1 day to go!

There are a heap load of things to get done today!  Well at least I'm up!

Dishwasher on, laundry on and Kitchen cleaned down ready to make a mess baking again!  Baking Day has morphed into two days!

But first....off to the butchers to get the Turkey....Done!

Now Chocolate Traybakes.... I find that my 4 egg mixture comfortably fills 3 lakeland Traybake-Moulds or one Lakeland-Non-Stick-Traybake 'tin'. 

I make this recipe for a small friend of mine (who follows a Gluten-free diet) by substituting ordinary self-raising flour with doves farm gluten-and-wheat-free self-raising flour. Here we go...

275g of self-raising flour
225g of butter or margarine
4 tbs of milk (or soya milk)
1 tsp of baking powder
225g of caster sugar
2 tbs of cocoa powder (or leave this out and add 3 drops of vanilla essence)
4 eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 180, 350 or Gas 4 and grease and line your tins or moulds.

Cream together the butter or margarine and sugar until pale and well combined.

Add the rest of the ingredients and combine well (easy if you have an electric hand whisk or food processor, but if you don't, just add around a quarter ot the dry ingredients and 1 egg and combine before adding in the same proportions until it's all in!)

Pop into your tin or moulds and pop into your oven, the small ones take about 35 mins and the large one about 45 mins.

Once cooked, remove and allow the sponge to cool in the tin for a while...if you try to move it too soon it can crack and break.  The ones in the moulds leave in the moulds. 

To make my sponges look a little more festive I sifter icing (confectioners) sugar over the top through a stencil I made by punching Christmas motifs out of a piece of paper with shaped hole punches.  I packaged mine in a doily and cellophane wrap.

Here's a picture (although it's a bit obscured by some large gingerbread stars bearing the recipients names and threaded with ribbon!)