I have a cranberry quick bread that is very VERY labor intensive. Calls for cutting a cup up cranberries in half....and I've triedw ithout doint that and they explode and make pockets in the cake and I have tride coarsly chopping them and that doesn't work well either... AND it calls for a fair amount of grated orange peel. Delicious but a pain....not even going to post that one! But this also makes a single loaf, not as tidy looking as the other, but lots easier. cook a loaf about 40 minutes. Best Cranberry Muffins 1/4 cup butter (melted) 1 1/2 cups flour 2 t. baking powder 1/2 t. salt 1/2 cup sugar 1 large egg 1/2 cup milk 1 cup chopped cranberries 2 TB cinnamon-sugar Cool melted butter. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat egg and milk, then add in cooled butter. Add wet ingredients to dry. Stir quickly to moisten. Add cranberries. Fill muffin cups half full and sprinkle tops of batter with the cinnamon sugar. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Muffins 1-3/4 c. rye flour (almost any flour, or combination you like) 2 t. baking powder 1-1/2 t. cinnamon 1/2 t. ginger 1/4 t. nutmeg 1/4 t. cloves dash salt 1/2 c. raisins or currants 1/3 c. apple juice, or other fruit juice, or milk substitute 2 T. coconut oil (or vegetable oil) 2-4 T. agave nectar (a honey-like sweetener from catcus) Egg substitute equal to one egg, or you can also leave out 1 c. pumpkin puree Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin tin with vegetable oil, or use cupcake papers to line the muffin tin. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Mix in raisins. Combine juice, oil, and agave nectar in a 2-cup nonmetal measuring cup or small bowl. Heat liquid ingredients briefly (20 seconds) in the microwave to soften the honey. Add egg substitute and pumpkin puree to liquid ingredients. Mix well. Add liquid ingredients fo dry ingredients and mix briefly. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups and bake 20 minutes. Immediately after removing from oven, loosen muffins with a fork, and turn them sideways in the cups to cool.

I have a Bundt cake recipe with chopped apricots and it's one of my favorites. It's called orange apricot yogurt bread. Nice for summer. I've found another recipe from the Boston Globe. The ratios look better than the other ones and I'm gong to substitute chopped chocolate for the blueberries and use a ganache glaze. Blueberry Buttermilk Tea Cake 2 1/4 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup fresh blueberries, picked over 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3/4 cup buttermilk Confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling) 1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess. 2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to blend them. 3. In another bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 teaspoon of the flour mixture. 4. In an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugar in two additions, beating for 1 minute after each. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. 5. With the mixer set on low speed, beat in half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice. 6. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a large rubber spatula fold in the blueberries and any excess flour in the bowl. 7. Spoon the batter into the loaf pan, mounding it slightly in the center. Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake is clean when withdrawn. 8. Set the cake on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out of the pan and return the cake to the rack to cool. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into slices with a serrated knife. Lisa Yockelson

Iris, I can't imagine why they would test done, but not be done. I've used the disposable foil-type pans and I did have a problem with them baking unevenly, but they were overdone, not underbaked. As LindaC conjectures, I can only think that putting them on a baking sheet may have compromised the baking process. Sorry about the bread, though, that is such a waste of time and ingredients when that happens, plus you have to do something else in place of them as a gift. (sigh) Annie