Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» You can always make time for what's important to you to do. Do you BUY a cake, use a box mix and bake or bake FROM SCRATCH? Why?
I used to bake everything from scratch all the time Durdle. But I've lost my touch. With the possible exception of banana walnut bran muffins (the recipe is on the cereal box) whatever I've baked I had to dump. It was inevitably inedible! I love to cook and mostly what I prepare is a success. But the baking thing is puzzling. So we have a sort of health food store we go to and they have a few really healthy really nutritious pastry thingies chock full of whole grains and nuts and seeds which are all DELICIOUS!. Lower in sugar and unhealthy fats. So I've settled. I don't know where that Rosie went but somewhere at some time I think she left for other adventures! Thank you for your reply! :).
I find timing a cake very difficult. I think every oven has its own temperature, not quite what it says on the control-knob, and I'm still not quite used to mine despite living in this house for coming up to three years. Besides, every cake is slightly different, so very hard to judge. It may say "one and half hours" but I often have to keep giving it another 10 minutes, another 5 minutes...
Our Mam used to bake a lot, but with age and the family fleeing the nest one by one, she cut back on that and instead often bought from the Women's Institute market. Still home-made, but made by others.
Most of my efforts work. I tried flap-jacks once but over-cooked them - very tricky to get those right. I also found a rather exotic cake recipe that called for a lot of jam. I used a jar of cloud-berry jam I'd bought in Norway, but I think I'd kept that too long and it had gone off. The cake was edible, sort of, but not very nice.
There is a small, independent whole-foods shop in my town, and they sell from the bulk bag, two or three types of delicious muesli. They also sell bars rather like you describe, full and nuts and fruit.
Durdle 