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Today I had a bit of time and was planning on making simple fairy cakes, but once I got happy with the icing sugar and extras these clearly were no fairy cakes. They are Burlesque Buns!

Ingredients:

• 250g self-raising flour
• 250g sunflower oil (or soft butter)
• 250g caster sugar
• 250g dessicated coconut
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp flavouring of your choice (I used kosher rum flavour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A small amount of milk (about 1-2 tbsps)
• 400g (approx) icing sugar
• 50g oil (for the icing sugar), or soft butter
• 1-2 spspns of milk
• food colouring of your choice (I used Zohar brand kosher red)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 or 200 oC for about 20 minutes.

2. Take cake papers and put one in each depression (nice to have a positive spin on the word depression!) This recipe will make about 24 cakes so you will need either two trays, or use one and then reuse it whilst the first lot of cakes cool down.

3. Put all the ingredients barring those for the icing (the last 4 in the ingredient list), and the milk, into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon. If you want you can use a hand blender, personally I don’t think it is necessary. Add the milk at this point too.

4. When the mixture is nice and smooth take a soupspoon and fill the cake papers (not right to the brim! Leave a gap). Bake the cakes in the top part of the oven for 15-20 minutes (use a timer) and then remove them and allow them to cool.

5. Whilst the cakes are cooling make up the icing by mixing together the icing sugar, milk, and fat. It might be an idea to sift the icing sugar if it is rather lumpy. Use a flat whisk the make sure the icing sugar is nice and smooth.

6. Add the food colouring and mix well. I did lurid pink by add a fair bit of red dye, and I also did another batch without any colouring. This is entirely up to you. Just remember less food colouring will give a paler colour.

7. To ice the cakes just spoon on the icing and smooth it over the cake with a teaspoon. It doesn’t matter if it dribbles over the side – I don’t do minimalist super-tidy nonsense Now take your hundreds and thousands, or chopped nuts, or whatever and sprinkle over the still-wet icing.

8. Let the icing dry (for about 30 minutes at least) and you can then devour your Burlesque Buns with a nice cuppa or a cappucino. Fabulous!