Cake ideas please for lunchboxes

[taffetacat]

My DS is mad for my tea loaf but I am sooooooo bored of making it. The other staple here is a cinnamon apple cake. I would like to try him and his sister with something else that holds together in a lunchbox and stays fresh for a good few days. They both like fruit and nuts and can take stuff with nuts in to school.

Anyone got any good recipes they would recommend? Traybakes considered if they won't crumble ( eg not sponge type, lemon drizzle etc ). Can you tell I hate fishing crumbs out of the nooks and crannies in the lunchbag? Thank you.

I do:

flapjacks (with various fruit/nut additions depending on what I have in)

muffins (often carrot orange and raisin, or lemon and blueberry) - these are best eaten fresh so I make batch, and freeze them individually wrapped in clingfilm, then just take one out the night before and it's ready to go straight in the lunchbox in the morning)

Rockbuns

Tea loaf

Fruit crumble - my children quite like it cold, so I make a big one and just put a bit in a little plastic pot to take to school

happy to give recipes for the aboveif any of them interest you!

thanks makemine - you given me the idea of doing carrot cake. haven't made one for ages!

I have never made rockbuns. Are they very hard? Do you need butter with them?

I use a banana bread recipe on MN here and make individual size muffins by using a silicon tray. They freeze and I pop one in the DS2s lunchbox in the morning and it's ready by dinner time.

This banana loaf is very moist and easy to make

Gas 4 and grease loaf tin 22 by 11 by 7 cm

Beat 4 oz butter with 4 oz brown sugar until creamy ( or put in food proccesor) then add 1 egg and continue to beat until smooth. Add 450g (4 bananas) of mashed banana ( or slice into food proccer) and then beat, add 1 tsp vanilla ess and 3 tbsp of natural yogurt (any flavour or type will work, I have used greek, strawberry etc and all has worked well)

seperate bowl, sift 8 oz flour 1 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp cinnamon and pinch salt together, then beat gradually into banana mixture and mix in 4 oz sultanas gently pour into tin. bake in oven for one hour and twenty mins.

it gets better as the week goes on - if it lasts that long. The secret is to use the bananas when they are speckled brown - it is not to far gone and well over ripe and not yellow and not ripe enough. I find 4 bananas is ideal. You can replace the currants/sultanas with chopped prunes

You can slice and then freeze in bags ready to just pull out the freezer the night before

Ginger bread with black treacle - as the treacle has iron which isn't a bad way of getting a little iron into the dc, add an orange juice for vit c and the iron will be absorbed better so a real good treat.

I have asked for ideas with ginger bread cake

makeminaGandT I would love your Muffin recipe please

I make all sorts of cakes, and cut into individual portions, wrap each in foil, put into airtight container and freeze. Slice of frozen cake goes into DS's lunchbox at night and is perfect by midday. That increased our cake repertoire a long way from just the stuff that keeps well.

Scotch pancakes (dropped scones), no crumbs there. Also do rockcakes, brownies, muffins, flapjack, all freeze ok, so you can just pick one out in the morning. We don't have butter on rock cakes. Muffins are dfinitely less crumbly than fairy cakes.

Thanks, some great ideas. Sadly for some reason they don't like banana in cake. May well try them with a ginger one though.

DS is a bit of a cake connoisseur ( he's 7, fgs! ), and is a bit sniffy about muffins, or indeed any individual cake, he likes a slice of a larger one, in general. I like Seville's idea of freezing and may try this with lemon drizzle.

Have just made ( for the first time )the mix for the Hummingbird Bakery Nutty Apple Loaf, will bake it tomorrow. It has strawberry jam in, and dark choc, the mix is a bit pink...

