Pound cake

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Beat the butter with the caster sugar and vanilla extract, then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until pale and creamy. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix to incorporate.Add the milk and whisk steadily to form a creamy batter. Pour into a greased, round 23 cm spring-form cake tin and bake for 1 hour. Cool, then decorate using a stencil and edible gold dust.Cook’s note: Use stencils from arts and crafts shops to dust icing sugar or edible dust into pretty patterned formations on top of bakes.