Simple Cake For Mini Oven - the easiest cake in the world

I make this recipe most weeks, changing the version each time to a different flavour. It is so incredibly easy, just four ingredients and five minutes to prepare. This is a staple foolproof cake you can knock up at short notice. It is simply a "pound cake", so for the traditional version you would add lemon zest, but this version you can flavour in many different ways. It is not light and fluffy, although you can make it a little air-ier if you take the time to beat the mixture before adding the flour. I personally don't bother, and it's fine for my tastes.

My loaf tin fits a double batch - the picture below is a double batch in a mini loaf tin from Wilko.

Prep time: 5 minutes. If you're making this in a full-size oven, preheat to 180°C and reduce your cooking time.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Pound Cake with White Chocolate Filling

65g butter or margarine
65g caster sugar or white sugar
1 egg
75g self-raising flour
chosen flavour (optional)

Mix the butter and caster sugar together well. Stir in the eggs then any extra flavourings if you wish. Lastly add the flour and combine. If you have used a beater, fold the flour in very gently with a spoon.

Grease and flour a mini loaf tin, add the mixture and tap to level the mix.

Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes - the cake is ready when a skewer comes out mostly clean (check in several places as some flavour additions can make it tricky to tell).

Lemon Drizzle: 20g caster sugar, 2 tsp lemon juice. Stab the hot cake in a few places with a skewer or knife then pour the drizzle over. Leave in the tin to cool.

Chocolate: 3 tsp cocoa powder - then remove the same amount of flour from the 75g. (I also like to push a small white chocolate bar into the centre of the cake tin right before cooking - it melts and becomes almost like a cream centre.)

Banana: Add a mashed overripe banana (and some walnuts, and cinnamon if you wish). This makes a very heavy and very moist cake, and is baked even if the knife or skewer comes out looking damp - but it should not have raw cake mix on it. If your banana is still firm and yellow, you might want to reduce the sugar by half.

Serves 4. Cost: 30p plus your flavouring (Sainsbury's/Tesco 2018)