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Your favourite cake or afternoon tea treat?

(93 Posts)
Tuaim Mon 22-Jul-24 09:03:59

I have a friend coming round for a cup of tea and she is brilliant at baking cakes to perfection. I am rubbish at baking but did notice today that the late Queen loved jam pennies. Problem solved! A nice cup of Earl Grey and some jam pennies. What's not to like? What cakes or afternoon tea favourites do you like to make or eat?

NotAGran55 Mon 22-Jul-24 19:10:59

My son’s lemon drizzle cake and my own scones. No jam though 🤢just clotted cream.

flappergirl Mon 22-Jul-24 21:01:24

Lemon polenta syrup cake served with whipped coconut cream.

My own banana, date and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting. (Not too modest).

A nice fruity danish pastry which seem to have become obsolete except for a few ubiquitous offerings.

sodapop Mon 22-Jul-24 21:16:46

I dislike anything creamy so for me it would be ginger cake and/or Yorkshire curd tart.

MissInterpreted Mon 22-Jul-24 21:27:14

flappergirl

Lemon polenta syrup cake served with whipped coconut cream.

My own banana, date and cinnamon cake with mascarpone frosting. (Not too modest).

A nice fruity danish pastry which seem to have become obsolete except for a few ubiquitous offerings.

I love the sound of that banana, date and cinnamon cake! Any chance of the recipe, please?

flappergirl Mon 22-Jul-24 22:35:11

Sorry MissInterpreted, just logged back in. It's really easy. Soak chopped dates in warm water and a teaspoon of bicarb for around 10 minutes then drain. In another bowl mash 2 ripe bananas. Just make a sponge mixture to your usual recipe, adding vanilla extract then fold in the dates and mashed bananas. Add dried cinnamon to taste and cook.

Meanwhile mix mascarpone, icing sugar and a little lemon juice in another bowl, making sure the mixture is quite stiff. Once the cake has cooled ice it with the mascarpone mixture. I usually put icing in the middle and on top.

I then sprinkle with a little more cinnamon and decorate with caramelised bananas. I slice bananas lengthways, sprinkle with brown sugar and use a kitchen blow torch to caramelise them but this is obviously optional!

It's the sort of cake that you don't have to be too precious about and it really is delicious. Let me know if you make it.

MissInterpreted Tue 23-Jul-24 07:54:26

Thank you very much, flappergirl - much appreciated, and I will definitely give it a go soon.

NotSpaghetti Tue 23-Jul-24 08:14:28

So long as it's a good example of it's type I'm not too choosy.

Plain iced bun (^not lemon or pink)
Ginger cake,
Coffee and Walnut,
Dundee,
Homemade donut,
Scones
Lemon drizzle,
Baked cheesecake

Whilst I love these I'd actually rather have something savoury!

Tuaim Tue 23-Jul-24 08:21:23

Witzend

shysal

Baggs' Apple Cake, baked as a tray bake, is my go-to recipe when I want to make something foolproof and delicious. I swap her caster sugar sprinkle with Demerara, but lovely either way.
www.gransnet.com/recipes/dish/6620-Apple-Cake

Thanks for that - apple cake is lovely. I used to make a GF one for a strictly GF visiting BiL - IIRC with some ground almonds as well as flour - the apple stopped it being too dry, like some GF cakes.

Baggs' Apple Cake recipe printed off. To be baked later today/early tomorrow as a trial run. Thank you so much for this. Love the idea of the apples stopping it being too dry.

NotSpaghetti Tue 23-Jul-24 08:24:01

Oooh, malt loaf.
Yum

sodapop Tue 23-Jul-24 08:51:37

NotSpaghetti

Oooh, malt loaf.
Yum

With lashings of butter NotSpaghetti smile

Witzend Tue 23-Jul-24 10:02:07

shysal

Baggs' Apple Cake, baked as a tray bake, is my go-to recipe when I want to make something foolproof and delicious. I swap her caster sugar sprinkle with Demerara, but lovely either way.
www.gransnet.com/recipes/dish/6620-Apple-Cake

What size/shape of tin, please? I can’t see it in the recipe.
Thanks!

