By Keighley’s Mike Armstrong, an award-winning master baker with a big passion for baking...

FANCY a trip down memory lane? I bet this classic school cake will do the trick!

School cake has a few different names – sometimes it's called old school cake, retro cake, school dinner cake or 'sponge cake with sprinkles on top'. I'm sure that around our town it was called school cake, but whatever the name, it was delicious!

It was always a hit at school dinners, regardless of what generation you are from. Instantly recognisable, it's a basic sponge topped with a layer of icing and a generous amount of sprinkles. And that's literally it – nothing overly fancy, but delicious enough to have an entire dining hall of kids buzzing with excitement, praying you were not on the last sitting and hoping that enough was left!

I fondly remember my infant school, with outside toilets next to the bike shed. Outside the school there was no traffic light, like there is today – we had a lovely old gentleman who was our lollipop man. He was kind and often gave us sweets, and always saw us safely across the road. We always walked to school with one of the mums – probably because dad needed the only car in the family for work. The milk was delivered daily in little bottles – if it was a warm day, we'd have warm milk, in winter we had ice crystals in it! You were given a straw which you pushed through the foil top, if the blue tits hadn't already been there!

My school had meals delivered, which were often late – we had to sit in the school hall listening to Peter and the Wolf to pass the time. We handed in the dinner money every Monday morning. You received a telling off if you forgot it! Our school was keen for us to play the recorder and have school plays – I was one of the three kings one year at our Christmas production; I was so nervous my crown fell on the floor! We also kept up the maypole dancing tradition on May Day, which wasn't a bank holiday in those days. We only had one exercise book, ink pen and pencils. The teacher did all the work on the blackboard, but for a treat we watched a TV programme on a small black and white television that was wheeled in a cabinet from classroom to classroom.

I had the best years at my first school – I think what I'm trying to say is happy memories are never forgotten!

RECIPE

SCHOOL CAKE

Ingredients:

200g/7oz butter, softened

200g/7oz caster sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

200g/7oz self-raising flour, sift

50ml/1.8fl oz milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

200g/7oz icing sugar

Coloured sprinkles

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas Mark 4 and then butter a 20 x 30cm cake tin and line with baking paper.

2. Put the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl and whisk till light and fluffy, then add the eggs, flour, milk and vanilla and beat again until you have a smooth batter.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin, ensuring it's level and into the corners.

4. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean.

5. Leave to cool in the tin before making a thick water icing to spread over, then top with lots of sprinkles.

6. Allow the icing to set before cutting up into squares and serve with hot custard, if you like.