Frosted white chocolate Easter cake

A slice of this Madeira-style cake is wonderful with a morning cup of tea or coffee!

Ingredients:

250g butter, plus a little extra for greasing
140g white chocolate, broken into pieces
250ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g self-raising flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
300g caster sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

For the frosting:
300g tub Philadelphia cheese
85g butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
mini eggs, to decorate (or use 50g/2oz chopped hazelnuts)

Method:

1.Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Grease a deep 23cm cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
2.Place the butter, white chocolate, milk and vanilla extract in a small saucepan, then heat gently, stirring, until melted.
3.Combine the flour, bicarb and sugar in a large bowl with a pinch of salt, then stir in the melted ingredients and eggs until smooth.
4.Pour the batter into the tin, then bake for 1 hr, or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5.Cool in the tin. Once cool, the cake can be wrapped in cling film and foil, then frozen for up to 1 month.
6.To make the frosting, beat together the Philadelphia, butter and icing sugar until smooth. Spread over the cake, then decorate with mini eggs.

Source: James Martin