Home baking is rubbish

[AmperoBlue]

Full of the joys of spring I decided on a whim to make Belgian Buns for the kids to eat at half term.
I have had to buy ; strong flour, yeast, sultanas, icing sugar and lemon curd. From the pound shop mostly but that’s still a fiver.

Then I used from my supplies of caster sugar, milk and egg. So they’ll need replacing now.
I have literally spent all day waiting for dough to rise (twice),kneading for 10 minutes, cooking time, cooling time and then icing.

And they are shit. Dry, not sweet enough, not enough lemon curd or fruit in them.I could have picked up a packet of 2 for £1.20.
Now I have 12 lumps of slightly sweet bread in icing to (throw out) do something with.

Use a Nigella recipe. It is pretty foolproof.

Home baking is amazing.

Home-made Belgian buns, however, are the devil's work. I made them once and was thinking, every second of the 4 sodding hours it took, "why am I doing this when I can buy them for 80p from the CoOp just up the road?"

OP belgian buns sound quite complicated. I'm a better cook than baker, but I'm starting to get into baking. Here are two consistent winners in the Marlow house. I prefer buttercream on the fairy cakes (but if up to me I'd put buttercream on everything).

www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/mary-berry-s-iced-fairy-cake

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4942/lemon-drizzle-cake

You are right that baking can be expensive and sometimes ship bought stuff is nicer. But it's the fun of making it. It's a hobby and like most hobbies you have to pay to do it.

Sounds weird but sometimes I like if something I make doesn't turn out. I've had the fun of cooking it but now don't have to worry of eating it (too many calories), storing it, etc.

Agree entirely. A fortune in ingredients and a substandard product at the end.

I'd rather just buy a nice cake and be £20 up.

I also just use my bread maker to make dough, then shape the dough and bake in the oven. I have a huge bag of bread flour from Costco.

I'd rather just buy a nice cake and be £20 up.

The only cake I can buy that’s worth eating sets me back around 30 Euro (from an upmarket independent cake shop).

Factory made packaged cake is pretty grim.

I bloody love home baking, but I have a slightly obsessive personality that leads me to tweak a recipe until it's absolutely perfect - and then move on to the next obsession.

I can imagine it's not half as much fun if you don't have that. Also, enriched breads are a mega faff - but I think are freezable which means that if you make a monster batch you can then portion them up and bung them in the freezer to bake at a later date.

There are some things which taste vastly better if homemade...cakes, brownies, pies, some breads

Other things just aren't worth the time and money...Belgian buns, croissants and puff pastry for example. Hugely time consuming and the results aren't much more impressive than a store bought version.

I cheat and get aldi cake mix and add butter instead of oil.

I'm a half decent home baker but anything with yeast in is a no-no. There are lots of simple home baking recipes to get you started that won't cost a lot. It's hard to ruin brownies or banana loaf. And simple all-in-one bowl cake mixes.

@M3lon - have never tried microwaving the butter. May just give it a go.

It was a bit ambitious.

hillarious

That is basically a Victoria sponge recipe with some of the flour replaced with drinking cholcolate.

Victoria sponge recipe is the basis of all easy cakes, use it for cupcakes too.

By the way, replace your drinking chocolate with cocoa and it will be even nicer! (need the full 6oz of sugar, the reason you only need 5oz in yours is because drinking chocolate has sugar in it)

Anytime you fancy baking just whip up a Vicky sponge. It is impossible to get that wrong and kids love it because jam and icing sugar. Result.

steppemum - it's quite different to a Victoria sponge. The boiling water has some magical impact on it. The drinking chocolate is more than just cocoa with sugar - there's also milk powder in there, which makes a difference to the sponge and to replace it with cocoa would make it too bitter. An all-in-one Victoria sponge is never as good as one that's involved creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and folding in flour. This chocolate cake is so simple and easy to make and for an all-in-one cake, it's a beautifully light sponge. Give it a go - you won't be disappointed.

Hillarious - I use the same recipe with cocoa, and I promise you it is better! Much more chocolaty, we use a bit of boiling water to disolve the cocoa, just like you.
When I run out of cocoa and have to use drinking chocolate it is just not as chocolaty by comparison
I don't make it all in one, as I always cream butter ans sugar first, but plenty of people do, eg Mary Berry, and it works. I was brought up to make a Victoria sponge properly (creaming the butter and sugar first). It is a relatviley new thing that you make it all in one.

(and on Bake Off, the winning Victoria Sponge was the one made by creaming first )

steppemum - with all due respect, you've not tasted my cake and I've not tasted yours. I never said I use the boiling water to dissolve the drinking chocolate, so the method is different to yours. I don't accept your assertion that a version made with cocoa is better. "Better" is subjective. Anyone who's tasted my cake has been surprised to learn that it only uses drinking chocolate in the recipe, and it's plenty chocolatey enough. The texture is quite different to that of a Victoria sponge. Please don't write it off.

I really need to disagree with a PP. It's entirely possible to fail with a Victoria biscuit sponge. I'm better now I have a stand mixer but still over half are flat and curdled. There are other ways of making a sponge cake, sure.

I also just use my bread maker to make dough, then shape the dough and bake in the oven. Yes, I used to do that, and make little rolls shaped as letters, so you could try, for example, to eat your initials in bread rolls.

hilarious and steppemum

Well I think there is only one way to settle this. I need a cake from each of you!

NotMe you need all your ingredients at room temperature before you start. If you are doing the all in one method, use SR flour + baking powder.

Its all getting a bit heated in here. Have a [cookie] :D

I think we need a panel of at least 3 to judge the chocolatiness of both cakes, and declare The Winner. Will it be chcolate poweder or will it be cocoa powder? What if you have cacao and not cocoa?

Fecks sake

Jyst asked my dd and she says you prove overnight for buns