Oaty banana cake: dairy free, egg free recipe

Oaty banana cake - not the world's snappiest title for a bake I'll admit. But sometimes you just have to work with what you're given. And this is one of those times. Much like my Blueberry and Banana Oaty bites these could be described as a cross between a cake and a flapjack. The prompt for making these was as unpoetic as the name - we got to the end of the week, unusually with a hand of overripe bananas languishing in the fruit bowl. I'm not sure what we'd done, but clearly it didn't involve eating bananas.

Initially I'd planned to make a banana flapjack, but between one thing and another this is what happened. And we really liked it - sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of a lunchbox, yet not too heavy that it felt like old fashioned health food. Spiked with sweet mixed spice, the combination of apricots and sultanas makes for a chewy treat. what I particularly like about these is that you could absolutely tailor them to your likes or what you've got in the cupboard.  The second time I made these I was a bit short on apricots so I made up the weight with a handful of dairy free chocolate chips I had in the cupboard.



Oaty banana cake
Dairy free, Egg free, vegan
Serves 16

50g Dairy free spread - I used Pure Sunflower, but Vitalite, or Flora Freedom would work just as well.
2 Tbsp Almond butter
3tbsp Date syrup (Maple syrup would work well too)
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1 apple grated (I used a cooking apple as I had some that we'd picked, but an eating apple would work as well)
250g porridge oats
100g sultanas
85g dried apricots, quartered
35g chia seeds
50g linseeds
1 tsp sweet mixed spice

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and line an 8 inch square brownie tin
In a pan or the microwave melt together the dairy free spread, almond butter and date syrup
Mix this with the mashed bananas, grated apple, and porridge oats. Beat well until blended
Add in the sultanas, apricots, chia, linseeds and sweet mixed spice
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes
Leave to cook and cut into 16 squares

Serve with tea for a grown up and milk for a toddler.

For the ingredients in italics you can swap and change any of these for things you have in, or like more. This isn't the sort of recipe you should go out and buy things for - use what you have in the cupboards on a Sunday and pop the pieces in your lunchbox as you go through the week.

Why not save this recipe on Pinterest to make later

Apricot and Cherry banana bread: dairy free recipe

Making this Apricot and Cherry banana bread was a bit of a spur of the moment decision. M had commented yesterday that we had no cake, knowing that I'd baked a massive lemon drizzle traybake the day before (I hadn't eaten it all, it was for the birthday of one of ladies in my Bible study group). I felt that this should be remedied.  This had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I've had two overripe bananas looking hopefully at cake tins all week. However, trying to pair said bananas with the contents of our cupboards and fridge I had one of those dawning realisations that I had some of the ingredients for most of our favourite cakes, but all of the ingredients for none. Typical.



Necessity being the mother of invention and all that I cobbled together a somewhat experimental cake which turned out to be rather yummy. So I thought I'd blog it. Of course I had to take pictures which I was helped with by my 2 year old assistant.



Apricot and Cherry banana bread
Dairy free, soya free
Serves 16

400g overripe bananas - weighed in their skins (this was 3 largish bananas)
125g Flora Freedom spread (any Dairy free spread would do but this is what I had)
300g self raising flour
125g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
125g dried apricots, quartered (I do this with scissors as they tend to be a bit sticky)
125g glacé cherries, rinsed, drained and quartered

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C
Grease and line an 8inch square cake tin
Mash the bananas, beat in the butter (you can melt this first, but I don't)
Add the flour, sugar and baking powder and beat in until you get a thick batter
Beat in the eggs one by one
Stir in the apricots, then the glacé cherries

Pour the cake batter into the tin and level off the top
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes

Allow to cool then serve, sliced thickly (buttered if you want) with mugs of tea.

Why not use this picture to save this recipe for later on Pinterest.

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Rockin' rock cakes

Apologies for the camera phone photo

Rock cakes are a simple bake. The simplest I can think of in fact. One of the first things I made without parental supervision, and one I revisited this weekend.

The basic recipe is one I bought in a pack on a recent visit to Redbournebury mill. However, I changed it up somewhat to suit an idea I had about flavours. 

Regular readers (and Readers) will know of my obsession with soaking dried fruit. Inspired jointly by the family recipe for Bara brith and Nigella's banana bread, it's rare for me not to soak fruit I'm baking with.  Be it in tea, orange juice, brandy, rum or as in this case,  ginger wine. The swollen fruit, scented with a hint of the liquor make for a soft and juicy addition to any bake.

