Baking Recipes To Celebrate Summer In Style
If you love baking (or you just love eating cake and want more of it), it can sometimes seem too difficult to do regularly on a student budget, where you haven’t got as much space in the communal kitchen, and not all the baking equipment that you might have at your disposal back home.
Now that the summer break is here though, why not go all out and bake some stunning recipes for your friends and flatmates – giving summer parties a tasty edge!
These summer baking recipes for students are easy to make, delicious, and inspiring and to be honest, they can all be done on a student budget and in a student kitchen at any time of year!
Here are some great summer baking recipes for you to get stuck into.
1. Giant Cookie
A massive tear-and-share cookie delight for you and your friends, you can bake your own giant cookie with a variety of toppings. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4.
Tip 200g of butter and 250g light brown sugar into a bowl, beat to combine and then stir in 2 egg yolks and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
After this, tip in 275g of plain flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 150g of chocolate chips, and then this is where things get exciting. Add a pinch of sea salt and whatever other fillings you can think of, from fudge and toffee to marshmallows, chopped nuts etc.
Mix together until crumbly dough, and then spoon into a lightly buttered frying pan. Bake for 20 minutes and then leave to rest for 5 minutes so it goes gooey. Optional side serve of vanilla ice cream.
2. Frying Pan Pizza
A crispy slice of pizza, full of toppings with a refreshing salad on the side is one of the joys of the summer.
This quick and easy pizza bake is the perfect fakeaway summer recipe, with a simple dough made with flour and olive oil, mixed together quickly without the kneading or proving, and then popped into a frying pan.
For this recipe, heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/Gas 7. Place 1 deseeded yellow pepper (chunks), one sliced courgette, and 1 red onion (wedged), onto a large baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 20 minutes until soft and beginning to brown.
Season 225g self-raising flour and mix with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 4-5 tablespoons of water. Knead very briefly, roll onto a floured surface into a rough 20cm circle and then add to a frying pan, frying on medium for 5 minutes, then turning over and frying for another 5 minutes.
Spread a few tablespoons of tomato paste onto the base, scatter the vegetables and sprinkle with cheddar cheese on the top.
Grill for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and serve immediately with a fresh salad and maybe…
3. Garlic Bread
If you are baking your own pizza to go with a salad whilst you sit in your back garden this summer, why not learn the trick for a crispy home baked garlic bread too?
In fact, homemade garlic bread is often much better than anything you can buy in from the supermarket, especially frozen garlic bread.
Mix 500g strong white bread flour, 7g fast-action yeast, and 1 teaspoon of salt into a large bowl.
In a jug, mix 300ml of warm water with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of honey and then pour it into the dry mix, stirring until a soft dough has formed. Knead for 5 minutes until it isn’t sticky and stretch to fit a loaf tin.
Mix 2 crushed garlic cloves with 25g soft butter, place on the dough and then sprinkle over some grated cheddar cheese and a handful of thyme leaves. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave for 40 minutes in a warm place.
Once the dough has risen, remove the cling film and bake for 30 minutes at 200C/180C fan/Gas 6, until golden and risen. Leave for 10 minutes to cool and cut into slices, serving with the pizza above!
4. Chocolate Orange Flapjacks
These simple to bake flapjacks are terribly moreish. You’ll bake them as an afternoon treat and end up making them all summer. An everyday treat!
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6 and line a 25 c 18cm baking tin with baking paper. Put 200g porridge or jumbo oats into a bowl with a pinch of salt.
Melt 120g of unsalted butter in a small pan along with 80g brown sugar and 100ml golden syrup and allow it to cool once completely melted. Grate orange zest from one orange into the pan and squeeze in its juice.
Pour in the oats and thoroughly stir until completely combined. At this point you can add three quarters of the chopped dark chocolate (you need 100g of this in total).
Pour the entire mix into the baking tin, press down so it is even, and then press the rest of the chocolate evenly into the tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the flapjacks are golden. Cut into squares and leave to cool down before serving.
5. Baked Cheesecake
A baked cheesecake recipe is another one that’s good to have in your recipe book this summer, and this lemon and raspberry cheesecake is particularly light yet packs a punch of flavour.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, line a 23cm springform tin with greaseproof paper. Tip 225g of digestive biscuits and 100g of melted butter into a food processor, blitz into crumbs and then press into the tin and let it chill.
Whisk 250g mascarpone, 600g soft cheese, 2 eggs, 2 yolks, 4 tablespoons of plain flour, 175g of caster sugar, the zest of 3 lemons and the juice of one lemon, until completely combined. Pour into a tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until it is firm but wobbles.
Leave the cake inside the oven to cool once it is turned off. For the toppings, cover with half a pot of 284ml soured cream, then swirl 3 tablespoons of lemon curd through the top and scatter with raspberries for a pretty finish.
We’ve helped you in the past with recipes for all sorts of events and special dates throughout the year, such as pancake day recipes, so let us know how these summer baking recipes have gone down and if you’d like to add some of your own.
You deserve to bake up a storm with some sweet and savoury treats this summer after a hard year of university work!