On Weekend Breakfast we wanted to set our budding young bakers a challenge for this coming week. We know so many of you have been busy in the kitchen and sending us amazing pictures of your creations so we thought we would have a Mini Bake Off here on Weekend Breakfast!

A favourite regular guest on the show, Chef Shane Smith joined Alison on Weekend Breakfast to launch our Baking Challenge!

So your challenge.. if you choose to accept it.. is to bake your most creative cookie this coming week and send us your pictures to [email protected] by Thursday evening the 16th of April.

It could be your favourite biscuit, a jammy dodger, shortbread, whoopie pies, red velvet cookies - whatever tickles your taste buds!

Then we will send on photos of your creations to our panel of judges including Shane and Aisling Larkin from Foodoppi who will choose two runner up winners and an over all winner of the Mini Bake Off!! We will share your creation on Today FM’s social media

So ready steady bake!

Shane is always full of great ideas of things to bake with your kids in the kitchen  and his Instagram is a treasure trove of ideas especially when ingredients are hard to find these days! Here are two of his tasty recipes:

 

RECIPE 1: Upside down banana caramel cake

Serves 8

Ingredients

150g golden syrup

5 ripe bananas

180g brown sugar

100g butter

4 eggs

Dash of vanilla

200g self raising flour

1 tsp bread soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

200g creme fraiche

Caramel Sauce

100g butter

100ml cream

100g brown sugar

 

Method:

Put the golden syrup into lined square 9" baking dish.

Slice 4 bananas and put in the syrup.

In a mixing bowl, mix 1 chopped banana, eggs, soft butter, vanilla, brown sugar until smooth.

To this add the flour, soda and cinnamon. Mix.

Finally add the creme fraiche and mix (if you dont have creme fraiche use yoghurt)

Pour this batter over banana and golden syrup in tin.

Bake 160c/140c fan for 45 mins to an hour.

For the caramel sauce, simply add the sugar, butter and cream to a pot and bring to a gentle boil until all ingredients are combined.

When the cake comes out of the oven, using a small knife make some cuts in the sponge and drizzle on half the caramel.

Allow to cool for 10mins and turn out onto a serving plate, remove the parchment and drizzle on the remaining caramel. Serve.

 

RECIPE 2: Lemon raspberry drizzle loaf

Serves 8

Ingredients

170g butter

170g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

225g self raising flour

Zest of 1 lemon

200g fresh raspberries

Soaking liquid

100g sugar

Juice of 2 lemons

 

Method:

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper.

Preheat your oven to 150C

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until soft and pale in colour.

Gradually add the eggs, one at a time until combined.

Next add the sieved flour and lemon zest, combine.

Finally add the raspberries and fold through taking care not to break them too much,

Place in the tin and bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.

While this is baking, heat the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.

Remove the cake from the oven and when still warm, pour over the liquid and allow to cool in the tin.

Listen back to their chat by pressing the play button at the top of the screen! 

Weekend Breakfast with Alison Curtis, Saturdays and Sundays from 8am!