Fairtrade Fortnight 2020 will run from 24 February to 8 March, where campaigners, businesses and groups can show their support for growers, farmers and workers in developing countries who produce our food.
Cakes such as sticky toffee pudding, ginger cake and chocolate bakes are staples of any good care home menu. However, it’s often easy to forget when you bake a cake, that the ingredients have been grown and harvested in developing countries, the other side of the world. It’s almost unthinkable to consider that they may not have been paid fairly for this work.
Simple swaps in your baking can help to make your cakes more ethical. During Fairtrade Fortnight you can choose Fairtrade ingredients and be assured that the ingredients are not only sustainable, but the farmers have been paid fairly and have had access to training. This means that you can make a big difference to someone’s life just by baking a cake. Why not host an event to raise awareness? To get you started, here are some ingredients to consider using that can be Fairtrade and are widely available:
- Golden caster sugar – this pale golden sugar is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. It will give a subtle honey flavour to sponge cakes.
- Instant coffee – not just for drinking; coffee and nut cakes are a firm favourite. Coffee can also be added into butter icing, chocolate or caramel cakes. Fairtrade coffee is often made with 100% Arabica beans.
- Cocoa powder – use in your favourite chocolate recipes. Fairtrade products have certified beans that have an intense chocolate flavour; perfect for brownies, cakes and tray bakes.
- Honey – with delicate floral flavours and an amber colour, honey is great for breakfast items and cookies. Just remember it’s not suitable for vegans.
- Chocolate chips – these are available in milk, dark and white varieties – perfect for folding into sponges and muffins.
- Bananas – Fairtrade bananas are widely available. Why not try out our recipe below for banana, apricot and walnut muffins?
If you are interested in implementing Fairtrade in your organisation, these few simple swaps can help with your delicious bakes.
Banana, Apricot and Walnut Muffins
Serves: 12
Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Time to cook: 25 minutes
Dietary requirements: Dairy-free, Egg-free, Vegan, Halal, Kosher
Ingredients
- 175g/6oz white self-raising flour
- 175g/6oz wholemeal self-raising flour
- 100g/4oz caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 30g/1.25oz soya flour
- 125g/4.5oz dried apricots, chopped roughly
- 50g/2oz walnuts, chopped roughly
- 2 medium bananas
- 120ml/0.25 pint sunflower oil
- 310ml/0.55 pint soya milk
Instructions
- Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Blend bananas, oil and milk with blender/hand blender.
- Mix dry ingredients with wet. Fold together and mix, but only until incorporated. Don’t over mix.
- Place in muffin cases in muffin tin. Bake at 180°C/350ºF/gas mark 4 for 25 minutes.
