Elevenses, Onces, Fika, Tea & Cake, Midnight Feast

[evtheria]

I enjoy a snack but would like to bake a bit more: what’s your go-to recipes for easy, delicious baked goods to enjoy daily? So not lavish cakes that take a day to make, and you get sick of by Weds - things like walnut loaf or a muffin.

And if you don’t bake but still have a snack, what is it? I like cheese on buttered water crackers or oatcakes, or a big bowl of Rice Krispies and super-cold milk.

My sweet treat that I make regularly is tiffin (aka chocolate biscuit cake) but that's a no-bake thing. I like to cut the tray-full into a range of sizes from teeny tiny mini-bites which can be a little something when I really shouldn't have anything, and also larger squares which can be a pudding when I have been reasonably abstemious during the day and can justify it.

I make banana cake when the bananas in the fruit bowl are starting to get browner than anyone likes, and apple cake when there are too many apples. If there isn't excess fruit around I like to make a lemon sponge - simply reduce the amounts of fat, egg and sugar in a normal sponge recipe and substitute with a hefty dollop of lemon curd.

I am trying to cut down on the cake baking though as I seem to be in the mood to bake at a rate that exceeds the capacity of the household to eat cake, and I recently found that most of the volume of the freezer was taken up with portions of cake that had been frozen from a bake where I had made something, kept out an amount that seemed about right to be eaten over the next few days and froze the rest so that we wouldn't be left with stale or mouldy cake. I then kept baking again rather than retrieving the second half of a previous bake so gradually the freezer got overwhelmed. I will find a better balance of baking frequency when we have eaten our way through the backlog.

Rock cakes are quickest for me.
I tend to make a tray bake like brownies or flapjack and cut up and freeze. I eat them out of the freezer without defrosting sometimes or get a few out in the morning. Or make cookies and put in a tin.
Millionaire shortbread is good for that, too. Tin or freezer but tends not to last long either way.
I like Sue Lawrence’s books for baking.

Abstemious is a fantastic word!! Sorry nothing more to add rubbish baker so I eat caramel rice cakes mostly for that naughty/not naughty hit!

I do a lot of baking for lunches:
Cheese flapjacks moorlandseater.com/savoury-flapjacks-with-vegetables-nuts-seeds-cheese/
Cheese scones
Savoury muffins realfood.tesco.com/recipes/goats-cheese-spinach-and-herb-mini-muffins.html
Sausage rolls
Quiche
Puff pastry tarts

For sweet treats:
Cinnamon buns www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cinnamon_buns_10634
Cherry and almond loaf www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/cherry-almond-loaf-cake

At the moment I’m loving marmite hummus with mini cucumbers. Premade & branded marmite hummus is absolute heaven but the rate I could go through it it’s pricey, so I just mix some marmite into regular hummus. Baby cucumbers are so un-tough (can’t think of the word!) but crisp. Love them. Yesterday I added in pistachios. Was very pleased with myself for not stress-grabbing some crisps.

Also LOVE and crave tea loaf with butter but never get around to making it.

But I’m here for the suggestions!!

I am working my way through the national trust book of scones (ginger and rhubarb were particularly good), but similar to pp my desire to bake is outstripping my family's ability to consume it all, and the freezer is now full of scones ... I need to get back into the office, my colleagues used to hoover up my surplus baking.

I recently made some very simple oat biscuits from an old recipe book that belonged to my grandma. They are great for a snack as not too sugary and they keep you going.

Biscotti (reduced sugar)
oatmeal cookies
Hong Kong style hotdog rolls (my kids favorite, but I sub some wholemeal chapatti flour for the plain flour)
chai masala banana cake (healthy recipe from Olive magazine)
any banana cake (I reduce the sugar a bit)
cardamom orange cake
date-filled cookies
Special treat: almond butter oat cookies (almond butter is expensive where I live) or marble cake (Nigella Lawson recipe) or pandan chiffon cake

Banana muffins are a breakfast favourite

Great suggestions, I’m making a list!

@av3nturin3 If I made pandan cake it would not last a day!

Banana bread. I make it in the breadmaker, as uses less power. I also halve the sugar, and DH hasn't noticed the difference yet.

@Terrazzo I’m 100% Team Vegemite myself, but am so curious about marmite humus I think I’m going to have to try it...

I've made sugar free banana cake which always goes down well- simple and quick to make! I've also followed a recipe for banana scones which was lovely!

My DH is the baker here - he makes choc chip and raisin oatmeal cookies that are really quick and keep for a week if we don't eat them faster! Also an oat-flour based shortbread which is very easy, just mix ingredients and press into tin and bake, no need to form into a proper dough. They are both GF for my benefit but the 'flour' component is oats so they are still delicious!