Please share the baking recipes people BEG you to make

[Koili]

I’m trying my hand at baking for the first time. Have made a few amazing things but quite a lot of meh.

Please can I ask you to share any recipes you know work and are crowd favourites. I would love to be able to take something to a friend’s house which is actually good.

Thanks in advance.

I made the bbc good food’s banana bread quite successfully for anyone who is looking for a good banana bread recipe. It was a little greasy so maybe slightly reduce the butter (I later saw a few people made that suggestion in the comments)

Nigella’s Easter Egg cake! I now make it for birthdays or any other big occasion as it’s such a big hit. It’s kind of like a chocolate truffle cake topped with chocolate mousse. Delicious and pretty foolproof to make. https://www.nigella.com/recipes/easter-egg-nest-cake

I think we need a separate brownie comparison thread. The Mary Berry recipe I use is the only thing DS asks for.

Wow cant wait to start on these

Always sells out at school bake sales.

This is by far the most requested bake in my house, and fortunately it's super easy too! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/peach-melba-squares

https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/09/chocolate-pavlova/

This chocolate pavlova. Originally a Nigella recipe. Very quick and easy.

I make these all the time, quick and easy and gluten free. I echo your thoughts - it’s a recipe for big standard peanut butter, not the purist crushed peanuts and nothing else stuff.

I love this and I'm not even that keen on fruit cakes. Seems much lighter somehow.

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/meals-and-courses/afternoon-tea/sticky-prune-and-date-cake

Husband is coeliac so I swap the plain flour for Doves GF plain flour and the wholemeal flour for Doves GF brown bread flour.

Nigella’s brownies
Nigella’s lemon syrup loaf cake
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s cocoa powder brownies - he published this in a Guardian column around 2011 and it’s a great option for a last minute bake if you haven’t got actual chocolate in the house.
Smitten Kitchen’s big apple crumb cake.

Nigella is usually very reliable for baking and uses sensible proportions of things. Mary Berry is similar, though I’ve had mixed results with some of her recipes.

Smitten Kitchen is an excellent website and she’s all about streamlining recipes - and unusually for an American, is keen on weight rather than volume (cups) when baking.

Ruby Tandoh's peach and pepper tart (DP is the one who gets begged to make it, not me)

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/27/fruit-tart-recipes-peach-black-pepper-strawberry-vanilla-custard

I swear by the bero book

https://be-ro.adareinternational.com/products/be-ro-recipe-book

I think i got mine of amazon about 20 years ago, they also have a few recipes on their web page

I nearly always cut down sugar in baking recipes, sometimes as much as by half. On a drizzle cake, I drizzle with plain juice rather than a syrup.

Donna Hay’s brownies with peanut butter (I use at least half the recommended amount of filling).
Lime and coconut cake- there’s a recipe in the Be Ro book but it’s basically a drizzle.
Father in law loves tarte tatin flambéed with Calvados!
Banoffee Pie. Gary Barlow’s recipe. Seriously.
I really want to attempt the Tom Cruise coconut cakes (he has a list of people that get one gifted every Christmas, I think it was on Graham Norton. They sound incredible).

Home I’ll from work so the bananas I usually eat before the gym went very black. Made 2 Nigel slater banana loaf with choc chip. Chefs kiss, one gone in the freezer.

Love this

I've used her recipe's for years and timings and temperatures are always perfect. Even when I switched to an Aga. She just doesn't over cook things and her brownies/cookies are on the fudgey /softer side. I too am a die hard Mary B fan but the styles are very different and my children love the novelty of the JP bakes.

These went down very well this weekend.

All gone in about 5 minutes apart from the few my mum hid.

I used Lindt this time.

great thread