The best of A Greedy Piglet : Perfect Little Cakes for Mother's Day

These little Victoria Sponge cakes are perfect for coffee with your Mum on Sunday, just the right size for a bite or three.

I wanted to try out my new loose bottomed individual cake tin (bought from Sainsbury's I think) and I can say it is brilliant. I love the straight sides on these cakes, that means that you can slice and fill them just like a large Victoria sponge but still have a bite sized cake.

I used a standard Victoria sandwich mixture, with a little cornflour added in for extra lightness. Vanilla buttercream (made with less sugar than many recipes, I like the buttery flavour rather then just tasting sugar) and no jam was the request. So plain yet perfect ....

Victoria Sandwich cake mixture

makes 12 small cakes

• 2 large eggs - weigh these in their shells

The weight of the eggs in :

• Unsalted butter - very soft, leave in a warm kitchen overnight
• Caster sugar
• Self Raising flour - weigh the flour, then remove one tablespoon of flour and replace with cornflour

Cream the butter and sugar until very very light and white. I give it a good 10 minutes in a stand mixer, if you can stand the boredom give it that and a bit more with a hand mixer. On a slightly lower speed, beat in the beaten eggs roughly one third at a time, ensuring that the eggs are totally incorporated before adding the next. If they start to look grainy (curdled) then add in a little flour as you beat the eggs.

When the eggs are fully incorporated, fold in the flour, and a spot of milk if you think it is too stiff. You want a mixture that will drop slowly from a metal spoon held sideways.

Spray the cake tin with release spray or rub with a buttery paper, and fill one soup spoonful to each cake hollow.

Cook at a moderate oven, Mk 4 for 15-20 minutes until golden and starting to shrink slightly from the sides. Do not overcook or they will dry out.

Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool on a rack.

Whilst they are cooling, make the buttercream. I made a simple buttercream for this, although I might try out a meringue one next time.

Vanilla Buttercream

Here is my lower sugar version of the standard buttercream,

• 150 g unsalted lactic butter (I like the flavour of lactic butters, like Lurpack or President, but English sweet cream butter is fine)
• 150g icing sugar
• 3 tsps vanilla extract
• 2-3 tablespoons milk

Beat the butter until very soft, beat in the vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of milk, then add the icing sugar, and beat until very light.

Add the extra milk if you think it needs it.

BE AWARE that without a splash guard the icing sugar will cloud up and go everywhere. If you are working by hand, or don't have a guard, try to fix up a Heath Robinson type contraption with a large teatowel to keep the sugar in the bowl until it has started to mix in

Cut each little cake in half and sandwich with buttercream using a piping bag or a palette knife. Or a teaspoon if you don't have either of those...

Sprinkle the top with a little caster sugar and scoff quickly before they go stale.