barishna
i always used to make a fruit and nut cake.. don't tend to measure stuff, cream butter and sugar together, beat in eggs, vanilla essence.. usually sultanas that have been soaked in brandy but you could use tea as an alternative... have the fruit and nut already chopped up and once all mixed then just put as much self rasing flour in to make it a wettish but not too soggy mix. Can't really go wrong cos is 50% fruit and nuts the way we have it..
main thing with sponges is don't open oven door too suddenly, they can sink but if follow recipe and cream with a wooden spoon, fold in flour with a metal one curling it in avoids driving out air..
i usually heat butter in microwave too, saves a lot of beating to melt it down!
did try one of those pastry makers but it didn't work, sort of thing with a handle and lots of bars going across that are quite sharp to cut into dough but it just got gunged up with butter and messy to clean!🙂
