Sarah Rainey - Six-Minute Showstoppers: Delicious bakes, cakes, treats and sweets – in a flash!

For anyone who thinks they dont have time to bake

What can you do in six minutes? Drink a cup of tea reply to an email devour a chapter of a book hang up the laundry run a mile (really fast)

But what if I told you that you could bake an entire cake from scratch? Make a batch of biscuits, golden and crisp from the oven? Whip up a showstopping dessert to wow guests at a dinner party? And all in about the time it takes to boil an egg.

Youd probably think I was mad. I wouldnt blame you. And before I started diving down the rabbit hole of six-minute showstoppers, I would have agreed. Six minutes might not sound like long and trust me, Ive timed it a lot lately but its just enough time to open up a world of delicious possibilities, if you know how.

So heres what brought me to this point. Life is short. Way too short, sometimes. And theres never enough of it to do everything we want. Baking like learning an instrument, taking up a new sport or catching up with old friends tends to fall by the wayside, no matter how hard we try. In the chaos of everyday life even your average, nine-to-five, juggling-housework-with-life-admin-and-socializing-and-staying-healthy-and-remembering-to-phone-your-parents life there simply isnt time to stop, fling on an apron and chuck a few ingredients in a bowl.

But baking isnt just a hobby. Its the ultimate you time. Few things compare to the satisfaction of making a mouth-watering cake and serving it to your loved ones. Or taking time out to make a decadent dessert one evening just for you, just because. These rituals dont simply feed our bodies. They feed the soul. At least thats how I see it.

By sacrificing baking because it takes too long or feels like too much faff, were giving up all that. The soothing, satisfying, age-old wonder of taking raw ingredients and turning them into something tasty. And this, to me, feels like a real shame. Even as a proper keen-bean baker, Ive lost count of the number of times Ive taken a shop-bought sponge to a friends house, or tucked into a packet of supermarket biscuits all because I dont have the time, or energy, to make them myself.

So six-minute showstoppers are my antidote. And I hope they will become yours, too. Created for time-short, shortcut-loving home cooks, mums, dads, kids, students, busy people, impatient foodies and everyone in between who want to conjure up something tasty and impressive without spending all day in the kitchen. Proof, I hope, for the doubters, that baking doesnt have to be time-consuming, stressful or expensive. Instead, it can be simple, speedy and stunning.

In the pages that follow, I bring you my very favourite and fastest showstopping desserts, sweets, treats and savoury snacks. From microwave brownies to ice cream made in a freezer bag, from cheats crme brles and done-in-a-flash doughnuts to cookies you can bake in a griddle pan, top-speed truffles, and biscuits that keep on cooking once youve switched the oven off.

After my first book, Three Ingredient Baking, came out in 2018, lots of lovely readers who got in touch said the same thing: they wanted more ad break bakes the type of thing you can rustle up in the breaks in your favourite TV show, without any proving, resting, kneading or general waiting around. So I listened, as best I could. Not only is this book packed full of quick-fire recipes, but most of them are pretty hands-off, so you can multitask to your hearts content. Guests dropped round unexpectedly? Chances are youve got the ingredients in the cupboard to make one of these while the kettle boils.

Theres an instant fruity sorbet, chocolate cookies that bake in just four minutes, pizza made in a pan, pimped-up popcorn, unicorn bark, the fluffiest pancakes youll ever taste and countless other scrumptious treats to make you go, Wow! Some are dairy-free, gluten-free and even sugar-free, while others are jam-packed with all the naughty things were only supposed to eat in moderation.

Ive tested (and eaten, in vast quantities) every single one of them and I promise you two things

Firstly, theyre all showstoppers. The clue is in the name (thanks, Bake Off). Ive designed each and every one of these recipes to impress, and if you do them right the results should look far more complicated and time-consuming than they really are. Whether youre feeding five people, fifty people or planning a showstopping solo meal, this book will help you go all out to make your handiwork look and taste really good.

Secondly, they all take six minutes to make (with one or two swifter exceptions). Six. Its not a magic number, it just happened to start with the same letter as showstopper. Maybe you dont need to know that. But I was determined to better all the many brilliant books already out there which are designed for super-fast food. And six minutes just felt right.

Now dont get me wrong, I love slow cooking. Risotto, stew, bread they all have a special place in my heart. But theres also a time and a place for six-minute bakes. When devising these recipes, the most important thing for me was to be realistic. Some of the recipes are ambitious and will require a bit of ambidextrous utensil work, while others are more straightforward. Ill leave you to decide which ones suit your style of baking. As well as the timing, Ive tried to limit the number of steps and dishes used, so hopefully your kitchen wont look like a bombs hit it by the end.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the idea is not to time yourself. Sure, you can set a Ready, Steady, Cook-style challenge and race your friends, if thats what floats your boat. If you do, I stick by the six-minute guarantee. But, at least the first time you make these dishes, theres no need to rush.

Read right through to the end of the recipe some of them require a bit of additional chilling or freezing or time in a cooling oven, others can be eaten straight away and follow the prep steps to the letter, weighing your ingredients out, maybe chopping or peeling, preheating whatevers needed and making sure youve got the right utensils to hand. A note here: its the methods that take six minutes, not prepping your ingredients and kit, so it really is vital to read ahead so you know whats what. Next time around, you can do it faster. And the time after that, you can probably do it with your eyes closed.

At first glance, some of these recipes may read more like chemistry experiments than cooking instructions. Youll find yourself frying, sauting, steaming, stirring, grilling, heating, creaming, beating, whisking and mixing, but also drizzling, squeezing, flipping, shaking and even setting one dish on fire. You see, this isnt just another boring baking book.

The many hacks and workarounds will help you learn how to bake without baking at all, what happens when you deep-fry puff pastry, how to make a mousse out of marshmallows and why you need to befriend your microwave (in fact, theres a whole chapter on that). I hope itll help you put the fun and a little bit of magic back into baking. Because thats what its all about.

Theres a page of thanks at the end, but for now I need to express a massive debt of gratitude to all the brilliant cookbook writers, food bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers, TV chefs, and of course my family and friends, for firing up my creativity and giving me so many ideas I reckon theres enough for a Volume 2. As ever, any flashes of genius in here I dedicate to you; the mistakes, bloopers and general incompetence are mine alone.