My favourite basic baking recipes as a hobby baker

I absolutely love baking; it's such a therapeutic hobby for me, and I do a lot of it - mostly sweet treats, but a few savoury bits too! I thought I would share the links to all of my favourite recipes, because I'm not at the stage of creating or using my own, and these are all really easy recipes that I've successfully tried, test and come back to again & again!

Chocolate cake

I love a chocolate cake, and I gravitate towards the Jane's Patisserie Back to Basics Chocolate Cake recipe - it works every time for me! The cake is never dry, always rises well, and is full of flavour. The only thing I change is the buttercream recipe; I use 350g of icing sugar + 50g cocoa powder to 200g butter, otherwise it's just a bit too thick and dry for my liking. I have also been known to doctor the buttercream further with various essences, usually either salted caramel or orange. This allows me to create either a chocolate orange cake or a chocolate & salted caramel cake very easily!

Victoria sponge cake

Again, I use the Jane's Patisserie Back to Basics Vanilla Cake recipe; I've been making a good old Victoria sponge for as long as I can remember, but I do find this one makes a really great size cake compared to other recipes I've used in the past!

I use both of these recipes when making cupcakes too!

Blondies

A few years ago I really wanted to make blondies, but I was convinced it was really difficult - it's actually not at all, and I use a very simple Easy Blondies recipe from Inspired Taste. It's American but has the measurements in grams too, and these turned out perfect the very first time I made them. I've done them with white chocolate, and also with milk chocolate AND Mini Eggs. Seriously delicious, and browning the butter is definitely worth it.

Brownies

As my blondies have always turned out so well, I also now use the Best Fudgy Brownies recipe from Inspired Taste - okay, so I've made brownies a total of once but they turned out SO well and I'll definitely be doing it again (and again and again). I added chopped up milk chocolate to mine, Lidl's own because it's super cheap, and they were unreal.

Focaccia

My savoury baked good of choice is focaccia, and I use the BBC Food focaccia with garlic and rosemary recipe - I just sprinkle whatever I fancy on top, as I never tend to have rosemary in. It's time consuming, but it's so worth it because it's absolutely sensational even if I do say so myself.

Over the past year or so I have also made meringue nests, Viennese biscuits, sausage rolls and more - I did a bit of a GBBO bake-along in 2025, so that encouraged me to try a lot of different recipes. I get most of my baking equipment from Amazon (you can shop my baking storefront here) and I usually get my ingredients from Lidl or Aldi because they're cheaper but the quality is just as good!