My paternal Granny is a lovely little lady and is my confidant. I can talk to her about anything and she's always there for a wee cuddle when needed.
My maternal Grandparents are the lovely pair who are always willing to help out their many grand kids. They watch Agent M for me so i can go to college. Handy too cause they live just up the road from me.
So when i seen on my calender that it was coming up to Gran's birthday i decided to make her a wee cake and get her a bunch of flowers (cause what gal doesn't love getting flowers)
The base recipe is the same i use on almost all my cakes
4 oz Self Raising Flour
4 oz Caster Sugar
4 oz Margarine
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
And to make it ... I first cream the butter and the sugar together in my mixer.
Next i add the eggs (1 at a time). Once they are all combined, i add the vanilla and then gradually add the flour.
Honestly, its the easiest cake mix ever ... even when you need more of it to make a larger cake. Its a straight 2:1 ratio
2oz each of the flour, sugar & margarine per 1 egg
I wanted to make her a mini cake so i greased up 2 of my mini cake tins (though i always put greaseproof paper on the base cause its the worst if it sticks)
I divided the cake mix as evenly as i could and gave it a wee 'shimmy' to level it out a bit. *I didn't realise until Agent D pointed it out that when i 'Shimmy' the cake tins, i actually say "shimmy shimmy shimmy" ... I'm not right in the head me* :)
Anyway ... you need to bake them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 180C ... keep an eye on them though ... the size of the tins and depth of the cake can all vary the time it takes to cook.
Once cooked, set them to the side to cool and get working on the butter icing.
Butter icing is again so easy cause its also a 2:1 ratio ... So depending on how much you need you just double the ingredients. I used 10 oz of icing sugar to 5 oz of unsalted butter which gave me loads left over. *I popped that in the fridge to use for cupcakes later in the week.*
To make it, cream the butter in the mixer and gradually add the icing sugar. Keep mixing till its all combined. If you find its a bit stiff, add a tablespoon of milk and it should help soften the butter cream up.
Now, it's not the prettiest I'll grant you, but to be fair it took me about an hour as i had to keep running though to Agent M in the living room. The joys of being a mum when your little one is sick ...
I put butter cream on top of one of the cakes
And then added a layer of strawberry jam
Voila
