• Preheat the oven to 160C (320F) fan-forced. Lay your patty-pans on an oven tray or line a patty-pan tray with cases (I don't do this).

The recipe says to throw everything in and mix it all together. I've had disasters with this before so this is what I did.

• Cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs and vanilla extract.
• Add the flour alternating with the milk and mix until combined. If you're making chocolate cakes add the cocoa.
• Spoon the mixture into the cases until they are about ⅔ full. Bake for 15-20 minutes (keep and eye on them).
• Cool the cakes on a wire rack then spread with butter-cream icing.

Butter-cream icing

• Cream the butter until it's almost white then gradually add the icing sugar. If you're only making one colour, add the colouring while you're creaming the butter. Add a little milk if the mixture is too hard or a little icing sugar if it's too runny.
• To make white icing - beat the icing for about 10 minutes.