If I want to speed up the soaking process I warm the liquid and fruit through in a milk pan, removing it from the heat as it comes to the boil and leaving it, covered for an hour or so to swell before draining off any excess and gently folding in the fruit to whatever cake mix I have on the go. On the rare occasions I'm organised I do a 24 hour soak,  again covered but left at room temperature - no additional heating required. Longest of all is the 3 month soak of the fruit for my Christmss cake.

I barely cover the fruit in the liquid - we're aiming for softly swollen, not drunken smush.

Ginger rock cakes

270g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

80g butter

70g caster sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinammon

pinch ground cloves

90 ml milk and egg (beaten together)

80g of sultanas - or 40g of sultanas and 40g crystallised ginger

Ginger wine - enough to just cover the fruit when in a teacup or mug

Pinch of salt

Demerera sugar for sprinkling

Put the dried fruit in a small bowl, cover with the ginger wine and leave to soak as above.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C
Rub the butter, sugar and flour in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the salt, spices and baking powder
Add the egg and milk mix and use your hands to bring the sticky mix together
Stir in the dried fruit

Put dessert spoon sized dollops on a baking tray or cookie sheet you've lined with parchment. Spred them around 2 inches apart
Sprinkle with demerara sugar
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on top

Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack

Serve warm with a pot of strong tea and a good gossip

Oaty Bars: The activity plan

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
Oaty Bars
Equipment: Sturdy saucepan (biggish) Wooden spoon Scales Greaseproof paper Brownie tin/ cake tin/ roasting tin Sharp knife Grater Clean hands
Ingredients (per patrol): 65g butter (Sainsbury’s economy butter is the best and cheap) 75g light, soft brown sugar 65g crunchy peanut butter - a no sugar one if you can find it, I'm using a Whole Earth 35g of honey (or golden syrup) and 2 teaspoons to drizzle over at the end Zest of a lemon 100g porridge oats 75g of dried fruit 75g of mixed seeds This makes about 12 Energy bars, so ideal for a Patrol of 6-8 girls	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity and links into the On Your Marks resource: Energy Boost (page 18) I would also count this towards clause 9 of the Cook badge as the girls need to chop the fruit, grate the zest of the lemons, use the cooker safely and cut up the oaty bars at the end. If you’ve not got digital scales – go with rough quantities. But if you’re rounding one up by 5g do the same all the way through to maintain ratios of ingredients Why not get the girls to taste and choose some different dried fruits – each patrol could make a different batch up
Instructions: Wash your hands Measure out the butter, sugar, peanut butter and honey and put into a big saucepan Grate the zest of the lemon into the pan too Melt these ingredients over a low heat, when they’re all combined, stir in the oats, dried fruit and seeds Press into either a greased and lined brownie pan (about 20cm square) or if you prefer flatter bars a roasting tin Cook at 160 degrees for 35-40 minutes Take out of the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely Using a sharp knife cut into squares or bars and store in an airtight tin for up to a week. These are ideal for a pre-camp cooking activity and will make a fantastic snack once you’ve pitched your tents! I checked on the prices on www.mysupermarket.com and Asda came out the cheapest, working out at £0.45 per head for a unit of 24 girls.	Safety notes: Please make sure that the girls are well supervised – especially when melting the ingredients. This recipe has huge allergy alerts – Peanuts and seeds, so please check your Joining forms/ Go reports for any allergens you need to be aware of. The peanut butter can be replaced by a couple of mashed up bananas. Alterations for Brownies/ younger Guides Weigh out the ingredients yourselves and put into little bowls Get the girls to put them in the pan, but let a leader melt them A sturdy pan is best, I didn’t bother about using a non stick one though Keep your heat low. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.

Montage Part two: Secondary characters (or Oaty bars, which is more literal)

I don't know if I've really talked about M's job much - but he's very active, and is often hungry. The quest to make sure he stays warm and has energy is one that I've struggled with, we've tried dried fruit, chocolate bars, bananas, but nothing quite hits the mark and I hate the thought of him being cold and hungry (it's clearly love).

Cereal bars that you can buy often seem to be a miss for us, they taste processed, oily even and I just don't enjoy them. So a couple of weeks back when I caught an old River Cottage I was intrigued by the idea of Hugh's oaty bars. Akin to a thick flapjack, using honey and peanut butter as the base they were chockablock with good things; dried fruit, seeds, nuts. The recipe is one of those that you can take as more of a guideline, and over the last couple of weeks I've run with it, taking the rough quantities and interpreting them loosely, depending on what we have in, and M's tastes.

