Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C* (150°C fan, Gas Mark 3).
2. Put the butter and sugar into a mixer and whizz up until light and fluffy.
3. Pour in the vanilla essence and add the eggs - whizz again to make a yellow batter.
4. Add the flour and mix with a spoon or a flat spatula until it is smooth. Stop once in the middle of this and scrape the sides down using a spatula. The longer mixing time enables air to get into the mixture which will make it lighter. Pour into fairy or cupcake cases.
5. Bake for about 14 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They will be perfect when they bounce back to the touch and the top still looks slightly sticky. This will ensure they keep their moisture.
6. Leave on a cooling rack for 30 minutes or until cool, then decorate as you wish.

Tips

• * The original recipe has 170°C, but I've translated that to 150C fan. In reality, even 170C fan seems to work
• If using butter, the softer the better. And when mixing the butter/margarine, the more you beat it the lighter and fluffier it'll be (you're looking for the mixture to be almost white). If the room is warm, you might need to leave the mixture to rest after every 5 minutes or so to make sure the butter doesn't melt.
• Sieve the flour into the mixture rather than dump it in and then mix it as carefully as possible until it's smooth and you can't see floury bits.