My desert island cake

It's the simple things in life that most often make me happy: a clear, sunny day (rare round these parts!); the smell of freshly cut grass; a walk in the mountains; losing myself in a good book... the list goes on. A day spent with my niece last week made me realise that this 'simplicity is good' mantra can also extend to cakes. She was off school and at a loose end, so was keeping me company. I decided to make a loaf of white soda bread for lunch and after boring her with my top soda-bread-making tips, she asked me what I like baking best. That gave me pause and made me question what I like to bake and why.

Baking to me is magical as much as it is therapeutic, relaxing and satisfying and, to a greater or lesser extent, this is the case no matter what I am making. There is even more satisfaction than usual to be found in the completion of a particularly complex cake and much excitement when trying out a new recipe, while the delicate and intricate work involved in icing biscuits or making tiny confections can occupy me happily for hours.

Ultimately though, when I had talked myself round in circles and named so many different cakes that my niece was slumped at the table with a glazed look in her eyes, the answer came to me. When I think about what I always really love to bake (and more importantly to eat), it was a little iced fairy cake. It might be no coincidence that fairy cakes were the first cakes I ever baked and were present at all of our birthday parties as children. The combination of the pillowy-soft vanilla-scented bun and simple icing sprinkled with crunchy hundreds-and-thousands gets me every time. Not so rich that you can't manage seconds and with an extra helping of nostalgia. So, my desert island cake? You can keep your chocolate ganache tortes and banoffi pies, I'm having a fairy cake!