Some good recipes for traybakes where you melt the sugar rather than beat into butter

[soupfiend]

Im not a natural baker but would like to start making some tray bake/easy type cakes, particularly brownies or sponge type things

There are things I need to use up in the cupboards so just looking for simplicity

I am really rubbish at beating butter and sugar together, either by hand or with an electric mixer, just cant seem to get it right

So some recipes Ive been doing recently have called for the sugar to be mixed with melted butter or for the sugar to be melted in a pan with the butter or on its own and mixed with things, this I find much easier

Do you have any tray bake type recipes that use that method rather than beating butter and sugar together first? I dont mind beating together melted butter and sugar, a recipe I did at the weekend called for that and I found it easier.

@soupfiend would probably work as long as you left the yoghurt in and melted the butter. Worth a try.

@soupfiend What happens when you beat butter and sugar together? What goes wrong? I bet I can put it right for you.

This is a super easy, and healthy(ish) cake that can be made in a blender/food processor. Long story how I arrived at it, but basically tweaked a savoury version of a baby weaning traybake lol. Anyway, its soft, chocolatey, and moist. You can bake it in a tin to make a sheet cake, or make cupcakes/mini-cupcakes.
The recipe is fun to adapt - I have a v yummy walnut version, and tinkering with a lemon one.

There are frosting recipes that can also be made in a blender, or you could make a ganache. Or just use Cadbury’s Choc Frosting- it’s pretty good!

CHOCOLATE & BLACK BEAN SHEET CAKE

OVEN @ £175c, middle shelf, square 8.5inch tin (parchment lined)

BLEND:

• 4 tbsp olive oil (60g)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 20g chopped dates
• 1/4 tsp table salt

ADD + BLEND UNTIL SMOOTH:

• 1 x 400g can black beans, drained (270g drained weight)

ADD + BLEND:

• 110g coconut sugar

SEPARATELY, MIX DRY INGREDIENTS BELOW + MIX INTO BATTER (by hand - don’t over mix):

• 32g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50g plain flour

DECANT INTO PARCHMENT LINED 8.5’ SQUARE TIN

BAKE FOR 17 MINS @ 175c MIDDLE SHELF

Wait until its cool to frost.

OP- what ingredients are you trying to use up from your cupboard? We might find more suitable recipes if we knew what you have.

Flapjack
sponge with greek yogurt and light olive oil, or just light olive oil, or light olive oil and ground almonds. Sorry I haven’t got the recipes at hand but search up recipes without butter. Good luck!

Well I have poor muscle strength and control in my hands due to disabilities so I find it hard to beat a mixture that is not entirely liquid. Holding the beater is not easy but I can do it and manage it just about with liquid.

So if you can fix that, great!

This sounds fascinating. Has this recipe been converted from american quantities, such as the 32g of cocoa powder sounds like it?

What is coconut sugar?

Sugar, flour, Jam. Lots of jam

I dont want to do things with jam just on top. Ideally there would be a recipe that you can use jam instead of sugar. Does this exist?

Also lime marmalade to use up. But I dont want it where you just use marmalade as a drizzle.

OP- Rather than a handheld mixer, a standing mixer might be better- put ingredients in the bowl and the machine does the work? I've seen them at charity shops and I use the one my nan received as a wedding gift- in 1945! Its still going strong.

This recipe works well in a stand mixer, but it doesn't have melted butter. It does use up alot of jam though. I'll keep looking.
https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/raspberry-jam-coconut-slice/93504c61-43a9-4692-b57b-eb95171bff24

You can also sign up to the olio app and give it away for free if you can't use it all.
https://olioapp.com/en/

It's my own recipe, I like to experiment! The 32g is just me being picky about how much chocolate I like lol. Maybe it would taste the same with 30g!
I made this cake recently for a bday, and it went down really well.

Coconut sugar appears a lot in 'healthy' bakes as it's considered less processed. It's still sugar though, so it's not actually healthy. It does have a nice caramelly taste without any bitterness, which is why I love to use it. (It doesn't taste anything like coconut btw - just caramelly).
I think it's pretty easy to find eg -
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/292916265

I'm pretty sensitive to sugar, but if i eat something with fibre/protein along with it then I don't tend to crash as much, hence why I ended up adding beans to cake!

I would love a stand mixer but no room, currently de cluttering and really dont want more stuff, we have a small kitchen, there is no room on the worktops or in cupboards for anything more so Im going to adapt recipes as I can see people have done here.

Its a nice idea but all the stuff I want to use up is half opened, gone past its 'best before' (I dont care about that personally)

Im baking for family predominately so its going to be 'given away'!!

We are the same as my DD enjoys baking but hates the sound of the electric mixer/ food processor & it’s a faff doing it by hand. We have made most of Mary Berry’s tray bakes from her Fast Bakes book. Mary Berry actually recommends using baking spread instead of butter. With those recipes you can’t go wrong OP!

The link isnt working for me at the moment but I will take a look at this as Im going to tesco later.

I dont really believe in 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' products but like you, like to squeeze in fibre and protein where I can so Im really interested in this

Just melt the butter instead op. It will be fine 🤷🏻‍♀️

@soupfiend "Well I have poor muscle strength and control in my hands due to disabilities so I find it hard to beat a mixture that is not entirely liquid. Holding the beater is not easy but I can do it and manage it just about with liquid.

So if you can fix that, great"

My apologies. In my defence, you did say that you just couldn't get it right.

Good luck with your future baking.

I know you said traybakes, but chocolate chip cookies with meted butter here:
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

And chocolate cake with icing with quite a bit of mixing, but all liquids here:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sticky-chocolate-drop-cakes

Well I didnt really want to go into detail to be honest

Anyhow, an order has come in for a lemon sponge tray bake!

Nigella has a couple of marmalade cakes. This chocolate one melts the butter in a pan with the chocolate and lots of people have substituted jam for the marmalade.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/food_and_recipes/560312-is-nigella-s-chocolate-orange-marmalade-store-cupboard-cake-any?reply=62652941

She has a couple of others that you can google but the chocolate one is the only one I’ve made.