To ask what your favourite fail safe cake recipe is

[polkadotpjs]

I've made a few chocolate "cakes of disappointment" as we have named them lately. The effort of baking and no nice reward. I've a good chocolate cake recipe but it's a very moist (bleurgh) and more pudding dark chocolate taste and whilst ideal as an adult birthday cake, it's not great for kids

I love a coffee cake but yet to make a lush one, bored of Victoria sponge as I've made so many getting it right during Covid times.
Share some so I can rediscover my love of baking?

Mary Berry’s tea loaf. Can’t fail.

I always do a chocolate cake that has yoghurt and oil in it for kids' birthday cakes (if I'm making a cake that I'm turning into some iced monstrosity). It's not dry or dense, but it holds its shape really well. It's from the Leith's Baking Bible, I think.

Best ever coffee cake. I don’t have camp coffee essence. I just use a couple of teaspoons of Nescafé with a tiny bit of boiling water to dissolve it.

Pics didn’t post!

Oh, they did 🙄
Best ever chocolate cake

Google tana Ramsey's lemon drizzle cake.

Really easy and tasty

Costco

Mary Berry apple cake. The Best.

Bbc good food chocolate and courgette cake. I am hopeless at baking but this one I can do and it's delicious.

This one: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-sticky-toffee-pudding

I do mine without the dates and in one cake tin as opposed to individual dishes. Always get lots of compliments on it!

Mary Berry banana loaf. I always add sultanas, it's a beautiful cake

Banana choc chip - never fails. Mary Berry Lemon Drizzle, and a tea loaf from a Sainsbury's calendar.

Anything on janespatisserie ... they work every time x

Banana and choc chip cake

6oz margarine (I use unsalted butter)
8oz granulated sugar
2 large ripe bananas
½ tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
10 oz self raising flour
½ tsp bicarb
2 oz choc chips

Crumble topping: (I don't bother with this bit, I just do the cake)
I rounded tblespn pl flour
1 rounded tblespn demerara
1 oz butter

Method
1: Preheat oven to 160c
2: Grease and line a round 8 inch tin
3: Put marg and sugar in a bowl ands microwave for 30 seconds to melt marg
4: Peel bananas and mash with vanilla essence
5: Sift flour and bicarb into bowl and mix with marg and sugar using a wooden spoon
6: Beat eggs and add to mixture
7: Add bananas to bowl and stir into mixture
8: Stir in choc chips gently
9: Pour mixture into tin (I bake for 1 hour 20, then check)

For topping
1: Rub flour and butter together to form breadcrumbs texture, add sugar, stir and sprinkle over cake mixture in tin
Bake in centre of oven for 1 hour 40. When cooked wrap in foil for a day or two for flavour to develop,

Another fail-safe from Mary Berry. It is an 'all in one' recipe and works every time. Smells and tastes wonderfully chocolaty.
I made one for adult DS's recent birthday, filled and topped with fresh cream and raspberries.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/definitivechocolatec_72226

Best way to make a big Victoria sponge or chocolate cake is to start off by weighing the eggs. If I'm making a large one for a birthday cake I'll weigh 5 eggs for example. I'll then use the same weight of other ingredients (butter, caster sugar and SR flour plus a teaspoon of baking powder). Use the usual creaming method and if making chocolate cake replace a couple of ounces of flour with cocoa. I usually stir in some small chocolate chips in to the mix at the end too and a tablespoon of warn water. If it's a normal sized sandwich tin I would weigh 3 eggs instead of 5. Comes out brilliantly every time and sandwich together and cover with chocolate butter cream or jam and cream inside of a plain one.

I've got a good/child-friendly chocolate cake recipe:

250g butter
250g sugar
200g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
pinch salt
pinch extra baking powder
vanilla extract
It will be a bit dry when you add the flour so keep adding milk until its a normal sponge consistency.

Divide between two tins.
Check after 25min at 180 °C.

Boiled fruit cake
1 mug of cold tea
Half a pack of butter
3 mugs of mixed dried fruit
put into a large saucepan and boil for 3 minutes
Leave to cool
Add 2 mugs of sr flour and mix well, you may need to add more as it depends on how much tea the fruit has absorbed.

Cook at 180C for about 40 minutes.

I made this when DD and DGS were staying over. He took one bite ,gave his plate to his mum and came over to me and gave me a hug.

www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/sticky-gingerbread-cake-with-ginger-frosting.html
This is a winner and turns out perfectly every single time 👌🏼

My favourite chocolate cake recipe is Nigella’s old-fashioned chocolate cake, or sour cream chocolate cake (in both Feast and Domestic Goddess). It’s a proper cake - not damp but not dry - and the fudgey icing is great.

For coffee cake, my favourite is Rachel Allen’s Mocha Loaf.

Also love Nigella’s lemon syrup loaf cake, which is the best lemon drizzle.

Mary Berry's baking bible. The only cake recipes you'll ever need. Never had a bad bake following her book.

@Camomila

I've got a good/child-friendly chocolate cake recipe:

250g butter
250g sugar
200g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
pinch salt
pinch extra baking powder
vanilla extract
It will be a bit dry when you add the flour so keep adding milk until its a normal sponge consistency.

Divide between two tins.
Check after 25min at 180 °C.

No eggs?

I want to make all these. Ginger cake sounds like something I'd LOVE. I'd forgotten Nigella had a load of chocolate cakes in her book. Boiled fruit cake appeals too. Keep going!!

charlotteslivelykitchen.com/birthday-cake-all-in-one-vanilla-sponge/

I’ve made this one many times for kids birthdays and it’s very light, always get lots of compliments. I like it because she has a calculator for the size of your cake tin that lets you adjust the quantities. I use square tins for it, and ice with whipped cream and fruit.

I like Delia's coffee cake