Ingredients for the cake
• 110 g self-raising flour
• 110 g sugar
• 110 g butter (or 55g butter 55g margarine for a slightly lighter cake)
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp allspice
• ½ tsp ginger
• handful of caramelised orange peel

Ingredients for the icing
• 250g cream cheese
• 400g icing sugar
• 150g butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

It’s the smell of these baking I REALLY love. Well, okay, and eating them too. Grease your tin, and preheat oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the eggs, then sift in the flour and other ingredients and mix till light and fluffy. Divide among the cases (should make about 12) and bake for 20 minutes (check after 15).

I use the mixer for this, cream cheese and butter first, then, when thoroughly mixed, add the sugar and vanilla. Let the cakes cool down before icing, then prepare to be inundated with unexpected neighbours who were passing by and smelled something in the oven. They will pretend they’ve come to borrow a book or something, so be kind, as it is the season of goodwill!

Download a the recipe card to add to your collection.

Now here is a sweet that is truly unjustly overlooked these days in favour of the gelatine and cheap sour-perfume scent of a conglomerate whose name I have been legally advised to remove. A marriage in pink and white; spring blossom and a wedding dress, powdered with confetti, a fine coconut ice is a joy for the eyes as well as the tongue. Even standard coconut refuseniks – and you know who you are – can’t fail to be enthralled by the perfect match of the sweet fondant with the slightly tart coconut pieces as it melts in the mouth, like two halves of a puzzle finding one another. It is both beautiful and useful.

Ingredients
9 oz sweetened condensed milk
9 oz icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
8 oz desiccated coconut
pink food colouring

Method
Mix together the condensed milk and icing sugar in a large
bowl until very stiff. Add coconut. It will not want to go.
Make it. Use your hands. If you wear rings, take them off at
this point.

Split the mix into two and knead a very small amount of
food colouring into one half. Dust a board with icing sugar,
then shape each half into a smooth rectangle and place one
on top of the other. Roll with a rolling pin, reshaping with
your hands every couple of rolls, until you have a rectangle
of two-tone coconut ice about 1 inch thick.

Transfer to a plate and leave for at least 4 hrs or ideally
overnight to set. This will keep for up to a month at least, if
stored properly. If your coconut ice lasts for a month, you
are not making it correctly.

TOOTHPICKS. Keep handy.
4 oz unsalted peanuts
4 oz golden caster sugar
2 oz butter
pinch salt
4 tsp water

Spread the peanuts in a single layer on a buttered oven tray.
Put the other ingredients in a saucepan and start to heat very
slowly, stirring all the while. When the sugar has dissolved,
increase the heat a little and stir more vigorously until a
caramel is formed. When it reaches the correct colour,
according to taste, take it off the heat, pour it over the
peanuts and leave to cool.

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
icing, marshmallows, chocolate buttons, hundreds and thousands, edible stars, orange and lemon jelly slices, food colouring (all colours); edible gold and silver foil, candy footballs, Smarties, candy flowers, liquorice allsorts, ground almonds, toffee and chocolate sauce, jelly worms

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

Line a 12-cupcake pan with cupcake papers.

Crack the eggs into a cup and beat lightly with a fork.

Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for two minutes, until light and creamy. Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.

Bake for 18–20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Um, decorate.