This will do (roughly) a 9″ cake tin full of bastardised Victoria sponge. I
use it for birthday cakes mostly, but occasionally chocolate cake and stuff.
It can be varied quite a bit by adding things like broken chocolate chips,
bits of fruit, etc.etc.

Ideal covering/filling is buttercream.

Ingredients:
– Weight of three eggs in:
– Butter
– Self-raising flour
– Caster sugar (tho normal sugar will do in a pinch)
– A pinch of bicarb-of-soda if you’ve got an unpredictable oven

Directions:

1. Chuck the sugar and butter into a bowl and cream it together –
if you can get it nice, white and fluffy it’s better.

2. Break the eggs into the sugar/butter mix and beat it violently
until it’s looking well mixed and sloppy.

3. Add the pinch of bicarb-of-soda.

4. Sift the self-raising flour in a bit at a time and bind it together.
(Note: if you want to make a chocolate cake, add a couple of tablespoons
of cocoa powder at this point too).

5. If you want to colour the cake, add half a teaspoon of colouring. My
daughter, for instance, has pink birthday cakes.

6. Spoon into a greased tin and chuck it in the oven on gas mark 5, for
roughly 20 minutes. You’ll know when it’s done cos when you skewer the
cake it won’t leave any smears of mix on the skewer – I pat the top of
it as well to work out the firmness.

C’est ca!