Treats for the sweet of tooth

As I need to bake some cakes for when we open our garden on the 30th June for the National Gardens Scheme (for those who don’t know about it, we open for charity through a central agency and support, in particular, MacMillan Cancer) – see the website http://www.ngs.org – I have been practising my recipes on people who visit. These two have gone down well, so I thought I’d share them… I have been using a sweetener to cut the sugar ration – a new one made from plants – I mix half and half with natural cane sugar. I do find that even if you use white natural cane sugar it adds an extra flavour. The sweetener is Canderel made from Stevia plant extracts not aspartame as I don’t want Alzheimer’s!

Oaty apple crumble cake

Use cooking apples or dessert apples if these are not available.

I am giving the recipe as it was given out in the newspaper (The Star, 1994) but I find it a little sweet even using half-and half sugar, so I would suggest reducing the sugar amount to taste.

Note this is very crumbly indeed and if eaten as a cake rather than a dessert needs forks!

150g soft brown sugar

150g porridge oats

150g wholemeal  sr flour

1 tsp mixed spice

150g butter (unsalted is best)

225g apples (I weighed this after peeling and coring)

Mix together in a large bowl the sugar, oats, flour and spice.

Melt butter and stir in.

Sprinkle half mix in a greased 18cm tin. Press down. Arrange apples in slices on top. Fill with remaining mix and press down again.

Bake at 180C/350F/gas 4 until top lightly brown.

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The sticky favourite!

Crispy cakes: use rice Krispies or corn flakes but not sugar coated cereals as it will be far too sweet!

3oz marg/butter

2tbs golden syrup

1 mars bar or galaxy caramel

3tbs coca

3 tbs sugar

Melt butter with syrup. The best way to ensure you get the right amount of syrup is to heat the spoon in a cup of hot water until hot itself. The syrup will then slide off it.

Melt the mars bar in the pan if used. Add rice krispies /corn flakes until all the liquid is used up.

Spoon into paper cases to the size required and then cool and place in a fridge to harden.

• You can also use 3tbs highlights instant drink instead of cocoa and then add some plain chocolate drops.
• You can add some almond flakes for a nutty version and generally play around with it. The mars bar/galaxy caramel add an extra stickiness.