HattieTopper Tue 23-Jul-24 10:08:17

Tuaim

I have a friend coming round for a cup of tea and she is brilliant at baking cakes to perfection. I am rubbish at baking but did notice today that the late Queen loved jam pennies. Problem solved! A nice cup of Earl Grey and some jam pennies. What's not to like? What cakes or afternoon tea favourites do you like to make or eat?

Chocolate cake filled with lots of cream and thick chocolate fudge icing on the top.

Witzend Tue 23-Jul-24 10:11:59

Victoria sponge boring???
Wash your mouth out, watermeadow! IMO a freshly homemade one is among the best!

pascal30 Tue 23-Jul-24 10:24:56

watermeadow

I love making cakes and if a recipe says ‘simple’ I pass it by.
I find making a cake for tea with older friends very frustrating because they all want the most boring cake in the world - a Victoria sandwich.
There are hundreds of lovely cakes, old and new, English or from other countries. I never again want to waste my time on Victoria sandwich, lemon drizzle, carrot cake, flapjacks or brownies.

I'm intrigued watermeadow.. what sort of cakes DO you make?

grannyactivist Tue 23-Jul-24 10:32:27

I’m surprised no-one has mentioned a chocolate courgette cake. It freezes really well so I batch bake and stick some in the freezer.

I tend to bake weekly through the summer, but mostly make ‘loaf’ cakes as they fit in the freezer well. Favourites are:

Lemon drizzle
Date and walnut
Ginger (using home preserved ginger)
Banana cake (never gets as far as the freezer)
Almond cakes using various recipes
Raspberry and white chocolate muffins

We have an allotment that produces lots of fruit, but most of it tends to get frozen to supply my husband with winter puddings. At this time of year when the new harvest is in I usually empty some of the previous year’s fruit from the freezer and make wine. It’s been a rubbish year for berries though.

Siope Tue 23-Jul-24 11:18:14

That’s odd. My berries and currants are the only thing that’s done really well this year, despite the ceaseless rain.

NotSpaghetti Tue 23-Jul-24 11:39:54

grannyactivist some of us have a go-to one-pan 'emergency' cake that is made from a batter - my "family" one is a chocolate cake - so any type of chocolate with or without courgette it's not really a treat sort of cake to me.

Nor, as it happens, is banana bread, nor other "bung it" cakes involving dates and so on.

When our children were small we didn't keep any sugar in the house so cooked sweet things with apples, bananas, plums/prunes, apricots dates and dried fruits etc. We did keep bees so used honey.

The sort of sweet treats to me are the ones you are lazy about at home.
I should probably take scones off my list as I do make those quite a lot, sweet and savory.
It's very rare I make donuts though!

Malt loaf is delicious but I do make that now and again.

shysal Tue 23-Jul-24 13:41:29

Witzend, the apple cake is quite a large quantity. I usually use half or 3/4 of the mixture. The full quantity would probably fit a 10 X 8 inch roasting tray for a tray bake, or possibly an 8inch cake tin for a deep cake. I have used a bought foil 12 X 8 tray, useful for sending back to Uni with GCs to share.
All a bit vague so probably not much use! I make the mixture then decide on the tin!

Oreo Tue 23-Jul-24 17:55:07

I also like a toasted fruit teacake with a cuppa😃

Oreo Tue 23-Jul-24 17:55:46

The OP didn’t want to have to bake.

NotSpaghetti Tue 23-Jul-24 18:17:27

No, you're right Oreo
She just asked
What cakes or afternoon tea favourites do you like to make or eat?
...but I think lots of us are open to ideas!

Oreo Tue 23-Jul-24 18:19:01

I daren’t even look at the ideas or I’ll put five pounds on😁

PammyHoops Tue 23-Jul-24 18:24:07

Fruit cake or lemon cake would be my first choice closely followed by just about every cake mentioned!
Just can't beat a nice cake, coffee and a good natter.

JaneJudge Tue 23-Jul-24 18:38:01

what are jam pennies?

I like Victoria sponge and carrot cake. I know that is boring

Musicgirl Tue 23-Jul-24 18:45:11

Lemon Drizzle or coffee without walnuts for me. I would far rather these than anything chocolatey.