turned out well. I used white chocolate chunks only but adding other types of chocolate or chopped nuts would be even more delicious. The flat verdict on these brownies is “perfect texture”, high praise indeed!
Certified best ever brownie recipe here
NYC Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are the perfect chunky cookies. You can make them with any kind of chocolate, nuts or flavourings and they keep in the freezer so you can pop one in the oven whenever! The recipe uses a stand-mixer but I just use a wooden spoon. I would recommend watching the recipe videos to see the ideal dough texture as it’s quite crumbly. These cookies are a firm flat favourite and are so tasty warm out of the oven.
Mug Cakes
I started making microwave mug cakes in first year as we didn’t have an oven and I still love making them now. They’re quick and easy, just not very aesthetic sadly. See below for the recipe.
Mocha from the book “Mug Cakes” by Mima Sinclair.
Place 1tbsp of butter & 20g dark chocolate (finely chopped) into a mug and microwave for 10-20s until melted.
Add an egg, 1tbsp milk & 1tsp instant coffee mixed with 1tbsp hot water and beat with a fork until thoroughly combined.
Add 2tbsp light brown soft sugar, 2tbsp self-raising flour & a pinch of salt and beat until smooth.
Cook in the microwave for 1.5-2mins. Once out, pour over another tsp of instant coffee mixed with water. Top with cocoa powder, cream or more chocolate
Happy chocolatey baking everyone1
