What with work, socialising, gym sessions and our overall busy lives we often don’t get the time to indulge in a little baking.

Baking is proved to relax us. What better way to de-stress in the evenings or the weekend with one of the following yummy recipes.

These deserts are quick to make and always greatly loved by colleagues, friends and family (if you decide to share them of course.)

Banana Bread

I have been making this one for years. A useful recipe for any old bananas or if you fancy a ‘healthy’ cake. (Anything with fruit can’t be that bad for you right?!)

Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas

100g caster sugar

170g self raising flour

150g soft margarine

3 eggs

Vanilla essence

Method:

Mix the slightly melted butter and sugar together. Add the pre-mashed banana, lightly whisked eggs and the vanilla essence. Sift in the flour. Add in whatever extra ingredients you fancy (chocolate chips, walnuts, a shot of expresso, ground coconut etc.) Given how moist this cake is no need to grease the baking tray but I’d always recommend using greaseproof paper to make cleaning easier. Pop into a pre heated oven at 190 for 35 minutes (ovens vary so much, put a skewer in the middle to make sure it is cooked through.) And… ENJOY.

Speculoos Mousse:

Living in France comes with many wonderful culinary discoveries, including that of Speculoos. A biscuit most commonly served with expresso coffees.

It has become one of my favourite flavours (Speculois ice-cream is AMAZING.)

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

6 egg whites

50g of sugar

1 large packet of speculoos

500g of mascarpone

Method:

Crush the Speculoos biscuits into crumbs (saving just a few for the decoration.) Mix together the mascarpone, the sugar, the 6 gently whisked egg yolks with the crushed Speculoos. Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks, like mountains, and add a pinch of salt. Fold the egg whites into the other mixed ingredients, the more delicately this is done the better! Pop into individual sized glasses, add a little more crushed Speculoos on top and put in the fridge for 4 hours.

As with any mousse you can replace the speculos with other ingredients such as Oreos, chocolate chunks or fruit.

I’d highly receommend the Speculos though, it has such a wonderful cinamon flavour, the texture is fabulous and your friends will think you are very exotic!

Maria’s Mum’s Cheesecake:

My friend Maria showed me this treat of a recipe rather recently. A fail safe in her family, the go to desert for all birthdays and family celebrations.

Minimal effort, maximum output.

Ingredients:

180/200gr of butter

1 packet biscuits (butter or digesive biscuits work best)

600g of Philadelphia

Small can of condensed milk

The juice from 1 lemon

Method:

Similar to the Speculoos mousse, mix together the melted butter and the grinded biscuits to create the yummy base. Spread the mix over the bottom of the tin so and place in the fridge. In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients (philadelphia, lemon and condensed milk) with a blender, whisk or your muscley arms. Spead this onto the biscuit base and leave in the fridge for a further 5 to 6 hours.

A great dinner party desert as you can make it the night before stress free. And who deson’t love cheescake?!

If you fancy jazzing it up, try and whip up a homemade coulis to go with it.

Be creative, have fun and bon appetit!

What are you waiting for? Get going to the supermarket.

No need to write a list, save this page with Noosfeer and you’ll have the recipe offline.

At Noosfeer we are dedicated to improving, and simplifying, all aspects of your life. Let us know if you enjoyed this weeks article at kath@noosfeer.com