AIBU to think I am utterly crap

[TheSnowFairy]

at baking?

Not inspired by GBBO (much) but more that DD (7) has shown an interest in baking.

Yesterday we made flapjacks, followed the recipe to the letter but firstly the amount we ended up with was so much less than the picture. Then when cooled they were rock hard.

Today I caved in and bought a packet mix to make biscuits .

The mix was too dry so I added water - then it was too wet. The cooking time said 10-12 mins. Checked it after 10, needed more. Checked a couple of mins later, needed more. Another couple of mins - and they were burnt!

I am notoriously uncrafty but for goodness sake, AIBU to think there MUST be a recipe I can manage? Please come and share with me...

TIA

FEEDBACK

Costa's Fairy Cakes

Despite putting all the ingredients in at the same time (helpful DD had done so before I read out there we should have done it in stages ), we whisked them until there were no lumps and baked for 15 mins at 180 (fan).

We ended up with 20 fairy cakes which taste delicious!

Thank you - more (very easy) recipes please

Hooray! You can use the all in one method for sponges, sounds like your daughter just discovered it

Are you saving some for bake off tonight?

How about this for your next cake? By the way, you can use the fairy cake mixture to make a victoria sandwich, just divide the mixture between 2 round cake tins, and once baked and cooled, sandwich together with jam or jam and whipped cream

Choc fudge cake

175g Self raising flour
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Bicarbonate soda
150g Caster sugar
2 Eggs Beaten
150 ml (1/4 pint) Sunflower oil
150 ml (1/4 pint) Semi skimmed milk
2 Tbsp Golden syrup

For the Coating and filling
75g Unsalted butter
175g Icing Sugar
3 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
Drop of Milk

Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 18cm (7 inch) sandwich tins.
Sieve the flour, cocoa and Bicarbonate of Soda into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well.
Make a well in the centre and add the syrup, eggs, oil and milk. Beat well with electric whisk until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into the two tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.
To make your butter icing, place the butter in a bowl and beat until soft. Gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder then add enough milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable.

'The all in one method'

Costa my current favourite, which is a take on your victoria sandwich above, is to replace 50g of flour with 50g of ground almonds in the cake, and throw in a teaspoon of almond extract. Then you also add in almond extract into buttercream and fill with that and raspberry jam. THen you dust with icing sugar. You end up with a victoria sandwich/bakewell cake. It is divine and stupidly easy to make.

I can't remember what recipe we use (probably a basic one on BBC Food/ BBC Good Food) to make delicious choc chip cookies

We use the 30p value bars of chocolate chopped up a bit, gives a nice chocolately hit and is cheaper than buying chocolate chips from the baking aisle Personally we like a mix of dark choc and milk choc as the milk choc on its own is a bit sickly.

The recipe requires you to roll the cookie dough into a sausage shape, chill, then slice discs off and arrange on your tray - super easy

nb The discs have a tendency to spread a bit so leave space.
As others have said remove them from the oven before they look 'done' - they finish cooking as they cool and you want them bendy not brittle

You can also wrap and freeze the dough for instant cookies

Rocky road is also straightforward, and millionaire's shortbread using a can of condensed milk. I like making fairy cakes into butterfly cakes too [gri

If you're near a B&M or Home Bargains it's worth a look as they often stock sprinkles etc for a good price.

Pretty sure the cookie recipe we use is the Anthony Worrall Thompson one on BBC Food. Sometimes they spread more than other times, for no apparent reason!

I like using BBC Good Food recipe search. You can organise the results by 'highest rated' and people often leave comments re. successful substitutions/ modifications. I tend to stick to really highly rated recipes to avoid disappointment