Jen's 1st Birthday Butterfly Cakes

Possibly the easiest cakes you can make. I chose these not for that reason, but because at my childhood birthday parties butterfly cakes always made an appearance. Of course, I failed to get them to taste as good as Mum did, but I did use a different recipe, which I thought would be better. Wrong.

The recipe I used is Mary Berry's. No offence to Mary, but I think I do prefer the one from Mum's copy of the old-school Be-Ro cookbook...

Makes about 12 small cakes.

100g (4oz) butter at room temp, 100g (4oz) caster sugar, 2 large free-range eggs,  100g (4oz) self-raising flour, 1 level tsp baking powder.

for the icing:  175g (6oz) butter at room temp, 350g (12oz) sifted icing sugar plus extra for dusting.
(I thought this was a lot, so I reduced quantities...)

You can just whisk everything together if you want to, but I always cream butter and sugar first, add the egg gradually - whisking well until everything is smooth - and then sift in the flour and baking powder. Divide evenly between cake cases and bake for between 10 and 20 mins depending on size of case used at 200 C/Fan 180 C/gas 6. I always rely on my cake tester to judge when cakes are ready, and also if they feel firm to touch.

When cool, cut a circle from the top of each cake, and cut in half to form the 'wings'.
For the buttercream, mix the icing sugar and butter until smooth. I attempted to pipe the buttercream in to the hollow space, but it didn't stick to the cake, so I ended up using a spoon. Position the wings on top, dust with icing sugar, and that's it!