Christmas Tree Cakes

• 100g self-raising flour

• 100g soft margarine

• 100g caster sugar

• 2 eggs

• Paper cake cases, two baking trays

• Assorted sweets

• 50g butter or margarine, softened

• 100g icing sugar, sifted

• Green food dye

• Squeeze of lemon juice or a few drops of vanilla essence

Heat your oven to 190C/Gas 5. Break the eggs into a cup. Sift the flour into a big bowl. Add the caster sugar, eggs and margarine and stir everything together until you get a smooth, creamy mixture.

Half-fill each case with the cake mixture and bake for about 20 minutes, then leave on a wire rack to cool.

For the butter icing, put the butter in a bowl and stir with a fork until creamy. Add some icing sugar to the bowl and stir. Mix in the rest of the icing sugar a little at a time. Stir in the green food dye a drop at a time until green. Add the lemon juice or vanilla essence. Spread the butter icing on top of each cake and press the sweets into the icing to make different patterns on the cakes.

Arrange the cakes in a Christmas tree shape, place a star-shaped biscuit at the top and a chocolate bar at the bottom for a trunk.