Easy baking recipes for Mother’s Day

Bakewell tart sheet cake

Power: 20x30cm sheet cake, 15 bars

Ingredients:

150 grams of regular flour

150 g powdered sugar, divided into 50 g and 100 g

200g unsalted butter, softened, divided into 2 x 100g

150 g ground almonds

1 egg

200 g raspberry jam

A handful of flaked almonds

powdered sugar for dusting

method:

1. Preheat the oven to 165 °C (circulating air).

2. Add all the flour and 50g icing sugar to the mixing bowl before rubbing in 100g unsalted butter with your fingertips. When the batter looks like crumbs, pour it into the lined sheet cake pan, spreading evenly and pressing down so the crumbs come together loosely. Bake the base for 15 minutes.

3. While the base is baking, mix the remaining 100g butter, 100g icing sugar, ground almonds and the egg in the mixing bowl with a spoon to form a frangipane topping.

4. When the crust has had its 15 minutes, remove from the oven and add the jam, spreading with the back of the spoon to form an even layer, followed by the entire frangipane mixture (this will a thicker layer) and sprinkled with slivered almonds before returning to the oven for another 30 minutes.

5. When the sheet cake is golden brown on top, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the pan. Dust the whole thing with icing sugar, cut into bars and top with more flaked almonds. Enjoy!

Layer cake with coffee, caramel and pecan

Power: 3-tier 6-inch cake or 2-tier 8-inch cake

Ingredients:

370g unsalted butter, softened, divided into 250g and 120g

400 g powdered sugar divided into 250 g and 150 g

4 eggs

250 g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon Baking powder

3 fresh espressos (120 ml) or 1 tbsp + 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 5 tbsp boiling water

150g pecans, roughly chopped + more for garnish.

150ml double cream

1 tsp salt

500g powdered sugar

method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C (circulating air) and line cake tins with baking paper.

2. For the sponge cake, cream together 250 g butter and 250 g icing sugar, then add the eggs and mix everything together.

3. Add the flour and baking powder, followed by two espressos, and mix until there are no lumps.

4. Gently stir in the roughly chopped pecans and divide the batter evenly between the 2 or 3 cake pans, depending on how many you are using. Use the back of the wooden spoon to level.

5. Bake the sponge cake pieces for 20-25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch and allow to cool completely. If they aren’t springy, place them back in the oven and check again after 5 minutes.

6. While the sponge pieces are cooling, make your caramel by combining the remaining 150g icing sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat until just boiling, without stirring – the sugar will dissolve by itself. Try not to stir the caramel during cooking and only toss when needed, don’t stir with a spoon.

7. Once the caramel has turned amber (about 5 minutes) and the bubbles are small, pour in the cream, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. It will rise and generate a lot of vapor, so be careful. Once combined, stir in the salt and transfer the caramel to a bowl to cool.

8. Once the caramel has cooled, rinse out the mixing bowl and spoon to make your buttercream. Beat the remaining 120g butter, powdered sugar, the last espresso in the bowl and the cream until smooth.

9. Save 60g of caramel for the drips, then assemble your cake by topping each layer with the buttercream and spreading a spoonful of caramel on top before lightly brushing the top and sides with the remaining buttercream to form a frosting to achieve a naked cake effect and scrape off excess with the knife. When your remaining caramel has thickened, microwave for 30 seconds before pouring onto the cake and scraping down the sides to create drips with the tip of your knife.

10. Scatter some coarsely chopped and whole pecans around the top and serve.

Gin and tonic drizzle loaf

Power: 2 pounds of bread

Ingredients:

1 grapefruit/orange or 2 x lemons/limes

175 g self-raising flour

175 g powdered sugar + 75 g syrup for soaking

175 g unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

120ml gin divided into 50ml and 70ml

75 ml tonic water

150g powdered sugar

method:

1. Preheat the oven to 165 °C (circulating air).

2. Take the citrus fruit you are using and slice in half to decorate (½ grapefruit/orange or 1 whole lemon/lime). Grate the other half with the fine grater/zester and extract the juice from the fruit with a fork.

3. In the large mixing bowl, combine the self-raising flour, citrus zest and 175g caster sugar. Add butter, eggs, 50ml gin, 2 tbsp citrus juice and mix with electric hand mixer until smooth.

4. Pour batter into lined loaf pan and bake until golden and springy to the touch, 35 minutes. Take out of the oven, but leave it in the form.

5. While the bread cools slightly, add the remaining citrus juice, tonic and 75g sugar to the saucepan and heat over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, 5-8 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before stirring in the remaining gin (70ml). Set aside 3 tablespoons of the syrup for the glaze.

6. Prick the bread all over with a fork and drizzle with the syrup from the pot. You can do this while the bread is still warm.

7. When the bread has completely cooled, remove from the tin. Wipe your mixing bowl clean, then use it to combine the 3 tbsp reserved syrup with the powdered sugar to form a glaze and pour over your bread, pressing down the sides lightly with the end of a spoon to to produce a drop effect. Decorate with citrus slices and serve.

Recipes from the Easy Peasy Baking campaign in collaboration with Bonne Maman. Visit for more recipes and information fabflour.co.uk/easy-peasy-baking.