Oaty bars - the Pantry version

125g butter
150g light, soft brown sugar (darker sugar would make your bars more treacley and would work really well with chopped, fudgy dates)
125g crunchy peanut butter - a no sugar one if you can find it, I'm using a Whole Earth
75g of honey (or golden syrup) and 2 teaspoons to drizzle over at the end
Zest of any two citrus fruit you have
200g porridge oats
150g of dried fruit - again go with what you like - we had chopped dates and sultanas last week, plain sultanas this week. Don't forget to soak your sultanas in tea to make them more succulent
150g of mixed seeds - last week we used sesame and pumpkin, this week we used the end of those, pumpkin and linseeds

As long as you don't alter the ratios too much, this is a completely versatile recipe - change it up to suit your tastes. Once you've made it once it would also work perfectly well doing it by eye. I can't say I weighed much this week when I made them *cough*lazycook*cough*

Method

Melt the butter, sugar, peanut butter, citrus zest and honey in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat
Stir in the oats, dried fruit and seeds
Press into either a greased and lined brownie pan (about 20cm square) or if you prefer flatter bars a roasting tin
Cook at 160 degrees for 35-40 minutes
Take out of the oven and leave in the tin to cool completely
Using a sharp knife cut into squares or bars and store in an airtight tin for up to a week.

This is such an easy recipe I wouldn't hesitate to do it with the Guides - in fact we are next week as part of their On Your Marks badge. (Just check for allergies) I'll type this post out as an activity plan.

PS: This post is without pictures because the light is APPALLING this week, and the oaty bars look like mush in every photo I take. What is my life? *overreacts*

Welsh Cakes: The activity plan

	For reference, Guides are aged 10 – 14 Break the girls up into Patrols/ groups of 6-8
WELSH CAKES
Equipment: Scone cutter/ or a clean cup or mug Fat to grease your pan (butter on a piece of kitchen towel) Said pan: skillet, heavy based frying pan rolling pin Mixing bowl Pallette knife/ fish slice Clean hands
Ingredients: 8oz plain flour 4oz butter (Basics/ Economy butter is perfect) 3-4oz caster sugar 4-5oz dried fruit (optional) 1 egg 1/2 tsp sweet mixed/ cake spice This makes about 24 Welsh cakes, so ideal for a Patrol of 6-8 girls	If doing this with Guides it is an ideal Patrol cooking activity for the summer months. Unlike pasta the fire doesn’t need to be kept burning for too long, so for new girls to making a cooking fire this is a great introduction to outdoor cooking.
Instructions: Set your fire – usual way, get at least one metal fire bucket of water by you, turf your spot/ use a fireplace, collect your wood, start with punk, build up with small sticks/ twigs and get bigger as it establishes. Make sure this is somewhere safe and that you have a leader with you to supervise. Wash your hands Put the butter and flour in the mixing bowl and rub the butter into the flour until your mixture resembles breadcrumbs (like you’re making a crumble) Add the sugar and fruit Add the egg and mix relatively gently with your hands until it comes together as a ball of dough Flour the worktop/ a table Roll out until about 1cm thick and cut out as many circles as you can (with the cup, mug or scone cutter) before re-rolling the trimmings and repeating until you have used up all your dough Grease your pan with some spare butter on a piece of kitchen towel Put the welsh cakes on the pan and every minute or two turn them over until the texture changes from scone like to a soft biscuit - try to avoid them burning, but they need to be quite dark in colour Serve as soon as they're cool enough to touch with squash for threesies, or with a cup of tea or coffee for your leaders! These will keep in an airtight container for a few days – that said, I’ve never known them too!	Safety notes: Please make sure that the girls are well supervised Fire buckets of water, for burns and to put out the fire Pot holders – thick fabric pieces to hold a pan with If you oil the bottom of the pan before using it over the fire, it’ll clean more easily This way is best for Brownies/ younger Guides You can do this indoors with Brownies or Guides as a St David’s Day activity, or when you’ve planned outdor cooking, but the elements are against you! A sturdy pan is best, but I did mine yesterday with a plain old non stick frying pan and it worked fine. Keep your heat on the halfway point or slightly lower. Usual kitchen safety rules/ washing up apply.
Extra ideas ·         Why not set a challenge/ treasure hunt to be completed successfully to win a bagged, weighed portion of the ingredients if you’re doing this as part of a weekend away? ·         Baden Powell girls could lead/ organise this as a cooking competition for one of their challenges – they could set the challenges for the other girls to get their ingredients – and ask leaders to supervise the fires/ cooking ·         If you’re doing this as part of St David’s Day celebrations, why not try finding out why these are called Welsh Cakes?