Old school sponge, icing and hundreds and thousands

A simple, yet delicious recipe that I ‘borrowed’ from my book and cake partner in crime, Claire at Art & Soul.  Yes, it’s a very easy recipe but the small problem I had was getting the consistency of the water icing just right. I’ve now made this recipe twice; the first time I had insufficient icing and the second it was too runny.  Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to get right!

I took some cake into work and some of my older colleagues remarked that it reminded them of school dinners…in the best possible way of course 🙂

What you need:

For the sponge cake
200g butter
200g self raising flour
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the water icing (courtesy of BBC food)
300g icing sugar
2-3 tbsp water
2-3 drops food colouring if desired

What you do:

• Grease and line a baking tray, ideally rectangular
• Preheat your oven to 170°c  (Claire went for 160, I needed 170)
• Using a freestanding mixer, beat all the ingredients together into a smooth mixture; my estimate was 2-3 minutes
• Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 25 – 35 minutes until golden brown
• Allow to cool in the tin

• Make the icing by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl, stir in the water gradually to create a smooth mixture.
• Pour over the cake and sprinkle over your hundreds and thousands or whatever decoration you have chosen.  When the icing has set, you can remove from the tray and slice.

I had to do this quite quickly as the first time I made it, the icing started to set really quickly and the sprinkles just rolled to the side of the cake!

Until next time…Happy Baking!