My love affair with baking began when I fell pregnant in December 2012. I found myself walking around our kitchen, full of wonder at our impending arrival, but with sugar cravings strong enough to leave me a drooling wreck on the kitchen floor, crying to The Great British Bake Off and seriously considering slipping Mary Berry some kind of time share on my unborn daughter if she could move that tent a little closer to my house. 

It wasn’t a good look.

So, I did the next best thing – I bought every ingredient and implement I’d ever seen on the show and started baking right along with them.

Fast forward eight years and some change, and I can knock up most things without too much fuss; cake, being my favourite, holds a category all of its own and this is where I like to challenge myself.

Which is why I didn’t go into full blown panic mode when, half way through making carrot cake with my now eight-year-old daughter, found we didn’t have vegetable oil.

The function of it in most baking is to add moisture, and I don’t know about you, but a dry cake sounds as bad as it tastes.

I’ve known for a while that applesauce is a baker’s best friend and often a secret ingredient for a while now. But I’ve never had to completely substitute it in one of my own recipes.

But without skipping a beat, I reached into the cupboard to bring out two jars of Discovery Plain – from the absolute best apple sauce company I know of – The New England Apple Sauce Company, Unsweetened. Organic. Packed bursting with a smooth, yet matured and developed flavour that leaves the mouth craving more.

And I put those bad boys in, instead of my one- and three-quarter cups of vegetable oil.

And dear reader? This baker won’t be swapping back to the vegetable oil anytime soon….

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