Recipe with a secret ingredient...please help!

[ipredicttrouble]

Hi

I've previously asked for baking advice here and got some great replies so hoping for more of the same. I really am a novice baker (at best) and shy away from anything that has to rise. I can just about cope with things like cookies, brownies, flapjack, crumble etc.

Anyway, I am part of a baking rota type thing at work and although I love sampling all the treats I slightly dread my turn. Saying that I haven't had any disasters so far as have stuck to the basics. Each 'rota' of baking has a theme and my turn is coming up soon...so I was hoping some lovely mumsnetters could give me some ideas. The next theme is 'mystery ingredient' so basically we have to bake something with an unusual kind of ingredient and others have to guess what it is!

Any ideas? My skills are limited, as I say, so really want to avoid cakes/muffins or anything that has to rise much. My cooker is also crap BTW.

Thanks!

I've made a butternut squash cakes before - it was spicy and moist, like a carrot cake, but you would never have guessed! I can't remember where I got the recipe but there are lots online. I've also heard of a chocolate cake that uses mayonnaise.

Not sure if this is all that secret but nigellas scores have cream of tartar in them and they turn out really well, I often make cheese ones. In her domestic goddess book she has recipe for courgette cake?
On a different level our local farmers market has a watercress stall and they make a variety of cakes and pastries with watercress?

I've made a chocolate cake with courgette in it - that was nice.

I also have a recipe for a chocolate cake which has porridge oats in it - it is one of the richest chocolate cakes and everyone is surprised when you reveal it has porridge oats in it!!!!

What about chilli chocolate brownies www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2678636/chilli-chocolate-brownies

weetabix crumble www.grouprecipes.com/117065/pips-crumble.html

or all bran loaf www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1980639/all-bran-loaf-cake

Nigella's courgette cake is absolutely gorgeous.

Wow! Thanks! Loads of ideas here. I shall peruse all the links and start having a think.

It is a funny one whether to go for a regular type of recipe with something like cream of tartar that people wouldn't necessarily think of or something more unusual like butternut squash in a cake.

Nigellas Guiness cake also excellent or beetroot brownies.

Google black bean brownies. They taste amazing and have the most bizarre ingredients ever!

Will do...thanks...both sound great.

Oh yes, the Guinness cake is always a hit and it's a very easy recipe - no creaming or anything.

Right the Guinness cake it is! Does is require much rising or indeed a decent oven?!

It's very dense, like a fudge cake sort of texture.

(don't be scared of rising, though - it's not witchcraft!)

Google sprite cake!

Chocolate cake using mashed potato.

Potato chip cookies. Several versions on-line. They're delicious

all cakes need a decent oven- or to qualify that - you need an oven thermometer so you know what your oven is doing. I have an ancient electric oven in a rental flat, it runs very cool and has dodgy dials with markings worn off, not sure what i'd do without my thermometer , with it i can bake perfectly. The guiness cake is supposed to be easy. I've never made it but a friend regularly does a yummy one.

BTW i did an event of guess the ingredient at work , 4 different cakes all of them had a vegetable , the kids and adults loved it (all that free cake!). One child happily ate a piece of courgette cake, declared it nice and on being told what the mystery ingredient was luckily smiled and looked a bit confused (rather than turn green and get cross) - courgette was a vegetable his mum said he loathed.

Thanks everyone! Going to have a run through of the Guiness one this weekend. Showerhead - can you get an oven thermometer from the supermarket? I think this is what I need! But running out of time.

The girls at work loved Nigellas courgette chocolate cake. They couldn't believe it was made with courgettes. Very easy and very moist.