Plain Cake

1½ cups self raising flour

1 cup sugar

½ cup milk

2 eggs

125g melted butter

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

 Turn oven to 160°C (fan forced) and grease and line the base with baking paper of an 18 to 20cm deep sided cake tin.

 Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat for two minutes with an electric beater (or 3 minutes with a hand whisk).  Pour into the prepared tin.

 Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a metal skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

 Leave to stand in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, invert and leave to cool.

 Variation

 Substitute ¼ cup lemon juice for ¼ cup of the milk.

 Hints

 This cake can be iced with lemon or vanilla icing.  When cool, it can also be cut in half horizontally and filled with jam and/or cream and the top of the cake dusted with sifted icing sugar.

 If you bake this cake in a 20cm square tin, it can be used to make lamingtons.  The cake is best left for a day before using for this purpose.