Help bake something that actually tastes good!

[thetwocultures]

It's my DPs birthday soon, we are in a bad situation this year and agreed no presents for our birthdays apart from DS and minimal for family/friends.

He reinforced that the other night when we were talking and said how he really does not want anything, he wants us all to have a nice dinner together at home and spend the day all together. I'm obviously going to get him a card and I was thinking that I could bake him something tasty

I'm a complete novice and never managed more than brownies and choc chip cookies in the past.
He loves Black Forest geatoux (?) with cherries I think and his mums cheesecake, she makes it with mascarpone. His mum is pretty much a master chef so I don't want to compete with that and would prefer to make something off my own back rather than use her recipes and ruin them.

It needs to be something fairly simple/easy so I don't mess it up.... He likes fruit & nuts in his cakes too. Not keen on cupcakes and frosting.

I thought either cake or muffins or maybe some posh/ fancy form of brownie??

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

I would've stick to cheesecake. They can look fancy without all the extras added on and are hard to mess up

Any tried and tested recipes would be great too!

Fool proof cupcakes are Mary Berry vanilla cupcakes...maybe you can decorate them with cream and cherries with chocolate sprinkles?

Banoffee cheesecake! Hang on...

HERE!

distractedhousewife.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/raisin-bar.html?m=1

Rum

Mary Berrys lemon drizzle is a winner and very simple but your OP said he likes fruit and nuts.

BBC Good food carrot cake is easy and it has nuts in?

Rum and Raisin Cheesecake, that should be....

Rum and Raisin Cheesecake, that should be....

These marbled brownies look impressive:www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4677/marbled-chocolate-brownies
They use a mixture of white chocolate and dark chocolate but you can also find a recipe for cheesecake brownies, which give a similar effect:www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/black-white-brownies - these would use a cream cheese in the white part of the mixture.