And cupcakes too

These ones were from Nigella's Fairy Cake recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess, which is lovely and easy and delicious:

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 large eggs

125g self-raising flour

half a teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons milk

I just blitz all the ingredients (apart from the milk) in the food processor til smooth, then pulse in the milk, and spoon into cupcake cases (makes about 16-18 smaller cupcakes or 12 muffin-sized cakes). Bake at 200C for about 15-20 min, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The frosting is taken from my mum's 1977 edition of The Cookery Year, and it's a great recipe which works every time!

Seven-minute frosting

Preparation time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1 egg white

6oz caster sugar

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons water

Pinch of cream of tartar (I can't get this here, so have to make it without)

Food colouring paste and cocktail stick

Put all the ingredients in a deep bowl and whisk for a few minutes using an electric hand mixer.

Place the bowl over a pan of hot water and continue to whisk until the mixture is thick enough to stand in peaks, after 7 minutes.

Stir in the desired colouring (mix v. gently). Pop the mixture into a freezer bag/piping bag and pipe onto cakes.

I like to add a few sugar sprinkles. This time I added pink and white mini hearts, and popped a mini marshmallow on top, only these mysteriously disappeared when I wasn't looking - think my mini marshmallow monsters must've struck hehe