It’s been a few weeks since our last blog, with a lot going on at home we’ve just not had the time. We have of course been cooking and baking but not had the time to write up what we’ve been up to.

Today however is Grandad’s birthday and Regan wants to make a cake to take round. We don’t eat a lot of cake, it is normally limited to birthday time, that said we LOVE cake!

I can’t take the credit for this recipe and unfortunately I can’t give credit, has despite lots of googling, I can’t find where we got it from! I’ll add a credit later if I find where we got it from. The recipe is a good one, so it would be a shame if I don’t give the credit correctly.

Anyway, this is also a good one for baking with kids, as it is simple and all about weighing rather than measuring.

Ingredients for cake: 4 eggs; caster sugar; softened butter; self-raising flour; 1 tsp baking powder;  up to 2 tbsp milk.

You’ll notice I have put measurements for the sugar, the butter or the flour. Whatever the eggs weigh in their shells, this is the weight you want for each of these ingredients, so for example if the eggs in the shells weigh 251g, then you want 251g of caster sugar; 251g of softened butter and 251g of self-raising flour. Eggs vary in weight so weighing them ensures you get the right balance. I always find cooking in general allows more expression and experimenting as you can vary flavours and ingredients, but baking is more of a science and you need to follow a recipe that works.

Method: Put the sugar and the butter in to the KitchenAid stand mixer, or if you wish you can cream these together with a fork. You need to get the butter and sugar to a smooth  and nearly white in colour. you can then add the eggs and the flour and the baking powder using a tablespoon a little at a time to ensure it mixes well. We sometimes add a drop of vanilla essence to the sponge mix. The milk is used to let the mix out a little so add carefully. You want the sponge mix to be a dropping consistency but not too runny!

With a spatula empty the sponge mix equally in to two 20cm round well greased cake tins. The ones with the removable bottoms are best. You can weigh each tin with the mixture to get each the same. Give the tins a knock on the work top to level and bubbles in the sponge mix, as you don’t want holes in the sponge.

The other thing this recipe differs to others is the baking. Most sponge recipes suggest setting the oven at 180C and baking for 20mins, with this one we bake at 140C for 35-40 mins. Set the timer for 35 mins and check with a skewer which should go in to the sponge and come out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and then add the filling.

The filling can vary to taste, but a good always popular choice in our home is good quality jam and whipped fresh cream! In the summer we add fresh British strawberries sliced.