A couple of years back, I shared what will remain The Easiest Cake Recipe In The World. Why? Because it’s so stinking easy, you barely need a recipe.
If you click the link above, you’ll get all the info you need, but essentially, all you require is equal weight of egg, butter, sugar and self raising flour. Whip it together you have the basis of a cake you can take in so many directions. Depending on the type of sugar (e.g. if you used brown sugar), you can switch up the density a little, but what you essentially have, is a moist butter cake with a decent crumb.
I love this recipe because it essentially consists of ingredients you will always have in your kitchen, and from there, you can do what you like to trick it up. From adding frozen fruit, chocolate chips and more, it’s an excellent one to have up your sleeve should you have an unexpected guest. Or, if you’re me, you just feel like making something sweet for yourself. One egg is roughly 56g without the shell, so weigh out the other ingredients, cream the butter and sugar, add in the egg, sift in the flour, add whatever else you like, and throw it in the oven. And voila! Cute cake for one.
Lately I’ve been loving turning this excellent base recipe into a lemon drizzle cake. All you need to do is add lemon zest to the batter (use your senses to know how much, but I’d use about half a lemon’s worth of zest for a cake for one). I also like to add a little vanilla paste.
Once the cake is baked (about 25 minutes on 180c), this is the hardest part: release it from its pan, invert it and allow it to cool completely before you ice it. See? Hard!
Once fully cool (this is essential), I make a soft icing consisting of lemon juice and icing sugar. Eyeball it until you have a thick, glossy, viscous texture. Pour this glossy wonder onto the cake, and carefully spread it without shifting crumbs, so you have an even, glossy topper. Finish with more lemon zest. Perfect with a cup of tea!
