Ciara Sims

I love baking. I find it so relaxing and you get to tuck into delicious treats afterwards. Baking doesn't have to be hard either. I think sometimes people over complicate it when really I think one of the nicest cakes is the simplest - the classic Victoria sponge. Today I'm going to share a really simple mini Victoria sponge recipe with you that you can knock up for a party, BBQ or just for yourself. They're really easy yet delicious.

Ingredients:

For the cakes: (makes 12)

• 120g of plain flour
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter
• 120ml milk
• 1 egg
•  ½ tsp vanilla extract
• raspberry jam

For the icing:

•  250g icing sugar
• 80g unsalted butter
• 25ml milk
•  ½ tsp of vanilla extract

Method:

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
2. Chuck the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or if you're lazy, an electric whisk until everything is combined.
3. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is all mixed in.
4. Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl, then pour that into the flour mixture and continue mixing until all mixed in and smooth, but be careful not to over mix.
5. Stick cupcake cases into a 12 pan cake tray and spoon the mixture into the cases until all the cases look equal.
6. Stick in the oven for 20–25 minutes and you're good to go.
7. To check if the cakes are done you can put a clean skewer into the centre of one of the cakes. The skewer should come out clean. If any mixture is left on the skewer, your cakes aren't done and they need to go back into the oven.
8. If your cakes are cooked then leave them too cool on a wire cooling rack.
9. While the cakes are cooling you can get on with making your icing.

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the butter.
2. Beat the butter and icing sugar together using a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until they are combined. (If you are using an electric whisk be careful not to set it too high otherwise you'll have icing sugar everywhere and it's a pain to clean up).
3. Mix the milk and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl, then add them to the butter mixture a little bit at a time.
4. Continue mixing until the icing is light and fluffy. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes. When you've finally finished mixing, you're ready to start putting your Vicky sponges together.
5. Now your cakes have completely cooled you can remove them from their cases and cut them in half horizontally. This will give you the top and bottom half of your sandwich.
6. Now spread as much of the jam as you would like onto the flat side of one of your sandwich pieces and spread as much of the icing as you would like on to the other sandwich piece. (If you're having a bit of trouble spreading your jam then you can warm the jam in a bowl in the microwave for a couple of seconds, and if you're having trouble spreading the icing then you can use a piping back to pipe it on).
7. When all your pieces of cake have been topped with either jam or icing them you're ready to pair them up and sandwich them together until you get 12 Victoria sponge cakes.
8. If you have any icing left over like I did then you can make your sandwiches extra pretty by piping a little bit on the top of the cake in any way that you like. If you don't have any icing left over then a dusting of icing sugar is classic and really effective.

This cake recipe has been adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook's Vanilla Cupcake Recipe.

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do and have fun making it!

What's your favourite cake?

Ciara x

There are two things that I love most around Christmas, and no they're not the gifts or cheesy Christmas films.They're baking and gingerbread. I thought I would share with you the recipe I always use for gingerbread perfection.

• 350g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g/4½oz butter
• 175g/6oz light soft brown sugar
• 1 free-range egg
• 4 tbsp golden syrup

Method:

1. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and stick them into a bowl. Add the butter and mix until it all looks like breadcrumbs. Then stir in the sugar.

2. Beat the egg and golden syrup together in a separate little bowl then, add to the big bowl and mix until the mixture clumps together. Tip the dough out, knead quickly until smooth, wrap in cling film and stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

4. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 cm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave your gingerbread on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled decorate however you would like and get eating!

Get baking and let me know how it goes when you're finished, I'd love to know!

Ciara x

 Mother's Millionaire Shortbread:

• 250g of plain flour
• 75g of caster sugar
• 175g of butter (softened)

• 175g of butter
• 175g of caster sugar
• 4tbsp of golden syrup
• 397g of condensed milk

• 200g of dark chocolate
• 200g of milk chocolate 
• A knob of butter