Butter lends a fantastic taste to cakes, however you'll actually find that using margarine can give you a lighter cake.
Only use unsalted butter if a recipe actually calls for it, otherwise you'll find that your cakes and icing don't taste quite as nice as they otherwise would - a touch of salt is needed to perk up sweet foods as well as savoury!
You'll never believe the secret ingredient in this beautiful gluten free cake recipe. It's moist, and tastes fantastic.
Much like frosting, this chocolate icing is best spread while warm and sets to a delicious fudgy crispness with a glossy surface. The next best thing to coating your cake in melted chocolate!
Buttercream is easy to make, easy to use. Naturally a pale cream colour, you can use any kind of food colouring to change that. Pipe in little rosettes all over a cake as an alternative to spreading the icing on. Buttercream sets to a slight crust but is still easily squished by a careless finger. Be careful as it can be rather sickly sweet.
Japanese cheese cake is a beautiful cross between a baked cheesecake and a normal sponge. It's light, moist and simply delicious.
Victoria sponge is the quintessential afternoon tea and W.I. cake. Tricky to do well, if you can produce a perfect light and fluffy victoria sponge you don't need to learn any decorating techniques as it's perfect sandwiched with jam and just a sprinkling of sugar on top
Madeira cake recipe - a simple cake that's perfect for carving into unusual shapes and is very tolerant of extra colourings and flavourings
Chocolate cake. Rich, tasty, luxuriant. This one should be beautifully moist. Slice horizontally and turn into a gateaux or serve warm with ice cream.
