Banana & Cadbury Chocolate Chunk Cake

This is a family favourite. It's moist, dense and has whole chunks of Cadburys Dairy Milk chocolate. Who wouldn't love this cake! It keeps really well and can be frozen in advance. This recipe is nearly as old as me, and won a competition in a magazine for amateur baker.

Ingredients

2 large ripe bananas (the more black the better!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
175grams margarine
225grams granulated sugar
275grams self-raising flour
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 medium eggs beaten
150grams Cadburys chocolate/your favourite chocolate


Equipment

Saucepan
20cm round cake tin


Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C).
2. Peel & mash the bananas until smooth, mix in the vanilla essence.
3. Heat the margarine & sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the sifted flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda.
5. Beat in the eggs & mashed banana. Don't worry if it looks curdled.
6. Leave the mixture to cool.
7. Stir in the chocolate chunks and then spoon the mixture into the round cake tin.
8. Bake for 1 hour+
9. Insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean then the cake is cooked.

Baking Tip: Do you open the oven when baking sponges, cupcakes or muffins?

The basic answer is NO! Don't open the oven to check if a cake is cooked. If the cake is not cooked and you open the oven, the sponge will sink and you will have a dent in your cake.

There are some simple tips to knowing if your cake is done, without having to open the oven door:

1. First, cook the cake for the minimum recommended time. Recipes have been practiced several times and therefore they know the correct baking time.
2. Take a look through your oven door to see if the sponge has turned golden brown.
3. You should be able to smell the cake now. But make sure its not a burning bit of cake mixture that has strayed from the tin.
4. The sponge would have also come away from the sides of the tin or cases.

Once you have checked these points, you can now quickly open the door and lightly press the sponge in the centre. If the sponge bounces back then it is ready to come out.

1. Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife around the edge of the tin or muffin/cupcake case.
2. Remove from the tin onto a cooling wire rack

Mary Berry's Ultimate Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the best double chocolate chip cookies I have made, thanks to baking star Mary Berry. My husband loves cookies and he now only wants me to make these, nothing else is good enough!

These are very easy, produce great results and are extremely yummy. You can even get your children helping out rolling the dough into little balls. Makes about 30 cookies.

Ingredients:
200g Bournville chocolate
50g butter
397g can condensed milk
225g self-raising flour
90g white chocolate buttons

Method:

1. Lightly grease 3 baking trays
2. Break up the Bournville chocolate and gently melt it along with the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the condensed milk, then take off the heat and cool.
4. Mix in the flour and the chocolate buttons and chill the mixture until firm enough to handle. The mixture will seem very stiff and dry, but don't worry this is how it is meant to be.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC/Fan 160oC/Gas 4.
6. Place large teaspoonfuls of the mixture spaced well apart on the prepared baking trays. Making sure the chocolate buttons can be seen.
7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies should still look soft and will glisten. Don't overcook them as they soon become very hard. Carefully remove the cookies with a palette knife and cool on a wire rack.