Let them Eat Cake! Or just admire them :)

One thing I love more than anything is baking and decorating cakes. It is a lovely thing to do, as you can share baked goods with people you love, and it is a more personal kind fo treat to give someone as involved some form of effort.

I am often elected to make birthday cakes for people, or just enjoy making a few cupcakes for friends birthdays as an extra little (yummy!) gift.

To make a typical sponge cake I use two round or square tins and the recipe as follows:
6oz/ 170g sugar
6oz/ 170g self raising flour
6oz/ 170g margarine
2 large eggs

Simply blend the margarine and sugar together to start with. Add one egg in, and mix, then the other. The stir in the flour with a metal spoon, half at a time. If the mixture seems really thick or is curdling slightly, then you can add a splash of milk to help.

Then divide the mixture equally into the tins, lined with greaseproof paper, and bake for around 20 minutes in an over pre-heated to 180 degrees (200 for non fan ovens).

Prick the cake, when you feel it is done, with a skewer or knife and see if it comes out clean. If so, the cake is done. If there is any wetness or mixture on the knife though, then stick it back in the oven for a little while.
You can use this recipe for cupcakes too, just spoon the mixture into cases in a patty tin.

The things I have the most fun with is decorating and personalising the cakes. My best friend and I often bake cupcakes and decorate ones for each other and just some in general, with lots of little bits and pieces: hundreds and thousands and sugar strands, chocolate, food colouring, icing pens, icing shapes, mini marshmallows and so on. Here is one particularly messy example!:

I recently tried using proper frosting, which never normally works for me, to decorate cupcakes as a birthday treat too:

Decorating proper cakes has got to be my favourite though, just because you can be that bit more creative with shapes and proper colours and things. Some examples from over the years are below. I hope you like them- I was assured they were tasty at the time :)

 There will no doubt be more of these added over time, so keep an eye out for them.