Measure all the ingredients except the cocoa and icing sugar into a large bowl and beat well with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Put half the mixture in another bowl and add the cocoa powder. Mix well. Gently flatten the cakes with the sealed edges on the bottom and the smooth surface on top. Don’t press too hard. Cut three parallel dough incisions with a sharp knife. Don’t forget to put the pastry in the fridge before you bake it so that it keeps its shape and texture. To make adding sprinkles a little less messy, I find it helps to pour some into a small bowl first.

Loosen the edges, then set aside to cool in the tin. When cold, take out of the tin and leave to chill in the fridge. With plenty of new festive bakes and desserts to try, Mary Makes it Easy is the perfect cookbook to add to your collection in time for Christmas. Think Celebration Trifle, Bûche de Noël and Very Berry Christmas Fruit Cake. Start with the butter. Using a blunt knife, chop the butter into small pieces to make it easier to mix. If it’s not soft (we always forget to take it out the fridge), pop it in the microwave for a few seconds, but not long enough to melt it. If you’re using baking spread or margarine you can add it straight in. Get your kids to measure out all the ingredients and add them to a mixing bowl or freesttanding mixer. Meanwhile, to make the icing, measure the butter and icing sugar into a large bowl. Whisk together with an electric hand whisk until pale and creamy. Add the salt and the remaining caramel from the tin and whisk until just mixed. Make sure you do not overbeat, as it could spilt.Yes. The quantities we’ve listed in the ingredients will make 12 small fairy cakes. If you want to make more, of if you have the larger cupcake cases and still want 12 fairy cakes, use 3 eggs and 150g of the butter, flour and sugar. Measure all the ingredients for the cake into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Bake for about 30 minutes, until well-risen and just set around the edges. Take out of the oven and rest for 10 minutes to allow the top of the cheesecake to become level and flat. Begin this cake the night before you want to bake it. Place the cherries in a sieve and rinse under running water. Drain well then dry thoroughly on kitchen paper. Measure all the fruits and chopped peel into a large bowl. Mix in the brandy, cover and leave in a cool place overnight.

To fill. Melt butter in a medium pot and add all ingredients except egg white and demerara sugar. Remove from heat and add rum. Wait 3–4 hours or overnight before using the filling. Make the filling a few days ahead. Before filling Eccles cakes, let the refrigerated filling rest for 30 minutes.Put large spoonfuls of both cake mixtures in the tin, then swirl the two together with a skewer to create a marbled effect. To make the buttercream icing, place the soft butter and vanilla extract in a large bowl and sift in half the icing sugar. Mix with an electric whisk until smooth. Sift in the remaining icing sugar and mix again. Add the mascarpone to the bowl and gently stir with a spatula (don’t beat with a whisk as it may split). Put a fluted nozzle in a piping bag and spoon about 150g/5½oz of the buttercream into the bag. To assemble the cake, sit one of the sponges on a cake plate and spread one-third of the buttercream over the cake, then sit the other cake on top. Ice the cake by first spreading a thin layer of icing – a crumb coat – over the whole cake before chilling for 30 minutes. Fairy cakes rather than cupcakes were the bake of my childhood, although both are delicious in their own ways. If you’ve got an ice cream scoop they can sometimes dish out the perfect amount of batter, with a less mess. If you don’t have one, try soup or dessert spoons instead. Make sure they the batter is nice and evenly distributed so they bake evenly.

And while cupcakes normally have a bit swirl of butter icing on top, fairy cakes are traditionally decorated with some plain icing and a few sprinkles. Eccles cake assembly. Roll the pastry to 1/8–1/4″ thin on a floured surface. Cut squares or rounds. The average diameter is 3.5 inches. If you can, put some sprinkles in a small bowl before you add them to the icing. It’ll remove the temptation for your kids just to tip them out of the tub straight on to the fairy cakes which can get a bit messy! What can I use instead of self raising flour? Put all the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Divide between the two tins, and level out evenly. Who is the author: Food writer, TV regular, and queen of baking, Mary Berry has been teaching the nation to cook for decades and is one of the UK’s most prolific cookbook authors.

When cool, pierce the cake at intervals with a fine skewer and feed with a little brandy. Wrap the completely cold cake in a double layer of baking paper, and again in foil, and store in a cool place, feeding at intervals with more brandy. Don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist. Cover the cake with almond paste or marzipan about a week before icing.