My little Anya Banana (a.k.a Banana Bread, Banana Muffin or Muffin) is turning 7 in less than a month. Birthday party preparations are in progress… This roughly translates as me panicking about venue, theme, invitations etc. and baking furiously as a kind of hysterical displacement activity.

These mini cakes are the result of my procrastination but, in their defence, they would be ideal to serve at a birthday party. You could even have the children go mad decorating them.

I baked these in tin cans in a moment of inspiration (=complete madness). I was not sure whether it would work, but it did and the size and shape is perfect. You could bake the batter in a sheet pan and then cut the circles out with a cutter or simply bake in two 20cm/8inch cake tins and make a lovely layer cake instead.

The whipped cake base recipe comes from the wonderful All Cakes Considered – a book that reads very much like a blog, filled with wonderful creations. It is an odd recipe, in which whipped cream replaces butter. The resulting cakes are light, soft, fluffy – really, the perfect sponge.

For the frosting I wanted something simple to prepare and universally appealing to children. I was sent some fragrant vanilla pods from the lovely folks at Pinner Vanilla and they became the basis and inspiration for the frosting. An entire pod’s worth of seeds went into a small batch of buttercream transforming it from simple to sublime. Seriously, this frosting would probably qualify as a controlled substance – it is that addictive.

For the cakes

240ml whipping cream / 1 cup

2 large eggs

200g caster sugar / 1 cup

1 tsp vanilla paste

230g flour + 10g cornflour | 1½ cups cake flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

You will need

4 tin cans (400g/14ounce) scrubbed clean

For the butterceam

115g / 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

250g icing sugar / 2 cups

2-3 tbsp double cream

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod

1tsp lemon juice

Pink food colouring paste (optional)