But as I was still feeling pretty lazy, I used a cake mix (eeek! - don't kill me).
The cake mix was quite plain - just your average Victoria Sponge mix, so to jazz it up (as you do), I added banana and almonds (we were all out of walnuts), and made cupcakes instead of one big cake - iced with chocolate buttercream.
Here's a (kinda) recipe:
Ingredients:
1 packet of Victoria Sponge Cake mix (with the egg and water needed)
1 small/medium banana, mashed
10 or so walnuts (or almonds), roughly chopped
For the buttercream -
55g unsalted softened butter
85g icing sugar
20g cocoa powder
2-3 tablespoons milk
Method:
1) Follow the instructions to make the cake batter, and add in the banana and chopped nuts - you'll probably want to use slightly more water than the cake mix instructs.
2) And that's about it - fill up your cupcake cases in the bun tin - my cake mix made 11 cupcakes, but you might get 12 if you didn't eat as much of the batter as I did ;)
3) Bake them for 15-20 minutes 200°C in a regular oven, or 180°C in a fan oven, or until golden-brown, risen and springy to the touch (that's such an over-used phrase :))
4)While the cupcakes are cooling, make your buttercream! Just mix the butter, sugar and cocoa powder together, and pour in the milk little by little, until you're happy with the consistency.
5) Pipe, spread or dollop the buttercream onto your cupcakes, et voila! Enjoy!
yes I am aware of how...odd...those 'brown piles' look :') - don't worry, they tasted delicious!
ah - this was me getting interesting with the piping - haha.
So, there you have it - that's how I made my average Victoria Sponge cake mix a little more interesting, and it's possible to do this with lots of flavours, like cinnamon and peeled, chopped apple in the batter, and a cinnamon-y caramel icing (I made this with some friends, and it was DELICIOUS), or lemon zest in the batter with a lemony icing...anything you have lying around the kitchen, really.
xx
