All celebrations, be they birthdays, engagements or weddings tend to require cake- so I thought I’d share our family ‘standard cake recipe’ which makes a lovely moist spongecake, ideal for cupcakes or celebration cakes.
Its very simple, and can be adapted and modified as necessary to give a whole host of flavour variations. The beauty of this recipe is it really has never failed me.
You will need:
eggs, sugar, baking margarine (I find Stork works fine!), self raising flour.
The difference between this method and most usual recipes is that you make a decision on the size of you cake, choose the number of eggs required, and measure everything else against the weight of the eggs.* As a guideline:
2 eggs = 24 cupcakes
4 eggs = small victoria sponge
6 eggs = larger celebration cake
So, for a small celebration cake (half size) I chose 3 eggs and weighed them (in their shells):
I then put in the same weight of marg’ and sugar, ‘creamed’ them together, added the eggs and flour- and mixed together (wooden spoon or a blender are fine).
You should end up with a ‘dropping consistancy’ mixture (add a few drops of milk if it’s too stiff). Put into cupcake cases/lined tins, and you are good to go!
Bake for around 12-15 min if cupcakes and 30-40 min for larger cakes (this mix wont drop, so feel free to open the oven and check if your cakes are done).
Like I said, you can adapt the recipe to any taste/occasion. Here’s a ‘berry and almond’ twist, with frozen red berries, 1 oz flour substituted for ground almonds, plus a drop of almond essence.
*This method works because eggs vary massively in their weight/ moisture content and you may end up with a very dry cake following standard 2 eggs = 4 oz recipe