With the Easter weekend coming up, most of us usually use the time off to do a little baking - whether that be nest cakes or Battenberg, or something else entirely! Although this year is a little different to normal, that won't stop most baking enthusiasts from channelling their inner Mary Berry.
However, as we're all social distancing and self-isolating, you may not have everything in your cupboard that you need for the perfect bake - and it's not exactly like we can nip to the shops just for a box of eggs!
Thankfully, Bonne Maman's Moyra Fraser has come up with six alternative ingredients that you can use if you've run out of the basics like self-raising flour or buttermilk - and although they're a little experimental, they're worth a try!
Alternative baking ingredient swaps:
Radio baking ingredient swaps stacked
1 of 6Eggs
'Replace one egg with any of these other ingredients:3 tbsp mayonnaise3 tbsp golden flaxseed soaked in 3 tbsp cold water1 mashed ripe banana with ¼ tsp baking powder.'
2 of 6Buttermillk
'A mixture of milk and lemon juice works well. Roughly 1 tbsp lemon juice for every 150ml milk, leave to stand for 5 minutes before using.'
3 of 6Chocolate
'Replace 25g chocolate with 3 tbsp cocoa powder and 1 tbsp softened butter.'
4 of 6Self-raising flour
'Mix 1tsp baking powder in to 100g plain flour.'
5 of 6Butter
'Try using pureed cooked apple, mashed banana or pureed prunes. For best results, use an equal volume of the substitute i.e. replace ½ cup butter with ½ cup apple puree etc.'
6 of 6Smaller bakes
'If you're now baking for a smaller number of people, using a smaller tin and cutting the cooking time accordingly can successfully halve most cake recipes or you could also turn your favourite cake recipe into muffins by using muffin tins and again cutting the cooking time.'
If you're in need of some positive vibes during self-isolation this Bank Holiday weekend, Love Island favourite Jack Fowler's given us a few tips on keeping our mental health in check.
Chatting to heat world recently, he said: "It’s not normal for people to be indoors for this amount of time, and we don’t know how long it’ll be for. Especially when your life is a hundred miles per hour; for anyone who’s got a nine-to-five and whose life is quite fast. You need to make sure that you’re not just being physically tested, but mentally tested as well.
"Don’t just sit on the sofa playing PS4 and watching Netflix,” he advised. “Trust me, I know how [easy that is]. But you have to make a conscious effort to actually stimulate your mind.
"If you need to be studying, make sure you’re studying. Structure your day."