• 4oz (113g) butter or cooking margarine
• 4oz (113g) caster sugar
• 4oz (113g) self raising flour, sifted
• 2 eggs

For the decoration

• Love Hearts or jelly heart sweets for decoration
• Icing sugar
• A few drops of water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180 degrees. Put paper fairy cake cases into a 12 hole fairy cake tin. You can get a great range of cases – even in your local supermarket!

2. Mixing
In a clean bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale in colour and smooth. In a separate bowl, crack the eggs and mix together. Add a little egg and a tablespoon of flour into the butter and sugar mixture and mix. Add half each of the remaining egg and flour to the butter and sugar mixture and mix. Add all of the remaining egg and flour and mix until all ingredients are just combined. At this stage you could even add a couple of drops of red food colouring paste (or liquid if you can’t get paste) to the mixture to continue the romance theme! Just don’t add too much that your mixture goes runny. Spoon the mixture into the cake cases until each is about two thirds full.

3. Bake
Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 minutes until the cakes are lightly golden in colour and they spring back to the touch. Don’t be tempted to open the oven door too soon during cooking or they will sink! Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

4. Decorate
Once the cakes are completely cool, mix together the icing sugar with a little water until you get a fairly thick consistency. Spoon the icing onto the top of the cakes. While the icing is still not quite set, put on your heart shaped decorations For an extra surprise, before you ice the cakes, hollow out a little of the top of the cake and fill it with strawberry jam before icing! You might just need to make your icing a bit runnier to make it easier to apply and ensure that the icing doesn’t smudge too much in your jam.