IT's all too easy to nip out to the supermarket when guests are coming round. The temptation of a shop-bought cake, its icing perfectly arranged, its sponge minus any burnt bits, is often too much to turn down. Sometimes the thought of starting from scratch in your own kitchen, attempting to conjure up a delicious home-bake treat, is too much to even consider.

"It really is very easy to make a simple sponge cake though," explains Gaynor Salisbury, owner of the Loopy Lorna's tea houses in Morningside. "For a real novice, you can literally put all the ingredients in a bowl, beat them, put them in a cake tin and then into the oven.

"People should never be put off trying to bake at home. I think a lot of people assume it's really difficult and that they cannot do it, but a lot of it is about just taking the time to try."As the autumn rolls in, and families are spending more time in their homes, Gaynor believes now is the time for reluctant home bakers to give it a try.

"Not only is your home filled with the lovely smell of baking," she says, "but you can encourage children to take part too, particularly when it comes to scraping the bowl. I never get a look-in there when my kids are about.

"It can be a real family event."Home baking will usually prove more healthy than any shop-bought alternative too, with fresh ingredients and no additives or preservatives going into most mixtures. "That's why home-baked cakes taste so much better as well," says Gaynor. "They are far more wholesome. Obviously if you overdo it on eating cakes that's not good, but a slab every now and again is not going to do anyone any harm. It certainly makes me feel good."

Strawberry, white chocolate and marshmallow cake
Ingredients
For the strawberry puree:
1 punnet fresh strawberries
100g icing sugar
A splash of water
For the cake:
400g caster sugar
400g soft margarine
400g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
8 eggs
Drop of vanilla extract or seeds of half a vanilla pod

For the butter icing:
200g soft unsalted butter
400g sieved icing sugar
100g grated white chocolate

For decoration:
Mini marshmallows
White chocolate drops
Melted chocolate
Wild strawberries (dusted with icing sugar)
Dried strawberry pieces

Method
For the puree, put all the ingredients in a small pan and heat gently until strawberries are soft. Pass through a sieve to remove seeds. When fresh strawberries are out of season, good quality strawberry extract can be used. Set aside to cool.

For the sponge, cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy in a mixing bowl. Sift in flour and baking powder, combine. Add eggs one at a time, combine. Add vanilla and strawberry puree. Combine all ingredients until smooth. Spoon between two well greased 8" cake tins and bake at 165C for 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

For the butter icing, cream butter until fluffy, add sugar gradually while beating continuously. Add lemon juice or a little vanilla extract. Mix through grated chocolate. Then put it all together.

Place one of the cakes on a cake board/plate. Spoon on one third of the icing and spread with a palette knife to cover the cake. Then place the other layer of strawberry sponge on top. Spoon another third of the icing on top and spread over again. Put the final third into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and decorate as you like on top.

Pistachio and milk chocolate cookies
Ingredients
125g soft butter
70g caster sugar
150g soft brown sugar
290g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
Half tsp baking powder
Half tsp salt
2 eggs
Half tsp vanilla extract
85g peeled pistachio nuts
85g milk chocolate drops

Method
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine until smooth. Finish off by adding pistachios and chocolate.

Make the cookies as big or small as you like. For medium-sized, cook at 160C for 15 minutes. This recipe is also good for cookie dough to add to ice cream.