Cinnamon Rounds with Vanilla Icing

Last night I watched the first episode of Great British Bake Off. Earlier that day I had delivered cakes to form part of an assortment to be delivered to lonely people, bereaved people and so on … Bake Off was a reminder that the cakes I delivered were substandard! So I made this sponge after Bake Off and iced this morning. Small and delicious. Very easy too.

INGREDIENTS
Cake
300g/10.6 unsalted butter, very soft
300g/10.6 caster sugar
200g/7oz gluten free self raising flour
100g/3.5oz ground almonds
3 tsp cinnamon
6 eggs

Icing
250g icing sugar, sifted (vital!)
80g unsalted butter, very soft (also vital)
25ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla paste

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/338F and have ready a 26cm x 39cm approx roasting tin lined the baking paper. Have a 6cm and a 3cm biscuit butter (or a sharp knife).
2. Whip up the butter and sugar.
3. Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl.
4. Add a spoonful of the dry ingredients and then an egg. Mix in each egg after the addition of a spoonful of the dry ingredients so that the mixture does not curdle.
5. Pour the mixture into the roasting tin and spread it out evenly.
6. Bake in the oven for half an hour. When it is springy to touch, remove it from the oven and leave to cool in the tin on top of a wire rack.
7. Using a 6cm biscuit cutter, cut about 22 rounds of the cake.
8. With a 3cm cutter cut a centimeter into the centre of each round and remove the small round. Set aside the small round for topping later.

9. IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT THE ICING SUGAR IS SIFTED AND THE BUTTER IS VERY SOFT; MELTED IS BETTER THAN NOT SOFT ENOUGH Make the icing by mixing the butter and icing sugar to form breadcrumbs. It is so much easier to use a KitchenAid or a whisk.
10. Add the milk and vanilla and whip up for about 5 minutes.
11. If you have an icing bag, use this to put icing in the gap you made in each cake (or use two small spoons), and top each cake with the piece of cake you cut out.