The basic guide to fairy cakes

Fairy Cakes are fun, simple, quick and cheap to make! A fairy cake can be the essential lunchbox snack or the perfect bit of munch for a kids party.

Save money when shopping for fairy cake ingredients, and you'll be surprised how much you can actually get out your money!

Ingredients for 12 fairy cakes (24 mini cakes):

-125g / 4 1/2 oz softened butter
-125g / 4 1/2 oz caster sugar
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-125g / 4 1/2 oz self-raising flour
-2 tbsp milk

Method to make.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and prepare 12 large, or 24 mini cake cases.

2. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Gradually add the flour and the butter, folding the mixture together.

4. Pour the mixture into the fairy cake cases.

5. Bake the cakes for 10-15 minutes, until golden on top and a skewer carefully inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Allow to cool for ten minutes on a wire rack before removing from the tin.

6. To make the icing, whip together the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder. You can go for a different topping too.

7. Once the cakes are cool, get messy with icing them

8. Decorate the cakes with chocolate buttons, sprinkles, or ask the kids what they fancy.