These cakes are so light, stick to delicately coloured icing.

Makes 24 fairy cakes

- 170g butter, softened
- 170g caster sugar
- 1 lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 170g self-raising flour, sifted
- 55g desiccated coconut
- 175g icing sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C if fan-assisted/350F/Gas Mark 4. Arrange 24 paper fairy-cake cases on two pattypan trays. Don’t use the larger paper muffin cases, as they are too big.

Beat together the butter, caster sugar and finely grated zest of one lemon until the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of sifted flour between each egg.

Mix the desiccated coconut into the remaining flour, then fold the coconut flour into the egg mixture. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the cakes are well risen and golden. They should bounce back if lightly pressed.

Leave until cold on a cooling rack. Then sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in your chosen colouring, if wished, along with 3 tbsp lemon juice, until you have a thick, smooth icing. Drop a teaspoonful of icing on to the centre of the first cake and rotate the cake slightly so that the icing spreads out evenly over the surface of the cake. Repeat with the remaining cakes.

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