Recipe || Salted Caramel Butterfly Cakes

The weekend I was bored out of my mind, I'd watched every YouTube video I could, I'd read a whole book and I'd killed the battery on my iPod; there was only one thing for it, I had to bake. I'm a massive fan of baking, I've been helping my mum to bake cakes and to bake my own for as long as I can remember but recently I haven't been baking as much due to the fact I've had exams (so I haven't had time) and also I've been trying to eat as healthily as possible, cake not quite falling into that category. However, last weekend I just thought to myself "You know what? F**k it!" and I came up with these super simple but delicious butterfly cakes.

Ingredients for the sponge

• 90g softened butter
• 90g caster sugar
• 90g self raising flour
• 2tbsp milk
• 2 medium eggs

Ingredients for the buttercream

• 65g softened butter
• 120g icing sugar
• 1tbsp milk
• 50g salted caramel sauce
• 1tsp salt

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (or 160 fan forced). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper or foil cases.
2. Beat all the ingredients for the sponge together until they're light, fluffy and fully combined.
3. Divide the mixture evenly between the cases and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out of the middle completely clean.
4. Leave the cakes until they are completely cool - this could take around 3/4 of an hour, but you need to be patient, as they cannot be cut or decorated until they're completely cool.
5. Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Carefully beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, then add in the salted caramel sauce and beat until combined. Leave aside until you need to use it, but don't put it in the fridge.
6. When the cakes are cool, take a bread knife and board and carefully cut the tops off the cake, then cutting them in half to make the butterfly wings.
7. Spread the buttercream all over the tops of the cakes and place the 'wings' on top so that from a birds eye view, they look just like butterflies.

These cakes are so tasty and simple to make. I really like to eat them with a cup of green tea at around 4pm, as if I'm having a posh afternoon tea!

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Summer Sponge Fingers

This is one of my favourite things to bake in the spring and summer time - they're small enough to have for afternoon tea, but still jam packed with taste. You can put your own twist on the topping and filling and I'd love to see what you make!

Ingredients for the sponge

• 225g self raising flour
• 225g softened butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs

Ingredients for the filling and topping

• 250g softened butter
• 200g icing sugar
• Strawberry jam
• Blueberries

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Grease and line an 8 inch square cake tin or a normal sized brownie tin.
• Beat together all of the sponge ingredients until smooth. Pour into the tin and smooth out, making sure it gets in all the corners.
• Bake for around 40 minutes or until a knife comes out of the centre completely clean. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then carefully turn out onto a cooling rack.
• For the filling, beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. (Be careful if you're doing this in a machine, the icing sugar gets everywhere! I would recommend gently beating it together by hand until most of it is combined, and then beat it with the machine until it's light and fluffy.)
• Once the cake is completely cool, take a bread knife and carefully cut the cake through the middle (so that it is still the same size on top, but there are two bits. Sorry this bit is badly explained, but if you don't understand then look at the picture; you need two relatively thin bits so it can be sandwiched together!)
• Take one of the pieces of cake, and spread the paler side with a generous layer of butter cream, leaving some for the topping. Then cover this with an equal amount of strawberry jam and place the other bit of cake on top, with the paler side touching the jam. Take the bread knife and cut this whole cake into smaller sandwiches, whatever size you like!
• For the topping, put the left over butter cream in a piping bag, and pipe three small dollops of the icing on top of each sandwich. Wash and dry the blueberries, and then place one blueberry on top of each icing dollop. It's important to do this quickly, as the butter cream will harden up and the blueberries won't stick!

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