Even raw it smalls lovely though.

smalls?

smells

Titsalina - carrot/orange./raisin muffin recipe:

10oz SR flour (or 8oz + 2oz rolled oats)
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
4 fl. oz. sunflower oil
zest 1 orange
juice 1 orange, made up to 8 fl oz with milk (no, it never seems to curdle!)
4 oz sugar
2 medium carrots, finely grated
4oz raisins

Sift together flour/baking powder. Stir in oats if using
Mix together the zest, juice/milk, egg (beaten), sugar and grated carrot
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix - not too thoroughly, just so you don't see any flour (lumps are absolutely fine and to be expected). Add the raisins and give a final quick stir
Fill muffin cases almost to top (I leave about 1cm space)
Cook in a 190 degree C oven for 20-25 mins until risen and golden on top

For lemon and blueberry:
10oz SR flour
1tsp baking powder
4 fl oz sunflower oil
1 egg
8 fl oz milk
zest 1 lemon
4 oz sugar
5 oz bluberries

As above i.e. mix together dry ingredients and then wet ones. Add wet to dry. Add blueberries at the end. I reserve enough to place 3 or 4 bluberries on top of the muffin mix in the individual cases - they then look lovely. Cook as above

yum

Makes 10 large ones

oh oops - I missed out adding the oil to the wet stuff in the instructions......

TC can't you send them in with a bit of our fav brownies or will you both snaffle them the pc brigade @ school get all judgey?
tbh i send my lot with whatever's in the tin/fridge
like you i cook from scratch and know what goes into our food & i'm tired of being lectured to by mostly clueless idiots!

hi blonde

Very lucky where the DC go to school, no pc brigade. I could feed them crap all the time and no one would bat an eyelid. I do get grief from DS especially, though, who doesn't ever seem to give up asking for chocolate spread or jam sandwiches, like some of his friends have every day, despite the fact he's never had them. Its all relative though, hey. I like him having a savoury sarnie so I can give him a treat a few times a week, and as you say, apart from the fact there's no preservatives, hydro/trans fats etc in it, my baking tastes sooo much better than shop bought

Brownies are a bit expensive and a bit rich for lunchtime, in my odd little lunchtime foible world. If I include fruit and nuts along with the sugar and fat, it assuages my maternal guilt, too.

oh thank goodness that you don't have to explain yourself or justify why ds has a nice homemade slice/goodie in his lunchbag!
i was lectured to once!
mine don't like nuts unfortunately,but have you considered a piece of rocky road?
i've also made a cheapo sainsbo's basic cheapo choc version of the brownies & my lot loved them!
i'm all in favour for them having a bit of a homemade sugar rush as the school day is v long & let's face it what's in their cooked school dinns?!
choc stuff aside i find that nigellas lemon syrup loaf holds well

OP, could I ask which tea loaf recipe you use?

Yes, sure. I use the one from Tom Norrington Davies Just Like Mother Used to Make. Its a fairly standard one I think.

Its luxury dried fruit mix saoked overnight in tea, and then added to walnuts, flour, egg and dark brown sugar. Can post recipe if you're interested. For a cake with no fat, its very, very good.

I made that Hummingbird Apple Loaf today. Half of it is gone already! Its delicious.

That sounds really good andeasy, yes please :)

Tea loaf

for a 20.5cm/8 inch loaf tin

250ml tea
250g mixed dried fruit and peel
100g walnut pieces
butter for greasing
250g self raising flour
125g muscovado sugar ( dark is best )
1 large egg

Boil kettle, make tea, chuck in dried fruit and peel and leave to soak for a few hours or overnight. Add the walnuts once the tea is cold. Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas 4. Grease or line loaf tin. Beat flour,sugar and egg into tea mix. Pour into tin and bake for 1 hour. Lower heat to 150c/300f/Gas 2 after that and give it 30 mins more. Don't serve until cold. It matures very well, wrap in foil and leave in airtight container for a few days.

If you want to be really naughty, its delicious spread with real butter.....

Thank you taffetacat!
Nice and easy to do whilst the little one is about too.

I would have to try it with butter on before giving DP any. Just incase I think he wouldn't like it itstoogoodtoshare

I haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if someone else has already mentioned this but this carrot cake is divine and easy easy easy:

BBC GF Carrot cake

and I tend to sandwich together with cream cheese icing like this:

with icing

but if you're not keen on mess maybe don't ice!