Easy Tray-Bake Sponge Cake

Preheat your oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4). Place your baking tray on to a sheet of baking parchment and use a pencil to draw carefully around the bottom of the tray, then cut out the shape. Use a little margarine or butter to lightly grease the insides and bottom of the tray, then sit the parchment in the bottom, pressing it down gently.
Find your biggest mixing bowl and sift the flour and the baking powder into it, then sieve in the sugar, too, squashing out any lumps. Next, add the margarine, the milk and the vanilla to the bowl and give it a quick stir. Break the eggs carefully into a smaller bowl, then tip them into the big bowl (this allows you to spot and remove any bits of shell that might otherwise find their way in to your cake – remember to wash your hands after touching raw egg). Use an electric whisk to beat everything together for a couple of minutes, until you have a well-combined cake mix; if you don’t have an electric whisk, you can use a wooden spoon (and bit of elbow grease!) to beat everything together just as effectively.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared baking tray and use a spatula to gently level off the top. Put it into the hot oven and cook for about 40 minutes; the cake is ready when a carefully inserted skewer comes out clean, with no trace of raw cake mix. Leave the cake to cool while you have a think about how to ice and decorate it!

*Flavour variations*

To make a chocolate cake, add 2 tbsp of cocoa powder to the flour when you sieve it at the start of the recipe. You could also add some chocolate chips, for a double-chocolate sponge.

To make a lemon cake, add the grated zest of 2 lemons when you add the eggs, and don’t add any vanilla essence.

To make a cherry cake, stir chopped glacé cherries into the cake mix after you have finished whisking or beating it – you could use any other dried fruit or chopped nuts here, too (fresh fruit tends to make the sponge go a bit soggy, though it’s really nice used as a topping)

When your cake has cooled, you can ice and decorate it. We’ve suggested a couple of icing ideas – if you like, you can top the icing with fresh fruit, chocolate curls or a sprinkling of your mum’s favourite sweets.

*Icing ideas*

To make a quick glacé icing, sift 225g of icing sugar into a bowl and gradually stir in 2-3 tbsp of boiling water until the mixture is the consistency of thick cream. Beat until smooth and thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, then use straight away. For a citrus glacé icing, replace the water with orange or lemon juice; if you want to make a chocolate version, sift 2tsp cocoa powder into the icing sugar before you add the water. You can also add food colouring to your icing if you like.

Mascarpone icing is rich and thick, like buttercream icing, but a lot less cloying. To make it, simply tip a 250g tub of Mascarpone cheese into a large mixing bowl, then add a few drops of vanilla essence and sift in 1 tbsp icing sugar (you can add more or less sugar to suit your taste). Beat everything together until smooth, then use a spatula to spread it carefully over your cake.