Cheer-Me-Up Angel Cake

Of all the cakes I've made this is certainly not one of the most elegant - I even overcooked the sponges (although I seem to have mastered the art of nice even cupcakes my large round cakes always come out abysmally) - but after a horrible week of suffering from a severe chest infection and generally feeling rubbish, by the weekend I had a serious craving for a massive dose of unapologetically sinful sweet, spongey, jammy, melt-in-the-mouth, no-frills CAKE. CAKE just for me!! And the result was blissfully delicious, though unfortunately so much so that my family managed to devour the majority of it! I used my favourite vanilla buttercream icing and, being a sucker for girly prettiness, I made pink and yellow angel cake sponges topped off with rainbow sprinkles for added cheeriness. As I said, this is by no means the most sophisticated of cakes but it's super easy and certainly won't fail to raise a smile!

INGREDIENTS - makes 2 sponge layers of 8in/10cm diameter

For the cake:

• 8 oz self-raising flour
• 8 oz caster sugar
• 8 oz margarine/butter
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Few drops red food colouring

For the filling/icing:

• 2 tbsp (approx.) jam of your choice (I used strawberry)
• 10 oz icing sugar
• 2 oz cream cheese (at room temperature, full-fat works best)
• 2 oz butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Coloured sprinkles, to decorate

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Grease two round cake pans of around 8in/10cm in diameter or line with baking parchment.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Pour half of the mixture into one of the cake pans - it shouldn't be any more than two thirds full.
5. Add a few drops of red food colouring to the remaining batter until it has turned a pale pink colour. Don't worry too much if it doesn't look the perfect shade, it will look different when baked.
6. Pour the mixture into the second cake pan - again, it shouldn't be any more than two thirds full (if you have any leftover batter at this stage why not fill a few cupcake cases? :)
7. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-18 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
8. When baked, remove the cakes from the pans (I still haven't mastered the art of this!!) and leave to cool on a wire rack. At this stage the sponges can be frozen for assembling and decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the filling & icing:

1. Whisk the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract together in a bowl and then gradually add the icing sugar until a pale spreadable mixture has formed. If too stiff, add a little milk and if too runny, add some more icing sugar.
2. If the sponges have risen up too much in the middle, saw off the tops using a sharp serated knife so that they're nice and flat, otherwise they'll be horribly wobbly when stacked together. See below for an idea of what to do with the offcuts!
3. Place the yellow sponge on something flat that it will not need to be moved from when completed, e.g. a cake board, tray or tin lid (moving the finished cake is best avoided if possible!), then spread a thin layer of jam all over the top of the yellow sponge followed by a thin layer of the buttercream icing. If any bits of the sponges have fallen off these can be 'glued' back on with jam :)
4. Firmly place the pink sponge on top then spread the buttercream icing all over the assembled cake with a palette knife, smoothing out the top and sides as you go, while attempting to resist repeatedly sampling its fluffy, vanilla-y deliciousness.
5. Decorate with rainbow sprinkles for some extra colour.

Leftover sponge and icing...?

Simply layer torn up chunks of pink and yellow sponge and jam in small individual containers (e.g. ramekins or teacups) then top with icing and sprinkles to make some cute little trifle-style angelic desserts!