Cheats Simple Fruit Buns Recipe

It’s really easy to bake your own fruit buns, fruit cakes, fruit muffins or cupcakes – but if you’ve not got any weighing scales, or simply don’t wish to go through the process of weighing out ingredients etc, then why not cheat?

Every supermarket has branded and own-brand cake mixes that mean you can simply open a packet and not have to weigh any flour or butter out at all. The Tesco Everyday Sponge Mix costs just £0.22 and can be kept in the cupboard until you have that random “I want cake” moment! This particular pack is one I have in the cupboard as I can make a great variety of almost instant desserts and cakes from it.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of Tesco Everyday Sponge Mix (any sponge mix will do though, just follow the packet instructions), 230 grams.
• 1 egg (usually an ingredient the packet mix will require of you)
• 75 ml water
• A handful of fresh or frozen fruit of your choice – frozen blueberries or sultanas, raisins or finely chopped apple, your choice!

Method:

1. Make up the packet mix sponge as the pack tells you. The Tesco Everyday Sponge Mixture just wants you to beat the egg, then add the egg and 50ml of water to the dry packet ingredients and beat a lot of air into it (by hand, or with a whisk) – then add in another 25ml of water and beat again.
2. Add your fruit of choice and stir this through gently – you don’t want to lose any of that air you’ve got into the mix!  If you wish, you can hold a few bits back to sprinkle on the top just before baking, that’s personal preference, I’m happy that my fruit seems to have sunk in the photo.
3. Grease any bun tin – I use silicone bakeware as I don’t like the clatter of metal dishes (sometimes I have strange foibles).  You might choose to use paper cake cases to minimise washing up efforts and make your buns look more presentable.
4. Spoon your mix into the bun tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for 12-16 minutes (you’re looking for them to be as brown as you like them on the top).
5. Once cooked, remove the buns from the oven and set to one side to cool for a bit

You can store your buns in an airtight tin or container on the worktop – they should still be moist for 3-4 days.  Or, if you wish, bag them up in freezer bags and freeze them if you don’t wish to be too tempted.  To defrost the buns either place in an airtight container on the worktop, or microwave them on low power for 1 minute when you wish to eat a bun!

Don’t be food-shamed by people who tell you that you NEED to use the best/organic hand-ground flour and beat it with locally produced hand-churned butter (or even that you should make this yourself)…. just embrace the simplicity of packets and think “this way I have cakes on demand!” and less mess.  What’s not to like?

Menu Cost: 

A 230 gram packet of sponge mix will make about 12 little buns.  The packet mix cost me £0.22, the egg cost me £0.08 and the fruit was about £0.2 worth.  So I got 12 good buns for a cost of £0.32 – bargain!